Lifestyle Design for Real Estate Investors

[00:00:00] Mike: [00:00:00] Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Today I’m here with my buddy Chad Wheaton. He has built a virtual investing business after leaving a couple of jobs that he didn’t like and has really built it in a way to where he’s designed his, the life that he wants to live with, his things he loves to do and around his family and has a business that supports all that.

That’s what we’re gonna talk about today.

Professional real estate investors know that it’s not really about the real estate. That real estate is just a vehicle for freedom. A group of over a hundred of a nation’s leading real estate investors from across the country meets several times a year at the investor fuel your state mastermind to share ideas on how to strengthen each other’s businesses, but also to come together as friends and build more.

Fulfilling lives for all of those around us.

On today’s show, we’re going to continue our conversation of fueling our businesses and our lives. [00:01:00] I’m glad you’re here.

Hey Chad. Welcome to the show

Chad: [00:01:09] buddy. How you doing, bro?

Mike: [00:01:12] Good. How are you?

Chad: [00:01:13] I’m here, man.

Mike: [00:01:16] So, uh, you know, you’re, you’re a, you’re a lifestyle guy. We’ve gotten to be friends over the last several months and, um, and I know you do, you know, there’s a bunch of stuff that you’re able to do in your life now that you weren’t before.

I was a former corporate guy too. So kind of, you know, basically other than a lot of people that get in the situation where they’re, even if they make good money, um, your, your life and your family. Time with your family comes second. Right? You got to, you’ve got a job to do. And I think he got burned out on that.

Right. So you, you found another way. Is that, I know that’s a short summary, but

Chad: [00:01:47] that’s a short time. Um, I’ve had some learning curves, but yeah, that’s ultimately how I ended up. Where and what I’m doing today.

Mike: [00:01:56] Yeah. Yeah. And that’s a common thing. I don’t, honestly, it’s rare to meet [00:02:00] real estate investors that have always been a real estate investor.

I’ve never done anything else. I mean, I have some friends that are that way, but that’s rare. Usually somebody work somewhere else or they’re in another business of some sort, and they just, you know, get tired of where they’re at. And they say that, Hey, there’s gotta be a better way. So, so tell us a little bit about your, your kind of background and how you got into real estate in the first place.

Chad: [00:02:23] Um, I go to way back in my background. I got out of the military and I. Was working for the Sheriff’s office and I would do extra duty in a neighborhood called a Wildwood and Columbia, South Carolina, huge houses. And you know, they’re paying me like 15 bucks an hour to go ride around and control their neighborhood.

And I was. Stop, man, there’s gotta be something gotta be something bigger. And, you know, although law enforcement has always been like proper, my number one passion, I just couldn’t perceive myself trying to raise a family in the South on, on a salary. Um. [00:03:00] That I was at. So I ended up, I stumbled into the car business of all things and I was successful there sales, and I’ve ran into those great mentors and I ended up in a finance office in the car business.

And if anybody knows anything about the car business. And I was changed that office, you know, retail hours, working Saturdays. And it was, it was great. I would never, I would never change anything, actually. I would people I met, um, people that mentored me, I’ve made a huge impact on my life, but there was just a point where I just couldn’t do it anymore.

And I left the car business. We had opened some CrossFit gyms, ended up with four active locations in the fifth that never really got started. And I was really just trying to figure out how to work the least amount possible and make the most money. And I thought that having locations and employees and people was the answer to that cause one location just wasn’t gonna [00:04:00] get me to where I want it to be.

Financial with our, with our financial goals. Um. And after five years, my wife and I looked at each other and we’re like, do you see ourselves doing this for another five years? And the answer was absolutely no. Yeah. And then I stumbled back. I ended up back in my old office, my old position, my old CEO, I love to death.

He. You brought me back and, um, you know, it was great. It was great for a couple years, but it was like a bad relationship. You know, it was like you go through the honeymoon phase and then

Mike: [00:04:35] you broke up in the for the first time for a reason. Right,

Chad: [00:04:37] exactly. And that’s kinda how I ended up. Um. Real estate investing to start with.

