Going From A One Man Show To Investing All Star

Dylan: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another real estate investing secret show. I’m here with my good friend, Bob Allwine. He’s going to share how we went from a one man show doing just a couple of deals to well over a million dollars a year, and doing dozens of rehabs.

Welcome to real estate investing secrets. We’re all looking for freedom and the opportunity to live better, more fulfilling lives.

But most of us were trained our entire lives to work for someone else to chase their dreams. How can we use real estate investing as a vehicle to achieve financial freedom? My life is dedicated to answering your real estate investing questions and helping you build an investing business that allows you to change your.

And the world around me. And to enable you to turn your dreams of financial freedom into a reality, my name is Mike Hambright from flipping her.com and your questions get answered here on the real estate investing secrets show.

Bob: Hey Dylan.

Dylan: Hey Bob, how are you buddy? Good to see

Bob: ya. Doing great. Great to see

Dylan: you.

[00:01:00] Yeah, you too, man. I’m really, really excited to have you on the show. This has been a long time coming and, uh, I finally was able to get you locked in.

Bob: Awesome. Glad to be here. Yeah.

Dylan: So listen, you are from the, um, central Maryland, uh, market. So tell us exactly where is central Maryland. For those of us not in central mass.

Bob: Gotcha. Yeah, so I live in Frederick, Maryland, which is about 45 minutes north of Washington, DC and 45 minutes west of Baltimore. We work up and down the I 70 corridor from West Virginia down into Baltimore and cover. Um, seven counties in Maryland re recently branched out into the West Virginia, Southern Pennsylvania, and, uh, Delaware’s Eastern shore as well as the Eastern shore of Maryland, which is about three hours away from me where we have a beach house and started to do some business.

Wow. That’s

Dylan: super exciting to be able to be in multiple states. And, uh, you know, we’ll dig into your story a little deeper, but [00:02:00] I’m sure when you, when you first started and you said, Hey, I’m going to start flipping some houses. It was kind of like a guy with this truck and now being in multiple states, I think that’s a Testament to your business and, uh, and what you’ve been able to build.

Bob: Yeah. Thanks. We actually, I started probably in 2002 or 2003 with rentals, my wife, Stacy and I, um, we’re looking for something for the kids retire or the kids’ education funds and our future retirement. So we got into rental properties in 2002 probably bought one property per year until 2008 when the market crashed.

And at that time we sold a couple and, and refinancing. And then laid low while we both had jobs until about, I want to say 2010 when I started the real estate flipping business. Gotcha.

Dylan: So you brought up your wife, Stacy, and, um, for those of us who don’t know, Stacy is a very successful realtor, right? Why don’t you give us a little [00:03:00] backstory on state?

Bob: Sure. Yeah. So we both had corporate jobs. Um, I was the sales manager for commercial landscaping company and Stacy was an HR manager and then a recruiter for a biotech firm. But, um, she got her real estate license in 2008 after. Um, we had a little bit of a, um, uh, a F a family emergency, so to speak. Um, her, her brother had passed away and she needed a change in her life.

So at that time, you know, the market was crashing. And Stacy went, um, um, it took a little break from work and she became a licensed realtor because one of the two of us had always wanted to become a realtor. Since we were, we were doing the real estate business on the side with the rental properties and.

I was just working in commercial sales for a large landscaping company and that company got sold. So I found myself needing another job, which I did pick up another job for a little while and then eventually started flipping houses on [00:04:00] the side. So yes, Stacy started in real estate in 2008, like the toughest time in the world.

Um, she did probably three deals for her first year and. Um, grew exponentially every year thereafter, she became a, um, uh, a, uh, she, she signed up with the Brian Buffini coaching program, which is a large real estate coaching program for, for realtors. And she just excelled and her business doubled every year.

And, uh, currently she has a team, a small team, and they do. Well over $50 million in retail, real estate. So yeah, very proud of her. She’s doing a great job and, um, kind of goes hand in hand with, with what we do. And I’m sure we’ll get into talking a little bit more about some of the other ventures that we’re getting into these days.

So yeah, it’s, it’s awesome. Having her in a businesses. Yeah. Th that’s

Dylan: super huge for those of you guys who don’t know [00:05:00] a lot about the whole real estate agent world, a $50 million team is a huge team. That is, that means they’re doing a lot of volume. And to start out in 2008, not have like a super long background in real estate.

Um, again, it’s just very, very impressive. So, Bob, let’s go back. Let’s unpack a little bit, um, about what you talked about earlier. So you got involved in real estate investing in around 2002. What was your mindset there? Why, why was real estate. You guys thought about?

