Business Innovators Radio - Unlocking the Path to Homeownership: The Power of Military Benefits with Eddie Solis

Starting point is 00:00:02 Welcome to the Agents Lounge podcast, where we talk all things real estate with the industry's top performers. Join us as we dive into the inspiring journeys of successful agents and uncover the secrets to their success. Whether you're a seasoned agent or just starting out, we got the tips and tricks to help you navigate the world of real estate. Brought to you by Eritectady Comfort Solutions. So grab a seat and join us in the Agents Lounge. And welcome back to another episode of the Agents Lounge, podcast. I am the host for today, at least anyways, and hopefully passing the torch on to somebody else here very soon. But in the meantime, I'm your host today, Marco Salinas, and I've got my co-host,

Starting point is 00:00:45 my partner in crime, Mr. Francisco, Bermuda's Jr., say hello Francisco. Good morning, everyone. We also have another guest, let's call him guest co-host, right? Mr. Larry Inman. Larry Enman. Inman. Yeah. Okay. How do you spell that? Y N-M-A-N. Okay, perfect. Get on spell it, you say it. All right.

Starting point is 00:01:07 And so Larry's, Larry's are co-host and training. Yeah. Extraordinary. Yeah, that's right. But the real reason why we are here today is because we have a special guest. He hails from San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas. A Southwest Texas Southwest High School graduate, right? I saw that on Facebook.

Starting point is 00:01:29 That's voice good. Yeah, I saw on Facebook one time because my wife was. went there. And let's see what else. Military, former military. Yes, sir. Real estate agent with the Empire Real Estate Team, which is a segment of under Keller Williams. That's what I thought. Okay. I didn't want to say the wrong thing. Yeah, under the Keller Williams group. And emphasis on military clients, friends, family, strangers, doesn't matter. You need help. You need a house. This is your man, right? And so this is our special guest today, Mr. Eddie Solis.

Starting point is 00:02:06 Eddie, welcome to the program. What's up, everybody? Let's have a good one. Yeah, let's do it. So here in the Agents' Lounge, we like to talk with real estate agents, and we talk a little bit about your journey and where you've been and what you've learned through the years, and we kind of like to pull out a little bit of, you know, your wisdom and your knowledge, and we want to know a little bit about your background.

Starting point is 00:02:29 I covered a little bit of it, but we'll give you the opportunity to, you know talk about talk about that a little bit more on your own and i think we're having some technical technical difficulties here is it going no they don't want to record it's probably my ugly face what it is it's breaking down you saw it was like hitting the thing yeah i don't see the timer movie yeah okay y'all fix that and i'm gonna keep talking to eddie okay because we don't pause around here dude this is like it's live ain't no script it is yeah we didn't see the timer yeah the timer wasn't there it goes yeah all right put it right back. We're good. Yeah, that's what's so great about podcast, man. It's not scripted.

Starting point is 00:03:07 This is real deal stuff, man. We're having real life conversation. I always tell people, we're at the cigar shop. We're smoking a cigar. We're having a conversation, but we're recording it. That's really what a podcast is, man. So anyways, now that we set that up, Eddie Solis, Empire Real Estate Team, Eddie, give me your little, give me your little like 30 second elevator pitch, like, you know, who are you? What are you about? even though I kind of already touched a little bit. I want to hear it in your words, though. So my name is Eddie.

Starting point is 00:03:36 I go by the people's realtor because I love doing it for the people. My main thing, my main go-to is my military family, being a vet. There's so many people out there that don't know their benefits, and they are just scared or just don't know, and I love to come in and educate them. And even myself, coming from the Vodio, not coming from much, those people that don't have any idea about buying a house, the only thing they go by is their uncle, Uncle Joe out there,

Starting point is 00:03:59 say, man, back when I buy a house, when it's $300 a month, You know, right now it's not about a good time to buy. Those are the people I love because I love for them to get out of their rentals and help them do something they never did before or ever thought as possible, and that's become a homeowner. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to go ahead and pull back the curtain a little bit and mention the fact that I know

Starting point is 00:04:16 you because we're part of a networking group together, right? I've been in that group for about a year. That's also where I met Francisco. So we kind of have this thing going where we try to help each other out. We try to look out for each other. We try to send each other referrals when we can, you know, when we can, right, when they come across. One of the things I've learned about you is that I think you do work with a lot of people

Starting point is 00:04:38 that have like credit challenges. Like, you'll find someone that's like, man, I can never buy. I can never buy a house. And it's like, why not? My credit score is just, you know, it's in the tank. You know, you're like, well, guess what? There's options. There are different things that we can do, right?

