Epic Real Estate Investing - Dock Worker to 14 Deals a Month with Andy McFarland | EREI 165

Episode Date: July 27, 2015

Today Matt invites another fellow masterminder to the show, Mr. Andy McFarland.  Andy went from being a “dock slave” sweating until 2 o’clock in the morning to a successful real estate investor, coach, educator, and speaker.  Andy is discussing the basics of his wholesaling business including the lead generation technique that works best for him and how he is phasing himself out of his business. Enjoy! ------- The free course is new and improved!  To access to the two fastest and easiest strategies to a paycheck in real estate, go to FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com or text “FreeCourse” to 55678. What interests you most? E ducation P roperties I ncome C oaching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Subscribe today. This is Terrio Media. Podcasting from Terrio, in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Hello and welcome. Welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing, the place where I show people how to escape the rat race using real estate. You just got to shift your focus from making piles of money to making streams of money.

Change that one thing, just one time, and you are on your way to financial freedom. And if you'd like to get started in the same way that I did with no money and didn't have a credit score to speak of, you can access a free course that I created just for you to show you how to do that. You can go to free real estate investing course.com. Go to free real estate investing course.com and there that course is waiting for you. All righty. So I've got another really great show for you today. Can you believe it? Another great show. Let's get right into it. On the phone, I've got a very special guest. Someone I met earlier this year. He's actually a business partner with our guest from last week, Mr. Justin Williams. And he's a very

very accomplished real estate investor in his own right. So please help me welcome Mr. Andy McFarland to the show. Andy, welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing. Hey, thanks for having me, Matt. I appreciate it. You bet. Glad to have you here. You know, we've met in our mastermind group and, you know, we've hung out at the bar. We've had some casual conversations, but I don't know a whole lot about your background. So why don't you share with me while you share with everybody else, you know, what you were doing before real estate and then how you got into real estate and bring me up to speed know what your business looks like today. Yeah, absolutely.

So my background background is I'm an Army brat. So my dad was a career military guy. I traveled all around the country. Born in Georgia, I lived in Kansas, New York, Virginia, Germany. So I moved every two years growing up. But I was always fascinated with money. Always fascinated with money.

But I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. That's why I like you. Yeah, right? I never wanted to be anything. People in high school are like, I'm going to be a doctor. I'm going to be a dentist. And I was just like, I just want to make money. I want to make money.

You know when you go through those exercises with people and they say, and you got to find your why? Like, and if it's money, it's not going to work. I was like, no, no, it's going to work for me because that is my why. But go ahead. Absolutely. Go ahead. I mean, I think for you too, money was just freedom. Money was just like, I want to do what I want to do and I don't want to have to, you know,

do anybody else's terms. Right. So that's what it was for me. My parents are working professionals. I mean, we've all read Rich Dad and Poor Dad. You've talked about Rich Dad as Poor Dad is Poor Dad. My parents are awesome people, always been financial responsible, but they never ever taught me about money.

and they're both the ones that are like build your resume, get to go to school, get good grades, and I was never that guy. So when I read rich that port at it clicked for me, and that's kind of been ever since, I just started doing my own thing, and real estate really clicked for me. So that's where I was. In fact, right before I got into real estate, I was a dock worker. So I called it a dock slave. I was out there loading trucks from, I was a swing shift, so I'd get on at two in the afternoon,

and we'd finish whenever the work was done. So sometimes that was 2 a.m. I'd come home just dirty, tired, you know, sweaty. And it was just crazy. But in my mind the whole time, my paradigm had been shifted because I've read those books, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and books like that. So I was like always looking for opportunity. That was me before real estate.

Good. So you're just kind of waiting for your moment. Absolutely. Very good. Yeah, the only way to make money there is if you actually own the dock. Absolutely. Right. Absolutely.

Cool. So you guys started in real estate, how long ago? It's been 12 years now. Okay. 12 years of not having to work in my mind anyway. Right. Great. So where do you live, Andy?

I live in Utah. You're in Utah. Okay. Got it. All right. So you've been doing real estate. If you've been there the whole 12 years? I've been here for 12 years.

