From Contractor To Rehabber To CEO

Dylan: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the real estate secret show. I’m Dylan Tanaka, your new host right here on the flip nerd podcast network. Super excited to bring to you. One of my good friends today, forest McGee from Richmond, Virginia, and forest is going to talk about how he went from a contractor to a rehabber to a CEO.

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 you and to enable you to turn your dreams of financial freedom into a reality. My name is Mike Hambright from flipnerd.com and your questions get answered here on the real estate investing [00:01:00] secrets.

Dylan: Hey forest. How you doing buddy? Good to see it today. Hey

Forrest: Dylan, how are you doing? Thanks for having me on your, uh, first show. I’m proud of you.

Dylan: Thank you. I wasn’t, I wasn’t going to bring that up, but you can see I’m wearing the FlipNerd shirt. I’m happy to take over the podcast from our good friend, Mike Hambright, but today’s all about you, my friend.

And, uh, I got to ask you one serious question and I want to know the truth. What does it feel like to be on TV?

Forrest: Uh, that was a little surreal. Uh, so I found a funny story, so I didn’t hear any feedback from when I started doing TV commercials and I was getting my hair cut a month ago and, um, I was checking out and all of a sudden I heard my voice and I look up and I’m on the TV commercial at the barbershop.

And I was like, Hey, I mean, everybody started laughing and smiling and then I walked out. Thought that was pretty cool. So. [00:02:00]

Dylan: That’s no, it’s super, super exciting. Um, we’re, we’ll dig a little bit deeper into that a little bit later in the show, but, uh, Forrest is a, is marketing on TV now. So again, we’re going to, we’re going to talk a little bit about forest journey and, uh, and, and forest.

Why don’t you, why don’t you tell us a little bit about how you got started, where you came from and where you’re at? Yeah,

Forrest: I’ve told this story a lot, but I’m going to tell it again. Cause it’s funny story. So, uh, I got into real estate because I thought it would be easy and I thought it would be a, truly a business that I could be my own boss.

I was, I’ve been a general contractor since 2007 is when, uh, my, my last paycheck was in 2007. And so, uh, ever since then I’ve been chasing checks and uh, so I got tired of. Uh, everybody being my boss, right. My dad had taught me a long time ago, you know, uh, we would have these employees come into our office and they’d be like, man, it’d be awesome to be a boss.

You know, I have to answer to anybody. And my dad’s, my dad’s were [00:03:00] taught to dad would always be, wait a minute, you have one boss. I have 30. Right. You know? And so, and that’s in contracting. Right. And self-employed, you know, your customer is your boss. And so. You know, that really kind of hit home after a while.

And I just decided that it wasn’t going to be my life forever and I wanted to make a change. So I said, what can I do with my, my tools? Right. My intelligence and my ability, uh, what can I do? And construction and still make money. I said, well, you know, I was seeing some of my friends do good in real estate, so I’ll just go flip some houses.

And so I started down that journey with a, a partner in, and you know, that partnership was for one house. And what we learned at the end of that house, when, you know, we didn’t make any money is. Real estate has nothing to do with construction per se. It has to do with real estate industry. So, uh, I figured that, uh, I better learn how to be in the real estate investor space and not similar to in the contracting space.[00:04:00]

And, uh, so through that journey, my dad helped me. Uh, we formed another business and we went and got educated through a real estate mentor. And that’s how I kinda got.

Dylan: Cool. So you talked about having a partner and a lot of our listeners are getting started in real estate investing. Some of them have been investing for a long time, but, uh, what was it like going from having, having that partner?

Someone you could kind of lean on to moving solo so quickly.

Forrest: Well, I did it for peace of mind. Uh, this goodness, that’s a, that’s a good question. So I’ve seen a lot of people have great partnerships, right. But, uh, that was not what God had planned for me. Uh, I tell people very humbly that I’m a horrible partner.

Uh, I really am. I’m just not good at it. And you know, I just, uh, I don’t know. Not for me. I say, what I did is I say, well, you know, this business is about partnerships, right? I mean, this, [00:05:00] this business, you can’t do this alone. Right? You have to leverage other people, whether it’s partnerships, whether it’s money partners, whether it’s, you know, business partners, whether it’s, you know, integrators like we have, you have to have relationships in this business.

But as far as a business relationship, I didn’t, I didn’t work well with that at all. That did not work.

