Diversification Through Real Estate

Dr. Chris Wolfe: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Crystal Podcast on ICO Media. Today I’m gonna have a great conversation with Dr. Ben Coleston. We’re gonna talk about a number of things. As always, you never know exactly what we’re gonna get to, but, but the things that I wanna talk about are largely related to adding to your practice and adding to your, your.

Life through other mechanisms outside of, of opt optometry. So please enjoy our conversation. As always, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, write a review, share it with your friends, and support those who support us. So today I wanna talk about the mind multifocal for just a second. It has been a really great thing in our practice for our patients who are presbyopes of all areas.

But you know, those tricky presbyopes are always the ones that are kind of emerging where they don’t want to give up any of their far away. But they’re having some struggles up close. And so what, uh, the Mighty Multifocal has been able to do for us is to [00:01:00] allow those patients to transition into a multifocal more easily.

And then as we have those patients progress into other levels where they need more ad powers, it’s been a nice smooth transition. So the ultimate hurdle that we’ve seen in our practice before the my day multifocal, We’d have patients who would resist any transition to a multifocal lens because of that distance blur.

We just haven’t seen that. So if you haven’t started using Mida multifocal in your practice, I would encourage you to start check it out. Uh, contact, reach out to your Cooper reps for those trial lenses, uh, and commit to MyDay multifocal for your patients. I think they’re gonna like it. If you haven’t checked out Macia Health yet for your patients in category one through category four, I think there’s a lot of evidence that you should be considering.

The first is, if we just look at a Reds two and what they, they talk about Macia Health is a, So for patients in category three and category four, um, AMD Macia Health is a great option for them that follows that entire, um, that entire protocol. And it also add. [00:02:00] Meso Z is anine to the mix, which if you look at some of the evidence, I believe, shows me that it’s going to thicken the macular pigment better than without meso zanine.

It also uses the A correct a Reds two dose of zinc, uh, at 25 milligrams, and so you don’t have to worry so much about the potential side effects of zinc. The other thing to to think about, and it’s beyond the scope of this, although you’ve probably heard me talk on other podcasts, is that in patients in category one and two, there may be some additional benefit, uh, to supplementing them with something that may be a little bit less than the A Reds two, so you don’t have to add as much to it.

And that’s where I use the Mac Health LMC three. And so I think if you haven’t done this yet, I’d consider Mac Health in your practice and for your patients, and it’s been great for my patients. Um, and we really feel like we can have the ability to, uh, help those patients in all categories of macular degeneration.

So Ben, thanks for doing this. Um, it’s been a long time coming and, um, thanks so much for having me tonight. [00:03:00] You’re welcome. You’re welcome. Um, so tell, tell me, so I, I think for the listeners, it would be good to hear kind of your background in practice before we get into some of the other things that you and your wife have done to kind of expand your reaches in other places and, um, And then we’ll talk about whatever we’re gonna talk about.

So, so give us a little bit of background on, uh, on you and where you practiced and, and which practice like 

Dr. Ben Colston: Yeah, sounds great. So, um, so I graduated optometry school in May of 2017. Um, and right out of school I worked for a couple of different private practices in the Dallas Fort Worth area. I’m from Arlington, Texas, which is like right in the middle of dfw.

Um, so I practiced with, uh, a couple of really, really strong private practices. Um, one was in Dallas and one was in Southlake. And, um, I did that for about a year and a half, and I kind of always knew I wanted to open my own practice. Um, so I ended up opening cold, uh, in May [00:04:00] of 2019. Uh, so it was about two years after I’d graduated and, um, Did that, that I opened that in Mansfield, Texas, which is kind of a south suburb of, of dfw.

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Um, so, so Ben, let me ask you, um, so one of the things that I think a lot of times people are concerned about is they’re gonna bring on new sharp young docs into their private practice. They’re gonna teach them about their business. Were any of those docs now I, I, I don’t view this this way, but were any of those doctors kind of concerned that you left or upset that you left?

Dr. Ben Colston: So it was really kind of the, we, we, we had a really good relationship going in and they knew, um, that I wanted to own a practice, and so part of their, uh, pitch to me. So I, I took a lot less money out of school than I could have that part of the, uh, value that I saw with [00:05:00] working for them was they kind of told me, Hey, we’ll kind of mentor you, we’ll help you kind of learn about private practice.

They were pretty clear that I wasn’t gonna own their practices, but they, they were like, you know, we can. I we’re open books, you know, we can, Our one doctor actually went over his p and l with me every quarter and just kind of chatted about that. And so I kind of view it as my, like prac, private practice, residency.

You know, I, I didn’t make as much money as some of my peers did, but I, I didn’t care cuz I was like, man, this is awesome. I’m getting these. Great doctors that have these awesome practices and subsequently both of them have actually sold out to private equity. No. So I think, I don’t know that they had great practices.

