I'm Selling Everything...What Happened

So, this is a video I've been going back and forth on for a while now. Every single time I get close to filming it, part of me thinks maybe I'm making a mistake. Maybe I should just let things be. But at a certain point, you have to be honest with yourself. And the truth is, I'm going to be listing the rest of my Los Angeles properties for sale over the next few months, and I'm walking away. Now, what's crazy is that I never had the intention of selling them until recently. And when I bought them, I genuinely thought that I'd never have to let them go. In fact, when I used to work as a real estate agent, I would always ask my wealthy buyers what they would do differently knowing what they know now. And every single one of them says, "I wish I didn't sell that property and this one and this one, and had I just kept everything, I would have been so much better off." But yeah, here we are. I'm listing pretty much everything I have for sale over the next few months. And if you're curious why, and if it makes sense for maybe you to exit, too, here's what you came for. First, let me start by saying something that might surprise a lot of you. My properties in Los Angeles do not make a lot of money. Yes, I know most people have this idea of these multi-million dollar plots of land by the beach that just collect these massive checks every month, but in reality, the truth couldn't be further from that. Like to give you an idea of the actual numbers across all of my remaining properties in Los Angeles once you account for property taxes, insurance, which keeps going up by the way, repairs, maintenance, property management expenses, city registration fees, and a whole bunch of miscellaneous costs that always seem to be coming up. My total cash flow works out to be roughly four to 5% of the equity I have built up in these properties. That's it for the time, risk, insurance increases, headaches. It's just not worth it. I mean, to put this into perspective, you know what else pays 4 to 5%. Risk-free treasuries, municipal bonds, savings accounts, money market funds, and with those, I'm not subject to endless restrictions, phone calls, emails, constant negotiations, and most importantly, I don't have to deal with the city of Los Angeles charging me a $400 permit fee to replace a $500 fence. So, when I started to think about simplifying my life, I looked at every single focus throughout the day. And when I compared what these properties earned versus what it was costing me, and I'm not talking, by the way, about dollars. I'm talking about time, stress, and mental energy. It became extremely apparent that holding on to these properties was no longer a good decision. It was an emotional one. And if I've ever learned anything about investing, it's that emotions and investing really don't mix well. Obviously, I didn't want to arrive at that conclusion because, yeah, it would be a lot easier just to keep everything as is. Not to mention, I grew up in Los Angeles. Real estate is literally what gave me everything that I have today. My first property was a $59,000 house that was filled with trash, and I turned it into something that I was genuinely proud of. On top of that, up until recently, the buy and hold strategy for real estate has worked really well. But what I didn't account for is the opportunity cost of mental bandwidth, stress, increased restriction, decreased returns, and everything else that goes into running a property. Because here's something that very few people will tell you. Real estate's not passive. Even with a property manager, every month, there's something that comes up. It's always just something minor, like a little repair, an inspection, a new city ordinance, things that just take up time. Oh, and here's a really fun one. This actually just happened the other day. I got a rather strongly worded email from a neighbor who says, "My tree is growing too much in their property." Again, it's nothing crazy, but it's just enough to make sure that the neighbor's happy. I keep the peace, and I review quotes to make sure they're a fair price. Actually, you know what? I started calling this is background noise because it's not loud enough to completely stop you from doing anything, but it's a constant hum and distraction that pulls you away from other tasks throughout the day that are often more important. Like making sure you hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't done that already. Yeah, how's that for a transition? Forgot to mention it earlier and it really does help out the entire channel tremendously. As a thank you for doing that, by the way, here's a picture of a pineapple. Anyway, all of this brings me to the real reason I am selling a lot. And uh this is something I've recently come to terms with because over the last two years, I have started to get rid of everything that doesn't serve me anymore. I shut down my coffee company. I've scaled back on YouTube to only post when there's something to say. I sold what I thought was my forever home in Los Angeles. And every single time I have let something go, I immediately feel so much better. And I think the reason for that is clarity. Right now, the thing I value more than anything else is just having the ability to wake up in the morning, have one task to do, be able to give that task my 100% attention for the best possible outcome. And I'm not able to do that when I'm constantly bombarded by 24/7 