Epic Real Estate Investing - 7 Months to Six Figures - Myles Berrio | 1091

Episode Date: October 14, 2020

If you’re wondering how to start in real estate then today’s podcast episode is for YOU! More specifically, Matt is joined with Myles Berrio, a former wedding and commercial photographer who makes 6 figures after 7 months of investing in real estate! Despite COVID-19, he’s already made multiple deals and is expanding his investments. So, how did he do it? Tune in and find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Making offers and cashing checks. What's new? What's Next with Ashley Montaigne. Hello, my friends. Ash here, bringing you what's new and what's next at Epic Real Estate. I am joined by my cats, Cody and Lucy. So they would like to say hello to you all. And I would like to start off with some wins from our Epic investors in our Facebook group. So Tony, he signed a seven-door multifamily unit on Web.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tony just about two months ago at one of our REIACE summits. He had just joined RIA, so it's really, really exciting to be reading this win, and seeing that you got this huge deal there, Tony, congratulations, and I'm looking forward to reading more. So Josiah, Josiah and his partner joined the RIA ACE program. So that is a big win, and they're going to be joining us here in Vegas next week for the Epic Intensive, where we're going to learn how to unmask the market during these crazy, crazy times. Josiah also sold a small town investment property and was able to profit $10,000 from that. Awesome, Josiah, looking forward to meeting you next week.

And Parker. Parker has 24 deals under contract and $144,000 in escrow. That is killer, Parker. Wow, I'm constantly doing big, big, big things over there. and thank you for sharing your win. What else is new? You should join us on our YouTube channel. We are pumping out videos every single week. This week we came out with a stimulus check second round update for 2020.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Miles Barrio on the show who was just an everyday guy. Before COVID, he was working as a wedding photographer and had to find a different means to make money because his business was affected by coronavirus. He came across an ad that was promoting real estate investing, how to do it with little money or credit or anything like that, and he took it upon himself to just jump right in. Has had quite a bit of success this year. Has closed a couple of deals and has made a pretty sizable profit.

So that's another fun interview we had this past week. We are releasing new videos Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. So come join us for Live Breaking News. news, compelling interviews, and just a bunch of really great information on real estate investing. If you love this podcast, I assure you you will love our YouTube channel. Just look us up, Epic Real Estate Investing, or you can go directly to the channel at Epicurei.tv. So that'll take you right there. And last but not least, what's next?

The Epic Intensive, we're going to be unmasking the market and giving you guys certain real estate success strategies for uncertain times. This is next week. So October 22nd through the 24th, we are going to be hosting this virtually and live here in Las Vegas, Nevada. It's going to be three days just jam-packed with Matt and the team uncovering all sorts of secrets to off-market deals that are hiding in plain sight. They'll be teaching you how to influence sellers and win deals, how to craft creative deal structures, and how to just make your money go to work for you. So if you'd like to join us virtually or in person, there is still time. Not a lot of time.

So better get moving. Go to epicintensive.com to sign up or reach out to us at support at epicinvested.com. That's epicinvested. I-N-V-E-S-T-E-D dot com. And we'll make sure to get back to you. Alrighty, that's all that I have for you guys. Enjoy the show. This is Terio Media.

Success in real estate has nothing to do with shiny objects. It has everything to do with mastering the basics. The three pillars of real estate investing. Attract, convert, exit. Matt Terrio has been helping real estate investors do just that for more than a decade now. If you want to make money in real estate, keep listening. If you want it faster, visit r-e-I-Aase.com. Here's Matt.

Hey, their epic investor. It's Matt Terrio from Epic Real Estate, where we show people how to invest in real estate with an emphasis on retiring early. Got to get your hands on that financial independence and move your way into financial freedom. This is the Epic Real Estate Investing Show. And I do this show because I know that most people are living a life of financial sacrifice and betrayal. So we've built a system that creates an opportunity for one's money to work harder for them than they did for it. saving them and their families from a lifetime of financial worry, financial distress. I know that real estate works and I believe everyone deserves a chance and that's why we're here.

And if this is your first time here, really glad that you found us. If you like what you're here, make sure you hit the subscribe button before you go. And if this is not your first time here, welcome back. And thank you for sharing this with your friends and family. I really appreciate that about you. And in fact, I flat out love you for that. So thank you. All right, public service announcement.

And we're going to get to a great episode today on getting started. right in real estate investing and how to get started fast. But first, it all means nothing if we aren't healthy. So take your vitamin D, take your vitamin C, and take your zinc, get your exercise in, get out in the sunlight because the recent studies reveal quite a bit that you won't see or hear from mainstream media. These things aren't a cure for COVID-19. I'm not saying that, but the most recent studies are showing that vitamin D, C, and zinc, especially vitamin D will significantly help you avoid the hospital should you contract the virus, unfortunately.

But we can protect ourselves. We got to protect ourselves. And I got to protect my sisters and my brothers from other mothers of darker skin complexions. You are actually at a higher risk for having lower vitamin D levels due to the high amounts of melanin in your skin. And what that does is it reduces the body's ability to produce vitamin D from the sun, how we naturally get it.

So make sure you are getting your vitamin D supplement in for sure. All righty. And if you got people around you that you're concerned about elderly or preexisting conditions or underlying conditions, make sure you give them a healthy dose of vitamin D as well. And every day, you got to do it every single day. You need it anyway for our healthy bones. And if there's this nice little side benefit of keeping us out of the hospital, should we catch this nasty thing?

then I don't see why you shouldn't take it. All righty. So now that we've talked health, let's talk wealth. And so let's say you're just getting started. How would you start investing in real estate? I mean, from scratch, and during a pandemic, and then close more than $50,000 of business and being just one deal away that's already in the pipeline

from doubling that. I mean, in seven months to six, Six figures. Well, my guest today is going to tell you how he did it, where he found his deals, how he locked them up, and how he got paid. Not to mention his biggest mistake to date, as well as his biggest success. He's currently in the process of winning. So please help me welcome to the show, Mr. Miles Barrio.

