Growing Your Wealth Through Real Estate With Dr. Nate Lambert

Dr. Nate Lambert is a real estate investor, a world traveler, 45 countries, and counting. He’s a psychology Ph.D., the father of five boys, a philanthropist, and an international speaker. He flips roughly 20 houses annually and has over 50 rental properties, numbers that continue to grow every year, he has helped more than 180 people find the right real estate deals in 46 states. His goal is to achieve over $100,000 per month in passive income and to help thousands of people become real estate millionaires.

Dr. Nate Lambert is also the author of the Amazon bestseller book, Active Life Passive Income.

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Growing Your Wealth Through Real Estate With Dr. Nate Lambert

Brett:

I’m excited about our next guest. He is a real estate investor, a world traveler, 45 countries, and counting. He’s a psychology Ph.D., the father of five boys, a philanthropist, and an international speaker. He flips roughly 20 houses annually and has over 50 rental properties, numbers that continue to grow every year, he has helped more than 180 people find the right real estate deals in 46 states. His goal is to achieve over $100,000 per month in passive income and to help thousands of people become real estate millionaires, including you. Please welcome to the show with me, Dr. Nate Lambert. How are you today?

Dr. Nate:

Hey, I’m doing great, so good to be with you.

Brett:

I’m excited to get to know a little bit more about your story and your focus. We are going to be talking about pay 66% less taxes with Dr. Nate Lambert. Dr. Nate is out of the great state of Utah. And he’s got some secrets to share with us today. But before we go there Nate, would you help me and our listeners get to know you better by telling a little bit more about your story and your current focus?

Dr. Nate:

Yeah, you bet. So I was a board psychology professor. I was just all by myself writing these research papers that nobody really reads or cares about. I did really well. In fact, I was traveling around the world presenting my research, had a lot of publications, but I just wanted something more, I read a book on real estate investing. And I just said, this is what I want to do. So I took the risk, I just quit my job as a professor and decided and just went all in. And it was scary. At first, I didn’t make a ton of money. But finally found the right group and the right program. And, boy, it really took off. And you know, as you heard, now I’m traveling around the world with my family in 2019, we spent three months on a family vacation, visited 14 countries. So you know, it’s just been for me, it’s all about financial freedom, the chance to do what you want when you want, where you want with whom you want for how long you want. So that’s what I love about real estate investing.

Brett:

Love it. Great, great introduction, and I love that you have five boys. I also have five kids, it’s just a little bit of the opposite. It’s four daughters and one baby boy. And so we just got back from a whole nine days of traveling. And that was a lot. So three months. That sounds like an adventure and 14 countries. Wow, you guys are incredible. How old your boys?

Dr. Nate:

My boys range from two to 15.

Brett:

So it’s pretty fun. Excellent. Well, let’s dive right in. Well, before we dive into the show, though, I want to take one other step back I believe, Dr. Nate that we’ve been all been given certain gifts in this life. And you know, some people call these superpowers, some people call them strengths. I believe in their God-given gifts, these gifts have been given to us to be a blessing and help to others. So I’m curious, maybe go back to the university days or the high school days, and kind of maybe identify one or two of the gifts that you believe you were given? And how does that help how you help and bless people today?

Dr. Nate:

I love people. I just love connecting in and listening and getting to know people. I feel like I’ve ultimately become a collaborator. And I think that helped me as a professor to write papers together and create Win-Win situations. And then I use the same skills that I’ve owned as a professor in my real estate business. Because you know, in real estate, it’s all about collaborating. You don’t have to do this by yourself. In fact, I think it kind of sucks to do but do it by yourself. It’s way better. To connect with other people. You can bring money partners, you can bring contracts to me, literally I tried to have the team do almost everything for me. means that I can go and do the fun things in life that I want to do and not have to be doing all the grunt work, that’s just not a lot of fun. So it’s all about collaborating with partners. And you can do it without using any of your own money or even using your own credit.

Brett:

Beautiful. So, love people connect with others, getting to know people, collaborating, working on teams, working together, the journey is better together than by yourself. Is that a fair summary, Dr. Nate?

Dr. Nate:

Yes, a great summary.

