Epic Real Estate Investing - Zero to 100 Deals a Year with Michael Fitzgerald | EREI 178

Episode Date: October 26, 2015

On today’s episode of Epic Real Estate Investing Matt welcomes fellow mastermind member, Michael Fitzgerald, to the show.  He got started with very little money and now does 100 deals a year!  Mike and Matt discuss the importance of tenacity and consistent action in the achievement of one’s goals.  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

If opening up your financial statement each month is about as exciting as watching paint dry, The Epic Wealth Fund may be the next investment opportunity for you. The Epic Wealth Fund invests in distressed real estate and shares the profits with its shareholders. If you're an accredited investor who has already enjoyed success elsewhere in their business or investing life, and you're seeking a broader exposure to real estate in your portfolio on a passive basis, The Epic Wealth Fund's executive summary is available for your review. Go to EpicWealthfund.com to review the fund's executive summary. Epicwealthfund.com

Real estate investments involve a high degree of risk. Residential income and returns may vary and are not guaranteed. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Nothing herein shall be construed as investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. This is Terio Media. I'm casting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California. It's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Yeah.

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've heard it before. I know. This is not your first time here. But you just got to keep being reminded of it because that money can be so seducing. That pile of money can be so seducing in this business.

And you think you're... you're moving forward to only find out you're actually prolonging your journey to financial freedom. So you've got to shift your focus from making the piles of money. Shift your focus to making streams of money. Change that one thing just one time and you are on your way to real financial freedom. It's not the most exciting path, but it is the fastest. And once you get there, life then becomes exciting. That's what we're doing this anyway, right?

And to take your first step toward that exciting life, your exciting life, go to free real estate investing course.com. of where you'll learn the most valuable skill of a real estate investor. Do you know what it is? Can you guess? Is it making friends? Is it raising money? Could be, maybe. All of those are important. But it really is on how to find motivated sellers. That's the number one skill of a real estate investor is how to find motivated sellers. And you know why? Because nothing really happens until you find a deal. And the foundation of every deal lies within the seller's motivation to sell. So you have to know how to

identify it and how to strike a deal with that person. All right. And you have to learn how to solve their problems, to make it a win-win situation to where you're getting what you want and they get what they want. And, you know, the better it comes out for you lies within the greater motivation of that seller. And so I'm going to show you how to do that at free real estate investing course.com, as well as everything else that you need to put it all together to collect a check at the end of the day. Free real estate investing course.com.

Got it? All right. So I got a great show for you today with another member of my mastermind group. God, I love these guys. They're just filled with so much information, and they got nothing to sell. There's no agenda. They're just here to share, to give back and talk with you. So you can hear really how it's done and how people do it that really don't care whether

you believe them or not. That's why I really like it. It's very objective, and you don't have to have your guard up, and you don't have to have your BS detector up because these guys wouldn't even be in this mastermind group unless they could peruve the business that they've done. All right. So he's going to share with you how he went from. from zero to 100 deals a year, right out of his little one-bedroom apartment.

I think he started when he's 20 years old, and here he is 10 years later, and he's absolutely crushing it. And it's also going to give you some insight as to what's possible for your future inside of real estate investing. And it has a lot to do with a lot more of just wholesaling four properties a month or six properties a month or eight properties a month. That would be fantastic, by the way. There's nothing wrong with that.

That'd make a great living for just about anyone. But in my opinion, I still think that's thinking pretty. small, okay, because there's so much more available out there to you than just doing wholesaling 10 properties a month. And you'll understand more of what I mean after this interview. But before the interview, I want to share with you another live recording of one of my VAs that turned into a $7,000 deal. Now, mind you, I did not retire because I made $7,000.

I did not even throw a party or celebrate because of the $7,000. You know why I did celebrate this deal? because this deal too happened while I was on vacation. Yes, I took a lot of vacations this summer. And the call that I played for you last week, that happened while I was on vacation. And then this one right here happened the following weekend. So this is charisma, and that is her name.

