Owning The Coast
Owning The Coast is your weekly deep dive into the people, places, and possibilities that make Santa Cruz one of the most inspiring places to live. Hosted by real estate pro Brandi Jones, mortgage and market expert Ryan Buckholdt, and insurance specialist Jerry Seagraves, the show blends their unique expertise with candid conversations and dynamic guests. Each week, you’ll hear stories that go beyond property lines — from navigating the local housing market to discovering hidden trails, tasting the best bites in town, and meeting the entrepreneurs, artists, and community leaders shaping the coast. Whether you’re a long-time local, a newcomer, or dreaming about making Santa Cruz home, Owning The Coast offers the insights, inspiration, and insider knowledge you need to thrive in life and living by the sea.
Owning The Coast
How Casey Hinchman Turned Loss, Debt, and Grit into Financial Freedom—and a Life That Works
A stroke in a parking lot. A 500 credit score. An island in Panama. Our conversation with top 1% realtor and coach Kasey Hinchman is a masterclass in turning hard seasons into durable wins—without losing your health, marriage, or mind along the way. We dig into the real story behind the comeback: how overleveraged rentals and adjustable-rate loans unraveled during the 2008 crash, why leaving for Bocas del Toro became a needed reset, and what returning to Santa Cruz taught him about humility, gratitude, and momentum.
We get tactical fast. Kasey breaks down why buying for appreciation failed and how shifting to true passive income changed everything. Think flips to generate capital, then rentals that cash flow on day one. We talk Watsonville advantages—entry-level pricing, strong rents, and bilingual relationships—and how local knowledge beats vanity listings. We also unpack 2024 realities: higher interest rates and insurance costs may sting, but they open doors to negotiation, better basis, and creative financing. From SB9 lot splits to ADUs and the occasional short-term rental, zoning and strategy can manufacture yield where others only see headwinds.
Beyond deals, we explore the engine that powers sustained success: a balanced baseline. Fitness for energy. Clear numbers for freedom. A partnership that shares risk and celebrates small wins. That lived experience sparked Hinchman Coaching, where Kasey helps clients build wealth, resilience, and fulfillment in the same breath. If you’re navigating Santa Cruz real estate, chasing financial freedom, or rebuilding after a setback, this story gives you the playbook—and the proof that problems can become inventory when you choose the right lens.
If this conversation moved you, follow and share with a friend who needs it. Subscribe for more grounded strategies, leave a review to help others find the show, and tell us what you want us to unpack next.
Welcome to the Own the Coast Podcast. Hello, hello. Welcome back to Owning the Coast. I am Brandy Jones at Keller Williams Thrive Santa Cruz, here with my co-host Jerry.
SPEAKER_02:I'm Jerry Seagraves with Seagraves Insurance. Ryan Buffolt over here at Crosscountrymortgage slash hideout vodka.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah, hideout.
SPEAKER_02:Hideout vodka. I can't forget about that. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04:That was a good launch party, but we'll talk about that later.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect.
SPEAKER_04:Our featured guest today is Casey Hinchman. He is married to Brooke Hinchman, and they are one of the top 1% in the nation of realtors. They live in Santa Cruz County, and not only that, they have henchman coaching. So I do want to start off with a little drama here. Oh, drama. I know. 2023 in September, literally one year ago, I had a stroke in San Francisco in the parking lot. I chose to be like, you know how drunk people don't want to give their keys up. I sat in the parking lot for 12 hours and drove myself home. It was two months later I called Casey and I said, Casey, it's been 17 years and six years, the last six years. I can't figure this out. This is my second stroke. What do I do? And he says, Brandy, I don't know. Let me think about it. The next day at the end of November, he says, I can help you. And here we are, Casey. You saved my life.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, wow. That's uh holy crap. That was drama. That was way too heavy for me.
SPEAKER_04:So the impact Casey has brought on my life is we were at David Ling. I'm now at Keller Williams. We've been friends for a long time. Casey, you started a coaching business after you had been financially free as a realtor, top 1% in the nation, with a stunning wife and a beautiful house. You know, there's a lot to unpack here. And you know, the reason I started with that opening is that you are very impactful. I would say your clients love you, you've known Ryan for a long time, you've already met Jerry, and you have a presence and a legacy. And it all really started, your legacy started in Santa Cruz County. So let's go there. Like, what about San what brought you to Santa Cruz County?
