135. Tax Shelters and Protecting Your Assets with Garrett Sutton

Average Joe Finances: 0:00

Hey, welcome back to the Average Joe Finances Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni, and today's special guest is Garrett Sutton, Rich Dad advisor. Super excited to have him on the show. Garrett welcome.

Garrett Sutton: 0:12

Thanks Mike. Pleasure to be with you today.

Average Joe Finances: 0:14

Yeah, absolutely. Hey right off the bat, the first thing I want to ask you is the same question we ask everybody that comes on this show, and we wanna know more about you. For those people out there that may not know who you are, don't know who those people are, but , for those that might not know who you are, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? Share your story. Who is Garrett Sutton?

Garrett Sutton: 0:33

Sure I'd be happy to. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and went to Berkeley and then across the Bay to Hastings Law School, the University of California's Law School in San Francisco. And I practiced corporate law after that. I took the corporate law, I liked it. And then it became acquainted with the Robert Kiyosaki and the Rich Dad team in the year 2000. Gosh, we've been around the United States and around the world talking about financial education. So that has been very rewarding. And as part of that process, I've written eight books, in the series. My newest one is Veil Not Fail, About Piercing the Corporate Veil. We set up a LLC or corporation to be protected. But if you don't follow these simple rules, they can pierce through the corporation, pierce through the corporate veil, and get it your personal assets. So this is an important issue. And Mike, in 50% of all cases, they pierce the veil. So a lot of people aren't following these simple formalities, so that's why I wrote the book so people can understand that when you've set up an LLC corporation, you can't just let it go. You have to take these extra steps to make sure you stay protected.

Average Joe Finances: 1:48

All right, Gary. Yeah, that's great. And that's a great point, a great way to start because you know a lot of. Especially for my listeners, right? If they're getting into real estate investing and they bought a couple cash flowing assets, now they wanna open up an LLC to protect those assets. And a lot of times, people will look at this stuff and think, Oh I opened up my LLC, I'm good, I'm covered now. But that's not necessarily the case, right? So there's a little bit more to it than just starting an LLC. So if we could. Touch on that a little bit. What are some of the things that, or some of the mistakes people make when they open up an LLC?

Garrett Sutton: 2:19

Good question. So one of the things that people need to know is when you set it up online, you pay $99 and you set it up online, no one tells you that you need to follow these extra steps. And so that's one of the biggest mistakes. And when we set-up an entity for people, we let 'em know that you have these ongoing obligations, but because so many people have just used the online version and don't know that's why I wrote the book Fail Not Fail. But mistakes are, you gotta pay the annual fee of the state. That makes sense. If you don't, you lose your charter and you lose your protection. You should have minutes of a meeting every year. And I know there are all these LLC promoters who say, Oh, with an LLC, you don't need the annual meeting minutes. I disagree with that. When you're in a courtroom in front of a judge or jury, you wanna have a minute book that shows that you held a meeting once a year. Because I don't wanna have that attorney say to my client, Wait a minute, how did you run this business for 12 years without ever having a meeting? It just doesn't make sense. You've gotta have the annual meeting. You need to provide corporate notice. You need to let the world know that you're operating as a corporation or an LLC. So on your checks, on your contracts in somewhere in your advertising, it needs to be not just xyz, but XYZ comma LLC or XYZ comma Inc., so you want the world to know that they're dealing with a corporation or LLC and not you personally. If they think they're dealing with you personally, they can sue you personally and go after your personal assets. That's why we set up the LLC, so they can't do that but by failing to follow these rules, you're giving them a bridge to reach your personal assets.

Average Joe Finances: 4:10

Yeah, that's a very good point. And when you're talking about setting up, the annual meeting minutes, right? I guess the question's more about so what about the folks that are running a LLC as a single entity, right? Or as a single,

Garrett Sutton: 4:22

single member LLC.

Average Joe Finances: 4:23

Yes. Single member LLC. How do you, do you have minutes with yourself? Like how does that work?