And you'll understand how her name is actually very fitting when you hear this recording. And we'll get to that in just a second. Did you notice at the top of the show, the epic wealth fund, the epic wealth fund little commercial promotion that I had up there? It's open for business. Your ears did not deceive you.

I've been talking about this for a long time, but now we are open. So if you are an accredited investor and you're looking for other avenues to getting your money working for you, maybe the Epic wealth fund is going to make sense for you. Or maybe not. Either way, it does pay a 9% preferred return. And there is a 60-40 split of the profits after that on top of that in addition to that, 60% belonging to the actual investor, the shareholder. And with a double hedge built into the,

on strategy. You know, after a year of setting this up, because we've been talking about this for a long time, and it took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take, my goal was to structure this fund in a way that I've seen no other real estate fund do it with an actual hedge against losses. You know, you hear the phrase real estate hedge fund. That name or that word or phrases is tossed around pretty darn loosely. And I think just hedge just kind of comes out because.

it sounds like it's what it should be it's a hedge fund but there it's really difficult to build a hedge into a real estate fund and i think uh there a lot of those are are misnamed out there because i looked at a lot of different structures and a lot what a lot of different people are doing there's no hedge i mean the real estate goes up real estate goes down and then uh you know it's there's no correlation say if you were to invest in los angeles and you know also diversify that in invest in Florida, right? So you're diversified, but you're not hedged because there's no real relationship between the East Coast and the West Coast as far as the real estate goes.

Just if one goes up doesn't necessarily mean the other is going to go down or vice versa, right? There's no correlation there. You may be diversified against or hedged against natural disasters against hurricanes or earthquakes, but you're not hedged against the actual real estate market. And so what I did as I researched and looked at what. Wall Street does to do that. How do they build hedges into their hedge fund to where you mitigate your risk?

Well, it wasn't so clear cut and dry, but I got together the really smart guy that helped me through the whole process and we figured it out. And we inserted a hedge, a triple hedge inside of the fund. And we called it the Epic Wealth Fund and it's ready to go. So you can go to EpicWealthfund.com to request an executive summary and get the specifics of how that works. All righty. Let's get to Charisma's call.

Check it out. Hi, good afternoon. Is this Ms. Fagan? Yes. Ms. Fagan, hi. I got it. I actually, my name is Karusma. I'm from Citus Investments. I actually got your voicemail. Okay. This is regarding your home, 13713 Earlwood Road. Oh, okay. Yeah. You're still interested in selling the home? I've never thought about selling. I just got a postcard from you guys.

Yeah. Well, yeah, okay. So I got your mail. I got your information, you know, and basically I just wanted to ask you at this point, oh, by the way, why are you selling the home? This is an investment property for you. I'm not selling it. Like I said, I got a postcard. For the right price, I would sell, but I'm not actively looking to sell. Okay, not a problem.

So how much would you want for the home? I'd say for 40. I'd think about it. For 58, it would be a done deal. $50,000, done deal. It is a duplex. I've had very reliable tenants. They're paying $500 a month each.

They pay all utilities except for water. It is a moneymaker. There are no major problems with the house. There are a few things, you know, but nothing like new roof or anything big like that. Sure. It's pretty solid. Right. Okay.

So let's say, for example, you know, If the stars did align, how soon will you be able to sell the home? Well, I would it outright, so it wouldn't it be as fast as it could possibly close. Okay. Hold on. I'm just actually noting it down. Because later, after this conversation, I will be running the numbers, and then I will be able to get back to you within the next 24 to 48 hours.

That's perfectly fine with you? Yeah, that'd be fine. Okay. Do you have, like, say, for example, an email address? so that if in the event that I need to, I don't get the chance of hold of you by the phone, I can definitely send you an email. Yeah, I don't check it very often

because I know something's coming through, but it's just my name. It's just my name at Yahoo.com. Okay. I don't think an all one word. Okay. At Yahoo.com. How about your mailing address?

Do you have, what's your mailing address? Drive. Okay. And that's Medina. And that is it's 4-4-256. Medina. Okay.

