Epic Real Estate Investing - Parker Stiles, Flipping Houses and Potential Trouble for Wholesalers | Episode 207

Episode Date: May 30, 2016

Today Matt is interviewing Epic Pro Academy member, Parker Stiles, about how his life has become an “Instagram dream” – working on the beach, doing what he loves, and making good money.  The two discuss why there is never a perfect time to start investing, the importance of good contractors, how to get price reductions from sellers, why you shouldn’t have a plan B, and much more!  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

You know how some people want to invest in real estate but they don't know how? Oh, yeah. And you know how some people want to invest in real estate but they don't have the time? Oh, yeah. And you know how some people want to invest in real estate and they simply don't want to do all that work? Oh, yeah. Do you know someone like this? Mm-hmm.

Perhaps that someone is you? Uh, yeah. If so, subscribe to the Turnkey Real Estate Investing Podcast, the show for Business. people who want to invest in real estate, but don't have the time or the desire to take on the heavy lifting. Turnkey real estate investing. Subscribe today. It's free. Yeah. Turnkey, real estate investing.

This is Terrio Media. Podcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for epic real estate investing with Matt Terrio. Hello. And 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. It's not the most exciting path. It's rather dull and boring, but it is the fastest. And once you get there, life then becomes exciting.

And speaking of exciting, if you didn't know, we'd been off the air a little bit with our turnkey real estate investing podcast. for those busy professionals that want to get in on that action but just don't have the time or the desire to do all that heavy lifting. It is back in regular release schedule, regular rotation on Tuesday. So if you haven't checked that out, go ahead and go to Turnkey Real Estate Investing Search right here where you found this podcast. You'll find that one as well. So that's released every Tuesday. All righty. So from last week, our subject was options.

we were continuing our creative real estate investing series. And got a great question came in from Dan Callis. He had a question about options. And he's really kind of inquiring about the rights with when you have a property under contract via an option agreement. So, you know, how much can you do with regard to your rights? Can you still market the property? Is there a difference in your rights between, you know, when you're under contract? with a seller on the purchase agreement and when you're under contract with a seller on an option

agreement. So a really good question. And the nature of this conversation is actually becoming more and more of a hot topic due to all of the wholesalers. God bless y'all, bragging and boasting and posting their big checks on social media, you're catching people's attention. You know, as with any business, anytime there's good money being made somewhere, you're going to get the attention of others. They're going to get the attention of others that want a piece of what you got. And that could be, it could be competitors who feel that they can do it what you do and they want to go get a piece of that money.

Or it could be some that are kind of maybe jealous or envious or, you know, feel like whatever you're doing is unfair. And that comes in the form of regulators. And so the question here, it's really about your rights as the buyer or your potential or potential buyer of real estate. because when you enter a purchase agreement, you are the buyer. You have come to a meeting of the minds with a seller that you are going to purchase their property under the terms of that agreement. Now, with the option contract, you are coming to an agreement with the meeting of the minds that you might purchase that property within a given period of time at those per the terms that are in the option agreement.

So one is, yes, I'm going to buy that as my intent. The other one is my intent is to tell you within six months whether I'm going to buy or not. So one, you're obligated to purchase, the other you are not obligated. So with those contracts comes a certain level of rights. And you've heard this probably tossed around called equitable rights. And so there's legal rights and there's equitable rights. And the legal rights belong to the person that owns the property and they really have the right essentially to do whatever they want with the property. equitable rights they have they per the contract they get the right to do certain things as well and

typically those rights are outlined and detailed inside of the agreements themselves okay so um the the you know the the question here it's i guess it's most commonly accepted that equitable rights translates to the right to sell a property that's one of your rights or your interest and you get to sell your interest in a property, even if you're not on legal title. Technically, that is true. It's really difficult to get a solid answer on the subject, though, as the more, I guess the more conservative legal voice sounds off as absolutely not. And the more liberal legal voice sounds off as, yeah, sure, go ahead. It's not technically a law that you can or can't. But if you should find yourself in court, there's certainly a solid argument for both.

sides. Yet the profa- you don't want to find yourself in court to have this argument because typically the prevailing party, it's going to be the go to the person that's on title, who is on legal title. You can certainly argue it. It's really kind of, it's not clearly written. It's going to go state by state. It's going to vary state by state on what the actual laws are. And there are definitely some states that are more tough on the issue than others. For example, Ohio is one of frontrunners in discouraging the practice of wholesaling as a business. However, even in Ohio, assigning a contract or performing a double escrow or a concurrent close is not illegal. It's not illegal. And a real estate license is not required to perform any of those actions. You do not need

a real estate license to assign a contract to perform a double escrow or perform a concurrent close in the practice of wholesaling a property. Now here's where the deeper argument is coming into play when whether the practice is illegal or not. And this is all subject to change because this is, like I said, it's a growing hot topic and the powers that be and the points of view are bouncing back and forth and this lawyer is saying this and this lawyer is saying this and both sound kind of valid. So, but this is where it stands at the moment.

