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Brian Waters shares how he built a successful real estate investing business without walking away from the career he loves. A fire captain, flight instructor, and founder of Rental Property Playbook, Brian explains why real estate doesn’t have to replace your W-2 job. Instead, it can create additional income, financial security, and the freedom to spend more time with your family.

In this episode, Brian breaks down his strategy for investing in out-of-state single-family rental properties, why he believes simplicity and repeatable systems outperform chasing every investing trend, and how strong teams, property management, and technology make long-distance investing both practical and scalable. He also shares why buying and holding rental properties has become his preferred path to building long-term wealth.

Jordan and Brian also discuss mentorship, balancing entrepreneurship with a fulfilling career, and the importance of designing a business around the life you want to live. Whether you’re new to real estate or looking to build passive income without quitting your job, this episode offers a practical roadmap for creating lasting wealth through disciplined investing and smart systems.

About Brian Waters

Brian Waters is a real estate investor, Fire Captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department, certified flight instructor, and founder of Rental Property Playbook. He specializes in helping W-2 professionals build long-term wealth by investing in out-of-state single-family rental properties without leaving their careers.

Drawing on his background in aviation and emergency services, Brian brings a systems-driven approach to real estate investing, emphasizing repeatable processes, disciplined analysis, and strong teams. Through his coaching community, he teaches investors how to create passive income, achieve financial freedom, and design a business that supports the life they want to live.

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The Boring Real Estate Strategy That Quietly Builds Wealth ft. Brian Waters

I I can tell you one thing. Technology is the single most important aspect of every business that is successfully scaled. It’s time for that real estate tech guy. It’s your weekly chance to explore how technology can help your real estate business explode. Each week, you’ll hear from real estate investors who have been there and done that and find out their favorite technology tips.

Listen in is Jordan speaks with tech companies and learns about new technologies and new ideas that will help you scale your business. And now join your host. Jordan Samuel Fleming, CEO of smrtphone, for this week’s episode.

Hey everybody, and welcome to this week’s episode of That Real Estate Tech Guy. I’m your host, Jordan Samuel Fleming, and I’m joined today by my good friend Brian Waters from the Rental Property Playbook. Now, Brian’s got a great story. Eileen Brian was a pilot, professional airline pilot, and now then moved on to being a fire captain, a fireman, a fire captain, still is a certified flight instructor and became a real estate investor focused on single family rental properties, and now has an amazing community and teaching program helping others do it.

I mean, talk about your balance, your balanced approach. I love that about Brian because he really does have a balance in his life and the way he approaches things, which gives him a lot of flexibility, lets him do some of the things he loves teaching, flying, being in the firehouse, building a great life for his family. Right.

Like traveling. Vacationing. It’s refreshing to be honest. And and it’s great because this episode is really fun, because it focuses on a specific. You know, Brian has a very specific niche that he kind of goes down deep on. And, and that is, you know, out of state rental properties. And I think a lot of people probably would think, man, that’s going to be hard.

And Brian kind of he he rolls back the misconceptions a little on that. And that’s what he’s doing in his community. Anyway, it’s a super fun conversation. Brian and I met up in person in Orlando a few months or so ago, a month and a half ago, when a whole bunch of people in the community and coaches and technology companies and got together and we had a great conversation, got to know each other a little and really have enjoyed getting to know him.

You’re going to love this episode. It’s really great to see how Brian approaches his education, the community he’s built, and just how focused he is on helping people understand the possibilities of out-of-state rentals. So without further ado, join me in my conversation with Brian Waters. Adam. Live with my friend Brian Waters. Brian, great to have you here.

Introduce yourself and what you do to the audience. Yeah. Jordan, thank you so much for having me. First off, I want to tell everyone that this is the real Brian and not the AI version of Brian. I know Jordan’s big on the AI stuff, but yeah, so I’m a fire captain out in Los Angeles, and I’m also a real estate investor in a real estate coach with this company here.

It’s called the Rental Property Playbook. I’m teaching hardworking W-2 earners all over the country how to buy properties, not where they live. Out of state, unseen, and not quitting their jobs is creating a second source of income so they can hang out with their families, do cool stuff, travel, and just have that little bit of financial security outside of their own job.