Dylan: Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s very, very true. You do need to look at the people that you do business with this partners. Forrest has been in business for awhile. I’ve been in business for awhile will, we’ve made mistakes.

We’ll continue to make mistakes, but, but probably one of the most important things we both know for sure is having that strong network, not just network of investors that you talk to and hang out with, but the private lenders, the contractors, people who know how to deal with cities, people who can find your deals, people who can sell your deals.

So. I look at them as partners, but we’re not married together because you know, that’s a whole different ball game. Right?

Forrest: Absolutely. [00:06:00] Because here’s the thing. The thing is like, you got to know yourself, you have to know your strengths and you have to learn to trust yourself that comes with your maturity in, in, in your.

Entrepreneurial. So you got to know what you’re good at, what you’re not good at you, the delegated out, whether you partner up, you know, maybe you may be great at it. Like I said, I’ve seen a lot of great people do it. It’s just me. I was not. So I just choose to partner in a way that I’m good at.

Dylan: Yeah. And knowing your strengths is, is super important.

The long gear in this business, or really any business as an entrepreneur, you’ve gotta be able to look in the mirror and look at that reflection and tell the truth because we don’t really have bosses. Right. And, and we can get ourselves in trouble. We can lie to ourselves, but deep down, we need to be able to be truthful because it’s going to get us further, faster, and it’s going to help us build stronger businesses.

So, first I want to move on to something that you and I have already talked about previously, not that long ago. So, uh, you’ve kind of started something exciting in your own business and you’ve started your [00:07:00] own meetup and, and a mastermind group. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about how that’s going.

Uh,

Forrest: it is going slow and, you know, it’s, it’s a growth thing. Uh, I would rather grow fast and slow, but, uh, in a slow, still growth. And, uh, you know, we take the wins as we can get them, but I started the mastermind group a couple of months ago. I cheated, I bought a meetup group that the, you know, host was stepping down and, uh, Yeah.

I learned a long time ago that is better to buy momentum than to build it. So trying to get that going and as good I’m trying to engage, you know, all levels of investors, uh, to. Come to a group environment that’s local that you know, is, is approachable, that we can all share. What’s working and what’s not working.

Especially today. We’re having a very dynamic, uh, market that we’re going through right now. I mean, a year ago, you know, we were only going one direction. It was [00:08:00] dynamic up and now, you know, we have a lot of what ifs. I feel it’s a, it’s a good time for us to get together and really mastermind and see what’s working, what needs to pivot and you know, what, you know, good news we have and you know, what we can share to help each other grow.

So, uh, we developed this, uh, group called the all-in investor master hybrid real estate investor mastermind group enrichment. And. You know, it’s growing, we’ve got a lot of activity. We’re having a lot of fun at the events and, uh, everybody has to talk. You can’t be, he can’t be the private guy in the back of the room.

This is not the group for you.

Dylan: So I think a lot of investors, uh, aspire to run their own groups. They look at it as kind of a daunting task because, uh, there’s a lot of responsibility and. And at times it may seem, um, it may seem scary, right. To kind of put yourself on stage and say, Hey, I’m going to be the guy or the gal.

Who’s going to run the show. So what was your mindset going in when you started your meetup? I guess [00:09:00] I’m just kind of like, I don’t know what the word is. Just kind of like just plugging in and, and going for it. Where were you at with that? When you finally said, Hey, I’m going to do this. So I have a fail

Forrest: forward philosophy in life.

And, uh, so, you know, My reasons for doing the meetup group are somewhat self-serving. As I would say, a lot of people are, you know, uh, I want to increase my lead flow and increase my network. My partnerships, a lot of successful meetup groups, you know, they. They live off that philosophy. And I know several people that, you know, have really successful groups on Richmond and they, you know, have deal flow all the time.

You know, you’ve said the same thing that it provides relationships that turns into deal flow. And so I want that to, uh, I want to be in a, that, uh, facilitator that people will look up to and it will be like, you know, uh, let me at least, you know, reach out to forest and see what he has to say. And. You know, the thing that I talked about at the [00:10:00] beginning of the meetups is I don’t have all the answers, but I know that, you know, all the answers could be found in this room or the network that’s, you know, this room has.

And so that’s why.

