Average Joe Finances

98. The Armchair Millionaire with Michael Dominguez

June 12, 2022 Mike Cavaggioni
Average Joe Finances
98. The Armchair Millionaire with Michael Dominguez
Average Joe Finances
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Show Notes Transcript

Join Mike Cavaggioni with Michael Dominguez on the 98th episode of the Average Joe Finances Podcast to talk about how he got the title of “Armchair Millionaire.” Michael is an award-winning sales representative at RE/MAX Jazz Inc. Brokerage and the founder of Doors to Wealth Real Estate Group. He shares his journey to achieving financial freedom.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Entrepreneurial spirit
  • Pathway to financial freedom through real estate
  • A book about real estate as a resource for others
  • Michael’s biggest mistake
  • Tips on how to get started in real estate
  • And much more!

About Michael Dominguez:
Michael Dominguez is an award-winning sales representative at RE/MAX Jazz Inc. Brokerage and the founder of Doors to Wealth Real Estate Group, a team of realtors focused on educating and assisting people in residential real estate. After becoming a realtor in 2008, Michael realized the opportunities in real estate investing and bought his first investment property, proceeding to add to his portfolio for ten consecutive years. Throughout his realtor career, he has completed over 300 investment property transactions.

Find Michael Dominguez on:
Website: http://armchairrealestatemillionaire.com/
Facebook: https://facebook.com/authormichaeldominguez
Twitter: https://twitter/armchair_wealth

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Average Joe Finances:

Hey, how's it going everybody. Welcome back to the average Joe finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike, Cavaggioni and today's guest is Michael Dominguez. Super stoked to have you on the show. Thanks for joining me today.

Michael Dominguez:

Thanks a lot for having me, Mike, I'm really looking forward to having this chat.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah, absolutely. Hey, the first thing I want to ask, because. You've done some really amazing things and really accomplished, but can you tell me and my audience a little bit more about yourself, share your story. Like how did this get started for you? Like we want to know it all.

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah. I'll give you a sort of the short version I think, but, I graduated a business degree back in the day and, did what everyone else does. And that is getting that nine to five job and working in middle management, getting promoted a couple of times, media girl get married, having a kid. And, and then I woke up pretty much in my late thirties are almost age 40 now divorced and had zero net worth to speak of. I did have a principal residence, but not a lot of equity. And, when I was back in high school and university, I was very entrepreneurial minded, but I lost that over my lifetime. And I was looking for an alternative way to get rolling. And it was honestly with more, a fluke scenario, I was looking to purchase my new principal residence, met a realtor who was also, a manager of a brokerage. And she said, Hey, you'd be a good realtor. And I said, oh yeah, I'm sure you say, that's all the boys. And, but she was serious. And, I looked into it. It made a hell of a lot of sense. And then, fast forward, year or two, I had my license. I was getting rolling, back in my old days, I was a franchise manager for a pet food franchise here in, in Northern Canada and even part of the United States. And, and I found that I started to gravitate to my people, working with those investor minded wealth building type people and that worked out to be with investors and that's how it went. And I started to grow from there. These guys were having some incredible success and I said, you know what? I should be doing some of that myself. And, that's how it all got

Average Joe Finances:

That is super cool. So I was sitting here taking notes as you were going, and, just, diving a little bit deeper into your background, right? So you graduated from school and you went and started off life in that, that typical nine to five job living the typical life and typical dream, married kids. Divorced. And then you got into real estate in your late thirties, right? Early forties. Yeah. So that's actually, when you got your real estate license and really started taking off, looking where you're at now a couple of years later, just absolutely amazing progress. And it, it goes to show that if somebody's serious about. And you really put in that 110% effort, right? You go above and beyond. You can get yourself to a point of being financially free in just a few years. You're living proof of that. That's absolutely amazing. But I want to ask you something, you had mentioned something about being a, pet food franchise owner. What was that?

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah. There's a, a series of pet stores here, actually both in Canada, United States, they're approximately 2000 square foot stores and they compete against the PetSmarts and Petcos of the world. And, but these are the independent pet stores. And so it's a individual franchisee. I believed in the product enough that not only was I, the sales person for the, for the France. But also my parents bought a store. My brother bought a store myself and my first wife bought a store. Because again, I wanted to try to find a way to get ahead. I wasn't, I wasn't the type of person who was going to create an app or a, I wasn't going to make scrunchies or drive an Uber drive, become an Uber driver, and this made a lot of sense for me. And it wasn't until I was introduced to real estate that I realized that it was just simply a better opportunity than franchising was. And that's how it was how it got going is honestly, I wanted to try to find a way to get ahead, but running a business was a lot of work and it just didn't. I had my nine to five job and I didn't have the time and energy to basically have two full-time jobs. And that's what it became.