Bob: Yeah. So at that time, our kids were young elementary school, I think.

And, you know, Stacy woke up one night and said, how are we going to pay for these kids college education? And, uh, I said, I don’t know. Let’s think about that. So, um, what I did is I got on the internet back in those days, it was real slow. Right. And I found a book called the millionaire next door, and I started reading.

And simultaneously we were selling our, our [00:06:00] townhouse that we were raising our kids in and moving to a single family home about a mile away. And our realtor was also a real estate Bester, so to speak at the time. So, um, I’ll give you the short version of the story. He asked me to bird dog for him, and I actually found him a deal.

And, uh, the guy gave me like a $500 cash incentive. Oh man, back. 20 some years ago. And, um, so anyway, here I am reading the book and I’ve got this guy, Dave, the realtor, who’s also an investor who gave me a $500 cash bonus for finding him a deal. And then I just dove into it and, um, started to learn how to get the money to finance more rental properties or to finance rental properties period.

And we started to buy rental properties that, that.

Dylan: You know, it’s funny, Bob, uh, [00:07:00] you and I hang out with real estate investors from guys and gals doing millions and millions a year to some of the newer people. We’ll talk a little bit about meetup groups and RIAs a little bit later, but it’s funny that, uh, that when we meet those new people, what’s the one first or second thing that they always say, right?

They want to be a bird dogs, or they want to be wholesalers. So for those of you who are newer to the biz, if you don’t know what a bird dog is. Basically it’s somebody who goes out and finds deals for somebody else. It doesn’t mean they’re like putting the contract together. They’re usually not doing mailings or anything like that.

It’s, it’s kind of almost like you’ve got your eyes and ears open. And Bob got excited about real estate investing and somebody was standing next to him saying, Hey, listen, if you find this, this or this, I’ll pay you for it. And that’s, that’s how a lot of people get started in real estate investing. Then you get bit by the.

And then it’s a, it’s all uphill or downhill from there, I guess it depends on how you look at it, you know? Um, so yeah, so, so that’s how a lot of people get started. And, and Bob, when, um, going back to the whole [00:08:00] RIAs and, and meetups. So, uh, I know that you guys were doing something like that, uh, pre a pandemic, and we’ve talked a little bit about it, but how important is your personal network, especially around town and, and talk about what that means.

Bob: Sure. Yeah, it’s huge. So currently we’re not doing a month. We meet up, but we’re about to start happy hours again. And the idea there is to connect with investors and agents. Um, the community that we’re in is, um, pretty small community as far as the real estate business. Right? So. We’re pretty well-known locally and Frederick, and want to connect to those people to share ideas and deals.

Um, but going back to even, I’m going to go back probably to their early two thousands. Uh, the first thing I did was I joined a meet up group and found a couple of mentors in that group. Um, one guy in particular. Helped me learn how to wholesale in [00:09:00] the early days. And, um, that that was instrumental. So if you can find yourself a network group and some people in that group that are doing what you want to do, that that’s huge.

I mean, today we’re doing it at a local level and then we’re doing it at a, at a larger level with, um, you and some friends at investor fuel. So I, I think it’s, it’s paramount. Paramount at every stage of my operation to, um, have people to talk to that are doing exactly what I’m doing or what I want to do.

And then people to do deals with.

Dylan: Yeah, I think it turns from, um, kind of being nervous and not knowing what to do to joining those groups and then kind of learning how to be dangerous almost then, then it starts to be, uh, you know, you’re looking for, for partners are looking for deals and eventually you end up becoming friends with a lot of those guys and gals and, uh, My whole life kind of revolves around real estate events, you know, right here, where I’m at in Metro Detroit.

And of course, where [00:10:00] Bob and I get to hang out at investor fuel, which is a nationwide mastermind nationwide mastermind, uh, run by Mike Hambright, uh, who also started this whole FlipNerd network. Um, and, uh, you know, Mike has kind of put us all together and Bob and I have become friends and there’s. A lot of other people that come there and hang out with us over a hundred, every single quarter.

And, uh, you know, it’s not about the deals. It’s kind of funny when Bob and I were talking off camera, I’m like, I got to brag about something when we first get started, you know, that to get the show going. And when we’re in the investor fuel, we don’t brag. And a lot of times those for me anyways, there was a kind of like that the.