And I did that while I was, I was, I started real estate investing while I started wholesaling, particularly while I was actually full time employed. And I just quickly learned that man, I was having months where I was working like a couple hours and making what I [00:05:00] was making sitting in an office. Yeah. So that’s kind of what spurred all of

Mike: [00:05:03] all of that.

Yeah, that’s a great back of my, my background is, uh, I mean different retail roles, but I think, I think when you have like a customer service experience, you have financial experience and sales experience. Like though all those experiences, you know, somehow one of those. But if you have some combination of those things, like they, they really go well with, cause you know, we, we talked to a lot of customers, so being able to talk to customers especially.

Yeah. Consultative, like high ticket type role and, um, and you know, just, uh, to be able to structure deals and stuff like that is there’s a little bit of an art. So if you’ve done some of that before, I think it, it helps, right? And so it’s, it’s kind of a natural fit on some level. I mean, real estate is not rocket science, but

Chad: [00:05:46] now this was a complete natural fit.

I was sitting and doing, I mean, you’re talking about LTVs and DTI debt to income, like all of those things all play a part into even flipping houses. You know, you’re [00:06:00] looking at LTV or LTBs, but you’re looking at percentages on what would a property’s worth. So it all coincides and you still have that. I, I’m, I’m a closer, like I’m a sales guy.

I’m a closer, and I love the, I love the, I guess you could say the kill or whatever, however you want to coin that. I still, I love that. So you’re still going to get that in this business, which has been been key.

Mike: [00:06:26] Yeah. Yeah. And so you got to a point to where, you know, like you said, you’re trying to find out a way to work less and make more.

Right. And so I think we’re all looking for that. Some people find it, some don’t. The truth is there’s a lot of people that get into real estate, as you know, and they work harder than ever, right? They’re just there. They’re free. They’re their own boss. Um, but they’re still just working really hard. And. You know, at the end of the day, there’s nothing with nothing wrong with doing that, if that’s what you gotta do for a while, but that’s not

Chad: [00:06:53] the goal.

Right. I think

Mike: [00:06:55] you, you already had that in your mind cause you had, uh, moved [00:07:00] around a little bit, so you just, you decided to kind of shape a business around the lifestyle you wanted to live. Right.

Chad: [00:07:06] And it was all literally, that was all literally just backing in to numbers. Like the best year I ever had in the car business was 256 grand.

So I took that, I took that number instead. Okay. Well, if I want to make $250,000 in a year, if I can just average $25,000 on 10 flips, then on there that’s less than one flip a month is kind of how I started this whole journey, and that really got spurred by reading rich dad, poor dad, which I probably should have read in my.

First business.

Mike: [00:07:47] My sons, we have our son, my 12 year old son reading it right now.

Chad: [00:07:50] Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, so my second go around it was, there was a chapter in there, and I don’t remember what chapter it is or anything like that, but the one thing that stuck out of that book for [00:08:00] me was, man, I’m assigning contracts on cars to banks as a finance manager.

In this office, and you can do that on real estate, not just houses, but land and condos or whatever it is. So that’s really what got me started. Yeah. Yeah. In the real estate

Mike: [00:08:21] business. So you live in Denver, but you invest in South Carolina primarily, so, well, how did that, how did that come about?

Chad: [00:08:28] Well, um, my wife will tell you that I told her I took a job and I just, we moved just last minute.

Like within about a month, I took a job. And she would say that I just went to Starbucks and sat there all day and never really had a job. But the truth of the matter was, is I had been with one company in the car business since 2003 and I’m not, I’ve never been a job jumper. Um, so I was very skeptical on even taking another job at another dealership in the first place, [00:09:00] and I packed up and moved.

I told my wife I was going to do. Two to three years of jail time. I called it jail. Um, just to get situated here in Denver. But long story short, three weeks into the, three weeks into the move or the new transition into that new office. Um, the place just ended up being a total shit show, and I was already making good money wholesale and then hadn’t started doing some flips at that point.