Average Joe Finances:

At the rewinding back to you said, back in high school and university days that you, you had like this entrepreneurial spirit, like you had that bug that was biting. Do you think that when you started like down this pet food franchise route, that was like the bug coming back and it was just like in the back of your head and you were just, Hey, I want to run my own business and be a business owner. Do you think that's what like really, I guess flip the switch.

Michael Dominguez:

A hundred percent. Yeah, it was. If you want to go right back, I mentioned this in my book as well. When other people, when they were teenagers were asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? There was the typical answers, the policemen, the firemen, the, the school teacher, whatever. I was this smarmy kid that I would say. Billionaire. And that was my answer as, I didn't know how I was going to do it, but I just wanted to become wealthy. And I didn't know where this necessarily what that match, but I just wanted to have success. And especially when I was a kid, that's how I scored was based on wealth. And, and yeah, I honestly had this vision of being a, Emperor and having an entire village of stores, but it just didn't come to pass. And it wasn't until I got into the real estate sector, which yeah, I was 43 when I got my real estate license, 42 43. And, one of the quotes that I am a huge advocate out is a bill gates quote, where people tend to overestimate how much you could accomplish in one year. But they underestimate how much you get accomplished in 10. And that was absolutely in, in 10 years, I looked down and said, holy crap, what the hell happened here? I'm now doing pretty well.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah. I love that. I love that. And you're, you're your whole focus shifted and just change your whole mindset changed. Just talking about how you went from that. Being in that nine to five, we call it the rat race, being stuck in that world and just scraping by, and then, after a divorce, realizing like you had nothing left after that you had no net worth that you had no tangible assets to really call your own. Yeah, that's a good turning point, I think, for anybody, but to do it in your early forties and in a 10 year period, just amass. The accomplishments that you have is very telling, for anybody that's looking to get started, because I know people that are like, oh, I'm in my thirties. I feel like I should have started in my young twenties. Sure. If you would have started in your young twenties, you'd probably be really well off right now, but let me tell you something starting in your thirties is okay too. I started in my thirties, and it's all about the effort you're going to put into it, how much, what your passion and drive and desire is. That's absolutely awesome. Yeah. I had to ask about the pet franchise thing, the pet food franchise. Cause you mentioned that like I'm sitting here taking notes, talking about how you got into real estate and then you said pet food franchise and it threw me off. I was like, wait a second. That's something different. So really cool, man. I love that stuff. Okay. Now you started, you got your real estate license, around 42 43 and just started this journey, to, to building up this pathway to financial freedom, right? What made you decide, as a realtor to start investing in real estate. So what, you were out there representing other people and helping them buy real estate, but what made you want to actually get into buying your own properties as assets yourself?