I don’t, they didn’t tell me this, but I think that both of them kind of knew that that was the plan. And so that’s why they were so upfront with me about, Hey Ben, you’re not gonna buy our [00:06:00] practices cuz they kind of knew we’re selling to private equity. Um, so a year and a half. To 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: me, Were they ajo together or there were two guys that that said, uh, we both need part, somebody part-time.

Let’s come together and get Ben. 

Dr. Ben Colston: So they were, they were not, they didn’t, they knew each other, but they didn’t work together. I. Uh, approached the one doctor in Dallas, uh, first and he was like, I love you. You’re awesome. Come work for me. I’ve got three and a half days that you can work. So I went around and I found the doctor in Southlake and I was like, Hey, I’ve got one and a half days that I can work.

And he was like, Yeah, that’s perfect. Come do one and a half. So I made a five or six day schedule kind of for myself. Um, and they, I mean, they both knew that I was working for the other doctor. They’re 50 miles. They’re 40 miles away. So they weren’t, it wasn’t a comp competition issue at all. Um, but that [00:07:00] was, I have some people that ask me like, you know, what would I, some people that are in school and I tell ’em, that’s, that’s the best thing you can do is just fine too.

Or however many, one really good private practices that you can go work for and just. Learn from them. Um, so yeah, so that’s 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: kinda what I did You up on that. How many, how many of your peers do you think? Not many. Um, you know, I, that’s been my sense recently too, is I’ve talked to a lot of people and they’re, um, they’re having a really hard time finding young docs and they, they say, That it’s because the young docs want too much money.

And maybe that’s the case. I mean, I believe it is cuz everybody I talk to says that. But then you’re here telling me, No, I didn’t. But I mean, I know you, it’s been five, you know, five years since you graduated. But, but you’re telling me no, I didn’t want. A ton of money right away. I just wanted the experience, so, Yep.

How many of the, how many, how many Ben Colson’s are around right now in 

Dr. Ben Colston: your, in your, Probably [00:08:00] not very many. So the one really critical part of my story that I didn’t share is I got married whenever I graduated from college. So I started optometry school, married, and my wife is a CPA and she had a good job at a big public accounting firm.

Um, so. We lived off of her income throughout optometry school really easily. So when I graduated, I didn’t care what the salary was because our plan all along was to live off of her income and everything that I made was gonna go to student loans. So I was like, okay, if I’m making 85, if I’m making a hundred, if I’m making one 20, 85 is still a heck of a lot of money to pound towards student loans.

So, um, I just was purely looking for the best experience that I could have, and I knew it wasn’t gonna be at America’s Best or [00:09:00] wherever was gonna pay me one 20. 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: So, So how do people then, you know, how many people, I mean, I guess it’s hard to know, but, but your, your experience was kind of unique so you were able to, you know, kind.

Put all that away and not have to worry about, you know, making this big lump. Uh, so the, um, So that kind of makes you unique, right? And you gotta take the advantages that you get. Yeah. Uh, what, what portion of that, of that drive was because of your wife saying, Look, we gotta get rid of this debt. It’s not, it’s not good to hang over our head.

Somebody’s not gonna, uh, forgive at all. They might throw you some, they might throw you a little bit here and there, but, but it’s never gonna get close to what you need. Yeah. And you’re still gonna have to pay for it over time. Yeah, we 

Dr. Ben Colston: just, we were, we both were on the same page with that. I mean, we both just knew that the quicker we can get pay off this debt, the better, the more freedom we’re gonna have.

And so we were, that was our, that was our [00:10:00] plan ever since we got married. I mean, we actually were really, really frugal and school and were able to pay down some of my school while I was in school. Um, So, yeah, it was, it was a, it was a combined effort, but she’s, I mean, she’s a cpa, so we’re, we’re both really good at, uh, budgeting and, um, just kind of living below our means, and we’ve kind of just continued to do that.

And we haven’t had any kids yet, so that’s kind of made it easier to continue to live below our means. But, um, yeah, but yeah. 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Yeah. So then, so then you start the practice in, in Mansfield, Yep. Manfield, which is a suburb of, of dfw, right. And South sub suburb. So is it on the, uh, Fort Worth side or the Dallas side?

So it’s right in the 

Dr. Ben Colston: middle. So you can take 2 87 and get to Fort Worth. You can take 67 and get to Dallas. So it, it, Okay. Uh, is a growing suburb because of that, cuz you can basically work in Fort Worth or Dallas and Mansfield would be a, [00:11:00] a place you could live. So it’s a really, really good. Uh, city growing.

Um, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: yeah. And so you picked it because of all those things. You build out, you start your own prac, you start the practice. Um, how’s your growth been? 

Dr. Ben Colston: It’s been really good. We have been really blessed. The, uh, so the, um, the other benefit I had is, so I grew up in Arlington. My wife and I both grew up in Arlington, which is the suburb most north of Mansfield.