Starting point is 00:04:51 We can add you on as an authorized user. We can put you on Grandma's card over here. Or I can have you even talk to some of my people over here that, you know, have a dedicated service where we try to work on that stuff. And so you've had quite a few of those, right, where they started off like, man, I got terrible credit. I can never buy. And you've been able to turn those into homebuyers, right? Can you tell us about maybe a couple of examples of how you turn those situations around? Yes, sir. So the majority of them are people that come to me. They want to rent. We want to rent a home. So my thing is I always want to fit them to what fits of their lifestyle.

Starting point is 00:05:23 Because for some people, even though I push to get people to buy a home, sometimes it's just ain't right for them. And I don't want to put them in a situation to where they can't afford something. And then they come back in a year saying, man, you know, I can't afford it no more. So what I do first is I make sure their situation lines up. So when they come out and they tell me, hey, I want to rent a home, well, why do you want to rent? And that's the main question. And they say, well, you know, I've always rent, or no one's ever educated me, or I got bad credit, or I don't make enough money. And then I asked, who told you that you had bad credit? Who told you that you don't make enough money? Come to find out a couple of months later, they ended up to me. The perfect situation is that a person come up to me.

Starting point is 00:05:57 my husband doesn't have any credit. And then I was like, okay, can you tell me a little bit more? Find out that he is actually a veteran. So being a veteran himself, I mean, there's so many opportunities for those individuals. So then we ended up having a good networking people in our B&I networking group that were in. We had somebody that was able to put them on a path. And it wasn't immediate. It took about six to eight months for them to get credit established.

Starting point is 00:06:22 Yeah. Finding the right lender through us on networking events that we go to. and that person said, you know what, I can go ahead and I can help that individual, especially being a veteran. And from what went from, they just wanted to rent to now they're a first-time homebuyer and especially being a veteran, that was my like, man, this is what it's all about. This is what, you know, I'm here in for it. Sure.

Starting point is 00:06:43 Yeah. No, I think, you know, credit is one of those things where sometimes people will get it in their head that there's just, there's no changing it. There's no fixing it, right? So they just concede to that and they're like, you know what? I'm going to be a renter my whole life, man. And so as much as we talk about this stuff, right, and you as a real estate agent, you talk about it all the time, there's still a large amount of people out there that are not hearing

Starting point is 00:07:06 that message. And they're just staying in their little world. They're working all the time. They're raising their family, whatever. And they just are just, this is where I'm going to be, right? But that's definitely not the case. You guys have, you guys have been able to have some really awesome success stories and been able to really turn those situations around, right?

Starting point is 00:07:24 And especially with the military, because talk to me a little bit about how if you are former military, like, what are some of the little things that you get access to that maybe the people that are non-military wouldn't when it comes to buying a house? It's that down payment. So when everybody say, man, I got to save up so much money. I don't have enough money saved when it's usually at 3.5% for typically. But military, you don't have to pay anything up front. That's a VA loan? That's the VA loan.

Starting point is 00:07:48 It's called the VA loan. You VA benefits, whether you're active or you're a reserve guard and you serve for a certain amount of days you're eligible for that. So that saves you ballpark area between six to like $12,000 up front where another person has to save that $6,000 just to get the loan. Military member, you don't have to do that. Also, most military, at least in San Antonio, the bases right now, there are a lot of new homes being developed all around those areas, which is great for military buyers because typically they're here two to four years and then they bounce out. So I tell them, take advantage of your VA benefits.

Starting point is 00:08:24 it's by buying that house. You live in it two, four years, and now you have an investment. Now you have a rental that when you move here, now you can rent that house out and help you pay for the next house that you go into. Yeah. And you don't only have to live in there between one and two years of your situation, depending on what it is. They can go and buy another house, another house while they're in the same duty station. Yeah. That's what helps them out. Like I myself have three different homes with the different locations that I was based at. I just ended up buying a home, buying a home. And everybody will keep saying, why are you doing that? Why are you wasting your money? I'm like, wasting my money. I was like, when I get out of here, I have three investment properties to

Starting point is 00:08:58 where you, you just got a handshake from the rental. The rental apartments, and if anything, you have to pay back more. Like, you're probably secure deposits gone, or you have to pay cleaning fee. Right. To where they don't have to worry about that with the VN. Especially, there's a lot of incentives, especially in new bills right now, or just throwing the book at military people right now. They buy down the rate, which rate is what everybody's scared about is what you're kind of talking about when some people are like, I don't have the right time. Yeah. Rates are scared everybody. I get it. You know, but If you're going to a new bill and they're saying, hey, we'll buy it down to like 5%, 4%.

