Show Summary
Today, I have my buddy Anthony Coffey who operates in Kansas City. Today, we are going to talk about something that he’s focused very heavily on, something that we should all be focused on, and that … is growing and automating your business.
Resources and Links from this show:
- Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
- Anthoney Coffey on Facebook
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
FlipNerd Show Transcript:
Professional real estate investors know that it’s not really about the real estate. That real estate is just a vehicle of freedom. A group of over a hundred of a nation’s leading. Real estate investors from across the country meet several times a year at the investor fuel 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 conversations of fueling our businesses and our lives. I’m glad you’re here.
[00:01:00] Hey Anthony, welcome to the show.Anthony: [00:01:02] Hey Mike, how you doing?
Mike: [00:01:03] Good. Good to see you buddy.
Anthony: [00:01:05] Yeah, you as well.
Mike: [00:01:06] So it’s interesting, you’re kind of at the time we’re recording this here. We’re a hot and heavy with COBIT and all this stuff, and it’s hard to not talk about it these days, but I think you know, more than ever, people should be using this opportunity to improve their business, improve their lives.
And even before this, you guys are really heavily focused on a lot of automation and things in your business. I think it’s gonna be a good topic today cause a lot of people. Everybody, you know, nobody gets into real estate investing to be in a job, but a lot of people end up there because they get in and they’re just, they don’t have the right systems and processes in place, or they just say, well, I’ll get to it eventually, and they just kind of keep grinding in and out for sometimes.
Sometimes an entire career, which is not good. But, um, but before we kind of jump into that, you guys definitely have an impressive shop. You run in there and on the, you know, growing quickly. Before we jump into that though, let’s talk about maybe your kind of your background, like how you got into real estate investing in the first place.
Anthony: [00:01:59] Yeah. [00:02:00] Um, we’ve been doing this six years now. Um, I got into real estate mainly through my twin brother. He, he’s the entrepreneurial mind of the two of us. I’m just a blue collar worker. And so whenever I got back from Afghanistan, he wanted to get in the real estate, and so he went to a real estate seminar course.
We saw the benefits of it, and we just dumped right into it. And I burned my boats and said, this is it. And uh, ever since then, every day I’ve been educating and networking and trying to learn more about this business. And I’m just, this is my passion. I’m in love with it. I’m in love with it.
Mike: [00:02:34] Yeah. So there’s a ton of people that got started that way.
Going to a seminar, I, I. I, myself went to lots of events early on. I even put on lots of seminars and events over time. What do you think differentiates, this is kind of a little bit of a side topic here, but what differentiates. The dreamers, I guess that go there and don’t execute because the knowledge is all there, right.
I mean, at the end of the day, um, it takes motivation to get out and kind of push forward and overcome a bunch [00:03:00] of obstacles. What, what do you think differentiates some people. That take that education, that knowledge and press forward and some that just throw up their hands like, Oh, this sounds hard.
Which it is
Anthony: [00:03:10] a, I would say, pain period. So if you have, when the pain’s strong enough, you’re going to make a change. And so they may have all the knowledge and the information, but if they’re contempt on their current status and their current lifestyle, then they won’t make any changes.
Mike: [00:03:25] Yeah. It’s going to be interesting during this kind of covert downturn.
Cause I, um, I actually, I believe and I hope a lot of people that are out there that realize that I felt like my job was safe and nobody’s job is safe. I mean, without getting into a bunch of details about my background, I thought I had an awesome job. I was safe and everything. And then until, until the moment I wasn’t, it was just one day to the next.
It’s like somebody flipped a switch, you know? And so hopefully this is a wake up call that inspires people to take a little more control over their own destiny. So.
Anthony: [00:03:54] Yeah. And then, uh, I used to be a blue collar worker. My whole life concrete was a union power line [00:04:00] workers, personal trainer, and a Jack of all trades and moved around every couple of years to see what’s going on.
But when I was on the power lines as a union job, it was a good job. But you know, society and your parents are telling you, Hey, this is a good job. You got to keep it. And then in the, in my gut I’m like, is this really. That’d be great. Yeah. And then, you know, for me, I want something more and better and I want to max out my potential and I just feel like we had a lot more on the table to do.
And, uh, I didn’t want to spend the rest of my 20 years, 20 years into that job and just being. And, you know, unsatisfied and angry and yeah. Problems.
Mike: [00:04:35] And I know that, uh, you know the truth, this is what we’re gonna talk about today. You didn’t even want a job, period, right? So, a lot of real estate investors end up in effectively a job.