So Arlington and Mansfield kind of merged. Um, so I had a lot of just hometown growth. You know, my third grade teacher, my little brother’s friend’s mom, like my crystal, my wife’s friends, just like random people kind of helped grow my practice quicker than I think normal would. And we have a great location, a great big sign.

Um, so we’ve, we’ve grown really quickly, um, [00:12:00] and, um, it’s just been, it’s been really good. Um, so. 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: In a pandemic. So you opened a year before the pandemic started. Uh, did it impact you much? 

Dr. Ben Colston: So that was interesting. Yeah, so we opened May of 2019. March of 2020 was when everything shut down and I think I had an advantage.

So we, we uh, so we didn’t have hardly any overhead cuz we were cold start. So I had one and a half employees and. My rent was low, my loan payback was low, so my expenses were pretty low. Um, and then we stayed open during a lot of the pandemic and we kind of, when we had people calling, we would say, Yeah, we’re being, we’re being really cautious.

You know, we’re, we’re booking our PA patients really far apart, so you’ll be the only one in the building. And, you know, we didn’t tell ’em we’re a cold start, so we only have six or seven [00:13:00] people coming in, but we just kind of played it that way and uh, people were like, Oh, okay, great. And, um, so we, we did, we did pretty well during the pandemic.

I mean, I had nothing to really base it off of. I didn’t really know how I’m supposed to be doing. But, um, yeah, we made it through Covid pretty well and, um, Actually had to hire some people during Covid, weirdly. Um, so yeah, we made it through Covid really. Well, actually, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: you know, I think, um, I think the, So as I was, as you were talking and kind of recounting some of the dates, dates are always weird, you know?

Yeah. But I think it must have been three years. So you must have been just opening your new practice when I met you, Uh, in, when I came down for, uh, yeah. To Texas. 

Dr. Ben Colston: You came down to speak at the vision source thing? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. So yeah, I had probably, yeah, I’d probably been open like three or four months at that 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: point.

Yeah. [00:14:00] But you had already, so you had already sort of parlayed some of your, your diversification into properties, uh, at that time, Right? You had just, either you had just. Bought one or you were thinking about buying one, right? 

Dr. Ben Colston: Yeah, so we had probably whenever I met you the first time, so, So I graduated in May of 2017, opened the practice in May of 2019.

Um, and actually, let’s see, it was. February of 2019 was a crazy year for me and Crystal, me and my wife. So February of 2019, we bought our first real estate, our first rental property, February, and then May of 2019 was when we opened, uh, the practice. And then in December of 2019, we opened the second, we bought the second rental property.

Yeah. Um, and so, and those, those properties. So my thing with [00:15:00] real estate is I, I’ve never, I’ve never been like, my parents didn’t own rental properties. Nobody really in my life, Crystal’s parents didn’t own rental properties. What was, what happened for me is my last year of optometry school, when I was doing my, um, What’s it called?

The clinical rotations. I was, um, I was in Hammond, Louisiana and I was doing an awesome rotation, um, with Dr. Bond and Dr. Roton. Um, and I was by myself and, uh, so cuz Crystal was still working in San Antonio, so I was like three months by myself. So I read a ton of books and I read the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, which is about, about, uh, real.

Yes. And that just totally blew my mind. Made this light bulb go off. So I, I made a five year plan, or five year goal at my last year of optometry school. So May of [00:16:00] 2017. My five year plan was I wanted to own a primary residence, a rental property, a optometry practice. Pay off the student loans and have a kid

And so, um, that was, so that was kind of my first like light bulb moment with, oh, real estate is a good, uh, a good investment vehicle. You know, it provides passive income, that kind of thing. So started listening to bigger Pockets, uh, which is a podcast about real. Um, and so we actually bought a rental property before we bought our primary residence and before we opened a our practice.

Um, so we had, I had, I was working for the two doctors, paid down like 85% of my student loans and we had some money saved up. And so we, we bought a, uh, our first rental property, really small [00:17:00] house. Um, it was like three bed, one bath, like, I don’t know, a thousand square, 1200 square feet, Like really tiny.

And it was just something that we could afford. It already had a tenant in it. And so we were like, it already had a property manager, so it was kind of, it was, it’s called a turnkey, buying turnkey. Um, so we did that and, um, And it, and we still have that property and it’s, it, it’s going really well. Um, and then I guess with 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: me, pause you because you, you, you sat, you kind of bought during, if it was 2019, you would’ve bought before the peak.

Way before the peak. Yep. Um, you were able to weather any, you know, because it was turnkey, you knew that you could make the mortgage payment, pay the, uh, property manager and still probably put something away. Yeah. Did you finance that? Um, did you finance that for 15 years, 10 years, 30 years? What, what was your 

Dr. Ben Colston: approach?