And so I just sat on a Saturday afternoon. I showed up at home one day and my wife was like, uh, what are you doing here? It’s one 30 in the afternoon. You just left for work two hours ago. And I was like, Oh, I’m not feeling good. And you know, she’s like, bullshit. You’re, you’re. You quit, didn’t you? And I was like, yup.

And that’s kinda how it all started. So I was forced to have to build my business virtually, literally. Cause I had stopped, you know, and we’ve talked before, I turned off my marketing when we moved, [00:10:00] um, for like two and a half months. One month I turned it off just cause we were packing up and it was a mad dash.

We had to be here in 30 days. And then I’m starting a new. Same systems and same thing, but a new company. So I was like, I don’t even want to be distracted from that. Let me get my feet wet and get going here and. Get traction. Boom. I just 

Mike: [00:10:28] yep. Yep. So you just kept investing in South Carolina because you’d already been doing it for a while.

It was kind of comfortable. And then the truth is, is it sounds like, you know, uh, you just had to figure out how do I do this? Virtually? Like sometimes people are investing in their market and they see the grass is greener. So let me, uh. Even though I’m in Dallas, you know, I want to start investing in Omaha because the grass is greener out there.

It seems like it’s easier, less competition, whatever. But you just did it because that’s what you’re comfortable with.

Chad: [00:10:54] Right. Well, I mean, that was like, I just walked out on a paycheck and you know, I’m just [00:11:00] like, we are now. We know we don’t eat unless we kiddo. So I was just like, all right, I’m going to turn this marketing back on everything.

I pretty much automated and, and had that going and I had big plans to get going in in Denver. But at the end of the day, I just had to sit back and say, you know what, I’m, I literally can spend maybe two hours a day in my office, maybe. Um. And I can literally do this over the phone by talking to people. I don’t have a problem closing people on the phone and doing all of those things.

So I’ve been actually doing virtual before this virtual, it was kind of cool per se. I’ve been doing it now for two years, virtually.

Mike: [00:11:38] Yeah.

Chad: [00:11:38] Yeah. So

Mike: [00:11:39] one of the good things about the virtual side is, you know, there’s a lot of real estate investors that operate in their market that inevitably say, well, I’ll just run over to that house, or let me just run over there.

You just kind of just. Just cause you’re close. You’re like, well, let me just do it. Right. But you didn’t have that luxury, which kind of fit into the lifestyle you wanted anyway. You’re like, I don’t want to spend time doing that. I want [00:12:00] somebody else to handle it. Or I want to have systems and processes that that happens without me having to

Chad: [00:12:04] think about it.

Right, right. You know, before, before people now are talking about, Oh, we use FaceTime and you know, all this stuff. I was FaceTiming clients and potential sellers on Hangouts or FaceTime or, you know, whatever that took. So my process is not completely 100% virtual either. At the time I didn’t have an ag manager.

Um, I was actually handling all that. I would get all the contract, all the paperwork handled, we’d, I’d close them on the price of the house and all that. And before it was with property, I was going to buy and flip. I’d fly back to South Carolina twice a month for, for a couple of days. Yeah. Um, but I’ve put a system in place for that.

We keep a car in Charlotte. I fly in, I grabbed my car from the storage unit. I hit the road, I go do my business for a couple of days, and then I’m back in Denver as a direct flight, three hours. So, I mean, I’ve built around that, so I wouldn’t say I’m [00:13:00] 100% virtual. I don’t think

Mike: [00:13:02] that, but

Chad: [00:13:04] yeah. It works for me.

Mike: [00:13:06] Yeah. But the best part is, is you know, you’re not a, the retail hours are tough. I used to be in retail, so I had get evenings and weekends and all the times that you would prefer to be at home or the times that you’re actually working. Right. And inevitably you’re able, you’ve been able to build a business.