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah, it was twofold. The first thing I did and I don't want to dismiss this, is I really started to take a lot of effort and attention to enhancing my financial education. And that was something that, I don't want to dismiss as just, Yeah. Just said, oh yeah, I did that and throw it away, throw away comment, but I've made a concerted effort to really start to, to learn some of the masters out there. And, I know you're, an advocate of Robert Kiyosaki, but, some of his mindset, as far as rich dad, poor dad was a huge component of changing my life. There's a Canadian guy by the name of Don R Campbell, and he has a lot of, books on the subject that, and it's. It's investing in a much smarter way. And, one of his quotes that he says all the time is that he wants real estate to fund my life, not run my life. And, and that's, it just became a different mindset shift in terms of building in terms of building wealth. And then as a realtor, what got me started was I'm going to be honest with you. A lot of it was as much as. Was, I felt it would make me a stronger realtor by understanding the product that much more. And it would give me more credibility. I enjoyed working with investors. I enjoyed, looking at investment properties and trying to determine ways of building someone's somebody's wealth, even when I didn't have a lot myself. So that, that was my, that became my focus very early on in my real estate career. But I felt. To give myself the credibility I needed buying an investment property or two would be a great way to start. And then as I started to purchase, I quickly started to do a bit of a shift. I went from doing what everyone always talks about, and that is buying that undervalued property at a secondary market that. That really is. It needs a lot of work and, spending a lot of money for capital improvements to get it to where I want it to be. And it shifted over time to the mindset that I use now. And I talked about in my book, finding a quality property to quality neighborhood, seeking quality tenants and holding onto them long-term and making quality profits. And that mindset shift is what I teach a lot of my clients.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah, no, that's, that is, that's really awesome. Cause it's different than what a lot of people talk about when they talk about real estate, like you said, it's all about trying to find that, that secondary, find the cheaper property that you can, you could work on. And, a lot of people say to go find like the cheapest property in the, or the most rundown property in the nicest neighborhood. And build it up that way. So yeah, that's a great way to look at it. I want to talk about your actual, the properties that you invested in yourself. So when you started doing this, you have, what was it? 11, two unit dwellings, right? Now we call it to units. So we talked a little bit before we started, the, before we hit record. And we talked about, I had mentioned that they were duplexes, I was like, oh yeah. So you got 11 duplexes. Y'all know they're not duplexes. And, so I want to talk about that for a second. So why are these two unit dwellings not duplexes. And why did you do it this way?

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah. And in different markets, they're called different things. In, in some parts of the United States, they're also referred to as additional dwelling units or 80 use, to get a dwelling happens to be the term here in Ontario. But, essentially these are single family home. That have had secondary suites added onto them, whether it be as a basement or as a loft or as an additional, unit, that's either adjacent or at the back of a property, like a coach house, or or a, or just simply an attached, a tiny home what have you, but that's the difference is they were built a single family home. And then a secondary suite was added to it. And that's the kind of property that I've found to be the most successful. I've been able to find incredible tenants that, that have, that had a future owner mindset versus the multiunit building. I do also talk about it a lot, but I've owned a six Plex and a nine Plex and a, and I still own the nine flex today. But, I find that the tenant profile that I'm dealing with on properties like that, even no matter how much I fixed up the units, I tend to get those B and C quality tenants because the A quality tenants just simply don't want to live in a, in an apartment building, whereas, they'll happily live in my single family homes with their own backyard that stand their own, that they're living their life. They're living their best life. Yeah. They're sharing the part of the dwelling with another, with another. But, I'm able to get great tenants. And the reason why I attract them as much as I do is because in many cases I can rent out the upper unit of a dwelling for about 20 to 25% lower than just a standard single family home. So I can attract some incredible tenants that are actually looking to one day, move into homes and buy their places. And that's the kind of tenants that I want.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah, that's fantastic. So your focus right now, for your tenants is the quality of tenant that you have. Based off of, buying in some pretty nice neighborhoods and everything. And I could see the difference there, right? Like somebody. The quality of tenant versus living in an apartment, versus being able to say that they let you know, or are in a single family home with a yard and it's a little more private, like a little more privacy. It's a little more, just a, more of a community, being in a neighborhood versus your neighbor being like the next door over. So yeah, I could see that for sure. Now. You wrote a book, right? It's called a and like I said, I love the name. It's clever, the armchair real estate millionaire. If you're sitting there anyway, you might as well build your wealth. What drove you to write this book? Can we talk about that a little bit?

Michael Dominguez:

Absolutely. So I was very fortunate that, early in my realtor career, and real estate investing career, I was able to meet some just incredible people and people that honestly, I had no business having conversations with because they had tons of success said, and were, we had already reached their level of financial freedom and we're now. They were in their mindset of giving back. And so few of them took me under their wing and guided me along the process. And I always hoped that if I reached that same level of success, that I would also pay it forward, I would be the person who was on that ladder of success and reach my hand down and pull somebody up a step or two, however I could. And what I filed get a lot of the real estate books that I've read it. We've all read is they talk about, the big apartment buildings and even on the podcast, you see these people interviewed all the time where they talk about now they have five gazillion properties and, yeah. This morning they bought three new properties. Some of these people buy more properties and I changed my underwear. Like it's amazing. And they're great stories. Most of us, don't really identify it with it very well. And so I wrote the book for the person to get their first, second and third investment properties. And, I had some success stories in the book where I take people with as little as two investment properties and how that has changed their life. And it's given them a level of financial freedom and, an a level of wealth that they would never have had otherwise, by buying a quality market and. In great detail about what a quality market is. We look at such things as, as population growth and GDP growth. And, and we go into a little bit economics, but we hopefully do it in a pretty fun way and really try to teach people. There's two, if there's two types of properties that we don't, none of us have an unlimited amount of money, focus on the markets and focus on the properties and do the research and become an insider of that market, become an expert and you can build some significant wealth. And if you get the right type of tenant profile, it's not absentee. It's not completely passive. It's still a part-time job, but that part-time job will make you a millionaire.

