POV: Your Boss Still Thinks You Need This Job — You Own the Building He Rents — Transcript

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1. 0:00It's 4:31 on a Friday in October. The
2. 0:03bay doors are half down and the shop
3. 0:05smells like diesel and burnt coffee.
4. 0:07Rick Brennan steps out of his office
5. 0:09with his truck keys still in his hand.
6. 0:11"You walk out at 4:30 one more time," he
7. 0:14says loud enough for the whole floor.
8. 0:17"Don't bother coming on Monday." Tyler
9. 0:19looks at the floor. Somebody turns off
10. 0:22an impact gun. In your jacket pocket,
11. 0:24your phone buzzes once. You don't need
12. 0:26to look. It's the same notification.
13. 0:29It's been on the first business day of
14. 0:31every month for 6 years. A CH credit.
15. 0:34Ketaring Bay Holdings LLC. $7,412
16. 0:40from Brennan Fleet Repair. Here's what
17. 0:42Rick doesn't know. The building he's
18. 0:45standing in, the concrete under his
19. 0:46boots, the roof over his office, it's
20. 0:49yours. You and Dana bought it in 2019,
21. 0:53the year he sold it to pay for a
22. 0:54lakehouse. And here's the strange part.
23. 0:57You could end this conversation with one
24. 0:59sentence, which is exactly why you
25. 1:02won't. To understand why, you have to go
26. 1:04back to a lube bay on the east side of
27. 1:07Dayton in the winter of 2009. Level one,
28. 1:10the lube bay. January 2009. You're 22.
29. 1:15You change oil from a concrete pit. 31
30. 1:18cars a shift. $13.75
31. 1:22an hour. Paid every Friday. Rent on the
32. 1:25apartment over the laundromat is $540.
33. 1:28The Cavalier has 171,000 miles and a
34. 1:32heater that only works on high. And
35. 1:35there's a Visa with $4,870
36. 1:38on it at 23.99%.
37. 1:41One night, you do the math on the back
38. 1:43of a work order. After rent, gas, phone,
39. 1:47groceries, and the minimum payment, you
40. 1:49have $112 a month left. Then you look at
41. 1:53the statement again. $97 of interest
42. 1:56every month to borrow money you already
43. 1:59spent. That's the first number that
44. 2:01actually scares you. Walt works the next
45. 2:04pit over. 64 gray mustache and a brass
46. 2:08wrench he's carried so long the stamps
47. 2:10worn off. He just sees the work order
48. 2:12and taps it twice with the wrench. Every
49. 2:15Friday everybody in this building gets
50. 2:17paid, he says. Ever ask yourself who
51. 2:20gets paid first? You don't understand
52. 2:22it. You'll think about it for 16 years,
53. 2:26but you do two things. You take Saturday
54. 2:28shifts at the tire counter and every
55. 2:31Saturday check goes at the visa. 10
56. 2:33months later, it's zero. And you open a
57. 2:36Roth IRA with $100. A Wroth is simple.
58. 2:40You pay the tax now and whatever it
59. 2:42grows into comes out tax-free later.
60. 2:46$100 doesn't feel like investing. It
61. 2:49feels like skipping lunch. You skip a
62. 2:51lot of lunches. Level two, the AS patch.
63. 2:562011, four months of break manuals at
64. 2:58the kitchen table. You pass. The patch
65. 3:01goes on your sleeve and Brennan Fleet
66. 3:03Repair hires you at $19.40
67. 3:06an hour. Rick owns the business and the
68. 3:09building. On your first day, he walks
69. 3:11past the Cavalere in the lot and laughs.
70. 3:14Keep that thing alive, Cole. Guys like
71. 3:16you don't buy buildings. You fix the
72. 3:19trucks that park in them. The whole
73. 3:21floor laughs. You laugh, too. Your first
74. 3:24check is $181
75. 3:26more than the one before it. Here's what
76. 3:28nobody tells you about a raise. The
77. 3:31money shows up before your habits do.
78. 3:33That Saturday, you sit in a new
79. 3:35Silverado on Wilmington Pike. It smells
80. 3:38like leather and plastic. $689 a month
81. 3:42for 72 months. It feels good. You don't
82. 3:46pretend it doesn't. Then you hear Walt.
83. 3:49Who gets paid first on this truck?
84. 3:51That's easy. The bank. Every month for 6
85. 3:55years. You drive the Cavalere home.
86. 3:58Monday, you set your 401k to 10%. Rick
87. 4:02matches three. Most of the raise
88. 4:04disappears before it reaches you. That's
89. 4:06the point. Level three, the duplex.
90. 4:102013. Tyler starts at Brennan that
91. 4:12spring. Same patch, same pay. He's the
92. 4:16guy who buys donuts without being asked.
93. 4:18In May, he pulls in with a new F-250,
94. 4:22$1,084
95. 4:23a month for 84 months. He offers to help
96. 4:26you move with it. He means it kindly
97. 4:29because you're moving, too. A duplex on
98. 4:32Maple Street, $118,000
99. 4:35with an FHA loan and 3 12% down. Your
100. 4:39whole payment, taxes, and insurance
101. 4:41included, is $951.