Top of the food chain investors that I get to hang out with real estate investors. Um, and we don’t hear them brag. So what do we talk about? We talk about family stuff. We talk about challenges we’re having, but it’s not about bragging and, and, uh, you know, I think that’s something that’s huge as you build your own network that you learn how to, how to help other people and deliver value because that’s what makes people want to be around you.

And eventually [00:11:00] once you’re that person. Then deals will come, right? Partnerships will come and being a part of a, uh, an, uh, a network like that, whether it’s near where you live or if it’s nationwide is just imperative. Um, I think to going to the next level and, uh, certainly something that’s important to me, something that’s important to Bob.

So you’re not

Bob: the only thing I, yeah, the only thing I’d add to that is you’re going to. And you don’t go to those meetings with the idea of what can I get? It’s you go to the meetings with who can I meet and what can I give? Right. So you’re going at whatever level you’re at, you have something to give and to share with somebody else in that group.

And, um, you know, even the local groups, I have friends in, in the first groups that I went to, that I’m still good friends with today. So, you know, if you go there with the intention of getting to know people. Finding out what they do, you’ll find ways to help them and vice versa. So, yes. Yeah, [00:12:00] I can’t,

Dylan: I can’t agree more.

Most of my long-term relationships have come from those groups. So if you guys are new to investing or if you’ve been in investing for a long time, pay attention to this part, because it’s really the, uh, the easiest thing you can do is to get out to these, these meetings and meet people. And, um, it’s, it’s what can help propel you in to get to the next level?

So, Bob, I know that, um, that you’ve done a lot of rehabbing, uh, you know, I think when we first met you definitely. Considered like a full-time rehabber so you love to buy, fix and flip, but it takes a lot of work. Right? It’s it’s tough on the, uh, sometimes it’s tough on the brain, uh, among, uh, amongst other things.

So what are you working on right now

Bob: in your business? Yeah. So right now the primary role that I have is running the fix and flip business. Oops. I kind of goofed up my camera. Okay. Okay. So yeah, running the fix and flip business. Which currently, you know, we have a projects and operations there [00:13:00] somewhere in between.

We just bought them a couple of weeks ago to they’re under contract to sell. And we closed in the next couple of weeks to, you know, they’re full fledged rehabs that were, you know, up to our eyeballs in alligators on. So, um, that’s the primary business for me. That’s the business that brings in the revenue that I’m responsible for.

Um, And I, I run the team that, um, consists of myself, my son, Michael, who’s also a licensed realtor and he’s the acquisitions manager. Um, my daughter-in-law Jacqueline is my admin assistant in our transaction coordinator. She was just sending contracts and LLC docs a couple of minutes ago. Before we jumped on, um, I have a VA overseas and then I also have another realtor that works with me.

That’s um, my lead manager and she works part-time with us and takes all the inbound calls and works on a lot of the marketing. And then from there, everybody else on my team [00:14:00] is, is, um, subcontractors. So, um, we work with a lot of contractors and that’s, that’s what I spend my time on overseeing the contractors, but the contractors and the operations in general, but, um, Where we’re headed is we’re adding to the long-term, uh, plan for not just myself, but for Stacy and I as a team.

And, um, so Stacy runs the retail real estate business. She also does all of our listings and so much more. I mean, she’s my advisor. She’s she knows about every house that I’m flipping. She, she, um, You know, she blesses the comps and she tells me what she’s going to sell it for. And I believe her. And then when we’re finished with the house, we turn it over to her and she sells it for what she says she will, or more these days.

Right? So that’s, that’s the primary business are the two primary businesses. Stacy’s retail business and my house flipping [00:15:00] business. But we also have rentals. I mentioned earlier that we started way back in 2003 with rentals. Over the years, we’ve had a couple of different LLCs and picked up properties.

My son, Michael and I formed an LLC together and bought a bunch of rentals in, um, um, I say a bunch, we had like eight or nine at one point. We, we have, uh, sold them all as. Last summer, right before he got married to, uh, raise some capital, um, for him. And then we also still Stacy and I have rentals that we hold together, but recently we’ve embarked on a new mission, which is to build a short-term rental business.

Right. So we’re looking at adding assets to the, um, to the portfolio and we’re, we’re doing, uh, somewhat of a restructure we’ve. We’ve connected with some really good accountants and some advisors that are helping us restructure our entities to put together a family [00:16:00] trust and then have our individual LLCs under that family trust.

And then we’re adding this short term rental business. Um, to the mix. So just today we closed on a short-term rental. That’s going to be an Airbnb in ocean city, Maryland, which as I mentioned is about three hours from here. We have, um, a second home down at Delaware at the beach, so it makes perfect sense.