A binding contract must represent, as I mentioned earlier, a meeting of the mines. That's what, and that's, that's, you know, that's whether it's real estate or any other type of contract. It must represent a meeting of the mines. And so in the context of real estate, you have a seller willing to sell the property per the terms of the agreement. And you have a buyer willing to buy the property per the terms of the agreement. Now, if both parties are clear on that, then you have a legal binding contract. you have a meeting of the minds. But if the buyer enters the agreement with the intent to not buy and has the intent to sell to someone else instead,

then you technically no longer have a binding contract. And additionally, the argument for practicing real estate and facilitating real estate transactions on the behalf of others without a license, now that issue is raised. and technically it's appropriate. So, you know, whether you are in contract with a seller via a purchase agreement or an option agreement, you do have the equitable interest required, the equitable rights required to assign or double escrow the property to another. So you can, you have enough rights to assign that property or that contract, whether it's option or purchase agreement.

You also have the rights to perform a double escrow to find the buyer and go ahead and enter an A to B contract with the, maintain that A to B contract. with the seller and an inter-BDC contract with a buyer. Now, as long as the terms within the agreement, don't forbid it. That's why we always put the buyer and or a signee. So it kind of intimates that you might or may not assign the property. Okay. So you absolutely can do that.

It's when you make a business model out of it. That's where it gets sticky. You know, essentially, it's not the practice of wholesaling that's illegal. it's your initial intent that can make it illegal. Got it? So it's not wholesaling property. That's not illegal. Not in any of the states.

Not even Ohio. It's your initial intent, though, when you entered the contract with a seller that can make that practice illegal. So, you know, having said that, though, arguing and proving intent in the court of law is a very difficult thing to do. Whether that's real estate related or not.

I mean, it comes up. in burglary and robbery and any other misdemeanor a felony. Like a lot of times one of the sides are going to argue the intent of the person in exchange sometimes for leniency or in exchange for being totally absolved of the crime. Very difficult to do. So, you know, using options on the surface seems like a little safer way to perform real estate or wholesale real estate as you have no real obligation to purchase. But when you use options over and over as your business model,

you're kind of back to facilitating transactions and likely needing a license. So I'm going to talk a lot more about this on a coming episode because it's brought up some other issues. And it's going to be coming up more and more and more, the more and more money that wholesalers make. And we've touched on this a little bit in the past where, you know, it's not illegal for the double escrow. It's not illegal for the current clothes. It's not illegal to assign contracts. But fewer and fewer companies, it's against their policy to do these double escrow's. it's against their policy to do concurrent closings.

And although most places still allow you to sign contracts with no real problem, getting a little bit more pushback. Okay, so I just see that going forward, it becoming more and more difficult, the more money that wholesalers make and the more that they brag and boast and post about it. So next week or maybe the week after, I'm trying to do it next week, but a week after, I'm going to have some legal solutions for you

in case you're kind of sweating a little bit and you're concerned about your future as a fire-breathing wholesaler and wholesaling as a business. Well, I'll have some remedies for that for you, okay? So for now, though, just make sure everybody in your transactions gets what they were promised. Just make sure that they get what they were promised and you should have nothing to worry about. And that goes for wholesaling as much as it does for lease options and fix and flipping and buying and holding or any contract or any transaction. Just make sure both people get what they were promised and you're going to be just fine, all right? also uh also here's another tip let's resist rubbing the amount of money that you're making in realtors

faces okay let's let's let's kind of um let's take the high ground on that and just kind of keep what we're making just keep that to yourself no reason to to ruffle the feathers of those that can make it difficult for you if they want to even if you're right even if you're right it doesn't matter i mean you can be right or you can be rich i think that's how it goes or it's you can be right or you can be happy something like that so so keep that in mind Oops, there goes my phone. She works hard for the money. That's Mercedes ringtone.

And so now for today's episode on the phone I have, on the other line, not my cell phone, I have an Epic Pro Academy member who is absolutely crushing it right now. But it didn't start out that way. And today he's going to share with you his story and his challenges and struggles and how he persevered through those tough times to rise to a place where he's comfortably and happily flipping houses full time, how he plans on. quadrupling his results from last year and we're going to hear from him right after this there are two steps to wealth first stop doing what poor people do second start

doing what wealthy people do the wealthiest people do what they do best and delegate the rest if only you have the time and resources to do it now you do we're VAs for real estate.com and we have some free information for you get the five-step shortcut to hiring a rock star virtual assistant that will make you millions for real estate.com. Stop doing what poor people do and do what wealthy people do. VAs for real estate.com. VAs for real estate.com.

Hey, I read a recent comment over at iTunes. It was a very complimentary comment. Five-star review. Great comment. I loved it. Thank you for that. But they had had been mentioned it right at the end of their compliments. If they were to change one thing about this show, it would be the they'd want to get rid of

the overproduced commercials here. and they had said they didn't mind me promoting stuff. That wasn't the issue. As they understand that, you know, I've got to make a living in the podcast. It doesn't produce itself. We need electricity and hosting from somewhere, right? But I could ditch the hypey commercials. And I understand that.

And I totally get where that's coming from. And I just wanted to address that real quickly. I don't do that very often addressing the comments and reviews on the show. But I want to talk about this as, you know, you're probably not the only one that's thinking that. So the commercials. This is why the commercials. See, it actually feeds my creative side to produce those. You all know my background as a music producer.