Garrett Sutton: 4:28

People get weird about that. Do I have to have a meeting with myself? Yes you do. We give you a book with a template that shows you how to prepare the meeting minutes. A lot of people don't, it's like going to the dentist, so we'll do it for you. We have a service where we'll prepare the minutes, but you can do it on your own very easily. It's just too many people don't Mike, it's just a, it's a common failing. That people don't have these meeting minutes. Now, one other, you asked one other question, What are some of the other mistakes? A big mistake is people will set up the LLC and think that's it. But there's another step you have to take. You have to transfer title from your name into the name of the LLC. You have to do that with the county. So on title, when someone goes to look up who owns, 23 Mill Street, it says 23 Mill Street, LLC. And not your n ame individually, and people think oh my gosh, that's gonna increase my taxes or whatever. And it doesn't, it is just a transfer from you to you. There's no taxable event, you haven't sold the property, you've just transferred it to yourself. So people worry about a due on sale clause, like you've sold the property, but you haven't sold the property, you've just transferred. From your individual name to your LLC, there's no taxable event. But Mike, too many people forget that key step of transferring title into the name of the LLC. You've set up the LLC, you need to follow this second step to make sure you're protected.

Average Joe Finances: 6:06

That's a great point and I was always under the impression that if you transferred, one of your assets to an LLC, that the lender can always come back and hit you with that due on sale clause and say, Hey we see that this has changed names, your titles changed names we want our loan paid back.

Garrett Sutton: 6:23

Yeah and you just don't see that happening because you haven't sold the property. Here's the other thing to know, Mike. The magic words are continuity of obligation, and so when you transfer title from your name to the LLC, the bank still has your personal guarantee. That doesn't go away. The bank still has a first deed of trust on the property. When you transferred into the llc, that doesn't go away. So there's a continuing obligation on your part to make the payments. The bank's position hasn't changed. They have your personal guarantee, they have a first deed of trust against the property and we just don't see banks trying to call the note. They're better off with a mortgage that is being paid. And again, you haven't sold the property. The due on sale clause does not kick in.

Average Joe Finances: 7:14

Okay. Yeah, that's a great point and I think that's a great piece for everybody that's listening right now to understand that, it's likely not gonna happen where they're gonna come at you and say, Hey, do you want sale Clause because you transferred the title cuz there wasn't an actual sale of the property. So that's a great point. Now, if somebody did transfer their asset or their property into a LLC, like under that name, and the lender does come back and say, Hey, this has changed and we want, due on sale, is there a way to fight back on that?

Garrett Sutton: 7:43

Yeah, you would argue with them on it. And again, we just don't see it happening. And I would argue that the banks are in a better position. With title in the name of the LLC because that gives the owner of the property asset protection, it's much less likely that someone's gonna sue when on an outside attack, when title's in the name of the llc. When title's in your individual name, you could get sued by someone and that disrupts the bank 's financing. So the bank is better off in the long run with title in the name of the LLC. They have better protection too. And so that's an argument you would make. But again, we just don't see this happening. 20 years ago, the banks really didn't understand LLCs, but nowadays they do, and it's just rare. I've only seen one time in the last 20 years where a bank has t ried to call the note and we've been able to successfully argue with them that it's in their interest to have title in the llc.

Average Joe Finances: 8:47

Yeah, Garrett, that is a very fair point because I hear on so many different podcasts where people talk about that too, where I guess it's like a common misconception. It's, Oh, you gotta be careful when you transfer your title to your LLC because The lender's gonna come after you and give you that due on sale clause. For everybody that's listening, this is some really good information for you guys to add to your tool belt. It's gonna help protect you and protect your assets. And that's huge too. Cause you know, I never really looked at it from the lender's point of view of how this is more advantageous for them by allowing the LLC to have the asset versus the individual themself. So that's huge. Now, I know that there's a lot of things going on right now and huge changes when it comes to real estate taxes. Can you tell me a little bit about some of the big changes that you see coming right now in real estate?

Garrett Sutton: 9:33

In terms of the IRS having 87,000 armed agents, I think that's a big move.