Stacey’s licensed down in Delaware. She does a little bit of business at the beach. So. We had a couple of deals fall into our lap this month. So we’re picking up a couple of short-term rentals. One. That’s going to be ready to go in about a week and a half. And the other one that we close on. June 15th that we’re going to do a full rehab on, but it’s a small two bedroom, two bath condo should take about two weeks, um, new kitchen, new bathrooms, new flooring, you know, the drill on that, make that thing pretty and, and put it on the Airbnb market.

Right. So that’s a new venture for us, and I’m really excited about [00:17:00] that kind of. Cuts up the monotony of the daily, the daily grind of the flipping houses business. And, uh, it gives me something else to, um, put on my to-do list. So yeah. So awesome. We’re really excited about it.

Dylan: Yeah. That’s a lot to digest right there.

So that is that, that is the life of a full-time real estate investor. If you are looking to get from doing a dealer to a year or a month to where you have eight deals lined up and you’re wholesaling, some of them rehabbing, some of them keeping some of short term rentals, just rewind that and listen to what Bob just talked about.

So, Bob, I want to kind of take it back and you brought up a lot about your family and your team, right? So, um, I know you, so I get to kind of cheat, but. Kind of take us through, take us through what it’s like, uh, to, to work with your family and the team. And what does like a regular day look like when you guys are kind of altogether?

Bob: Yeah, I can go in a lot of directions with that. Um, [00:18:00] it’s awesome. It’s great. I mean, With Stacy and I, she is obviously the one I spent the most time with we’re together a lot. Um, she is amazing at, um, bouncing a lot of, um, moving pieces, juggling balls, if you will. And we will. We’re both kind of on different timelines when it comes to operating business.

Right. I like to get up early and get things done and, and, um, call it a day and the afternoon. Early evening. Um, but you know, we’re together in the evening, right? So, and, and as you know, from being a realtor realtors do a lot of business in the evenings and the weekends. So it’s not uncommon for us to be cruising down the road to beach.

And she’s looking at her phone and says, Hey, I’ve got an offer on such and such a house. You want to talk about it? Yeah, I guess. So let’s talk about it, you know, w we were on our way to dinner the other [00:19:00] night and she said, I got an offer on, well, if you want to know what it is, I’m like, is it good? She’s like, yeah, it’s pretty good.

So, you know, okay, let’s talk about it. So, you know, we, we, we worked through that and then, you know, there’s other times when, you know, I could be a pain in her butt. Right. Um, so, um, we, we worked through all of that and we get along great and we make things happen. Then then there’s my son. Who’s also on Stacy’s team and he’s a, um, he’s on my team, right?

So he has to deal with both of us and he’s, he has his own retail business, which is, which is great. I was talking to him this morning about a couple of appointments that we have come. And he said that he has nine buyers right now. He’s he’s he made four offers to in the last three days and didn’t get any of them.

Um, plus he’s making two offers for us this week. So I’m in the kids hustling and, um, he’s doing a great job. He’s got a young family of his own and, um, we have a pretty good working [00:20:00] relationship. I mean, I trust him implicitly. He buys houses. I, I find out about it. You know, when we signed the contract, of course we, we have.

Systems are in place that allows him to, to go out to a property and run an estimate on the property and figure out what our max allowable offer is. But, um, I get to put my blessing on the purchase prices, but we buy houses all the time that I don’t even see until, you know, the day I get the keys. So, um, and then it works out most of the time.

They’re sure there’s things that he misses. You know, maybe I would have seen, but if you want to scale your business, you can’t do it all by yourself. And it’s important to have somebody that you trust. So, you know, I love working with realtors on my team. There’s some investors that do not like to work with realtors.

I’m all about working with realtors. I’ve got local realtors that refer us business all the time. Um, you know, we could talk more about that later, but. We then we have, um, I mentioned the lead manager. Who’s also a [00:21:00] reel on my team. She’s not in the family, but she’s, you know, pretty close and, um, working with family can be challenging at times, but, but it’s also great.

I mentioned Jacqueline’s my admin and, and she does the transaction coordination. I mean, who better to trust with the ins and outs of your business then than family members that understand the business. Absolutely. I’m

Dylan: sure. Way back in 2002, you’d never, uh, saw this coming where your son, who at the time was, I don’t know how old was Michael.

I don’t even know Michael, but he’s what, 25.

