From Immigrant Hustler to Real Estate Titan: Rod Khleif’s Psychology of Building & Rebuilding Empires

 

From Immigrant Hustler to Real Estate Titan: Rod Khleif’s Psychology of Building & Rebuilding Empires

 

Guest: From wearing hand-me-downs to owning thousands of doors, Rod Khleif’s real estate journey is one of epic upswings and gut-wrenching falls. He immigrated to the US at 6, faced childhood poverty, and built a real estate empire, only to lose millions in the 2008 crash. But Rod bounced back, fueled by an unshakeable mindset and a deep understanding of psychology’s role in success. Today, he’s a multi-millionaire, podcast host, and mentor, sharing his hard-won wisdom to help others avoid his pitfalls and achieve their own real estate dreams.

 

Big Idea: Real estate success isn’t just about brick and mortar; it’s about mastering the mental game. In this episode, Rod reveals the powerful mindset strategies that helped him climb back from rock bottom, and how anyone can leverage psychology to overcome fear, limiting beliefs, and market downturns. He emphasizes goal setting, decisive action, and resilience as the cornerstones of building and rebuilding real estate empires.

 

 

    

Dan Breslin: All right Rod Khleif. Welcome back to the REI Diamond Show. How you doing today?

Rod Khleif: Good buddy. It’s great to see you again man. And It’s so cool to know that you’re right up the street. But what’s really cool, is we’re both wearing the same freaking watch which you know [crosstalk]. We both have these gorgeous Hublot Big Bang watches on. Our favorite brand. And so that was really crazy. It’s the first time that’s ever happened to me. So, very cool. Well it’s great to see you man. Thanks for having me back.

Dan: Yeah we are. Hey you too. So if listeners want to go check out the original episode. I want to say this was in 2021 if I’m not mistaken. But the title was “Making them losing 50 million bucks with Rod Khleif”. And I hate to brand you that, the money-losing guy. Because that’s not who you are and you recover from that. But why don’t you give any listeners who may not have caught that original episode, Rod. Give them a brief rundown and what that looks like, and then how your business is grown today.

Rod: Sure. Well, first of all it sucked, okay. It was no fun at all. Let me say that. But let me back up a little bit down real quick and just give a brief history on me. So, I’m an immigrant. I was born in the Netherlands, wooden shoes and windmills. Immigrated when I was 6, with my brother Albert and My mother’s mancha[?]. Ended up in Denver Colorado where we lived for 30 years. Struggled initially. I wore hand-me-down clothes from the Goodwill and the Salvation Army. We eat expired food, believe it or not. They had a store that sold expired food, drank powdered milk with our cereal in the morning. I mean really struggled.

But my mom had an incredible work ethic. So she babysat kids so we would have enough money to eat. And with her babysitting money, she was a bit of an entrepreneur and she’s the reason I got into real estate. Because she used that babysitting money and bought the house across the street from us when I was about 14, for 30 grand. Then when I was 17, she told me she’d made $20,000 in her sleep, it gone up in value. I said, “What? You made 20…”, this is when 20 Grand was a lot of money, okay? And I said, “You met 20 grand and you didn’t do anything?”. Forget College, I’m getting into real estate.

 

This Episode of The REI Diamonds Show is Sponsored by the Deal Machine. This Software Enables Real Estate Investors to Develop a Reliable & Low Cost Source of Off Market Deals. For a Limited Time, You Get Free Access at http://REIDealMachine.com/

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://RodKhleif.com/

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Rod Khleif & I Discuss How to:

  • Discover how a single, resolute decision can propel you from observer to active investor.
  • Learn to navigate the fear of the unknown and take that crucial first step in the dark.
  • Reframe fear as an illusion and leverage it for action and a positive mindset.
  • Identify and crush the limiting beliefs holding you back from unleashing your full potential.

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 236 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

Dani Beit-or: Leveraging Repetition and Reinforcement in Real Estate Investments

 

Dani Beit-or: Leveraging Repetition and Reinforcement in Real Estate Investments

 

Guest: Dani is a 20-year real estate investing veteran with extensive experience in the US market. He has collaborated on nearly 5,000 transactions since 2004 and has helped hundreds of investors cultivate robust property portfolios across a variety of metropolitan areas. Dani’s investment strategies have been refined from his experience during the 2008 market downturn, and he now leverages his expertise to help investors at all levels, from novices to seasoned professionals, optimize their real estate investments.

 

Big Idea: Dani Beit-or shares his 20+ years of experience as a real estate investor. He discusses the need to have each property standalone and pay its own expenses, the power of repetition and reinforcement and the kindness of those in the real estate industry in helping one another. Additionally, Dani explains how he uses his real estate investments as a 401K. This podcast is an invaluable source of advice for anyone looking to venture into real estate investing.

 

 

    

Dan: Cool. So I’m here in Chicago, listeners know I’m back from Florida, spent the winter there. It was pretty cool. I wish I was still there because it’s not quite done being winter in Chicago yet. But one of the things most of the listeners probably know, I think we were talking about before the show started, so I buy, sell. Buy, fixi and sell, I own rentals, and I do that in Philadelphia, originally. I moved to Chicago in 2015, so I could be near my daughter who was heading into late middle school at the time. So I was like, oh, it’s now or never. She’s back in Philly now at college. I’m still in Chicago. That’s how I ended up in Chicago. And then I met someone who we opened up the Atlanta market and we did a lot around the country.

And I say all that as kind of a setup, Dani. I never would’ve probably left my backyard in Philadelphia because flipping houses, making money. I know the market, the brand, people know me, they’re bringing me deals, my contractors are there, my money partners are there. And I was afraid that when I left, the whole thing would crumble when we would go away now. And I was okay with that if that happened when I got to Chicago, but grace of God, the business grew and things continued in all three areas. So that was my catalyst for looking around the United States at other real estate markets. And we’re now eight years later and I feel like the thing that’s most exciting to me right now is market selection and paying attention to the nuances of this huge variety of markets throughout the United States.

I guess I need the challenge of having to underwrite new markets. But I think it was really cool because I was able to see a market like Atlanta. Seeing like, let’s say 8% to 10% or 12% appreciation for several years. And then a market like Chicago, which maybe it had 3% or 4% and probably a 10% bump during COVID or something like that and there’s opportunities in each of those markets. But I would imagine for buy and hold investors, and I’ll allow you to encapsulate your business model here in a moment, but for buy and hold investors, I’m getting in getting out in a 12-month period or less. So it doesn’t matter how much the appreciation is unless it’s significantly negative one year. But to a buy-and-hold passive investor probably has another career or has a lot of rental properties. That appreciation component’s going to significantly drive or hinder the total IRR. So with that setup, I’ll pass it to allow you to describe what you do in the evolution of your business model.

 

This Episode is Also Sponsored by the Lending Home. Lending Home Offers Reliable & Low Cost Fix & Flip Loans with Interest Rates as Low as 9.25%.  Buy & Hold Loans Offered Even Lower.  Get a FREE IPad when you Close Your First Deal by Registering Now at  http://REILineOfCredit.com

 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://SimplyDoIt.net/

 

For Access to Real Estate Deals You Can Buy & Sell for Profit:

https://AccessOffMarketDeals.com/podcast/

 

Dani & I Discuss:

  • Making each property standalone and pay its own expenses

  • The power of repetition and reinforcement

  • Using real estate investments as a 401K

  • Selecting the Best Markets to Invest-No Matter Where You Live

    

Relevant Episodes: (There are 216 Content Packed Interviews in Total)

 

The transcript of this episode can be found here.
Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.