RG 231 – Redefining Your Value as a Real Estate Investor w/ Travis Watts

Travis Watts is a full time passive real estate investor and has been investing since 2009. Travis wattsHe mostly invests in multi family, single family and vacation rentals. Travis is the director of investor relations at Ashcroft Capital and has invested in over 27 passive syndications from over 14 operators. He now educates others and shares passive investment strategies. Travis made his first dollar selling water balloons door to door.

Travis knew early on that he didn’t want to go to college but he got a scholarship so he promised his parents that he’d do a couple years. At the same time he was reading Kiyosaki and saw the phase ‘the rich don’t work for money’. He wanted to get into real estate but didn’t have a mentor so he started doing single family homes and bought one in Colorado and lived in it first. He rented the first bedroom and then switched to full time rental. He didn’t know what he was doing so he did a bit of everything; house hacking, fix and flips etc. Suddenly he had a full time job that he didn’t want and it was taking all of his time while he was also full time in the oil industry. He realised he wasn’t very good at what he was doing and the market was driving the success.

His passive work started in 2015 and up until then he was doing single family which wasn’t scalable. He was sceptical when he first started syndications but he actually made more money than when he was doing everything himself and this surprised him. Travis recommends that you invest in what you understand and his failure came when he invested in the wrong things.

Before you start, here are Travis’ tips;

  • Reflect inward – Should you be a passive investor? Some people make better operators than others. Or can be both
  • Can you get accreditation? If you can’t you could try crowdfunding or Reet’s

This podcast was recorded in April so the impacts of covid and rent due are just starting to show. Travis points out that it depends on the type of property – some are better than others and you want a diverse asset investing, not all on one asset.

Top tips

  • Most important habit – Self education
  • Most influential person – Tony Robbins
  • Most important tool – phone
  • Most important failure – Not starting with goals in mind
  • travis@ashcroftcapital.com

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