Bob: He’s 26. Yeah. So he was three, three years old. Yeah, back then. It was just me. Um, yeah. Um, he came into the picture right around the time I got serious about growing my business and, um, going from a one man show to trying to build a team. Right. So it was probably 2017.

I had signed up [00:22:00] for, um, for, for, um, a three day immersion with another, um, real estate investment coaching guy. Um, before I ever met you guys and Mike and. It was awesome. I went out to California and I spent time with like 15 other investors from around the country. And there was one investor fuel guy there.

And, um, I met Adrian Nez there for the late great Adrian Inez who work with. And, um, I met some, some guys from California that were running an awesome business and they were running a family business. And I was at that time trying to figure out like, what pieces do I need first grow a team because. You know, I was, this was probably a year after I quit my job and, um, a couple of years after, but I was still running everything by myself and Stacy was my realtor and that was the extent of the team.

So I knew [00:23:00] I needed some help, but I didn’t know what I needed. So I’m one of these dudes from California said, man, you need an acquisitions manager and you need, you need an administrative assistant. Um, but you already have your acquisitions manager. It’s your, it’s your son, Michael, because at that time, Michael was, she had just gotten his Maryland real estate license and um, he did one year.

Played basketball college was not for him. And he, by the time the spring semester rolled around when he was 18 years old, he had his real estate license. And I had actually, I sold him his first investment property before he could even buy a house. I wholesale that deal, that he turned into a rent rental, which he later fixed up and sold to some friends of ours.

Mike can bill, but anyway, that’s a side story. Um, Where was I going with that? So, yeah, Michael was, um, Michael was my buyer’s agent. Right? So at that time we were still doing some [00:24:00] HUD homes and foreclosures from the MLS and we were doing a fair amount of agent to agent referrals. So we had local agents that would call us and say, Hey, I’ve got a hoarder house or I’ve got a divorce situation.

Some kids messing up their parent’s house, wherever the case was. And, um, they knew my uncle, they knew Stacy and Michael would go out and meet with them. And so I met these dudes in California and they said, Hey, your acquisitions manager, you already have them. It’s Michael. So you, what you need to do is teach him how to deal with these off market deals.

So that’s what we did. So Adrian helped me with the webpage. We started a dumps to money into mail or more money into me. Grew the business. I hired somebody else. That was an admin. That was, is no longer with me. I’ve been through probably three by now, since that initial hire, but it was, it was great. It was exactly what I needed.

I, I hired an admin first and simultaneously made Michael my, um, official [00:25:00] acquisitions manager. And for a while we ran appointments together. Um, And he’s much better when I’m not there, because if I’m there, I have a tendency to talk. Right. So, um, he gets more deals without me. Um, occasionally he’ll double, he’ll get double booked or we’ll have multiple appointments in one week that he can’t get to every single one.

So occasionally I’ll, I’ll, I’ll jump in there and go to an appointment, but. Yeah, that, that was, that was it. That was the turning point. When I decided that I needed to go from a one man show to building a team. And fortunately he was there and eager to take that role on.

Dylan: Yeah. I think a lot of people out there listening and watching would love to be able to work with their families.

And some of us are still in W2 situations that we just can’t see through that wall, but it’s not a brick wall. You know, it’s, it’s a glass ceiling that you can, that you can crash through. It just. Uh, it takes a little bit of faith and [00:26:00] takes a little bit of guts. But, um, again, when, when Michael was two or three years old, you started in this business 20 years later, the kids out there buying houses and you don’t even know what they look like until you close on them now.

So that says a lot about, about your business and, uh, you know, and you get family. I think that’s super duper, you know, really,

Bob: really cool to be able to see that. Yeah. And I, I realized not every investor has no family that’s in the business and if you’re starting out, you might be thinking, yeah, great.

Yeah. I don’t have family members that are realtors, but, um, you know, if you’re starting out, I, I’m a, I’m a huge proponent of working with realtors. I mean, it’s not just, it’s not just Stacy and Michael, we’ve got a network of people that will call them or call me just. Uh, Memorial day weekend was the other day I was at the beach and I got a text from an agent.

Here you go. Talk to this, this people it’s, um, you know, they wanted me to sell it, but I can’t sell their house. It just needs too much work. And, um, you know, we’ll get, we’ll [00:27:00] give her a referral, you know, working with other agents and giving referrals. It’s huge. And some investors think, well, I’m going to keep it all to myself.

Or even some investors say, oh, you know, in this market, I don’t need the list for the realtor. I’ll just throw it up on a sister’s cell or something and knock it out myself. But I think that’s a huge mistake. I think realtors have so much to give and, um, have saved my ass many times. So, you know, we w we work with a lot of realtors and if you’re new and you’re starting out.