texts and emails, properties scattered throughout Los Angeles with their own set of needs. And when the ROI just isn't there, it's time to recognize when to let them go. Like I've started to realize that sometimes simplicity isn't just nice to have. It's the foundation for a happy life. For instance, when there is too much going on, my work suffers. I am less creative. My decision-m goes downhill. And you wind up suffering because I'm not able to deliver as much as I could have. So, in terms of why I'm about to list even more for sale, what I'm doing with the money, my plan going forward, and maybe how you could apply some of these to your life as well. Here's what you came for. Although before we go into that, the biggest changes aren't necessarily what I'm investing in or what I'm selling, but rather being able to remove any unnecessary friction, whether that's in business, properties, or even things going on in the background that you don't even think about, like your personal data being bought and sold online. Data brokers are literally collecting your information without you even being aware of it. This is the reason you're suddenly inundated with spam phone calls, emails, fishing attempts. I mean, just look at this. It's insane. Thankfully though, there is a way to do something about this, and it's all thanks to our sponsor, Incogn. For those unaware, they're able to reach out to data brokers on your behalf, request that your personal information be taken down, and then deal with any objections that those websites or data brokers might have. Then from there, since data brokers continue collecting your information even after they've removed it, Incogn makes sure your information stays off the market by conducting repeated removal requests. In addition to that, Incogn's unlimited plan now allows you to submit custom links for removal. So, if you find your information plastered on some shady website or leaked online, you could copy and paste that exact link, send it to Incogn, and their team will work to get it taken down for you. Even better, you could submit as many of these links as you want. Look, the way I see it, the more your personal information gets bought and sold online, the bigger the target you are for scams, fishing attempts, targeted attacks, you name it. So, by removing your information from these databases, you're finally able to regain back your privacy. All you got to do to get started is to click the link down below in the description or visit incogn.com/gram and use the code grammar at checkout to get 60% off an annual plan. They're also available risk- free for 30 days. So, anyone could try it out and give it a shot and then get a full refund if you're not 100% satisfied. Again, there's no reason not to try this out. So, click the link down below, use the code Graham, enjoy. Thank you so much. Now, let's get back to the video. All right. So, in terms of why I'm about to list two more properties, what I'm doing with the money, and my plan going forward, here's the truth. And no, before anyone asks, I'm not panic selling. These are well-maintained properties. I've got great tenants who've been there for years, and they're priced to move into a market that frankly has been starting to soften. The reality is inventory is up quite a lot in Los Angeles. Buyers have a lot more room to negotiate. And I think it's better just to sell now at what I would consider to be a fair price than wait to sell. and try to squeeze out a little more in the future. By doing this, I could invest my equity into the markets immediately, make more than I could holding on to the real estate without any work, and all of a sudden, I've bought back my time, by getting rid of unnecessary mental energy. However, I think the part that's hardest for me to admit here is that by selling off these properties, in a way, I feel like I'm giving up my identity because for the longest time, real estate was my thing. It's where I built my career. It's what I started this channel with. I was the guy who bought the worst houses on the block and turned them into something nice. So, walking away from that feels pretty weird, even though I'm telling myself I'm just doing something different. Not to mention, as I've started to realize, the things that get you here aren't necessarily going to be the same things that get you there. And holding on to something, just because it was a part of your story doesn't mean it has to be a part of your future, if that makes sense. Honestly, I think a lot of people struggle with this. Whether it's a career, a business, a relationship, we wrap our identities around things that no longer serve us anymore because we've had so much invested in it. Our identities are wrapped up in these things and they become comfortable and easy to maintain. But psychologists call this the sunk cost fallacy. And I'm a perfect example of this when it comes to real estate. But before we go into what I'm doing with this money once they sell, I just want to say something because I don't want this video to come off as, oh, he's just complaining about buying real estate. Like, I get how it sounds. I hate how it sounds. So, bear with me. There's a million videos on YouTube calling real estate passive income. And in very certain circumstances, it can be. But when the environment is pushing capital away instead of inviting it in, that money has to go somewhere. Well, the reality is, at least in Los Angeles and really