Average Joe Finances: 9:39

Yeah, what's up with that?

Garrett Sutton: 9:40

I don't know. I thought we weren't supposed to own guns. You know that is a big issue. They've been talking about getting rid of the 10 31 exchange but the realtors have been very good a t preventing that from happening. You hear the talk all the time, but it never makes it into the final bills because this is a way the whole idea of providing depreciation for investors, real estate investors is to provide housing. Way back when, 50 years ago, the government tried to provide housing for people and they're really bad at it. The housing complex is there's still some left in San Francisco and they're just rat infested traps. It's just horrible what you get with government housing and the government was smart enough to realize that they should not be in the business of providing housing, they've gotta use the tax code to encourage people to provide private housing, and it has worked really well. And so I don't see some of these key features of the tax code that encourage real estate investing from going away because really people in the know realize that the government is terrible at providing subsidized government housing, the private sector's much better at it. So I just don't see those things going away.

Average Joe Finances: 11:04

Yeah. Speaking of that I'm talking more about advanced depreciation, right? From what I understand, like next year we're only gonna be able to claim up to 80% and it's gonna go down 20% every single year. Do you see that possibly changing or, is that something that's, that we're gonna get a hit with and that's gonna go away?

Garrett Sutton: 11:22

I haven't read the final bill, so I just can't comment on it. But anytime they change the depreciation schedules to make it harder for people to invest, you end up with less housing. And so yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 11:34

That's a fair point.

Garrett Sutton: 11:34

There's gonna be an administration that comes in someday that really understands this, and those types of provisions will change back, in my opinion.

Average Joe Finances: 11:43

Okay. Yeah. So I get, we gotta see what happens once the final bill goes through and gets passed into law fingers cross that section comes out because that was, that is one of the benefits of, investing in multi-family real estate is that advanced deppreciation that you get or if you're a real estate professional, right? So those are some of the things that you can rely on. To help offset some of the costs of everything else that you're doing to increase the value and make a better living experience for your residents versus, the typical slumlord stuff that you see when people are like, Oh, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna fix that. I'm not gonna say that costs too much, or whatever. There's a reason why you get these different subsidies and advantages from the government to provide quality housing for people versus being a slum lord, like the government itself was when they did their own projects.

Garrett Sutton: 12:30

They were the slum lords for sure.

Average Joe Finances: 12:31

They started the trend.

Garrett Sutton: 12:33

Yeah. It's interesting that this bill is not final. We'll, I'm sure the realtors are working overtime there in Washington, DC to get this, but unfortunately, too many people in Washington have this knee-jerk reaction that the rich or bad. But they'd failed to realize that if real estate investors, like people in your audience, myself, you are providing housing. It's a key societal benefit that we need to encourage people to provide housing and take care of everybody. And so the fact that depreciation benefits people is not the way to look at it. Depreciation benefits the rich people, but depreciation benefits the average renter, and that's where they need to focus on it.

Average Joe Finances: 13:15

Yeah, And I think the other key piece of that, and not to make it sound or take away from it, but the depreciation being beneficial to the wealthy. The other side of that is a lot of that depreciation, a lot of the wealth that they build with that they turn around and invest that into other real estate assets and make them better, or they buy or develop and build more housing, right? So this is one of those advantages that they use to create a better environment, better communities. And that's the other side of things that I don't think a lot of people see. And one of the things I like to talk about on this podcast too, because a lot of people will look at real estate investors like you had mentioned before, they demonize them a little bit and make them think, Oh, you're just, you're so greedy and all you wanna do is just keep making more money. Of course you wanna make more money. Everybody wants to make more money. Everyone's trying to escape this rat race that everybody's trapped in, right? But at the same time, true real estate investors, the ones that are really out there making a difference. Yes, they're building their wealth, but they keep investing and they keep giving back to these communities and they keep creating these better living conditions. And that's the other side that I don't think too many people like really pay attention to, they just pay attention to the, Oh, you're just, you keep building your wealth. Oh you just keep getting richer and richer and keep taking from us. No, real estate investors are trying to give and give, and people don't see the giving side. And sometimes it gets a little frustrating when you're trying to have conversations with people about that. But we've done so much. So that's the other side of it. And that's why, I kind of like talking about this stuff as well because, you have to look at it from both sides. And yes, there's these different tax codes that are written to give real estate investors a smaller advantage, but they're giving 'em that advantage because they take that money and give it back, right? And they keep investing in the community. So I think people need to see both sides of the picture here instead of just focusing on that one piece.