Go to a meet up or call realtors, go where they are network with them and find the ones that, um, are interested in investing because you know, not all retail realtors make good investor realtors, right? Some can wear both hats, but if you go to meet, if you go to happy hours, you know, go to some realtor, happy hours, go to charity.

If that’s where the realtors hang out right in, in your town. We, we, we go to every. [00:28:00] Charity event. We can, my wife’s on the board of, um, a school, a recovery high school. We go to all their events. We, we give back in the community and that’s where all the people that we do business with are, you know, and we’re not going to those events looking for business, but we’re there with other people that we do business with.

Right. And you become friends and, and they, they call you and they send you deals. But like if you’re starting down here and you’re like, um, I’d love to have like an acquisitions kind of agent person. If you can find one at places like that, you can find somebody who’s young and hungry that, um, sorry, my dogs just joined us, um, that are young and hungry that, um, they don’t even have to be young.

They just need to be hungry and interested in investing. Right. And you can team up with those people and they, they can, they can bring a lot to your business.

Dylan: Yeah. I talk about this all the time. Bob, I’m a, you know, I’m a big proponent of, of, I am an agent, I’m a broker, right? So, so I do both sides of the [00:29:00] business.

Um, and 20, 20 years ago, even 15 years ago, there was, there was kind of a brick wall and a lot of agents and investors, you know, investors didn’t want to deal with agents because they made it difficult agents, hated investors because there was no commission to be had. And since the foreclosure days, I always talk about they’ve kind of come together.

Uh, we always use the term hybrid, uh, you know, real estate agents because nowadays a lot of

Bob: us

Dylan: do both sides of the business and you may have started and, you know, a year or two from now, Stacy could be the greatest real estate investor of all time and choose a really paging. But it’s such a easy transition.

Sometimes the market gives us that or you just fall the. Different parts of the business. Um, and, uh, and I think that there’s a lot of deals to get from those guys and girls. I think that there’s a lot of insight to get from them. And like you said, um, you can find your acquisitions, people there. Those are your guys who are trying to step up to that next level and hire salespeople or house by your spot.

And by. Sometimes you got to retrain them because [00:30:00] realtors, um, look at things a little bit differently than investors, but it’s kind of all the same. It’s just a, you know, it’s like a chess board when you turn it a quarter, uh, you know, and look at it from a different angle, things totally changed. So, um, that’s great advice.

Mob is going to realtors. Um,

Bob: yeah, so, so what’s, um, you know,

Dylan: what’s, what’s one thing that you think that you’d change, um, from when you first started to today and then.

Bob: So one thing that I’ve changed would be, um, don’t try to do it all myself, right. I could be kind of hard-headed and in the beginning, you know, I, I wear all the hats and did everything and I was good as some of it sucked it, the rest of it.

Right. So find people that are, are better than me at the things that, you know, I struggle with. And, um, [00:31:00] Find people that compliment you. Right? So that, that’s something that I’ve learned. Um, and we keep talking about realtors, but I, I mean, I love having like a realtor as my lead manager, for example. For example, because once they’re trained on our systems and our process and our CRM, it’s really just talking to people and realtors love to talk to people and help them.

And, you know, going back to that whole conversation, that’s one thing that we really didn’t mention is yeah, realtors can help you. And if you have someone on your team or they’re sending you deals, that’s great, but let’s pretend you’re out there talking to a seller and they’re on the fence about, um, selling to you for cash or as.

And listing their house. That the really, the best thing for them is to list their house. Wouldn’t it be great if you had that option, like you had an agent that you could just say, here you go, sell, sell this lady’s house. You know, we, we had one last year, we did probably eight [00:32:00] realtor referrals, um, last year where Michael went on the appointment and he called me afterwards and said, okay, it’s not a deal for Marilyn Cash, but it’s, uh, it’s I can help this person.

Um, I’m going to list their house. I’m like, great. So then we get a, uh, Marketing and referral back and paid back to us. Right. So there was this one house. I don’t know how much time we have left Dylan. So I’ll give you the short version. Okay. So the ARV was $800,000 or more. And, um, the only thing wrong with it was the granite was smashed up in the kitchen and there were bullet holes inside of the house.

So. Here, this poor lady was going through a ugly divorce and her husband was in jail. And he’s the one that put the bullet holes in the side of the house as a result of the divorce. Right. So, um, so the, the husband’s in jail and he doesn’t want to sell the house. So Michael connected her with our attorney.