As in the music industry, it's been, I don't know, 15, 16 years now. Over 10, over a decade since I've been in the music business. And that part of me still needs to be fed. I mean, I just don't get inside the studio too much or at all anymore to produce audio. And, you know, just like I used to when I was in the music business. So my commercials, they're kind of my outlet for that creative gene. And so I try to make them entertaining. I try to make them sound really good.

I try to make them even educational. And for your sake, I try to make them really short. So there you go. That's why they're there. They're a little bit for me, a little bit for you. But maybe even more for me just because that's a part of my internal passions, my internal workings, just my wiring, that I need an outlet for that. So that's how it's coming out.

But I'll keep that in mind in the future. So thanks for the feedback. All right. So on the phone, I'm joined by Epic Pro Academy member, Mr. Parker Stiles. Parker, welcome to Epic. real estate investing. What's going on, Matt? Thanks for having me.

You bet. It's long overdue, and I don't know how it's taken so long to get you on the show. You've been a client of mine for quite a while, and I know you're doing some real estate before we met. So let's just go ahead and start at the beginning and, you know, how you got interested into real estate and bring me up to current speed to where you are today. Sure. So you're right.

I was in real estate for a little bit before when we met. I was doing industrial real estate as a agent. So right out of college, I took a job as an industrial real estate agent selling warehouses. So a little bit different than your traditional real estate job. But that was not really something I was going for. I kind of liked the difference about that selling 100, 200,000 square foot warehouses. It kind of appealed to me a little bit more than standard house. So I started doing that.

And, you know, I'd say two, three months into it. But somehow I stumbled across your podcast. I really wish I could remember how. But that was around, I don't know, August or so of 2014. And it just started listening to, I think it was around the 40th podcast, something like that, listened to a couple. Really liked what I was hearing. I'm sure you know in real estate with podcasts and, you know, all kind of tutorials and things like that.

It's so easy just to get fluff. Or they'll tell you something and they'll give you just enough information. and then they'll say, oh, well, here's my $10,000 course or give you another step to go, another hoop to jump through. And, you know, I understand people have to make money, but it was just kind of frustrating to me. And when I heard your podcast, it blew me away on how much legitimate content you were giving away for free on every show. And so I said, you know what, this is something that I'd like to get into. I knew that with any kind of commissioned business, it was going to take me at least two and a half, three years to, build a steady six-figure income off of my agent job.

And I guess I'm just a little impatient, but I didn't want to wait on that. So I wanted to come up with something to bring me some short-term income until I could get to that long-term income from all those referrals. And when I stumbled across your podcast, I was like, this is the perfect thing. This is right up my alley. I'd love to do this. You know, I can be my own boss and make my own hours, and that always appealed to me. So I went back to podcast number one.

and just listened to every podcast, I think, over the next, I think it took me about five and a half months, five, six months or so. And I listened to all, I think at the time, I was like 175 podcasts or something like that. I just listened to it religiously and learned so, so, so much. But, you know, around December of 2014, I actually ended up getting let go from my job as an industrial real estate agent. I don't know if it was, you know, my passion for this was trying, was maybe bleeding through as much as I was trying to hold it back. But I ended up getting let go. And, you know, I told myself if I ever got fired or maybe if I ever quit, I was going to take this full time and I was going to buy your course on the Epic Pro Academy. At the time, I just done the free course, which was still awesome.

And, you know, definitely gave me a great head start. But I said I was going to buy that course. So the day I got fired, I drove home, and I got on the phone or got on the computer and bought the Epic Pro Academy, started watching videos. And I think right after I got that, made that purchase, there was another option to get one-on-one coaching. And so I just said, you know what, why not? Let's just do that too. I felt, I know a lot of people feel like they need a little bit of backup. They need kind of a kick in the butt every now and then.

Or when they have questions, if they don't know who to come to, that can be kind of front. frightening. Maybe if they have a deal, they just got under contract and they don't know what to do next and don't have a bunch of contacts built up yet to ask people that can kind of keep people from even making the first step. So I did the one-on-one coaching and, you know, really never looked back, started full-time. January 2015 had a very interesting conversation with my parents telling him that I wasn't going to go get another job. That was a good time. And yeah, just haven't looked back. And it's been just. been awesome ever since. I think it was the best thing that ever could have happened to me. Awesome. Awesome. So how old are you right now, Parker? I just turned 25. Well, about five months ago, turned 25 in December. Got it, got it. Okay, cool. So back in January 2015, you made this, this commitment. You're going to do this full time. You had that interesting conversation with your parents, which a lot of people have to, when they decide to make a move like that, there's somebody in their life they

have to have that conversation with. Based on that conversation, I mean, you said it's an interesting conversation, so I imagine there was some static or some tension involved. But, you know, what was the benefit of doing that and how did that play out? Well, we're on vacation on a snow skiing trip, and I remember everything about it. We were just sitting at dinner, and I was waiting for the right time. And it's kind of like with getting started in real estate, there really isn't a right time. You just got to do it and ordered another drink and just let it roll. And, you know,