Garrett Sutton: 15:08

Absolutely and you mentioned demonizing the rich. I'm on the phone with real estate investors all day long. Our office sets up LLCs for people all over the country, and it's great to talk to people from Washington State down to South Carolina, and in New York. It's just really interesting to talk to these real estate investors and let me tell you, These people are not rich people. They're middle class people. They're people who wanna get out of the rat race. They're starting early, which is great. I wish I had started early in

Average Joe Finances: 15:41

they're average joe's.

Garrett Sutton: 15:42

They're Average Joe's and somehow they get lumped in with these super wealthy and it's just not reality. There's a ton of middle class people trying to make their way by investing in real estate and to demonize them as being, rich and out of touch is just nonsense.

Average Joe Finances: 16:00

Absolutely. I was talking to somebody a couple weeks ago and they were saying, Oh, when you have, so many million in assets under management and they think, Oh, you must be like a multimillionaire. No. It's like you have this much in assets under management. That's not your net worth is that's not how much you have coming in. That's just what you have under management. The assets that you have that, yes, if they were paid off, sure you would be a multi multimillionaire, but they're not. There's debt on those assets, right? There's these liabilities that you're still paying. So a lot of people when they, they like to hype up that site Oh yeah, I've got a hundred million assets under management, but their net worth is like a million dollars, right? That's the side that, the other, that the other side needs to understand, right? That there's, there's more to just the, I guess the flashy piece of it of, Oh, hey, you have 200 doors. Oh man, you must be a multimillionaire. That's not necessarily the case, right? Unless they have 200 doors that are completely paid off. So you know, that's people that are building and building. Cause the Real estate game, if you wanna build wealth in real estate, it is a long term thing. It's not just a okay, I bought a whole bunch of assets and now I'm gonna sit back and I'm rich now. It's not how it works. So yeah, you might be able to sit back. And have these assets get paid down over time, but at the same time, you're not super wealthy. You're not super rich, so it's something that you're building over a 5, 10, 15, 20 year period. It's not a get rich quick scheme. And that's the other side that people need to just get past

Garrett Sutton: 17:20

and there's risk involved,

Average Joe Finances: 17:22

absolutely.

Garrett Sutton: 17:22

People think, Oh, you own real estate, you're just so wealthy. But there's risk involved when you own real estate and you have to take care of the risk. And, my clients own real estate and I always say, you've gotta have insurance. If a tenant falls, you wanna be able to cover their injuries, And so this idea that people are slum lords and they don't care for their tenants, they buy insurance. They, for the most part, Make repairs. No one wants to see someone injured on their property, and so this idea that these people are just heartless, slumlords is not the reality of the situation.

Average Joe Finances: 18:01

Yeah, it's a very small minority, I would say of real estate investors that are like that. Cuz I've even said this multiple times on the show, like when I go out to these different real estate investor meetups and I go to conferences, I would say 97% of the people that I meet are just genuinely good people trying to do better for the community, build wealth for themselves, build generational wealth for their families. And I would probably say 3% are scumbags, right? You'll run into them, but there's not many. But that's the section that gets highlighted, right? That's what you see when people talk about real estate investors. They wanna highlight the, Oh when I was renting this place, my toilet broke. It took them like 10 weeks to come out and get it fixed. That's the stuff that gets highlighted, not the, Hey, oh, I lived in this one complex and man, I had a light bulb go out. And I called and five minutes later the guy was knocking on the door to come replace it. You don't hear that side, you only hear the really negative stuff. So anyway, I'm gonna get off my soapbox with that Garrett. But back to when it comes to like taxes for real estate investors. Now, what are some of the things that you see besides what we've already discussed that are more advantageous to somebody, whether it's creating their LLC or S corp, or whatever it is that they're doing to protect those assets. But what are some other things that you see people use to shield themselves and I wouldn't say not pay as many taxes, but use the tax code to their advantage to avoid having to overpay taxes?

