Epic Real Estate Investing - Cooperation Over Collaboration | Brian Trippe | 996

Episode Date: April 22, 2020

This Wednesday, Matt is joined with Brian Trippe, a real estate entrepreneur from Birmingham, AL, the owner of 70+ rental units with over 500 real estate transactions under his belt, and the founder of The Real Estate Investing LIVE. Tune in and find out how Brian has adopted his wholesaling business due to the current situation, what big risks he sees in the market, right now, and why being cooperative in business is more important than never before! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terrio 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-A's dot com.

Here's Matt. Hey, Epic Investors. It is Matt Terrio from Epic Real Estate, where we show people how to invest in real estate with an emphasis on retiring early. All you got to do is is one thing. Do this one thing one time, and that's shifting your focus from making mountains of cash to making streams of cash. If you do that, you are on your way and you've got everything set.

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So thank you very much. So I've got a great guest joined us today. He is an entrepreneur from Birmingham, Alabama. Roll Tide. Roll Tide. Who has many businesses in the real estate space, including a wholesale, a brokerage, a coaching business. He's also owner of 70 plus rental units.

He's got over 500 real estate transactions, lender's belt since beginning his career, 2012. He is a versatile real estate investor who holds rentals, buys tax liens and deeds, buys and sells notes, sells homes with owners and seeing it. He even has a mobile home park. What does this guy not do? Oh, he's a host of the real estateing live podcast and teaches brand new investors how to get started in real estate. So without further ado, please help me welcome back to the show. Mr. Brian, Brian, welcome back. Matt Terrio is the man. Epic real estate 10 years. Congratulations, man. That's incredible. Yeah, we shoot. We're halfway through that 11th year.

So we will see how far we can take this. Yeah, man. One of the pioneers in the industry I really look up to you and have for a very long time, Matt. So I'm honored to be here for the second time. Appreciate it. Happy to have you here, too. Smart dude. Good dude. Always get along when we see each other. You know your stuff. You're in the trenches and you're doing it. You're not just teaching. You are doing. And those are the people I like to. 12 with so that's why you're here so you've been investing here since uh in your bio said 2012 is when you got to start so it's been all just easy peasy for you though your whole time right you know it's uh we're going to go into this different thing so what what are you turning to

where are you turning to for your advice and who's mentoring you or coaching you you know what actions you're going to take how's it changing tell me with your business today you know it's really interesting hearing you um repeat the bio back to me which your bio is a little bit little dated that you have for me because I'm down to like hardly any rentals. We literally have been selling stuff off. And not that I'm sitting here saying I'm predicting, you know, a financial crisis in 2020 or anything like that. But I've been selling everything and trying to become more kind of cash heavy,

partnering with a lot more people building. My whole thing has been relationships from the very beginning. And I played the long game with relationships. never ask people for really anything aside from hey will you come on my podcast i really never ask anyone for anything um as i kind of came up through the little kind of guru world um since about 2016 and just have been depositing money into the relationship bank and just gaining equity with people and i have you asked me what i'm how i'm transitioning and things i feel like i am, I have aligned myself with some incredible people who some, some are investors and have money,

and they want me to help them, because I've been a wholesale. I kind of got my starting wholesaling, want me to just kind of go shop for them and kind of I get an equity piece of that. I'm doing something. I'm starting that process now, getting all those pieces lined up. And really just from the podcast world, the coaching world, aligning myself with people like you, Matt, and other people, I started RIA coaches where we're helping to coach coaches and teach them how to be coaches in the space. And it is just taken off like wildfire. So yes, we still are doing RIA live. We're in five locations throughout the southeast. But man, just everything that I have done to this point, to your point, has been right. You know, a lot of the people that got in it after 08,

really after 2010 or 11, we've never really known bad times. And I'd love to kind of get your take on this. I'm sure you've talked about it recently, but it looks like some tough times are headed our way. And my question would be for anyone who might be listening is, what have you been doing while times were good? Have you been preparing for something like this? Or have you just been kind of, oh, it's always going to be this way?