Dylan: Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. When you have a network like that. I was on a phone call earlier today with someone, uh, with another investor. And, uh, this she’s a lady and she’s growing her own real estate team. And, uh, and we were talking about, you know, what kind of value can she bring? And I told her, I said, listen, you have me.

You know, forest, I don’t, I don’t know what that’s worth, but I said, by the time they ask you and you asked me and I asked the attorney, right. Who we, who we do business with. And we go to our group, I have my own Facebook group in Metro Detroit with 9,300 investors, um, inside of it at the time of this recording.

Right. So, uh, th there’s somebody out there who knows the answer. And it’s really funny because I think. My generation, we would seek the answers. And I think in today’s generation, they kind of wait for them to fall in their hands. So a lot of times somebody asks a question, I will [00:11:00] literally just Google it and say, you know, here’s the answer because, you know, I want to help them.

But, uh, I think when, when you can be looked at as a, as a source of information, not just a source of information, A trusted source of information. And that’s always self-serving, I mean, we’re here on earth. We’ve got to survive, you’ve got to, you know, have shelter and, and all those other things. So we’re, we’re doing business to make money, but you can also do things the right way so that people kind of find you and, uh, and, and look to you as, like I said, as that source.

So if I’m a new guy in real estate investing and I want to go to a meetup. I guess what’s the best advice that you’d give me as I come walking into the doors of your all in hybrid, mastermind me.

Forrest: Uh, the best advice for a newbie would be simply to come prepared to give. Right. Uh, I was having this conversation with a, a very seasoned investor.

The other day, we were actually talking about this very same thing. And he said, the reason why he was, we were brainstorming some [00:12:00] ideas about my meetup group. And he said, uh, he said, The thing I hate about Mito groups. The thing I get a bad taste in my mouth is all these newbies come in, just wanting to be a sponge and wanting to be, you know, tell me what I need to do.

Tell me what I do for free, you know, give me all your information and give me your resources. And so that’s my best advice. Don’t, don’t approach it with that, approach it with that. Everybody has unique ability and everybody has a. Some experience in life that has dealt with some challenge that other people will find useful and probably need that information or that advice.

So come with a attitude of giving and, uh, you know, you have to, uh, you have to, so if you want to reap, so you just can’t go in there and just try to take people’s knowledge because they’re just going to get turned off.

Dylan: Yeah, I’ve a full disclosure for everyone who’s watching and listening. I’ve been running meetup groups and Metro traits since 2006.

So I’m a lot older than I look and sound. Uh, but it’s been a [00:13:00] huge, it’s been a huge part of my business. Most of my best friends have come from my meetup groups, you know, to today the people. Private lenders have come from the groups, deals have come from the groups, but mostly it’s really just those relationships.

It’s the people who I can lean on and vice versa. And in this business, it can be tough because as an entrepreneur and as a real estate investor, typically, most people who are listening to this. They’re really solo preneurs, right. They don’t have a giant team yet, and they may not have a corporate structure inside of their small real estate investing company.

So it’s kind of like when you had a real job and you had your tool belt with all your electrician’s tools and you might be going, if you worked for a big company, you might be going to a huge plant, you know, and wiring up a whole plant. You’ve got 10 or 20 guys that you know, and you know, every Friday you guys are going out for beer together or whatever, or going to lunches when you’re a real estate investor.

There really isn’t a place like that. Right. And I think that’s what meetups kind of served. They become a place where we can get belly to belly and, and, you [00:14:00] know, give the handshake hugs and, and really build relationships. But it’s also a place where you can build those relationships. So you do have sources to get the answers from because a lot of meetup groups have kind of gone online and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having Facebook groups or other meetup groups online.

But there’s absolutely nothing more powerful than being together and really building that rapport with each other. And you ended up becoming friends. I was at an event just last night with about three or four people who I’ve been in business with or done business with for almost 20 years. So now we can stand there and have a cocktail or have a coffee together and laugh about old times.

And then all of a sudden it kind of turns into, Hey, what are you doing now? And maybe there’s some way that I can help you out. You can help me out. And that’s really where those big deals are kind of put together. I think off of those long-term relationships. I can’t agree more. I think starting your own meetup, or at least being a big part of the meet-ups around your local town is super important for newer investors, because it’s like, I always say, where can you [00:15:00] find people who are as crazy as us for it?