I think my mom was the most concerned. My dad, he's been an entrepreneur most of his life. So he could see it. But, you know, as parents, they're going to be concerned for you regardless when you're taking that step and not going out and get another job. You know, they just don't, they don't know what's going to happen as much as you do. And in my head, I had it all figured out. I was laying out the details and you know i could have had a spreadsheet written out for him right there but um you know they took it okay um my sister was definitely cracking some jokes so that lightened the mood a little bit um but it was beneficial because i just had to tell them how i felt and i you know having that job as a commercial real estate agent was uh it was okay and i enjoyed it but shoot looking back i mean

as much as i love what i do now i mean in comparison i hated that job. Right. I mean, being able to be at the beach right now, just working from my computer. And, I mean, I always thought that was some sort of dream, some sort of Instagram dream that, you know, people made up that wasn't true. But no, it is. You just got to put in the grind and make it happen and stay consistent long enough for it to take effect. Right. Right. So looking back, well, let me ask you now, how do your, a year and a half or so later, how do your parents feel about what you're doing now? They're ecstatic.

They're just super happy that I'm doing what I love to do. And I think they know how rare it is for somebody to be as happy as I am doing what they're doing for a living. It's just super rare to find that. And I knew that that was a must because if I don't really like what I'm doing, I'm never going to be able to put enough emotion and effort into it to really become successful at it. So the fact that they see that, you know, after I, you know, the first couple deals were definitely kind of sketchy with them. And they were really unsure, especially when I was coming to them asking for, you know, some private money loans for this, that, the other.

but, you know, after you get a couple deals done and you show them that you mean business and you're not playing around, you know, heads turn quickly. Yeah, so they're happy with what you're doing because, you know, you produced a decent amount of success to this point and your momentum is only gaining, is only improving. So let's talk about those first couple deals. That's kind of what everyone's always looking at. looking at and the reason i had that you you share that conversation about your parents because someone might have that have that same situation where they have to have that conversation with their parents or their spouse or their family in a certain respect because they want to make a big change in their life and and you know when you have that conversation when people ask me about

that it's always you know be straight be straight with the people that are depending on you and you know tell them how important it is to you but the key thing after that conversation happens, it's up to you now. You have to follow through. You have to back up that conversation with real action. And that's what I really, I'm proud of you for or I respect about you is that, you know, you've been at it. And those first couple deals weren't the greatest experiences.

And but you kept stuck with it. And now you're crushing it. So let's talk about those first deals. How long did it take to get that first deal from the time that you had that conversation made that commitment to get started doing this full time? sure let's see we started marketing um i say we went when me and you were doing our coaching probably january 2015 is when i really started being serious about it um the full-time aspect and it took me until april um mid- april is when i found my first rehab and the wholesaleing thing

really uh you know it appetized me but i was more focused on fix and flipping uh so that was that was My cup of tea, what I was looking for is to do rehabs and then essentially wholesale out the ones that I came across that I didn't want to rehab. I think wholesaling is a great strategy, but it has its role in every deal. It's not cookie cutter, like you say. But it took me until April to find that first deal. And it actually wasn't even from my mailings. So people out there that are struggling with not seeing results from their mailings, I mean, stuff takes time, especially right now in this market. You know, it's a little bit harder to find a deal through direct mail and people are getting creative with other strategies.

But it took me four months to find that first one and I found it through a wholesaler. And I ended up talking that wholesaler down $36,000 to make the deal work for me. There were a lot of deals before that that I thought were deals that were not deals. And that's where a lot of people go wrong on is they get emotional over that first deal. And they, you know, I totally feel for that. and I really wanted to make something happen. I just wanted to prove that I could do it. And so I was tweaking my minimum deal standards a little bit more, a little bit more,

until, you know, I was putting myself in a dangerous position financially to do that. And you just can't get emotional over a deal. So I talked them down. I said, listen, I can't make this work. These comps that you're sending me, they're not comparable. Check out these. These are actually comparable to what you're talking about. And as long as I backed up why I was talking him down as much as I was, he was okay to do that.

And luckily, he had enough spread on the deal to make it happen. So I bought that in April, and that was my first renovation that was started. Fantastic. Fantastic. Okay, so you found that first deal through a wholesaler. How did you find that wholesaler? How did you meet them? Really just networking, real estate investor meetings, everything that you say, honestly. Just get out there, show your face, tell people.

what you do and you're going to have people come to you. Now every, every sign, every bandit sign that I see, every everything, every ad on Facebook, every person that I come across that wholesale deals, especially now that there's so many wholesalers out there, I try and be on every person's list that I can. And yeah, you got a whole, you got to shift through a lot of deals before you find one, at least in my market. I've got to maybe look at 30 wholesale deals. before I find one that fits my criteria. But hey, it's a numbers game. That's what this business is all about.

Indeed. Couldn't have said that any better myself. So when you found that first deal is a fix-and-flip deal, you were able to negotiate significantly lower price than what it was initially offered to at. So how did that deal play out? What was the end result? So I actually found a Facebook post.

I'm sure everybody knows on Facebook if you have an account for a while. You see, you know, look back a year from today, and it goes back to like five years on this day. And the other last, or this past April, I came across the day that I bought that property. And I was reading the post and it said something like so excited for buying my first rehab property. I've been waiting for this day for so long now. I've got eight weeks to get this property renovated and back on the market to find a new end buyer. and I just could not stop laughing after I read that knowing it took me eight months to get that property sold. It was just so true.