I know you said you told me this number before, but how many deals you closed from the ski slopes last year? I mean, you’re able to just basically wrap. Well, most people like have a business and a lot of real estate investors are this way too. They have a business that fills up most of their life and they fill in the cracks with family and personal stuff, which is not what any of us aspire to do.

It just ends up happening sometimes. So you’ve kind of been able to do the opposite of that in a lot of ways, right?

Chad: [00:13:49] Yeah. I mean, I had a buddy fly in a couple of times this past year to go, you know, go skiing and. It’s, man, this was, this is what you do. I mean, I’m like, dude, I may or [00:14:00] may not talk to you much going up the mountain because I might be on the phone.

I mean, I’m talking to my contractors, I’m talking to my manager. I’m taking, you know, I take all, I still take all inbound, um, phone calls from my, from my pay-per-click. Yeah.

Mike: [00:14:14] It’s not like you got some flexibility because you primarily focus on leads that are coming, you know, uh, pay-per-click primarily.

Right. Versus like. You know, the phones are ringing right now. I’ve got to answer it or else I’ll lose out. It’s, I know you have a lot of texting and auto responding stuff that’s set up right away to start that relationship going even without you calling.

Chad: [00:14:36] Right? Correct. I mean, I’ve got my, my lead generation avenues.

There’s, I mean, I will take a live call, but I mean, let’s be real about it. Um, I’m not getting 10 live calls a day. You know, it can be a couple a day. It could be none a day. I mean, it just, it depends on the flow on online really. And I’ve just kind of built systems around [00:15:00] that.

Mike: [00:15:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kind of be in virtual forces.

You are being in a far off land. It forces you to. You know, put some systems and processes in place that sometimes people find a reason to not have to do it. If they’re in that market, they’re just like, you know, I’ll just run over there or whatever, and you just, you had to, you had to plan to not do that.

Right.

Chad: [00:15:21] Yeah. I’ve, I’ve definitely had to make arrangements for that. And even when I didn’t have an app manager, it was never a hard thing to pick up the phone and call a buddy or even a fellow investment. Hey, can you, can you go take photos of this property for me? Or can you walk this for me? And that was, you know, I had quite a few friends, just friends that wanted to help out and Hey, call me if you need me.

And I would take advantage of that when I needed to. But at the reality was, is I really wouldn’t have to do that hardly at all. Yeah. In that case, um, and it’s just a matter of being able to, my number one, my number one suggestion to folks when they’re always asking me is. [00:16:00] I don’t care what business you have, if your sales ability is not, if it’s not dialed in the sales ability, you, you’re not, you’re going to really struggle to make money.

Cause at the end of the day, we are still in sales. It can be packaged a million different ways, but at the end of the day, it’s still talking to people. It’s figuring out how you can solve problems, but you also have to, you also have to sell them and close them on why you’re wanting to buy their property.

I’m not going to say cheap, but why you want to buy your pro? Why the property way under value of what they think it potentially is. So there, there is sales ability that has to be. Forefront in order to make it happen.

Mike: [00:16:41] Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Do you think, how much do you think it helped you that you had, um, that you were, had already had some connections and stuff like that back in South Carolina?

I mean, a lot of folks that go into a market virtually are not from there necessarily. They just. Pick it for one reason or another. But I mean, all that can be overcome. But [00:17:00] what are your

Chad: [00:17:00] thoughts on that? Um, so my thoughts on that is it is tough to go into a market where you really don’t know the market, like the back of your hand.

Because there are some deals where, I mean, I can stretch to, you know, 80% if I had to. And because I know that market like the back of my hand, I can, I can talk about it, know exactly where I need to be and, and. The most, I think I would want to, if I was going to be personally writing the check. Um, so it does, it does help.

But at the same token, a lot of folks I think that are doing virtual on a, on a mass scale, that they’re just playing the numbers game. Yeah. So I mean, that’s like being in law enforcement and you’re stopping cars on the interstate. You stop enough cars, you’re going to get a huge drug lick, right? Or one person or something like that.