There isn’t really a spot. You got to go to a REIA group or a meetup,

Forrest: either that or the bar

Dylan: or the bar. Well, and that brings us to one of my favorite subjects. So Forrest and I are both members of the investor fuel mastermind, which is a nationwide mastermind filled with a hundred to 150 real estate investors from literally all around the country.

And some people are. Different countries, believe it or not. Um, and that’s where Forrest and I both met. Uh, and, and it’s going back a few years now. And when you’re able to spend time like that away from your day-to-day business, and you really can unplug and start throwing some of those ideas together, it’s really amazing what comes out of that.

So us, let me ask you, um, you’ve been a member of investor fuel for probably three years.

Forrest: Yeah, I’m a three-year trophy right over there. I’m a

Dylan: control. Yeah. I’ve got my, uh, the original biggest giver trophy here. I think that’s how I ended up becoming the host of the [00:16:00] podcast. Like I said, I, I lost a, a, an arm wrestling match with my camera to take over.

Um, but what, what would you say for. No, I know it’s not going to get me very far in the investing world, but for those guys or gals who are at that point where they’re getting a deal or two done a month, and they’re trying to jump from that two or three deals a month, maybe up to that five or 10 deals a month.

What, what has being in a focused, uh, and, and very serious mastermind group done for.

Forrest: Uh, I would say that the biggest thing that, uh, this mass market group investor fuel, which I’ve been a part of for a while. I mean, happily, right. I only missed, I think I missed two. To quarterly sessions and they were both for some personal reason, I was recovering from some surgeries.

And so, uh, other than that, I’ve attended every one because the value that I receive as is it challenges [00:17:00] me, it fires me up, uh, you know, there’s people who are, you know, where I would consider. If you want to look at, you know, If you want to look at a line of success, right. Or I am, there’s people behind me.

And there’s a lot of people in front of me, a lot of people in both directions. And so, you know, it’s my duty to, you know, reach back and see you provide information. And, you know, it’s my duty to myself to reach forward and try to be better. And, you know, investor fuel is the mastermind that, you know, I’ve just resonated with that.

It provides me that fuel that energy to be better.

Dylan: So if you could pick out one, um, I guess one instance, like what, what’s the, what’s the most fun thing that you’ve, uh, that you’ve done, uh, non, uh, bar related at investor fuel or what what’s really the best part of it to you

Forrest: for sure. Okay. Fun. We’ll start with fun, right?

Because that’s what everybody’s here for a [00:18:00] charity casino night and that’s a blast. Right? We should do that every single time, a bar related. It’s more city related. Nashville is the go-to place. Right. Uh, so I love that one. Um, but the round table discussions are cool. Right. You know, the hot seats are cool.

That’s that’s where you really get stressed a little bit. Um, you get. Challenged. Um, and then, you know, the networking is just, is, is where it’s at. You just, you don’t know, you know, you don’t know who’s, who you’re helping. Right? You don’t know who needed to hear what you had to say. You don’t know who’s in, uh, who really resonated with your give or, you know, who can provide you help with your needs.

Right. Um, you just don’t know, you just show up and you know, every event, right. You get closer to somebody that you weren’t close with while.

Dylan: Yeah, that’s, that’s super true. Um, so I want to tie, you know, the, the whole idea of the mastermind and being able to get away from, from our [00:19:00] businesses, right. And, and in rooms with other guys like us, uh, and people who are much smarter and, uh, and, and further in business, right.

Those guys that we can reach up to, and those girls we can reach out to, but. Um, going from, from you talked earlier, you started as a, as an electrician, right? So I know that we’ve had other conversations. You’re master electrician still, you can still pull permits, like you’re never going to let that go because that was a big deal, right.

To get there. And then moving from that to being a rehabber or what we would call flipper. I think guys like you and I call rehabbing and flipping kind of the same thing where we’re going to go through totally re refinish a house, you know, bring it back to better than its former glory. And then moving to kind of that CEO status where you’re, you’re not at every job all the time.

So take us through that journey.

Forrest: Uh, that’s tough journey, uh, because you have to, uh, let go of what, uh, has provided you, you know, in common and safety and, you know, [00:20:00] comfort and walk out into an unknown, uh, environment and challenge yourself to do something different that is just not comfortable. And you don’t know whether you’re going to fail or succeed.