SPEAKER_01:Well, a long time ago I graduated high school. Wow, last year and uh I came here originally for college to go to UCSE. And within about two years, my family started to follow one by one. My parents, who were divorced over the years, came here, uncles. My brother went to high school here. So I've been here for about 30 years, and uh that's that's what brought me here originally.
SPEAKER_04:Nice.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And so what made you jump into real estate? Because I feel like you were an Army Ranger.
SPEAKER_01:I so I graduated uh UCSC in 2000 with a degree in economics, and I I came from uh Laguna Beach. I was really drawn to the area for the natural beauty. After UCSC, I was ready for something a little bit different. And you know, like a lot of people that graduate UCSC, the Army Ranger program seemed like the natural transition to that definitely seems like the next step.
SPEAKER_04:I like shooting banana slugs.
SPEAKER_01:Go to Staff Alife and go to the Army Ranger. Oh my gosh. Makes sense. I think there's a looking back, there's probably a little bit of a rebellious streak. So like almost rebelling to go to to leave leaving Santa Cruz to go to the Army Ranger program was a form of just looking to do something different than you know where I had been. Um that was uh just a two-year commitment. And I came back to the Santa Cruz area and mainly been here ever since. Right after I got back, I met uh pretty soon after I got back, I met my wife, Brooke. She was a bank teller, and yeah, we hit it off.
SPEAKER_04:Um no wonder you like money. Cash and checks.
SPEAKER_01:You know, the cool thing is I was so I was broke when I met her. So I was like, my account, I was just trying to keep it from going negative. So it's cool because you know, it's like she doesn't love me for the money. So but we I just real estate had always been of interest. I looked at like financial planning, independent, self-employed type, you know, stuff where you had that upward potential and and the ability to help a lot of people. So I got into real estate, got my license at the end of 2003. So, you know, that's how and then within a couple of months, I was so busy right out the gate that my mom and my wife both I was like, you guys gotta do this. You know how it is, Ryan? Yeah, family. Yeah. Similar thing. It's like, you're coming with me. So yeah, that was kind of the beginning of it.
SPEAKER_04:Ryan, did your family willingly participate in coming? He forced them.
SPEAKER_02:He's like, listen. No, it was the other way around. They forced me.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. Dad general contractor, mom real estate broker. So it was kind of like at three years old, I was sleeping in the bathtubs of brand new homes my dad was building. So it's kind of in the blood. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Wow. I didn't know that actually.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Well, actually, Ryan and Casey, your moms are s were in real estate locally.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:They're legends, actually.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So his his mom got kind of got you into it. Yeah. Yeah. And then and I got my my mom into it. Although my mom had been in sales, and so my my mom got and Brooke got into the business uh right around when I did within a couple of months. So late 2000, I guess it was 2004 that we got our licenses. But yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Jerry, your dad got you into insurance.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. My dad got my family business. You know, like I I grew up in a household where insurance was the thing, you know, and I resisted for a long time and got to a point where as an adult, I'm a sales guy. I knew it. I just didn't know what kind of sales I wanted to do. My dad was really good at it. So probably like your mom, like she was great at it, right? And I ended up pushing it off as long as I could, you know, and and then he became a district manager with farmers, and that was the time. I was like, I will, I wouldn't be working in my dad's office, start my own thing based on my own merit, you know. That's awesome was right.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I'm gonna be the dramatic one again. I come from a tree of bad apples, and my dad was the Ponzi scheme of Fresno in real estate. So I thought I will never be in real estate.
SPEAKER_01:And here you are. And here I am. So sweet. Running your own Ponzi scheme. Doing it the right way. Carrying on dad's legacy. You know.
SPEAKER_04:Dad would be so cute. So, Casey, after you got into real estate, you were hustling, hustling, hustling. 2005 hit, 2006 hit, 2007 hit. What happened?