I mean, there's so many mistakes that you'll run into on your own. I'm not saying everyone will, but there's a good chance that you're going to run into a lot of mistakes on your first deal. And that's okay. What I was saying earlier, though, is you just want to make sure that you're not sacrificing your minimum deal standard. Like for me, to throw numbers out there, I don't start. are to rehab where I'm going to make less than 25K because I know how quickly 25K can disappear just like that. So, you know, eight weeks turned into eight months. Luckily for me, the holding cost wasn't a huge deal. I had a low interest, private loan on that. And with appreciation

in the area that we were in, the market was so hot that it actually helped our price taking so long. But, you know, really, really, really learned a lot. of crucial lessons on that deal as far as you know how it is working on a project in a big city with inspections and all that comes with that compared to maybe in a more rural area where everything's a lot more relaxed so yeah that was definitely a learning experience but came out on top still and you know if you can if you can come out with an education and and make money after you you get that education in this business, that's pretty hard to find. Right?

Cool. So how much did you make on that first deal? I came out on that deal at about, what was that? I think it was about $30K. Was it? Fantastic. Cool. So, but that's a long time.

So it's not actually that lot of money if it took you four months to find the deal, eight months to get it sold. So looking back, you say it was a big learning experience for you. what are one, two, maybe three things that, you know, you learned out of that that you'll never do again or you make sure that you will do again in your upcoming deals? It showed me how important finding a good contractor is. And I knew that that was important from the get-go. What I didn't know was what was a good contractor. I thought I knew what a good contractor was, but you just don't know what a good contractor consists of until you've had a couple bad ones.

and I say that as I put as much emphasis on that as I can. I mean, I really, really thought I knew and I didn't. It's just as clear as that, but you have to do a couple bad projects before you find a good one. Maybe you get lucky on the first one, but I didn't. So, you know, the first rehab that I did, I had, you know, a contractor that the work was, I was more attracted to the lower price. I made the mistake of not getting multiple bids. because this person was a referral. I always say go on referral.

Always get a referral for a contractor from a trusted source. And this even was that. You know, just sometimes still things slip through the cracks. So the work was subpar on it. He had a very small crew, so it took a long time. There were some sketchy things with money that happened along the way. let's see what else the I don't know there was just a lot with that first contractor the main thing was his work ethic and then the second the second deal or the second rehab that I found

about a month and a half after I bought that first rehab I used a different contractor even though I'd only been with them for a month and a half I said there's no way I'm putting this contractor on a second deal so I met the second contractor at a real estate investors association meeting. And he was actually an investor himself. So I said, perfect. This will be great. He'll add some skin in the game. It'll be in his best interest to have property come out, come out well and come out quickly. And even though that was the case, he still was just way too slow. And I think the main thing I've learned is in this business, you can't have a slow contract. You really got to pump these things out. It's the only way to have a successful house flipping

business. I won't say real estate investing. I think investing is more so holding properties, but if you're going to have a house flipping business, you really have to have a crew that can take on an entire project and pump them out quickly so you can move on to the next deal and most importantly have more than one project running at the same time. Unless you're doing this as a hobby, which is completely fine. A lot of people do that. But if you're going for the full-time gig, you know, you got to do more than two to three flips a year to really make this thing happen. Right, right. Cool. So a bunch of stuff that you just said. As far as finding a good contractor, referrals first, but it's not a surefire strategy, but it's probably the best place to start. I would say if you're going to go for a referral, find that person and then go visit personally their past projects, ask for a list of the last few deals that they've done, and then make sure that they had worked with investors.

in the past, working with an owner-occupant and working with an investors is a completely different mindset for the contractor. So I would pick one that has worked with investors. I would go visit their last, at least two projects that they've done recently in the last six months and put your own eyes on it. Pictures and editing is too good today to go off that, and that was one of my main mistakes. So the pictures look great, but you know, you miss a lot of little stuff. Right.

And another thing would be talk to the investor that that contractor worked with. You know, ask what their time, what the ratio for, you know, when you call that contractor, how long is it until you get a call back? Or when you email them, how long do you wait to get an email back? You want somebody that's really attentive and is going to give you details and keep you up to date with what's going on. Super. Okay, so check pass work, check references. The other one thing you said is get multiple bids and the cheapest one doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be the best one. Exactly. And usually I wouldn't go with the most expensive one either.

I mean, I think a lot of people have said this just go somewhere in the middle unless you really get a strong vibe from someone that put them in a higher ranking regardless of what their rate is. I usually go with the guy that's somewhere in the middle, not the cheapest, not the most expensive. Right. Super. And another thing you mentioned, which I used to mention this a lot. I haven't talked about it a lot recently. But is the speed of money. I mean, wholesaling, that's a fast game.