Miles, welcome to the Epic Real Estate Investing Show. Thank you guys for having me. Thank you. Really, really appreciate it. Happy to be here. Yeah, no, awesome. You know, it's kind of weird how things happened. And I was, I think it was in the afternoon or something.

I can't remember it was a couple weeks ago. I was just scrolling through Instagram and I followed a hashtag real estate investor. And you popped up. And you had this Hawaiian shirt on, of which I'm now like kind of into Hawaiian shirts for some reason. I don't know. Oh, yeah. So I've been kind of looking at those a little bit. And then I just said, well, what's this guy talking about?

And then you talked about rich dad port out. It was okay. It's just another guy. But then you hit on the book profit first. And that's one of my favorite books of all times. now. I mean, I've had a top three forever and then I added that as a top four because it's been that transformation. And I want to talk about that. But tell me, how long have you been investing in real estate? Yeah. So I hope I'm not disappointing your audience because it's not been honestly a

very long time. But I've had some really awesome experiences. But I've been in real estate investing for about seven months now. Okay, that's it. Right. And on your Instagram profile and on your YouTube channel, which I went and checked out to before I invited you to the show. You're holding up checks. You're doing deals, right? I sure am. Yeah. That's all that counts. I think my wife is happy about that. Perfect. So what were you doing just before you started investing in real estate? Yeah. So it's kind of a crazy story. I was actually a full-time wedding and commercial photographer full-time. And I know sometimes, you know, people are, oh, a photographer. I was like, I mean, not in a boastful way, but I was pretty successful at it. A lot of people actually,

well, a lot of people know me through wedding photography. I did a lot of destination weddings. So I shot all over the world, Belize and Dominican Republic and Mexico and Canada and did a lot. Had an amazing experience there, but I also do commercial work. So I've shot with really big brands like Target, WeWork, and most recently a lot of people know me from Netflix when they saw me shooting on Love is Blind. It was like the number one, this huge show. Crazy, I don't have to get in details, but it was a crazy, hilarious, awesome show,

but that was a great experience. My wife will probably definitely know you. Oh, you said, oh, no way. Did she like that? I love his line. She binged it on the treadmill, I think. Oh, that's so awesome. Yeah, I talked with Matt Barnett and all the guys that are on the show.

And Amber actually with the high school with me, which is crazy. And anyway, I've built really great. Weish up with the whole staff there and the whole team there. So it's been really awesome. Sweet. Can't wait to tell my wife all about it. Guess who I met. right um super so what inspired are you still in photography or you full-time real estate investor now

so i always say i'm full-time because i just want the mindset to be that i'm full-time there um obviously with weddings people book you like a year in advance so what i've been doing is um referring wedding inquiries i'm getting um because i i've just kind of put out there i'm no longer taking any more weddings um so i'm slowly transitioning out of it but i always say i'm full-time what can pretty much you know, every day all day. It's just real estate investing. So yeah, pretty much. Yeah, based on the checks you were putting up there, it might be costing you money to do the photography now, right? You know, that's so interesting you say that. And, you know, man, I'm just so blessed and grateful for what real estate investing has done for me because I'm not going to lie.

Honestly, if I didn't have the real estate investing and then COVID hit, I honestly don't even know how there were some, there were like some weddings where it would conflict to where I had to return their entire like deposit and a balance. you know, right before the wedding was about to happen just because, you know, we're rescheduling and then the only day they have available, I can't shoot that wedding and they're just, you know, they're not going to just be out, you know, thousands of dollars. So the only way was to just return, you know, that didn't happen often. But yeah, it actually kind of cost me time a little bit, but also some change too, which is,

you know, kind of really, really crazy. But, you know, thank God. I mean, you know, real estate investing has really been a huge blessing to sort of offset those costs. So it's been pretty good. Super. What market are you in? Where do you live? So I live in Greenville, South Carolina, and I say I'm in the markets of Georgia, Florida,

in Greenville, South Carolina, but at this point, all of my deals have currently been in Greenville. I'm working on some projects that haven't necessarily closed in these other markets. But currently right now, all the deals that I've done have been in South Carolina. Awesome. Congrats. I saw the California license plate behind you in the reflection of the mirror. Are you from, Kelly? Yeah, so that's, man, whole.

whole other conversation. I've honestly, Matt, man, I've touched so many businesses. You know, I'm a type of guy that likes to say it's not the horse, it's the jockey. So if people are making money in an industry, money can be made. I mean, it's just, it's really how you're going to make it work for yourself. So, you know, we don't have to necessarily go into that if you have questions about it. But even before photography and in my past, like early college years, I was in network marketing. So I really fell in love with California because I became pretty successful in the company that I was in and I would travel there all the time. So I've spoken all the way in San Diego, California, all the way up north to Walnut Creek, you know, all over California.

I just, it's like my setting home. Great, great. You know, I'm noticing a pattern actually within my students. And it's actually, I got my start in network marketing as well, probably. No way. That's awesome. Yeah. And it's weird.

There's a really nice, it's a good training ground for what we do now, right? It's a good transition. Just with the mindset and with the skill. and then getting comfortable with people. And it's just, what company were you in? So I was in a company called VMA. BK. Barreco was the owner. And, yeah, I was in college.

I was working three jobs. That's not just like a sort of motivational story. I really was. I was working as a desk assistant, a DA, for my dorm, Russell Hall. And then I worked at the UGA golf course. I went to University of Georgia. And then I worked at Express in the Mall. So as you imagine, you know, I'm like a freshman, sophomore in college,

and I'm just juggling working through jobs because in my mind, again, this is the whole thing we talk about with Robert Kiyosaki, the four quadrants. You know, in my mind, I had only, you know, you only know what you know. And my parents, you know, in order for you to make more money, they just taught you to work harder and get another job, right? That's kind of well, maybe a lot of our backgrounds or our parents, you know, if they were struggling financially, what did they do? They didn't like try to invest in a business or start, you know, you know,

start something that could earn passive income. I mean, they just got a second job or a third job. So I ended up with a lot of jobs. Anyway, a friend of mine reached out to me about these energy drinks. All these kids are making money with these energy drinks called Verve in the company, VMA. And, you know, I won't go too much into detail of that unless you have questions about it. But I will say it was really funny because it's just interesting how your mind could expand. This was probably what, about eight years ago.