Garrett Sutton: 19:39

Yeah. You're going to set up an LLC, have title in the name of the LLC if it's a single member LLC, if it's just you, It's a flow through entity disregarded for tax purposes. Everything flows on to your personal return, and so we always set up an LLC in the state where the property's located, so let's say it's in Hawaii. We have a Hawaii LLC on title to the property. That Hawaii LLC is owned by a Wyoming LLC for the better asset protection on the outside attack. When you get sued in a car wreck, not by a tenant would sue the Hawaii LLC and you have insurance. On the outside attack where you get in a car wreck, it has nothing to do with the Hawaii real estate, so they have to fight through the Wyoming LLC which provides excellent asset protection. But in both cases, those are single member LLCs, so everything flows through to your personal return. You file one federal return instead of a Hawaii Federal return or a Wyoming Federal return. Now, if you have partners that changes it, you have to file a tax return if there are two or more people involved in each LLC. But a lot of people just own real estate by themselves as single member LLCs, which is fine. Wyoming protects the single member LLC some states don't, which is why we use Wyoming. So tax wise, you're not gonna be paying any extra in taxes. Everything flows through to you. Now you're gonna take advantage of depreciation, sometimes you have the cost segregation where you set aside the value of the building and look at what is more what assets are going to be depreciated more quickly, like a refrigerator or those types of assets. So you can use bonus depreciation to your advantage, you have to get a third party study and they'll allow, they'll provide a report that says you can accelerate depreciation in the first couple years of ownership, which may be handy to you. I really like the 10 31 exchange. I think that's a terrific way to build your real estate. You start with a duplex, you exchange into a fourplex and you just keep going and you don't pay taxes along the way. Now, one of the bills wanted to tax the 10 31 not allow for it and that is going to limit the amount of real estate that people are willing to invest in because they sell that duplex at a profit and they've gotta pay tax right away on it. So they have. Less money to invest in the next property, which is not good for providing solid rental properties for people. So hopefully the 10 31 exchange stays in there. But those are the key tax advantages that you'll utilize and you need a good CPA on your team, to help you take advantage of this.

Average Joe Finances: 22:30

Garrett, That's a great point and ties into what I was saying before too about the, that's the other side that people don't see. So with the 10 31 exchange. People just see it as, oh, you're just using that as a tax shield to not ever pay taxes on your real estate. No, we're using this to go buy bigger and better assets to better provide for people as well. So that's the other side of the coin. So when you flip the coin and it lands on one side, That's one thing, but remember, there's always a second side. You have to flip that thing back over and see what's really going on the other side yeah. Awesome. Now, okay, I have a question for you. This might be a dumb question, but it's my podcast and I can ask dumb questions. So Garrett, if you have, okay, let's say you have that single LLC in Wyoming, right? And you partner up, let's say out here in Hawaii, you partner up with somebody on a property and you want to, have an LLC for the property here in Hawaii under the partnership. Can you then put that under your single LLC in Wyoming as well? Or does your partner now have to be part of that Wyoming LLC?

Garrett Sutton: 23:24

No. Yeah, good question though. It's not a stupid question. The way to do that is we have the Hawaii LLC on title, and the two of you are owners, and so you've got a Wyoming LLC that you use for your holdings. That Wyoming LLC is the 50% owner of Hawaii. And then your partner, if he can hold it in his individual name if he's smart. He has his own Wyoming llc to hold his 50% interest. So in that scenario, we have one Hawaii LLC on title. The members of the Hawaii LLC are two Wyoming LLCs and so the Hawaii LLC because it has two members, Would have to file a federal return. It wouldn't be a disregarded entity, it's just a tax return.

