Australia’s Most Accomplished Real Estate Coach with Ivan Brescic – EP 190

Justin Donald: What’s up, Ivan? Good to have you on the show.

Ivan Brescic: Great to be here. Thanks for having me along, Just.

Justin Donald: Yeah, this is awesome. Well, you and I, we got a chance to get to know one another at the gym. We work out at the same place. There’s a sauna, one of those barrel saunas. And we were in there and just started talking and really hit it off. And from that point on, I feel like our workout schedule was similar. We’d see each other in the gym a lot. You had me over to your place for your sauna/cold plunge circuit that you do. And we’ve just really created a fun and new friendship. And so, I thought it’d be fun to tell your story on the show.

Ivan Brescic: Thanks, man. I think, I heard once, they said it’s good to be the dumbest person in the room. And when I’m around you, I feel that. So, it’s probably the more I hang around you, the better.

Justin Donald: Well, that’s super kind. But what I will tell you is I have found that in every person that I have on this show and every person that I meet and hang out with, I learn something. And it’s generally pretty cool stuff, stuff that I don’t know. People are so brilliant and they’re so smart in their own niche, their own industry, their own track. And I just want a glimpse of what that looks like. And your story is really cool because you’re not from the US. You live here in the US now, but you started a business out in Australia and you became really kind of like one of the premier people in real estate and in the brokerage industry. And you are able to live just this killer lifestyle.

So, sometimes I bring people on because I want to talk about business and entrepreneurship. And sometimes I want to bring them on because I want to talk investing and strategy, and sometimes I want to bring them on because I want to talk story and life and the hacks that they’ve figured out. And in your case, we could talk about all three of them because you’ve done very well in each of them. But more over than anything, you have a really cool lifestyle, and I’d love for people to hear it, hear how you prioritize it because anyone that is looking in from the outside is like, man, I wish I had a life like Ivan.

Ivan Brescic: Oh, I don’t know, Justin. I appreciate the kind words. Yeah, oh, look, the brokerage business, for those who don’t know, the real estate brokerage business can be an amazing business if you’re in the top 5% or 10%. So, for every day, real estate brokers around the country, whether in the US or Australia, it’s pretty tough. But if you can crack the top 5% or 10%, it pays very well. And so, I was fortunate to get into the real estate business at a young age in Sydney, Australia. For those who don’t know, the Australian real estate market, it’s like a pot of gold. It’s something that they talk about at dinner, breakfast, lunch. It’s a topic of conversation everywhere. House prices are very high. So, I was lucky to get into the industry at a young age, and I did a good 23 years as a broker and an owner of a brokerage, which is pretty well-known brokerage in Sydney, which still operates today, Just.

Justin Donald: That’s awesome. And how old were you when you got started?

Ivan Brescic: I started straight out of school in Australia, which is about 18 years old. My father had a bad accident. He got burnt. And I think that grew me up very quickly to take my professional life quite serious. When most 18-year-olds would be having fun, it grew me up very quickly because he was incapacitated to work. So, I feel into real estate. I wasn’t good at anything else. And I just enjoyed it. I didn’t really think about the money. I actually just loved serving people. I was earning $500 a week in my first job back in 1996 or ‘97. And I worked through a premier real estate company in Sydney, which became a national brand.

We sold that after a few years, I had some great mentors around me. We sold a lot in the inner city suburbs. And there was an agent there who I looked up to. We started doing a lot of deals together. So, then we set out and started our own brokerage called BrescicWhitney, which was my surname and his surname. The business grew. We went from three of us to 15 of us to at its peak, it was nearly 150 staff in Sydney. It was across five officers. We had some of Sydney’s best brokers and some of the country’s best brokers. And you’re talking commissions, like if you’re a good broker, if you’re in that top 5% of brokerage in Australia, you’re basically writing between $3 million and $10 million in commission fees per year. So, it’s a very lucrative business if you crack the top 1% or 2%.

Justin Donald: Wow. Now, Sydney is a much different market than most of Australia. I mean, that’s kind of like if you’re going to be somewhere, that’s the place to be, at least on the real estate front, right?

