Hashim Ismail’s success with remote and local real estate investing

As a dreamer and life-long learner, Hashim Ismail makes it a goal to push himself. Hashim officially started his real estate investing journey eleven months ago but began learning about real estate just two years ago. He dealt with analysis paralysis, but after making a goal to start in 2021, he decided to jump in with both feet. Through hard work, dedication, and optimism, Hashim has closed on seven properties in eleven months. Since Hashim invests out-of-state, he dealt with a whole new set of obstacles apart from the usual challenges new investors face. Through the new connections he made, Hashim educated himself on the area, without having to physically visit! Investing out-of-state can be risky within itself, so he has created a series of processes to mitigate risk as much as possible. In this podcast episode, Hashim talks about how he got started in real estate and how he found immense success simply by stepping out of his comfort zone. Episode Link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hashim-ismail-76087120/ --- Transcript Before we jump into the episode, here's a quick disclaimer about our content. The Remote Real Estate Investor podcast is for informational purposes only, and is not intended as investment advice. The views, opinions and strategies of both the hosts and the guests are their own and should not be considered as guidance from Roofstock. Make sure to always run your own numbers, make your own independent decisions and seek investment advice from licensed professionals.   Michael: Hey, everyone, what's going on everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and today with me I have Hashim Ismail, who is a San Diego based investor doing some pretty cool things, investing remotely as well as locally if you can believe it. So he's gonna be walking us through his story, his background, and some tips and tricks that got him over the hump to finally make that first purchase. So let's get into it.   Hashim, what’s going on, man, thanks so much for taking the time to hang out with me today. Appreciate you coming on.   Hashim: Hey, Michael. How's it going, man?   Michael: Oh, super, super good. I'm on my way up to the San Juan Islands in my van, which is northern Washington. So I'm super excited. You're a SoCal guy, right?   Hashim: I am, I am SoCal. Yeah, similar, similar to you.   Michael: Right on and so we're gonna be chatting today about kind of your investment story and your journey and I'll be very interested to learn because you're a SoCal guy. Were you investing in Southern California? Are you doing the remote thing?   Hashim: So I started with the remote thing, and most of my investment is, is remote investing for the most part and recently this year, I got my first property in Southern California, but most of my properties are out of state.   Michael: So you did kind of similar to me, you almost did it backwards, like you started super far and then came zoomed in and zoom close. So walk us through I want to hear like soup to nuts what your investment journey has been like. So walk us through what your very first deal was kind of where was it? How did you get started and how did you get that meant, like, mentally your head screwed on right to be able to do the whole remote thing?   Hashim: Yeah, so as with many things in life, taking that first step is typically the hardest and most challenging for many people, including myself and, you know, I was listening to a lot of podcasts, Bigger Pockets podcasts, real estate, different real estate, reading books, and taking that first step was okay, what am I going to do? What am I going to do it and finally, in 20, December of 2020, typically at the end of the year, I tried to write my goals for the following year, December 2020, I wrote down real estate investing goals and it was I remember, it was wanting to investment property in 2021. At the time, obviously, I did not know how I was going to do it. Obviously, I had been listening to podcast reading. So I had an idea and I knew what real estate investing was, but I hadn't done it and until you do something, there's only so much you can read or listen about and 2021. So which was last year, April, to be specific, I took a first step towards that and I went, I started in Tennessee, Memphis, specifically the market that I started in and that's how I started my real estate journey and to be here today, well, throughout 2021 got a couple properties more in Memphis and then this year, I had another goal for myself to go into another market and I thought I could try my local market here in Southern California.   Michael: Okay, I've got a, like so many questions for you. This is gonna, this is gonna be a lot of fun. So taking a step back, like how when did you start, like getting educated, listening to podcasts, reading books, thinking, hey, real estate investing might be something I want to do. How long ago was that?   Hashim: Yeah, so I started roughly around sometime towards end of 2018, beginning of 2019 and actually, I saw I used to listen to podcasts on financial independence and one I remember one of the shows, they, you know, real estate came up, and that's when I started hearing more about real estate. I was like, okay, and I started doing little googling little research came across Bigger Pockets and that's how I started listening to more of the Bigger Pockets podcasts, and reading some of the books.   