It took like six months and our attorney helped her out. Michael helped her out [00:33:00] and she just fricking loved him for, you know, being upfront with her and telling her we made her a cash offer, I think for like for $450,000. And that’s something you can do when you have a realtor on your team and go out, say, okay, you want the quick cash option.

Um, we can, we can give you this much money for cash to buy your house as is, or maybe if you’re, you’re not like thrilled to death with that. And you’d like to get a little bit more money, we could list your house on the market and it’s going to take you 30 to 60 days and people are going to come through and maybe someone’s going to ask for an inspection and that whole conversation has to happen.

Right. And give the people their, their options. So, Um, in that particular case, this lady went with the list, my house option, and it all worked out, you know, Maryland cash house buyers got a referral, but ultimately, you know, Mike really helps somebody and, and put their interests first. So I think that’s big in, in, in this business.

And you’re [00:34:00] not just out there trying to make a quick buck all the time. Surely as quick bucks to be made, but if you’re really thinking about the, um, the seller and you, you have that as an option, it’s a way to make yourself different as a real estate investor. And we, we kind of probably about two years ago, embraced that.

Right. So, you know, prior to that, it was, you know, my mindset was find a banged up house and fixed it up and sell it or wholesale it to somebody else. Right. So, um, Kind of shifted to how can we be different? What’s our unique selling proposition. How are we different than all the other people with carrot websites out there?

No knock on carrot. I love my carrot site, right. But if you have a stock carrot site, you’re just like everybody else. So you need to make it a little bit different. And if you’re, if you have some agents on your team or agents that you work with, You’re a little bit different than probably 80% of the other investors out there.

So, you know, that’ll come through when you’re out there talking to motivated [00:35:00] sellers, especially right now, when, when, um, you know, some people can sell pretty much anything on the market. So if you’re up against other investors and other agents, when you’re out there on appointments with motivated sellers and you have that in your toolbox, and you’re really thinking about what’s best for these people, it’s ultimately going to help you grow your business that much more.

Dylan: Yeah. It’s, it’s funny, Bob, because I’ll talk to guys who think the exact opposite of you and I’m 100% standing next to you when you talk about that, because I’ve always been of the mindset that if you can help somebody, it’s going to come back to you. It’s cost me money, but I’m happier because of it. And one of my best friends here in Metro Detroit tells the newbies, listen to.

You have to be a people helper. If you don’t want to help people, you’re not going to last long. And he’s like, you’re not going to last long period, whether it’s in real estate investing, you know, or at the same table, sitting with us drinking a coffee, right. You have to be willing to help people. Um, and I think that’s the right mindset to have.

And, uh, and sometimes listen, you’re going to make less money. If [00:36:00] it comes to listing the house. You know, are you going to, are you going to throw that opportunity away? Whether you’re referring it to someone, or if Stacey was sitting in that same living room, she could switch from a house buyer to a house Lister.

We know, you know, better than any of us. Um, and that option is there. And. In today’s world P the consumer is a lot more intelligent than it used to be. I’ve been in business as long as you since oh three. So I used to sit on living room couches and sofas and say, man, the market’s terrible when the market was great, the market was great when the market was terrible, people didn’t know as much as they do today.

And it wasn’t that you were trying to trick them, but we’re just always trying to buy at the deepest discount. And we weren’t always buying the shining star on the, on the block. Buying the, the turd that we had to shine up as they say, you

Bob: know,

Dylan: but, uh, but that’s the right attitude to have. So for those of you guys, again, watching and listening to, you know, take that to heart, for sure.

You gotta be able to be out there and help people. And it’s not always about, uh, hitting a home run every time, but doing the right thing will get you a lot further. So that [00:37:00] almost answers my, my last question for you, Bob, but, um, For, uh, for the investors out there listening and watching, what is the absolute number one best piece of advice that, that you could give today?

Bob: So, yeah, I mean, surround yourself with great people, rely on people, find people to help you. Where you, maybe you fall short or things that you just can’t stand to do. I mean, there’s things that I can’t stand to do that I used to do myself. Right. So find somebody that’s good at doing those things that you’re not good at, or don’t like to do.

Um, but then maybe to take it a step further, you know, You hear a lot of things about what’s going on in the market today, right? There’s people that say, oh, the markets tend to crash. There’s people that say, no, it’s going to take a couple more years and it’s going to level out because there’s just not enough inventory.