Average Joe Finances: 24:10

Okay, perfect. No, that's great to know. Yeah, so you would still file for the Hawaii LLC but they can still fall under your Holdings LLC in Wyoming, so okay, great.

Garrett Sutton: 24:18

You don't need to have a Holding Wyoming LLC for every single property. You can have, 10 or 15 properties in separate LLCs owned by one Wyoming LLC

Average Joe Finances: 24:29

okay. No that's a great point. Great to know. Thank you for that. All right. Let me see. So I'd like to kind of transition this now into something that we call the final round and this is where I'm gonna ask you four hard hitting questions that will give the listeners a good idea of who Garrett Sutton is when he is under pressure. So if you're ready, we'll get this party started.

Garrett Sutton: 24:47

All right.

Average Joe Finances: 24:48

All right, Garrett. Over your many years of real estate investing and now with what, 22 years being part of the Rich Dad team as well you've probably seen a lot of things done, a lot of things, made some mistakes, right? But through all of that, what would you say is the biggest mistake you've ever made when it comes to real estate investing?

Garrett Sutton: 25:07

I think I, I should have started investing much. If I grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and I made a run at one property when I was in law school and, just a couple barriers came up, but I wish I'd bought that property. It'd be worth a fortune now. And I didn't get started in real estate until later in my forties, and I wish I had done it much earlier. And your listeners, , I know that it can seem daunting and you're worried about making mistakes, but everybody makes mistakes. Just expect on that first property, you're gonna make some mistakes, but then you're gonna move on from that and you're gonna be better at it. And you know you're gonna wake up at the time it's time to retire and go, Thank God I bought all this real estate.

Average Joe Finances: 25:53

Garrett, that is fantastic. Great point. And that's probably the most common answer I get too, is I wish I started younger. And there, there are a lot of young listeners that listen to this show. I know because you guys hit me up on Instagram and stuff. Really take these words to heart. Getting started now at a younger age will really set you up for success. And what you had mentioned before too about, You'll make mistakes on your first property and that's okay. In the real estate investing game, we just call that education, right? That is education that you pay for. Sometimes it could be very expensive education, but it's education nonetheless, cuz you're gonna learn and you're gonna move on. So that's great. All right, so speaking of learning, what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first started?

Garrett Sutton: 26:32

I wish I didn't become friendly with certain tenants. You need to have that distance. I had one tenant early on, it was my first rental property here in Reno. And he just ingratiated himself and, had an excuse for not paying rent and, we're buddies, and I just I wish I had never. I haven't since, I just am, there's gotta be a distance. There's gotta be a formality with you and your tenants.

Average Joe Finances: 26:58

Yeah. That there has to be that separation. That's a great point. And I even hear people talk about this now, like when they house hack, right? If they buy a duplex, triplex, or quadplex and they live in a unit and they rent out the other three or two or one, you don't tell everyone there that you own the property. You just say, Hey, I live here and I'm also managing it. There has to be that separation. So that's a great point. So yeah, for those youth that are listening. Yeah. Understand. That's a great lesson learned that, you have to have that separation. It's like work, right? You have your business relationships and then you have your friendly relationships with people outside of work. You have to be able to differentiate the two. Okay. Awesome. So moving on to the next question and again, these all kind of tie into each other except for the last one, but do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to somebody that is just getting started today?

Garrett Sutton: 27:43

One of the tips is that you'll hear people say, Oh, you're starting out. You don't need an LLC and LLCs are not expensive. And we offer a free 15 minute consultation. You can call the office, you can go to corporatedirect.com and talk to someone and we'll show you, it's not expensive, it's not difficult, but what happens is you forget to do it and then you get busy and it never happens, and title stays in your name and then all of a sudden out of the blue you get sued by a tenant and at that point it's too late. You can't put title into an LLC and hope to be protected. So one of my tips is think about forming that LLC right off the bat, because you may never get sued. Hopefully you don't. But if you don't want title to be in your individual name, that will really piss off your spouse cuz they're going after all of your personal assets.