Michael: Okay, and so you spent, like, roughly plus or minus two years getting self-educated. Did you have like friends or family or like a coach or mentor anyone that was like, hey, this is like the theory and now let me help you put it into practice or was it all you by yourself?   Hashim: At the time it was myself. So listening to the podcast, different guests that come on the show sharing their story, and you get to learn a lot from that and obviously, that's, I'm sure that's one of the reasons why you host the podcast, I listened to some of your guests as well and there's a lot of nuggets and learnings that we take from that by other sharing. So I got to learn or gain a lot from that and then read some books and that's how it was for about two years give or take. It was just me reading, listening to podcasts, making the routine, but I didn't feel it because time flies by and I found it interesting and fascinating. It wasn't until, yeah, a year and a half, two years later, I was like, okay, I've been listening and reading, but I don't have anything. I haven't done anything yet, let me take action.   Michael: so I'm so glad you brought this up. I think that's like the linchpin. That's the turning point for so many people, or rather the disconnect between getting educated, listening to podcasts, reading books, seminars, whatever, and then actually taking action and doing something. So how did you bridge that gap because it's so easy to say one more podcast, one more book, one more seminar. So how did you how did you take that leap?   Hashim: Yeah, Michael, I think that's, that's true for, again, for many for many of us and I think it's human nature, especially when you haven't done something before that very first time. There's always a challenge. It's always, you know, a sense of fear. You haven't done this before, where do I go? What do I do in the waters, I typically use goals to, to push me and to push me specifically out of my comfort zone, things that I haven't done. So I use my goal setting and I, every year, I write my goals for the next year. So I use my goal setting as a way to push me in that way, I hold myself accountable. Hey, I wrote this down. I said I was gonna do this. Am I doing it? Have I done it? So that's what I used to push me. At the time out of my comfort zone was real estate investing. I hadn't done it yet. There was a lot of unknowns for me and that's what I use, as, you know, something to nudge me in the direction that I would like to go.   Michael: I love it any clearly you're motivated person, because you know you're holding yourself accountable to which is, which is something that I think a lot of people struggle with and so kind of getting philosophical here for a minute. How do you hold yourself accountable because it would be so easy to say, I missed the goal. I didn't do it. Oh, well, I'll do it next year because there's no one looking to you saying, hey, you, Tom, you said you were gonna do this, like, do it. Other than yourself, so how do you how do you motivate yourself?   Hashim: Very good point, Michael. So I think it's important. So personally, for me, I use my inner you know, my wife and my inner drive to, you know, to push me towards my goals and what I'd like to do, you know, look at big picture, where would I like to be? What is what would my life be like and I use that, you know, to motivate me, because real estate, like everything else in life, there's ups, there's downs, there's days that oh, my god, I'm crushing it some days, what am I doing?   Michael: And oh, my God, I'm being crushed….   Hashim: Yeah, am I doing this right? And it's important, it's part of it, it's part of almost anything left. So it's important to have, you know, something that can keep you going and I think finding your inner why your true reason and being clear, and your goal is going to help you stay the course it's going to, it's going to help you from distractions, from the lows and try to, you know, push you back to go to the highs. So, you know, when I write, you know, when I write my goals down, I try to stick to them. I mean, nothing's 100%, but I try to stick to them as much as I can. I will say another thing and I haven't done that as much, but I'm starting to do more of that is using accountability groups, you know, having a group, a core group that are on a similar journey as you are, and you guys can help each other out, you guys can learn from each other, but at the same time, you can hold each other accountable. I think that's super important for people to do and have, including myself and, you know, I'll share a bit more story around that is one of the bigger pockets, courses that I or, you know, like boot camps that I took, they put us into groups and at the end of I mean, there was a lot of value in that boot camp, one of the main thing was, you know, we get to be put in what they call accountability groups and to this day, I am in touch with my accountability group and we have regular meetings, everybody's busy, but we have regular meetings, and we try to push each other and hold each other accountable.   Michael: I love it and how long ago was the bootcamp?   