Starting point is 00:09:28 Okay, what's your excuse now? Because your only excuse before was credit. Right, right. They're willing to do that and they're paying closing calls. So I have military people getting a check back at the closing table. I'm getting military members where they don't have to pay $500. And then their first payment is not until like a month and a half, two months out. So that's another savings.

Starting point is 00:09:45 Yeah. Right there. Because they got to go and get new furniture and stuff anyway. So you need to give them that opportunity to go get the new IKEA couch, the new IKEA bet. It's going to take two months to put that stuff together anyway. If it lasts that long. Because it's in a hundred little pieces, right? So what a nice incentive to be able to have that little extra time there, right,

Starting point is 00:10:04 to build out all your goodies in there. Or you've been holding off buying a new vehicle because your realtor was like, don't buy a vehicle right before we're going to close in this house, man. You'll kill the deal. So you get the house. Then you can go ahead and get the new vehicle, right? Yes, sir. I had a military member.

Starting point is 00:10:19 She was moving down from Cali. And she's like, oh, my God, I love this stuff. It was a new BMW. She goes, you think I should roll up in it? To the closing, I was like, I think you should get out of there. She was at the dealership. Get out of there right now. I was like, stop what you're doing and just leave.

Starting point is 00:10:33 And he was like, I'm about to go and pick you up myself. Fly out of Cali and go out there and make some sense into that woman. Right, yeah. So, yeah. So, I mean, there's obviously some do's and don'ts out there. And those are the kind of things that when you're talking with a real estate agent, you guys are going to educate them. And then with your experience and doing a whole lot of military

Starting point is 00:10:53 transactions, you're going to also be able to say, hey, I've done this many times before. We need to look out for this. We need to look out for that. We can jump on this. What about like if a person has, I see a lot, I'm not going to lie, I see a lot of veterans with disabled veteran plates. And like, I got a, I got a homie that, you know, he's like, man, I got some, you know, I got the DV plates because I got like sleep apnea. And I'm like, really? Nice. Very interesting. Right. So it seems to be a little liberal right now in terms of, you know, approvals on that. But does, one thing I heard was that when you do get approved for some of that stuff, does that play some sort of a role also in the housing part of it as far as taxes? That's a great question.

Starting point is 00:11:39 I had one client. It brings a good example. First thing I asked, you know, have any military background. I said, oh, yeah, I'm a veteran. The other realtors they were working with before, never even asked them that. And I was like, well, did you know about the VA benefits? And they go, yeah, I do. And then I was like, how much, you know, talk about your income. And then I was like, well, what's your disability rating? And he looked at me clueless. And he was like, what do you mean? And he goes, no, I'm good. Look, I'm, should I stand up straight and everything? I was like, no, but what's your disability rating? I was like, you need to go back. And, you know, especially he said he had back problems, you know, from rucking and whatnot. Go back. And I was like,

Starting point is 00:12:07 don't worry about this house right now. I was like, I'll be here for you. I'll be here in a year. I'll be here for you to get that disability. End up taking it in about four or five months. And he went, ended up getting best case scenario. It doesn't happen all the time. Went back, Fowler for disability, got 100% back. With that 100% now, he doesn't have to pay taxes on his home. So when you look at your, if you go look at your statement, you probably see a $3 to $500 taxes amount that you pay on. That individual no longer had to worry about that.

Starting point is 00:12:36 How about $500 to $1,000 to $1,000 is probably more realistic. I was thinking with my- In today's market. In today's market, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what part of the state you're in. Right. Well, everybody wants to be outside of 60404, and you're pumping into North. Northside ISD and they're taking the bulk of that homeowner tax and it's not low. It's not low.

Starting point is 00:12:55 It's not low. For him is that big chunk that he didn't have to worry about. He was able to go out and get a bigger home. Yeah. A bigger home than what he originally wanted. Sure. And most of all, he's able to afford it now because he was on, not only what his normal job is getting paid for, but now he's getting 100% disability payment.