Yeah, eight to nine years ago, I remember, you know, getting a network marketing, you typically have to buy products or, you know, spend some kind of money to get started. And I just remember my friend saying, dude, you know, this is an amazing opportunity. And I was like, oh, man, let's do this. I'm so excited because I figured, man, you know, if I can make money, you know, with money not being determined by the amount of hours in a day. So your income being limited and just be like people you talk to. I can talk to people all day.

I can make tons of money. And I was super stoked. And he goes, all right, well, you know, I was like, how do we get started? He's like, yeah. I mean, you have to buy the products. And it's $500. And I remember, I literally did this. day remember going five hundred dollars like that was so much money to me back at that time i was

just like oh my gosh five hundred dollars and uh it's just crazy where life can take you because you know obviously my mind and income and everything has expanded you know 10x from there so for sure the land of lotions potions and pills oh yeah i've seen them all and man i i mean yeah everything Or Baner Gold, you know, ACN or V-I, man. Yeah, yeah, I know it all. It's been, it's really awesome. I love how you said that, you know, it's interesting you're seeing a correlation. You know, I honestly, I tell my wife all the time, I actually met my wife through the network market company, which is crazy.

I tell people all the time, I honestly absolutely will have all of my kids doing that network marketing company. I'll have the right, have them have the right mindset, you know, it's not really, I don't, I don't necessarily believe it should be your, obviously, your end-all, be-all. but there is just, I just don't think there is anywhere else that you can learn all the different aspects that will help you build any other business than just getting started in network marketing and having to build teams, work with people, understand sales, communication, you know, I mean, just everything, personal development in order to build your business. I mean, you know, it's just, you know, you learned so much from it. Right. Well, that makes sense. I mean, real estate is such a people business and that's exactly

what network marketing is. It's 100% of people business. And so those skills translate really well. So when you got started, what was kind of the process? Well, it was just recently, seven months ago. This was just before we, the beginning of the year, right? Oh, my gosh. What did the education process and what did the initial actions look like? Yeah.

So honestly, my story is very simple. Around January, February-ish, I, you know, really honestly, everyone kind of understands this if they're listening to at this time, it's, you know, very relative COVID-19, you know, was an experience for a lot of people. It was for me as well. I was not exempt from that experience. So as a photographer, you know,

again, I'm just going back to Robert Kiyosaki, the whole idea of being self-employed. You really don't even want to stop there. A lot of people think self-employed is like, oh, you know, I want to own my own business as a self-employed person.

But there's, you know, there's that next level, you know, the eye quadrant being an investor that, you know, really makes sense that I see now today as a real estate investor

because even being self-employed at the end of the day when COVID hit, I mean, all of my business shut down, you know, like immediately because weddings were being canceled, you know, venues are shutting. You know, I mean, it was just crazy. So if you, you know, anyone who's been following me, they also know that my wife and I were having our daughter, our first daughter in the middle of COVID. You know, I'm like a new dad and, you know, young guy. You know, I'm working photography and everything just shuts down. And I'm freaking out. You know, I mean, I'm, I just, you know, I'm recently married. I'm about to have a daughter, you know, in the middle of COVID. So, you know,

I love to share this if that's okay with you, just my faith. It really honestly is a big part of why I am where I am today because basically around January-ish, I really got pretty scared for the first time ever, honestly, pretty afraid about being able to just take care of my family and everything. So I started looking for jobs. You know, I'm humble enough to know, like, hey, you just got to do what you've got to do. And just, I haven't worked at, you know, necessarily a job in like nine years, eight, nine years.

But, you know, I just started looking for jobs and I got a job offer. And it was the weirdest feeling. I told my wife, I just, I really feel like God is telling me not to take this job. job. And it was the weirdest thing ever. I mean, again, I'm about to have a baby, you know, newly married, my whole business is shutting down. And there's a job where they're saying, hey, they were texting me. We want you to come in tomorrow. And I just really felt like I was not supposed to take that job. I really just was obedient to the Lord. And I didn't take that job. And lo and behold, you know, I'm a big believer that the Lord guides your footsteps. Sometimes,

and we don't need to go into, you know, the whole spiritual debate on this. But some people believe, like, hey, let me just sit and the Lord will tell me what to do. And there are some cases where that might happen. But for me, I believe that you need to move because the world will guide your footsteps, meaning you need another foot in another foot and another foot, he'll guide you in the right direction. He'll close the door if you're doing this or open door if you're doing that. But if you're just standing still, I mean, there's really nothing to do. So I just kept moving my foot. And I was on YouTube and it was the weirdest thing. I actually was watching a random YouTube channel where they don't even have real estate investors on the show. They just happen to have this guy just because

it seemed interesting, right? Kind of like clickbait. And he was talking about how he was making money with no credit, you know, not using any of his money. I mean, you know, the whole spiel, the whole marketing with, you know, getting into real estate investing wholesaling, basically, wholesaling real estate. And, you know, I was just listening to this guy and, you know, not to be rude, but I'm just like, man, if this guy can do this, there is no way I can't. Oh, now you got to tell me who it is. So, and I honestly actually actually would. I don't remember his name. He's not anybody that you he's not really any like he's not like you know you know ace morby or you or like you know max max well or you know steve train any of these guys shan terry no these like bigger names it was honestly

just a random it was a just a random guy who was just talking about how he was making money um you know without any credit using his own money i totally don't even remember his name today and i know all the big names so yeah so anyway i uh was watching the channel there's just no way this guy's making this kind of i mean i there's i can totally do it there's no way so I spent all of January just studying everything about wholesaling real estate, you know, podcast, YouTube, just everything. I mean, everything I could get my hands on nonstop. And basically around February, I just started taking action.

