Rod Khlief was floating in one of his indoor pools in one of many elegant properties in his multimillion dollar pool when a crushing, sinking, realization set in: “I’m miserable.”

How could this be? Who is this man? And would you believe that investors worldwide seek him out for advice? 

Rod Khlief: Success is Not Fulfillment

What Rod was experiencing that evening in the pool was a type of emptiness that many don’t realize exists. So many of us pursue money with such vigor that it simply never occurs to us that the exquisitely wealthy can be, well, exquisitely miserable. Rod’s agony had nothing to do with a bad deal or money, but the fact that he wasn’t doing enough personally meaningful things with his good fortune. 

He realized his bank account would never fill his soul, and that paradoxically, the best thing he could do was begin to use his abundance to help others. By giving away time and money towards meaningful causes, performing deep self-examination and spiritual work, investing heavily in non-tangible things like values and relationships, and giving up the many little ways in which he was attempting to control life, Rod finally got some freedom from this feeling. He had to break free of his own mind frame through direct action.

We hear so many times that money can’t buy happiness to the point that it’s a tired, worn cliche--and quite bluntly, one that only resonates on the most basic intellectual level if you’re not wealthy, but would like to be. Rod wasn’t any different, and it took being so miserable despite such dramatic success for him to make the real turning point in his life. He’s richer (and happier) than ever. But times haven’t always been great for him.

Bad Deals Are Lessons. Rod Khlief’s Cost $50 Million

At least Rod thinks so. He now refers to the bad deal that left him 50 million in the red as a “big flaming seminar.” We actually agree with him so much that we have made the true value of bad deals a major theme in our podcast, The Real Estate Nerds. Rod joined our host and asset protection attorney Scott Smith to share his story and some pro-tips. 

During Rod’s full interview on Real Estate Nerds Episode #22, he shared the full story on what went so wrong, and much more impressively, how he recovered from such an amazing loss and went on to achieve both successes and fulfillment he had previously not dreamed possible. He passes on these lessons in resilience as a Certified Life Coach, just like his own world-famous coach, Tony Robbins.

Winning in Real Estate and Life: Your Attitude Outweighs Financial Aptitude

If you follow Rod’s advice, the first thing you need to invest in is yourself. Without the personal work Rod recommends in his many free resources, you-won’t truly grow. Investors who understand the importance of mindset and a bit of investing psychology really are ahead of the rest of the class.

And why? Because here’s the truth. Anyone can learn the numbers to play the real estate game. Anyone can assemble the right professionals and pay them for good advice. Anyone can take out a loan, hire help, or even manage property. But those who can endure the ups and downs of the real estate game without losing their center or humanity? Those are the real winners. 

You won’t always win, and neither has Rod. But if you listen to him, he’ll tell you that if your drive to succeed outweighs your fear of failure, you too can have it all.

There’s no question that California investor Kathy Fettke is a woman of many talents. You may have already heard of this active investor, author, mentor, and coach through her business and educational efforts. Kathy is the CEO of the Real Wealth Network and the host of the Real Wealth Show. Her work throughout different areas of the real estate industry offers her multiple angles of insight into single-family investing and other approaches, which fortunately, she’s all too happy to share with the rest of us.

Kathy Fettke’s Real Estate Investing Philosophy and Expertise

Kathy is the ultimate example of the student becoming the teacher. When her family experienced a personal tragedy involving her husband’s health, she began researching building wealth as a stay-at-home-parent. Soon enough, she was sharing her findings on her newly-formed Real Wealth Network with others in her position throughout the country. Out of her own studies into the world of real estate investing, she has led others around the world along the path to investing success.

Learn More About Kathy’s Investment Network (And How to Build Your Own, Too)

Kathy was kind enough to drop in and chat with our CEO and lead asset protection attorney, Scott Smith for our Real Estate Nerds Podcast. We learned about her real estate debut, gained some insight into a poor deal, and took down plenty of tips on getting through the inevitable market emergencies that will affect anyone who is in the real estate game for the long run. Tune in to learn from some of Kathy’s most powerful first-hand experience.