They’re self employed. They might say, I own a business. I’m a business owner. It makes you feel good, but at the end of the day, they’re probably working harder than ever. So, you know, what’s, what’s your goal with real estate? I know it’s not to be, you know, working. 40 50 60 80 hours a week, whatever a lot of folks are doing.
[00:05:00] What’s your, what’s your goal?Anthony: [00:05:01] Yeah. The goal is to freedom. Like everybody else. I don’t want to have, I want to take all the obligations off the table. I want to create a lifestyle and give back. And uh. That’s, that’s it, through real estate. And so when I went to that seminar, you start seeing, you just see the lights.
You just see, like, what could be, like, I didn’t even know before I got into a real estate, I didn’t know what a mortgage was. You know, I didn’t, I had no idea what anything of real estate was. So it was all brand new to me. I jumped into the pool, you know, feet first. And, uh. Went straight ahead straight ahead at it.
So,
Mike: [00:05:33] yeah. And you got, you and your wife have said several times like, Hey, we’re, we’re focused hard. We’re focused on, on, uh, working ourselves out of jobs right now. Right. And so I know you guys are putting a lot of things in place. Maybe talk about kind of like some of the things you’re doing and just your thoughts on kind of delegation
Anthony: [00:05:48] ultimately.
Yeah. And so when we first started, uh, I was by myself. Uh, Candice wasn’t on the team yet. Uh, I had the pride ego where I can do it by myself and which we were doing it by her, by myself, but [00:06:00] I wasn’t very doing very well. And, you know, we were, I had three crews working for me at one time. I thought I was doing some big and heavy, heavy stuff.
And, uh, that’s when things started hitting the fan, uh, falling through the cracks. I lost 30 grand on a deal, four or five, four grand on the deal, 10 grand a day. So when the evidence is in the pudding that. You haven’t mistakes and your bottom line is not there. And my biggest fear is losing someone’s money.
So I’d never want to lose anyone’s money. And so. Yeah. Yeah. And so that’s why I knew something needs to change. And so I started even, uh, three years into it I started picking up, started reading books of like other people’s books, like, you know, fire yourself and subject twos and stuff like that. And so I knew there was a missing, there was a gap in between.
I had to cover between that really be proficient and, and grow this business. I knew I couldn’t do my do it by myself. And so after some knowledge and education and networking, seeing how other people run their business and how they compensate their guys. I knew we had to go that route. And, uh, now we formed a, a business where it’s, it’s our own little [00:07:00] business, but it’s, you know, we just pick and choose off of, you know, what other people are doing and see how they’re compensating and stuff like that.
So now we got a pretty good little operation going here. That’s
Mike: [00:07:09] great. That’s great. And how do you decide where to start with delegation? Because there’s always a common question, should I, you know, for example, should I. Well, should my first hire be an acquisitions manager or an admin or project manager.
There’s always those types of questions. I mean, you know, you’ve been through this a few times. We all have a few war wounds, you know, some area wounds on our back from doing things the wrong way. Uh, what, what do you, what do you, where do you think people should start with delegation? Or how do you think.
Anthony: [00:07:36] You have to take, take an honest, hard look at yourself in the mirror and go with your gut instinct. Like I said earlier, I read it. I read that book and my, I thought I needed to hire a project manager, which I do. Did need a project manager. But ultimately, I mean, he was just focused on his, his roles and responsibilities.
And he started doing things that I wanted him to do more. So, and then he [00:08:00] started, um, neglecting, like he did. I gave him six jobs, six houses. He did about one of them. Well, and then the other ones or so. And then, so I had to let them go. And then right when I let them go, I had to ask myself, well, what do you really want right now?
And basically I’m just looking for another me and, uh, and so. I just had to figure out how to, how to find that right guy and compensated him accordingly and keep them motivated. And so that was a hard time to figure that out. But once we get that figured out, it’s great. And so, um, we hired the acquisition manager, the project manager.
It’s one guy, but it’s two different compensation levels. And he just absolutely killing it. And then whenever he’s getting, when he, whenever he’s getting too, too much workload on him, uh, we’re going to be elevating him up and getting a new project manager in there so we can teach him. Yeah. You
Mike: [00:08:46] kind of have to look and see.
You have to reflect on what are you good at and what are you not good at. Right. And you know, there’s some people that say, Hey, I should fill in the spaces where I’m not good. Like I need to take this off my plate. There’s some people that say, when I’m really good at something, [00:09:00] I should replace that role first, because that’ll remove the biggest burden from me.
