Strategy is crucial to becoming a successful real estate investor, especially if your goal is building generational wealth. On this episode of Zen and the Art of Real Estate Investing, Jonathan welcomes guest Andrew Freed to the show. Andrew started his real estate investing career in earnest in 2020 with a house hack. He quickly learned which properties worked best for his situation, and began tapping equity to accumulate more properties, and today, he has over 100 doors. Jonathan and Andrew cover how Andrew purchased his first investment property, the value of the relationships he created in the Bigger Pockets forums, and why he believes in the power of meetups. You’ll also hear why he doesn’t invest in flips, how Andrew finds deals, and the two biggest lessons he learned from masterminds. Finally, Jonathan asks Andrew to explain how social media has been instrumental to becoming an investor, how podcasts have influenced him, and the one piece of advice he’d give to people who want to invest but are scared. Jonathan’s in-depth conversation with Andrew answers the questions beginning investors often have and how you can overcome your fears. In this episode, you will hear: Andrew Freed’s early exposure to real estate through the Monopoly board game Why Andrew didn’t believe real estate investing was possible until 2020 when he began with a house hack using a HELOC from his first condo His introduction to Bigger Pockets, his “aha” moment, and the other resources that influenced his journey Filtering through the noise in the Bigger Pockets forums, creating reciprocity in relationships, and finding a mentor How Andrew ranks the importance of meetups in introductions to other real estate investors Growing meetups and why it takes time Andrew Freed’s intentional decision to invest in real estate for long-term holds The reason he stays away from flips to make the most efficient use of his time His unique strategy for finding deals and where he concentrates his investing What Andrew’s first house hack taught him about being a landlord and that experience’s influence on building his team The key to creating a good relationship with your tenants The two biggest lessons Andrew learned from masterminds and the secret to maintaining consistency How he found a deal in New Bedford and raised the money to purchase it Social media’s instrumental role in Andrew’s ability to become an investor and why podcasts are important as well The one piece of advice Andrew Freed would give to people who want to invest but are scared Personal development in conjunction with business development and why it attracts opportunity Follow and Review: We’d love for you to follow us if you haven’t yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We’d love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, we've created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at http://www.trustgreene.com/podcast/zen/093 to download it. Supporting Resources: Freed Ventures website - www.freedventuresllc.com Andrew Freed on YouTube - www.youtube.com/channel/UCaYHegj_USoGgQ_ZQLESSnQ Connect with Andrew on Facebook - www.facebook.com/afreed2 Andrew Freed’s Instagram - www.instagram.com/investorfreed/?next=%2F Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-freed-msm Andrew on Bigger Pockets - www.biggerpockets.com/users/andrewf367 Website - www.streamlined.properties YouTube - www.youtube.com/c/JonathanGreeneRE/videos Instagram - www.instagram.com/trustgreene Instagram - www.instagram.com/streamlinedproperties TikTok - www.tiktok.com/@trustgreene Zillow - www.zillow.com/profile/Streamlined%20Prop%20eXp Bigger Pockets - www.biggerpockets.com/use