Uh, Would pretty much sum up my last, uh, 15 years of life. Right. It’s just, you know, walking out in faith, you know, every day is like, you know, I have to finish this in order to, you know, receive a financial reward. Um, so that process isn’t hard for me anymore, but. Uh, the, the word I should use is the non-negotiables I’ve created non-negotiables and I’ve also had to create accountability with my, with my team here behind me.

Like, uh, just today, for example, we were going through a scope of work, uh, on a property. That’s a. And out of town rehab. And, uh, there were things like some light fixtures and a ceiling fan and, you [00:21:00] know, some light bulbs on the scope of work. And I said, uh, I said, man, I could just do that. I could just drive out there and the afternoon to do that.

Am I integrated? Hell now, no, keep that in the scope, right? That’s not your job. Your job is here and you need to figure out how you’re going to get somebody else to. Cause we’re just struggling, finding, finding people in this out-of-town place, these contractors and, uh, you know, she’s right. You know, she’s, she’s a hundred percent, right.

I’m a hundred percent wrong and that’s not my role.

Dylan: My role is talk to us about what an integrator is for us, for those who, who aren’t used to hearing that, that. That name for an employee or

that

Forrest: I’ll call my integrator, my babysitter. Uh, so, uh, but basically, you know, I have, I am the visionary of the company.

Uh, you know, I drive the direction of the business and I have a, what would be called an integrator or some people call it a COO. And, uh, they’re the ones that, uh, fill in all the holes. Right. Uh, they make sure that, you know, my bills are [00:22:00] paid. They make sure that, you know, The transaction coordination is going.

She does all my sales and marketing. She basically does just about everything except for, uh, you know, sign and the checks. And, you know, I do the dispositions and I make sure that, you know, I, I fall into acquisitions a lot, you know, um, stuff like that. The, the income generating activities I try to deal with and all the.

Expanding activities, uh, that are directly and indirectly related to our business, she takes care of.

Dylan: So, so what I was hearing you say before, I kinda cut you off and ask for that definition is you went from, you went from a true contractor, um, to, to more of a. Fix and flip guy. Right. Uh, and, and when you first moved into that fix and flip role and walked away from the, you know, that guaranteed income that you had, which nothing’s guaranteed, but that’s more guaranteed than just saying, Hey honey, I’m going out and flipping houses, see you later.

Right. Um, so, so how, when you move from, from a employee, from, from [00:23:00] W2, or even, even running your own company as an electrician, to, to a true full-out entrepreneur, like how, how did that mindset shift, uh, have to take place for you? Um,

Forrest: My mindset, just, you know, just had to be I’m a goal person. Right? And so I, I said, I had to tell myself, you know, if you want these large goals, you’re going to have to do something different than what you’re doing.

Right. Either going to run a large electrical contracting business with a large resource pool employee pool, right. A lot of contracts, a lot of. Bosses right. Or you’re gonna do this real estate environment where it can generate, you know, as much or more income as all that other effort, uh, with a smaller amount of effort.

Unfortunately, I have not found the holy grail of some real estate investors, how they found, where they can do it with one or two people. I’m just not that way. Uh, [00:24:00] I, I do have realized I need a small team of people to help me achieve my goals, but, you know, I have big goals. I have a. Very large goals and, uh, very large dreams.

And, you know, I just didn’t want to choose the contracting vehicle to get there. There’s plenty of great contractors that have done that and put the right people in place. It’s just not my choice. So I chose. Do something that had less moving parts that could generate the same amount of money

Dylan: or more.

And so, and when you went from being a fix and flip full-time rehabber, uh, to, to where you did bring in the integrator again, COO for, for people who understand the, you know, the normal acronyms, uh, to you kind of being that CEO where again, Full-time entrepreneur here. Right? I can screw in my own light bulb.

I’m going to go run out and do that. I can’t pay somebody to do that, but how, how did you, how did you move from there? From I get everything done and I can always make things happen too. I’ve [00:25:00] got to let other people do this.

Forrest: Yeah. So I. I don’t. So when I went to carrot camp a few years ago, you know, Trevor talked about, you know, successes, uh, not really being like these landing spots.

Right. You know, like in our business, in our life, you know, uh, he talked about how sometimes you got to get off on these small islands and enjoy the wins and the victories, and, you know, oftentimes I’ll lose sight of that and, you know, But at the end of the day, right. That transition’s always in progress.