It's a volume game. And fixing and flipping isn't too much different in regards to the speed of the money. I mean, the fast nickel over the slow dime, you want to take that fast nickel every single time. and you know fortunately you know the longer it took you to get out of that deal the market was working in your favor properties were appreciating you probably might have made a little bit more money because of that than you would have otherwise but that's not always the case you definitely got got lucky there and so the speed of money i think i think in the speed of that you can get those deals done and then having multiple deals working at the same time all very much key to a successful fix

and flip business right and you never want to count on appreciation that's a that's not a smart thing to do. Right. But as far as, um, um, lost my train at all. Okay,

the, the slow nickel, yes. The slow nickel, a lot of times. The fast nickel, fast nickel, slow dime. Fast nickel,

slow, you take, you want to take the fast nickel over the slow dime. Sometimes the, uh, the slow dime turns into the slow nickel. Right. Right.

Right. So with the rehab. So it's, uh, with the rehabs, you, most people just underestimate their rehab costs. I think that's the biggest thing. They underestimate their rehab costs because they want to see that profit number be as big as it can. And I've got this little calculator that I made on Excel that has all of my business expenses on it.

And all I have to do is plug in the after repair value, the repairs for the property and the purchase price. And it literally just spits out a after it spent take home value for me. So that's a really valuable thing that I created. But even me, I love to play with that rehab number, and it tends to go lower sometimes when I'm just kind of messing around because you like to see that profit number be as high as it can. But you just have to be realistic. You know, your rehab is going to be more than what you think it's going to be most of the time. And for a lot of people, they're starting, the ARV can be a big thing where you lose money. You'll think your ARV will be around 250.

And, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't take but one mistake for that 250 number to actually be $225, and there goes $25,000 in profit. And what happens if your profit that you were counting on was $25,000? You just work for free for eight months. Right. Right. Exactly. Definitely a man that's gotten an education out in the real world as well.

So, so you've had those two. two deals, you had the one deal, the long ground, you still there? Yeah, I'm still here. There's a plane going by, so I muted it. Okay, cool. No, thanks. Okay, so you had those two deals going. So what else were you doing in the background while you were working those two deals?

Were you kind of waiting for those deals or were you continuing to generate other leads? How well was going on in your world in that first year? No, I mean, like I said before, I wanted to have as much going on as possible just to really prove to my family and my friends and all the people that knew that I'd kind of dropped everything to do this that I knew what I was doing and could actually make it happen. So I was still marketing and this goes back to the first direct mail marketing that I was doing. Even back in 2014, when I still had my job, I was writing my own yellow letters, handwriting them, you know, trifolding them, took everything from the Epic Pro Academy, you know, word for word, and, you know,

stamped in myself. I was doing this at my job, probably not the smartest thing to do, but on breaks and sometimes even while I was working, just trying to send out as much marketing as I could, didn't know anything about companies that would do it themselves or, you know, any of those other alternatives. But I found a deal eight months later. So I dropped a letter in this guy's mailbox. And that was before I even knew that was illegal to drop mail in people's mailbox. I went on Zillow and I would just look on Zillow for distressed looking houses. This is before I bought the first list even and found some distressed looking houses and after work I would just drive on a little route that I had made on my sheet of paper to visit this house, this house and this

house and I hand wrote those yellow letters and drop in the mailbox. And eight months later happened to fall around July of 2015. So right after I had bought my second rehab, so I had two going and I came across this one and it was an older man probably in his 80s and he said you know I found your I found your letter in my mailbox I haven't been there for eight months and did you hear me okay it's kind of loud out here yeah no I got you you're okay okay and he said I saw the letter in the mailbox and I haven't been there in eight months it's been vacant and I'm in a bad situation I said okay well you know what can I help you with. And he said, the city has put a tear down lien on my property. And I grew up here. My parents

raised me here. I've got a lot of memories here. So immediately I knew he had a lot of emotional ties to the property. And he said, if you can help me keep this building and whatever you need to do to it to keep it from getting torn down, he said, I'll practically give it to you. And I thought, I heard those words and I about dropped the phone. I've been waiting for, for, for, for You know, all your podcast, not all your podcasts, but a lot of the podcasts I was listening to and a lot of the videos and, you know, all the gurus out there, they were, you know, telling me what these motivated sellers were going to sound like. And they were saying, you know, giving me the wording that they were using. And I never heard that. All I heard was from the angry grumpy sellers cussing me out telling me that they don't want to sell their property for 50 cents from a dollar. And so when I finally heard those words, I was like, wow, it really is true.

those people are out there. So I said, sir, you know, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I'm going to figure it out. Let me get on some stuff. Let me make some phone calls and I'll get back with you. And I don't want to drag that out all day. But I talked to the city and, you know, it took me, I talked to one person at the city and they said, we don't know what you're talking about.

Try this person. So, okay, I called this person and I called that person. It goes exactly back what you say all the time. Do the first step and then you'll see the next step. go as far as you can go, and then you'll see further. And however you want to say it, it all means the same thing. Just start. So I made the call, and I finally found who I needed to talk to.

And once I talked to that person, they told me what I needed to do. They said I needed to close in 48 hours. I'm sorry, not 40, it was 72 hours. And I'd only closed on two properties, and I didn't even have my own closing attorney. I'd used the wholesaler's closing attorney. So didn't even know who to call, but started calling some closing attorney. and finally found one that would do a cash deal that would close that quickly. We rushed title and we got the thing closed in less than 72 hours.

And I sent the copy of the HUD to the city. And so we put a hold on the tear down. And I ended up buying that property. It was a two-bedroom, one back, about 900 square feet in downtown Kennesall, Georgia. I bought that property for $5,600. And I didn't even think you could buy. That's less than... majority of cars out there.