Ivan Brescic: Correct, yep. Good one. Sydney would be the equivalent of New York City to America. So, that’s the real business capital of Australia, the highest average sale price, the most competitive real estate market. So, it’s kind of like the New York or Los Angeles or, yeah, in some ways, the Miami now of America.

Justin Donald: Okay. And so, when you are building this, so how old were you when you started your own brokerage? You got into the business right out of school, and then you work for another firm and then you’re like, you know what? I know this stuff. I could do this. I’ll do it on my own. Let me start my own brokerage.

Ivan Brescic: Yeah, good question. We start in 2003 called BrescicWhitney. It was our own brand. We didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but we were good brokers. And we worked damn hard, like you see what my lifestyle is now. But what you haven’t seen is the 18 years of 6 a.m. rises, 12 or 13-hour days. I should say the real estate brokerage, yes, it is lucrative if you crack the top 5%, but you’re also talking, your phone never stops, Justin, so you’re on call seven days a week. So, that’s what it was like.

We sell real estate different down under to what we do here in Texas and in America. It’s very different. We have an auction system, but always doing 100 sales a year for probably about 15 years. And during that time, I became an executive. I do a lot of coaching, a lot of mentoring because it became more about the business than my own personal sales. And along the way, you invest in predominantly residential real estate because that’s what I knew.

Justin Donald: Right. So, it’s interesting. So, you had the brokerage, but you became a household name, right? BrescicWhitney, like, people wanted to emulate what you were doing, modeled their business off of you, whether it be realtor or whether it be brokerage. And so, you started this coaching program parallel. And I’m curious, is that one that you did on your own? Or was that so partnered with your business partner on the brokerage side? And how did that end up doing compared to the brokerage?

Ivan Brescic: Yeah, I think it’s completely independent. So, I made a decision as I was nearing 40 years old. I’d been in real estate now 22 or 23 years. I’d made millions of dollars in selling houses and through dividends through the business, plus the value of the business had also grown. So, my wife, Texan, who I met in Los Angeles, who lived in Australia with me for a few years as I was nearing 40, I was kind of feeling like I was overworked. I’d lost the passion for selling houses. My net worth had obviously grown to a level where I felt I could probably do some other things here rather than sell houses seven days a week. I really was thinking about my health. We’re all going to die one day, so I love creating wealth. But I’m also interested in, well, is that all it was going to be, like selling houses till I’m 70 and then retire? And if it was, then I wanted to take my check and move on.

So, with that, I made a decision to sell out of the business, exit BrescicWhitney, which, by the way, still runs, and they’re still an extremely successful business in Sydney, Australia today. I’m still friends with a lot of the guys back there, my former founder, but I got a really nice check at the end of it. As most people, you feel like you’re underpaid. You feel like you could always be more, but it was a generous sized check, which I’d worked hard for. I then took that, and then my wife and I moved back to the States because we wanted to start a family and she was from here, and I was interested in living a different life.

Justin Donald: Yeah. That’s awesome. And so, that’s really, I guess, when the coaching business began because you had this opportunity. So, you’ve got cash in hand, you’ve done well. Your net worth has grown over the years. You’ve been getting distributions every year. You get a big check at the end to kind of cut ties, get you out of the grind, I’ll call it, which most people, at some point, the grind catches them, right? And they’re burnout and they want to move on. They want to move up to maybe what they would consider higher quality work or less demanding on your time type of work. And so, you pivoted to coaching. You work with a lot of people. I think primarily, your biggest client base is still in Australia, right?

Ivan Brescic: That’s right, yeah. I think, I read this thing that said that it’s not burnout that gets people. It’s a lack of passion. Because if you’re really passionate about something, you work 16 hours a day. So, I think I’d lost the passion for selling homes. I didn’t want to be doing that at 50. I thought If I’m still doing this at 50 years old, that’s not a great life. And that for me, even if it meant more money, that was not something that I was prepared to sacrifice. So, you’re right. I sold out of the business, I exited, I moved to the States just before COVID. I had some options. I thought, the real estate market was such– as we spoke about, was so good that decade.