It was, It was a 30 year, so all, all of our, all of our real estate, Is on [00:18:00] 30 year notes and I’ve, I’ve, I’ve, Yeah. Anyways, they’re all, all on 30 year notes, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: but I know you’re gonna say something, you’re gonna say something about that. We would, I would 

Dr. Ben Colston: love to, We, we’ve thought about doing like a 15 or 20 year note, but I read somewhere that you might as well just get it for as long as you can, and then if you’re gonna, you can always pay it down sooner.

And again, I’m not, I’ve only been doing real estate stuff for three or four years now, so I’m certainly not an expert. There’s people listening to this probably that know way more about real estate than I do, but, um, that’s why we kind of just chose do it for 30 years and, and get the, the payment as low as you can.

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Well, 2019, you know, you, you’ve, you were pretty much toward the bottom of, of the interest rates you could have, could have always refinanced even in 2021 and still probably been super low. So the math on that, it makes a lot of sense. You know, if you can, [00:19:00] um, Especially if you can reduce your interest rate and carry it over time, it’s gonna be probably cheaper money than you can get almost anywhere else, especially now.

So, uh, you know, I think there’s, there’s kind of a back and forth on that. I’ve, I’ve always been a 15 year guy. Um, but I think you can make the case that, you know, it probably for, for our primary house, for our primary residence, it wasn’t, um, you know, I would, would I rather be paying? I mean, I don’t know.

You go back and forth, like right now, we’ve. Three year, three and a half years left on our house. Uh, we always have paid more. Um, and so that goes away. And when that goes away, we’ll basically have, like, it’ll be three kids in high school and Catholic high school at that time. So it’d be kind of nice because when that payment goes away, then we just can, you know, shuttle it over to the other and we’ll even feel better because we’ve been paying for two in high school for the last, you know, for the, for those three and a half years.

So my point is, is. Um, you know, I, I don’t regret [00:20:00] feeling like, oh, man, three and a half years and my, my house is paid off. Um, but at the same time, like if I want money right now, you know, I had to, I had to buy my dad out this year. He, he decided he wanna retire, and I had to buy him out. Well, the, you know, the, you could probably make the case that had I pushed that money out over time and didn’t pay extra.

Um, and I saved it. That’s the other caveat, right? If I would’ve saved that extra money every. Then I probably could have just written a check to my dad instead of having to, to get a business loan, right? Mm-hmm. , where the business loan was a lot more challenging, only because there’s no hard as, I mean, there’s very little hard assets in an optometric business.

You know? It’s all pie in the sky, it’s all goodwill. Um, and so the amount I had have down anyway was significant. So anyway, like, you know, you can go through all those things. I think the bottom line is like, whatever the strategy is, should be the strategy and you adhere to it. Yeah. And your strategy has been the 30 year modality and you’re just adhering to it and you know that’s built into the [00:21:00] cake and you’re gonna continue to move with it.

Dr. Ben Colston: Yeah, we’ve um, We have, we, we always, it seems like every six months me and Crystal are like, we look at our portfolio and we’re like, Okay, when do we, So at some point the plan is to start the Dave Ramsey debt snowball. We’re gonna, basically, we have these properties and these loans on them, and at some point we’re gonna say, Okay, we’ve got, we’re gonna start hammering down one, then we’re gonna hammer down the other, hammer down the other, um, But we’re pretty, I guess we’re, I guess we’re more comfortable with debt than maybe a lot of people are because, And, and it’s, it the, um, the mortgages on the rental properties are all being paid down by other people and they have good cash flow.

So where. We’re kind of, we’re getting comfortable with that. Um, [00:22:00] and then we’re, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: What’s your assessment of that risk though? So, so like you’re, you’re, you’re comfortable with it, but you’ve done some sort of risk, uh, assessment of the value of that, like, of that cash flow. So where’s your downside there? Like where, if this goes wrong, where’s it going?

Dr. Ben Colston: Yes. So we’ve thought, we’ve kind of played through the worst case scenarios. Um, we have, uh, three month we have, oh, On the long term, uh, properties, we have three months. And on the Airbnb properties, we have four months of, of all of our expenses kind of saved up. So we have lots of cash reserves for each property.

Um, but um, I got distracted. What were we saying? So, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: um, well, yeah, just you, you postmortem or you preor. Yes. 

Dr. Ben Colston: Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good way to think of it. Wrong. What’s going? Yeah. And so, and but, and the value of the homes have, have gone up. Um, [00:23:00] so in a, in a worst case scenario, we sell our houses off and we can get cash, we can pay our loans off.

We can, I think in a worst case scenario, we would. Sell. Um, but what if you can’t sell? I dunno. Yeah. So, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: so then, then you take into account, So you bought in 2019, so you didn’t get the peak. You’re probably could look at this, these properties right now and get out. But, um, and, and put a whole bunch of money aside then, then question is where are you gonna put their money?