I've had people in my corner in my camp say, It's not always going to be this way, Brian. It's not always going to be this way. You better stock up. A mutual friend of ours, Jason Medley told me about a year and a half ago, hey, all your C&D properties that you got, yeah, sounds cool. You got 70-something rentals, but all your C&D properties, and I want to think while we're at the top of the market or close to it, and I want to think about getting rid of some of them. So I've took that advice and took some advice from other people who I really trusted. And I feel like I am very well positioned to take advantage of what might be coming. Well, that's good.

Good, because if you didn't do that in advance, it's too late to do it now. Right? So, fantastic. You got some good people in your corner. That's good. So what does the actual business look like for you right now? Yeah, are you live, real estate investing live? We are a live events business.

We help local entrepreneurs, local real estate investors develop local coaching programs in their markets. and that is very difficult to do because we do it through the power of live events and you do live events. I know tons of people who do live events and it's just not the same. We're trying to do some Zoom stuff.

It's just not the same at all. I'm a big believer. I think real estate is two things. I think it's local, which I kind of mentioned a second ago, and it's live. People miss that second part. Real estate is live.

You can do it virtually, but I am under the heavy opinion that real estate is best done belly to belly face to face. And our business, real estate investing live, it has definitely taken a hit because we're a live events business. So I've had to pivot where we do masterminds now virtually. Not the same, but it's better than nothing. We're meeting more often, which is a good thing.

And we think, I think that we're going to be out of this sooner rather than later. And I think we're going to be back to live events sooner rather than later. but I think the real estate landscape, the economy, the economic landscape is going to be vastly different. So, R.E.I. Live, we're doing a lot of webinars. I'm, again, building relationship equity with people. I'm trying to give away as much as I can, which is kind of been my mantra. I'm trying to, we're doing these webinars where I'm just building email lists and doing things like that, just trying to position myself for what is probably to come. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's tough to do live events right now.

Right? And it does, I was on a mastermind call. It was like four-hour call on Zoom. And, yeah, wasn't quite the same. It's tough. Totally. It was a little bit, it's a little bit more focused, though, like more intentional, right? Because we got this window of opportunity to get this done and share. And, you know, it was all about business. So not a whole lot of joking around like the live of the live mastermind events can be, which are a whole lot of fun. I really miss them. And that's where that's where real relationships happen.

Yeah. Is it the live events? That's where really, I mean, I knew you and you knew me, but where we really got to know each other is when we saw each other face to face and can have those conversations. And it's that, that is the piece. People do business with people that they like. Obviously, you know, we know the no like and trust thing, but it's really the middle word, like.

Like's got the more power. If I don't like you, I don't care if your product is twice as cheap. It doesn't matter. I'm not buying your product. I don't like you. So the likability comes from really and truly spinning the quality time and quality time is best done face to face. Amen. So your real estate stuff, though, what is, are you just kind of on pause right now?

Wholesailing. I'm wholesale. Okay. So how are those conversations changed like with sellers or for you in the last three, four weeks. My wholesale business is, I'm not the acquisitions guy ever. My wholesale business is, hey, bring me your deals. I've got a buyer's list.

Let's partner. That's my wholesale business. I haven't talked to a seller. I mean, I don't want to say in a long time. I rarely talk to sellers. Let me just put it that way. If I need to step in and negotiate, I will. But hey, wholesalers, especially if you're in the Birmingham market, bring me your deals.

My buyer's list is massive. it's active of people who are buying right now today. And we're ready to go. Sweet. So how is your conversation with your wholesalers different than in the last three weeks? It's been awesome because a lot of the wholesalers are like, because a lot of the wholesalers I know that are going to do business with me haven't really been in the game that long.

I probably coached them or I probably got them into real estate because I've been kind of the main kind of thing in town here as far as, you know, in Birmingham. you want to, if you want to meet up to go to a real estate meeting, a webinar, a training, it's probably me that's doing it. So I know a lot of these people anyway. And they're having a hard time selling deals. And one of the first things I did when all this stuff was going down is I got on the phone map. I'm on the phone constantly and sending text messages and just talking to people. Again, it's such an unbelievable relationship business. It's just, hey, are you buying? Okay, you're not buying.