Average Joe Finances: 28:40

Yeah. No that's a very good point. Even if it's just that initial Holdings llc, right? Just to start, and you can put it under that, right? Wouldn't that at least even be a good move to start with?

Garrett Sutton: 28:50

No, I like having title in the name of the, for a Hawaii property, a Hawaii LLC

Average Joe Finances: 28:55

okay. Just keeping the,

Garrett Sutton: 28:56

And then you can add the Wyoming later. If you're only gonna do one LLC in our example, it would be the Hawaii LLC because you're collecting rents in Hawaii, you're doing business in Hawaii. So I would start with that one first. You can always add the Wyoming. And you should consider, oh, adding the Wyoming fairly soon, because that gives you the good outside protection if you get sued in a car wreck. But at the start, definitely you want that LLC on title.

Average Joe Finances: 29:22

Yeah. That helps create the veil as you call it. Awesome. So speaking of that, but besides your own, do you have a favorite business or actually, besides eight of your own , do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both?

Garrett Sutton: 29:35

My clients have just really benefited from Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And so if you're getting started in investing in anything I would consider reading or listening to Rich Dad Poor Dad. It just, it helps you shift your context and helps you realize. Having that nine to five job is fine. It provides for your family, but you've gotta take extra steps to start building your own wealth through real estate and other investments.

Average Joe Finances: 30:03

Yeah, Garrett, that, that is a great book, a great resource for anybody that's just getting started. We tend to call it the Purple Bible around here because it's just that good and it's just that important really for somebody that's trying to learn the basics and really understand what a asset versus a liability is, and that's one of the things that I loved about that book, even though I knew what that stuff was before, right? And then learning about the cash flow quadrant and everything. But Rich Dad, Poor Dad just puts things in a perspective that just changes the way you think about not just real estate, but any asset versus any liability, right? Definitely a great book for people to read. Okay. Garrett, so I have one more question for you. The final round is complete, but I have one more question for you and it is the most important question of all because people are sitting here listening said, Okay, cool. I got this wave top stuff ,I hear Garrett talking about LLCs, 10 31 exchanges, and all these different ways to protect myself from taxes so I have more money to invest in more real estate assets. I wanna know more, I wanna know more about Garrett. I wanna know more about what he's doing and the services that he provides. So if you could, or his books, one of his many books where can people find that information about you? Do you have a website, social media, anything like that you could share with us?

Garrett Sutton: 31:17

Yeah. Mike, our main website is corporatedirect.com and we have a newsletter. We have all sorts of articles. You can set up a free 15 minute consultation with an incorporating specialist, learn about our services, our fees. I held up Veil Not Fail, this is my newest one, but for real estate investors, this one loopholes of real estate offers a lot of information on asset protection and 10 30 ones and depreciation. I have eight books in the Rich Dad Advisor and loopholes of real estate is a good one for people starting out in real estate investing because a lot of times, a lot of books don't include the asset protection element of it, and you're gonna be building your net worth. We need to protect it at the same time. Yeah, absolutely. Great point. Great resources for those listeners here. To go find out more about Garrett, go check out his website, corporatedirect.com, and check out some of those books, especially the real estate loophole book. That's gonna help you.

Average Joe Finances: 32:18

For those you that are investing in real estate, really get a better understanding of the tax, the tax advantages that you have available to you. And of course always make sure you're talking about this stuff with your CPA and making sure that they're pointing you in the right direction. But it's good for you to have that knowledge in the back of your head so you know whether or not your legs getting pulled. Alright, Garrett this is really awesome. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today. I really appreciate it.

Garrett Sutton: 32:44

My pleasure, Mike. It's been fun talking with you.

Average Joe Finances: 32:47

Absolutely. Awesome. Hey everybody, thanks for joining me in our special guest, Garrett Sutton, on the Average Joe Finances Podcast. Go leave us a five star review and tell us what you like about today's episode with Garrett. Hey, send Aloha from Hawaii and we're outta here.