Fantastic. Now you’re a fire captain, but you’re also a CFI, correct? Yes, sir. So my original. When I was 18, I got my pilot’s license. All I ever wanted to do was fly. I grew up with a mom who was a flight attendant for United. I love the traveling. I watched Catch Me If You Can and I’m like, that looks like the life for me.

And so I moved out to Hawaii and I became a medevac pilot and continued to do flight instruction out there. I got hired with the airlines a big the airlines had a big kind of falling out during the 2008 stuff, and I actually got laid off and I became a fireman. And so I still teach people to fly.

I still fly on my own. My dream here is to buy a plane in the next five years. But yeah, I kind of do a little bit of everything so well, that excites me because I’m in the middle of my people right now, so I, I am I’m literally in the in the middle of the thick of it right now.

So anytime I’m such a geek that I can’t stop talking about aviation and we’re not going to we’re not going to turn this into the That Aviation Tech Guy podcast. But that’s that’s a conversation next time we see each other. Well, that I’m sure we can have. Absolutely. I think it was funny when I was 18, I never was really I liked school, but I didn’t love it the first time I opened up a book on flying and aerodynamics and weather patterns, I was like, I couldn’t put it down.

And it’s a there’s a saying, it says like, oh, like once you’ve tasted aviation, like you’ll never go back, like it’s going to be part of you forever. It’s so much fun. Yeah. And to just to your point, before we leave this topic, the amount of knowledge you need, like flying a plane, is relatively easy. Oh, yeah. Like the physicality of flying a plane.

And, you know, like, once you get used to it, even, you know, people like landing whatever, you know, whatever. It’s it’s not that hard. But the knowledge you need and the, the, the rigorous of approach and the situational awareness, it’s all everything else is what makes really the kind of flying a, a, a quite a complex thing. I think some of I have a couple pilots that are in my program, and they’re the best ones because they, they just they’re just really smart.

You know, there’s it’s such a step by step checklist type of job because if you if you veer from that you could die. And so I kind of teach I kind of teach people in that I always hold on to that pilot way of doing things. SOPs, checklist, itemized things. I run my business the same way and it makes sense.

That’s why if you go back to like the the.

The CRM stuff, you know, crew resource management in every business, they go back and they actually show you videos of like airplane crashes and what went wrong. And it’s wild. So there’s a lot of correlation between that. Well and you, you pilot then firefighter. And I would imagine the same rigorous of approach and discipline actually has to be in the firefighting game as well, because that’s another like make lots of mistakes and either you get killed or someone else gets killed.

So there’s a seems to be a theme to your approach to things. Yeah. And I think that theme is a type A personality, to be honest. You know, I, I, I definitely have that personality to do it. But you are 100% correct. And, you know, a lot of the people I teach in real estate and which I firmly believe that a lot of these first responders, they’re meant to do this type of stuff because they already they already have the hardest job in the world.

We as firefighters, we solve people’s problems. When someone calls us, they don’t know how to do something, whether it’s medically related, emergency related. They’re going send help and we don’t know what we need to do till we get there, but we use our resources. We figured out we can’t just what we call parade rest. We can’t just stand there and go, nope, sorry, I don’t know it.

So the most successful people that I teach are in that that world, and they come into real estate and they’re like, this is pretty easy, Brian. I could do this for sure. You know it is. It’s true. It’s so easy. A fireman could do it. That’s my saying. So you’re you’re, you know, obviously. So we got the pilots, we got the fire, you know, fire captain, you worked your way up in that at that line.

Now, when it, you know, you’re a great example of someone who got into real estate, you know, that that got into real estate from other careers that that, you know, that where you, you really kind of and you, you, you didn’t necessarily just jump in and ignore the other careers. You added real estate as a strand to your life and, and as a, as a, as a passive income to your life as opposed to a lot of times you meet investors, you speak to people, or I speak to people in the podcast, and they have kind of made the switch and been like, I wanted to leave the W-2, I wanted to leave everything

behind, and now I’m over here. What I’m hearing from you is actually kind of a story that I don’t get as much, which is, man, I got these other things that I love and I have added, I have been it’s been additive where it is now, like, I’ve added that part of my life and probably created an even greater ability for me to, you know, create income, passive income assets for me.