Starting point is 00:13:12 So you all can look up and you can see what 100% disability get. So that is a big life-changing event. and I highly encourage all the military members, even though I know our pride is like, you know what, I'm good, I'm not hurt, someone else can use it. Right. Don't think about yourself. Think about the impact it has on your family, how much they could be using that money with you and how much stress relief that is.

Starting point is 00:13:34 Yeah, sure, absolutely. Yeah, so I know that that's like, that could be a drastic game changer in terms of affordability of the home now because you just cleared off. Like I said, I mean, in my opinion, it's probably average five, seven hundred bucks a month. month that's off the table now. If you are 100% disabled, and I think if you have a lesser percentage, you could still get some of it, right? Or is it 100% or nothing? Correct. So like I myself, I'm 70% I get a small amount off. There you go. But even that still can translate into, all right, now we got a couple extra hundred bucks to play with here in terms of affordability and

Starting point is 00:14:11 what have you. So it all, it's all plays into it, right? So talk to me about another thing, which is debt-to-income ratio. What is that all about? I know my homies that are in the military, they love to go get those Dodge Chargers. They want the latest model. They got 30% interest on that dang thing. But, you know, they got to make sure

Starting point is 00:14:31 they could do donuts in the parking lot with somebody sitting in the passenger side hanging out and they hit their friend. Frank goes flying. Yeah, especially when you just joined the military and you never had any money before the first thing they'd go out and buy those Mustang. Of course.

Starting point is 00:14:44 Of course. Stains Camaros. I don't know what it is. Like, just like you said, those high interest rate, but they want to look cool, right? Coming out the gate. Correct. But that, what he was talking about, the debt to income, that takes the impact on how much total home that you can afford. Now, you can say, you know, I make money.

Starting point is 00:14:58 Yeah, you do. And then how come I'm only getting approved for a hundred, $150,000 home? Depending on your area, that type of home can be nothing to what you want to live in. Right. But that, the debt to income, they take into consideration how much of your money is tied up somewhere else compared to that $5 to $700. that you're paying for that vehicle, that could have been put to your house payment, which can build you equity and that there you can make something back on it compared to that depreciation of that vehicle, which we all want to look fly coming through that gate.

Starting point is 00:15:28 But there's those lemon lots out there on base. Everyone's got to go buy you those humpies. Save yourself some money because even though right now you may have that nice vehicle, when you go out and you meet that someone special and then y'all start buying stuff for your kids, and then she needs another, or he needs another vehicle. now you're two cars deep and now you have a bigger debt to income ratio on that. So be smart about it. Sometimes it's worth buying that old Honda Civic.

Starting point is 00:15:53 I used to drive around 93 to Seoul on base. And everybody was like, man, why are you driving this old junk? And I was like, how much is your payment? And then I was like, because I ain't got nothing on money. That's right. That's right. Now, I love that, man. And I mean, you know, if we want to be able to do something bigger in life,

Starting point is 00:16:10 we want to make some sort of an investment level up in some capacity. usually requires some sort of level of sacrifice, right? So the question is where are you going to pull that from? You're going to cut back on going out maybe a little bit. Don't put so much towards the party budget. Maybe just not eating out as often. Maybe you're going to go ahead and get a vehicle that's a little bit less flashy, right? And that way there's room there now.

Starting point is 00:16:34 There's a little bit of available budget to put towards improving your situation. Do you want to always be, do you want your kids to always have to like duck, duck cars and traffic, you know, or do you want them to be able to play in a safe backyard? Exactly. Right? Because after a little while, that becomes a little unsafe. You know what I mean? So, I mean, those are the kind of things that, those are the conversations I'm sure you're having, right?

Starting point is 00:16:55 Reminding people, and that's why we're talking about this here today on the agents lounge. And that way, you know, we'll put out this episode. We'll have some sound bites that you can share with your people. You can send a little sound bite to somebody and say, listen to this little wisdom that I dropped right here, man. Some knowledge on you. Right. Exactly. And then come back to me, you know, and be realistic, right? It took you, it took you 10 years to destroy your credit. Okay. If it takes me six to eight months to turn it around,

Starting point is 00:17:21 I think that's pretty fair, right? I think it's pretty fair. I know you want it in 30 days, but be realistic. Give me like a year. Give me eight months, right? And we'll get all that lined up and we'll start having that conversation. Now, Eddie, the interest rates are insane. You mentioned that compared to what they used to be. But when you zoom out, historically, they're actually still lower than what they have been at times, right, in the last, you know, 30, 40 years. We know that. But we've gotten so spoiled. We've gotten so used to those unbelievably crazy low rates. And then... Two, three percent. Right, right. And so, but you mentioned that there are some options, especially like if you're going with a new home, new home builders, right?