And I just bought a house for that much. It just blew my mind. So the intent was to renovate it. The ARV was around 85,000. It needed a good bit of work. You know, it's been vacant for eight months. And I asked the guy why he had his house. There wasn't even a back door on it.

The front door was unlocked. There was no back door. I asked him why he left it open. He said, so if cats could go in and out. That was kind of funny to me. But, you know, mold from the floor to the ceiling, all that good stuff. So that was right about the time that you had your epic mastermind meeting for the Epic Pro

Academy members in, was it LA? Yep, in July. Yeah. So I would be right just the exact time, same time. Yeah, yeah. So I got that property. And then I flew out to L.A. and met just an insane amount of knowledgeable people out there that were making.

me feel like, you know, a tiny fish in the ocean, which exactly, which is exactly where you need to be. You know, I'm kind of in a position now where I feel like I'm giving a lot of advice instead of taking advice and I'm trying to find some people to surround myself with that make me feel like that small fish again because that's really where you're going to grow. But I went to that meeting and came back. I got some advice from Corey Kendig, who I know got coaching from you. he's killing it out there as well. I think he's my age and then some other guys. And they told me to wholesale it.

And I just really wasn't thinking that was going to work. I thought that I had it for as low as it was going to go, given the amount of rehab that it needed. But they kept driving into my head. Don't negotiate for a buyer that you don't know. You don't know what somebody's going to pay for that property. You don't know what their exit strategy is for that property. Just put it out there, market it, see what happens.

and see what kind of attraction you get on it. And so I did. I got home and actually, I don't even think I waited until I got home. I was on the last day of your thing when we were all out there by the pool. I was on my laptop making Craigslist ads for that property, marketing it. And by the time I got home, it took me about seven days and I had it sold,

made about $13,000 on that one, just as is. And that was the first paycheck as well that I got. And I had two deals going, but I hadn't seen a paycheck yet in real estate. So when I got that first check, I mean, it was game time. There was no turning back. And that was the first real assurance to myself, as well as the close family that was kind of watching what I was doing. So that was really exciting. Fantastic, though.

Fantastic. So I say by the end of the year that first 12 months, how many deals did you think you closed? We did four deals. I think it was four deals. It winded up to be about $50,000. Okay. And profit. So not great, but, you know, $50,000 for the first full-time year,

getting it going and really making a lot of mistakes and learning a lot. I was happy with it. So, you know, just decided to move forward from there and make 2016 as good as I can. Cool. So bring us up to speed. What does 2016 look like for you right now? Looking like for you right now. All right. Really excited. Just super excited about everything. The wholesaling business, I decided to move from Atlanta to Charleston, South Carolina. That's kind of the newest thing that I have going right now.

We act today, actually, it's probably about five, four or five months in the making, hiring people out there, getting my entire virtual team put into place and trained so everyone knows their roles. And this afternoon, we had 13,000 postcards go out in the Tri-County area in the Charleston, South Carolina market. So kind of a little nervous, but mainly excited for that. And we'll have a bunch of calls coming in right after the holiday weekend. And we're going to keep that steady stream of 13,000 postcards a month over there. So hopefully that'll bring us around two deals a month.

And by the one year mark, which will be June of next year, I'd like to be doing at least four deals a month over there for my wholesaling business. And I've structured that to where it's completely virtual. There's a person that takes the calls. There's a person that calls back and builds rapport and gets under contract. There's a contractor that goes out with a thorough lockbox on there and estimates repairs. and then that person passes it off to the dispositions manager that will be in charge of marketing the property and coordinating the buyers and the sellers and with the closing attorney to get all the document signed. So really, really pumped about getting that going. So that's the wholesaling side.

And I really did that because I was struggling to get deals in Atlanta. And I wanted to focus on solely rehabbing and holding rental property in Atlanta where I am locally. So we've got the wholesaling over there. the rehabbing and the holding in Atlanta. And that's really what I'm going to be. Something's going on where you keep on pushing the touch tones on your phone. I don't know if it's your cheek or what kind of phone you're on. Can you hear me now?

Yeah, I can hear you, but just it's like every few seconds. No big deal. Okay, let me know again. Okay. So that's what I have going on right now. And then the end goal for Charleston is to start holding those. properties out there and then also rehabbing. So I wanted to break into that market by wholesaling a little bit less risk and I can do that easier virtually. And then once I start

to know the market I build my contact list up up there. We're going to start cherry picking those best wholesale and rehabbing them and then also holding rental property out there. Sweet. That sounds like a whole other episode. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We'll be sure to... We'll do that. Hopefully you can have it back on and we'll do that. Perfect. So as of 2016, what have your results been as 2016. I know you've bought in a hold a few. I know you've flipped a few. What is what is a yeah? Yeah, what have you done this year? So on my third rehab, I finally found a great contractor that can, you know, run the, run the full deal and really do it quickly and effectively. So we started one in January and got that one sold by the end of April. So we hit that, uh, that key four month mark for rehab and, and including the sales time that I was looking for. Uh, so that was exciting. So we got that one done. That was about $45,000 in profit.