So, I had some options to flip houses, buy lots of smaller property and manage them. Any type of sales role, I could have been quite competent at, but I just naturally fell back into what I knew, which was guiding and helping. And predominantly, real estate brokers in Australia is where my brand is, Australia is where I’m known, and that was the lowest hanging fruit. And thanks to technology, like today, that was an easy, easy transition into advising and coaching. Here we are, five years later I’m still doing the same thing.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And it’s nice because when we spoke last, you had said, “Hey, coaching covers all my bills and then some.” So, life is good. You make great money. You haven’t had to dip into the exit dollars, the money that you’ve accumulated, your net worth. So, your net worth is not dropping. When a lot of people sell their company, what we find is very normal with them is they go from being the richest person, having the most money they’ve ever had to actually these feelings of scarcity and feeling like they’re the poorest that they’ve ever been because their money dwindles every time they spend it. So, now the bank account or the investment accounts become less and less until they figure out how to cover their lifestyle expenses.

And so, it’s a fascinating experience where someone goes from being truly the wealthiest they have ever been in their life, but feeling at the same time like they don’t have enough money. That money is dwindling every day, every week, every month. And so, what’s nice about you is you have your coaching business that covers all that, so you don’t have to worry about that. You can keep growing that net worth. But what I’d love to talk about are some of the, like, I would call them successes that you’ve had, yet failures also. Like, on the investment front, on the business front, I’d love to get into, for our audience, what have you done well that people should copy and what have you totally messed up that people should just listen to you and not make the same mistakes?

Ivan Brescic: Yeah, there are some good ones. I think there’s a lot that I could share that’s probably not worth enough that you shouldn’t do rather than what you should do. Look, being a residential broker and with the strength of the Australian real estate market, it was a good avenue for me to create wealth because we knew the type of property to buy. We could manage it through the business and 5 or 10 years were passed by. And as you know, the capital growth grows. And so, it was a good way to build wealth.

So, I think there’s a shadow to that. One is it’s great to build it, but then I’m not really diversifying across other asset classes. So, I think that was a good– for the first 20 years, I think residential real estate really served me well. Finding the last five or seven years, my tunnel vision for residential single-family homes, if you want to call it, that’s what you call it here in the US, as you know, I was taking a bit of a beating in the last couple of years, especially here in Austin. So, I think my lack of diversities probably cost me the last few years, but it was certainly great for the first 20 years.

I think also, when you’re making good cash, like I was in sales commissions, it’s very easy to go, oh, there’s some shares that we should buy because I heard it. So, you go buy some shares of $100,000 worth of shares, and in two months live, they’re worth $50,000. So, that dropped in fee, it dropped in value 50%. So, there was a few of those along the way. I think in the business from a business sense, we overinvested in the business when I look back at it. I actually think it probably could have been more profitable over those 20 years, and we probably could have taken more dividends over those years and what have you.

I think now, I’ve never seen an interest rate market like this. I’m 45 years old. So, it’s like for the 25 years that I was in real estate, Justin, the interest rates have always been under 3%, pretty much. So, now, this interest rate market, whether you’re in Australia or whether in the US, I’ve never had to participate as a landlord. As the investor, I’ve never had to participate in this. So, this has definitely thrown, we say, a cat amongst the pigeons in Australia. It’s really made me consider, well, what is my wealth creation plan?

And to your point, yes, I took an exit of the business check and it was great. I think that’s a pretty scary thing to move from a high salary or high commission per year. To move away from that, to not know what’s next, it was pretty daunting, I must say. But I also wasn’t happy. So, the cost of me to take that and just try is as daunting as that was, was kind of exciting because staying in a high paying job that I didn’t enjoy that was eating away at me. So, for me, it was a really easy decision to go in. I have had to work on my craft in the coaching space. I spent a lot of time reading, meeting great people like yourself, looking at other asset classes, sitting back, watching. Since I’ve been here, I’ve invested in California, Texas, and Florida. That’s been quite interesting because they’re all a little bit different, as you know. So, there’s been some do’s and don’ts. I don’t know if that covers it, but…

Justin Donald: Oh, that’s great.