I started, you know, reaching out to motivated sellers, driving for dollars, driving around the neighbor, looking for distressed properties. And it was about the end of February. I locked up my first contract. And basically March, you know, was able to get my first deal. and man, I have never looked back from there. I made $11,000 on this deal. And literally at the beginning of April, I made another,

I locked up another contract in the March, did another deal, another 11,000. It was actually the same numbers on both of those deals. Do completely different properties, but it happened to be the same numbers, just kind of random, but made another 11,000. And, you know, people, I kind of posted checks because I think it's really important for people to be encouraged

and motivated than just, you know, If people follow me, they know I speak a lot of motivation and encouragement, but there's just something a little different when you see a check that's like, oh my gosh, I need to get going. Evidence is a wonderful thing. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So I know there's a lot of people listening.

I'd be very interested in what you did to find those two deals and do them so quickly. So what was your main source of marketing? Were they through the same channels or two different channels? So they were actually the same channels. I ended up, man, because it's like, man, it's been a world win since then. So I'm trying to remember specifically what happened. I ended up getting a, I remember I was driving for dollars a lot, and I was literally picking up the phone with my own phone. I know a lot of people are going to say, you know, don't use your own phone.

You can get Google number or get your own phone. I'm a big believer. It's like, you know, don't let anything, you know, make you hesitate to move forward. I think imperfect action is better than no action at all. So yes, obviously, as you before, you know, you can, you know, if you have some money to put towards that, get a different phone number and all these things. But I was using my own phone and just calling just the stress properties that was driving around. So that's actually how I found the first deals in downtown in Greenville, totally vacant property. Didn't even have a back door.

Just, I mean, just an ugly house. But there was a house right next to it that looked brand speaking new. I mean, it was two-story. just a beautiful home. So I looked at that as like, I mean, obviously someone's got to be interested in this thing. And it's so funny, you know, I think the average person would probably even go a step further and go, yeah, but, you know, it's close to downtown and there's a really nice house next to it. So there's probably a lot of people who already hit this thing up. Again, I'm just, I just imperfect action, you know, better than no action at all.

I didn't even think that far. I'm just taking action, you know. So I think that's really important, honestly, for the first, you know, because now and I've had some success. I've had a lot of people reach out to me and ask questions. but I noticed a lot of people ask a little too much, you know, they ask too many questions. They just, you just got to take action. So I picked up a phone and lo and behold, I got in touch with the owner. And it honestly, I mean, it was honestly that simple.

I spoke to him and he had his price. Hold on, Miles. Hold on. Driving for dollars. You see this house. You see it's an opportunity next to a nice house. Yeah. How do you find the seller's phone number?

What did you do? Yes. So I found the cellar's phone number. I used, actually, I probably wouldn't recommend this now today. Obviously, like I said, you just got to do whatever it takes. I use a free service called true peoplesearch.com. A lot of those numbers aren't really the most accurate. But again, I didn't have the money that I have now to where, you know,

I have all these systems that I use now to build my business, you know, to skip trace and things like that. But I honestly used true people search and went through a ton of different numbers and names to finally find the owner. All right. Well, that's good. The second one. How did we find that one?

So the second one was through SMS. So I, even though I was doing the business, quote unquote, I still know that there were like more levels to it. I need to grow. I need to learn more. I need to continue growing. So I was still studying and still studying and still, you know, just researching information about wholesaling. And I came across this random video where guy was talking about how he was able to, I can't remember how it. It was like a, you know, crazy success story where this guy earned like $40,000, you know, by sending text messages or something.

You know, it's like SMS, you know, marketing. And I'm like, what's text messaging? Oh, man, that's crazy. You know, I'm a millennial. I got an iPhone. I can do that. You know, that's no brainer. You know, so I actually did a free trial for batch leads.

So that's what I use actually still today for SMS marketing. So that particular person was recommending another SMS company. But just, I guess, throw a tip out there if anyone's using SMS because I kind of learned this. I'm glad I learned it not in a bad way where I was getting a lawsuit or something. You want to be careful what SMS company are using because, some of these companies legitimately will just blast out a ton of text. And that's actually against, you know, really just like, I guess the law. All the phone carriers, you know, have certain things that protect their customers.

And if you're doing that, it's kind of like, you know, spam and sort of soliciting. And it's just, you know, yeah, you can really get hit pretty hard, get a lawsuit and things like that with that. So you want to make, I'm looking for the word compliant. You want to make sure whatever SMS company are using that they are compliant with, you know, SMS marketing standards. So with this company batch, you literally have to just click individually. So it's not like a blast. Of course, you know, that's the loophole with the texting, right, doing them one at a time.

Exactly. So you do it one at times. You're not just blasting a million text messages. So that's how I found the second deal was through SMS. Very good. Super. Okay. So let's go back to the first one.

You get in touch with the seller. What does that phone conversation do look like? Do you remember? Oh, man. That phone conversation was rough. it was honestly my first one obviously right so it was going to be the perfect conversation but again I think honestly guys it's just all about timing when you find someone who's looking to sell their house I mean you don't have to sound like you know you've been in the real estate business for 30

plus years you just need to be able to at least communicate to them that you have interest in the property and that you want to take care of them just as much as you want to buy the property yourself you know yourself I think that's kind of what helped I didn't come in just with the typical just you know hey I'm a real estate investor I want to buy your house you know I was actually really interested in what was going on with that gentleman's life. And he had his number of what he wanted to sell a house for. And I actually had, the interesting thing is I actually had done my numbers before I got on the call. So I figured out what the ARV was in that area.