Right. You’re already gonna do Right. Um, and then there’s probably tax implications, but you know, you go down to 2019. You know, it probably, I think it, I think, you know, not knowing a ton about real estate, I would guess that I think we were in a bubble. I think we’re still in a bubble. That’s kind of, that’s coming down a little bit from the people I’ve talked to, um, about it.

But I don’t think the bubble seems like it’s gonna completely implode, like 2008. Maybe it goes down and retracts a bit to 2019, [00:24:00] 2018 values. But if it does, you still. Put enough away to weather that storm. So then even if you have to sell it, you could sell it at a lower price and still walk away. 

Dr. Ben Colston: Yeah.

You know, you’ve lived, you’ve lived through more real estate changes than I have, but, um, so yeah. Cause didn’t, if I didn’t, you graduate like right around 2008. Eight 2008. So you have a different perspective than me. I don’t really know what that looked like, but I mean, I kind of do, but not, not really. Um, but yeah, so.

It’ll be, I just, I just feel like real estate is, and this is probably just my naive, I have only had real estate for four years, brain talking, but I just think it’s a, a pretty safe investment. It seems like most of the wealthy people that I know have properties and, um, you know, time is on my side. I can, I can hold these for a while.

Um, just, it, it, it’s, [00:25:00] it’s also just kind of a fun thing to keep my brain off of eyeballs all day long. Like I just, me and my wife really enjoy, um, looking at deals together. We enjoy the remodeling process. Um, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: do you manage that remodeling? Do you actually do it or do you have somebody else that comes in and does it?

Dr. Ben Colston: So for the properties that are not where we live, uh, we have someone else come and do it. Um, the only remodeling that we’re doing ourselves is on our primary residence. So we we’re doing a, we bought a really, really old 1970s all original. Everything, um, house in Arlington and we’re, we’re living in it and remodeling it as we go.

And we’re laying the floor, we’re doing the sheet rock. We’re, we’re doing it all. And it’s been fun. Um, it’s a lot of work, but it’s been a lot of fun. So, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: But the, uh, so the, so the, um, so now you’re up to, You have an Airbnb, two Airbnbs, [00:26:00] and then a primary rental property, or two primary rental properties. 

Dr. Ben Colston: So we have two primary, we have two, what we call long term rentals, just normal long term rentals.

And then we have three, um, Airbnbs. 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Yeah. And so then how many do you wanna amass? 

Dr. Ben Colston: So that has changed. So originally our goal was we wanna have, um, So originally it started off, we’re just gonna buy these long term rental properties. We don’t really know what we’re doing, but we want to get in the game. We want to get in the real estate game.

So we did that, um, and then we opened the practice and then we got the itch to get an Airbnb. And so we. Fredericksburg, Texas is a little wine country part of Texas. Not many people know about it unless you live in Texas. Um, but it’s a, it’s a cute little town that a lot of people travel to. You drive there from Houston or Dallas or Austin, or San Antonio.

Um, so we, we, that’s where we got our [00:27:00] first Airbnb. It started cuz a group of us from our church, we went down there for a, uh, just a weekend getaway. And the, we were trying to find a house to rent at an Airbnb and they were all so expensive, Like the nightly rates were insane. Um, and the one we ended up booking was like a crappy house.

And so on the way back we were all talking about, gosh, we should buy a house and just have it as an Airbnb down here. So, The ball got rolling and six months later we, we bought one. Me and Crystal did. And it’s not a, it wasn’t a, um, traditional house. It wouldn’t, it wouldn’t be a great, um, house to live in.

The garage has been converted. So that, that’s what we like to do with the Airbnbs is we find houses that are really undervalued. Um, Because a lot of the people that are buying them for primary residences aren’t looking at them. So they have [00:28:00] Right. The garage is converted on this first one. Um, and it’s, uh, yeah, that’s really the only problem with this one is it’s the garage is converted.

Um, but it’s great for an Airbnb, cuz that’s more beds. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. Yeah. Nobody cares. Um, so that’s how we got into the Airbnbs and then, So then we were like, Wow, this is awesome. We love having this Airbnb there. It was difficult. We, we had to furnish it. There’s some stuff with that, that was, we learned along the way.

Um, so getting back to what’s, what’s that about furnishing them? 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: That was difficult? About furnishing them. What was the problem with furnishing the Airbnb? Well, so 

Dr. Ben Colston: Fredericksburg is, um, four and a half hours away from dfw. So we bought all of the furniture in DFW and at, we just kind of stored it in our garage or in our house, [00:29:00] in extra bedrooms in our house.

And then we loaded up U-Haul, drove it down to Fredericksburg, unloaded it, uh, Got everything set up. Um, so I guess it wasn’t really a problem. It’s just kind of a lot to furnish a four, three bedroom house in a weekend. Um, and you know, that can be really expensive. But we did a lot of Facebook marketplace grabs and stuff like that.