SPEAKER_01:We realized that the market was transitioning and that we had a few things that we had set up, you know, foundationally that really weren't optimal. I mean, we'd set we had done so much right, but you know, you only have to do a few key things wrong. And this works both ways to have, you know, a success or a failure on your hands. And so we we had over-leveraged uh purchases of rental properties, like a lot of people in this area are high price markets. We had rentals that were negative every month as opposed to producing cash flow, which is what they're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_04:Sounds like my dad. You ran into my dad.
SPEAKER_01:Keep going, keep going. You might have crossed path. No, but uh just being over-leveraged, adjustable rate loans, that kind of thing. And so we we lost our house, we lost our home, we lost our houses. And this happened right after I lost my father. So it's kind of you know, life sometimes these things come in bunches, good and bad. And it was a lot at one at one time. And it was a real steep, you know, maybe four years up of like success and abundance in our late 20s. We totally thought we'd like crack the financial code. I'd seen my parents have success and then struggle financially when I was young. So and Brooke had as well. So we really worked to not have that situation. And we were like high five in our late 20s, and it was like, here we go. So it was a learning example.
SPEAKER_04:It's a wrong barrel.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yes. That was kind of what started to happen there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And then you guys hit I would say hit a rock bottom. You want to explain to people? Because I think where you're at now, when a lot of people hear you did this in Santa Cruz, you have what a lot of people would say five full cups of life. Like, how do you have it all? But you didn't just have it all. You really had to lose it all. Talk a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, so you know, when you look at anyone who's successful, you know, look at Jerry, look at Ryan in their fields, and it's like you it's easy to assume things about people or just the fact that like their parents were in the business, uh, the messengers had it all handed to them and not had to do anything. I have friends in so many industries that have that when in reality they arguably have to work harder to carve out their own, you know, whatever it is. I'm not gonna speak to your exact journey you guys can, but for for me, you know, it was it's easy to look at anybody and think they've always had it. Or it's like I'm from Laguna Beach, my mom was in the business, look at my wife, how much easier could it be? When the reality is a lot of it was my own doing, some of it wasn't, was that I had to experience losing a lot of things along the way in order to really learn how to hold on to and learn how to appreciate them. And so I feel like that's a gift that I bring back from some of the some of the places that I've been. We all have that. You know, we all have the ability to help others avoid some, you know, what we've been through, and I've I've just been through a lot.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah. So you left the country,$500,000 in debt,$200, what was it? No,$450,000 in debt.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Like a score of about$500. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:$450.$450.
SPEAKER_04:Lived on an island. Yeah. Didn't speak any English, taught surf lessons.
SPEAKER_01:We spoke some English. It was a mix of dialects and things going on there. Yeah, it's two continents. Uh, Vocas del Toro, Panama. So did I interrupt you?
SPEAKER_04:No, no, yeah, so just drawing it out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Vocas del Toro, Panama, which is a chain of islands off the coast of uh Panama, Caribbean coast of Panama and Costa Rica. And it was kind of so this is in 2000 and late 2007 that we moved there. It's kind of like the movie Hirat to the Caribbean, like the or the ride, but like living on that island. So it's cool, but it's, you know, it's its own thing for sure. And so we we went down there because we had traveled and met somebody who owned a hotel there. And she was like, You got to come down here. You should come down here and run this hotel. And we kind of laughed it off and thought, and then over time we played with the idea. We're like, we go down there and we wanted to take a couple years and go live in originally Costa Rica. Costa Rica is amazing. But so we chose Panama. And unfortunately, the way that it worked out, it was the circumstance of the brought us there were, you know, I mean, tragic. My dad was my best friend, and we were really close. And then losing everything we had financially after experiencing that as a kid, experiencing the impact of like major financial loss on my family and how that contributed to their divorce. We're talking like really emotional stuff because we all have our own things, but that would definitely, you know, you could say was one of mine. And we just felt, you know, there's embarrassment and failure and all this. And the thing about this is that you can when you when we mess things up or we make mistakes, we that allows us access and we make it better when we learn from it. That allows us access to people who are going through the exact same thing or something, their own darkness, you know. And we all know this, however we say it. It's like we heal and grow ourselves, we show others how to do the same. And it's at the core of like any of our purposes. And, you know, with kids, you guys have kids, you know, it's you get to do that on a daily basis, kind of. But I think that I always believed, and it really this really helped as an overarching belief when you're facing like the dark, anything difficult or the darkest times in your life, dark night of the soul, as they say, it's like understanding that every problem carries with it the seed of an equal or greater opportunity, and that you can use the depth of your struggle to make your life better. And I've walked that fucking walk in a lot of areas of my life. And so that gives me, it doesn't matter if like somebody's, you know, richer, bigger, older, younger, what everyone's got their different gifts they bring to the table, but few people have actually transmuted true darkness, like their true challenge into light. And the way that you know that you've done that, not to be too long in my answer here.
