INVEST2FI
Craig Curelop aka The FI Guy
Real estate is undoubtedly one of the most profitable and thriving industries out there - especially if you are looking to achieve financial independence! It offers a wide variety of ways to invest actively and passively. If you are new to real estate investing and FI, and seek the proper guidance from experts, you are in the right place. Welcome to Invest2FI, hosted by Craig Curelop. In this series, we talk with real-life house hackers, real estate (and other!) investors and real people on a mission to become financially independent. Not everybody enjoys working a 9-5 job. No one wants to be stuck in analysis-paralysis feeling unsure how to finally jump into real estate. We teach you how to exit the rat race and work on living the life you want. This is the show for beginners and learners who want to achieve financial freedom through real estate. Whether you want to increase your savings, optimize your expenses, or build a prospering income source, we have helpful solutions. We talk all the tips and tricks for making your very first purchase. We discuss how you can build your skills on this initial transaction to close better deals in the future. This is also a show for techie types who are passionate about crunching numbers and the digital side of operating business and investments. If you are drawn to financial independence, we'll enlighten you with grounded, practical strategies for achieving real estate success. Each of our guests offers creative and practical strategies to begin a real estate investing career. They break down every single investing tactic you can emulate yourself. Receive essential lessons from their experiences as they open up about their real estate journey. They reflect on the moments when they got lucky or proved their intelligence and offer their fair share of “horror” stories too. Guests embrace their vulnerabilities and speak about challenges and failures, explaining how to overcome or avoid them. There is no better host for this podcast that Craig Curelop. His is a living testaments of what you should aspire to be in this industry. Achieving financial independence in his twenties, he take pride in his first-hand experiences through every facet of real estate. Craig specializes in a unique style of real estate investing called house hacking. He literally wrote the book on it: The House Hacking Strategy. This method purchases multi-unit properties and rents them out by portion. Craig is also the lead broker of The FI Team. If you are stuck in an unfulfilling corporate job, let this show bring you far more rewarding opportunities. Craig is your guide to making a major career shift and becoming part of the exciting world of real estate. Do not feel discouraged by the towering paperwork and complex principles. Equip yourself with the right knowledge and strategies, and you are good to go! Whether you are starting an active or passive venture, the key in real estate is proper training and a constant desire for growth. Invest2FI fortifies your confidence and provides you with a smooth, clear path to success. Listen to the podcast today!
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 3, 2021 • 49min
Episode 23 - The House Hacking Fox Of New Jersey With Shawn McEnteer
Commitment and consistency—these are the words that Shawn McEnteer lives by. He stumbled upon BiggerPockets in 2008 and launched into his real estate journey—while learning on the fly! He may have made a few mistakes with his first investment (don’t we all!), but then that’s how we all learn! The experience definitely fueled his desire to do better, and now, he’s a residential real estate specialist based in New Jersey with four properties under his belt and counting!Shawn is the quintessential DIY guy, personally doing the renovations of his properties which are earning him almost $2,000 a month. He’s also a family guy, with four kids and an equally hard-working wife—the whole family throws down on renos! Tune in this week to see things from this investor’s point of view—how he turned bad experiences into learning moments, put in the work, and found the balance between spending time with family and growing the business.
Feb 24, 2021 • 55min
Episode 22 - On The Fast Track To FI With Cody Berman
Cody Berman only lasted seven months in a corporate banking job before he decided that enough was enough. He wanted to live his life now and not decades later, so he jumped into real estate investing and hasn’t looked back!Now, through hustling and frugality, he has three investment properties, an established blog, and he’s cash flow-positive—all before the age of 25.Tune in to this episode to learn how Cody went from learning about early retirement to becoming a financially independent serial entrepreneur. Stop sitting on your ideas, say yes to calculated opportunities, but don’t forget to maximize the good stuff in your life too.
Feb 17, 2021 • 41min
Episode 21 - From Grad School & W2 To House Hacking Success With Chris Gomes
This week Craig Curelop and Zeona McIntyre are joined by Chris Gomes, a mechanical engineer by day who learned about house hacking from us (!) The FI Team by night. We were super impressed with how quickly Chris succeeded with his very first house-hack — rocking it luxury style with his own private unit no less — by keeping a can-do attitude, putting a lot of time into learning so he could do it right, and trusting the process even when the next step seemed impossible!Give a listen to learn from his creativity AND mistakes for yet another great model for how anyone can build a life toward financial independence — even with the W2 and fresh out of grad school!
Feb 10, 2021 • 1h 4min
Episode 20 - Living The Travel Hacker FI Life W' Real Estate Investing NOW - Not Later! With Sarah Weaver
People tend to put a premium on travel, treating it as a reward after years of working hard and saving up. But thirty-year-old Sarah Weaver did the opposite—she’s been traveling the world for a decade AND found a way to sustain it through just two rental properties, credit card hacks, and her real estate business – that’s right, from abroad!In today’s inspiring show, Sarah shares her story: growing up in Kansas City, spending over a decade as a backpacker, still graduating on time, and getting into real estate. She has been working remotely since 2015 as a real estate coach.Stick around for some real estate pointers and credit card hacking 101 from this ambitious investor and self-proclaimed “nomadic vagabond”.