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Do you put in all the amenities of, like, we’ve stated Airbnbs before, where, Well, first two things that I, that I think about. One we did in in Orlando, which was great, actually we did it on Space Coast, was we did it at Cocoa Beach, which was awesome. And then we did it, uh, again in, um, In, Well, we did it in, uh, California during, right before the pandemic, and then we did it again in Arizona this last, uh, this last winter.

And so one of the things I think, um, that I noticed in Arizona was in [00:30:00] the neighborhood that we were in, probably like five or six signs in the yard. That was like Airbnbs bring down property values or short term rentals or bad for communities. And I was like, Wow, okay, well I’m not, I don’t feel very welcome , but I don’t need to cuz I, you know, I just go in the backyard and hang out.

The other thing that I thought was really cool, and I wonder if you do this, was just the, like, the, um, wifi ization of the entire house, you know? Mm-hmm. , controling, the lights, the air conditioning. Even the locks, so that, like the ones that are the best when we’ve gone to them, it’s like you get a text, here’s the code, the code always changes and like everything starts working.

You know? Have you done that? Yep. Yeah. 

Dr. Ben Colston: So that’s the, that was part of the big learning curve with the first Airbnb is we, and my wife really is the one that does all this, but um, she’s figured out the automation. So when you book our. Our property, there’s automatically get a message that’s like, Hey, we’re Ben and Crystal, we’re [00:31:00] excited to have you at our house.

Um, and I, I found that the more like. Personal you can make it, the better they treat your house and the better they leave good reviews cuz they know, oh, we’re staying at this couple’s house and here’s the picture of them and they look nice, like, let’s not mess up their house. Um, so we, we auto, we automate that.

Um, and then they get another message the day of check in that’s automated and it has the code and yeah, we have the, the Yale lock that’s like, That is critical. I don’t know how anybody would do it with a key. I mean, that just seems you’d 

have 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: to live there. You’d have to live right next to it. Yeah, I 

Dr. Ben Colston: think you’re right.

Yeah. So, and then we’ve got a Nest thermostat, so if they leave the AC cranking after they leave, we can turn it up. Um, but that’s about it. We don’t have like lights or anything, but we have a, you know, our cleaner goes in. Um, we, we met our cleaner and her husband is a handyman, so [00:32:00] they are, Super helpful for our Fredericksburg properties.

Um, and they, so she goes in and does a clean oh, but there is also an automation for her. So the Airbnb calendar is linked with this other app called Turnover B and B. And so whenever somebody, So we don’t even have to message our cleaner and say, Hey, someone’s staying this. She just automatically knows that.

So cool. And learning that kind of was like, oh my gosh. Like we can scale this. Like, So are going back to your original question about like the goal we originally wanted to have, you know, five or six in different areas that we would want to go, uh, like on vacation. Well, that has kind of. Shifted and we, so we did one, so we did a, our Fredericksburg one, and then we did a second Fredericksburg one that’s literally like around the corner.

Um, because it just, it was a great [00:33:00] deal. We were like, We’ve already got the cleaners set up. Like this will be a pretty easy. Second thing to add. Um, and then we did a third one in California and that has been kind of a kick in the gut. Like it’s not been as good as the 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Fredericksburg ones. You wanna run away from California?

We are. So you’re like the only Texan who has decided to buy property in California literally instead of way. 

Dr. Ben Colston: Yes. So every time 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: I go, I was there, I was there last week, two weeks ago. And I love, I mean, I, I, I actually San Diego as much as I, maybe I shouldn’t say this cuz I get invited there often, but as much as I like, I, I like, I dislike California in general.

I love the people in California. Uh, you know, the people that I encounter, optometrists, I love optometrists. And, you know, optometry in California are very similar to optometrists to other places. Yeah. But, uh, I, I really like San Diego, but every single time I go, even like no matter where I’m at, San Diego, Sacramento, [00:34:00] uh, San, you know, uh, San Francisco, everybody complains about the regulations.

Yeah. And, and I can only imagine the regulator I had to sign to get my rental car. I had to sign an acknowledgement that, that, um, that the fumes from the rental car could be, uh, could cause some other sort of problems. I mean, just a gas powered car, you know? 

Dr. Ben Colston: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s been, so that has kind of, uh, and the time zone thing was tough.

So like, it’d be 10 o’clock and a guest would message us, and it’s midnight Texas time, so that one we have actually handed over to a property manager, which is better. It’s hands, it’s, it’s not, Impacting our life. You know, we don’t hate it as much cuz the property manager’s handling a lot, but it has affected our cash flow.

So instead of having cash flow, we’re basically just covering the mortgage and all the expenses. Which, if that was our plan [00:35:00] going in, you know, a lot of people may say that’s great, you know, you’re, you’ve got a, a property in California that you can go to whenever you want, and the mortgage is being paid for.