Ivan Brescic: I’m still trying to figure it out, Justin.

Justin Donald: Oh, it’s awesome to just hear some of the shares that you’ve had and what you’re willing to talk about. And I think about what’s cool is you looked the money that you’re making a lot of money right in the eyes and said, you know what? I don’t need you anymore. I’ve got things that are more important than you, I’m going to move. I’m going to make less, at least to start out because that’s unknown, but I’m going to do it because I don’t want to be a slave to the money anymore and I don’t want to be a slave to the job or the business anymore.

And I think most entrepreneurs become a slave to their business and they have a hard time leaving. They’re totally shackled. And those that are not entrepreneurs, they most certainly are a slave to their job, to the position they have, to the corporate ladder and moving up. And so, most people, they become that slave, they become that– it’s the golden handcuffs, whether it’s due to the money, due to being used to the lifestyle, due to safety and security, something. And I love that you were able to break free because that is hard. There’s a mental aspect to it, but there’s also a physical, experiential part of, like, you’re just going to make less money, most likely at the beginning at least. And you have to kind of, in your case, man up to that and then just pull the trigger anyway, right?

Ivan Brescic: Yeah. Because if you think about it, in 2019, I would have made the equivalent of about 2 million Australian dollars in commissions that year and through the business, which is equivalent to about $1.3, $1.4 US. And I said to myself, if I can just find a new job or a new vocation, a new career, whatever, in the US and make a couple hundred thousand, I’ll be happy. And so, I had psychologically prepared myself for that. As it turned out, my first year, I probably did earn 150,000 or 200,000. But the coaching business year on year has improved. It’s been great for me because it allows me to only work about 25 hours a week, and I put a big value on time, particularly now that I’m off well into my 40s. I have a two-year-old son. Time with my family and time in my health and time to just chill, like before our interview, I meditated for half an hour. I don’t have those pressures that I had for 25 years.

And I’ve got to say, I won’t take that back. People have said, “Oh, are you sure you made the right decision later in the business? You built 20 years of building the business and then you leave.” And I said, I got to say, “Starting it was the best thing I ever did because it made me wealthy and I enjoyed it. But also, selling out and moving to this next phase of my life was the second best thing I’ve ever done.” So, it’s not for everyone, but I certainly understand why people don’t want to leave their high paying job because it’s scary. And as we make more money, we also have higher spending habits. And that unknown, it’s uncomfortable for people, but I got to say, I’ve been through it and I’m glad I went through it. And it does take courage. But now, the lifestyle, which when we started, you said you’ve got a great lifestyle, I have a fantastic lifestyle. I’ve created that and I’m lucky that I made those millions and I had those properties. Certainly, could have more, could have less. But I have gratitude for what I have each day, so yeah.

Justin Donald: Well, I love it. And I definitely want to get into some lifestyle talk today. But before we do that, it’s so admirable that you were able to pull the trigger there because that is really tough. Our stories are very similar and the fact that I got to a point where my passive income exceeded what I was earning, both from a business standpoint and from, like, I had a business that had a lot of independent contractor pay, 1099 pay. And so, my friends were like, “Hey, you’re going to leave that, you’re going to stop doing that just because you have the passive income, like, are you crazy? You could double up. You’d make twice as much.” And I said, “The goal for me has never been to make more money. The goal for me is to completely own my time. So, I don’t need more money. I need more time.” And so, I love that you’re able to do that. I love that you prioritize that. And so, same thing for me, I just had to figure out how do I cover our expenses? I don’t need more than that.

Now, the irony, which I know you’ve experienced this as well, is once you have time, it’s amazing all the stuff you can think of and all the ways that you can figure out how to compound wealth, make more money, do all these things because I make way more today than I ever did than by a landslide. And it’s really because I have the time and the space. And like you said, 25 hours or so is the perfect cadence or time for you. You had 25 to 30. I’m the same way. I can’t not work. Working is fun, but I want it to be on my terms, my schedule, when I want to work, doing things that I really enjoy. And I think, if I can pick my cadence, which for me is like Tuesday, Thursday. I love working Tuesday, Thursday. And then I love having extended weekends with family and friends and travel and all the things that we’ve talked about. But if I can have the cadence that I want in a meaningful subject matter or material with people that I love being around, I’m going to work till the day I die. 100%.