I figured out where I needed to have my offer at, my maximum offer. And funny enough, his number was literally about a couple thousand dollars off just in that area. So I was super stoked. I'm like, oh my gosh. I mean, you're literally like, hey, you know, what do you want to sell your house for? They give you what your offer, you know, you want your offer to be. I mean, it's kind of like one of those unicorn experiences. But, you know, hey, I mean, that's kind of just what happened.

But it wasn't an easy deal actually because we ended up having a lot of back and forth. I'm trying to remember exactly what we talked about. But of course, he was a little, he was a little skeptical because he actually had, he was under contract with another investor, two other investors. And it fell through. So yeah, I mean, if you guys are having issues with that, I mean, that's definitely something that is in the industry that I'm really trying to do my best, which is why I have the YouTube channel, people wondering, why are you sharing all this information about how to do the business? Because it really helps everyone. You know, when the water rises, so do all the boats. Because if we have people out there that are doing the business incorrectly, it really makes it difficult for, you know, anyone to really do the business. So long story short, I had a conversation with them. We ended up agreeing to a price, which was the price that he wanted, which was 70,000, actually. And then what ended up happening is I ended up marketing the property to find a buyer. And I believe that I marketed to because I actually looked at it as like, let me just make $10,000. You know, I know there's these huge checks out there and all this stuff.

I just like, you know, I'll just market up $10,000 and put it at $80,000. And the funny thing is, as soon as I marketed in my area, I marketed on a Facebook group, which just another tip, you know, using your local, you know, real estate investing Facebook groups in your area is just an amazing way for you to be able to find a buyer. I marketed the property and interestingly enough, I had several buyers reached out to me because apparently they had, one of them was under contract with the guy, was trying, I can't remember exactly what happened, but it fell through. Another person was like, hey, you know, just be careful with this guy. He's very like, you know, he's kind of stubborn, very, you know, just basically a lot of people, oh, one investor was, yeah, that person was like he's very stubborn and he won't go down

under his price, which is really important. This investor threw away the deal, because they figured that what he wanted was too high. So what I ended up doing, I don't know, it's hard to just say, you know, whether I recommend this or not. But yeah, basically I honestly thought that was a number that was good for that deal. And I marketed the property and I got feedback from the market, the buyers. And buyers started telling me what they really thought the repair cost. I was maybe off a little bit on the repair cost.

So being able to get a little bit of feedback from some of the buyers, I quickly went back to the seller and I spoke with him as if like I, you know, knew that information. And I was like, hey, you know, these, you know, as we've taken a look at the property and really going over some numbers, you know, we really, I really have to be a little bit lower than 70,000. I didn't say lower than 7,000. I basically just said we definitely need to be somewhere between 50, I think it was like 50, 50 and 55,000 and 65,000, somewhere between there. Another tip, you don't want to give out an offer number. You always want to give out offer ranges, right? So I just kind of said 55 to 65.

I gave a range. And of course, they like to always kind of go towards the top part of it, which is why you do it off the range. And we ended up landing at $69,000. And I ended up rewriting a contract with them and just locked up the contract at 69 and put it on Facebook Marketplace and was able to find a buyer who came in at 70,

which is where I ended up getting that $11,000 wholesale fee. So, and that buyer actually- He came in at $59,000. Or sorry, sorry, yeah, 59,000. I was like, that doesn't matter. Yeah, that doesn't matter. Yeah, sorry, sorry. Yeah, I didn't drop it down just a thousand dollars.

Yeah, I was like, wow, you're a powerhouse. Oh, good job. I'm all over the place. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm trying to remember all that. So you found your buyer on just marketing on Facebook then? Yeah, just market. And that buyer has bought for me three times after that.

I mean, he's an amazing bar. I mean, he is, I mean, he wants to buy deals and he'll buy them just like that. the numbers make sense. So, and the reason I say that because I will touch on too much on this, but I did a YouTube video on this because I get a lot of questions where people say, you know, should I focus on building my buyers list first? Yeah. You know, or find a deal. And I always say find a good deal. Because you can spend all day building your buyers list and it's almost a waste of time for them. You don't have any deals. But if you have a good deal, the buyer will come. I mean, if you have a solid deal, they're just going to come. So I just think it's important to talk to

people that's you know you know I think that's the first step just just start talking to people and you find a good deal you're going to find the buyer you know so right no that that's that's the best way and you'll find out that you don't need a buyer's list you need yeah to do good buyers and all of a sudden right right so good job um cool so uh like seven months in now what is something that you wish you knew when you got started that you that you know huh that's a good question I wish when I first got started, I was really, really, and you know, look, you're getting started. You're just kind of falling what's out there. So you just kind of got to, you know, take the information to get and run with it.

But I was really, really adamant about this whole, you know, 70% of ARV. And I was just like very calculatory, like the number, this, this. And I think I lost a lot of deals because I didn't really look at it as like an investor or a fix and flipper or a rental or buy and hold investor. I just, you know, I was just that calculation, you know, 70%. percent of ARV and I just honestly I know this because there's been a number of deals where if you just had gone by the ARV of like you know multiplied by 0.7 minus repairs and then subtract you. It just wouldn't have worked and I've been able to you know wholesale deals where I've made some some great income or some great you know great profits with that not using the ARV so I

wish I would have known earlier on how to look at a deal more like an investor you know still with using that ARB concept, but not being so calculatory where it's just, you know, whatever you think your ARB is, multiply by 0.7, you know, subtract, attract, there's your number, you know. What's the process for determining your price now? So what I do is I really, so it's kind of interesting and I learned this actually from, I don't know if it's everywhere

in every market, but hey, it's working where I am now, we're in the market that I'm in now. I learned this from another cash buyer, actually. I again, I would basically find the ARV by finding like four or five comms or even sometimes five to six coms and then, you know, adding them all up, you know, per square footage and, you know, getting an average and just doing that whole thing. And now, honestly, my process is if there is a property that is very similar to this property on the same street and it's sold for X, it's just the way fixing flippers look at, they will look, they will use that comp. You can utilize that comp because they justify it. Like if there's a house down the street that sold for $2.50 and it's a 3-2, you know, and it has around the same script footage as a property looking at it, you can just say,

that's the ARV because there is a, I mean, that comp is there. They look at that when they fix and flip it. There's justification. So that's cut down a lot of time. I kind of look at it a little differently rather than just, you know, trying to find all these different numbers and, you know, adding it up and finding an average, all that stuff. I'm really just looking specifically what's going on in that neighborhood, that street.