Uh-huh. How about the mortgage balance? So, say, for example, that I purchased a home, do I still need to pay any mortgage for this? No, I own it outright. Okay. And your taxes are current, correct? Actually, when I bought the house,

they were moving to tax bills somewhere else. I was not even getting the bills. And out of mind, I think there's about $1,400. in back taxes? $1,400? $1,400? Yeah.

Okay. Okay. And you're not, you did not list this with a realtor, correct? No, I only answered a postcard that your company must have sent me. Okay, not a problem. So the total number of bedrooms, if not, I'm not mistaken, so this is a duplex, so when you say 2-2, so that's a total four, right? Yes. Okay, and then four baths?

No, two baths. Oh, two baths. Yes. Okay. To kitchens, to living rooms, to dining rooms. Okay. All right. But the bedroom itself, the room itself, there's only two bedrooms.

Per unit. Per unit. Okay. So it's a total of four bedrooms. Yes. Correct. Okay. Would you have an a BF to how many square feet, feet rather, this home is?

Not without digging out my paperwork now. Okay. They are good size apartments. They have a dining room, decent-sized kitchen, decent-sized living room. Okay. All right. That's perfect. So let me say again, this is what I'm going to do.

I'm going to run the numbers, you know, and that's the only thing that I need to get from you, okay, just for me to be able to run the comms, you know, add the numbers and stuff like that. So I'll do my very best that I can do so that, you know, I get you what you want. Ultimately, it's up to the market, right? and you understand that I have to carve out a little for myself too, correct? So I'm going to look at the market as it pertains specifically to your property. I'm going to crunch the numbers, okay, and hopefully come back with you an offer within the ballpark of what you're asking, okay?

And if history is an indication, I should be able to come up with the different options for you, probably two or three. My partner, David, and I, or I, will be getting back to you. We'll do our best to get what you need or the offer within the next day for hours. Sounds good. Okay. All right. Thank you very much.

Ms. Fagan, you do have a great day today, okay? You take care. You too, thanks. Thanks. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. All right. What did you get out of Christmas call?

Well, first thing, it didn't seem like there was a whole lot of motivation there, right? There wasn't really any at all. In fact, we didn't even detect that. We marked this lead as a... suspect and we just send her three option letter of intent. But what I want you to understand here is that think about what's going on on the other end when you send direct mail and you send a postcard. I mean, think about the last time you went to your mailbox and you went through all the mail and you just kind of pulled out the things that looked important and you trashed the rest. Right?

I mean, that's what most of us do, I think. I have never ever called and I get a lot of this mail because I own a lot of property. So I get a lot of postcards. I get a lot of letters. I've never called any of them. You know why? Because I have no motivation to sell. I don't want to talk to them.

And so they just go into the trash can. I don't even call them to say, take me off your list like some people do. I don't know where they get the time to do that, but they do that. But anyone that does call, there's a reason. They're like, hmm, I wonder what this is all about. I wonder how much money they would give me. There's a reason that they called.

And I think it kind of came out a little bit later on because it felt like, she was trying to sell that deal a little bit. You know, it's, it's a good property, it's reliable tenants, it's a moneymaker. Um, doesn't, yeah, doesn't need any real big repairs or anything like that. But then she says, oh, yeah, the taxes thing. That's, that's probably a $1,400 balance or something like that on there. That's only $1,400. Why is, if it's such a moneymaker, why does she have those delinquent taxes? Yeah, they got the address wrong. Whatever. That's a lame excuse. All right. So just kind of, um, um, As you're listening to all of that, I just want you to, there's a couple of lessons here.

One, they call for a reason. That's why you have to call every single person back, even if they don't leave a message. You've got to call them back. The second thing is, always send an offer. Always send it. Because the psychology of the whole thing changes when it's in writing, when you're not just a faceless entity over the, on the other end of the phone. All right. So that deal right there, that's what a $7,000 deal.

can sound like. It can sound like there was no deal there at all. But if you keep in mind that they called for a reason, that means you should follow all the way through. And when you follow all the way through, you're following through with a written offer. And we mailed that to her, and she called us back and says,

I'll take it. Now, here's the great part. She said, $50,000, that'd be a done deal. But she wouldn't consider anything less than $40. We got that deal on a contract for $28,000. See, just send it. Just put it in the mail. and send it. All righty, my guest is on the phone. He's going to show us how he went from zero

properties a year to 100 properties a year. And he got started when he was 20 years old out of his one bedroom apartment. And we'll get to that in 30 seconds 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 work more on their business than they do in their business. If only you have the time and resources to do it, 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. Go to VAs for Real Estate.com.