Ivan Brescic: Yeah. Look, I think in your 30s, and you may have thought the same thing, in your 30s, you don’t really think about the fact that we might not live forever. You’re just having a good time and you’re trying to make as much money as you can, but I found that from 35 to 40, I was really considering my life. The more I read on stoicism and some other things and I thought, well, hang on, there’s no guarantee that we’re going to be here in 3 years, 5 years, 15 years, or 30 years. That really changed and shifted my way of thinking and how I wanted to design my life. Did you consider that? Do you consider your life span? And I mean, you must if you think about time.

Justin Donald: Yeah, 100%. When I was grinding it out. And by the way, like you, I put in crazy hours. I work seven days a week. I did the whole entrepreneurial track. And for me, I’m glad that I did that because I know if I ever needed to find that work ethic again, I could find it. I use that work ethic differently, more strategically, more in focused time frames with a lot of good boundaries and guardrails around my time. So, I’m glad that I’ve utilized and built those muscles and those skills.

But at the same time, I remember thinking, in my 30s, I’m working way too many hours. This is not sustainable. When I have a family, I can’t be like this. This is going to be a detriment to them. So, I need to recognize that this is a season. I want it to be a short season, and I want to figure out how to get out of this season where the business still hums even without me putting in these hours. And if that’s not the case, if I can’t do it, then I need to transition out of this business and find something that I can do that with.

Ivan Brescic: Yeah. Well done. I mean, I see that you’ve created a really good lifestyle and the fact that you work three-day or you focus on three-day-a-week workweeks, I mean, there’s something to be said now about time. Like, you can go work more hours and maybe make more money, but what are you going to do with that in the end? A lot of people say to me, or I put two people, if you could have $20 million and be unfit, so not healthy, so overweight, or whatever you want to call it, whatever that is, or if you could have $5 million or $3 million or $7 million and be fit and healthy, which one would you take? I would take the less money and be fit and healthy because I want to live for a long time and live well. And you can’t, as you know, I mean, we both train at the same gym, you can’t buy a good body. It’s not something you can. You can’t become really successful or CEO who will sell a company for $200 million and buy something that’s just going to give you a fit body that you’re proud of. So, I turned 46 this year, and I’d say my health and fitness goals are, if not, more important than my wealth creation goals, but they’re certainly on the same path. They just as important as each other.

Justin Donald: Yeah. And I love that you’re focused on that. And for the record, you are one of the fittest people that I know, one of the fittest people at our gym. And there are a lot of youngsters, a lot of very fit people, so you’ve got great competition. And you and I, we’re in there, we’re hitting it hard. We’re hanging out afterwards. We’re both getting injured doing the stuff that we do as well. Not necessarily always from lifting, but just as you get older, things happen. You can’t do stuff the way that you used to do them. So, I know you just got over an injury. I’m battling three torn ligaments in my ankle playing volleyball, not lifting.

But at the same time, it’s such a great reminder of, like, oh, man, health is so important when you don’t have it– you can take it so for granted. When you don’t have it, you’re like, oh, I miss what it was like just to walk normal or to go play sports or to go ride a bike. But that’s why it’s important that we continue this. And I’m curious if you could outline what it is that you do, I think a lot of people get value from hearing what your routine looks like to stay as fit as you stay, like, from a working standpoint, working out, supplements, everything, cold plunging, sauna, all the stuff that we’ve done together. I’d love for people to hear what you’re doing because you’ve got the hack. You’re almost 46 and you look like you could be 25.

Ivan Brescic: Thank you. That’s a very nice compliment. I think the health journey is just like creating wealth. There are so many similarities. Like, it doesn’t happen overnight. As you know, it’s incremental, like little shifts. It’s sharpening the sword always. I’ve always been in my health and fitness, but I can say that as I’ve got in my 40s, I’m actually healthier and fitter than I was in my 30s and 20s. But there’s so much information available now.