Okay. Finding out there's a lot of. hedge funds here in Birmingham. Which hedge funds are pulling out? Which ones are slowing down? Which ones are just full force ahead? Which ones have changed their buying criteria? That's stuff I want to know right away. And so I've got wholesalers calling me up. Hey, I can't sell this deal. Can you help me? So yeah. And so I was playing middleman and I put pieces together, put deals together and been able to do that from my, I'm in my dining room table right now. I had to get my banner and bring it home. It's like I'm a banner behind me. That's right. Okay. So, Wholesalers are having a little bit more of a difficult time finding the buyers.

But you've got a list of buyers. How is that you've made all these calls and you've reached out to them? How is your conversation with all of your buyers changed? It's vastly different every conversation I have. Some people, like one of the biggest players in town said, I'm not buying anything. And I'm like, really? And I had an hour long conversation with him. And it was an interesting conversation.

This is about a month ago. He's like, I'm not buying anything. And about, I was on the phone with him about three days. ago and he's like, man, I'm out of inventory. I'm going to have to start buying again because stuff's flying off the shelves. Things are still selling so, so fast here. So it's like, I got to get back to buy in. So that really the consensus has been in the beginning, hey, let's pump the brakes. Let's see what's going to happen. But when, and I know the data is about a month old, but all the data that keeps getting released is like, and in the real life scenario is I've got a house and it sells

immediately for full asking price and we're getting multiple bids still even in the turnkey space. Same things are kind of happening. It's very difficult to stay out of it if you're in it. When you see these results, these immediate results, I think I'm on the personal opinion that things are going to change. But right now today as we sit in the middle towards the end of April, it's really not tons of changed yet. Okay. And it will. Matt, I think you would probably agree. I think a lot of people are under that agreement that things are going to change for sure. Well, they always do, right? It's just that with so much uncertainty, it's like to what degree and how long will it last? How deep will it go? For sure. Are the big questions. But I know the wholesalers are going to, you know, the big challenge for a wholesaler going into a market that's headed the other direction is keeping us.

up with the values. So you have to be ahead of it to buy it so you can still sell it at what's a corresponding high price in the market at that time. But Matt, even more so a rehabber is that it has more exposure. Because a rehabber, like a wholesaler, I might only have this property for two or three or four weeks. A rehabber is going to have this property for two, three, five, six, eight months. Yes. But they have to be even more cautious about values changing rapidly. Yep. At I mean, Mercedes and I haven't done. like a real bona fide rehab ourselves where we were on the hook for everything in probably three or four years because that was kind of anticipating the cycle because we went through the one the

first time and everyone that was holding rehabs are the ones that really got burned, right? So we haven't done that in a while. So I'm just like, I'm going to buy and hold or I'm just going to flip it really fast and get rid of it. So moving forward, what do you see as what are you predicting to be the big risks? and say in the next six to 12 months and how are you, what are you doing to mitigate those? Risks is rehabbing in my opinion. I don't like the rehab game at all.

Similar to you, I really got out of it. And I wasn't doing a ton of it anyway, but I really got out of it a couple of years ago. I think wholesaling is going to still be very effective. I think our landscape has changed and people are more comfortable talking through Zoom, talking on the phone, selling how, like just normal mom and pop sellers, they're more comfortable selling over the phone. You're going to see a lot more virtual wholesaling, which means I'm not limited to my market here

in Birmingham. I can, not that I'm necessarily trying to wholesale anywhere, but I can. I don't, I think there are a lot of people that have been in this business for a long time that think wholesalers are going to go away and wholesalers are going to get crushed. I don't think that at all. I think wholesalers are going to, because this is different. This is not 2008. This is completely different. This is not the housing market that caused all this stuff, right?