Like, you know, so I mean, either line of thought can work, you know? But everybody has a little bit of a difference. Uptempo, I tend to like try to fill in the things that I’m not good at. I don’t want to do because if I have to work, um, I prefer to be doing things that I want to do, you know?
Anthony: [00:09:18] Yeah, yeah. Same way, same way.
And that for me, um, I read a book. Uh, ego is the enemy as one thing. I struggle with the ego and the pride. And so for me, luckily I can just say, Hey, I’m not good at a lot of things. And so I know how the whole business operates and I know how we can do it. But there’s, there’s people that can do it better in that one category.
So they’ll have my acquisitions manager, for example. I’m not that great. I don’t have the patience to talk to sellers. I’m in and out. How can I help you out, whatever. But he’s the one who can build rapport, talk to him. He has a good looking guy. Good. I mean, he’s, he’s good, solid, good spokesperson for the company.
He has good mouthpiece on him. And, uh, he just builds rapport and you just killing him. Like he’d like, we’d locked up six properties, just [00:10:00] capacity days.
Mike: [00:10:01] That’s great.
Anthony: [00:10:01] It’s all in the fall. And the followup to.
Mike: [00:10:04] Yeah, no, no doubt. Yeah. We talked about this a little bit ahead of timing when we’re recording this right now.
This is a kind of end of April here. Um, you know, I think followup is such a, it’s, it’s always been critical, but right now, if you’ve had any sort of relationship started with a seller, you should be nurturing that like crazy, because if they called you, there’s a reason why they called you and maybe their motivation wasn’t as great at the time, but.
We’re, the world has changed over the past, you know, two months for sure. So
Anthony: [00:10:32] yeah, things are getting strange for sure.
Mike: [00:10:34] No doubt. So, so you talked a lot about, uh, education and reading, all these things, like what kind of role does that play in your business? And then do you do anything with your employees and your staff to try to help kind of educate them?
I know you said you’re training your guy Dylan, and you already kind of have a path like, Hey, once you get good at this, we’re going to replace you and move you here. I mean, that’s a, that’s, that’s really cool. It kind of. Visionary type stuff where you’re seeing a roadmap of how you’re going to [00:11:00] stack up your team.
So talk about education a little bit.
Anthony: [00:11:02] Yeah. Um, there was another book that I read, uh, the great game of business and also by Jack stack. Um, a great stake in the game. Same guy, Jack stack. And basically. Creating an ownership culture. Uh, my biggest thing was a turnover. You lose a lot of money on turnover, whether it’s a unit or firing somebody and retraining or whatever.
And me personally, I’ve had a bet, a lot of bad leadership in my life where I always, whenever I was in a position where I was like, if I’m ever in a leadership position, this is exactly how my treat my guys and how I’m going to, you know. Still be disciplined and still treat them good and still get the mission done.
Yeah. And so those are really two great business books. I like reading it because it’s creating that ownership mentality where you know, you have to for me to keep your, your team. You have to motivate them. You have to educate them. You have to respect them, you have to love them. You’ve got to treat them good.
And then you also gotta compensate them. Well, you don’t want them going anywhere else. And so there’s going to be a point in time where Dylan’s gonna know everything [00:12:00] about the business and he’s going to ask himself, well, do I want to stay with Anthony or do I want to go and do my own thing? And the goal is for him to, once he gets that Oregon, the roads, like we’ve got some great here, we’re rolling over here.
Where. He doesn’t want to go anywhere else because she’s getting sued and he sees us losing money and he sees us, whatever, and all the bad things. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. And, uh, and, uh, so that’s the plan is, you know, motivate, educate, uh, love them and challenge them and make sure their pockets are good.
Everybody gets a piece of the pie.
Mike: [00:12:27] Yeah. Yeah, that’s a, that’s a big thing. Like it took me a long time. So, I mean, I think a lot of real estate investors are fearful of training their competition, right? And I think once you get to this place of abundance and be like, man out, first off, I need to be able to keep them, retain them.
You need to think just like a fortune 500 company would like, how do we retain these people? And then, uh, probably a little bit on like a fortune 500 company. We’re like, well. Cause I asked myself this question at one point, well what if they want to leave? Like maybe I could, I do all sorts of JVs with like coaching students and other people.