Feb 3, 2021 • 45min
Episode 19 - Success Out The Gate And How He Finally Got Around To House Hacking With Gerardo Hernandez
Age does not define success. And it certainly didn’t stop Gerardo Hernandez from getting into the business at the age of 20 (!) with the help of a mentor and very supportive parents. He also proved that not all entrepreneurs started knowledgeable about the strategies and the secrets of the industry before investing.Gerardo is an entrepreneur who started young in the real estate investing business through his mentor. He is independent and started working as a national guard to pay for his college tuition and got interested in investing until he got lucky by meeting his real estate mentor. Gerardo has a mindset of a successful person. He grabbed every opportunity that came to him, leaned into it, got backed by someone genuine, and researched to learn more about real estate — an unconventional way of doing real estate by buying properties before learning how to do it. He invested, made mistakes, learned more about real estate investing, and corrected his mistakes to be more successful in it. His luck and hard work made him hit financial independence.In this episode, Gerardo will share his story on how he attained financial independence. Listen and enjoy the show!
Jan 27, 2021 • 37min
Episode 18 - An Airbnb OG Who Achieved Financial Independence By 30 With Zeona McIntyre
Today’s show is the debut of the new co-host and Financial Independence guru, Zeona McIntyre, who started small but ended up big in the real estate industry. She got her inspiration from the FI Team shows that guided her throughout her journey.Zeona is a real estate investment mentor who builds her way through the industry by turning Airbnb listings into a cash flow generator. Join Zeona as she shares about herself, her experiences in doing business, and how she finally got her financial independence. Listen and enjoy the show!
Jan 20, 2021 • 56min
Episode 17 - House Hacking Their Way Out Of $100k Of Debt With Low Paying Jobs With Josh And Ali Lupo
If there’s a FI Team that helps investors with real estate investing, there’s also a FI Couple that is on the journey to achieve financial freedom! Introducing Joshua and Ali Lupo: a young power couple house hacked their way out of $100k of debt!Joshua and Ali Lupo were getting married when they realized that they were $100k in debt from student loans. They knew they needed something different when they realized that their 9-5 jobs weren’t going to cut it.So, they are house hacking properties while paying off their debt. Now, they are slowly able to settle their debt, and their cost of living is completely free!Get to know them and relate to their stories as they share the details of their house hacking deals, the mental barriers they’ve overcome, and their favorite weird food combinations! They’ll also share their approach to financial freedom and how they are investing as a team. Listen and enjoy the show!
Jan 13, 2021 • 52min
Episode 16 - 27-Year-Old Real Estate Agent Goes From A Team Of 3 To 60 In Just 2 Years With Ramon Casaus
Ramon Casaus started his journey to financial freedom from zero. Starting from double zeros and a 3-member team, he has built his place in the industry and has scaled to a 60-agent real estate team! He also started his property management company that also started from the bottom. Now, it escalated to 900 doors in just 8 months!Aside from all these successes, he is also a great leader that dedicates it all to his team. He is a firm believer in creating an atmosphere that would make the team be better for themselves - and you can see how he learned and made sacrifices to be an efficient leader throughout this episode.In today’s episode, learn the importance of being an effective leader - setting a cultural standard, identifying what you value in a team, the methods he takes to promote the company’s culture, and how he is living by example!He will also provide insights on another way to achieve financial independence and how he runs his businesses so you can’t miss this episode! Enjoy!
Jan 6, 2021 • 54min
Episode 15 - Military And Investing With David Pere
David Pere is an active-duty Marine who is the epitome of confidence. After he read “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, he loved the idea of financial independence and jumped right into building his wealth through real estate investing.From house hacking his first property to a 10-unit to a 146- unit, his investing ventures are growing rapidly! Now, he is the CEO of From Military to Millionaire, host of the Military Millionaire podcast, and has been helping military and veteran investors to grow.In this episode, David will dive into his deals throughout his career – the emotions, breakdown of his numbers, and his strategies. He will also share why he’s motivated to achieve financial independence quickly, why he likes diversifying, and why you got to be ready for losses, so this is a don’t-miss episode! Enjoy!
Dec 30, 2020 • 29min
Episode 14 - Nick Monge's Story On How He Started In REI
Exceptional real estate investors have been interviewed in this podcast to share and learn from their journey to achieve financial independence. But in today’s episode, we would be taking it on a new turn as we interview one of the co-hosts, Nick Monge.His love for hunting deals, helping fellow investors achieve financial independence, and experimenting with different strategies have made him found his real estate niche and be the investor that he is today!In today’s episode, get to know who’s on the other end of the microphone as we dive in and pick his brains as he shares his investing story. He will also share how he found the perfect market for him - Alabama.Learn from Nick as he shares how he is building his team, managing his growing rental portfolio, and overcoming the obstacles to be a better investor!
