Episode 46: Lane Kawaoka

For most of us, real estate investing requires a lot of hard work: finding deals, marketing your deals, managing cash flow, managing tenants, and more. What if there was another way? What if there was a way to passively get deals and manage properties without all of the headaches? Lane Kawaoka, an engineer turned investor, found an investing path that worked for him. Starting in college, Lane built a slow-but-steady portfolio of properties but found it hard to scale his investing to boss levels. After he made two shifts in his investing journey, his life changed completely. Lane leveled up his mastermind groups with high net worth individuals with lots of experience. Lane's unique approach to real estate investing doesn't focus on complicated deals or active management because of his goals. Lane entered the real estate market to break free of the rat race. He wanted to work when he wanted and how he wanted. This pursuit of freedom shaped how Lane worked as an investor. Lane just had one problem. It was hard to scale. As Lane describes, two big shifts helped him scale from passive investor to passive investor boss. The first was upgrading his mastermind. At first, Lane felt that investing money in a mastermind was a waste. After he started to see the impact of high-quality masterminds, he went all in. The connections and knowledge he gained from his investments in masterminds completely changed how he viewed investing and helped him capitalize on his network and reputation to build a successful real estate business managing over 2,000 units. (Of course, having an engineering degree and construction project management couldn't hurt either.) Second, he shifted to syndicates of Class B & C multifamily investments and started building stable passive real estate income. By working with smarter people and connecting with people who already had the deals, Lane found a way to profit without having to grind through finding and managing deals. This freed up his time and allowed him to focus less time on actively handling the deal. Having a specific set of reliable cash flow strategies and a mastermind are just two of the tools Lane Kawaoka used to level up his passive investing. Lane also delves into other tools, such as using turnkey properties, syndicates, and buying the real estate business (vs property). He goes into all of these resources and more in the next episode of Passion for Real Estate Investments with Fuquan. If you are a passive real estate investor who wants to level up your investing smarts the easy way, this episode will give you an insider's look at one of the smartest passive real estate investors you will ever meet. Tune in to learn how Lane got to where he is, how he stays sharp, and what he plans to do in the near future to stay competitive and profitable. Highlights from the Interview How Lane successfully scaled from 11 properties to over 2600 multi-family units What's the toughest part of real estate investing? How can a mastermind help you in real estate investing? The importance of network and reputation in getting high-level deals Why you need to balance cash flow to level up your network and your net worth Lane's investing strategy that focuses on Class B & C properties Challenges in multi-family investing How Lane evaluates deals and the syndicates who get his deals Using turnkey for short-term profitability What inspired Lane to start a podcast about passive real estate investing How to scale from investor to business owner The importance of investing in high-quality masterminds Where Lane is looking to invest next