throughout California as a whole, there's a massive housing crisis and the policies that are supposed to fix it are in many cases making it worse. You have rent control that is so restrictive that landlords are more incentivized to keep their units empty than rent them out. You have a permitting process that's so slow and unpredictable that building a single unit takes 9 months instead of three. You have inspections where inspectors have entire lists that contradicts the person before them. Let's be real, that's not helping tenants. That's discouraging people who would gladly add more inventory to the market if they had the ability to do so. I've said this before, but the only way to solve the housing problem and help tenants out at the same time as helping landlords and developers is to simply allow them to add more housing. You don't get that by punishing the people who are willing to build it. You get it by incentivizing private development and creating a system where if someone wants to go and invest a lot of money into a city, the system is designed to encourage and help those people, not make it even harder. Now, California has certainly made some progress with recent ADU legislation, and there are people in local governments who absolutely understand what's going on and want to fix it. But the gap right now between policy and execution is just enormous. And until that's fixed, you're going to continue seeing people like me who would gladly add more inventory under the market, gladly never have to raise rents on tenants, gladly be a part of the solution, leave, and the money is going to go elsewhere. It's just the reality. So, where does that leave me? Well, besides my voice going out from filming for so long, the idea of just listing these properties for sale, getting them off my shoulders, and just being able to focus 100% of my time elsewhere is incredibly freeing. And then I could take that money, and I'm planning to invest it in a mix of tax-free muns, the S&P 500, international and emerging stocks, and then a little bit of a Bitcoin ETF just for a little extra diversification since prices are down a lot since why not. This way I could basically recreate the rental income I used to make except without any of the headaches, property taxes, insurance renewals, and risks of fire and earthquakes, which is also nice. Mentally for me, it's just a luxury to be able to wake up in the morning and being able to focus 100% of my attention on a few core tasks that I could do to the best of my ability. Like right now, that's putting a lot of time into the podcast, the ice coffee hour, where we're traveling a lot and we're trying to post five times a month instead of four. I've also started a private group of entrepreneurs that meets every single quarter in person to share ideas. And then I've also been posting extra videos for channel members that are just too niche to post to a broad YouTube audience, like buying some alternative investments, including this original first episode signed sale of Tommy Pickles from Rugrats. I was able to buy this for only about $200, at which price, like I can't see how this wouldn't be worth more in the future. So yeah, if you want bonus content and early access to everything that I post, feel free to join as a channel member and I think you'll like it. Plus, I just really enjoy creating more personal style videos like this that hopefully you enjoy watching and find helpful. Because here's the truth. I wouldn't be here making these videos talking to you. None of this would have existed without all of your support over these last nine years. I started posting here to share my journey, talk about what I found interesting, and maybe someone finds it helpful. I never could have imagined almost 10 years later, we'd be sitting here at over 5 million subscribers. It's crazy. So, if there's one takeaway, it's this. If you're on the fence about trying something new, it's absolutely worth it to go ahead and try it. Take the risk because if I didn't do that 10 years ago, I would never have posted a YouTube video. And I highly recommend if you're thinking about starting that business idea, especially now with everything going on with AI, please just go and start it. Make this your push. Please. I just I promise your worst case scenario is that you wind up back where you are today, except you have additional experience. Like that's it. So, you may as well just go and do it. And second, if you're an investor and you're thinking about whether or not you should be selling your own rental properties, here's my honest advice. run the numbers, factor in the stress, and determine if the returns justify the cost. And I'm not just talking about financial cost. I'm talking about mental cost, the stress cost. That's usually the one that nobody calculates, and it's also the one that really matters the most. If the math doesn't add up, consider selling. And if it does, then by all means, keep it. And then every year or so, just recalculate. Determine whether or not it's worth it for you. And no matter what, hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't done that already. So, with that said, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. I appreciate everyone watching these videos, commenting down below for the YouTube algorithm, all that stuff. Really appreciate it. I will do my best to read and respond to as many of your comments as I can. Thank you again and until next