Building a 2 Million Dollar Portfolio and TikTok Celebrity Status by Age 24 with Daniel Iles

My guest today is the legitimate social media celebrity, Daniel Iles! Daniel is a TikTok and Youtube creator who bought a staggering $1,000,000 in real estate during his first year of investing while only putting $23,000 down. He did this by leveraging credit to invest, and in the process, he accumulated almost 1M travel points, enabling him to see the world. His goal now is to teach others absolutely everything they need to know to live a life free of financial struggles.

We start the episode with Daniel sharing his background story and how he started his career as an entrepreneur. After he graduated from university with his degrees in Accounting and Business Administration, he knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur. As he was trying to learn as much as he could about entrepreneurship, he didn’t have a real focus on intentionally getting into real estate. He started by reading a bunch of books because he didn't have any experience in real estate prior to that, and he didn't know anyone in the field. So, he basically had to start from scratch, just using what he learned through books and podcasts.

We then move on to talk about Daniel’s career in social media and how real estate has allowed him to leave his 9-5 job to focus on his career as a social media creator. When he first started, he simply couldn't devote enough time to content creation. It wasn't until he was able to leave his 9-5 accounting job, thanks to the cash flow he was receiving from his rental properties, that he could really put a solid effort into social media and really learn what works in the social media world. Daniel shares that this was a two-year journey where he faced a lot of failures and difficult experiences trying to improve himself, and then all of a sudden, this last November, he was able to leave his accounting job and from there it's just been a snowball effect, allowing him to rapidly grow.

Our next topic is why and how Daniel got into real estate. He was 22 when he bought his first duplex with an FHA loan, and what really got him into it was the understanding that he didn't need most of what many people think you need to start in real estate: a long employment history, a huge income, and a lot of money saved up, all of which he didn't have because he had just gotten out of college. He was able to find strategies that allowed him to invest in real estate just by accumulating knowledge from other real estate investors. So, his first property ended up being an FHA-backed property, FHA insured, which means he was able to get in the property with 3.5% down.

Daniel then shares with us some of his creative financing options when it comes to buying properties. He used more flexible lenders, private lenders, credit unions to purchase his other properties with $0 down. He was still right out of college, he still didn't have much money, but he was saving a lot more because his rentals were covering his monthly living expenses. He would find flexible lenders and negotiate the purchase price down, and he would be able to buy it using that spread between the purchase price and what the property is actually worth as his down payment, rather than having to pay that himself. He did do some renovations on those properties and he was able to increase the value even more. Then he could go about selling the property or refinancing them to be able to get all that money out and then some.

Eventually, we talk about Daniel’s goals when he first got started in real estate versus his goals now. When he first started out, he had the goal to buy tons of rental properties so he would just be able to sit back and collect the profits. But once he started buying into them, he realized that his mindset at the time was really limited by what he knew about real estate. Once he actually started doing it, his goals shifted. He realized that he could get paid large sums of potentially tax-free money just from buying a property with no money down, and then somehow liquidating that equity. Almost like a wholesale, but he is the only person involved in the transaction. This was a much better option because he is able to keep the asset in many of the cases.

Lastly, we talk about the scope of what Daniel has done so far. He did have an aggressive outlook on what he wanted to do in real estate and he’s been able to accumulate quite an impressive portfolio in a short amount of time, at a pretty young age. He was 23 years old when he bought his second property, and at that point, he had about half a million dollars in total assets. Right now, he is at 1.4 million dollars and is looking at another acquisition. So basically, he went from half a million dollars in real estate to upwards of 2 million, in just two years and at the age of 24.

Don’t miss this episode of the Just Start Real Estate Podcast, with an amazing young real-estate investor Daniel Iles, who was able to generate incredible results by educating himself, really going for it, and putting himself out there!

Notable Quotes:

“So much wealth is created in real estate, it just seemed like it's something that I had to give a solid try to.”

Daniel Iles

“I hope it encourages some of the newer real estate investors, who are potentially listening, to understand that you really can change your life extremely quickly with real estate. It really is that powerful.”

Daniel Iles

“Having an actual plan that has a conservative component to it or that doesn't just wreck you if you don't succeed immediately, is really, really smart.”

Mike Simmons

“If I didn't at least give it my best shot, it would be something that I continue to regret for years on. Because I knew that accounting wasn't my destiny. I knew that it wasn't my end goal in life to be an accountant.”

Daniel Iles

“I think that there are many times where I came across this where I wasn't ready to go all in. I wasn't ready to spend a little bit of money. I wasn't ready to invest in something that I knew could improve me, and that's really what ended up holding me back.”

Daniel Iles

“I just took everything a lot more seriously, once I made that investment. There's like a mental switch.”

Daniel Iles

“If you're creating video or audio content of any kind, I think the lesson here is to up your game a little and take it seriously.”

Mike Simmons

“Whether you're a realtor, whether you're a rental property manager, whether you're just a construction contractor, it is only going to benefit you if you want to put yourself out there.”

Daniel Iles

“I was able to find strategies that allowed me to invest in real estate, just by accumulating knowledge from other real estate investors.”

Daniel Iles

“It's all about just being creative in general, being someone who just won't take no for an answer or won't accept not getting to where they want to go.”

Mike Simmons

“I think the books about mindset had the biggest impact on me because I thought about giving up many times.”

Daniel Iles

“I still definitely believe in real estate as a vehicle of investment because you can buy a property and instantly increase your net worth by $20,000, $30,000, or $40,000.”

Daniel Iles

“I spent a number of years thinking about real estate, planning and thinking that it's too hard and I really have to take my time. I wasted time completely, and I think a lot of people spend their life wasting time.”