Hashim: It was q3 of last year, so right nine months or so ago.   Michael: Okay, right. Well, good for you. That's awesome. So as she walked us through what it was like to do your first deal remotely, because I think we have a big segment of our audience listening to the show is just getting started or just about to get started. There may be a little bit nervous or unsure about how to proceed doing something remote Roofstock is a great system to plug into to leverage the preexisting relationships but did you do that or did you go kind of forge your own path?   Hashim: So when I what I did when I was looking at different at the time, I was looking again, I didn't know too much for from my knowledge, I would I knew I was looking at a couple of markets and there were certain criteria that I had in mind. You know, one of them was, hey, is this market? What's the number one thing actually for me was because I hadn't done it before, is what is the risk? What is the barrier to entry into this market and what is the risk? So if things don't go as I'm thinking they should and as I'm planning, can I absorb the hit or am I gonna fall flat on my face, and I'm pretty much knocked out and I did not want that. So I was looking at markets we're in if things go went wrong, I could learn but I would not be knocked back completely out of the game, I could sort of absorb a hit that you know, the hit. So that was one criteria. The other criteria is does this market this is Mark, you're gonna cash flow, because I was interested, I still am in cash flow and then the other criteria was around, hey, what's the owner to renter population, like? Is there enough renters? So my focus is birth and, you know, after the birth, I want to rent the property, and I wanted to cashflow are there enough people that are going to be renting this property and then the other thing, you know, for the market was around? What's the job market? What's the job like in this market? Is that that is their diversification.   So these are a couple of criteria that I had in mind, as I was looking at, you know, a couple of markets and, you know, there's other markets that meet this criteria and ultimately, I decided to pull the plug in, in Tennessee, and part of that meant specifically and part of that was when you're investing, you know, long distance out of state, as I'm sure you very well know, Michael, that team is super crucial to your success. I connected with a bunch of people in different markets and you know, in the Memphis market, specifically, I connected with some great people. So Steven, I can Dona mentioned that before, was on the folks that I connected with the Memphis market, and I learned a ton from him and at the time, he was I was able to share with him what my goals are, and what I'm thinking and he was able to also share with me what he's done, his experience in the market, and how he can help me get to what my goals are, and where I'm looking to go and, you know, based on my criteria, and based on, you know, barrier to entry and risk probability and tolerance, I decided, yeah, let me pull the trigger and get into one deal and that's, that's how it all started.   Michael: I love it Hashim and you mentioned something about this risk versus reward ratio, which I absolutely love. I think that as you're going to quantify this stuff and figure out okay, where is my, where can I swing for the fences and if I miss still be okay. So how do you quantify that? What does that look like? Is it a mathematical equation? Is it a gut feel like, how did you come to that conclusion?   Hashim: So in my mind, the way I think of it is, the first thing was the barrier to entry. How much are these homes? How much are properties costing? So I was starting with single family, how much a single family costing in this market? So take the Tennessee or Memphis market specifically versus, say, the Miami market or compared to Southern California, LA or…   Michael: slightly different purchase prices, right?...   Hashim: Yes, exactly. The barrier to entry and purchase prices are very much different. So if you think about that, AIG, you need a lot more capital to get into these markets, into these markets, some of these markets, and then be in the event something was to go wrong, you're at a much more, you're a lot more exposed, you're a lot more higher risk and I did not especially that's something I hadn't done before I was creating a process. I was learning everything was new to me, I wanted the lower entry point, and the lower risk profile when something goes wrong. I can absorb it and I can know I can take the learnings and keep pushing. I will say, as with anything else, it's good to learn and evolve and grow and now that I've done this a couple more times, I'm more comfortable. I am at a better place to explore, you know, some of these bigger markets. Obviously, the numbers need to make sense, but I feel more comfortable now than I was 15 months or so ago.   Michael: Okay, right on and you mentioned if I heard you correctly, that your very first deal was a burger. Is that right?   Hashim: Yes.   Michael: Okay, that's kind of crazy. I love it. So how big of a burger are we talking how what kind of cosmetic work was needed because I like for me personally, my very first deal was turnkey, I could barely wrap my head around owning rental property being on the hook for a huge sum of money, let alone doing any kind of work. So walk us through, like mentally and then physically what that was like?   