SPEAKER_04:Oh no, you're not timed. We're captivated. I feel like we're all captivated.
SPEAKER_01:But it's it just comes through, you know. But the thing is that like if your ability to transmute and to do that is tested and you really do it in the areas that you don't naturally just do it, right? Like if you're a runner, you can grow your, you can personal development can involve running for sure. But there's also at a point like a diminishing return, like you need to be working on other things in your life besides just the running, right? And so the things that we don't want to work out, work on regret is your guideline, and you know the things you need to work on because it's the thing that you're resisting the most. You know, it's like where whatever what we resist persists, and everything you want is just on the other side of what we're resisting. So understanding some of this at a certain level, not the level that I do now, going into that really helped because at my darkest moments when I was mourning my father's loss, which was intense for like I mean it's still intense, but it was intense for like six months, you know, that just initial like whatever mourning period. And it was like so much weight, there's a point where you can't quantify. There was no logic that could get me through the mess that I had made. We owned like eight or nine properties. I was like 28. Most people still live at home. So the mess that the mess I had made and also things that were happening outside of my control, it was like beyond comprehension. So that's where you have to like rely on faith and overarching beliefs about what's gonna and so at my darkest moments I would be like, you know, in tears, but I'd be like, I know that I know this is a gift, I know that good will come of this. And the gold really is found at the bottom. So anyway.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, that's gave me chills. And then after two years in Panama, you came back and you guys are like Scooby-Doo and picked your feet up running, came to David Lang, and what made you come back to real estate when you got burned? And then from then till now, you're technically financially free.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Tell us how you did that.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so guide me if I go too far off here.
SPEAKER_04:So the first one, the first one was uh, nope, nope, nope, to the left, to the left.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, please, the corral me. So the you know, it didn't work right off the bat. You know, life is one of those things where it's like you say, I want this, and then life goes really like we'll see. You may notice that in life, in business, the difficulty tends to be front loaded, and but sometimes it's dramatically front loaded, whether it was my own beliefs or like real karma or cause and effect or just the fact that it takes a long time to dig yourself out of debt, it didn't work right away. You may remember, you were always super supportive. I remember it from the day one. But when I was just this big, you were you uh you always saw, you always believed, you know, in us. And we struggled though for like two, even it was the third year that we actually like, think about that, Ryan. Like it was we did two, we had already been successful. I think we'd made like five or six hundred thousand on our better years just in commissions previously, like in our 20s. So now we're back early 30s and we're like studied up and like we're gonna do this, like totally refreshed, hungry, right? Because if you spend enough time in a dark place or you spend enough time resting or doing something shitty, like drinking or whatever, at a certain point you come to the end of where you're like, okay, like now I want to not keep doing or sleeping or whatever, right? There's a point we want to get out of bed. You don't want to just so like at a certain point, we actually were hungry to come back. So we come back and we're like David Lane be the company because it was the company, you know, whatever. And we dreamt of all this. And so we like had this vision. We come back and we struggled for like two years. The third year we barely made enough to make it work. So the universe is like, you I think I took it like you mess this up so bad, and just again, it takes a long time to dig your way out of debt and whatever, that it was like it we couldn't just have what we wanted, and we had to really prove that we were willing to like give everything for it. And then finally, it this is how a lot of times you guys will notice it works. It's like then the resistance stops, and the universe is like, okay, like this guy's willing to like blood, sweat, and tears die for this. Go ahead. And it just like it, our income was like, I just got goosebumps, it was like 30%, 25% a year for like a decade into the seven-figure range, which I don't even care who you are. That's a good story to be like at those company parties where I'd look around the first year or two and be like, everybody here sells more houses than me. And then like a few years later, to be at the very top of it out of like 1,500 agents was just a very satisfying and like redemption, right? Like what happens to you that's bad doesn't matter if you use it. Anything negative becomes positive the moment we decide to use it for that. And we were just completely committed. And you have to be committed at a level, especially for the mess that we had and the things we've been through, where it's like it really is all in, you know? And you know, and at points we had to pull back because we definitely like redlined doing like 18-hour days of work and and that. But we but we pulled it off, we pulled off financial freedom.