Brett:

Excellent. I can definitely relate with that, you want to make sure that the journey is gonna be fun, not only for yourself and your partners but your family to and bringing everyone along for the journey. Otherwise, you might get to that destination, look around. There’s not a lot of people that you really care about that are with you, or people that you’ve helped. So make sure that you’re doing it together as a team, right team sport here and real estate, for sure. So now let’s focus on the subject at hand, which is the big secret here, how to pay 66% less in taxes? So go, what’s the biggest secret there, Dr. Nate Lambert?

Dr. Nate:

Well, I’ve done a lot of different tax-saving tools. And you know, making close to six sounds very close to seven figures a year. So that’s a lot of money that the government could be taking from me. And I’m like, I would much rather have that to buy more properties than pay to the government. So I’ve tried a lot of different things, retirement accounts, I mean, you can donate as you can get a write-off as big as like 135,000. Through retirement accounts, I’ve done some great, creative stuff like that, but my favorite, and paying my kids you can get, get 10,000 or so write-offs for paying your kids. I mean, there are so many great ways to do it. But my favorite, best tip that I have for taxes is the accelerated bonus depreciation that the Republican Congress passed a few years ago. And what this does, so let’s just say you bought a house for 400,000, you could and then you rent it out. So it has to be, you have to buy it and have it rented out or at least advertised in that year that you want to write it off. So you buy a house for 400,000. And then you can get 10 years’ worth of depreciation all at once. So usually get 27 and a half years, with this bonus depreciation, you can get 10 of that in the first year. I mean, so down the road, essentially, you’re not getting more tax benefit, but you’re just getting it getting your cash upfront, which I think is super powerful. So let’s just say you buy a house for 100,000, or for 400,000. The tax write-off on that it’s usually around 25%. So I could get a $100,000 tax write-off for buying that $400,000 property. So I already wanted to buy a rental. I mean, it’s in my plan, now I can just get huge tax write-offs for buying those rental properties. And so, it works great. You buy like nine of those, and then now you’ve written off 900 grand, right? I mean, there’s just and here’s the magic of it, too. Here’s one of the things that I love the best is that you can have your cake and eat it too. Because so many entrepreneurs, write everything off and then on their taxes, they can’t qualify for any loans because they’re not showing any income. What I love about this accelerated depreciation strategy is you know, like we just moved into our dream house. About a year ago, I couldn’t have qualified for that if I had written everything off. But because I did this, I still showed some income. But then essentially what the accelerated depreciation lets you write it off, but then for lenders, you get a counted back toward your income. And so so you have your cake and eat it too.

Brett:

That’s amazing. The cost segregation accelerated depreciation for our listeners. As a reminder, depreciation is one of the number one reasons to own investments in real estate because can offset the cash flow that’s coming in and essentially correct try to create zero tax years. And so what Dr. Nate Lamberts’ referring to is accelerating the timeframes of which he typically takes it multifamily 27 and a half years commercial 39 and then when you do that, you can get a huge write-off but I do love the way you added that piece the cake and eat it too. Because you’re right as business owners, entrepreneurs, if we’re writing a bunch of stuff off, doesn’t look great on a balance sheet. The bank doesn’t necessarily they’re not gonna they’re gonna hold that against you, right because your income is going to be your income. But what we’re saying here, Dr. Nate Lambert, if I’m hearing you correctly is no they allow you to use it to write it off but they allow you to put the back end as if you made it. Is that a fair summary?

Dr. Nate:

That’s exactly right.

Brett:

Beautiful. I love that. And those are set to expire in 2025. And or at least the bonus depreciation side of it. So hopefully, Congress and the Senate, and the Biden administration, it continues it. But what’s your outlook on that? Because I know they’re talking about taking away the stepped-up basis, and maybe even eliminating or limiting the 1031 exchange. Any thoughts on that?

Dr. Nate:

No one has a crystal ball. You never know what the administrations can do. I’m just crossing my fingers that they don’t pull too many things away. But the nice thing is listening to shows like this and finding out smart entrepreneurs can always find creative loopholes, to write things off. So you know, if they do some of those things, I’m seeking to find other strategies.

Growing Your Wealth Through Real Estate With: “We don’t have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.” – Warren Buffett

Brett:

Exactly. Well said, by the way, you can learn more about Dr. Nate Lampert at investwithnatelambert.com. So cost segregation is number one. So that might help you offset 66% maybe hiring your kids that’s going to help maybe doing some retirement planning is going to help anything else that comes to mind as far as ways that you’ve deferred tax or tax strategies that help you to pay less in tax.

