Moving Forward is also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Lane Kawaoka is a project engineer and real estate entrepreneur who focuses creating passive income streams. Today, Lane will share how you can move forward with passive income, property, and podcasts.
Successes at a glance:
City project engineer.
Real estate entrepreneur, investor:
Focusing on residential and multi-family unit real properties.
Podcast:
Simple Passive Cash Flow (and sings the opening theme!).
Breaks real estate down to simple, digestible concepts that translate into actionable steps.
Lane’s story:
Lane started out with the all-too familiar “linear path” of go to school, study hard, get a good job and be a “good boy or girl.” Lane followed this blueprint towards his first job as a construction engineer. Shortly after, he saved up enough to buy a primary residence. It was at that point that Lane decided to turn this property into a cash flow generator by renting it out. Since Lane was traveling a lot, he decided to rent out his home for $2200 which covered his $1600 mortgage and provided extra cash on top of that. For a young 20-year old this was “nice beer money.” What was the impetus for this? Dumb luck. It was a combination of his travel-intensive job combined with having purchased this first home that led Lane to discover real estate as an avenue to passive income. Despite his family’s warning of “tenants, termites, and toilets,” Lane went thru with it since the math worked out in his favor. After that first experience, Lane knew he was onto something. He decided he could scale this and increase his income even further. From there, Lane started devouring as much information as he could from podcasts and books, learning the ins and outs of real estate. This later led him to discover his big why.
Lane’s big why:
Lane’s big why is to get people out of the stock market and Wall Street dogma, which he sees as a “roller coaster,” and into building wealth thru main street investments, including real estate. Lane started out as a content consumer and today, he is creating content thru his website and his podcast to educate those who want to get into real estate.
Biggest challenge today:
There are a lot of people who are eager but don’t want to take the next step. They are “ostriching their head in the sand” and just staying with their current investments. Too many people are relying on their 401ks to take care of them “later on” when in fact many don’t realize that 401ks were a product created in the 80s and 90s that weren’t popular before then. As a result, many blindly follow their financial advisors and don’t take enough proactive steps to build or manage their wealth.
Moving forward past that challenge:
Lane has taken his experiences and created an online learning hub and podcast to educate and inform individuals on how to get started in real estate investing. Although he has very robust content, Lane is continually tweaking and updating to make sure the information is clear and concise.
Knowledge bursts:
Lane’s simple cash flow rule for real estate (renting out a property):
Use the 50% rule (your rental income should be at least 50% over your mortgage). Whatever your rental income is, it has to cover:
10% for maintenance
10% for capital expenditures
10% for property management
5-10% for vacancies or other “oopsies”
Best tip for starting out with passive income in 2018:
Read a couple books:
The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller: Lane recommends this as an introduction to the fundamentals.
Start doing and take action!
Follow the 10-20-70 rule:
10% read about it.
20% talk to be people who are doing it.
70% do it.
Advice to someone who has had a bad experience with renting out a condo or other real estate:
Use a professional property management service (don’t do it yourself): if you don’t have enough money to pay them, then the numbers are wrong. Go back to Lane’s 50% rule and don’t execute until the numbers make sense.
Use referrals and recommendations from others who have had good experiences.
You can also look at platforms like biggerpockets.com.
And of course, Lane’s hub at simplepassivecashflow.com (Lane has also created a Facebook group to help support others who are getting into real estate investing).
How Lane is moving forward today:
Lane is working on letting go of the “shiny object syndrome” of doing one thing, then being attracted to another project or endeavor that catches his interest. Instead, he’s going to figure out that one thing he needs to do today to move forward.
A good book on this is The One Thing, also by Gary Keller.
Support the Podcast:
The Corporate Cliches Adult Coloring Book: makes the perfect stocking stuffer or white elephant gift.
Try out Audible (affiliate link).
Try out Amazon Prime (affiliate link).
Who is Lane in five years?:
Lane will be growing the unit count and getting more into syndications, where you work with a group of investors on larger scale properties. He eventually wants to move away from the single-family homes and onto the next level. This is all in line with Lane’s big why of focusing on building passive cash flow streams and helping others do the same.
Parting wisdom:
“Don’t be an ask-hole. A lot of people will do networking the wrong way. They call up people … and hit them with the questions: take, take, take information. It’s the total wrong way of doing things because that’s what everybody does. If you want something different and you want somebody to help you, you’ve got to help them first because inherently they don’t need your help. You’re the one who needs to add value first.”
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