SPEAKER_04:So out of everywhere in the world, congratulations, that's huge.
SPEAKER_01:I just wanted to thank you for all that out there.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. It you came to Santa Cruz County. So three years you're picking up. So what about Santa Cruz County kept you passionate? And then when did the money start making sense? Like I know three, like you went from barely making it to number one producer. Like there was no transition. It was very fast.
SPEAKER_01:It happened fast. And it was units or volume on multiple years and some record sales price numbers for like a pretty like heavy, there's some heavy hitters in this market, you know. So to so your question was sorry, oh Santa Cruz. So a couple things. Well, one, we had to find that passion. Like you can't get from, let's say, like broke, which I definitely was, to financially free or rich or whatever. You can't get from anywhere you are to where you want to be until you're grateful for what you have, meaning you're grateful for the problems you have and everything, which ties into being like passionate, right? So like we have to be like, we have to be passionate and want and like, which ties into being grateful to be able to progress to the next level. People think they can hate it where they are and want something else, but it doesn't really work that way. You actually have to find gratitude in in where you are.
SPEAKER_04:So that means Watsonville.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Watsonville.
SPEAKER_04:Watsonville is where you where you started.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's where we built our career. Absolutely. Had a phenomenal combination of a coach that I hired, Zillow, a couple of contacts in the area, and then the fact that we were bilingual and we'd spent two years in Panama. You know, a lot of times things happen like being in Panama for a couple years and licking our wounds that just seem like a, you know, maybe just all negative. And then you look back, and so many gifts come out of these times in our lives. So it's like we already spoke Spanish, but after two years there, we really spoke it. And a whole chunk of our initial deals were in, some of them were completely in Spanish, which is not really easy because it's really a second language. And then we like just kind of proved ourselves within that community and it just blew up and then it just you know spread north or whatever. But um, you know, that market. See, trip out on this, you guys. That so I wanted to sell like houses on the uh my good. Yeah. Cool. I wanted to sell houses on like the west side and have fat listings and everything, but but that wasn't like in the cards for me out the gate. It was like representing entry entry level back then, 200,000, maybe dollar price buyers in Watsonville, maybe bilingual with like some referral fees. It was just way different than getting like a fat listing on the west side. We got to be grateful for what we're given. We were so grateful.
SPEAKER_04:So, Ryan, I just want to compare the two. Meaning, like when you first started your loans and you begrudgingly became in the industry, was it the same kind of story? Were you working on little bitty loans?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, totally. Yeah. I was working on loans. Oh, yeah. I was working on loans for Sacramento for$40,000, you know, total loan amount when Santa Cruz was$300,000,$350,000. Went through, you know, a lot of the same story with Casey. Absolutely. 2020, I mean 2007, 2008, 2009, those were hard years. Income going from 400 down to 100,000. That's hard to go from in your 20s making 400,000 a year and you drop to 100. It's like, holy crap, here we go. Huge learning experiences. You're like, I'm never gonna do that again. So it's been and it's not overnight. It's trekking, it's working hard, it's putting in the hours, it's figuring it out.
SPEAKER_01:You knew people who left the industry and never came back. Yep, went to every under other industry out there. But you stayed, you know. And it's like, and that's a thing that that we haven't. Ryan is at the in case listeners don't know, they should know, but Ryan's at the very top of his field and is regarded as one of the very best at what he does and absolutely rode that same wave.
SPEAKER_03:So thank you. Yeah. So for people that aren't in real estate, well, you kind of are. 2008 obviously was a banner time for the economy, right? Like that was a really hard time for a lot of people. It was the mortgage loan crisis, right, that really did you guys in. Was it mostly your own investments that did you in, or was it just the market completely falling out, or was it a combination of the both?