But if I was to summarize it short that I could quickly for the group, I would say there’s kind of four or five main things, and this is what I coach as well for a lot of my brokers. And you got to remember, a lot of my brokers are making 3, 5. I have a broker who does $9 million a year in Sydney, who’s my number one broker, who’s the number two in Australia. And it’s interesting, so many things that I talk about, I’m trying to encourage these guys who are in high pressure roles, like lots of money, lots of cash, or lots of pretax money, on how they can really perform better. That’s really what I’m interested in. So, that’s why the health and fitness goes hand in hand with wealth creation and sales and so on.

To keep it simple, resistance training, I think, is a must. So, we need to build muscle, particularly as we get older. That’s number one. Diet and nutrition is a big one. So, what’s in your fridge? What are we eating? How much water are we consuming? Fruit, veggies, animal-based diet, that’s where I’ve been for the last several years. Supplements, which I think are important, whether it’s provitamins, it’s zinc, it’s magnesium, whatever, some supplements. Rest, which is a big one, which I encourage a lot of people. I mean, sleep is really important. The science is there. We need to be having at least seven hours a night, good sleep too, good quality sleep. So, that’s important. Certainly, some cardio. I don’t do a lot of it, but walking around this morning on the bike, that’s important.

So, I think, the big shift for me, Just, was about two and a half years ago. I eliminated the alcohol completely. So, I wasn’t a big drinker, but I knew it didn’t serve me even the two glasses of wine or the three beers. I knew it, Justin. So, I mean, Justin, it counteracted what I was interested in. So, when my wife was pregnant, when she stopped drinking, I said, I’m going to stop drinking as well. And I never went back. That has been one of the biggest life hacks. That’s where I’ve seen the most gains. That’s why my sleep’s gotten better. And this is all while I’ve had a one-year-old and a two-year-old, which we know is difficult to get good sleep.

So, I think they’re kind of the main ones. I think for busy people, busy, productive people, holidays, you just have to holiday, you have to take breaks. You have to pack a bag, leave your home, leave your environment, leave your routine and just go somewhere. It doesn’t matter where you go, whether it’s an expensive holiday or it’s to Mexico for a few days or whatever it is. I think holidays are really a good thing to reset. Then there’s the other things too, which is the recovery, which you mentioned. So, you and I sauna. We ice bath. I get a massage every two weeks. I get a foot massage every other week, yeah, those little things. And then like today, for example, I did yoga. So, I love yoga. I’ve been doing yoga for a couple of years now. So, I know it sounds like a lot, but a lot of it becomes habit. And you got to remember, I’m only working 25 hours a week in this format on online, so I kind of prioritize those things.

And interestingly, when you don’t drink, you sleep better, you have more hours in the day. I meditate daily, which gives me more energy. And so, that’s kind of where I balance. So, I am cognizant that I do have more time than most professionals. So, I can’t say go spend four hours a day on your health and fitness because that’s just not possible. But if they’ve got an hour, they should be spending that in the right times and then on weekends, that should be recovery. So, well, I keep it really simple. The science is there. And for everyone who’s on its own social media, it’s pretty easy to find out what works and what doesn’t, even though it does get confusing at times, the messaging.

Justin Donald: Yeah, that is such a great summary. And we couldn’t agree more. And I’m just going to go out on a limb here because I know we’re going to have a bunch of people that listen to this and say, “Wow, I’d love to learn more from you.” I have a funny feeling that even though your primary client base are realtors in Australia, specifically, likely in Sydney, I think you probably have a market of potential clients that you haven’t even tapped into yet that are working in various different industries, that all the same lessons, all the same tactics and strategies apply to just perfectly. Even though your background is in real estate, I actually don’t think the skills that you have to share are limited to just that industry. So, I’m just saying that we’ll see what happens as things evolve. But I could see you getting into a lot of different spaces.

Ivan Brescic: Yeah, well, it’s funny you say that. A real estate broker is a lifestyle decision. And so, if you think about it, if I’m advising, then it’s a bit like life coaching because– so you’re saying, well, I think there’s a lot of people out there who need some life coaching.