102. 4:44The other half rents for $695.
103. 4:48You live in your side for $256 a month.
104. 4:52People call it house hacking. It feels
105. 4:54more like sharing a wall with a
106. 4:56stranger. Here's what nobody tells you
107. 4:58about Tyler's truck and your duplex.
108. 5:01They're both loans. One gets worth less
109. 5:04every time he drives it. The other gets
110. 5:06paid down by somebody else's rent.
111. 5:08That's the year you meet Dana. She runs
112. 5:11the parts counter at the Napa on
113. 5:12Smithville Road. The first time you
114. 5:15talk, she's arguing with her own
115. 5:17register over an $8 overcharge. She
116. 5:20keeps a spiral notebook for everything.
117. 5:22Within a month, the duplex rent goes in
118. 5:24it, too. Some Saturdays, you're fixing
119. 5:27the tenants toilet while your friends
120. 5:29post lake photos. Dana finds you asleep
121. 5:31in your boots twice. The second time,
122. 5:34she tells you a plan with no days off
123. 5:36isn't a plan. She's right. You start
124. 5:39taking Sundays. Level four. The brass
125. 5:42wrench. 2016. Walt dies in March. 71. At
126. 5:48the funeral home, a lawyer you've never
127. 5:50met finds you by the coffee. Walt left
128. 5:52you two things. The brass wrench and an
129. 5:55envelope. Inside is one sheet, a list of
130. 5:58addresses, nine rental houses across
131. 6:01East Dayton, and at the top, the
132. 6:03building with the lube bay in it. Walt
133. 6:05changed oil for 20 years in a building
134. 6:08he owned. Now you get it. Rent is due on
135. 6:11the first before payroll, before parts,
136. 6:14before the owner takes a dime. The
137. 6:16landlord gets paid first always. At the
138. 6:20bottom in pencil. Now you know. No need
139. 6:23to tell him. None of the money comes to
140. 6:25you. It goes to his niece. You get the
141. 6:28wrench and you keep it in your jacket
142. 6:29pocket. That summer, you and Dana get
143. 6:32married in her aunt's backyard. In the
144. 6:34fall, you buy a second duplex on Cling
145. 6:37Drive. $134,500,
146. 6:4125% down, saved from 3 years of living
147. 6:44on $256 a month. Both sides rented. You
148. 6:49don't think about who owns Brennan's
149. 6:50building. Not yet. Level five, the
150. 6:53listing. 2019. At lunch, Rick shows the
151. 6:57floor photos of a lakehouse at Indian
152. 6:59Lake. That's the difference, Cole. He
153. 7:01says, "You work for money. I make money
154. 7:04work. 3 weeks later, you see the
155. 7:07listing. Brennan fleet repair 9,800
156. 7:11square ft asking $673,000.
157. 7:15And one more line. Seller will lease
158. 7:18back. Rick is selling the building under
159. 7:20his own shop, then renting it back. And
160. 7:23he wants it closed in 30 days before the
161. 7:25lakehouse deal falls through. Nobody
162. 7:28else can move that fast. Dana does the
163. 7:30math herself. Sell Cling Drive through a
164. 7:331031 exchange. That's a rule that lets
165. 7:35you sell an investment property, roll
166. 7:38the whole profit into a bigger one, and
167. 7:40the tax weights. That's $76,000
168. 7:44plus $67,000 you've saved. $143,000
169. 7:49down. Here's what nobody tells you about
170. 7:51a building like this. The bank barely
171. 7:53looks at your paycheck. It looks at the
172. 7:56lease. Rick's lease would pay $7,412
173. 8:00a month. The loan costs $4,969
174. 8:04triple net, which means Rick pays the
175. 8:06taxes, the insurance, and the roof. You
176. 8:09pay the bank. A 6-year lease. It runs
177. 8:12out in October 2025. Then Dana puts the
178. 8:16pen down. Is this too much risk? It's
179. 8:19the right question. Everything rides on
180. 8:21one tenant. If Rick leaves, that $4,969
181. 8:26is still yours every month with nothing
182. 8:29coming in. So before you sign, you park
183. 8:33$30,000 in savings, 6 months of
184. 8:36payments. You set up Ketaring Bay
185. 8:38Holdings, an LLC. Your attorney signs
186. 8:41the closing and the lease for it, and
187. 8:43you hire a property manager, not because
188. 8:46the building needs one, because Rick
189. 8:48doesn't need to know. The next Monday,
190. 8:50Rick tells the floor he sold to some
191. 8:52investment group. You nod and go back to
192. 8:55a break job. Two months later, your
193. 8:58daughter June is born. Level six, the
194. 9:01deferral. April 2020, fleet clients park
195. 9:04their trucks. Bay doors stay down for
196. 9:07days. Rick cuts everybody's hours by
197. 9:1020%. Including yours. Your 401k drops
198. 9:14from $91,400
199. 9:16to $60,300
200. 9:19in 5 weeks. You don't log in. Then the
201. 9:22property manager forwards an email.