SPEAKER_02:I'd say for me, it was completely market falling out. Yeah, I didn't I didn't really have to go through investments at that point. You know, I owned our own house and it was like just hanging on to that at that time. But it was again the market falling out, mortgages going crazy, you know, everything stopping, the market freezing, right? Just kind of anything and everything.
SPEAKER_03:Sound like for Casey, your particular situation was you had so many rental properties that now were in adjustable rate mortgages that you were behind. Yeah, it was. We were buying for like appreciation. Yeah. Yeah. I knew a lot of people during that time that kind of, you know, were in your business, yeah, buying a lot of real estate. It's a great time to get into rentals. And then all of a sudden these rates were or the interest-only loans, whatever it was, like just started punishing them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was it was it was crazy because it was so good, you know?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was crazy. It was like free money.
SPEAKER_01:It was so good, and then it was so bad. If you ever look at a stock chart or any kind of chart, because all you're really looking at is actually human psychology where people are buying and selling, which is a whole whole subject in and of itself. But you'll look at that charts don't move in like a nice, easy wave. They're kind of in this like and they fall faster than they go up tendencies.
SPEAKER_03:And so does it take the elevator down, the stairs up. That's it. That's it.
SPEAKER_01:So like riding that way. And there's a there's also you'll notice on charts like a the velocity that a market falls relates to the velocity going into that market. So we had velocity in that market. And when it turned, it was like, you know, so it was a ride, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. But thank god we went through that in the 20s rather than 50s or 60s old. Yeah, can you imagine doing that? Oh man. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And the lessons, you know, like the lessons that we learn, the small and the big things that happen to us in life, just the ones that are big and impactful. They're emotional, so they tend to stay with it.
SPEAKER_03:So that's what I wanted to ask you now. So like the piggyback of my first, you know, question was how have you taken what you learned back then and applied it to right now and the way you do business now?
SPEAKER_01:So um the biggest one out the gate I was thinking when you were talking is we were a lot of us were buying for appreciation. I don't know where you weren't as in again into the investments at that point, but you saw people, your clients were doing the buying for appreciation mostly.
SPEAKER_03:And taking seconds and buying other homes and all that.
SPEAKER_01:And so in that, just so everyone understands, it's like that's where you're a lot of times you're like you're leveraged or you're in a situation with like a negative payment on this investment property and you're gonna sell it for more at some point. But the problem is we were all we were mostly a lot of us were banking on the market, just going up as opposed to the skill. Like if you're gonna do that or do flips, you buy like low, that's the key, not like buying and just knowing it will go up. So cash flow to answer your question, passive income is the key to financial freedom. I mean, there's steps to it, but that's where we all want to get and it's fully available. It's not typically in a small business that you buy. And there's a lot of scams around what people call passive income. So a lot of people think right now it's kind of a buzz that like that's not like passive income is not possible. Or, but we have to, we have to know what it is. We have to know it's possible and we have to like want that because and passive income is like I have a hundred thousand dollars in an account gives me five percent. I have five grand a year, I don't do anything, I get five grand a year, that's passive income. I define it as one work week, 40 or 50 hours a year to manage your investments. I call that passive income. So once we figured it out, Rich Dad Poor Dad, I was 28 on the beach, and this is before I lost everything. That we had all this, we thought we were awesome, people thought we were awesome. We're on the beach, and I'm reading Rich Dad Poor Dad. It's an okay book. And then I came to the page that like the whole deal is about it's like we should all learn this young. But passive income is the key, and it's having whatever your cost for your quality of life is having passive income that more than support supports that or whatever. And this light in my head went off because I was like, that's what we don't have. And uh, but it really like like once my mind was stretched by that idea, it never regained you know its former shape. That was the biggest takeaway, but there was a lot.
SPEAKER_04:So and your passive income is not outside of this county.