We’re not, we’re not in that place where we’re want that. We really are wanting cash flow, monthly cash flow, um, which we’re getting from Fredericksburg. So, so that kind of changed our goal and I don’t think we. Really wanna ha it. It’s just stressful like that just, I don’t know, Some people can maybe handle that, but with the practice.

And so we don’t wanna have multiple and multiple states anymore. Um, I think a lot of people do, but we just, we don’t, That’s not our goal anymore. So our goal has evolved right now. I honestly don’t even know what I would say. Our real estate goal is, we just opened the, we bought a second optometry practice, so that’s kind of our, that’s taken all of our mental energy and everything.

So we are, the [00:36:00] real estate has kind of taken a back seat. We’re just kind of trying to, we’re, we’re working on our primary. Um, and that’s been fun. But, um, but. 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: So, so let me ask you, this is the last one cuz I, I threw it out there, but I didn’t have you, you didn’t respond to it. Um, the locals in your short term rentals, People who are permanent residents, uh, have permanent residents there.

What are their thoughts about, about you or about, do you ever get any problems with that? Yeah, 

Dr. Ben Colston: so Fredericksburg is a unique city, and this is, you know, if you read any Airbnb articles, you know, should I buy an Airbnb? This is one of the top things they always say to look for is make sure that the city is pro tourism.

And Fredericksburg is a city that is built around tourism. So I haven’t found much. I mean, they have town hall meetings and there’s a few res uh, Fredericksburg locals that are against it, [00:37:00] but I would say most of the people in Fredericksburg. Um, also own Airbnbs, or they own a breakfast, a bed and breakfast.

So I don’t, we’ve owned them for two, I mean, I guess two and a half years. And there hasn’t been any discussion about changing the short term rental laws. Um, the California one’s the same way. So it’s, uh, it’s in, I don’t know if you’ve heard of like Stage Coach and Coachella, like they’re big music festivals.

I’m not a music festival guy at all, but that’s the big draw, um, where our, where our California house is. And um, so I don’t see that changing. I think it could be a problem in Orlando or these places that are. Our tourist destinations, but are also have a lot of primary residents. That’s where you, I don’t know.

I guess long answer to your question, but we haven’t had that issue thankfully. 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: But I mean, the only place [00:38:00] I saw it was Arizona and it was because the house we rented was. You know, it just looked like a normal neighborhood, you know? Yeah. In, in Coco Beach it was a, it was a beach neighborhood, so I think they sort of, it was built into the cake.

A lot of tourism, people understand that this is how it’s gonna work, and they’re finally, Yeah. Um, and then, uh, same thing. Long Beach, you know, Long Beach, California. I got the sense that same thing, they, they, uh, there was enough of it that nobody really cared that much. Yeah. 

Dr. Ben Colston: Yeah. It’s an interesting, uh, I mean that.

That’s kind of the risk with having a air. I guess our backup plan if that happened is we could always turn our Airbnb into a long term rental. Right. Um, or sell it or whatever. Um, but, but yeah, it’s, uh, it’s been, Have you guys, have you ever, have you ever looked into any, uh, 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Not real estate at all, Personally, not seriously.

I mean, you know, my, my real estate aspirations [00:39:00] are more for profess or for like, um, commercial, you know? Yes. As opposed to residential. But, you know, I’ve thought about it, but just not seriously. Um, and every time I do, I, I, uh, you know, I, I am not, I’ve not gotten past the. Like the logistics of, oh, if somebody calls and needs this fixed, I’m like, I’ll have to have a property manager and cuz I’m not gonna be available right.

To go do something or coordinate anything. And then, you know, but, but you’re saying, and, and this is, this makes me at least think a little bit more about it, is just that, um, that you can build in the cost of all those things and then, You know, you’re still on the plus side with cash flow and to that extent, um, you know, it, it’s something that that does interest me.

I just haven’t ever, um, haven’t ever crossed that. Yeah. Yeah. Have you read Rich Dad, Poor Dad? I have, yeah. It’s been a while. I, I, I’ve, yeah, and I’ve, um, he was on, he must have written another book recently because he is been on a number of podcasts that I listened to. [00:40:00] And, and maybe it’s just because, you know, he’s predicting, he’s, he’s predicting kind of this, this crash that’s impending with inflation and, and those sorts of things.

But, um, so that might be why people are reaching out to him, but he’s still Gotcha. He’s still. He sounds a little, he sounds a little repetitive because I’m not sure if he’s forgetting what he said, but, or he just has the same message over and over and over again. I probably sound the same way too. I just have the same message.

Right. Um, anyway, uh, yeah. Yeah. So I have read it, I have read it. Short answer question. Yeah. 