But I haven’t gone like, I haven’t cut out everything else. Is that accurate? Yeah, 100%. And I think I have a couple of thoughts on this. I think a lot of people. So let’s let’s be very clear. When you become a real estate investor, like full time or a real estate coach, that is a job that’s a full time job, right?

And so I think when people are leaving their other industries, they just don’t they’re not enjoying what they’re doing. And I admire the courage they have to actually acknowledge that and then leave. But for the reality for me is I actually love my job. I, I wake up at 430 to drive into the fire station and I’m like, we’re a bunch of there’s a bunch of, for lack of better terms, just a bunch of kids that go to work.

Much of little boys and girls, right? We’re just like, it’s so much fun. We goof around. I’m blessed to be able to help the community, but I look forward to it. And so, you know, you’re going to hear a lot of people on social media buy one property, quit your job. That’s just not the reality. So either you’re either going to use this as a supplement to your income, which I’m doing, and I’ll explain why in a second.

Or you’re going to leave your job full time to go do this full time. There is no there is no work one hour a week and be rich unless you’re just you got something I want to. If there is, tell me about it. If there is right that you know, if you’re you’re very lucky or with a very rich father and mother, I have that.

That’s basically it. But I think this is really before we dive into like I want to dive into to how you’re doing it next. But I do think it’s important to point out, because so many times on the podcast, in other cast, the narrative is exactly what you said. You know, I left the W-2 behind, you know, thank God I was looking for a way out.

And I think it’s important sometimes to have the other narrative of, hey, man, like this can just be additive. This can just be an amazing way of adding financial security opportunity. And it doesn’t mean that you don’t have other things you’re doing and that you love. And that’s not a narrative we hear a lot. And I think that’s a really cool one that you bring up.

And it’s worth sort of kind of highlighting that. Yeah. Thank you. I think why why I personally think it’s important not to quit your job. I’m literally telling people stay. I don’t care if even if you don’t like your job, don’t quit. Because number one, people will also say you don’t need any money to invest in real estate.

And that is a false statement. Yes, there’s ways to to do it creatively and whatnot, but the reality of it is you’re going to be laying in bed all night, like with their head on the pillow, freaking out that you’re not going to have one issue. So a couple things your W-2 job is going to make you Linda to banks.

They’re going to they always ask for your W-2 and they’re going to go, well Brian does pretty well as a fireman. I want to give him my money to go do projects. So there’s number one. Number two, your one roof leak or a foundation problem away from bankrupting your entire family. So for me, the ability to to fund stuff that comes up because real estate’s not all roses and rainbows, there will be stuff that comes up, and I show people how to mitigate those or kind of stay away from them if you can.

But when they do, like I have a little got a call from a contractor today that there’s a they need to put this little French drain in my yard. It’s going to cost me about $1,000. If I didn’t have another job to pay for that, I would be I would be hurting. So I think it’s important to keep it for that reason.

It’s it’s a risk mitigation, but it’s also makes you have leverage through lending. And then let’s just also say, because I am type A and I bounce around like a squirrel to different things, maybe five years from now, I’m like, you know what? I don’t like real estate anymore. But I have that job that I love to fall back on.

So it’s it’s not a, it’s not a, an or situation. It’s a and or like you can have your cake and eat it too. And that’s the bit that I love because it’s just we don’t I just think that’s really cool to call out because so many times the narrative is it’s always the or, oh, thank God, I’m moving away now.

I’m finally doing this full time. Oh, I could finally quit. And and the truth is you’re you’re a CFI. You’re still teaching people that you’re doing. You’re a fire captain. You’re doing that. And you’ve built your family and your ability to have freedom and to be able to to do, you know, all these things by adding in real estate.

And that’s really cool. But let’s, let’s, let’s go to what you, you know, when you started and what you’re doing right now. And obviously you’re doing it for yourself and you’re teaching it. Where’s your main focus right now. So what main focus was I mean, I’ll be a little selfish with this answer, but I initially got in a real estate because I, I got hired as a young pilot and at 33 I got laid off and I was like in full panic mode.