SPEAKER_01:No, and we thought that it would have to be. So once we got the idea, we ran we understood like cap rates. And the idea is that you want to you know buy an inexpensive home that rents for as much as possible. And so we were looking at markets, really looking at markets like Sacramento. Well, first of all, let me back up. We didn't have the money when we came back to invest in anything. So let me just we were trying, we were clinging to just trying to pay our monthly. Like, I got invited to a couple parties when we first got back that we didn't go to. We just politely declined because we couldn't afford like the freaking$25 each thing. Like we were so at a level when people tell me they're struggling financially. And I'm like, I swear I can relate. And they're like, Yeah, right. I'm like, dude. But anyway, so first we had to, we realized if we ever want to get into passive income, we have to generate a critical mass to have to do it. So first we were like, we have to flip houses. We didn't even want to, but we knew the result that we wanted. So we were like, so the thing is if you know what you want, you can figure out how to get there. So like I didn't want to flip houses, but we needed to generate money and I knew how to do it. So we flipped like a dozen houses and made like 300,000, and that got us going as our business took off. So we thought we were gonna have to buy in Sacramento, which typically would make sense, but we were so involved in the market in Watsonville, which has more entry-level type stuff. And the the trick with cap passive income, if you're doing this, is that you want to buy as entry-level as possible where you're still getting that high rent. And Watsonville is a great example of that in this area. So the fact that we knew the market so well, because we've been given that opportunity to work there, and we were just grateful for it. We started to see these different opportunities to do flips that were just given to us. Like one time I went to a house in Salinas, actually, and it was like I showed two houses, 12 houses apart, same house. One was a flip that was done, and one was REO that was thrashed. And it was a dad, two daughters, and a mom. So he was outnumbered and he was like, This Mexian family. And he's like, My friends and I will fix this up just like that. And it was way less. And the mom and the daughters were like, No, we're paying 150 grand more for the one that's fixed up. So it was like, God, the universe was like, Casey, do you see? So I had to see it really obviously. But once I saw it, I just ran with it. We did like 12 or 13 in a year and a half, got the critical mass, then we used that to invest in in Watsonville.
SPEAKER_04:That's interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So you guys have questions. You ready to buy in Watsonville?
SPEAKER_01:I'm ready to buy. Sign me up.
SPEAKER_04:Wait, would you still do it in Watsonville? In fact, I think you did in 2024.
SPEAKER_01:We bought one like a year ago there. So people think the opportunities go away, but it's really just a matter of how the numbers work. You know, there's a lot of opportunities in the current market. And I'm sure, Ryan, you could speak to this with I would imagine even with insurance, with the different difficulties that are going on. There's probably opportunities because with every problem, you know, there's a seed of an equal or greater opportunity. So, like Watsonville, like right now, rates are high. So that's a challenge. Or insurance is high. These are things that people are dealing with in the market, but that creates other opportunities to find other buyers are more hesitant. You can negotiate more. The other thing is you don't have to buy in Watsonville and you don't have to do long-term rentals. That's passive income is the key. So you can do it through buying dividend-producing stocks, annuities, things I don't know as much about, potentially Airbnbs. The key is to understand if you're getting into like a job or if it can actually become be, you know, passive.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you got creative SB9 split, two ADUs.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. That was a cool opportunity that we're working on right now.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So I mean, again, while people, you know, I heard you say high insurance and high interest rates and we're like cringing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry about that. Explore you, Jerry and Ryan.
SPEAKER_00:I know. I saw that set up like.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry. Let's not have Casey on the show. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, maybe you guys can speak to some of the opportunities. They come with uh there are none. There are zero.
SPEAKER_04:So my point is in zoning, there was the opportunity.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So the carrying costs for what people are considering high. I mean, obviously interest rates were high in the 90s. I mean, they had double digits. We're not in double digits. It's relative, right? And then insurance, we went through it in the 90s again.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, yeah, I mean, with insurance, you look at like the East Coast, the Midwest, like they've been paying high rates forever. Like I think, like you said, it's just kind of like about looking at the broad picture and understanding, like we were in the sweet market for a long time where you could get a a home insur, I mean, a home insurance policy for like$800 a year. Those times are gone. You know, we're we're gonna see$5,000 a year forever now, and we have to get used to that. Just like we're gonna see nothing lower than 5% for the next 10 years. You know, I I don't think it's ever gonna go below that.
SPEAKER_04:Well, you know, what's interesting why I was like, uh uh what's fascinating about that is that you don't hear anybody in the community talking about their East Coast family members talking about high insurance. It is such a small network of people in the Santa Cruz County area. Everyone is bitching about insurance.
