Todd Dexheimer, CEO of Venture D Properties, LLC started investing in Real Estate in 2008 in mainly single family homes and multi-family. Since 2008 he has purchased and renovated roughly 500 units. Todd has completed over 150 flips, including a 20 unit mobile home park, a ski resort and a 15 unit apartment complex, while using those profits to build his rental portfolio. Currently Todd owns approximately 350 units located in 4 states. His focus is on syndicating value add multi-family in emerging markets. Todd is also the host of the podcast Pillars of Wealth Creation and does some coaching for multi-family investors. Todd is passionate about teaching others how to create a business and how to take control of your finances. Todd was a high school industrial tech teacher prior to investing.   Podcast Highlights   Who is Todd Dexheimer? Before real estate Todd was a high school shop teacher and he wasn’t particularly entrepreneurial, but he always had an itch to do something more. Within three years of working as a teacher Todd dipped his toes into the real estate world. Todd started by reading about business and eventually made his way to learning about real estate where he became obsessed with the idea of investing in it. When he was working as a teacher, he knew he needed to find a way out and real estate appeared to be the best way. Teachers don’t get paid a lot so it wasn’t that hard to replace the income with cash flowing real estate. When you look at the numbers and think about the time and money it takes to get there, being a teacher is a tough call. What inspired you to pick up the books? Trying to figure out what’s next was the main reason Todd started reading, even though he was never a big reader. Todd didn’t have any real mentors around him to learn from so books were his only option. You don’t have to live next door to someone to learn from them. Real estate became the path because the numbers just make sense. Real estate replaces the requirement to work, at least not very hard, and makes retiring much more achievable. Going Full Time Into Real Estate By the time Todd quit his job, he had already been investing in real estate on the side for a few years so the transition wasn’t very difficult. His income from real estate had already exceeded his income as a teacher by that point. You don’t need to always graduate, you can start now and gradually work your way up. Scale as quickly as you can and look for partnerships/syndication real estate opportunities that can help you reach your goals. Education and experience is great but it doesn’t take years to get started. You have to get off your couch and go do a deal. You have to go find it, because deals won’t come to you in the beginning. There are lots of ways to go big, it doesn’t have to be the traditional path that you think it is. You have to put yourself out there to take advantage of opportunities that come your way. Syndication Real Estate Eventually you run out of your own resources so syndication real estate is a natural next step. If you want to scale, partnerships are required. Syndication is how to scale past your first deal. If you become known for getting your investors a good return on their money, you will have a list of people happy to give you their money. Once you start to understand what opportunity looks like, you can’t stop seeing them all around you. Todd’s Takeaway It starts with your ‘why’. You have to fully commit and can’t take no for answer. You’re going to get punched in the face, get told you’re crazy, and get told no, and if you listen to that you’re never going to get started. When you do stumble, and you will, the most important thing is to push harder and know that you’re on the right path.   Links: venturedproperties.com Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe to the show on iTunes!