I was married, had no kids. And truthfully, I’m kind of glad I did that. That lifestyle was very hard. You travel a lot. I know you travel a lot. It’s very hard on your body and your family. And next time you’re in the airport, look at the pilots. They’re walking around with hunch backs and their shirts are untucked.

They look unhealthy so that it was a blessing disguise. I always say getting laid off was the best thing that happened to me. So when I got hired at the fire department at 33, I’m again, I’m very lucky to have a good job, a good pension. But in order to get that, the maximize your full potential with your your retirement, you have to work for 30 years.

Some I’m looking at my future self going, Brian, I don’t think you’re going to last 30 years. Number one, it’s a very physical job. It’s a very mentally strain job. We have a lot of mental health problems because of what we see every day, stuff that no one should ever see. And so I was like, there’s no way I’m going to be able to to to go the whole time.

And then there’s also what I call the overtime trap, because we have the ability to work so much extra overtime. It’s like the shiny object that people that that guys and girls in my department, they, they work so much that they end up having divorces. They’re not around their kids. I wanted a lifestyle where I coach my kids, tackle football team, and I have for five years.

I could still teach Flyme. I can vacation a lot. So I selfishly got into real estate on my own to be able to have a source of income. And then what happened was all my nosy buddies and wanted and my friends wanted. And I joke when I say I love you guys, but they all wanted to learn how to do it.

And it kind of morphed organically into me teaching it as a flight instructor and a son of a teacher. I loved teaching, and probably the most important thing I’ll say here is I. I was not perfect in my younger years. I’m sure me and you’ve had some offline talks about this funny stuff we’ve done in our youth, right?

Well guess what? Most of most young men make dumb financial choices, so I’m trying to capture the younger version of me in their 20s so I can just grab them by whatever and go, guess what? Here are these options, and I’m starting to see a lot of results with that. What am I? 27 year old paramedic just bought his fifth house and he’s 27.

He’s not even married yet. That guy is going to crush it. So it was a little bit about me and my financial future. And then once I started to learn it. Now I love giving back. It doesn’t have to be fireman. I teach all types of people, but it’s so cool to watch. Like, I really am passionate about the mentor thing.

I don’t just use that word lightly like I love. I love to see that action steps being taken, so it’s pretty cool. Now, I’m sorry to interrupt this amazing conversation, but I wanted to make sure you knew that smartphone, the only phone system built for real estate investors, connects to the best in class real estate investing CRM. And because as it’s my show and I am co-founder and chairman of smartphone, I got some great deals for you.

Click the link and take advantage of 5000 minutes free calling with smartphone. The only phone system built for real estate investors. Click and call close. More leads back to the show. Well, so you zeroed in on obviously the rental property, you know, because there’s lots of strategies that they use zeroed in on that. So what was it that first took you into, you know, into zeroing in on that as opposed to say, you know, like a wholesaling deal, you know, wholesaling where you were going to make a 20,000, 30, $30,000 assignment fee, you know, what is it that made you choose that?

And how did you get started in that kind of strategy? Yeah, I think an important conversation about that is, is there is a million ways to do things right. I mean, you mentioned it. You could wholesale you can go buy land and flip it. You could buy. There’s syndications there’s all types of stuff. But what I when I looked at all that stuff, I think it was a little daunting.

Number one, I, I didn’t want to create a full second time job for my or a full time job for myself. So what I looked at is like, what is the most tried and true thing out there? It’s what’s the most, like, least risky? What’s the most boring that I could do with my income? That I don’t have to create all that extra work for me.

And so I had a mentor early on say, you’re going to you’re going to get distracted along the way. He goes get, get very, very hyper specifically good at one thing. And once that one thing works, don’t change it. So what I decided to do is I just figured I didn’t really know this until later, but I mean, the most the most common purchased sold, lived in, rented is a thing in the country is not an apartment complex.

It’s not a duplex. It’s not an RV park. It’s not. It’s a single family dwelling. Right. I think of in terms of exit strategies, as a fireman, I want to be able to get out of the building if I need to. Right. So for me, the most rented thing is a is a three bedroom, two bathroom. The most purchased you could I could sell it to an investor.