And then I've got a wholesale that we pushed through. That was about $15,000. I've got another wholesale that should be closed in the next four weeks after we work on some probate stuff. That'll be about $12,000. And then we just started the Marietta Rehab, which put a video up on your page, actually, I think. So if anybody wants to check that out,

we're really excited about that. That's going to be probably the biggest renovation that I've done to date. About a $91,000 reno replacing everything top to bottom. And that should be about a $65,000 profit. So that'll be a good one. And, you know, long story short, I'm looking to at the minimum quadruple my business in 2016. Sweet. Well, you're basically there.

I mean, you did it just with one deal. You almost matched it. So awesome, dude. Let's see. So looking back, you know, what would you, that first year or even up to this point, this first year and a half, you know, what is the one thing that you would have done differently if you had to start all over again? I really don't have a good answer for that one. I feel like I'm still so new to it. I haven't had enough to look back on to see if I would change.

I mean, maybe probably just push harder. I mean, you're always going to look, you're always going to look back, even if you worked as hard as you could and did and produced as much as you thought you possibly could, you're still going to be able to look back five years down the road and wish, man, I wish I did a few more deals a year. I'd be in a much better spot right now, even if you are in a great spot, you always think that you could have done more. So if I had to say anything, I mean, just push harder. Okay, so that would lead me to maybe a different question, maybe a better question being, you know, there's a lot of people that set out with the type of aspirations that you did. Like they're not liking so much what they're doing during their day job. They want, they listen to a podcast, they see posts on Facebook, they hear about all these great stories at their rear meetings. And they want to go and take this on full time because they want something better and different for themselves.

And for one reason or another, it just doesn't pan out. the way they thought it would. Why do you think it panned out for you when many people, it doesn't? I didn't give myself another option. It wasn't this was plan A and then over here was plan B. People can't tell you how many people ask me. So what are you going to do if it doesn't work out? I said, I don't know.

That's not what's going to happen. It's going to work out. You know, just don't give yourself a plan B because a plan B only leads to excuses. plan B is usually the easier option. And if you have a plan B, then and you run into hard times, you know, it's going to be harder to push through them.

So I was just like, there just wasn't a doubt in my mind. Like I was going to make it happen regardless. And I truly believe that if you don't know that in your head, it's going to be way easier for you to not make it happen. Right. Right. No, I could say that's the exact.

reason why I am where I am today because I was working. Yeah, your story was exactly like that. Yeah, I knew what my plan B was. It was bagging groceries and that was absolutely unacceptable. So that's definitely why I said it has to work and so fantastic. Birds of a feather, bud. Well, congratulations on your success. We'll definitely have you back on.

Let's get some more mileage under your belt with the virtual wholesaling that you've decided to take on in South Carolina. But if someone wanted to, you know, get in touch with you now and reach out to you, what would be the best way for them to do that? Yeah, sure. My phone number will be fine. My cell phone is 706-255-483. And my email address, they can reach me at Parker, P-A-R-K-E-R at Barrington Acquisitions.com. Parker at Barrington Acquisitions.com.

Super. Be prepared because they're coming. You got a great story, dude. You're a great inspiration. I'm happy to answer any questions. And if anybody is out this area or investing in this area, I'd love to meet up and see if we can do some deals together. But other than that, Matt, I appreciate you having me on the show.

You know, what you're doing for everybody is awesome. And I can't say that I would have gotten where I am now as quickly as I've gotten there, you know, without mainly your podcast and the Epic Crow Academy videos and all that stuff. It's just been a huge, huge help and a backbone for the success I've had in the short amount time. Fantastic. Thanks for sharing that. And you're 100% welcome.

And as you know, the door's always open. We're on Voxer at least two or three times a week. So you've taken full advantage. And it's fun to talk to you. It's always fun to talk to people that are actually doing it. I can, it's just, that's what, that's why I do it. So, dude, stay in touch. I'm sure I'll talk to you soon.

Have a great weekend. And we will do this again, all right. Thanks, Matt. Same to you. Bye. Take care, buddy. Bye. Very inspirational story by Parker.

He's one of my 41, one-on-one coaching clients that I had last year. And we're still in communication a couple times a week. That's just kind of have my coaching relationships. They turn out, but they all essentially become friends and they become family. And like in Parker's case, business associates as well. So if you like to hear the. remarkable stories of a few more of these 41 rock stars that I recently worked with. You can go to epic webclass.com, epic webclass.com.

And you can hear and see how I helped one quit their day job, another who I helped do more business and less time, and another build a virtual business working just one day per week. Go to epic webclass.com and you can register for an upcoming class. They're totally free. There are a few scheduled for this week. And just listen in. steal the tips and tricks and just kind of take what you can get and go back and use it in your market. And at the end of the class, I'll go ahead and I'll share with you where you can go to get some

extra help for yourself if you need it. All righty. So epic webclass.com. Epic webclass.com. All righty. So to your success, I'm Matt Terrio. I'll see you next week or catch me tomorrow on another episode of Turnkey Real Estate Investing. That's tomorrow.

And that's it for today. I'm Matt Ariel, living the dream. 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 this show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and share your thoughts. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time here at Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. This podcast is a part of the C-Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.

Thank you.