Starting point is 00:18:00 They'll lower the rate initially. They've got different incentives. They'll help with closing costs. They'll give you the stainless steel package, right? Like, they will, they are starting to really offer some really cool things that are out there. Now, in spite of all of the interest rates, you're still selling houses, right? Of course. People are still buying, right? They are sure. You have other friends that are part of the Empire team.

Starting point is 00:18:22 Are they still selling houses? Some of them are. And their strategy. There you go. It's strategy. So maybe that points to something else. Let's segue into some of them are. So what's the difference between if you're a new real estate agent and you're listening to this podcast or you're on the fence.

Starting point is 00:18:38 You're like, you know what? I see some of my friends that are doing well in real estate. Maybe I need to consider doing that. Maybe I need to talk to Eddie about, you know, coming in underneath him as part of the Empire Real Estate Group. What does it take in this challenging market to be successful as a real estate agent and still actually sell houses? My number one thing is I would never train or tell anyone to be like me.

Starting point is 00:19:02 I want to go out and I want to shine who you are. Each person, whoever you are, when you come into real estate, you have value and you have your own set of ways that you need to shine. And why I say that is because I have another two people on our group, the team leads, they're shining. They sell nonstop. But they don't do what I do. You know, there are code calls. They do code calls. They do open houses. They do the old school way sending letters out. Nothing against them. That's what they're doing. They're successful. But my thing is building relationships. It sounds cheesy, but it works. some of the homes that I've been closing on lately are stuff that I have put into place a year ago, a year and a half ago.

Starting point is 00:19:42 When I met them and I had that conversation of, hey, you know what, you may not be ready right now, but you can be ready down the road. And just like we're talking about, it takes that six months to a year. Perfect. I can be here for you. I'm not going to rush you. I'm not the ones that blow up your phone nonstop. If that's the realtor you want, that's not me. I'm just going to set you on path, tell you what to do.

Starting point is 00:19:59 And when it's time to get there, then I'll go ahead and help you. But along with that, you have to adapt to the market. market right now, the rates are high. Okay, cool. So what else is available? What's not high? If you don't have, if you have high rates. Drink some Fiji water, bro. Yeah, that's right. I'm just a sponsor. No, so the, the market right now for flipping homes is out there. And when I say that there, there are a lot of people out there that need to sell their homes. Everything costs a lot right now, right? Right. So the house prices are high. House prices are high. And they don't seem to be, I think they're coming down a little bit, but nothing

Starting point is 00:20:34 drastic. Right? And some places they're still going up, I think. Yes, definitely. So what we tell people is, why don't you go out and buy yourself a home that you can be a part of that market to where you're benefiting from the high prices? When I say that, go out and buy yourself a home that you can flip. It's not the easiest thing in the world because you've got to go out there.

Starting point is 00:20:50 You've got to find yourself a good realtor to go out there and find off-profit off-market properties to be able to help you out. And some people are, they pour in about $40,000 to $80,000 into it. And then they get a return from $100,000 to $200,000. that sounds very easy, but you have to put in the work of finding the right people to do the work for you as well. Yeah. And where do you get the $40 to $80,000 to put down? Well, you have different options, so where you have some people that have that saved up.

Starting point is 00:21:18 Some people have equity in their home. If they did buy a couple years ago, if they're seeing those 2, 3%, there's a big chance that they probably have anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 in their home. Oh, so you're saying pull it out of your current residence. It is an option. That's a option. One thing. That's one thing you do. There's several.

Starting point is 00:21:37 There's several. There's several options. Okay. You can also, with me and Francisco, we had, we'm playing golf the other weekend. We met this gentleman that he does hard money loans. Oh, yeah. Where he can come out and he would say, you know what, I'll front you the money. But, you know, I just get my little piece at the very end.

Starting point is 00:21:50 And you have six to eight months or whatever the case may be, the whatever the negotiation is. To work with it. To work with. So that way you have that money to go do it, to make that flip. And then you pay him back. And now you have maybe your own money to where you don't need hard money anymore. And do the hard money guys require you to have excellent credit? Some of them, you know, there's all different weird situations on that.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Some of them says, hey, you know what? I need to see that you have some money established or I need to see your reputation of some sort. Yeah. I'm good with that. Okay, I got you. So they'll look at other categories besides just the number, just a credit score number, right? They'll look at your character, you know, those type of things, right? You've been around, your people know who you are.