I could sell it to a guy coming up with his family. I could refinance it. There’s so many things I could do for it. So what I decide to do is just get really good at that and just scale and my scale just get better each time. So I only do single family d’Orleans. I want that ownership for me.

I don’t partner with people my wife Yvonne and I, that’s we own it outright. So we have the ability to be the puppet master of my portfolio per se. Right. So that’s now let me ask. So because it’s funny, recently I’ve had on a couple people who are involved in the self-storage game, which is a very viable, you know, a really interesting model and strategy.

But but I remember in you and I both know Bree was fantastic. She’s awesome. Yeah. She’s phenomenal. When we were all together in Orlando, I had we had dinner in a group with Bree and I, and we we had some of the most amazing food. We were at that dinner, like, we had the most amazing food and and had a great chat.

But one of the things we said was what she loves about self storage is obviously the, you know, no, no, no, no tenants, no toilets. Right. And the idea of the hassle. So talk to me a little bit, like when you decided to go down that rental side of things, you are immediately engaging in people who potentially are going to cause you problems, whether that is through, you know, occasionally maybe getting the wrong tenant in who does something that you don’t like to the property or just like, like the two in the morning phone call because the toilets overflowing and leaking.

You know, what is what is your kind of thoughts on that? How have you kind of built a structure on that? And what do you say to people who want to get started about that need to have tenants and engage with them? Yeah. So first and foremost, you know, I’d hopefully this didn’t come off like I’m, I’m crapping on anyone else’s business plan.

I think like for Bree, she is hyper specifically focused on storage and I jokes I call it a storage queen. So she’s really good at that. So she’s not veering in her industry either, which kudos to that, right? But in the argument against tenants and toilets, I specifically decided, and it’s working for my community for is to go and do out of state rental properties.

I live in California. I invest in Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Tennessee all over the country. But it sounds risky, but it actually helps me not have to deal with that stuff so systematically. I have built a team of real estate agent, title contractors, the insurance companies, and most importantly, a very, very solid property management team. Okay, so two things out of state allows me to do one thing.

I if my toilet breaks, I can’t drive over there. Brian is I could do a lot of stuff and breaking stuff is what I’m good at. Right. So I’m not going to fix a toilet. I don’t want to and I’m not good at it. So the fact that it’s far enough away from me, I’m not tempted to drive over to it and be like, hey, it’s today’s my day off.

I have football practice an hour. Let me get over there and see what I can do, because that’s not a that’s not a passive business. That’s a full time gig. So by having the right systems and teams in place. Here’s the thing. I don’t care what you own. I don’t care if it’s storage. I don’t care if it’s an R-V park.

Stuff is going to break. You can call it a tenant in a toilet, or you can call it a roll up door and a in a sprinkler system. There’s there’s a there’s always going to be problems in a business. It’s how do you handle and mitigate them. So what we do is when we underwrite the, the the project, we make sure we’re putting money away for those things, vacancies, maintenance items that because it’s not if it’s when I’m very honest with my clients, no matter what you’re in, I don’t care if you have a brand new Tesla, you’re going to have to fix something on it at some point.

It’s just that’s what that’s as inevitable, right? So I have my property management team on the ground that handles the stuff. I usually won’t even know about it until after the fact because I say, miss me with it and till it’s done. So I’ll be skiing or with my kids. And then a month later when I get the bill, it’s like, oh, I had a toilet.

So okay, cool. Thanks tenant, for helping me pay for that. The more you scale and the more properties you get, you can kind of rob Peter to pay Paul and have all that money pooling around to fix stuff. So I’ve never fixed toilet in my life. I’ve never done drywall in my life. Yes, it happens and it will continue to happen.

But you know, I guess the last thing I’ll say to this is there’s going to be stuff that comes up. But guess what? Real estate wins in multiple ways. It wins with the cash flow, the tax benefits, the principal pay down and the appreciation. So at any given time back to being a pilot and a fireman, I’m winning.

I call it four pillars. If one of my pillars gets knocked down, I could stand up again because I’m having something happen. So that’s my perspective on it. Fantastic. And and let me ask, you know, because and this is particularly, you know, given that you teach people this and and I love the idea like you mentioned, you’ve got a one of your EMT buddies just bought his fifth house, I think.