Like what if [00:13:00] there’s this point where they get to, and it’s like if you, if you ever want to leave, like let’s, let’s partner, you know? Yeah. Not everybody thinks that way, but I just, at the end of the day, I think. Once you get away from the fear of people leaving and you say, it’s not the end of the world, but you know, I want us having some bench strength probably.
So you’ve got people that are cross trained so that it doesn’t leave you in a difficult position. And one is just constantly asking people like, what is, what is it that you want? You know, because you can help direct them down that path.
Anthony: [00:13:28] That’s why I also, um, I read that book, the great, uh, great game of business.
They talk about the equity chair programs. And so. With Dylan, my acquisition manager, I need him in the trenches for five years. After he hits his five year Mark, I’m going to give him a piece of my portfolio so he can, so he’s with the company and it’s just going to grow with it. That’s everybody in the company.
So if they’re with the company for X amount, X amount of years, whatever their equities hits, and it’ll grow at pull up higher and higher, the longer they’re with the company because they’re helping us grow the portfolio and the company as well. So why not give them a piece of it. [00:14:00] And then also, uh, like I said, you want to love them, love and care for your guys.
Right? So he, he’s with, he’s with me because he wants to learn and he wants his own portfolio, so I’m going to make sure he has a portfolio of his own. Um, during the time being, I’m staying on top of them. Dan bucking his taxes done and getting the capital and, and we’ll partner, we’ll partner together on some of these deals, but it’s just getting back and showing what’s up and people want to be around those types of people and just being honest and transparent.
You also. That book also talks about the open book management, where you tell everybody what’s going on in your business, the good, bad, and the ugly. So he knows how much money the company has and how much money is coming in and going out. So everybody knows what’s going on and sees a bigger picture and a, and they can win.
So he’s on the job sites and he has to make certain decisions of still putting out a superior product and keeping our expenses low. He has, he, he can, he has a good idea of what’s going on and what we’re dealing with.
Mike: [00:14:53] Sure, sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, you know, this is another learning experience. I think people, some people never, maybe never go [00:15:00] through.
And something that I’ve thought about, and, you know, sometimes you have to, you have to increase your vision to, to encompass everybody else’s vision, right? Like, I think a lot of times as small business owners were like, Hey, I have a job. Just like be happy that you have a job. Just kind of helped me reach my goals.
And I think it’s important to try to consider like, what did the people on my team want? You know, what do they like to do something? And the truth is, is. Everybody’s not motivated by money. Some people are motivated by money. Some are motivated by, you know, something else, something more or less than, you know, something that’s more like an involvement in something or, uh, having some, uh, some input into something else.
So everybody’s a little bit different. But I think, um, you know, your, your vision should at least be the sum of everybody else on the team’s vision. Plus some. Right,
Anthony: [00:15:47] right, right. Yeah. I mean, I just want, everybody who works for me knows it’s not about money, but you know, money. We, we do need money to make the, to keep this business afloat.
They are a mess [00:16:00] and we got to turn it, we got to have our bottom line at the same time. Yeah. It just goes back to, you know, loving them, caring them, challenging them, educating them. I’ve given them the opportunities to make the right decisions. And then hopefully you’re providing a good work environment where they don’t want to leave and stuff.
They’re not motivated, motivated by money, but they’re, they love coming to work every day. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I’m still trying to figure all that out. I mean, we’re gonna start doing some theme events and stuff like that and bring that culture together. Yeah.
Mike: [00:16:27] It’s a constant, it’s a constant learning and growing process.
You know, you continue to evolve. So, um, so talk about, I know you’re, uh, you’re focused on, not focused on, but you know. I think a lot of us that are in this market right now and everybody should be focused on getting creative when necessary, doing some deals that are not just the cash buy. We’ve been talking about that a lot lately of how do you, how do you make your marketing go farther?
Because right now, lead generation and acquisitions is harder than it has been. Um, and just effectively, how do you get creative? How do you [00:17:00] kind of keep the wheels turning in a way that might be different? So talk a little bit about your, your, some of your strategies that you’re using that are benefiting you now when the market is down that maybe you just kind of took for granted before.
Anthony: [00:17:12] Yeah. So, um, you hear people talking about buying properties low or no money down and stuff like that. So that always peaked my ears up and I want to learn more about it. And so I read a book when he, Patton’s book less lease options and subject twos, which has really great whole books highlighted right now.
Um, but yeah,
Mike: [00:17:28] he’s been on the, she’s been on my show, the FlipNerd show a long time ago. Gosh, probably five years ago. Yeah.