Stop doing what poor people do and do what wealthy people do. VAs for real estate.com. So on the phone, I'm joined by Mr. Michael Fitzgerald. Mike, welcome to Epic Real Estate Investing. Hey, thank you, Matt. Thanks for having me. Yeah, you bet. Where are you calling from?

I'm calling from Hagerstown, Maryland. Hagerstown, Maryland. That sounds like a really old, quaint, cute little town. Is it? It is. It's about 60,000 people. I'm located right in a tri-state, though, between a few cities. So I do business in West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.

Okay, super. So speaking of your business, kind of share with me how you got into real estate investing, how this came about. And you're a young guy, right? How old are you? I'm 31. 31. Okay. Very good, but you've been doing this for a while.

I started when I was 20 years old. Okay. And I called a rent-to-own ad in a newspaper, and the fellow in other line, his name was Dave Merch. He said, you sound like you make a better real estate investor of him running down in my house, and told me about the real estate clubs in D.C. and Baltimore. So I started going, and, you know, I believe in anything. In high school, I was voted most gullible, so I heard about doing properties, no money down.

Within two and a half months, I had my first no-money-down deal. just going to these real estate associations. It was a division of proceeds. That's where I made an agreement with the homeowner for X amount and everything over X amount I was allowed to make and the property stayed in a homeowner's name. That was 11 years ago and about 1,000 transactions ago. Love it.

Yeah, we just got to know each other, I guess, over the last year. We belonged to the same mastermind group. And, you know, I think you came in with guns ablazing in our meeting and really impressed everybody with the, how much business you've done. And I can see it because you've definitely got the gift for the gab. You're a very likable, approachable guy. And that really goes over well with sellers.

And I just had my last live event in Nashville a couple weeks ago. And that was really what I noticed is the big distinction between my clients that have great success and amazing success. The amazing success is they really focus in. on the rapport building. So I want to ask you, is that something you just kind of naturally had, or is that something you're intentional about, you know, making friends and building rapport with the seller? You know, it's something I kind of naturally have, but anybody can do it.

You know, when I meet the seller, you know, I always meet them with smile. I shake their hand, you know, very friendly. And rapport is one of the biggest things. You know, I've had a lot of sellers sell me their home for less than other real estate investors offered and sell me their home when they wouldn't sell their home. when they wouldn't sell their home to someone else. You know, it's worked really well for us throughout the years. And even, you know, I have other people in my office that help me with the acquisitions now.

Even with, even with them, I instill the same things in them. And it's just amazing what a difference it makes and picking up on the velocity of picking up a lot of real estate deals. So you have people in your office. Explain to me a little bit about what your business looks like right now and what your focus is. I started out in a one better apartment. So, you know, I made $20,000. I had $18 or $19 a month later. Now I have an acquisitions team.

I have 200 rental units, all of which, you know, banks wouldn't even really talk to me or me my first three or four years. I have a 36,000 square foot office building in that mix, a 40-unit apartment complex. So I have three people in my rental staff, one receptionist, a full-time accountant. We're currently renovating about 60 to 70 properties a year. So I have somebody on project management. And then we're also wholesaling about 40 houses of the year, but we're looking to pick that up. So currently we're doing about 100 real estate deals a year.

We also have a couple maintenance people. We have nine people total and staff. Super. So 100 deals a year, and you've been doing this for a while now, a decade. Tell me, what is your primary method of? finding your deals. You know, I find a lot of deals through relationships. I've talked to so many people over the years. I've never been afraid to talk to folks. When I first started, I used to be in a Starbucks, and I was 20 years old, but I looked like I was about 16.