Average Joe Finances:

Absolutely. I just want to point something out for all my listeners here real quick, because Michael did not come on here to talk about his book. I wanted to talk about it because in our pre interview conversation, one of the things that we talked about is just in the real estate community about helping other people and getting them to the level where they can have a little bit of financial freedom. As we're saying, that's the whole point of this podcast as well, is to help educate people and get them to that point. Michael wrote this book and he even told me to, he's oh, you don't write books to make money off books. You don't make money off books. Totally understand that he wrote the book to legitimately help people. And when you think about the context of the book and what it's doing, and he's talking about, he's talking with these folks that have 1, 2, 3 helped to help you build, buy your first couple properties and that can change your life. It really can cause it doesn't take much. It doesn't, you don't have to have a hundred plus doors to be at a point where you can be financially free. Other people have different priorities in their life and they're doing other things. Not everybody needs to invest the same way, but what Michael is showing you is that there is a way that you can do it with just a few, even if it only helps you a little. It's still something that's going to help you out and build wealth towards your future. And that's what I really appreciate it appreciate about it. And that's why I wanted to bring up the book because it's just absolutely amazing. And Michael, you yourself are absolutely amazing. Like I said, in our pre-interview conversation, just the chat we were having. We talked for 30 minutes before we even hit the record button. It was crazy. We were scheduled for 10 o'clock to come on and do this interview. And he's Hey, I can go early. I said, cool, let's go early. We got on half an hour early and we still didn't start until 10 o'clock because we were just chatting it up. Absolutely love when I have conversations like this, because it just adds so much more value to the listeners, to me and just everyone. That's a part of this journey. So I just, I do want to say, I genuinely. Appreciate that Michael really awesome with what you're doing. So I'm going to get off my little soap box here and get back new, and stop praising you because, we gotta get back to the interview, but I just wanted to point that out that this was not, he was coming out here to plug his book. It was legitimately, I wanted to ask about it because he is really helping people. And I just think that is just genuinely a really good thing and a really good quality in a person. Anyway, back to this. Absolutely. You're welcome. Okay. Now besides real estate, I wanted to ask you if there was any other asset classes that you invest in. So I know you got the nine Plex, you've got the 11 two unit dwellings. Is there anything else? Do you invest in like any paper stocks, like in the stock market crypto or any of that crazy stuff?

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah. Crypto, I don't know what this recording is going to come out, but, anybody who's been invested in crypto in the later part of January has had a bit of a crying game right now because, there's been about a 30, 40% decline in value in the last little bit. I do have a little bit, of crypto, more in the equity market is what I've got not a ton, but. I don't know, 1.5, $2 million in that. But, I'm also doing private mortgages. I've recently sold my real tour business and so I'm getting a residual money for that. And I'm actually the beautiful thing of not being an active day-to-day realtor anymore is it's allowing me to enhance my, just continue to enhance my knowledge and education. One thing I, it just occurred to me at the end of last year. Was, I analyze how much money I spent in terms of coaching and an education and 2021, actually, I spent more. On, on education than ever before yet, I'd already reached a certain level of financial freedom yet. Now I've had a chance to spend even more. I have hired a business coach to help me with my writing my book. I hired a, another coach that helped me with my equity trading, because it's a, I just want to be the best I can be. And in all elements and have multiple streams of income.