So we're going to, wholesalers are needed. In 2008, 9, 10, there weren't a ton of wholesalers. There are now. And there are some pretty sophisticated wholesalers and wholesale businesses out there. Wholesalers are going to be needed. Buy and hold is going to be huge. Turnkey is going to, which I know you guys do a lot of, is going to be big. This is the stuff that I'm banking on. I'm putting, I'm getting my pieces

ready now and my pieces look like relationships. I'm finding the people with money. I already found them, but really having those conversations now where I'm cashing in some of that relationship equity I've been building up and say, hey, I know you're an investor. I know you don't want to do a lot of work. I'm the relationship guy. I've got great deals. Are you ready to go by when this stuff starts coming down because it already has. Prices are already coming down in our market where we are the $80,000 price, the $60,000 to $80,000 price point, which is a solid B property here in Birmingham, those houses are on sale right now. They're on sale. And we're getting close to being ready to go to start just scooping up as many of these as we can when stuff. But risk wise, Matt, to answer your

question, I think people who are flipping houses, I think people are always going to be able to flip a house. you're always going to have house flippers out there. But house flipping is going to be even more. I think creative stuff is going to be huge. I remember in 2014, 15, which we were kind of out of it by then. But 2014 and 15 is when I did a lot of subject to, a lot of lease option, some rap mortgages, a lot of creative stuff because sellers are willing. I've found in the last two or three years, the sellers are a lot less willing to do creative things like that just because stuff has been selling so fast. I think that stuff is coming back and it's going to come back big time where sellers just can't sell a property for their price and now someone that is savvy and they can understand subject

to's. They can understand how a lease option really works. They can understand how to buy a house on options and using options contracts sophisticatedly enough to where they can do that. That is going to be where I'm going to end up making the majority of my money. That's what I foresee. That's what I'm I'm banking on. Yep. No, I totally agree. I think the creative acquisitions. You're actually being interviewed in the middle of creative acquisition April here

on the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast. And yeah, this is where I built everything here at Epic was doing that. So you're right. The last few years, there's been a lot of resistance from sellers and accepting those types of offers. And I've been putting them out there. I've been trying. And, you know, we get one to pop here and there, but not like it used to be.

But it's about to be like it used to be. And what you, well, you set a point, like, this is not 2008. You're absolutely correct. It's not. But the big thing that you have to look at with regard to the economy is the job loss and the small business loss, right? Like, although it was not caused by something in the economy, it is something that will certainly impact the economy, right? You know, when we get released from our house arrest that we're all on right now. What house arrest?

You've got palm trees in the background. What are you talking about? I know, right? That's my virtual background. But once we get released from this, you know, a lot of people will go back to work, but a lot of people will not because their jobs just won't be there because their employers couldn't withstand it. So we will see.

Like, it's a lot of uncertainty. I'm not going to pretend to predict. I just know what I'm really good at is going to work better than it's worked in the last couple years. So agree. Yep, that's all I'm saying. I wish everybody the best, though. And I wish that people weren't having to die to create this opportunity.

That's a tragic thing. It's terrible. But, hey, we got no control over that. We only have control on how we respond to it, right? And a lot of people are going to be looking for relief when we come out of this. And people have got some equity in their house. And that's going to be their source of relief, right? and a traditional sale through a real estate agent is just not going to be a viable solution.

They're going to need it faster than that. So I think there's definitely some good opportunity from all around. Sweet, dude. So I don't know, maybe you've already said it, but what's in the future that's got you really excited? I'm pumped up about I've never been through bad times, bad economic times as a business owner. and I've been preparing for this for probably longer than I should have been because there have been a lot of people that have taken advantage of the past couple of years that I probably haven't done a good job of.

But I feel like I'm well positioned, especially again relationship-wise. I think if I can give some advice to some people who might be watching this or listen to this, I think relationships, that's why we started REO live, real estate investing live. I think real estate being live is such an important concept for people to understand and for you to really develop relationships. And real estate for so long, Matt, has been, at least when I first got into it, and for so long, it's been such a cutthroat industry. It's been such a, I'm going to do this and I don't care what these other people are doing. And if I have to step on this toe or step on this toe to get that deal, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get these deals.