Yes. Super. So I know you're still actively doing real estate today. What is your business? Tell me how you got what your entry point into the business was and how that's evolved to where you are. day? My entry point was I just wanted to buy anything that looked like a deal. So I bought a house bank-owned, non-conforming, illegal triplex. And I didn't know what I didn't know, and I thought this sounds like a good idea. Part of the property I probably ever done to date. But I bought it,

fixed it, rented it out, sold it on owner financing, a wraparound mortgage. And from that deal, I learned so much, and then I just kept going from there. But what my business looks like today is, primarily a wholesaler. I've always resonated with that quick nickel versus the slow dime. So right now I do about 14 wholesale deals a month

in Utah and New Mexico and we recently started doing some things in Indiana as well so in three different states. Got it. Got it. So 14 deals a month

you're in three different states. Fantastic. Did you say three or four? Three. We were in California but we were simply to stop doing that but. Okay.

You know, I have a lot of people in California that are listening so I'm going to ask, I have something else I want to ask you, but let's stop. right there. How come you stopped working in California? You know, we stopped working in California because I run my numbers pretty tight and I know

where I'm getting the best bang for my buck. And it's not that we weren't making money in California, but for the effort we were putting in, it wasn't worth my team's time and the return on money, mostly return on time we were getting. So I decided to take that same time I had with my team and move it somewhere else. Got it. So that's why. Okay, perfect.

So working in three different states. How are you finding your deals? I have been going direct to seller since before it was cool. Right. Everybody, like the last two years, it's been the cool thing, right? MLS dried up, auction properties are not going anymore, but I was always been going to direct to seller. I loved sitting, knee to knee with the seller,

and just hearing their story, establishing their pain, and just identifying with them, and then working out a win-win solution. I love that. So it's been years now that I've just been in seller's kitchen. I mean, I don't do that anymore. but I stopped that a couple years ago, but my team still does that. So I go direct to seller through mail, a lot of mail.

A lot of mail. Do pay-per-click, SEO stuff, and, you know, the age-old bandit signs, warm network from other wholesalers. I mean, just the gamut, you know, the stuff that everybody teaches in real estate. We do it, and we do it all, and we do it consistently, and it works. Got it. Perfect. Perfect. So what's working best for you today? Best for me.

might not be the best for everybody else, but for me, in my circumstances, of my team's knowledge and everything is, mail. We actually do the best from mail. We get good return on that. It's scalable so we can drop a ton of mail, get a lot of phone calls to filter through,

and go close those deals with sellers. So for us, I mean, it's expensive for a lot of people, but we do it, we do it well, and that's probably pulling 35% of our deal. Okay. Very good. Are you doing postcards, letters, combination? Yes, we do we do a combination mostly postcards because it's

cheaper touch but yeah we'll do and we mail a lot of different lists too I mean people talk about absentees which we absolutely do that we'll get an inheritance list we'll hit probates we'll hit 60 to 120 day late we'll hit owner occupants if they meet like the certain criteria we'll just mail anybody we just want to get as much touches out there to people that can that there are our clients right how many pieces of mail are you sending a month? That's a great question It depends because we alternate months. So one month, it's like an owner-occupant.

The next month it's like an absentee. Got it. How many would send? I don't know, like probably $40,000? Maybe. That's huge. Yeah, something like that. It depends, too.

I mean, where we dropped in different markets, but my marketing manager would know better than me. But, yeah, it's probably about that average. Super. So that generates a lot of phone calls. A lot of phone calls. Right? So who do you have on your team handling all that inbound calling?

Great. I've got a full-time lead manager, and that's all she does. From 9 to 5, money to Friday, she's answering the phone, calling people back, or if it's stuff that came in nights and weekends, she's returning those phone calls. I listen to voicemails to turn the phone calls. And that is a full-time job, Matt. What you said there, she is absolutely full-time blitzed on the phone. In fact, two weeks ago, we had like 700 phone calls come through, and there was a ton of phone calls, and she was, like, crying. But you know what? She's good at what she does, and she's probably. process through it also. Very good. So what does she do? She just kind of sets you up for appointments? Yep, that's what she does. She's basically, she's just a motivation tester. She gathers some information from people, but primarily if she's there to be a big filter.