Justin Donald: That’s right.

Ivan Brescic: They earn good income or they want to perform better at work. What can I do outside work? Or how can I handle that stress, money problems, whatever it is? So, in some ways, I am a life coach to the real estate industry, and I’ve had other people. My sister’s very successful in the fashion business, and I’m regularly advising her. So, I hear what you say. Health and fitness and lifestyle come into it, definitely.

Justin Donald: Well, there’s no doubt. And what I also love about you is you are not only making decisions that are best for your lifestyle, I mean, cutting out alcohol, focusing on all these other things that we’re talking about, but you’re also then living lifestyle in the place that you call home. And so, I’ve been in your home. You have a gorgeous home. Your home is at one of the highest points here in Austin, overlooks the city, overlooks just beautiful green belts and green area. The view, the home is strikingly beautiful. The views are breathtaking. And so, you are maximizing not just the investing that you’re doing, but the lifestyle that you can live as well. So, I just want to recognize that and share that with you because I think sometimes people get caught up in this idea that they can’t have their dream house or they can’t splurge in that area of their life.

And if you do it right, you can invest in a way where it can actually be good on the scorecard, if you will, on your personal financial balance sheet, but you’re also able to get good quality life. It’s great for entertaining. It’s great for your own mental and physical healing. And you’ve done that really well.

Ivan Brescic: Thank you. Yeah, that was important. I mean, we moved from California. I lived in the hills in a beautiful home. But the attraction to Austin was the lifestyle component. The outdoors, like you said, it’s really green. It’s peaceful where I live. There’s no traffic, there’s no airplanes. I can think. I spent a lot of time reading. I’ll read about 30 odd books a year, which is something that I’m really passionate about. So, this is the ideal place where I’m farther away from downtown, but close enough to downtown if I need it.

Justin Donald: Yeah, that’s amazing.

Ivan Brescic: Thanks, mate.

Justin Donald: So, what I would say is you’ve got a great life. You figured a lot of things out. I hope there are people today that can take from you some of these lessons, some of these habits and implement them into their life. So, thank you for sharing all that you’ve shared. Where can people find out more about you and learn about what you have going on?

Ivan Brescic: Just before we finish, Just, I mean, I have invested in residential real estate here in the US. And like I said, that’s been a pretty turbulent time the last couple of years. So, I would say that half of the properties that I bought are worth less than what I paid for them. So, in terms of investment or that channel, that wealth creation channel, I wouldn’t say that that was the most wisest thing. But now, I think, I mean, I have to hold on and hope that in time that they’re going to appreciate. And I guess I’m a kind of passive real estate investor now.

They haven’t jumped into the sky, but I guess, like my health and fitness, I guess, you take it. Markets go up and down just like everything. And I guess I hope I hold on, I don’t go and panic sell. And I hope that in time that that portfolio of several, I just closed on another one, number nine, appreciating value over the years, but I think it could be a little while with those interest rates.

Anyway, to answer your question, I’ve got a website. It’s probably the best way. Just my name, IvanBrescic.com. They can contact me there. I’m happy to help. I hope it’s been of use, but I’ve certainly got more to learn than to teach, I think.

Justin Donald: Well, you’re so humble. I love hearing that. And by the way, we could do an episode just on this stuff. I mean, it’s so much fun for me, but you’re right. We’re in an interesting season, an abnormally high interest rate season. However, if you look at globally of the US and interest rates, it’s actually not that high. It’s just really high as of the last, what, 20 years or so. And so, the fascinating thing about it is a lot of people are in trouble or they’re going to be in trouble because they didn’t use the right type of debt. They use floating rates, variable rates, no rate caps, short terms, bridge loans, didn’t lock in long-term rates with good fixed rates and term. It’s tough seeing what is happening and what’s going to continue to happen.