So I think there’s a perception sometimes that buy and hold for want of a better term is, is the you have to get there, right. Like there’s this almost this assumption that the step ladder of investing is you start with wholesaling and then maybe you do a fixing flip. And if that goes well, maybe you then identify the properties to buy and hold.

It’s almost it feels like a ladder sometimes. Of course it’s not. Of course it’s nonsense, but it does feel like a ladder sometimes. And a lot of coaches now, maybe it’s because they’re wholesaling. Coaches kind of teach it like that. If you’ve got someone in your community and in your program, you know, is it suitable for people who aren’t in, you know, art in real estate at all?

Is there some element of knowledge or and if someone already is a wholesaler, are they going to also be able to benefit as well? Who who kind of fits into how your your community teaches. Yeah. So I don’t I can’t speak a ton about wholesaling, but the one thing that scares me about it, and this is why if you’re going to wholesale, I’d recommend even within our community, there’s some really great wholesale coaches like make sure you’re learning from them.

But the the one thing that scares me about wholesaling is you. Once you lock up that one deal and then you get paid, that’s it. You got to start working on the next one. So you’re jumping from payday to payday and you’re kind of this. So talk about not being able to sleep at night. That scares me. Right.

So, so for me, yeah, it’s a it’s a natural progression for them to learn that. But the rentals are going to pay you forever, right? And here’s a perfect example. I bought a rental property four years ago. It you know, I came up with a down payment for it. I in four years and four years later it appreciates so much.

It got paid down so much. I just refined it packs free on my refinance to to buy my first Airbnb. So there’s no way I could have saved the money for that. It would have been impossible without jeopardizing my family life and working an extra job, so that that rental became the catalyst to buy me my next one and next one and next one.

So there’s just there’s just different ways to do it. So I teach a couple things. Number one most important, again we talked about don’t quit your job. Utilize the money that you’re saving and your job. I had an I actually liquidated my old 401 from my pilot days to be able to to take that money and start buying properties with it.

But one of the methods that everyone listening to this, they’re probably have heard of the beer method. Right. The by rehab refinance repeat again. It’s I’m not going to tell you you don’t have to have any money. You do. But it’s a lot less than you would imagine. And if you know the right process, like I’m buying four properties at a time using private money, using hard money, and at the end game, these properties may cost me five grand or ten or maybe nothing.

So it’s pretty cool. You just have to understand you’re not just going to throw a dart at a property and it’s going to work. You really have to understand how to to analyze it. And that’s that’s a very key. Fantastic. Now when you got into obviously you’ve got a background, you said you’re I think you’re the son of teachers or at least a teacher.

You, you are, you’re a CFI. So, so teaching is in your blood. What may you know, when did you take the leap from, you know, doing this to you said your buddies kind of wanted to find out how can they do it, you know, what point did you decide to formalize it into a like an actual not just I’m helping my buddies and I’m teaching my buddies, but I actually am built a very valuable training course and community and a way that people can engage, learn and continue to benefit, be held accountable and work within the community.

Well, when did you make the decision? What drove it to you to that decision? And, and and, you know, was there I guess, was there any I don’t want to say hesitation because that’s not the right word. But, you know, like, did you worry that that would take too much focus versus other parts of your life versus your own real estate investing business?

Absolutely. I mean, I think the first sign that I knew I wanted to do it was when I did have a couple of friends reach out and I was I was teaching them. But for me, I need checklists in my life, I need SOPs. I literally like most entrepreneurs, they have what I call the squirrel brain where like they like, oh, squirrel like, you know.

So for me, I as I was going scaling my portfolio, I was organizing things for myself. So I was organizing literally a pre pre-approval checklist. And like all this type of stuff that just like a pilot has a checklist. So I was, I was, I was utilizing that stuff and I was like, man, this is kind of cool.

And the very first time that I introduced the stuff to my friends and one of them bought one, I’m like, that’s pretty cool. And then what what happened was, and these people weren’t taking advantage of me, they just they wanted to learn it. And so I was starting to do it a lot in, in this is where when you have a very amazing partner wife in your life, that they kind of sometimes tell you something and you’re like, oh, that makes sense.