Right. So, um, I’m of that mindset, but really. At the end of the day, none of that matters because, um, as real estate investors, we can make money if the market [00:38:00] is up down or sideways. And the most important thing when you’re evaluating deals is, um, you kind of touched on it, you know, w w. What can I pay for that house?

Still make money. And, um, personally, you know, we’re, we’re not riding that appreciation wave when we’re making offers right now. We’re, we’re looking at, okay, what are we going to sell that house for conservatively and then working backwards from there. So, you know, some of the things I’ve learned over the years is don’t do a deal just to do a deal right there.

There’s been times. I’ve had that mindset any more deals me more deals and we’ve overpaid or we miss something. Yeah. I mean, just keep doing the activities to the deals will come. And you know, one thing I’ve learned in investor fuel is you need to spend the money to bank the money. And if, and if, if, um, you can spend $5,000 and make $57,000, wouldn’t you spend [00:39:00] $5,000 as many times as you can.

Um, so yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s, that’s hard for somebody that’s starting out to, to swallow. I’ve I’ve read something on somebody else’s Facebook earlier today. Some, some dude posted that, man. I can’t find any deals, no matter what I do. I’ve called hundreds of people and I’ve texted hundreds of people and I put up bandit signs and I did an X and I did Y and I did.

And, you know, the first thing I thought of was he said he called hundreds and he texted hundreds. Well, you need to call thousands and you need to text thousands of specialists. So, um, you know, don’t give up, I mean, that’s probably the number one lesson I’ve learned over the years. I know we’re running out of time, but it took me three years.

I’m sorry, three months to do my first deal. When I decided that I wanted to learn how to wholesale and flip this was after. Eight rental purchases, right? Because rental purchases versus wholesaling and flipping is a different animal. [00:40:00] So, um, you just have to stick with it, man. I, when I had a job, I would stay up until 10, 11, 12 o’clock at night doing letters, myself, scouring the MLS.

I was pulling expired listings that I got from my. Realtor wife. Right. And then I would look up who owned the house on the, on the tax records and send them letters. So I did that for three months before I got a deal. So if you’re like that guy that posted on Facebook this morning, that he can’t find the deals, you just have to stick with it.

I mean, that’s, that’s probably the number one thing. The first couple of deals are the hardest, but you’ve learned something from every single deal. So, you know, surround yourself with great people and never ever again.

Dylan: Man, we can just shut it down after that. That was awesome, Bob. I really, really, really appreciate that, uh, that, that last bit there, and that’s the best advice that you guys can take right there as, as never give up.

And, uh, you know, there’s always going to be deals out there. So [00:41:00] surround yourself with the right people and you’re going to make it happen. So, Bob, as you know, we really, really appreciate you being on today. So what is the best way for people to find you? Why don’t you give us your influence? Stacy’s and of course, we’re going to link to it in the show notes.

Bob: Okay. Sure. So, um, Facebook Bob, O Y a L L w E I N. And you know, Stacy SDAC, Y um, I think she’s all wine realtor on all the, all the social media platforms. Um, Bob, the flipper on most social media platforms. Um, but. I started to post like the majority of my contact on my personal Facebook, because that’s where you have the most friends and people that know what you do.

And really, I mean, we could talk about this all day, but no posting on, on Facebook for me is to let people know what I’m up to so that, um, you know, when and Sally’s house needs to be sold, they’re going to remember about the flipper rate. Um, so, um, not to too much [00:42:00] advertising, but just sharing what the heck you’re up to.

But anyway, so yeah, Facebook would probably be the best place. And then, um, send me a DM if you want some help and I’ll send you my cell phone number.

Dylan: You got, you heard it here. Folks, Bob always given away free coaching. You just have to ask for his cell phone number.

Bob: Yeah. But you have to take action if you’re gonna, if you’re going to call me and I’ll give you some recommendations, you know how that goes, right?

Dylan? Absolutely. No,

Dylan: that’s the number one thing that you have to do is you have to take action for that. So listen to everybody. If this is the first time you’re watching this show, and this is real estate investing secrets, I’m your host, Dylan Tanaka. We are on the flip nerd network, as you know, and if you are not already subscribed, you can click below subscribe on any podcast channel that you want to listen to this thing.

If you want to watch it on YouTube, you want to watch the video. You can subscribe. Uh, and come back here every single week. And if you haven’t already make sure you give us a [00:43:00] nice, big fat, juicy five star review, because Bob put on an absolute masterclass for all of us. So from myself and Bob, all wine, we appreciate you guys and we’ll see you on the new.

Thanks

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