Dr. Nate:

Yes, so you know, what, I’ll go into the pay your kids’ thing. I mean, this is a great strategy. And it’s a great way. You know, I’ve got five kids, as I mentioned, and I hired my oldest son to do some of that stuff that I can’t, I don’t really trust, just some random person to do, which is open my mail and pay my bills with my credit cards. So a little more sensitive type information. So he does all that for me. And I get through writing all that off on my taxes, which is a great write-off. The other thing, too, that I do is I like to reinvest at least 10% of my income every year, into my education into learning new strategies into going to networking events, all these things are so important. So you know, that’s obviously a business expense. When you go to something like that, and I find it, it gives me a four to 10x return every time I attend something like that. So I would just say, Don’t hold back on improving your business and growing your business by learning. And by networking. It’s all about the connections you make. So I run a mastermind called Zenith Mastermind. And we went to Miami, this in May, and boy, I’m making the switch from residential to commercial, I met someone who showed me how to do a real estate fund, I met a partner who is going to work with me on a 24 apartment complex that we got under contract. In fact, the person that found that deal was also at that mastermind. And now I’ve got another commercial project under contract where we’re going to build 34 units of flex space office space. And I met him at that networking event as well. So I guess what I’m saying is, it pays to attend networking events and other educational types of things, and you get a great ride off to so why not love it right?

Brett:

Win a win of 10% reinvest back in education every year, and then have your kids or a kid open mail and pay your credit cards and bills. I love that. So now you said you have ages two to 15. I have ages two to 10. So how early did you start having your kids do some work? And what was the one that what was the age you’re like, finally, this is really worth the time and effort to train them and get them going? Was there kind of a magic age that really started to make sense for you?

Dr. Nate:

I started him at 15. So I was about seven, eight months ago. I think you could do a little younger. But what I like to do is I like to get my other boys involved as well. So what we’ll do is like, I’ll have hired professional contractors to do all the work. But then, in the end, there’s usually like some trash in the yard. There’s just some maybe sweeping in just a couple final touches before I put a house on the market. So what I’ll do is I’ll take my whole family, we’ll all go work for a couple of hours, teaches them a work ethic and then I pay them pretty well. You know usually, I think the rule is, they need to be about five or so to add just has to pass the sniff test, I feel like, if they’re doing legitimate work, then I can pay him. So that’s kind of how I’ve done it. And it’s a great way to get the whole family involved in your business. Let him see what you’re doing and get a tax write-off all at once and teach them how to work.

Brett:

I love it. Pays 66% less taxes by Dr. Nate Lambert. By doing creative strategies like manual labor, you know what I mean? Get these kids out there sweating, get them working. That’s my story. I grew up with my brother and me with my dad, part of our growing up was in on-the-job site custom homes, room additions, ground-up development in the Bay Area. And we were you know, my brother being the bobcat. I’ve been watching him, almost crash into things and hammer and stuff, moving bricks, putting up drywall moving lumber here it was it was a lot of fun. We actually had a lot of time, it was hard work long days. But it taught us a good work ethic. And there’s something that I’ll always love and respect for my dad for teaching us that. So Okay, excellent. Any thoughts on that?

Dr. Nate:

That’s really cool that your dad got you involved. Actually, my dad brought me, he owned a four Plex and had to mow the lawn every week. And it was a big part of teaching me how to work. So it’s cool. Your dad did that as well.

Brett:

Cool. Awesome. What’s the most rewarding part of what you do now?

Dr. Nate:

The most rewarding thing is, I’ve got a large rental portfolio. And I’m doing flips and things. But I think what I love best is helping people learn how to invest in real estate and save on their taxes. So I’ve coached over 300 people now in 48 states. And so I’m doing a lot I just published my book you can get a free copy at investwithnatelambert.com and you know, check it out. It became an Amazon bestseller last week. So it’s just fresh, hot off the press. But if you want a free copy of it, you can grab it there. For me, it’s just like seeing the lights come on in people’s minds. See people that just get really excited about the potential of real estate investing. I’ve helped so many people quit their jobs and create financial freedom to be able to start traveling and, and having flexibility in their schedules. That’s what I love is just giving people that opportunity.

Brett:

Love it. I love it. That’s a great summary there. Yeah, and definitely check out the book. Well, what’s the name of the book?