Hashim: That my very first bird deal that I got, it took and I've shared that before. So it took it took about two months before I got it and the reason for that is I was so reluctant because I was no there was a lot of fun. They're like, Oh my God, it's a burger. I've never done this. I'm here the property is 1000s of miles away, how do I do this, and then the, the property went under contract, and that was bumped and then it came for whatever reason it fell out of contract and came back and as soon as it did, I just, I got it immediately after under contract. So what, you know, along those lines, at the time, I had spoken to Steven and Stephens team, that is what they specialize in. So in one end their brokerage, so you can buy and sell with them real estate with them. On their other end, they have a full, full blown team to help and work with investors around rehabbing and project management for their properties. So I worked. So I run the numbers, the numbers made sense to me, I run it by my team, Stephen and his team, the numbers checked and then I physically went and walked the properties and when we do the, you know, we take pictures, we see what the rehab, the extent of the rehab is going to be and have an estimate cost around what the rehab is and then if everything, you know, checks, we run the numbers, everything makes sense. Finally, I you know, I do you know, a final desk appraisal to just confirm because when you're doing the birth, the ARV is very important. So is the rehab cost. So you don't want to miss them those. So I do take a stab at them. But I also leverage professionals. I get the final desk appraisal and make sure the ARV is exactly what I'm thinking and then the rehab costs and make sure we narrow and nail that down and still plug in the numbers and make sure they still make sense and if they do, then I just you know I just go with it. It's a matter of reducing your risk and probably as much as you can, nothing is certain but these redundant steps help reduce that risk for you and so we get there, and I pull the trigger on it at the time I bought that property for 100,000 and I put about I put 45,000 into it for rehab day.   Michael: I mean, so you're 45% of the of the purchase price you put into it and rehab, that's not an insignificant amount. So share with us. Okay, share with us how you how you purchased it, was it, was it all cash? Or did you have to finance it and then how did you pay for the rehab and how close was that 45k that you ended up spending to what you projected or what you budgeted for.   Hashim: So for financing, I leveraged my my brokerage account, and I got a line of credit from that and that's how I was able to pull 100,000 in cash to buy the property. So I bought it off market, so I had to buy it in cash and then for the rehab par 45, 40, 45 is exactly what the estimate was. I you know, estimating rehab costs at the time, and even today is not a strong suit of mine and that's where you want to leverage your team and people that you can, you know, trust and that's what the rehab was budgeted for and it was Michael, to your point, it was significant. We did. I mean, flooring, paint inside out roof, kitchen bathrooms, I mean, everything, cut trees, trim stuff. So it was it was Major, it wasn't just cosmetic and little things. However, you know, on the other end of that, and it is you know, upfront it's, you know, you buy you rehab it it's you know, it takes also time it took about three months going through that process and then the tail end of that for the you know, as any other product process is doing the refinance at the end.   Michael: And so what was your projected ARV that you did your desktop appraisal on and then what was the actual ARV? Cuz I'm assuming this is all buttoned up. You got it refinanced, right.   Hashim: Yes, that was my first deal and it's all buttoned up at this point. So our desk appraisal was 271 270. When we did the desk appraisal, yeah. So that's where the numbers were at the time when we did the actual appraisal when everything was done and I think part of it also has to do you know, where the market was, it appraised for 281. So about 10,000 above what the desk appraisal was. So that was, that was a great deal and a great first deal for me and, you know, I'm, I'm happy I did it, and I'm excited and that will say, you know, to listeners, or anybody out there, not every deal is like this, again, with everything. There's offices that this was a good deal for me and I'm excited I did it. There's other deals that were not so sexy, and the numbers were not, you know, as appealing and there's some deals that don't even make those numbers and I tried to stay away from those but it happens.   Michael: So, for everyone listening, I'm tempted to not ask this question because it's gonna be like a dagger and everyone who's listening stomachs but what was your what were you able to cash out and what was your interest rate and what kind of like what kind of financing was a 30 year fix, talk us through that?   Hashim: Yes, I went with a 30 year fixed refinance and on the back end and I was able to pull out about 75% LTV with the lender and I got about 211,000 out of out of the deal and yeah, locked in 30 year fixed…   Michael: And your interest rate?   