Dr. Ben Colston: That, that, that book was the one that really made me think, Oh man, like I actually do wanna, wanna have property, but. It’s, uh, it’s definitely something that I, I, I’ve had to also balance that with, you know, we’re not building a kingdom on earth.

Like, what are we doing? Like mouth and rest can destroy all this. And so I’ve had, I think I leaned into it a little too hard, 2019 and [00:41:00] 2020. I was like, Man, like let’s get as much property as we can. And I’m kind of having to realize, you know, there’s a lot more to life than real estate. You know, there’s.

Dr. Chris Wolfe: What I like about the story is, um, you know, and I can relate to definitely is just the diversification of your brain. And I think there’s a lot to be said about thinking about different things using, learning about new things, kind of, uh, I think they help your primary business. And then I also think that it gives, for some of us, not all of us, but for some of us, we, we need the.

I’ll call it a distraction. That’s not the right word, but you, you need the com compartmentalization. Your brain skills in different areas. Now, it can be bad. I’ve seen it. I, I’ve seen, I’ve seen it been really bad where people think that they, uh, can do all the things because they’re good at this one thing.

Um, and then it ends not good. But I think if you can, [00:42:00] you know, having the ability to have sort of these silos in these pockets where you get to use your brain differently. I think it’d be really beneficial. I think it can prevent burnout. If you, if you realize what you just said is that, what are you building here?

You know? Yep. What, what are you trying to build? If you’re, if you’re conscious of it and, and say, Look, I like to do these things. Like, for me, I like to have conversations with people that I get to learn from. And, um, and I like sharing messages about, um, about, uh, optometric practices and I like to share ideas and think about new ways of doing things.

And I think that helps my practice. It also allows me to think differently and present differently. Uh, and so, you know, certain times come around and my new silo gets to, gets to work a little bit, and then by the time I’m getting a little bit tired of that silo, then I can kind of come back to the other one.

And so that, that message that you’re talking about does speak to me, but I also, um, I, I think I’m getting better at it, but realizing that, you [00:43:00] know, you can’t take it with you and yeah, so you’ve gotta be able to enjoy some things. It’s not all about just amass. You know, a bunch of stuff that Yeah. Doesn’t really mean anything as long as it has a goal for it at the end where you can serve, you know, serve the, serve your higher, you know, serve, serve the Lord, and, um, and help get your family to, to heaven.

Right? So that’s a, 

Dr. Ben Colston: that’s another like, super cool thing where we’ve pivoted away from the long term rentals to the Airbnbs is the Airbnbs have allowed us to be a huge blessing to other people like we’ve had. A couple that they, they just had a baby. Well, I guess the baby was like a year, it was like a year and a half years old and they really just hadn’t gotten away.

And so we offered them our house and they went down to Fredericksburg for the weekend. And we’ve done that for a few other friends that just wanna get away, but they don’t wanna spend a lot of money. It’s like, Hey, go stay at our house. This is, And so it’s a cool, like another variable with real estate [00:44:00] that allows you to.

Be a blessing that maybe a long term rental wouldn’t, I mean, I guess you can be a great landlord and still bless your tenants, but it all just goes back to where’s your heart at? But um, yeah, having, having multiple things for your brain to work on has been so helpful for me. I think if I was. An opt really even.

So, you know, you kind of have the clinic aspect, you have the business owner aspect, and then you have the real estate aspect, your view, you know, you’ve got your, the podcast, you’ve got your billing, coding, uh, company, and. I just think it’s fun to have multiple, multiple things going 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: on. Yeah, I agree. And it’s not for everybody.

Um, but uh, but I agree it, that’s it. It’s what keep prevents. It’s certainly what prevents my burnout. So let me, let me do this. Um, you’ve been now to two F three workouts with me, 

Dr. Ben Colston: right? Yeah. Uh, I, The one, the second one? [00:45:00] Yeah. I missed the second one. Have you 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: been, have you been in, uh, in, in 

Dr. Ben Colston: Dallas? I have. I haven’t looked into it in Dallas.

I’m sure there is one. I mean, it’s a huge, It’s, I think, gotta be one, Don. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Well, do you remember your F three name? I sure do. Okay, so we’re gonna close this since you’re, since you’re an F three brother, I close this that same way. So, um, I’ll let you, I’ll start and then I’ll let you finish.

Okay. Okay. So, Christopher Wolf, 41 Cataracts, 

Dr. Ben Colston: Ben Goldston. 32 Flipper 

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Flipper. All right, Ben. Thanks for doing this, man. It was a ton of fun. Thanks so 

Dr. Ben Colston: much, Chris. This was awesome. I really appreciate that you do these. I think you’re doing awesome. I love listening to ’em every, What do you do every couple weeks or every month?

Dr. Chris Wolfe: Every week. Every week, 

Dr. Ben Colston: every Monday. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I love it, dude. I love it. Thanks so much for having me on Chris.[00:46:00] 

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