You still do, actually. There'd be folks standing there in line, and, you know, I'd start talking to everybody, and I'd say, hey, look, you know, how many of you guys drive down by run-down house for sale by owner or no someone looking to sell, you know, in the past year? year and almost everybody said yes. And I said, look, you know, if you refer me, if you refer me those homes and you refer me 25 of those homes, how long does it take to refer them to me? You know, but I'll say a couple seconds. So I said, look, let's say it takes five minutes. My minimum referral fee is $500. So whether I close on the first one or a 25th one, you know, I'd love to pay your referral fees. And you'd be surprised. You say that to 10 or 12 people. You'll have one or two

start referring you deals and just talking to everybody, telling them what I did, what I do throughout the years. I mean, we get, at this point, we get 30 to 40 referrals a month, and I'd have to say, and that's free. Pretty much, you know, I pay them when I close on deals, but it's no upfront cost. And, you know, it's really helped me, talking to everyone and building rapport of other people, you know, not even in the real estate industry to refer me properties and in the real estate industry. But, you know, it's just everybody I talk to. I let them know what we do and that we love the opportunity if they know of a house. And how much does it, did it cost you to talk to people? Oh, it cost me nothing.

It's the easiest way to find a deal. Right. And I was being kind of funny when I asked that question because that's exactly how I got started. And then I started the podcast and then that started reaching a hold that just took everything up to another level. And business came in that way just inadvertently just happened. But done that until just this last, and we did, we used to do letters like with a direct mail campaign. But Mercedes and I would do that and probably hadn't done. that for not consistently for about four or five years now but we did that when business got

slow like when the referrals stopped coming in and when i joined our mastermind group i was just blown away on on the amount of money being spent on marketing i mean there's some guys that do a hundred thousand pieces a month well there's guys in there spending 100 hundred uh 20 thousand a month in marketing and you know we've really that's been a part of the increase in my business as i joined the mastermind you know i started um doing more mailings consistently and you know it's definitely a way to pick up a lot of deals i mean you can you can pick them up um anyway but once you start picking them up and if you start out with little or nothing like i did and then i believe you did too matt um you know you put money into mailing

you put money into advertising it definitely pays back uh dividends um i did uh 17 deals in my one bedroom apartment i bought and sold 17 houses before i moved into my own like i was always kind of against spending that type of money uh just like a couple thousand bucks in marketing. I was just like, wow, it better get a great return. And, you know, you see the people in there spending, you know, six figures a month. And I'm just like, wow, they wouldn't be doing it if they weren't getting a return. Right. Or they wouldn't be in her mastermind because they wouldn't last two years. Right, right. So the evidence is compelling. So this year, so we're about eight, nine months now into heavy marketing. We ramp it up and we're scaling up every single month. We do a

little bit more. And now I'm like, oh, I get it now. Now this makes sense. But, but, you're But still, I'd say 50% of our deals come from our relationships to this day. Which is same with me. I'd say probably 40 to 50% of ours come from our relationships and the rest come from marketing. And now I look at it if we spend $15,000,000 in marketing and we get two or three deals, usually the first deal pays for that. But generally spending that kind of money, we get probably seven to ten deals. Super.

So you get the deals, you get the referrals. you make the phone call. Do you go out there and meet all of your sellers in person face to face, or do you have people that do that for you? You know, I used to for years. I joined my, I joined our mastermind, and everybody told me, they're like,

you know, Mike, what are you doing? How are you taking down every single acquisition? How are you taking down every single lead? You know, I was working like a dog, a hundred hours a week, and that's not really what I wanted after, you know, a decade in the business. So I got an acquisition's leader now,

And it's just, it's so amazing. It's, it's, it's, we're closing, uh, deals more efficiently. And we're closing deals I may have missed, you know, in the first, his first, um, five weeks here, we brought in an additional 40K in revenue in deals I probably would have missed just on wholesale. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, you know, I'm not anymore, but I, I did for many years.