Hashim: 3.62 cents.   Michael: Oh my god. So you spent 145,000 plus your holding costs whatever those panned out to be, and paid yourself 211,000 at a 3.6% interest rate fixed for 30 years.   Hashim: Yes. Now, some of the other deals are my…   Michael: Draw exit stage left, amazing…   Hashim: Thank you Michael, again, this is like, you know, you know, I'm 14, and I'm thankful that that was my first deal and they went that way. I mean, some, especially, you know, interest rate change, and the landscape changed. Some of the deals are, again, are not as you know, as sexy, but it was exciting and I'm, you know, I was happy when I was on the other end of this and when I'm going over the numbers again, for sure.   Michael: Well, I think it's great and my hat off, and kudos to you but I think something that like it's so important to highlight, and we talk a lot about on the show is that. So often, we talked about the wins, we talked about the high points, and like, clearly, this was a massive win for you but we spent like the last 10 minutes talking about this and we only spent a few minutes talking about all the stuff that you did leading up to this, like literal years of prep work leading up to this point, for you to have this massive win for you to even recognize that, hey, this is a potential win for me.   So for everyone listening, don't beat yourselves up. Don't compare yourself if you're not there yet, or if your deals haven't been as sexy or as amazing because there's all this stuff going on ahead of time, prep, work legwork that you should be doing to be able to lead to deals like this. So that was your first deal. Amazing, amazing, amazing. What were your next deals like? Were those also birds, were those, were those more turnkey? Talk us a little bit about that.   Hashim: Thank you, Michael. Actually, that's a really good question that you highlight and I think it's important. I'm gonna answer the question, but I just want to acknowledge what you said. I mean, that's super important. You look at athletes, we watch them on TV for whatever timeframe it is that that game is going on for whether it's basketball, soccer, football, and they're performing, or they're supposed to be performing at their best during that time that everybody's watching and cheering and we're enjoying them. Behind the scenes, the amount of years that it took for them to get there is insane. We don't we don't have privy to that and you know, it's similar to almost everything else in life. So thank you for pointing that out. So the question that you ask, my deals are through a little bit of different stages as we speak. So some of them the one I just shared and one more I've gone through the entire cycle of refinance, some of them I'm not entirely sure I want to go the refinance route at the end of the burr, a will be more either if I can hold it for now. Especially that interest rate landscape is changing or perhaps what I'm also exploring is doing a home equity line of credit on them, for the time being and some of them are still on the rehabs. Some of them are not fully done yet as we speak. So they're, they're kind of like they're staggered in different stages at this point.   Michael: Okay, right on and getting back to that first deal for just a second. What did that property rent for?   Hashim: The rent?   Michael: Yeah…     Hashim: $1,520 was rented for currently love it.   Michael: And the cash flow?   Hashim: The cash flow is about $130 a month, which is, and I'm gonna elaborate on that a little bit more typically, not what I go for, for cash flow purposes. So my goal is my, my goal, when I target for properties for cash flow is higher than that, with this property. In particular, it was my first one, but also because I was able to pull a lot more, I pull about 60,000 more than I put into the property. So as you would imagine, that would impact the cash flow. So I'm okay with that and every, every property is going to be a little bit different but I typically shoot for a couple of 100 bucks cash flow and properties in general.   Michael: Right, so quick question Hashim, what's your cash on cash return that you've calculated on that property?   Hashim: Infinite…?   Michael: You're a spa like that's what I was hoping you would say. So again, for everyone listening, Hashim got a $60,000 payday and $130 a month cash flow, so he has negative $60,000 in this deal, so I fricking love it, man, I love it.   Hashim: Thank you.   Michael: Give us let's I want to be very respectful of your time and get you out of here but talk to us a little bit about what your local deal has looked like or deals that you're doing now in San Diego. Why did you come, why did you go from remote now to local after clearly accomplishing so much on the remote landscape, you know, why bother?   