SPEAKER_03:It's starting to stop. Good like I see it it for a long time. It used to be me against the consumer. Now everybody, realtors in included, are kind of in the know and they're they're educating their clients. And I think that that that perspective of of what's happening nationwide is creeping in. We understand forever and ever they've been ensuring windstorm as a sole peril out in the East Coast, because that's a real thing. You know, and Hale is a separate peril. They they've been paying$5,000 a year for their homeowners' insurance for the last 25 years. But I think that you know, it does come in the way of new prospective buyers and what they're expecting. You know, if they were qualifying for a home at$5,500 a month and now they have$500 a month in insurance, you know, that's gonna get in the way of their debt to income ratio or their their ability to get a loan. But that's gonna be your perspective moving forward, right? Like, so now we're just gonna Have to plan for that. It's all about the expectation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Is this as I'd like as as they get over it or as segments of society get over it. Yeah. And then it just everyone adapts. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So we started off with a very dramatic story. Let's wrap this up with kind of a teaser of henchman coaching. So the reason I called you was not to help me well, eventually, yes, passive income, real estate sales. But I really saw that you have I would say the cups of life are awful. And that you don't overextend just to work hard to make money. You don't overextend to just cater to a happy marriage. You don't overextend to just play all day. You have what I would say is probably one of the most balanced life I've ever seen. And health was one of them. And I, for some reason, I had a like, did you have doctors for me? Which you did, and that's a whole nother podcast. But how did you get into coaching? And why why would I call you of all people to help me physically get better? And then I realized I want all my votes or all my cups to be full, and we're learning together. Thank you very much, Casey. But what started henchman coaching?
SPEAKER_01:Well, you've absolutely crushed it. I just have to say that. It's been an honor to work with you and for you to allow me that space has just been amazing. So what started it? Or how did I once I had it was kind of an overnight thing. I always knew, I'm sure, like everyone at this table, like you guys, that I could do like speaking or or run events or something like that. People would tell me sometimes that I should be a coach, which is really cool. I had no interest in it. And then I met a coach that changed, helped me change my business, change my life. That was a big piece because I was like, wow, like this is real. And then the other was I just realized that a lot of people aren't happy, aren't fulfilled, and don't have the success that they want. And it's so attainable because I messed things up. And I have, by the way, overextended in every one of those areas you were mentioning. I've been out of balance at times. And it's a lot of it's about having that baseline to bring it back to. And so that's something I really want people to understand, like having that energetic baseline of just feeling really good, of staying inspired, super powerful, and that you can have it all, right? That the main areas of life, as far as like your fitness, your financial, there's so much abundance available. And there's a lot of, I realize too, there's a lot of narratives that we get through society, through the media that are disempowering and false often. Success and fulfillment are so much simpler, especially fulfillment. Like as people hit like their 40s, 50s, and beyond, you know, just that's a big one. And so I just want to show people how to do it. And so that's that's what drew me to it. And it's just the most rewarding thing.
SPEAKER_04:So over seven figures in income with multiple sources. 22 years married?
SPEAKER_01:22 years together. I'm married for like 18 or 19 or something. I should know. I could just have my 19th.
SPEAKER_04:Body fat percentage?
SPEAKER_01:It's like single digit. Thank you.
SPEAKER_04:So why don't you give us a place where we can find you potentially as a realtor or reach out to you for coaching?
SPEAKER_01:Well, Instagram, HinchmanKasey or HinchmanCoaching.com is my website. Or Casey and Brooke.com is my website.
SPEAKER_02:K-A-S-E-Y. And for those of you that don't follow him on Instagram, you watch him, you'll want to do burpees all night long. Thank you. This guy has so much fucking energy. Oh, sorry. I had to throw that one out there. Thanks, brother. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04:We're gonna wrap this up. So this is Brandy Jones, realtor at Keller Williams Drive. You can reach me at 831 588 5145. And Ryan.
SPEAKER_02:Ryan Buckholt, Cross Country Mortgage, 831 818 2339.
SPEAKER_03:Jerry Seagraves, Seagraves Insurance, 831 464 1870.
Podcasts we love
Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.
Broken Tiles
Brian & Stacey Upton