Dr. Nate:

Active Life Passive Income

Brett:

Love it. What’s the biggest mistake maybe you, a client, or partner have ever made as it pertains to capital gains tax deferral?

Dr. Nate:

I would say the biggest mistake that I made is actually, to be honest like I’ve just really spent a lot of time on my education. I’ve always educated myself. So I can’t say I haven’t made any mistakes in other areas. But in terms of taxes, I almost always get $3500 to $5,000 back from the government. Every year, I’ve hardly ever kind of get stuck, I guess here’s what I would say that my biggest mistake is sometimes been waiting too late in the year like so for example, last year, I just got busy with other things. I looked at my income. I’m like, it was like October. I’m like, I’m gonna be in big trouble if I don’t start getting a lot of rentals. So I went off on a buying spree and bought like nine rental units in December. And that was pretty hectic. So, my biggest advice would be to really look ahead, plan ahead. I mean, thankfully, it all turned out. But that was pretty stressful. So make sure you’re planning ahead. And if you do this accelerated depreciation strategy, you really need to work in advance because it’s not as quick as it’s not the quickest method out there. You got to buy the property and at least have it marketed for rent. So thankfully, most of the ones I bought were already like, rented already had tenants.

Brett:

I love the night in December, right. Yeah, your holidays are spent, you know closing deals to save on the tax which is good because building the family wealth and giving you some freedom. Excellent. So maybe slightly. A slight adjustment. what’s been the biggest frustration for capital gains tax deferral and the 1031 exchange for maybe your clients or maybe yourself Is there ever been like a frustrating moment with that?

Dr. Nate:

You know, I think the biggest frustrating moment, I think is just recognizing that again, it’s all about planning right with the 1031 you got to have another property lined up, you got to have something planned in advance. So you don’t want to rush into something you don’t want to buy something stupid just to do your 1031. So that would be one piece of advice that says it’s always planning ahead and having a clear idea of what you want to do next.

Brett:

Excellent. Yeah, we call it the shotgun wedding, right and get engaged in 45 days get married at 180. And sometimes that doesn’t work out so well for the marriages, right if you’re if everything is rushed, but if you can pre-plan and if you can somehow make a deal, or find a deal before you even close, then your clock is not ticking. So planning and searching for deals and finding that it’s tough right now given a low inventory, how high prices are, and how much competition is for multifamily, especially we have a solution for that. It’s called a Deferred Sales Trust for our listeners, it’s an alternative to a 1031 exchange, it can save a failed 1031 exchange. And it also works for other assets such as cryptocurrency, businesses, primary homes. Just go to capitalgainstaxsolutions.com to learn more about that. That being said, Dr. Nate Lambert, are you ready for the lightning round?

Dr. Nate:

Let’s do it.

Brett:

All right, knowing what you know now if you can go back to your 25-year-old self, what is the one Golden Nugget, you would make sure to tell yourself to do?

Dr. Nate:

If I could go back to my 25-year-old self, say don’t go into academics go into real estate. Seriously, I mean, I’m actually glad it was an enriching thing to be a professor to learn on those things. But being an entrepreneur is so much fun. So I think I would like to want to tell my 25-year-old self, just how much fun real estate and entrepreneurship are. I didn’t even really consider it at that time. And you know, I’ve done pretty well for myself, but I thought man, if I started 25 rather than 30, 35, then the guy would be even farther along. But so I just tell myself, there’s so much you just got to go after it and make it happen.

Brett:

Likewise, I wish I would have started earlier in my entrepreneur journey. I kind of deal with brokerage because you’re still you’re 1099 you know, working for a big brokerage, like Marcus and Millichap. And so you’re kind of an independent contractor. So it’s kind of a semi one but go on for an entrepreneur and start more businesses and buy more real estate do more my own. It’s definitely your right, a lot, a lot more exciting and fun for sure. Second question, what’s the one book you’ve recommended or gifted the most in the past year?

Dr. Nate:

That is a great question. So I would say aside from my own book because I have gifted a lot of those actually. I would probably say one that I have that I just read was, I love Joel Osteen. And if you’re dealing with anything challenging, I mean, this is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s called Blessed In The Darkness. So if you’re going through any hard times in life, reading Joel’s book just gave me so much hope and confidence for the future. It’s not anything about finances, but it’s all about rebuilding your life, which sometimes that’s exactly what you need. In some of the dark moments that are if they’re not here now. You’re going to hit them later on. So Blessed In The Darkness is awesome.