Hashim: I wanted to push myself to go into other market and part of it was, you know, my background is engineering and science and I like, you know, again, to create processes, but also to mitigate risk as much as you can. Part of that is diversification, so I wanted to go into another market, I do like when I get into a market, don't just do one deal, I like to go a little bit deeper into the market, because you're creating processes, you're building teams are spending time into it and in my opinion, you want to get the most out of your investing, right? You're investing time you're investing, so you want to get the most out of it and I will stay in the Memphis market that these are what I see, as of today. However, I wanted to get into the market, and I use goal setting to push me into that. I didn't know specifically it was my local market, but I wrote the goal in a way where and I want to get into another market if you're marketing 2022 and as the year started, I thought about it a little bit more and I know that in Southern California for many, many years now, and I don't own the property here. So I thought to myself, you know, why not do something local and the numbers are different, and the approaches very different than you would in other markets, every market is different and anybody listening to this are real estate investors out there, know that if not keep that in mind market to market things are going to shift Market to market strategy is going to shift and yeah, so I decided to I live here, let me attempt something local and that's where things are right now. So far, I got a house here and it's not necessarily my personal difference, less of a burr and more little bit of a little bit of a house hack, I'll say and then trying to add doing work to add more value and playing the appreciation game down the road.   Michael: Right on so is the thought to, you bought it as a primary residence live in it, add the value, and then do a cash out refi or do a home and put a home equity line of credit on and leverage that to go do something else. What does that look like?   Hashim: Exactly, Michael so that's, that's my thought. So I bought it living in fixing doing work on it and it's going to that's going to add value, but also you know, expecting the market, you know, with time, you know, the market is the market depends on where the market trends gribble with the work that I do to it, and with time, there will be some value, forced value added into the home and depending where that number is, most likely do home equity line of credit. So I have some cash to tap into and then I can go do more deals. Depending what that cash, how much cash I can tap into and what else I have going on. Yeah, that's, that's, that's I do.   Michael: Hashim I love it, man, I love it. We're gonna get you out of here but before we do, what do you have to say to newer investors who are just getting started or maybe two, two years ago, Hashim who's just getting started, now that you've been to the other side…   Hashim: But I'll say like, you know, stay hungry, stay learning, it's a journey, I take this approach and this philosophy and everything in life, keep learning stay at it and take action. For me I use I write down goals and I that's one way that I push myself find what what's gonna motivate you and what's going to push you and you know, tap into that and you know, take action. Having friends having an accountability group, I think is huge as well so you can leverage that you can leverage different combinations but those are couple things I have used and a couple of ways I recommend and anything in life is learning so do it and know make sure you calculate it but do it and doesn't go as well take the learnings from that and try to be better and try it again or you know try something else that would work better for you.   Michael: Right on I love it. Well hey, if people have more questions for you want to reach out to you want to compliment you on your on your amazing successes. What's the best way for them to get a get a hold?   Hashim: Yeah, absolutely. You can reach me on LinkedIn. So by tapping searching for my name Hashim Ismael on LinkedIn, you'll find me and then you can email me directly. My email, which is [email protected], SIRABU capital is spelled S I R A B U capital.com and then you can also find me on Bigger Pockets as well and just before we get out of here, Michael, I just want to give you a couple of shout outs so I want to let you know thanks Steven. I mentioned Steven I can Dona Tyler Madden. You know they've helped me out a lot, I learned a lot from them. You know they're mentors to me. I want to thank friends family, and my girlfriend for a lot of support Bigger Pockets community and finally, um you know anything tech related? Dan D and MC, you know who you are. Thank you for all the tech support with you everything. Anything that breaks, I just I just go to them and thank you guys. Thanks for having me here on the show today, man. I'm glad to share my story and you guys are doing a lot of you know, great recordings and great guests on the show. Thank you guys. Thanks, Michael for doing that.   Michael: Thanks, Hashim our pleasure and we will definitely be in touch with you man. Looking forward to seeing where you go from here.   Hashim: Yeah, man, thanks a lot.   Michael: You got it. Take care. Okay, everyone, that was our show a big thank you to Hashim for coming on being vulnerable, opening up the vessel a little bit, giving us an insider's look at what his journey has been like. As always, if you liked the episode, feel free to leave us a rating or review wherever it is. You get your podcasts, and we look forward to seeing you the next one. Happy investing…