and then I look at it as if I were to buy this property and it needs about this amount of repairs, you know, what would I need to buy it at for me to be able to do repairs, but then make a profit, whether it's $30,000 or $40,000. And then I'll just subtract kind of what I want to make wholesale wise that way. Now, I know it kind of seems somewhat similar to like just doing 70%, but it's really not because it leaves basically room for creativity, imagination. I mean, the 70% rule is so calculatory. Some of these fixing flippers, I mean, they might take a deal where they're making, you know,

$25,000, $30,000 on it, and they're happy with that. They know for sure that comps are there and they're going to make that. Whereas if you did the 70%, you know, it may look like it's just too tight and it's not going to work. You need to go way lower and, you know, you'll just kind of mess up the deal, just really looking at it so calculatory. So I just look at it as like a fix and flipper or buy a whole investor. You know, what do I need to buy this app?

you know, to do $30,000 repairs. Oh, you can put on the market for this and make all that. That's a good deal. And then just work with that and just make that work. Nice. No, I like that too. Just to kind of feel your way through it. You know what I mean?

Every house is going to be a little different. Every street's going to be a little bit different. Certainly the market conditions at this very moment are really different because the retail market is so hot. So if you can fix the properties quickly and get them on the market quickly, you can get top, top dollar right now. So. Absolutely.

Yeah, you need to take on consideration all of those things and be flexible with your price. What's the biggest mistake you've made thus far? Oh, actually, biggest mistake I've made thus far. I don't know if it's a... I mean, it's definitely a learning experience. So I was actually going to... That's actually my next YouTube video is how I lost my first $10,000 in real estate. It's kind of a long story, but basically the mistake was, I'll just say with the mistake

I see it being, is not having my assignment contract, have a clause that says not assignable. So to try to make a long story short, I had a great deal where I was going to make, which again, I'm super grateful and thankful that I made what I made. So that's not the point. But it was more so how the situation happened. Anyway, there was a deal I was going to make, it was just last deal. If anyone was following me on social media, that last check that I posted,

that was $30,000. I was actually supposed to make $50,000 on that deal. I was super stoked. I was going to make $50 grand on this. and I had a buyer who was really excited about buying the property. But again, to make a long story short, he negotiated me down to like to a number. I don't remember the exact number. So I'll just say he basically negotiated me down from making $50,000 of that deal to like $40,000 on that deal.

And actually, yeah, so it was between 50 to 60, because he negotiated me down twice. So he negotiated me down through like text basically saying, you know, I can't do it at that price. you know, I really, you know, it really needs to be somewhere here. We were just going back and forth. And, you know, this guy was ready to go. So I was just willing to work with him because I already knew I was going to make, you know, at least $30, $40,000. So I just didn't want to ruin an opportunity just by being money hungry.

So I went down like $10,000 on it. And then when we were ready to move forward, I was like, hey, you know, send you your email, I'll send you the contract. Let's go to work. You know, let's do this. And then he goes, oh, okay, so let me talk to my partner to make sure, you know, this is what, you know, it's going to open. I'm like, you know, okay, you know, so that can,

about nowhere. So he ended up talking to his partner. And he came back to me and he said, hey, we're ready to move forward. We'd love to do this, but we can't do it at X price. Again, I can't remember what it was. We really need to be at here. If you can't do it, I totally understand, but we can do it at this. And I was, I was like, man, come on. Do you he had already, he already like verbally agreed to the price above and he moved me down lower. So again, I just, I was just ready to move this. I just don't want to spend a lot of time on properties right now. I'm really just trying to do cash reserves, not waste a lot of time, spending time on properties just in and out. So I just said, you know what, there was a little back

and forth in exchanges. I tried to stay where I was and then he threw in the election and, you know, all this other stuff that's going to cause. It was just crazy. But I'm like, I'm just not going to argue with this guy. So I went down and he basically got me down to $40,000. I was going to make $40,000. So I was like, you know, hey, I'm excited about that. Where can you go in this world today, especially in COVID and go make $40,000 doing something like this? So I was blessed and totally thankful. So that's not the issue. But long story. I sent him a contract, he signs it. And the closing attorney here in Greenville, South Carolina, I work with Bobotis Law, they're amazing, amazing. They work with a lot of investors here.

They're great closing attorney in office here. I speak with Martha, who's an assistant there, and I go, hey, Martha, I just wanted to follow up on the deal. Because basically about four or five days had gone by and title had already come back clear. We were good to go. So I just wanted to follow up. I always do that. And like, hey, Martha, just wanted to follow up on this property, yada yada. She goes, hey, Miles, yeah, everything does look good, although, I'm not going to say his name, ex person apparently is assigning the property to someone else. I'm like, oh, my, and she's like, and I think they're using a lender. So I'll keep you updated on how everything.

And I'm like, oh, my gosh, this guy negotiated me down $20,000. And he got your $20,000. And he was signing it on top of that to someone else. So obviously, I'm not happy. I wasn't too happy about that. And before anyone goes, well, hey, Ma'am. you know, it doesn't really matter if they're assigning it. You know, you're making your money. You know, they make their money. You know, look, the issue was not them assigning it.

I have no problem with finding the deal, spending the money because I'm spending my money, my effort in my time to find the seller and to negotiate and all these different things. I have no problem putting the property out there, someone locking it up and them assigning it and making whatever they want to make on top of that as long as it gets closed. I just didn't like that he posed as like a buyer and negotiating me dead. So he basically took away money and he's making money by doing nothing. Literally doing nothing. He just had a contract in his lap and he's assigning it by doing nothing. So, you know, that really just put a bad taste in my mouth and I called him up. And I just said, hey man, how's everything going with this deal?