Uh, you never re you never forget where you came from, right. You never forget your ability or what comes easy to you or whatever, but you have to always try to, you have, it’s a constant process. Uh, No, this is my role now, right? This, this is yes, you can, but that’s not where you, that’s not where you’re supposed to be.

You’re supposed to be here and, uh, you know, keep reminding yourself of your [00:26:00] goals and your vision, and always, you know, looking through that prism of, you know, what do I need to do today? And it’s not the $25 an hour stuff. It’s not the $30 an hour stuff. Right. It’s not even the $50 an hour. So.

Dylan: Yeah, I think, I think we’ve all seen that chart where, um, where it says, you know, here’s what $20 an hour work looks like.

Here’s what a hundred dollars an hour work. It looks like here’s what $1,000 an hour per work looks per hour looks like, right. And then $10,000 per hour. And. You know, forest, uh, you know, I think we, we come from, uh, similar upbringings and in certain ways where my dad was a hardworking guy and went to work every single day and was never sick and all that stuff.

And, you know, you got to go to college and get a good job and, and you know, that, that was very important to where now it’s. Where we’re at and where other real estate investors or entrepreneurs are, you can make $10,000 decisions or you can even make $10,000 in an hour, even a lot more money than [00:27:00] that.

And I think that’s a big shift to get over. I had multiple partners like you did throughout my, you know, my formative years here in the real estate investing business. And I think a lot of them would self-sabotage. And you brought up Trevor mock from carrot, who is a member of investor fuel with us. And, uh, you know, we’ve all coined him like a resident Yoda, because he seems to be able to like pull himself out of that because he’s built a great business, which I know is a challenge for him and is always a challenge.

But what he shares with us when, when he comes to our events, I think, I think that’s what we’re all kind of striving for right. As to get that inner peace, but also to say, Hey, uh, even though we can screw those light bulbs in, right, that we don’t need to do that because we’re never going to get to the $10,000 decision per hour.

If we’re doing the $10 stuff, I think that’s a big mindset shift for the average investor, um, you know, to, to kind of come to. So that’s a, you know, that, that’s a really great thing that you brought up. You’ve been in business. How long would you [00:28:00] say that you’ve been in the real estate investing business?

Forrest: My first opportunity to, uh, renovate a house was in 2014.

Dylan: So we’re we’re seven or eight years. Eight years. So

Forrest: eight years.

Dylan: Yeah, the time flies. So. Looking back at everything that you’ve done, the good and the bad, and sometimes the ugly. What a, what would you have done? What’s the biggest thing that you would have done differently?

If 2022 forests can go backwards to 2013 and a half forest before you really got stuck.

Forrest: The most important thing that I would do, uh, if I could do it differently is I would learn to go faster. Um, that that would be, that would be my number more thing. I have definitely allowed my mind to kill my speed and, you know, uh, Be distracted by other activities, whether it be contracting, you know, um, [00:29:00] chasing a quicker check than a house, et cetera.

Like, you know, there’s been times where I’ve taken a project on and put my own flips on hold, right. To handle a customer because that’s my mindset, you know, of, you know, customers first. And that’s just how I was trained my entire life on my father. Um, and so. You know, speed is king, right? I mean, these people that I see sometimes, you know, it, it makes me, you know, frustrated.

Sometimes I see these people go from zero to 102 years. Right. You know, I’m just like, Yeah. So yeah, go fast. Right. You know, fail fast, get it over with. And, uh, you know, don’t, don’t doubt the system, right. You know, the system works as long as you stick to it. And you know, that had been my biggest challenges is trying to overthink things, trying to overcomplicate things and, you know, allowing distractions to get them off.

Dylan: Yeah, I think w we, we all have those challenges. [00:30:00] I’ve been in business a long time, even longer than you in this business. And I’ve chased a lot of squirrels. And, uh, in, in my ripe old age, now I’m starting to learn how to chase less. Uh, but for some of us, I mean, that’s just being an entrepreneur. We want to solve problems.

So if you said you need to come down here to Virginia, Because I got this big contracting job and here’s what I’m going to do. And here’s what I’m offering you. I might even think about it, right? Because it’s like, I want to go solve this problem with forests, but what we can learn from guys, like, you know, Mike Hambright and from, and from guys like Trevor mock is, uh, when you, when you have a singular vision or a very close to a singular vision and you set out a plan and you follow through every day, That you just get there quicker.