Average Joe Finances:

That is a key thing right there. And I think that's super important that you're, you're pointing out right now, is that the fact that even now, even at a point where you are financially free and you're sitting here doing the stuff that you want to do now, 2021, you still spent more on education than anything else because education, that's going to be the key. That's what. That opens the door. Honestly, that's gonna be the key that opens the door for you to take that next step and step into this new world. And I think, sure. There's a lot of free resources out there, there's also some paid resources that are really good. And that's definitely something that people should consider, being part of a mastermind, hiring a coach, depending on what particular route you want to go. Things like that provide value. And it's just, for those listening, it's, you have to figure out what's going to be the best thing for you. And obviously Michael's got it figured out what works for him. And he understands that and paying for this education is actually helping him step his step, his game, up to that next level, to the point where he was able to write this book and everything. I just think that's super awesome. And a very key thing to point out. Okay. So I have a set of four questions that I just started to, I just started doing this.. But these are like four kind of not quick, but just four questions. I want to start asking everybody that comes on the show. So if we're ready we'll go ahead and get into it.

Michael Dominguez:

I'm ready. I'm a little nervous but lets go.

Average Joe Finances:

Okay. All right. Nothing to be nervous about that this is all, like I said, I don't like to get crazy with my questions, but this is all like legit stuff that I feel will add value to everybody that's listening. First question is Michael. What's the biggest mistake you've ever made?

Michael Dominguez:

Oh wait, now you're making me think on this one. Biggest mistake I ever made, I want to say we already touched on it, honestly. I had opportunities for wealth building in my twenties that I didn't take advantage of because I was afraid to take action and, Even actually coincidentally, a real estate opportunity that would have been, that would have turned out to be a multimillion dollar deal. But, there was an element of risk. I, I would have had too much leveraging for my tastes at the time I was very risk adverse. And the old, if I knew now what I do then thing, or the other way round, if I do that, when I go now, that would have been a big mistake, but honestly, I look back on a lot of like early education and mistakes. And as, as honestly is like a giant university course that has led me to my level of knowledge today. And, it's, it's taught me to not sit around all the time and, there's ready, fire aim sort of thing, instead of ready, aim fire, because if you don't ever take action, you're just not going to get ahead. So that would have been my mistake early on, but some of my early indecisions.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah, it sounds like you got stuck in a little analysis paralysis there. So a hundred percent. It's funny though, the way that you put that, that if you would've known, then what you know now, that kind of works out great because that goes right into my next question. What is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first started?

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah. And this is something wanted to share with, some of your audience anyway. So this is a perfect lead in for that. One of the things which I should have done is bought a property and put an ADU in my place where I lived at the same time. The term today is called house hacking. That's the modern take on it, but honestly, Having shared housing in your property, is something that's been around forever. It's just that it's just got a bit of a new flavor to it. And that's something that has made a huge difference in my life early on, but, I did what everyone else did. I bought my single family home and lived in it and enjoyed it, but had I had, I bought that duplex or that additional dwelling unit. That would have basically covered a large portion of my mortgage and set me forward. Huge. That would have been the one thing I would have done differently. And that's what I recommend to anybody in their twenties and thirties today.

Average Joe Finances:

Absolutely. I, and I will tell you that I wish that was something that I would have done as well, for sure. Okay, cool. Love it. All right. Next question. Do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone who's just getting started today?

Michael Dominguez:

It's not necessarily the most elaborate thing in the world, but one of the cool things about becoming a market expert is it's not for the elite few. Anybody has the opportunity to become an expert and. We talk about this in my book, as far as finding the right type of market, I'm going to use Hawaii as an example. I love Hawaii. I've only been there once, but it was an incredible experience. And it's an area that I could see myself living part of my life, the rest, as I get older, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a great investment market. It might be, but it may not be. And so my advice to anyone who's getting serious. About wealth building is try to become the smartest person in the room. And if not, at least be among the most intelligent people in the room. I used the reference if I'm sitting down at a poker table and I look around the poker table and everyone has more experience than I do, I get off of that poker table. And so I'm not a big fan of just throwing my money into some venture and hoping for the best and hoping that they treat me. I want to become an expert. And that includes finding the right type of market, the right type of property, and perhaps even the right type of tenant when it comes down to it. But the right type of property in the rights of a market is so imperative.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah. That is super important and a great point. Absolutely love that. Okay. Next question. Do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both.