I think real estate in particular is going to see a massive shift in that philosophy and that thinking, it already has really and truly, but you're going to continue to see a shift in trying to do it alone to really building teams and partnering, partnering even with people who might be your competitor. You see them as a competitor today, six months from now they might be on your team and you're working together. we're going to see a lot more collaboration than we ever have. And my mantra for the past three or four years has been collaboration over competition anyway. Even the local Ria that was here and kicked me out because I started my own. I've never spoken ill will about them.

And I always encourage everybody to go to everything. So I think collaboration is going to be on the rise. You're not going to see real estate as the cutthroat industry that it used to. We're going to see people working together to solve problems. and solve issues. So I think the more that you can get out of the mindset of, you know, the scarcity mindset and move over to the abundance mindset that just because I get a house does not mean there's one less house out there for you. It does not mean that. So let's, let's have an abundance mindset and let's go solve people's problems, solve people's issues,

because that ultimately is how you're going to get paid by being a problem solver, being a transaction engineer, understanding not just wholesaling, not just rehabbing or buy and hold, but truly understanding how to do a subject two deal, the ins and outs of it, everything that has to do with it. And by the way, Matt, there are people teaching subject two right now that it's disgusting to listen to it and to watch it. And people are going to get a lot of trouble. So you need to be careful who you're listening to and getting your advice from. But subject two is going to be incredible and incredible resource, a tool for you to have in your toolbox, understanding options, not just lease options, but just options and option contracts in general,

understanding how to negotiate with a seller on terms. Matt, I know you were talking about this a second ago. How many houses did I get with zero, that I negotiate zero interest? Principal only payments, zero down, zero interest. And everyone was like, you can't do that. That stuff is possible. And understanding how to talk to a seller and negotiate those kinds of terms,

it's just going to be a whole new world and a whole new ballgame. And I'm excited for that because like you said, it's like that's what I'm good at. That's what I'm the best at. So that's kind of where I see things headed. And I'm fired up about it. Preaching to the choir, brother. So if someone wanted to get in touch with you, Mr. Brian, what would be the best way for them to do that? You know, Facebook and Instagram is going to be best.

I'm just, you know, Facebook.com 4 slash Brian Tripp. Super easy. There's an E at the end of Brian trip. T-R-I-P-E. Yep. And a silent E at the end. And then Instagram is Brian J-Trip. I got someone's got my handle.

So I got to put my middle initial in there. Don't you hate that when that happens? I do. But you probably don't have that. You've got a pretty... No, but there's lots of other epic real estate's out there. Oh, are they? I didn't know.

Yeah, there's epic real estate solutions. Epic real estate ideas. You need to put them to bed, man. Huh? You need to put them to bed. Put them out of their misery. There's another podcast. The Epic Real Estate Revolution podcast just came out. I've been doing this for 11 years. Did y'all even do any research at all? Like, what were you thinking? Anyway, those aren't me, by the way. Then, yeah, cool. Well, thanks, bud. Good to see you again. Can't thank you enough, man. Thanks for stopping by.

I love what you do for the community. I know I kind of said this in the beginning, but what you have done for the real estate community, one of the OGs of podcasting for the real estate, people. And one of the first ones I listened to when I got started in 2012. And I love your show. I love what you do. That is much content as you put out. And guys, if you're not listening to this on a consistent basis, I want to encourage you to subscribe. And not only that, make sure you're watching a lot of Matt's videos on your YouTube channel. Your videos are incredible, man. I'm just, it fires me up as a content creator to watch your stuff. And you put one out a couple of weeks ago that it blew me away. So guys, go subscribe to the YouTube channel. I'm sure it's going to be the show notes.

Click and subscribe to that thing because Matt puts out some incredible videos. Well, thanks, Brian. I appreciate that, buddy. Sweet. All right. So, yeah, I'll see you soon. All right, man. All righty. So if you found this episode valuable, probably a good chance. You know somebody else who would find it valuable as well.

And when that person's name comes to mind, feel free to share it with them and ask them to click the subscribe button when they get here. And I'll take great care of them. Always do. All right. That's it for today. God loves you, and so do I. Peace, health, blessing, success to you. I'm Matt Terrio, living the dream. 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, boy, we got the cash flow. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.