Starting point is 00:22:28 You've done this a few times. Now, if you're brand new starting off, that may not work, right? You might have to go ahead and pull from that existing equity in that house that you already own and what have you, right? But the point is there's options, right? Definitely is options. So there's different things that you can do so that you can get out there and you can actually take action and you can start maybe entering into this whole like investment game. Yes. It's a great market to be in because a lot of people are just starting to do it.

Starting point is 00:22:55 And they have to get in front of the wholesalers. Hostellers is a whole different ballgame. Me as a realtor, I try to stay away from them as much as possible. just because who I am, I want to make sure that I'm giving my client top dollar. And the wholesaler is nothing against them. It's a hustle. It's a grind. It's on you.

Starting point is 00:23:09 That's good that you're doing what you're doing. But just when you represent the seller, sometimes that situation is not the best route to go. Sure. Sure. So we are here today on the Agenouselon, I'm talking with real estate agent Eddie Solis from Empire Real Estate team. And Eddie has been dropping all kinds of amazing little wisdom bombs on us. But I want to pause for just a second. and I want to see if my co-hosts here have anything that, you know,

Starting point is 00:23:34 we've been having a great conversation, right? And Eddie knows his stuff. What's on y'all's mind? Y'all got anything that you can throw at him? Throw him a little curveball, challenge him a little bit. Man, he's a smart guy, so come on. What do we got? So you mentioned that you started real estate.

Starting point is 00:23:50 Basically, we got into the military, driven that old car. So I want to know about who was your mentor back then or who inspired you to pursue this route? And how you started here in San Antonio? So I joined the military at a later age at 24. Before that, I was actually working for Wells Fargo as a manager, in-house manager. So I was able to see up front when these people come in for loans, house loans through Wells Fargo. And the banker would always say, man, that guy's got a great deal.

Starting point is 00:24:21 I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, he has no money down. VA buyer, military buyer. So that just stuck in my head when I joined the military. Then I started seeing people at a certain part in the military, you get to move out the barracks. They give you that opportunity to get out. And I would hear so many bad stories like, man, like my apartment managers is horrible. You know, they kept my money or they don't come and fix the different things.

Starting point is 00:24:42 And then while you're also in the military, you also get a supervisor. And the supervisor that I had had just bought a brand new house. And he was like, man, come look at this. And I was like, man, like, you're paying the same amount of money as that other person's paying for that apartment he's complaining about. So that sparked the little thing in me. And I was like, you know what? Let me go buy a house. Let me go see what it's about.

Starting point is 00:25:00 I bought myself an old. It was like a 1942 home, but it was in Tampa, Florida. So it's still nice. It was by the beach and everything. I loved it. What? Yeah. It was before the market started going.

Starting point is 00:25:10 Did you Airbnb that joint? So let me get to that. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So then I got excited. You just see a smile. Man, dude. I just see a dollar sign.

Starting point is 00:25:18 So it was a three bedroom, nothing fancy whatsoever. And my job, I was always flying out in the military. I was always gone. I was doing flyaway security. So in my mind, I was like, I got two extra rooms at my house. It's just sitting there doing nothing. So I asked my other buddies, hey, man, you want a place to live? And I'll charge you half of what you're paying now for your rent.

Starting point is 00:25:37 And I'm never home. So it's practically like a charge. And I'm like, oh, yeah. So then that person ended up not being there all the time either. So I found somebody on their opposite schedule. So that other person had the house, pretty much they both had to themselves for those 12 hours. They're opposite. So then I said, man, I'm getting all this money.