I mean, but most likely you’re probably not going to do it. If you stop five cars, you’re not going to get like, you know, 8,000 pounds of cocaine.

Mike: [00:17:55] So are you saying the cops have to have quotas for a,

Chad: [00:17:59] yeah, that’s [00:18:00] a great analogy, but that really is truly how it works. It’s the same thing as sending out offers.

I mean, the more offers you send, obviously. The more contracts you’re going to get. Yeah. But I haven’t really built my business around that. I’ve just been, I’ve really built my business around my time. Um, that’s just, that’s something I’ve had to learn too, and I had to learn it from previous business and business failures.

Um, and ultimately I think that’s what I want. I got a little autistic man, you know, and I’ve got Ava, I’ve got our kids, and my wife spent many years pretty much operating as a single mom while I was in the car business. So, I mean, that’s just my focus really, is just to be home and be around. Yeah. You know, it’s not about the money.

I’ve chased money. I think I told you earlier, the only thing that you could chase in the car business was money. That’s, that’s it. You can’t, there’s nothing else to chase.

Mike: [00:18:53] There’s no passion for that.

Chad: [00:18:54] Yeah. So I mean, I, I’ve been, I’ve, I’ve had to learn that. I mean, I opened my friend, open my first [00:19:00] business thinking it was freedom.

I literally just bought myself up. Another retail job, the gym business. I mean, that’s all the same hours I was working, but I thought I was free and that that was not the case. So, I mean, I’ve had some, I’ve had some Epic success and some Epic failures, but at the end of the day, you know, I’ve landed here and ultimately it’s time for me.

Mike: [00:19:24] Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. We all aspire to get there, so I’m glad you found it earlier than many do. But of course, you know, people that find it ultimately it’s through, um, trial and error, right? You just get to a point to where you’re just like, and I think, honestly, I think a lot of people right now during this downturn with Kobe and all that, I think a lot of people are having the opportunity to reflect and say.

What can I make better? What can I do better? Am I enjoying what I do? And so I think sometimes we have chance to think about that on the weekends or here or there, but just kind of some extended times where people can reflect a little bit more now, [00:20:00] or if you’re, if you’re not, you should be doing that right now to say, where am I in conjunction to my goal and how can I get there faster?

Or how can I blow that out of the water? You know?

Chad: [00:20:08] Oh, absolutely. I’m not just had a conversation with a good buddy on the, I was on, we were on the phone probably an hour today, and. That’s one of the things that, that was one of the things I said. I was like, you know, being in the home and, and being able to just do what you want to do is worth way more than, than a dollar.

Yeah. If at the end of the day, and it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, I mean, I was curious, he was laughing at me about my videos. I do with my contract, you know, I’m just, this is not HDTV. Flipping houses is not HDTV type stuff. Um, but. At the same token, I was like, I would rather deal with that 30 times over than be chained to an office and can’t leave where you’re supposed to be out of the office at seven o’clock or six 30 and you’re there till 10.

You know, trying to get business done because you sat around all day [00:21:00] long, and then next thing you know, you’re doing business, you know, two hours out of the 10 hour day, you’re there. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s just kinda my philosophy now.

Mike: [00:21:09] Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s awesome. I think everybody, everybody aspires to get there.

Some, some never do. Um, and. Some, you know, some definitely do. So well, Chad, uh, you, you joined us at investor fuel last fall, I think after the million dollar meeting, right. He came to the million dollar meeting and then joined that. That was September and then joined us right afterwards. So

Chad: [00:21:28] what,

Mike: [00:21:28] what has been a, a member of being a member of investor fuel?

Like how has that impacted you or your life or your business? Like can you maybe share your

Chad: [00:21:35] experience? Man, I’ve got, I’ve got friends. I mean, I’ve talked to people daily, weekly. I mean, long before we started doing these happy hours with the coconut stuff. But, um, that’s probably the number one mistake I made in my first business was.