So I was spending so much time away from the family teaching, and I was doing it for free. And she goes, Brian, I love you, buddy. But you know, you’re taking all this time to do it. You’ve created this system. You’ve spent tons of money through coaches. I still pay a lot of money for coaches, and I think it’s important you need to start charging for this.

And I was like, okay, I’m like, but I had that imposter syndrome. Like, I don’t think I’m qualified. I don’t think, you know, I knew what I had to teach was worthwhile. But then I just said, you know what? I’m going to do it. And then what I noticed is the community started growing like organically, very quickly because people would get in there, they’d get a win.

They would tell a friend and I’m like, you know, maybe I am meant to do this. And then what I did is I actually fell in love with the actual process, to the point where I love this so much that Jordan and I is it it’s a Thursday at 11:00. My time and me and you were geeking out on real estate because I love it.

I love connecting, and I just it was cool to see those early wins. And once I once I saw those wins for some of some of my clients, I’m like, I have to do this. I just have to, you know, and I continue building my portfolio alongside them. So I’m in the trenches. So it’s helping me and my family.

It’s helping them. And it’s like, okay, I’m going to do this for as long as Brian can and then I’ll move on if I need to. But I think it’s I love it so much fun. So you got you got a really interesting balance. I think you’ve got a better balance, or at least certainly it appears that way.

But you’ve got a better balance in than a lot of people I speak to in this space who are growing, you know, like people who are obsessively growing their coaching business or, you know, and kind of focused on that or obsessively trying to build their real estate business or upset, you know, it’s very tunnel vision. A lot of people and, and some people say that’s what you need as an entrepreneur.

I actually never have believed that because I have everything I do and I do a lot, I do woodworking, I do, I’m learning to fly. I like all these things, enrich my life and make me better at every bit of it. Like and I. So that tunnel vision has never infected me. But you, I think, are a great example of how having that slightly broader look in those multiple strands of what you’re doing actually gives you a balance and an ability, you know, an ability either to have the perspective, but also to to not be burnt out on anyone either, because sometimes I will look at, you know, real estate investors who are like, do

and you, they’re hanging like the pilots you talked about. Right. Like they’re hanging like that or, or the coaches who are stressing out of this and they’re hanging like that, I think. Do you or do you think that am I projecting too much on that, or do you feel like that having those multiple strands gives you a certain balance that maybe some, you know, that other people could probably benefit from?

Yeah. So I, I’m glad you asked that because that’s been a battle mentally for me recently because I have the opportunity to take this to different levels. And when I was in Orlando with you, I was sitting in the room and I’m surrounded by these amazing people, these I mean, like you being one of them. It’s like it’s very, very inspiring to some of the things.

But the common theme that I started to notice, and I actually had a one on one with someone and they, they said something which was very complimentary to me, but like kind of like brought me back to earth a little bit. They said, Brian, I would trade places with you right now. And I was like, hey, what do you mean by that?

This person’s making multiple millions of dollars. But what the reason I say that is because they they’re like, we have 50 employees were responsible to to pay these people and their kids food that goes on their table is in our hands. And if we’re not heads down just hammering the next and best thing like we’re jeopardizing our lives or jeopardizing enough families.

So for me, a very, very, very unique part about my program and what I want to accomplish is that I’m actually the one teaching you when you get on a call in my community, I’m it’s Brian, like, I’m there. You have my cell phone number. It’s a very small community in less than 150 people. It’s manageable for me, but I don’t have 50 sales call people I don’t, I’m, I emit and I it’s designed that way for a purpose because I’ve been in communities where I’ve been the, the 100th, on the 100th page of a zoom call on this little tiny dot up in the corner up there.

Right. And I have a question about something and I don’t I feel stupid asking or I have to wait three weeks for the next group call. I took all the good and the bad out of all the programs that ever been in. And I said, what did what was missing piece for Brian. And so I appreciate it when someone said that.

So I mean, I, I would be lying if I said in the past two years, I haven’t thought I wanted to walk away from the fire department because of that. And it was like this epiphany moment when I was in Orlando with you, and I was like, why Brian, I love my job. Why can’t I do this too?