Are these people hot and do we need an appointment right now, or is this somebody that we can just send a warm offer to? But we make sure we get everybody an offer, but she sets it up. If they're hot, I mean, we set it right there. We make sure we let them know we're going to handle your problem and we are going to, we're going to come out there, what time works for you and she sets an appointment for the closer. Mm-hmm. Got it.

Super. So tell me, you know all the people, how long have you been in our mastermind group? Yeah, a year and a half, two years. A year and a half? Okay, about the same as me. I'm about a year and a half myself. Very good. So based on everybody that you've met and everything that you know about what they do,

what do you think you do better than the rest of the group? Better than the rest of the group. Man, that's tough. Because I don't know how much your listeners know about that group, but that is an extremely talented group. I know, I know. I want to know what your edge is. What's your unique selling proposition?

Like, what makes you special, your business that thrive so much? I got to say this with a little bit of humility. So that said, everybody in that group is phenomenal. They are. I'm probably better at than most people is what I've had the most experience. And I've had my 10,000 hours at the table with sellers. So I'd say I'm pretty dang good. If I get in front of a seller, if there's a deal to be made, I'm going to make that deal.

They're going to go with me. Got it. So your face-to-face closing ratio is... Face-to-face closing. Is where you are. Pretty good, yeah. Got it. Got it.

So that brings the next question. How do you ever plan on phasing yourself out or do you? You know, I do. I mean, I still, I love real estate, love the day-to-day of it, but I am kind of phased out of it, actually. So my organization's got a guy that runs pretty much the whole thing, an operating officer, whatever you want to call him. But he runs the, he runs the... the lead managers, the acquisition managers, the everybody, the marketing manager. So I actually don't order the marketing.

I don't go see sellers. I don't answer the phone calls. I pretty much have nothing to do with the deals that are coming in now other than getting checks for them. And so I really, I am kind of phased out of my wholesale business. Okay. That's probably why, you know, when we get bored and nature of a hores a vacuum, and you start doing stuff and people say, why are you doing that?

Because I need something to do. that's why I started a little video blog with my brother so I don't know if we're going to talk about that but that came out of probably boredom the business was working and money was coming in and I'm like I got to do something here you know what that's we're cut from the same cloth because every time I hire somebody or delegate something

I go and fill it up with more business absolutely my wife thinks I'm nuts your wife probably does too yeah well now she kind of gets it because we work together so you get it yeah oh you work together yeah but I've actually just this year, I was like, enough is enough. No more opportunities.

I'm saying no to everything right now. But I still have, but I still have a backlog of five different projects that I have that I'm working on from last year. So I'm just saying no more, but I still got five, I still got a very full plate. But I just kind of bit the bullet and I said, okay, I'm just hiring people. I'm delegating all of this. I'm not going to do any of this work. I'm just going to be the director of the ship.

and that has presented a whole new, and you could probably get this as well because you manage a team that presents a whole new, different level of challenges because now you've got to keep your people busy. Yep. Right?

Yeah, absolutely. So now you're not busy doing the work itself, but you're busy trying to keep them busy and give them direction and give them guidance, and that's a full-time job. Man, I can't even tell you, so I just told you about my wholesale business. But I've also got a retail flipping business.

I also do some money lending. I also have some rental properties, and I do this video blog thing. All of that stuff, you're absolutely right. With every part of that, there's just people that, I'm having phone calls all day long with certain people like just of different teams. And you're right. You're managing the managers. And that becomes the job in it of itself.

Yeah, yeah. So I get it. So I'm saying no to all new opportunities. You're a great example. I'm going to start right here and right now. You've got all heard it. I haven't played golf in a year. I've only been wine tasting once in the last year

And those are like the two things I love I haven't been to the beach forever And it's been hot here in California And I haven't been home When the sun was still up And as long as I could remember And I'm just like, you know, forget this, forget this I'm saying no to everything now

And gonna finish what I've started And start filling those empty spots now With time with my son Because he's in those impressionable years right now now and I don't want to miss that. I'm going to ask, I'm going to spin and ask a question on you, because I can relate to what you said right there. You might be more of a workaholic to me, but we all started this out for that freedom.