Aye. I did not. I did not get into a mastermind or into a [00:22:00] group where it’s like-minded and people are kind of dealing with the same stuff you’re dealing with because let’s be real when we’re, when we’re talking to our friends outside of this business and your and your vision about making 20 or 25 grand or this like.

People just don’t get it. Like it just, it’s like Fox over them. So it’s great to be around other people that are dealing with some of the same business challenges. Um, it’s great to be around people that are above where you are. It’s also been great for me to figure out, like investor fuel come in was like, you know, I was coming into Vestor feeling like, man, I want to do a hundred deals a year.

But you know, now it’s more like kind of like lifestyle. Like I’m kind of like you’ve said, you’ve talked to me about this a million times. Like you’re kind of like more of a lifestyle guy. You don’t want to be, I don’t want to be told or have to be responsible for having to be somewhere at a specific time.

Like I’m just, [00:23:00] I’m just out there, but I’m focused, but I don’t want to be tied down to anything. Yeah. So it’s been great on that aspect to be around other people. The thing like me too. So

Mike: [00:23:12] yeah, I think the reality is it’s not about units. It’s ultimately not about dollars. I mean, we all want to make more money.

Um, but, uh, it’s ultimately about building a life that we, that we enjoy and love. And, you know, some people are chasing units and dollars and stuff so much that other parts of their life fall apart. That’s, that’s not good either. Right? So there’s, you gotta have a balance for sure.

Chad: [00:23:33] Yeah. I mean, obviously you have to have dollars to stay in business, but you also have to have time for your, for your sanity.

So it is a, it’s a balance for sure.

Mike: [00:23:43] Yup. Yup. Awesome. Well, Chad, if folks wanted to learn more about you or connect, like where could they go?

Chad: [00:23:48] Um, easiest place to find me on Facebook. Um, and, uh, Instagram. Um, I’m trying to get my Instagram, getting him out, but I’m flipping Chad on [00:24:00] Instagram. And, um, Facebook and then, you know, email fusion, real estate [email protected].

Um, can you give me my email and, um. I’m not sure I want to put my soul out on. You don’t have to do that to

Mike: [00:24:15] do that. We’ll let people connect with you on a, yeah, you got gotta, you’ve got a life to live. You don’t want to put your, now we’ll, we’ll put links for your social media stuff down below if anybody wants to connect with you.

So cool, man. Well, definitely appreciate you joining today and thanks for sharing your story and thanks for being an inspiration. I mean, at the end of the day, like a lot of people work really, really, really hard. And again, if that’s where you’re at. If that’s the season of your life you’re in. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But that can’t be, that can’t be four seasons.

Chad: [00:24:43] It can’t be,

Mike: [00:24:45] that’s not the goal.

Chad: [00:24:46] No, and we work hard. I mean, you know, to me working is like, if I’m scanned and I’m taking calls or you know, whatever, I mean, I’d rather be doing that than sitting around twiddling my thumbs. So

Mike: [00:24:57] it’s on your terms. Yeah. You just kinda, you like.

[00:25:00] You know, it’s, it’s very different than the retail business for sure. Where you’re, you’re isolated on the best times of your life, the best times of your week and your day. Right, right. Very different. Yeah. Yep. Cool, buddy. Well, thanks for, uh, thanks for sharing your story with us today.

Chad: [00:25:15] Yeah, man, we’ll, we’ll see.

I guess we’ll see you next week.

Mike: [00:25:18] Yeah. We’ll see, uh, here, here. Uh, we’ve got our virtual investor fuel event coming up here, so everybody, thanks for joining us today. If you got some value out of this, I’d love it. If you subscribe, you can find all of our [email protected]. Of course, wherever you’re watching or viewing right now, you can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google, play, YouTube, everywhere else where you’re watching Alyssa right now.

So if you haven’t yet, make sure you subscribe to us so you can get access to all of our shows. Appreciate you a bunch. See you next time.

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