202. 9:24Brennan Fleet can't make April's rent.
203. 9:27Probably not May or June either. The
204. 9:29lease says you could call it a default
205. 9:31and find a new tenant. You read the
206. 9:33email in your truck in the shop lot
207. 9:36under Rick's office window. June is
208. 9:38asleep in the car seat behind you. Your
209. 9:41cursor sits on reply for a long time.
210. 9:44You type defer 3 months, repay over 12,
211. 9:48no interest. That's $22,236
212. 9:52that doesn't come in. Dana's $30,000
213. 9:55pays your mortgage instead. The question
214. 9:57she asked at the kitchen table is the
215. 9:59only reason you can say yes. Rick never
216. 10:02finds out who said it. He tells the
217. 10:04floor the investment group turned out to
218. 10:07be decent people. He pays back every
219. 10:09dollar on time. At $97 of interest, you
220. 10:13felt panic. At $31,000 gone from the
221. 10:16401k. You felt attention. At $22,000 of
222. 10:21your boss's rent, you feel silence.
223. 10:24Which brings you back to Friday 4:31.
224. 10:27Rick is still looking at you. Tyler is
225. 10:30still looking at the floor. You could
226. 10:31say it one sentence. It would feel good
227. 10:34for about a minute. Then 14 people would
228. 10:37be working for a man who lost face on
229. 10:39his own shop floor. And the tenant who
230. 10:42pays your mortgage would start pricing
231. 10:44other buildings. Walt never said it. Not
232. 10:47once in 20 years. See you Monday, Rick,
233. 10:50you say. And that's all you say. Then
234. 10:53you walk out. 4:32. In the lot, Tyler
235. 10:57catches up with you. Must be nice, he
236. 11:00says, half joking. Walking out at 4:30.
237. 11:03It is, you say. June gets out of
238. 11:05kindergarten at 4:50. You've never once
239. 11:08been late. That night, Dana opens the
240. 11:11spiral notebook one more time. Building
241. 11:14$2,443
242. 11:17a month after the loan. The other half
243. 11:19of Maple Street, $1,040,
244. 11:22which covers your whole payment there
245. 11:24and then some. Her paycheck as parts
246. 11:26manager with the three of you on her
247. 11:28insurance. What your family spends in a
248. 11:30month, $4,870.
249. 11:33The same number that was once on a visa.
250. 11:36You don't need the job. You haven't for
251. 11:38a while. Monday, 7:15 a.m. The lease
252. 11:42renewal. For 6 years, an attorney signed
253. 11:45everything. This time, you sign it
254. 11:47yourself. Rick's office. He flips to the
255. 11:50signature page and reads it out loud
256. 11:52without meaning to. Landlord, Ketaring
257. 11:55Bay Holdings LLC. Managing member. He
258. 11:58stops. Ethan Cole. He looks at you for a
259. 12:02long time. Then down at the payment
260. 12:04history clipped to the back. April 2020,
261. 12:073 months, no interest. You watch him get
262. 12:10there. The man whose hours he cut. He
263. 12:13doesn't say anything. Neither do you.
264. 12:16You take Walt's brass wrench out of your
265. 12:18pocket and tap the lease twice. Same
266. 12:20rent as last year, you say. Page four,
267. 12:23he signs. Then you slide one more sheet
268. 12:27across the desk. Two weeks notice.
269. 12:30Nobody is going to decide when you're
270. 12:31allowed to leave for June again. On your
271. 12:34way out, the new kid Marcus is sweeping
272. 12:36Bay 2. 19 $17.25
273. 12:40an hour. You take the master key off
274. 12:43your ring and put it in his hand. Every
275. 12:45Friday, everybody in this building gets
276. 12:47paid, you tell him. Ever ask yourself
277. 12:50who gets paid first? He doesn't
278. 12:52understand it. He will. A building with
279. 12:55$36,000
280. 12:56left on the loan. a duplex you still
281. 12:59live in, a 401k at $272,000,
282. 13:04and a Roth that started with $100, built
283. 13:07by a lube tech who once had $112 a month
284. 13:11left over. You weren't smarter than
285. 13:13Rick. You just never turned it off. Not
286. 13:16when the Silverado smelled like leather.
287. 13:18Not when the lake photos came in. Not
288. 13:20when the bay doors stayed down. Who gets
289. 13:23paid first? You do. First business day
290. 13:26of every month. Rick bought a lakehouse
291. 13:29so he'd have somewhere to go. You bought
292. 13:31a building, so you'd have nowhere you
293. 13:33need to be. At 4:30, you pick up June.
294. 13:36She wants pancakes for dinner. You
295. 13:38haven't decided yet. The people in this
296. 13:40story are composits, and the numbers are
297. 13:43illustrative, but the tradeoff is real.
298. 13:46If Walt's question stuck with you, hit
299. 13:48like so it reaches someone who needs it,
300. 13:50and tell me in the comments. on that
301. 13:53Friday. Would you have told Rick the
302. 13:55truth or stayed quiet? I read those.
303. 13:58Thank you for spending this time with
304. 13:59me.