Like you said, those guys zero to a hundred guys and girls that you and I know who are 25 years old and flipping houses in multiple states. I mean, there’s a, there’s, there’s so many, there’s so much opportunity in the real estate investing world is so vast. Whether you want to be in the education space, you want to build apps, you just want to flip [00:31:00] houses.

You just want to buy rentals and, and hold onto them, or be like, you know, a boring real estate agent. Like some of us are, some of us have our licenses. Right. Uh, which is just a part of it. I think it’s, it’s huge in the end to, um, to be able to. Pull that in, right in laser line. And that’s a, that’s a big thing for new entrepreneurs to, to listen to also is figure out what you’re good at.

You talked about unique ability. I talk about that with every new person I meet at events. And I say, somehow, you’ve got a unique ability. Whether it’s talking to people, maybe you’re an introvert. You don’t want to talk to people, uh, or, or you’re good at contracting. That’s fine. You know, maybe that’s, that’s what you should focus on in the business and pay other guys or girls to find the deals.

But that’s all, that’s all. That’s all very, very Sage advice. So circling back to what we talked about at the very beginning, tell me what it’s like. Now, when you walk into a house, we call it acquisition. So when we try to buy houses, we not, we don’t try. When we buy houses from private sellers, it’s called acquisitions in our business.

So a lot of times, um, Forrest [00:32:00] said earlier, he’ll be the person representing his company when he walks in, but he’s been on TV commercials now. So tell me what that’s like when you walk in the door. So

Forrest: Friday last week, uh, this is a Wednesday, a Friday last week. Uh, got my first TV contract and it was from, uh, a lady who it was her mother’s house.

And, uh, uh, you know, went to the appointment and, you know, uh, set the expectations. We have a process that we follow and set the expectations, went through our process and, you know, at the end of it, It’s kind of funny. I, at the end of it, uh, you know, I told her, you know, what we could do to solve her problem and, you know, I didn’t get it out of my word out of my mouth.

And she had said, yes, I was like, dang. It’s was like, my price was too high then, you know? Right. You know, if you know, it was like, shoot. So, so anyway, you know, after, after I got over that shock of her saying [00:33:00] yes, too fast, She, uh, she said, you know, you’re even nicer in person than you on TV. So that was pretty cool.

That was nice. Um, so, you know, it’s, it, it changes, it changes things, right. You know, you’re not that con I don’t knock any marketing. Okay. I’ve done everything, uh, literally everything. And so, you know, but when you, when you do in TV commercials, when you’re, when. Daring to go big, right? You’re knocking out a lot of your competition.

Uh, you know, there’s a lot of people that can cold call. There’s a lot of people that can text. There’s a lot of people that can door knock and draw for dollars and I’ve done every single one of those I’ve done direct mail

Dylan: signs we’ve talked about. Right. That’s how we started.

Forrest: And I always start. Right.

And I’ve still got to stack abandoned signs in my warehouse. Uh, and you know, I’m like, man, I should put something on there. Put him out on the street. Right. But. Yeah. I mean, it just, it eliminates the competition. [00:34:00] It puts you at the front of the pack. That’s why I did it and it’s not cheap. Um, but you know, it’s done well when you have a management company and uh, it makes you look good and makes you look professional.

That’s why I’m

Dylan: doing it. Yeah. That’s pretty awesome. So, um, you guys know, like I said, I’m from Michigan, right? Metro Detroit. We don’t see very many commercials for people trying to buy houses here. I spend a lot of time in, in Dallas and in some other states in some hotter markets than the Midwest. It’s a great, great market to invest in, but it’s not scorching hot, like some of the other markets out there.

So when I do go to these events, or when I travel constantly on the TV, there is always an who watches TV anymore, but it’s on in the hotel room. There’s always commercials for house buyers and it, and it kinda like cracks me up slash freaks me out. I don’t know, but I always said, wow, you know, how exciting would that be to be able to walk into a, an appointment and have somebody see your.

Believe what you said, and Forrest is a very honest person, so that comes through and then you sit down and, uh, you know, it just [00:35:00] works. So, I mean, that’s a huge Testament, not just to TV marketing, but to any marketing you got to follow through with it. And the TV doesn’t sell for. It’s all of those parts combined, when that person’s looking for his website, that prospective seller, they’re going to find his website, right.

