We recently connected with Onaje Barnes and have shared our conversation below.
Onaje, appreciate you joining us today. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment
The best investment I made was in 2013 after the global financial Crisis and Real Estate was in the dumps nationwide. and we were still going thru a worldwide recession. I was randomly talking to a a friend of mine who was a a Real Estate broker. He mentioned that he had a new client and was listing her package of houses for sale after he husband had passed away and she was in a position to continue to be a landlord without him. Being a Real estate investor this peaked my interest. I asked how many homes did she want to sale.. he mentioned 30… this Really had my ears perked up. So then I asked how much did she want for them a peace and was she willing to sell just a couple of them. My friend mentioned a caveat that she did not want to disturb the existing tenants and that the properties would be sold sight unseen. For me this meant ” discount ” ..from there we talked about what types of pricing she was looking for. He mentioned that she would be ok with half of the county appraisal value …so I quickly went on line to see how the county appraised the homes. I saw 2 that I liked and they were valued at the time for about $33K but had tenants renting them for $850 a month. So I jumped in my car to go look at the outside, from the outside they both looked well kept… So I talked to my wife, we had about $50k to our name …So I offered $16K a peace , plus all closing expenses and realtor commissions .. in total it ended up being $42K for BTOH homes and they were across the street form one another. We gambled most of our savings on these deals but today each property is worth about $200K.. that is about $350K in equity form our initial investment. We still own both houses and they currently renting $1600 each.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My Name is Onaje Barnes grew up in poverty in Houston, Tx as the 3rd child of four to a single mother. I was able to graduate Salutatorian of my High School Class and go on to graduate from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Economics. After graduation, he was able to obtain a job at a fortune 500 company but after only 3 years, that company merged with a larger company and laid off 25K people. At that moment I learned that NO company would get him wealthy or even provide an adequate retirement. Although I had a “prestigious economics degree” , it had not taught him anything about how to build wealth without a job. So I had to go back to school, a different type of school this time. I chose the school of personal economics and Real Estate. After 1.5 years of reading books , podcasts, & google; I was able to buy his first “Ugly Home ” in a great neighborhood for his family. I quickly learned the value of Real Estate through the school of Hard Knocks. The School of Hard Knocks taught me more about wealth than the previous 16 years of formal education. 15 years later, He has been able to acquire 8 single family rental properties and 3 apartment complexes for a total of 50 units. Today , I focus on helping others achieve their version of the American dream and financial freedom through the acquisition of Real Estate. Onaje co Founded the ” Wealth Masterminds Academy where he and numerous other industry experts teach various ways to various into Real Estate. Anyone interested and learning more can find Onaje Barnes on Youtube @onajebarnes, Instagram @onajebarnes or Text Cashflow to 877-689-4201 for a free class on how to get started in Real Estate.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
During the Pandemic , the government issued an eviction moratorium. This sounded great to most Americans but for landlords and property owners this was terrible bc most landlord are actually small mom and pops who only own 1-3 rental properties. Most small landlords still owe a mortgage, pay taxes and pay insurance. So effectively the government told landlords that they had to pay for another person to live without any supplement income. only 3-6 months later did local governments realize that they needed to provide financial assistance to landlords. Although I understood the dire situation that the country was in , for me and much like most landlords , I could not afford to pay the mortgage , water , gas , taxes, insurance for my tenants to live for free. So I quickly pivoted my business to focus solely on government subsidized housing vouchers for clients like older veterans that were facing homelessness . This not only allowed me to gain income that I needed but also provide a valuable service tot eh community and for people in need. Learning form this lesson, I also try to teach other property owners how to gain government contracts, work with programs like Section 8 and operate short term rentals. Our goal is to solve problems in local communities while making a profit.
Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?
I own several apartment complexes now and when I first purchased them I noticed that several residents did not have transportation and had to walk several blocks to do Laundry or to a convenience store. So we installed a laundry facility, vending machines and soda machines. This solved a problem for my residents and also brought in additional income.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wealthmasterminds.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/onajebarnes?igshid=NzZlODBkYWE4Ng%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=7950952
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/onaje-barnes-3034511/
- Twitter: https://x.com/onajebarnes?s=21&t=hS0bb_D15NAUKK0j_wecxA
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@OnajeBarnes.?si=YMw4f9x15ilYRSQO