On The Danger of Not Listening to Your Own Advice

It’s funny how even experts can ignore their own advice. In Kathy’s case, doing exactly this led to one of her worst deals of all time. Historically, when she has needed to evaluate a market, she’s always looked at two metrics: job growth and population growth. Following jobs served Kathy well in her early career, though when she was excited about a potential investment in Boise, she deviated from her usual pattern, ignoring the job projections.

Bottom Line: Assemble an Investment Team to Weather Any Storm

If Kathy could give one key piece of advice to real estate investors, whether new or more established, it would be this simple truth that has played out in her own life. Get the best people you can as mentors, partners, and professionals. She believes her own mentor’s experience weathering a market downturn has taught her to do the same. Since most investors will eventually encounter a downturn, she recommends building your own REI dream team with the expertise to endure. For Kathy, picking her team wisely is critical: “Would you get into an airplane with a pilot who had only flown blue skies? No. You want to know that they can survive the storm.”

If you’re still working on your own real estate dream team, don’t forget that Royal Legal Solutions can always assist you with crafting the real estate business you dream of. We also would love to hear from you about whether there are any specific investors or subjects you’d like to read more about in these profile pieces. Consult our team of asset protection experts or contact us directly with your thoughts..

Gino Barbaro is a realtor and investor who has become an authority on multifamily investing. Some of you may already know Gino from Jake and Gino Podcast, the incredibly popular podcast that Gino hosts with his business partner Jake Stenziano. The two educate fellow real estate investors via their real estate investment coaching company, JakeandGino.com.

A Multi-Faceted Real Estate Investor

Gino Barbaro is a New York based investor. Personally, Gino has 15 years of experience in the real estate industry. In just three of those investing years, he managed to expand his portfolio to include 675 units. In addition to being a successful investor, podcaster, and entrepreneur, Gino is also a life coach: a Certified Professional Coach educated by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, to be exact.

On top of that, Gino is also the author of two best-selling books. The first is most likely to be of interest to real estate investors— Wheelbarrow Profits: How to Create Passive Income,  Build Wealth, And Take Control of Your Destiny Through Multifamily Real Estate Investing.  Written in a clear, easy-to-follow, how-to format, the book takes new investors through the process of growing their portfolio beginning with their very first multifamily investment. If you’re an aspiring multifamily investor, it is definitely worth adding to your research list.

While you might expect Gino’s other best-selling book to be about investing, the subject matter is actually a radical departure. But many investors with cooking talents or curiosities may also be interested in Family, Food, and the Friars, Gino’s Italian cookbook and food-related cultural commentary collection.

When Gino isn’t investing, podcasting, or advising his fellow investors, he is a complete family man. He loves spending time with his wife Julia. Together, they have six children: Laura, Cecilia, Veronica, Sofia, Michael, and Gabriella.

Connecting with Gino is simple. If you’d like to learn more about his work or reach out to him directly, simply visit either of his websites:  www.jakeandgino.com.

Learn More About Gino’s Investing Strategy on The Real Estate Nerds Podcast

Gino Barbaro was kind enough to join our host and attorney Scott Smith for a Bad Beats episode of The Real Estate Nerds Podcast. Check out Episode 10: Real Estate Education - Be “In The Know” to Avoid Bad Deals With Gino Barbaro to hear all about Gino’s $170,000 lesson in the importance of due diligence and learn from the other mistakes he made in his all-time worst deal. He also shares some more advanced wisdom on entrepreneurship and the logical, tactical approach he takes to real estate investing today. He speaks to the importance of removing emotion from the judgments that are essential for finding good real estate deals.

Do you have suggestions about future content, podcast guests, or an investor you would like to hear more about in this segment? If so, reach out to us at Royal Legal Solutions. For personalized legal advice, consider  scheduling your consultation today

Frank Rolfe made a name for himself primarily in mobile home investing, though his portfolio also includes self-storage units. If you want to know about how he got his start investing in these oft-overlooked real estate niches, read on ...

The Dollar General of Housing: Frank Rolfe’s Mobile Home Beginnings

If you ask Frank Rolfe how he got his start in real estate, he will tell you his life today all traces back to his first mobile home park investment: Glenhaven. This Dallas-Fort Worth area park set the tone for Frank’s career.

Frank knew early on that he wanted to invest in affordable housing.When Frank first bought this property, he was new to both the asset class and real estate in general but decided to manage the park himself anyway.