It’s forest by his houses.com. I believe we’re going to have all those links at the bottom. We’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes, but that goes into it. Forest has practiced and learned and, um, and focused on his, his sales training on how to buy properties, right. And how to, how to put together a win-win situation.

Because if you don’t do that, it’s not going to work in today’s market. And then also having the intestinal fortitude and you know, the brevity and all that other stuff to throw thousands and thousands of dollars at marketing and wait for it to come back. Sometimes it doesn’t come back to us as quickly as we want it to either.

It’s all those parts that, that combined to make a successful business. And that’s, that’s the, that’s the difference from going from a contractor to a house flipper slash rehabber [00:36:00] to a CEO, and really, to me, for us, that that’s what it says about you. That you’ve achieved.

Forrest: Well, thank you. I appreciate that coming from you.

That means a lot. You come out of humble, man, but I know you do a lot of stuff, a lot of great stuff.

Dylan: I don’t want to get too syrupy on here, but I do want to bring one more thing up before, uh, before we end the show. So you talked about accountability earlier. I think that’s super important, whether you’re a newbie starting at a, or if you’re an old guy like me at Z.

So, um, maybe you can let us the flip nerd. Nation hold you accountable. You talked about, you have some really big goals. Do you want to share any goals with us that the next time we have you on the show, we can ask you what you’ve done to get closer to that big goal.

Forrest: Yeah. Um, so, you know, I’m a lifestyle.

Uh, I, uh, you know, my, my goals are to be able to help as many people as possible and excite people. Right. Uh, that’s why I do this business. I do it because I can make a lot of money as much money as I [00:37:00] possibly have the imagination to create. But it, secondly is like, W when people are crying, right? Because this house is a major problem and I can solve that for them.

They are, that gives me gratification. Uh, you know, that, that lets me know that I’m doing in life. What, you know, God has me here for, and, uh, that’s to solve people’s problems and create comfort. And so. You know, in doing that, you know, one of my big goals, you know, my secret goals here is to bring aviation to young kids.

And, uh, you know, and in order to do that, you know, have to, you know, create some vehicles, some aviation type vehicles in order to do the young children activities to encourage them to, uh, become pilots. My son is in, uh, uh, university, Liberty university, or he’s becoming an airline pilot right now is in training.

I just want to pass that forward. I want people to have that passion that I have and be able to create that. And, uh, so that’s, that’s one of my big goals that I want to do, [00:38:00]

Dylan: man. That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing that with us. You, you have to have a vision bigger than yourself. You don’t have to, but it gives you something to, uh, to shoot for.

Right? So if, if for us, if you lean to the left to right, you can tell us about. That picture behind you on the wall.

Forrest: Hi. Yeah. So that’s just a picture that said my wife has a staging business and she bought that picture one day. Uh, at some store, she shops all the time. She’s got the perfect woman’s job ever.

She shopped for her living. And so, uh, she got tired of putting it in staging houses. And when we moved in this office last year, excuse me, we were doing this office last year. Uh, she hung it in my office as the presence of the here is yours now.

Dylan: That’s awesome. It goes, it goes along with the aviation theme and your big goal for the kids.

So forest, they know that’s. That’s awesome. So forest. Where can all the Watchers and listeners find you what’s the best place?

Forrest: Yeah. So I’m on Instagram is, uh, you know, Forrest boss houses. And, [00:39:00] uh, then we have, you know, Facebook forest POS houses, and then, uh, my websites, forest boss houses, if you’re catching a theme, uh, you know, is there, we have the all-in, uh, hybrid real estate mastermind group in Richmond, Virginia on Facebook.

And, uh, you know, that’s how you can find me. You just type in forest plus houses.

Dylan: Perfect. And you guys who are watching the show, you’re going to be able to go into the show notes, scroll down, click all of the links that flourish just talked about that are there. And if you’re listening just type in forest buys, houses.com or anything into Google, and you’re going to find for us.

So Forrest as always, I appreciate your time with us. Uh, you’re a good friend of mine. You’re an investor fuel member with me and I look forward to a lot more fun and doing business together in the.

Forrest: Likewise zona. I appreciate our friendship very much, man. You’re awesome.

Dylan: Oh man, that makes me feel good. So, uh, you guys know me.

I’m your favorite Metro or favorite real estate investor for Metro to Dillon Tanaka. You can find [email protected], but all my links are below. [00:40:00] And, um, we look forward to seeing you guys on the next show.

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