We were lucky to catch up with Larry Ali recently and have shared our conversation below.

Larry, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

The year was 2012 and I was a Junior in college at Kent State University. I was a collegiate athlete who had an academic scholarship and an athletic scholarship. Since I earned two scholarships, this gave me an opportunity to save money from Pell grants, summer hustles, per diems, and refund checks over the years. My bank account had about $15,000 dollars in it and I wasn’t able to hold a steady job because football practice was so demanding. I was commuting from home and then I was able to recognize an opportunity. My mother, Janetta Rodgers, had made mention that the house next door had been vacant for some time and she had reached out to the owner to see if he was interested in selling. The property was becoming home to raccoons, squirrels, and miscellaneous insects and he was an out of state owner. Since it was just a liability on his books he offered to sell me the house for $8,000 dollars. I agreed to the dollar amount and we cut the deal! It was my first deal in RE. It took me two years to rehab the property from being a vacant torn down home, into a revitalized home. Not long after the rehab, the city of Akron sent me a letter claiming that I helped raise the value of the neighborhood. I was being rewarded for revamping a home in the neighborhood with something called “equity”. I did a quick google search to find out that equity meant that the asset I bought for $8k was now worth more; $60k to be exact! I could borrow actual cash from a bank and this asset will allow me to actually buy more properties! This was the beginning of my path to scaling, turning a single home, now into a business that brings in 6 figures a year and growing! By going to my local bank, I was able to borrow $40,000 dollars that allowed me to buy my next property for $25,000. This property had a tenant that was paying $700 dollars a month. So when I used the money from the first house to buy the second one, I ended up renting that one also. So now I was making $1400 dollars a month and only paying $350 in the form of a mortgage fee! From there I saved the $15k that was left over from the 40k, I borrowed from the bank and I put that money towards all the money I saved from the rents, and my side hustles. Two years later I was able to buy two more homes with tenants already in it. This was the beginning of my scaling journey. It took time and a simple strategy but I was able to move everything along with persistence and action.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a 33 Year old RE investor in Summit County Ohio. I own 15 Units, that bring me in 6 figures a year. I noted my origin story in the previous question. What I do is find undervalued homes that need rehab work and I cut deals to help rehab these properties to provide affordable housing for people. I am proud of the fact that I have been able to bring value to underprivileged communities by improving the living standards within those communities. That gives me the most satisfaction! I want anyone who follows my journey to know that they too can add value and replicate this process and also gain financial freedom by serving their community. @ldgislike on instagram and goldennorthestates.com is the best way to see first hand how I maneuver through the markets.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn was the concept of having a plan b. When you are young you are told to go after a goal and if it doesn’t work out then have a back up plan. As a child it seems like it’s very doable and responsible but as you grow and continue to learn about business you start to learn that business is a numbers game. More than 90% of new businesses fail within the first two years of being started. When one has a plan B, this makes it very likely to support the failure of those new businesses. I was forced to learn that back up plans are nothing but distractions and an indication that you aren’t fully confident in your craft. This will never allow you to succeed in a competitive market. Burning the ships and fully committing to your desired outcome is the only way to truly break through and make a living!

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

My advice for maintaining high morale is to make sure you are getting your team members on zoom calls, investing in seminars, having lunch and play dates together and not letting them feel alone on the journey with you. Its very important to make sure you speak to them individually and as a group as often as you can. Reassurance and creating a bonus system has always worked for me as well!

Contact Info:

• Website: goldennorthestates.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/crescentcomfort/
• Facebook: facebook.com/LarryAli/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-ali-08a1822a5/
• Twitter: twitter.com/ldgislike/
• Youtube: youtube.com/ldgislike330/