Starting point is 00:25:53 My house is getting paid for it. And I'm never home. Once again, I'm fly away. So I ran it out that third. room. So for a while, I didn't even have a room that I was staying in. And then my other guys are getting deployed. So I was like, I got a big front yard. And I was like, hey, man, you don't park your car in front of my house? Because I started hearing they would go and park their cars at the storage units. Park in front of my house. I'll take care of. I'll wash it for

Starting point is 00:26:10 you and everything. I put air, you know, in it. I make sure your battery works and everything. That's always working. So I was making money off of these people. And I'm like... And I'm like... And you were homeless? You didn't have anywhere to live? I didn't have anywhere to live. Just because I was never home anyways. And I probably lived out of a suitcase. Right. So then, you know, I was like, I love. I love. love this mindset. I love this money, this cash flow coming in. This concept, man. Yeah. Yeah. It's a rich dad, poor dad concept in action. Yep. And so I pretty much exactly right. You, what the duplexes. People say,

Starting point is 00:26:37 living right, and ran out the other. Yep. So the same thing. I kept that house. Went to the next house, South Carolina, bought a house. Came down here to San Antonio, about a house. And it's going just going and going. The hardest part is trying to convince my wife to move because we can move every two years with the military VA benefits. But she's like, if I'm moving again, it's going to be to the ranchal. Like, I want my ranch, my 10 acres. I was like, so I need. go start selling some more houses. Right. And where would that be?

Starting point is 00:27:00 Where would the rancho be set up? Like what part of the country? Yeah, I want to be in Texas. Or do you want to go to Mexico? I want to go travel out there. Because I think you could probably start a B&I group out there too. Shout out to B&I. The rancho, what do we call this chapter?

Starting point is 00:27:15 The Rancho chapter. From crazy like the flying chancelows or something. Right? Heck yeah, man. That was a great question. Did that, does that? Yeah. Is that what you're looking for?

Starting point is 00:27:24 I loved it. Yeah. Yeah. So basically, You were a investor in a sense before really you were like just a regular homeowner, right? Because you were kind of doing the renting out the space, but you weren't like what you have right now. Like that's my home. I live here.

Starting point is 00:27:41 It's me, my wife, our pets. Right? You know, but back then you weren't really doing that. You were like just slanging rooms. Yeah, pretty much. And now I'm into my house. Now I'm into all that three bedrooms. But that was a great for the single life.

Starting point is 00:27:54 Once I got married, you know, my wife didn't want to. know random people living in the house. Oh yeah, I couldn't understand why. I don't know why that worked out. Yeah, I don't blame her. So tell me, we're getting close to wrapping up. And like you said, we've learned a lot from you. What does the future look like for Eddie Solis, for Empire Real Estate Team? Let me just say like, where do you see yourself maybe in the next, like, let's just say three years? Where do you hope to see your real estate business? Are you going to be in the rancho and retired already? Or, you know, you're going to be selling luxury properties at that point? Like, what is your vision?

Starting point is 00:28:26 with us a little bit of your goals and your vision for the future. So I think the military helped me have a mindset of always giving back, giving back to the community, giving back to the people. So I'm already starting my new team. I got one new real estate agent with me right now, and he already sold a property within the first 30 days of him being a realtor, which is not too shabby. Not a lot of people can do that. Not a lot of people can even sell one house a whole year. Right. He did within the first 30 days. But I want to build that team. I want to have five to six strong realtors to where I can take the step back and not be in the front line so much, and I can pass the stuff that I'm

Starting point is 00:28:59 getting to them, and people say, well, why are you doing that? Why are you giving away money? It's too good to be true. Well, of course, every team... You can play golf with me? I can play golf, I love golf. I can learn to play golf. Yeah, I can pass it off to them because at the end of day, you get a little piece of what they make if they're on your team. So I want to have a good solid five or six members that are highly energetic, just like me, that are able to do their own thing. But on top of that, I want to be that investor, because I really have that investor taste to where I'm flipping homes my stuff. myself to where I can go out and travel all over the United States because being military,

Starting point is 00:29:29 I got that feeling of traveling and I love it and I want to keep doing it to where I have other properties just like now and other parts of the states to where I can always have a vacation home, you know, be one of those snowbirds to where, you know, it's too hot somewhere, it's too cold somewhere, go somewhere else and I'm okay because I'm flipping homes and I ain't got to be there at that moment to sell that person that house. I want to pass it to my team members and you can handle it. Yeah. So that's my long term. Yeah. So what you're telling me is you're looking for some leverage and the ability to be able to kind of outsource so that it's not just 100% all on you 24-7 because real estate is is a very rewarding game but it's also a very um i mean it'll

Starting point is 00:30:07 it'll eat up your time it'll eat up your energy it'll eat up your mental health if you allow it right because you're technically you're always in the clock right so if you can be one of the and i think that's my biggest thing like i don't see a lot of realtors that are able to figure out how to really turn it into a real business it's more of the, of the, you've seen the cash flow quadrant that that same guy, you know, Robert Kiyosaki talks about right, you're either on the left side or the right side, you're on the self-employed side over here, or you're more on the business owner investor side over here, right? As long as you're on the self-employment side, everything's on you. You can never