Michael Dominguez:

Oh, my favorite, my, honestly, the book I recommend it, we've already referred to it is rich dad, poor dad. And I realized that it's, a lot of people have already read it, but if you haven't, it's such an important book and it's just a different mindset. My mindset shift, Robert Kiyosaki starts teaching you about things that you just never learned in school. And, And what an asset is and start to build cashflow on an ongoing basis. And the beautiful thing of cashflow is. I get sick and I can't work, or I lose my job, these properties, or these assets continue to generate a little bit of income. And, the thing I do a little differently than Robert does is, is I focus maybe on primary markets that tend to appreciate better. They maybe don't cashflow white as well, but, but even during the pandemic, I never once had a missed rent payment, not once and nor did really any of my clients. And so that would be an advocate for sure. Actually I've listened to a few of your podcasts. I was pretty impressed with what you were teaching. I, I, everyone's already listed for that one, so that's maybe not a great way to use, there's a Canadian one called breakthrough real estate podcast. And that's one that, has been around for a number of years and he's a friend of mine. And, and so I'm going to give him a shout out for that. It's a great podcast. If I was going to listen to something that's a good one to listen to. And I mentioned already, Donner Campbell. He was my number one mentor, and he's written a number of books again, more than the Canadian market is where he got his start. But at the same time, a lot of his books are universal. So whether you're in the United States or India or China or wherever you're listening from, there are some tips and tricks that you use and apply at your life.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah, that's fantastic. And actually, speaking of Donna Campbell, right? So I wrote down that quote that you said, because I thought that was super awesome. So like rewinding back to that, you know how, he said to have real estate fund your life, not run your life. I just think that's absolutely amazing because a lot of people do get lost in that. They'll get lost in the whole, becoming a landlord and then like their whole focus is, tenants, toilets and repairs. And that's a lot of that stuff, can be mitigated, and it's all about what kind of systems and processes you put in place. So if you try to go into it by yourself without, without a team, you can find yourself, in another full-time job instead of a part-time thing. I think that's super important. And then, talking about that as well, just the whole networking aspect, we touched on that a little bit too, going to different conferences, seminars, real estate ups, things like that is just super important to just building up that team and building your own wealth of knowledge and building your own network because. The people that you're going to meet at these different meetups already know good contractors, or they are a contractor on the side or already no good realtors or there's realtors there at these meetups. So you can effectively go to a meetup and assemble your entire team. Like you can just create the Avengers right there and just be like, assemble so I got to throw a little Marvel reference in there. Why not?

Michael Dominguez:

And I'll give you one more with that too. And that you're. Y what I found that meetups is in my circle of friends, and we all have our circle of friends. You tend to gravitate to hang around with people that are similar net worth to you, and similar mindsets to you, by going into a meetup, you start to experience, an entirely different group of people. And one of the stories that I've shared a number of. Is, I had one pretty successful year and I think I bought two or three properties in one year. And a lot of my friends. They basically said, oh, sure. You bought another one. There'll be almost sarcastic and saying, and my parents said, I'm really worried about you. Like they never really discouraged me, but they said, oh, I don't know. And then meanwhile, in my realtor real estate group, they were applauding my success at an honestly. Giving me a hard time, said, okay, what's the next one I said, come on. I just bought three properties this year. And they said, no, you got to buy another one. And so it's just a different mindset, a different level of motivation. And once you embrace that group, it's it could change your life.

Average Joe Finances:

Absolutely. You go from one group that wants to have an intervention with you. Cause they think you have a problem to the next group. That's like encouraging the quote unquote problem, because that problem is going to build your wealth. So yeah, it's absolutely awesome. It's good to have. You surround yourself with the, with those people, with like-minded people, they say that you're the average of the, of, the top five people that you hang out with. So you want to have people in that circle that are better than you, and some people that are your peers. And, one of the things that I've talked about in the past is like, when I go to these real estate meetups and stuff, and I think I talked to you about this before we even started. I'm not targeting the person that's been doing this for 20 plus years, w when I'm first starting out and saying, Hey, what did you do when you stopped with 20 years ago? It was a long time ago for them. And they're on a whole different level. But the guys that just started 1, 2, 3 years ago, that's who you want to talk to if you're first starting out, because you can get a better idea of what they did, what systems they put in place, what worked for them, what didn't work, and it's that whole trial by fire and trial by. Error, because over the years that it changes the, the types of loans you can get changed, the types of, all the different funding, everything changes. So you have to be fluid and flexible, with that as well. And that's one of the things you're going to get by going to these meetups is staying up to date, staying current with what's going on and that's, and then building that network is just super amazing. All right, Michael. I have to ask you one more question. This is besides the four questions. This is probably the most important question of all, because the people that are listening to the show are like, man, Michael is spitting out this awesome information. He talked about this book that he wrote, that really sounds like it could help me out cause I'm just getting ready to get started. And I want to know more about Michael Dominguez and what he's doing. So Michael, if you could share with us where people could find more information about you, if you could share your website or any social media that you're comfortable sharing with us, that would be fantastic.