Why is it that we do that and fill the void? Why do you think? I can speak for myself, because when I was in the music business, I was a workaholic, but that was not work to me. That was just pure joy, and it was my life, and that's just what I did. and so because there was so much recreation and fun and clubbing and drinking and partying that went along with the actual business part but it was all linked together so that was and then when the digital download came along and you know just changed the way that people consume music the

way they purchase music and it put us out of business really really fast I was bagging groceries at age 34 so I after about six months of trying to find work that's all that was available to me. I mean, I didn't have the piece of paper for a corporate job. And my skill was really, you know, you know, break dancing and how to produce beats, you know. So there wasn't a whole lot of demand for that at the time. Because at that time, it was, it's kind of like what we went through real estate in 2007, you know. Every single title officer and loan officer and real estate agent was out there looking for something to do because that business, that the industry just took a dump.

and that's kind of how music was. It was filled with a bunch of people looking for work that all had the same skill set. So I found out that I, hey, I'm qualified to bad groceries right now. I got to eat. And that is, there's fear there that if I don't get my act together and manage multiple streams of income, because in the music business I had one stream of income and when that disappeared, I was on my butt. So now I'm like, I'm kind of afraid to say no to opportunity. I'm afraid that I'm going to miss out on something.

And I think that's how I got to where I am right now, but now I can look at what I have. And I was like, I don't need to be afraid anymore. I've got, you know, I've got five or six plates that are spinning. And those are very healthy plates. I don't need to add more plates to my table, basically. So that's why I got to that place. But I'm recognizing that, okay, let's stop, analyze and look at what we've accomplished. look what we have. Let's be grateful for it. And let's go deeper with what we have rather than

continuing to go wider. That's, as you were saying that stuff, I found I was just nodding the whole time. Because what you said there, I saw myself too. You said it was the fear there of having to go back. And I think that's what drives me, honestly. And it's sad to say, but I've got this healthy fear. I think it's somewhat healthy of like, it could all go away tomorrow. I mean, I've come to a decent spot of my financial life. I'm not worried about my next paycheck, my next meal. but I still feel like what if. So I'm very driven by that, too.

That's why I say yes, opportunities, because I think, well, I got to keep patting that. You know, I want an insulation here a little bit, you know, financial insulation from, and what if this happens, right? And just safety net upon safety net. So very interesting. Very interesting answer. You know, I saw Will Smith. He was interviewed on Oprah Winfrey Show.

I don't know. Oh, yes. I saw this. Go ahead. Seven, eight years ago. But I was amazed that he admitted on Oprah's show that he looked at, he looked at him. loses sleep at night. He has money concerns every single night. Yep. And I think it's because, you know, he came from a not well-to-do background,

and he's got that fear. Like, he doesn't want to go back. I don't, I can't remember what his reason was, why he's concerned about it. But I'd imagine that people have been down before, and all of a sudden they got something, you know, there is some fear that I don't want to lose this. Absolutely. And remember what she said, she's like, she said, really? Well, really? He said, yes. He said, I ain't got Oprah money. I got Oprah money. I remember him saying that. It's so funny.

But she's like, I'm not fearful. I'm like, well, yeah, you're like a billionaire. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's... That was interesting. Very interesting. That was a great clip. Yeah, I remember that very well.

And he actually referenced Rich Dad Poor Dad in that same interview. Yeah, his son was reading it, which I thought was very interesting, too. Right. Great. Right. For sure. Well, cool. Andy, tell me, what's in your future?

This is my favorite question to ask people. What's in your future that you are really excited about? My future I'm really excited about. Oh, that's a tough question. Right now, I'm actually really into working with my older brother. I do this video blog called I Love Real Estate Stories. He's like a passionate documentary filmmaker, and we just make kind of cool videos about life of a real estate entrepreneur.