But what I’m going to say is it’s an opportunity for many of us. And if you’re not forced to sell, in the long run, it’s going to work out. You just have to be able to sit on it. If you’ve got enough cash flow, that’s why I always tell people I love cash flow, de-risked any deal, because if you have enough cash flow, you’re never forced to sell. You can sit it out and you can just wait and you can time the market. And I think that’s fantastic. A lot of people don’t have that luxury. They’re going to be forced to sell. But then those of us sitting on the sidelines waiting for a good opportunity, we’re likely going to see a lot more opportunities in the next few years. So, just want to put that on everyone’s radar.

Ivan Brescic: Yeah, right. Now, fantastic. I know, I completely agree with you. Like, I considered selling one or two of the properties in Austin that I bought recently, and I just had them looked at by two brokers. And both brokers gave the potential sale prices of 10% less than what I paid. And to your point, it was like, well, I don’t need to. At least, certainly, I have to add to them each month a little bit, which I’m in a fortunate position where I can to cover the interest rates because the rent doesn’t cover the interest rates and tax. But yeah, look, I think panic selling is not something that I want to do. And I guess, they’re the decision I made, I’ll hold on tight, and wait for better days, Justin.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Better days will come at some point. But the other thing is the other point to evaluate is 10%. So, for example, let’s say, I’ve got a traditional IRA, I can pay a penalty of 10% to get that money out. I can roll it over into a Roth IRA. I mean, there are things I can do where I have to say, “Hey, short term, I take a 10% hit. Long term, is there the likelihood that I’m going to actually do better, make more money?” And I think in that scenario all day, every day. And so, if you’re in a position where you can hold out on real estate, that may make the most sense. But for someone that really, like in your case, you don’t have to sell because you have the means to cover it. But at whatever point, you just don’t want the mental stress or burden of feeling like you always have to cover it to take a 10% hit, to just get rid of something, to get a bunch of cash, so you can take a loss, but it can make you more in the long run. That actually could be the right play in the future. And I think it’s good for people to consider that too and not feel like you should only sell if you’re making money. Sometimes taking a 10% hit to make 20%, 30%, 40% more in something else is totally worth it.

Ivan Brescic: Yeah, it’s a good point. I’ve actually sold a couple of properties and lost over the years because I just wore the loss on and you move on. But I think it’s a really interesting time we’re in because we spoke about in the sauna, like you’ve got between property tax tenants that sometimes don’t pay rent or can be, I just fixed it, I had a repair yesterday, which I fixed on one of the small houses, a $500 plumbing repair. So, they mount up. So, it’s not as attractive as what it was in the 2000s. And the 2010 decade probably was fantastic because you knew that as you slept and as months went by, the asset was just appreciating.

Now, the cost to hold these assets is going up. The chance of capital growth over the next five years is certainly low with those interest rates. So, for someone like me, it’s a really interesting time because that’s all I’ve ever known. So, really, I love talking to you and others about what are the other asset classes, what are the returns, what are the risks, and kind of how much, what’s the upkeep amount, how much hassle is there, because being a single-family home owner, like I do, I have several properties, I can tell you it’s pain in the ass.

So, anyway, it’s been a really good conversation. And I’m sure there’s others who are feeling like that right now, but also, certainly, as a broker who’s been in real estate for 25 years, something I know very well, I also know that markets go up and markets go down no matter what you’re in. So, anyway, that’s how it is.

Justin Donald: Well, Ivan, I appreciate you being so open and honest. You’re an open book. And I think it’s cool that sometimes people on podcasts will position and posture, and you’re like, hey, before we end things here today, let me tell you about just life in general, real life and investing and kind of where I’m at. I think that’s so cool. That vulnerability, I think, is probably one of the greatest keys to why you see a lot of repeat business and a lot of people that want to be your clients. And I think that’s really cool.

Ivan Brescic: Thank you.

Justin Donald: So, thanks. I love ending every episode with a simple question to our audience. So, those of you listening, those of you watching, here’s the question. What’s one step that you can take today to move towards financial freedom and move towards living a life that you truly desire that’s on your terms? Most people live a life by default. I really encourage everyone to live a life by design. So, what’s one thing you can take from Ivan today to get you closer to what your ideal life by design is? Thanks, and we’ll catch you next week.