Frank earned an economics degree from Stanford University, so he was no dummy. He got a quick and occasionally brutal crash course in the benefits, problems, and unique charms of managing a mobile home park.

Glenhaven had major cost issues, as well as plenty of characters straight out of Central Casting: prostitutes, drug dealers, carnies, and other tenants most landlords wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Nevertheless, he made some sweeping improvements to the park that transformed the neighborhood for all of its residents.

This first investment became one of Frank’s most important, not only for the high returns he later received, but for influencing him to stick with this asset class as an investor. He learned many lessons with his first investment that would inform his later career.

Frank Rolfe’s Real Estate Career Today

Frank has continued investing in mobile home parks in the over 20 years since he bought Glenhaven. He and his partner, Dave Reynolds, are the 5th largest owners of mobile home parks in the United States. Frank and Dave are thought leaders in this industry niche and run a business, Mobile Home University, that educates fellow real estate investors about how to succeed with mobile home park investments. They each bring their years of experience, including both their tips for success and advice on how to avoid repeating their mistakes, to the aid of new investors.

Learn More About or Connect with Frank Rolfe via The Real Estate Nerds Podcast

To hear the full conversation Frank had with our lead attorney Scott Smith, check out Episode 10 of the Real Estate Nerds Podcast, all about mobile home park investing. Frank’s episode is a best deals episode that goes even deeper into the story about Glenhaven, his first mobile home park. Frank shares how he found his best deal, gives some tips on this asset class and investing in general, and offers some insight into how this deal transformed the path of his real estate career.

If you have questions about our podcast guests or suggestions for future investors to cover in this segment, contact us today. Start with our investor quiz and we'll help you take those first steps.

Those of you who listen to The Real Estate Nerds Podcast already know that the success or failure of any investment depends half on the investment itself, and half on the investor behind it. This is the first in our Inside Look at Real Estate Investor series, where we will dive deeper into the minds of great investors and how they operate. For our debut piece, we look at investor Clayton Morris.

Clayton Morris on Growing Up With Bad Ideas About Finances

Clayton Morris established himself in a traditional broadcasting career as a co-host of Fox and Friends. He took a traditional career in part because of family pressure. Growing up, Clayton was exposed to traditional beliefs about money--such as that a 9-5 job was the only meaningful path to financial security, and that money “doesn’t grow on trees.” Although he did well in his position, Clayton grew increasingly frustrated with depending on someone else for a paycheck. He made his first two real estate investments after losing his job at Good Day Philadelphia.

Clayton first realized the beliefs he grew up with around money were self-limiting upon reading Robert Kiyasaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad.  For those unfamiliar with the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad reflects the author’s experience with his two father figures and the ways their beliefs around money influenced his own life. Kiyasaki’s own father was poor, while his best friend’s father was wealthy. The book chronicle’s how both men’s experiences influenced Kiyasaki’s own life, but the lessons from his “rich dad” were more beneficial.

Clayton was inspired after reading this book, and as he began to rethink his own beliefs about finance, made a series of successful real estate investments. He has done so well in the years since that he was able to quit his old job and now spends his time advising other investors, and attributes his success to developing himself as an asset and maintaining a healthy mindset.

Clayton Morris’s Real Estate Investment Career

Since experiencing real estate success and financial freedom for himself, Clayton now focuses his career on helping other investors do the same. Clayton runs the company MorrisInvest, which helps new investors get started in the real estate business, even pairing them with their first properties.

Clayton’s other efforts are even more purely educational. He is the host of the successful How to Invest in Real Estate Podcast. Clayton has also chronicled his real estate investing experiences and an extensive blog of advice for other investors on his other web site, ClaytonMorris.com. You can connect with Clayton on any of these channels or on Twitter @ClaytonMorris.

Hear More From Clayton on The Real Estate Nerds Podcast

Clayton was kind enough to share some of his experience with our lead attorney and podcast host, Scott Royal Smith. Tune in to Episode 31 of The Real Estate Nerds Podcast to learn more about Clayton. On top of telling more of his story, he shares one of his worst deals with listeners so that you can avoid repeating some of his mistakes.  If you have questions about the podcast, suggestions for future investors you want to learn more about, or need advice on defending your own real estate investments, contact Royal Legal Solutions  today.