Starting point is 00:30:39 really leverage anything. You're always at all, you know, basically stops with you. It requires you to be able to, for the machine to keep running. The moment you stop, the machine stops. Right. And so if you can, if you can move yourself over to the right side of the quadrant, in the business owner's side, now you've got four, five, six realtors that are underneath you. They're out there doing their thing. Maybe, God forbid, they have a couple underneath them, right? And so now you're actually, and then you've got your real estate investments that are working

Starting point is 00:31:06 for you that are making passive income. It may not be a ton of passive income, but it's something over nothing, right? And you already put yourself in a very different category from everybody else. It's about creating those processes so they can follow it. That's right. I mean, that's how I started by myself. and now we're a team of six. That's right.

Starting point is 00:31:25 And now hopefully create that same process in Austin or create the same process in Houston. Right. Because I already know how to build it. Yeah. Correct. Correct. That's right.

Starting point is 00:31:35 Now, on that note, we're just about wrapping up. But can you do me a favor? As you know, this show is sponsored by Eritory Comfort Solutions. And you know the owner of Eritory Comfort Solutions. His name is Francisco Bermuda Jr. You've worked with him. You've worked with some of his team. Can you throw a little something out there?

Starting point is 00:31:52 Can you tell us just a little about your experience working with these guys? He's a better golfer than I am. I forgot to mention that. Step one. Step one. I start there. Give him credit words to do. Francisco has a high energy and he has that personality that you want to work with.

Starting point is 00:32:09 I'm all about vibes and energy and especially being in that referral business to where you do business of people you like and that you trust. Because when I pass over a referral to them or to anyone in general, you're expecting that, you know, that grade A quality service because if that person doesn't do well, it's going to look bad on them, but most of all it's going to be bad on you. And Francisco is a guy that I put, you know, my name behind, I back him. He has personally sent out, not him, but he sent out one of his workers to come out, which is great because you get to see how their workers are. Because when you send them referral, it ain't always going to be him because he might be at the golf

Starting point is 00:32:46 course. You know, so you have to see that their whole team is, you know, that provides that great service. And he did. Gentleman came out. very professional, having conversation while he was doing the work to my house and everything was great and even give me some advice of how to keep my AC keep going longer, which is great because most times most people don't tell you anything or they want your items to break so they can come back out so that they can get more service done to your house. But that was a great thing to see his team in action. But most of all, like I said, Francisco is a great guy to where he always brings a good energy. Every time I see him, he's always smiling.

Starting point is 00:33:22 He's always willing to help out, and he has this, like he's putting people first before him. And the reason why I say that, a lot of golfers, when you go out in business, what I've learned is their personality sometimes on the course reflects how they are in their business. And when I say that is because this guy, I was horrible. Like, I'm still am horrible in golf. But he was taking the time to be able to teach me and give me advice throughout the time instead of being like, no, this guy, you know, is to hold me up, you know, wasting my time. You know, he's not even good. Why did I even invite him? And that tells me, if he's that way, has the patience with me with that, how is his business when he talks to his brand new workers?

Starting point is 00:34:00 When he has that new employee, that time that he's taking to develop them to make sure that they can provide that great service to what he imagines and visions. I can only imagine his future growth, how amazing it's going to be when he goes to Austin like he was just talking about in building that other group out there as well. So nothing but great things about him. Dang, man. that was like yeah that deserves a round of a plus I'll have to buy your lunch right now all right did you say you were going to buy it for all of us or no

Starting point is 00:34:30 okay I don't just say I got some nice things to say about you two of your five guys Eddie on behalf of myself Francisco Larry Ellison we thank you very much for your time today man thank you for coming on with your wisdom and your knowledge like I said and dropping all kinds of good information here and helping us and

Starting point is 00:34:51 It was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed talking with you. Eddie Solis from the Empire Real Estate team. Thank you. Appreciate you, guys. All right, man. That does it for another episode of the Agents Lounge Podcast. We'll catch you here next time.

Starting point is 00:35:03 You've been listening to the Agents Lounge Podcast, brought to you by Eritory Comfort Solutions. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or to listen to past episodes, please visitagentsloungepodcast.com.

Business Innovators Radio - Unlocking the Path to Homeownership: The Power of Military Benefits with Eddie Solis

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