And he's like, yeah, everything's great. We're moving along and, oh, that's awesome, man. Yeah, you know, Marla was telling me that you were, you're actually assigning the property. And he's like, yeah, yeah, it was something that just kind of happened last minute. You know, we were kind of looking at the numbers and, you know, we had a lot of lot on our plate right now. And we just kind of decided to go ahead and assign it. I'm like, oh my gosh. So to make a long situation, we kind of have this heart to heart and he's going back and forth. And I think he really understood where I was coming from. And I'm not a person to be

rude and be a jerk. At the end of the day, I'm super grateful and thankful. But I definitely, you know, I definitely explained to him, you know, and I'm definitely not doing any more business with him at all and definitely letting other people know to watch out for this guy. But I just think that's bad business, man. I mean, just be honest. I mean, he could have just said at the beginning, like, hey, you know, can be partner on this. You know, I have a buyer, you know, let you just been open and honest rather than negotiating down $20,000 to where I actually lose $30,000 on top of it because he assigned it when I looked at the HUD. I can't remember what the number, but it was basically $10,000 more. So he basically just made $10,000 on it,

assigning the deal. So anyway, that was kind of a, you know, sorry, it was a long story, but that was kind of, I looked at it as like, oh, man, what a mistake on my part. More so a learning lesson, I didn't know. I didn't, you know, I'm still new to this. I didn't realize that would be happening. So now in my contract, when I'm, you know, doing any assignment, there will be a clause in a term that's not assignable for the end buyer. Because if you're going to close this and you're marketing yourself as yours, you're the closer, unless you have a conversation with me and maybe we rewrite the contract because we know the numbers and we're going to talk about it, you know, I have no problem doing that, but I definitely don't want it just done behind my back.

And I'm finding out last minute from, you know, title company like, hey, they're actually assigning it. And I was negotiated down. So it was just, yeah, anyway. Got it. Okay, so on the other side of that, what's the biggest win to date? Maybe that's it. Oh, my gosh. So, well, I'm kind of in between two wins, actually. I would say the biggest win today was that $35,000 wholesale because that's the biggest so far

that I've had. And, you know, anyway, to not be boastful. I'm really, you know, I find myself really doing my business a little different than most people and how I talk with sellers. and it's really allowing me to have bigger spreads because that was my biggest, I thought, was my biggest wholesale, but even just the most recent was another 30,000. And I'm in Greenville, South Carolina. I'm not in Phoenix.

I'm not in, you know, California. I mean, we're talking about small towns, you know, smaller towns. And I really think there's some key things that can help with that. But my biggest win is I'm currently in the middle. I'll say it as a win because I'm excited to be in the middle of this process. It's a win for me because I'm looking at real estate a little bit differently. So I don't just wholesale now. I'm actually buying properties through creative finance.

I learned that through Pace Morby's mentorship program, but then also just finding creative finance online in general. And then I took this course. But it is just absolutely amazing to just look at real estate differently than just wholesaling everything, but taking down properties yourself and taking down properties that don't have a lot of equity as well. Most people are throwing away. But I'm also looking at deals just in general differently all around.

So I'm actually in the middle of a hotel deal that I honestly, and I'll keep you updated with this. It's kind of interesting how this workout will see, but as of right now, it's looking like potential I can do between $80 to $100,000 of a wholesale deal on this property. And how I found the lead was absolutely ridiculous. So, again, I'm the type of person, do your business differently than everyone else. Don't just get on the phone and say, hey, I'm a real estate investor looking to buy your house. You know, don't just, you know, SMS everything and call everything. Like, try and do different things that people maybe aren't doing.

Today, actually, after we get off this call, I'm spending about an hour and a half. calling as many restaurants and coffee shops to see where I can just put up a flyer for free in their store that just says, hey, I'm looking to buy house. I mean, who's doing that? You know, and it just sit there and it's free. You know, that's something different. But anyway, this lead I found through an app called Next Door. And this app is awesome because Next Door, if you know anything about Next Door, it's just basically like Facebook, but for neighborhoods. People just post things like, hey, there's a garage sale going on or, hey, there's a brown dog with a blue collar down the street. Does anyone knows it? Whatever, you know?

So I looked at that as like, man, you know, why not just, again, it's free. Just make a post. Just say what I'm doing. Hey, I'm looking for properties and investment properties. Who knows what will happen? So, yeah, my wife and I moved here. We got on the app. So I just said, hey, let me just throw up on there.

Hey, I'm looking for an investment property. And that's what I did. And I wish I had my, I wish I was able to go to my phone and show you the message. But basically, I put out there, I'm looking for my next fix-in-put project. Does anyone, you know, does anyone know, anyone looking to sell their house or is selling your house personally? whatever, literally within minutes, I get a response from a guy. He says that his mother-in-law basically had to go to the hospital and is no longer, I'm going to be able to live in her house. So she's going to have to live with him and her daughter. And they were, and this is word for word.

And they were looking for someone just like me. Or the guy said, my wife and I were just talking about someone like you who could buy this property. I mean, it's like a commercial or like a movie. I mean, there's no way. He literally says it out of his mouth looking for someone just like you who can buy the property as is and fast because we don't want to hire a real estate agent. We don't want to do showings and listings and all that jazz. Literally work for it is what he said. So he said, you know, give me a call, you know, talk about the deal with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyway, that's how I found his lead. They're asking for $65,000 on the property. I'm still contemplating whether I even want to negotiate down because there's so much equity. I honestly think I'm just going to lock it up

at what they're asking because they're asking for 65. And apparently as is, the property right now as it stands. It's a three-bedroom two-bath on a corner lot. You know, awesome. There's another three-bedroom two-bath on the same street that sold for $235,000 four months ago. I mean, we're talking about ARB. I mean, $65,000. That's what they're asking. So I looked at this as, oh my gosh, because as is, the property is worth about $145,000 to $150,000, which I actually got confirmed from a real estate agent friend of mine, which is another tip, build relationships, real estate agents. They really can help you just understand the market. They're doing, they're working on buying, selling with an in the market every day all the time.