I like that a lot. I like going to work with him and connect with him. Other than that, actually, just looking forward to just trying to do what just talked about earlier, like you said you want to go to the beach more, you want to spend more time with your son, and you want to be home earlier, I'm looking forward to that to checking out a little bit more and just relaxing a little bit more and just saying it's okay to say no to opportunities. And I call the entrepreneurial guilt. You get to a place where you're financially okay, but then you feel guilty by just living that life that has a little bit of, you know,

going to the beach on a stat, you're going to beach during the week and it's being like, I should be working right now because that's what drove you to get there. So I look forward to relaxing and letting myself off the hook for that entrepreneurial guilt. Right, right. It's funny you use the word guilt because I have no problem, you know, writing a $5,000, $10,000 check for something in my business. But I feel so guilty when I spend $150 on a pair of Air Jordans. Yep. You know what I think?

I'm like, I don't, that's a lot of money for these shoes. but I don't even flinch when it's time to fix something or, you know, buy the next marketing piece or, you know, hire the next person or, you know, whatever it has to do with the business. It's like to join the next mastermind group to hire the next coach or the consultant, which I've spent an inordinate amount of money on advisors and mastermind groups that are large money, tens, $20,000 a pot. and I got no problem with that. But boy, you put $150 pair of Air Jordans. I'm like, I'm wondering if I'm deserving or if I need to use my money this way. We are cut from the same cloth.

I think the same way. I mean, the money that we spend every month like in the business, I don't even think about it. I don't care. But you're right. At home, I mean, people would be surprised to know the budget that my wife and I have. We live very frugally.

We don't go out there and spend money. And I think the same thing, if I'm going to buy something, I'm like, oh, do I really want this? But it sounds crazy to people because, you know, I do fine, you do fine, but it's a different type of money, right? Tens of thousands of dollars for Mastermind, not a big deal. That's business.

What it comes to like, do I really need to spend a couple hundred bucks on that? These ones will work, right? These will work. Interesting dynamic, it really is. Right. Well, cool. So the video blog with your brother, what's the website domain name there? It's www.

I love real estatestories.com. I love real estatestories.com. I love it. Yep. And he hated his job a year and a half ago. I mean, I love my older brother. My younger brother actually works in my whole cell company. My older brother hated his job. Hated it. And I said, look, just come over here. He's so talented to what he did. I mean, he makes music and he's good at editing and all stuff. I said, come over here. Let's just make movies, documentary-style film stuff. I'm like, my life of his real entrepreneur. Whatever it comes up from that, you know. And it's been a fun ride for the last year and a half. And it's been awesome to work with him. And it's giving him just like so much purpose and just happiness. And it's really cool. It's really cool for both of us. That's fantastic, Andy. I wish I had a brother that had some skills like that. That would be...

You don't? No, I don't. That would solve a lot of my issues. You're actually very blessed to have a brother that has those particular skills doing what we do. Yeah, yeah. For sure. I'm blessed to be able to work with him, for sure.

I love that more than anything. That's fantastic. Perfect. So anybody listening to you right now, if they wanted to get in touch with you, Andy, what would be the best way for them to do that? You know, they can email me at Andy at... I love real estate stories.com. I just love for people to check out the videos.

I love comments and feedback for people that say, hey, you know, I learned something here, or I liked what you did there. My brother, that's like the pay that both my brother and I get for doing that. We don't make any money from it. That's the pay we get people saying, this inspired me, or, you know, keep up the good work because these videos are really cool. We really dig that. Super, dude.

All righty. So the guy's name is Andy McFarland, good friend of mine. Part of my mastermind group, a brilliant real estate investor. and the website is I Love Real Estate Stories.com. Thanks again, Andy. Hey, appreciate that. Hold that house. Contrary to popular belief, a lack of funding is not the biggest barrier to starting a business. It's excuses. But don't let a lack of funding be your excuse.

We are epic fast funding, and we'd like to fund your business with up to $150,000 in revolving credit lines. If you've got 60 seconds and a solid credit score, you could have access to your funds in as little as seven days. Go to Epicfastfunding.com to fill out our 60-second application. It's fast, it's simple, up to $150,000 in as little as seven days. Go to Epicfastfunding.com. You've been listening to Epic Real Estate Investing, the world's foremost authority on separating the facts from the BS in real estate investing education. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and Share your thoughts. Thanks for listening.

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