Anthony: [00:17:33] That book is great. And so I read that book and I read it in, you know, when you read something. It’s like you to go to a seminar, you have to implement it, you have to act, you have to act on what you learn.
And so that’s exactly what we did. I did exactly what the book did. And so my first subject to deal, um, I paid too much money for it out of the gate. But basically, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re providing these properties subject to the existing debts. Uh, we. Is a [00:18:00] distressed seller, usually foreclosure or divorced or something where they just don’t want the property.
And we go in there and we’re just taking over the debt. And so we’re working a couple of those right now. And, um, if you have the capital, you don’t need a whole lot of capital, so if you have a little extra reserves. There was one deal we just did put five grand into it and cut around you. Probably. He’s making 30 baths, so yeah, it’s a good little deal.
Getting creative is great. Just it’s just another tool in your tool belt on how to acquire properties, right. Then being able to structure it the right way, so getting, getting the right documents in place. Uh, from your lawyers and other investors or how they’re doing it.
Mike: [00:18:35] Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. You, you’ve said several times about the importance of kind of getting around other people learning how they’re doing it.
I mean, I learned from, yeah, I certainly learned from my own mistakes, but I, I really, you know. I like to learn from other people’s mistakes, so before I make them. So that’s why I’ve always been big on networking. You obviously, you guys join, you and your wife joined a investor fuel not too long ago here.
Um, can you maybe [00:19:00] share, you know, a testimonial on, on your experience in the group so far?
Anthony: [00:19:03] Yeah. So investor feel has been great. You guys let help look, helped us level up as well. Um, cause before investor fuel, we weren’t tracking our KPIs. Uh, we had a, we were still getting, trying to get our marketing down and that’s where we’re really lagging.
And so ever since joining investor fuel, talking to everybody else in the group and seeing just, you’re just, you’re just. Shooting the crap with everybody, seeing how they run their business, seeing how they compensating, how, what they’re forming. Those are the criteria is, and the profit margins because everybody’s a little all over the board.
And, uh, it was, it’s a great group. It’s a great networking experience. And, uh, I’ve learned a lot from the short time I’ve been in there. And I’m just very, I’m grateful for it to be in the group and just to get to know everybody.
Mike: [00:19:43] Yeah, yeah. Thanks. We’re, we’re glad to have you there. I mean, at the end of the day, and we’re kind of seeing it now, when we’re all on lockdown here, I mean, we actually are getting together a lot more online and sharing ideas and sharing resources and sharing good news.
And, you know, everybody has their ear to the ground. So it’s, it’s really cool to see how everybody’s kind of, [00:20:00] I mean, we already had a really tight knit group, but to see how everybody’s kind of coming together and supporting one another in this kind of weird time we’re in, you know.
Anthony: [00:20:07] Yeah, and that’s a good thing.
It’s an open group. He didn’t care about anything good, bad, ugly, and everybody has some input on how they can help people out. And you know, people aren’t shy to say, you know, what’s not working or what is working. And it’s a good, it’s a good community for sure.
Mike: [00:20:21] Yeah. Cool, buddy. Well, Hey, thanks so much for joining us today.
We definitely appreciate your time.
Anthony: [00:20:26] I love being on here, Mike, I appreciate you inviting me.
Mike: [00:20:29] Yeah. So if anybody wants to connect with you, it’s kind of keep their ear to the ground on what’s going on, where, where could they go to learn more about what you’re doing?
Anthony: [00:20:36] Um, well they can email me directly if they have any questions or concerns.
It’s my first and last name. So Anthony [email protected] and then they can go to my Facebook, Anthony coffee, and. See what we’re doing. We got some, we’ve got the company page and stuff like that, but uh, yeah, it’s
Mike: [00:20:51] more for sellers. Yeah. So we’ll, we’ll add a, we’ll definitely add your Facebook link down below.
So everybody, thanks again for joining me today.
Anthony: [00:20:58] Thanks Mike. I appreciate it, bro.
[00:21:00] Mike: [00:20:59] Good to see it. Yeah. Well, and we’ll see ya here shortly. Hopefully for our investorAnthony: [00:21:03] fuel happy hour.
Mike: [00:21:07] Everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us today. I hope you got some good value out of Anthony. I, at the end of the day, you should be spending your time right now.
Focus on improving your business, putting the right systems and processes in place, putting the right people in place so that you can hit your goals without you being a slave to your business, right? None of us ultimately want that, so hope you got some good value. If you haven’t yet, we’d love it if you subscribe to.
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