And just keep it at a level that’s manageable for me? And I’m I’m in charge now, so if I don’t want to take on more clients and get busier, I don’t have to. I you know, obviously the money portion is enticing, but I make a good living and I have a good time with my family. So it was a pretty cool moment for me because I was I most of us will live.

You don’t say like I’m jealous of that person doing that, but guess what? Sometimes the grass is not always greener. It’s the the grass is green where you water it. Right? And so it’s just it it’s a balance for me and my students I think are benefiting from that smaller community. So yeah, I mean, as someone who has 60 employees, I could tell you that I, you know, I mean, now thankfully we’ve, you know, like we’ve always been focused on having the best life for all of us, including ourselves now.

But there’s no question that when you build, if you decide to go down a route like that, your level of responsibility extends a long, long way to the to them and their families and their parents and their kids and the and the cousins ill and needs it, you know, that needs a surgery and and and all that. And so, you know, that’s a that’s an inevitable byproduct of scaling to that level, which not everybody is ever going to want.

But the cool thing is, I mean, this is a compliment to you. You’re very good at what you do. On the flip side, you are providing an amazing opportunity for the people that work for you and their families and stuff. So there’s a little bit of both, right? Like by by me keeping it small. It’s it’s it’s a little bit better for Brian, but by you continuing to grow your business, you’re providing amazing jobs and opportunities for people.

So like I look up to you for that, right? I mean, it’s a win on either side. It just depends on how you want to do it. That’s very true. Well, listen, I I’ve loved this. I really enjoyed getting to know you in Orlando. We it was, it was a particular pleasure to to be able to do that.

That’s one of the reasons I fly back and forth so often is because there’s no substitute to being in the room and actually talking to people. You can meet people on a zoom call, but but when you actually sit down and have dinner or shake their hand and, and be there, that, that that’s a completely different animal. And I really enjoyed meeting you in Orlando.

Let’s close this episode out. By I mean, I know you potentially you know, you’re keeping your community relatively small, but how can people find you community? How can people find you? And how can people you know benefit from what you can, can show them how to do? Yeah. So before I give that information, I want to say one more thing because I think it’s relative to people, your listeners, my listeners.

Everyone always asks me about how, how and why I invest in out of state rental properties. And it’s it seems daunting and scary. But literally, I’m talking to one of the best tech guys in the world with which is Jordan Fleming, right? And so he what what he’s created and what what is out there tech wise. It makes the world much smaller, like we’re talking from across the world.

So I’m really looking forward to using your AI agent for my property management stuff like I cannot wait. So I appreciate you putting that stuff together. That’s a big part of what makes my business successful is the technology. And so anyway, I appreciate that. Keep crushing it. But for those who want to get into my space in my orbit, I love to work with you.

I do one on ones with people and then we do group calls. I have a whole school community. It’s this on school. It’s the rental property playbook that’s free but the best way. And I was laugh when I say this, but the best way is if you can endure a minute of my dumb social media, it’s all the socials.

It’s at Mr. Waters, Brian Waters, and I want you to slide into my DMs. And what I’m going to do is I had to say it just because I thought I’d be funny. But if you send me a message and just say, hey, I met you or heard from you on Jordan’s podcast, it will be me. It’s not an AI version of me.

I will answer the text. I pride myself on that communication. I don’t care if you need have any questions about real estate, I love it, so that’s the best way. So thank you so much Jordan. You rock man. I can’t wait to see it. Hopefully in Nashville this coming year I will be there and let’s break some bread together and thank you.

Appreciate it. Absolutely. Well Brian, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Everybody listening. I will make sure that my team will make sure that all the links that Brian mentioned are posted in the descriptions and I absolutely, you know, go, go check it out. Genuine guy, genuinely interesting guy and doing phenomenal work. So Brian, thank you so much for joining me today and have a fantastic rest of your day.

You too sir. Thank you. Thanks for listening to another amazing episode of That Real Estate Tech Guy. Head over to that real estate tech guy. Com to check out all episodes and get special discounts on tons of awesome real estate technology platforms.