They can really help, especially if you're new in an area. But 145, $150,000. So my goal right now is I'm actually looking to close on this property myself. So I'm trying not to wholesale this. I want to close on this myself. So I'm actually in the process of raising private money. I'm actually having to send a PDF to someone that I finally got to sort of agree to be interested in being able to, you fund the deal if the numbers work out. That's a whole other conversation, but raising private money, obviously is like a whole other game. And basically, I'm looking to raise about 65 to 70,000, you know, including holding costs and everything, close on the property and literally do nothing to the property if I do anything, maybe like up to $5,000 of just new paint and just kind of

pressure washing outside, cleaning it up, everything like that, clearing everything out of the house, and just putting it right back on the market, just doing a flat fee listing on the market. And I know there's someone out there who's maybe looking to live in a home and just, you know, renovated as they live there. So they're looking to pay, you know, $140, $150,000 for a three, two on a corner lot, you know, when there's houses, you know, totally renovated that are, you know, worth $2355 right now and obviously appreciating over time. So that's my goal, locking up at $65,000 or $70,000, and then put it on the MLS,

flat fee listed for about $150 to potentially $165, $170. I want to really hone in on what I really can put it there and potentially have a buyer and legitimately a whole tail a deal and make $80,000 to $100,000. That's my goal. So huge, huge, huge, crazy opportunity right now. Yeah, and I think that's probably one of the,

there's probably been no better time in a very long time to do the hotel strategy. Yes. Because there are so, the inventory is so small on the, on the level, yeah, that people are like, hey, there's a little fix for upper. We'll just grab that one and it's a nice neighborhood and now let's go for it.

I agree. Super. You might have just answered this question, but what's in the future right now that you're most excited about? Yeah, no, honestly, kind of and kind of not. I'm actually, what's in the future right now, I didn't touch on this is I'm actually really excited to really move virtually and add on someone else to the team. So for the past seven months, it's literally just been me in my quote-unquote office, a garage and bedroom with a baby and wife and all this stuff. It hasn't been as consistent as I would like to. It doesn't mean you can't get deals done. If you're very intentional about the time that you do have, I mean, you're creative, like I said about posting on next door and just doing other things that can help. But I want to be consistent. I would love to have my business, you know, working, you know, consistently throughout the week. So I'm currently right now working on bringing in, bringing on my first virtual assistant to really work on SMS and cold calling here in Greenville, South Carolina, so that I have two things.

A, more consistency. I'm going to hire them. they're going to be working, obviously, you know, 20 or 30 hours a week, just, you know, on the business. But then that will allow me to move to virtual markets and actually spend more time doing more deals all across the country. I mean, it's so crazy how sometimes we'll get so zoned in our market. And yes, if your market's big enough, it might make sense just to stay there.

But, hey, you know, I love listening to Sean Terry how he teaches and talks about me. He's in Phoenix, Arizona. He's a huge market. But he does deals all around the country. There's so many small little towns where people are not, you know, market. to that you can find deals for, you know, 8,000, 15,000, something 20, 30,000 that just aren't being marketed to because they're just a smaller town that has enough of a population and have enough fix and flippers to where it makes sense to do deals there.

And that's really my goal right now is to move virtually and to expand my team only to about two to three people right now. So, Steve. Well, congrats. It's impressive to do it that quickly and particularly amid the client. that we're in right now with so many restrictions and in barriers with the COVID thing and gosh and just the the political climate the social unrest I mean it's just it's yeah yeah you know so you've you've accomplished quite a bit without that so I just wanted to acknowledge you for that

and thanks for coming on show sharing your story thanks for being so giving um if someone wanted to get in touch with you what would be the best way for them to do that yeah so um anyone can reach me uh either on Instagram at Miles, M-Y-L-E-S-D-Bario. You could also just email me at Miles Barrio at gmail.com or follow me on YouTube. Honestly, I love connecting with people in there, really sharing a lot of information, not just on real estate, but we didn't really touch on it, the bigger profits book, but my whole channel is called Bigger Profits because I've been so inspired by that book. It's really changed my life and just understanding, you know, again,

you could have a company that's making $100 million in revenue that does not mean that they're making $100 million in profit. or any profit at all. You know, you've got to understand the difference between just making money in your business and taking profit and really making a profit. So anyway, not to go into that, I know we're running out of time, but, you know, it's called bigger profits on YouTube. Definitely connect with me on there.

And, you know, I trust your audience and I honestly feel like, hey, why not? I might get kicked to the butt later on for doing this. But, I mean, if you really want to just shoot me a text and get on the phone and chat, You can totally do that. Is that okay for me to share my number? That's up to you, sure. And here's a funny thing. I actually have two separate phone numbers, so it's okay.

So, or two separate phones, like physical phones. So anyway, you can text me at 864-501-6176. And you can get in touch with me there. And, yeah, I would love to connect with anyone. And, yeah, thank you for having me on the show. It's been a pleasure. and, you know, really love speaking with you and can't wait to connect more and hopefully maybe can do some deals together.

Holy, looking forward to it. All right, buddy. Well, it was pleasure as well, and let's stay in touch. We'll talk to you soon. Awesome. Thank you so much, Matt. You bet. Take care.

Now, if you found this episode valuable today, who else do you know? There's a good chance you do know somebody else that would too. And when their name comes to mine, share it with them and ask them to click the subscribe button when they get here. I'll take great care of them. All right. That's it for today. God loves you.

and so do I, health, peace, blessings, and success to you. I am Matt Terrio, living the day. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. You didn't know home for us, we got the gas flow. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.