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah. Again, my name again is Michael Dominguez for those that have been paying attention. And, the book I have is armchair real estate billionaire. And for those that have, are doing the video thing, this is what the book looks like here. And, my website is armchairrealestatemillionaire.com. I am on Facebook and Twitter and. You can pick up my book on Amazon or indigo, and those are opportunities. And actually, I don't know when this is being released, but, in March, if all goes according to plan, I'm actually doing an audio book as well. I've hired an incredible voice actor. And again, I tried doing it myself. I realized I'm just not good at it. And I tend to do a lot of ums and AHS and, and couldn't read the entire paragraph or without missing a word. And so I hired somebody who was fantastic. And so I'm using my arm share mindset, playbook, and hiring somebody who's better than. He's delivering it. And I think people will be really impressed with the content and the quality of the books. So yeah, it looked forward to some people picking it up. And if there are any questions, by all means, reach out to me. You can go on my website, send me a note and say, Hey, and, and go from there.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah, that's great. So we'll make sure we have all those links in the show notes to make it easy for everybody to find your website, social media, find your book. We'll make sure that's all there fresh for everybody. Super excited about that. I'm super excited that you have an audio book coming out, because audio books I think are amazing. That's all I listened to my car now is podcasts and audio books. I barely ever listen to music. I think the only time I have music on in the car is if I have my kids in the car with me, because they can't stand listening to podcasts or audio books to dude, it's so boring being in the car with you.

Michael Dominguez:

It's true. You can only listen or you could listen to queen and other music. But, Freddie mercury and all those guys don't care about your wealth. Whereas, honestly the idea that you can actually pay 20 bucks and get the contents of some brilliant minds, the Robert Kiyosaki's and Dave Ramsey's and

Average Joe Finances:

the Michael Dominguez's

Michael Dominguez:

and, and I want us to get the best of what they have and just, and be able to put that together. It's just, it's such a. An incredible way to get some knowledge and especially if the content is presented in an entertaining way. It's honestly, it's changed it. That has changed my life as much as.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. Michael, this has been an absolute pleasure. I really appreciate you taking time on a Saturday to sit here and have this conversation with me, all the way from Canada and I'm out here in Hawaii technology is amazing and this has just been super fun. I really genuinely enjoyed this conversation with you. That's why we talk so much before we even hit the record button. I'm sure we're going to talk a little more after we go off air, but this has been absolutely phenomenal. The content I think that's going to come out in this episode will really help people. And, I really hope that people go check out your book because it is really something that's going to be beneficial to. Looking to just get started and investing in real estate and can hopefully change some lives. So thanks again, Michael, for taking this time and chat with us today.

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah. And thank you so much for inviting me. And, and I really appreciate. The, the content design you've got for your style, having people on that aren't, I'm sure you've got a few people, I have all of your podcasts, that have, it's not necessarily the guys that have got the hundred properties and the, six Ferrari's and the mansions of the but it's the ones that I find are more relatable or the ones that are maybe a couple of steps beyond where the, where the person who's listening to the podcast is because it's something that's achievable. And I can share with you for anybody who's listening today that, people that think that real estate has gone you just say, oh, the values have gone up so much where we're in a position where it's too late. Like I tell you that real estate was a good investment in the 18 hundreds. It's a good investment 50 years ago. Good investment 25 years ago. And it's a great investment today. If you buy smart and you follow the right market fundamentals, you can build significant wealth with the unfair advantage that real estate offers.

Average Joe Finances:

Yeah, I love it. Yeah. It was a popular saying too, that they say, the best time to buy real estate was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. And just even with the market, the way that it's going, you can't beat real estate. As an asset class, people are always going to need a place to live. And I love it. I love it. I think it's, I think it's fantastic. And I think people like you that come on the show and really spit out some great information. Regarding real estate and just the things that you've done in just a ten-year period to just prove to everybody that this really does work and it really can change your life. And it really means a lot that you know, that we can get this information out there to help some people. Thanks again, man. This has been fantastic.

Michael Dominguez:

Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you.