Brett:

Joel Osteen, Blessed In The Darkness. Next question, what’s the one mobile or digital resource you recommend for your business?

Dr. Nate:

So probably, I would say rentalmeter.com. You pay 100 bucks a year I think and you can do unlimited rental comparisons. So if you’re all about buying, I don’t know how it fares with multifamily. I haven’t used it for that. But with single-family homes, you can get a really good sense of what kind of rents you can get on the property and so that it’s not always perfectly accurate. You always want to get a property management company to give you a more accurate pitch but you can see what other properties in the neighborhood are renting for and it gives you at least a good starting point to see what the cash flow could be like on the property.

Brett:

Awesome, rentalmeter.com. The next question is, what is your favorite leadership quote or theme that you strive to live by?

Dr. Nate:

I think that my favorite leadership quote would be “All things worked for the good of those that love the Lord”. I know that’s a quote from the Bible. But I was just thinking about that yesterday and sometimes life gets hard but you know if you trust in God, you can really get places and all things, even the crappy, terrible things that might happen in your life. All of that can turn for your ultimate benefit.

Brett:

Excellent. I love that. I love that. Read the Bible every day. And so it’s a great verse. Second last question, what are you curious about right now?

Dr. Nate:

I am really curious about funds. I’m just getting started on a fund. And I got to mentor the guy who started a $25 billion funds. And so yeah, he and I have been talking a lot. And that’s something I’m learning about. And I’m really excited to launch our first fund. And like I say that this is going to open unlock the doors to really just invest in all kinds of real estate. For me, I’m wanting to move from being the nuts and bolts on deals to simply just raising money. So that’s kind of the role that I see myself in in the future.

Brett:

Beautiful, by the way, we have an amazing thing called a Deferred Sales Trust that can help you raise funds that are working best. Ashcroft Capital, Brian Burke of Praxis Capital, and these are funds that we use the deferred sales trust with raise funds, so it’s pretty cool. Not using a 1031, which is key. The last question is this, after all the people you’ve helped being in academia, moving to entrepreneurship and real estate and coaching and fix and flips now multifamily on to fund funding reading a book? How do you stay centered in your values? And how do you stay encouraged to charge for it to reach new heights?

Dr. Nate:

Yes, is staying centered on my values. Ultimately, I mean, I think entrepreneurship and money are fun. And they give me a lot of zest for life. I think, at the end of the day, it’s your family, and your faith, and your fitness, they really are going to drive your success and your ultimate well-being. So I would, ultimately, I think it’s so important to stay balanced. You’re never going to be perfectly balanced. But if you give on your family, you’re going to regret its skin, it’s going to come back the same thing with your body and your and your faith. So, at ZenithMastermind we focus on helping people really achieve excellence in all areas of their life. I think that’s something that you always got to focus on.

Brett:

Beautiful. Absolutely love Dr. Nate Lambert having you on the show. For listeners who want to get in touch with you. We remind them one last time where they can find you?

Dr. Nate:

Yeah, invest with investwithnatelambert.com I’d love to give you a free copy of my book. And I’d love to maybe even if you want to go deeper and get some huge assistance in your real estate journey. I’d love to help you out with that.

Brett:

Well, Dr. Nate Lambert, thanks for being on the show. Thanks for sharing a bit about your story some real tangible ways to pay 66% less in taxes. I want to encourage you to keep loving people, connecting with others getting to know that golden, better being a collaborator, and blessing and serving others. Thanks so much for what you’re doing. And I want to thank our listeners for listening to another episode of the Capital Gains Tax Solutions Podcast, also streaming on expert CRE secrets where we believe most high net worth individuals and those who helped them they struggled clarifying their capital gains tax deferral options not having a clear plan is the enemy and using a proven tax deferral strategy such as the deferred sales trust is the best way for you to exit highly appreciated assets including cryptocurrency, primary homes, businesses, and also raise funds for commercial real estate syndications. What a noble idea all tax-deferred and you went to if you’re looking to raise funds. Thanks to everyone for listening, please rate, review and subscribe. We so appreciate you can go to capitalgainstaxsolutions.com by the way to learn more about the deferred sales trust.