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Hi. Welcome to The Huddel.
Quick housekeeping: this newsletter drops every Thursday. It's not going to be 47 bullet points of "hustle tips." It's just what I'm seeing, doing, and thinking about across real estate, debt, and business. If something's useful, great. If not, unsubscribe button's at the bottom.
Alright, let's get into it.
The passion trap nobody talks about
I spent years being told to "find my passion." Go do what lights you up. Follow your calling.
I know see that's bad advice. And I say that as someone who genuinely loves what he does now.
Here's the the truth: I don't have a passion for land investing. I don't get butterflies when I underwrite a note. I'm not burning with desire to manage loan servicing software.
What I do have is a system that works. And purpose started follow, not the other way around.
I worked in med device sales for years. Stable income. Great work culture. Checking all the boxes.
Main problem though, was my time wasn't mine. My income ceiling wasn't mine. Even my customers weren't really mine…they were the company's.
That's when it clicked for me: doing everything "right" doesn't automatically lead to freedom. You have to design it intentionally.
So I stopped asking "what am I passionate about?" and started asking "what actually works?"
For me, the answer was boring: buy land, sell it on terms, collect payments. Repeat. Then buy the debt itself. Then build software to help other people do the same thing. And acquire other businesses within that fly wheel.
Not inspiring, but it’s been effective.
If you're trying to build something that lasts, start there. What works? Do that.
Passion has a way of catching up once the money's working.
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Deal or Dud: Quick breakdown this week
A lot of people evaluate seller-financed deals based on LTV. I get it. It sounds like the safe metric. But LTV tells you what happens in a worst case. IRR tells you what's actually happening in real life.
And if you have no idea what those mean, that’s okay.
LTV: loan to value (tells you what happens in a worst case and you have to resell)
IRR: internal rate of return (tells you what's actually happening in real life. It's the actual annualized return your money is earning, accounting for the purchase price, the payments, and the timing of everything).
Quick example: I look at a note with a 70% LTV. Sounds conservative. But the rate is 6%, the borrower has 2 years left, and I'm buying it at par. My IRR is... 6%. That's a high yield savings account in disguise.
Meanwhile, a "riskier" note at 80% LTV with a 12% rate, bought at a 15% discount, with 7 years remaining? The math is a different conversation entirely.
So leave LTV at the door. Run the IRR. That's the number that actually tells you what your money is doing.
(Want the Deal or Dud framework I use to evaluate notes fast? Grab it here.)