Yeah. But I still do just not all, you know, just, just not all the time, you know, if, um, he needs any help with someone or, you know, if he's not free, I'll go out. there and I'll talk to the seller. It's something I enjoy. I just, you don't do it up full time and run my business on my rentals and everything else. Right. Right. It's amazing that the paradigm shifts that group has caused. Just, you don't have to do it all yourself as a big one, because I certainly was, didn't think anyone could do it better than I could. And, you know, I know you were kind of thinking that as well, because that's why you were doing it, right?

Oh, exactly. And I didn't think I could, I didn't think this long in real estate, I could have such a paradigm shift or such a change. But, you know, it's completely revolutionized my business. And I've made major changes since joining the mastermind. Awesome. Awesome. So you get the deal under contract. And so when you're looking at a property, you know, you've got 200 rental units. You're doing some fixing flips and you're doing some wholesale. What are you kind of looking for how you decide how you're going to dispose of the property? Well, at this point, you know, with where we're at now, I'm looking at doing a lot of the bigger ones, you know, not so much for $70,000 ranchers. You sell for $150, I'm wholesaling a lot of those, and I'm doing a lot of the, you know, $150,000 to $300,000 houses just because the margins are more. But you can wholesale it if you buy it right. If you don't buy it right in this a deal, we're going to buy it regardless. But if we buy it and, you know, we buy it at $0.60 on a dollar, we'll sell to another investor for $60 to $70. all day. So it's all in what we take it down for and how good of a deal it is. It's right in the line. We generally don't try to wholesale. We generally do it ourselves. Got it. Got it. So moving right along, 100 deals a month, what's in the future for you? What are the goals for your business? 100, 100 deals a year. Just in the past year, I did a 36,000 square foot office building. I completely filled up that was empty. I did an awesome small condo project. So I'm looking to do more of a larger, more of a larger scale deals, but I'm also looking to not let any of these other deals go through the cracks. You know, we're probably going to increase the amount we wholesale and rehab a little bit less.

Plus, I've made major changes to my business in the past year. We went from a bookkeeper to an accountant. We went, you know, we changed out 80% of our rental staff. I brought the acquisitions guy on. I brought three software systems in, R.E.I. Blackbook, Building, the builder trend, all from going to our mastermind. So it's been just a year of constant changes. But, you know, I see a future of much bigger deals.

I'm actually looking and don't make fun of me here. I'm actually looking into doing a boutique hotel in a city that just has an amazing downtown. They don't have a hotel. And I'm looking at doing a boutique hotel. And I'm thinking about doing a series of them called The Gatsby Collection by M. Fitzgerald. I think that would be amazing. and it's, you know, I really, I really want to do something. I really want to do something big.

Now, my biggest achievement in real estate, do you care to know? I do, but hold on. Is there a relationship between the author and you? No, no at all. All right. But I'm Mike Fitzgerald. Right, I know. That was F. Scott Fitzgerald, yeah?

Mm-hmm. Okay, cool. I like the name of it. What happened was, is I had one high-end condo left in my condo project, the gallery on second. And so I put it out there. Just for kicks, I put it out there on Airbnb just to see what I could get a night in rent. So I put it out there for $350.

And, you know, I felt bad because I was going to take it off right away, and I did. But I had to call everybody. It got booked for 20 couple nights at $350 a night. So then I started thinking, you know, you've got an active downtown. You got crowds here, you know, five days a week. And I started running some numbers. I realized, well, hey, if I have a 15-room hotel, and 12 rooms are rented 225 nights a year,

but that's almost a million dollars in, or over a million dollars in revenue. So I'm playing with that right now, but regardless, I want to focus on doing maybe two to three large projects a year, doing the larger flips, and changing it from maybe 70, 30, 30, wholesale to 30-70 wholesales with 70% being the assignments and wholesale business. Right. You know, I just love having, and I've interviewed quite a few,

few people from the mastermind group because I want to do it for a few reasons. One is that they, most of them come on the show with absolutely nothing to sell, nothing to promote. So you're just getting it how it is. Second thing is I want to really share with people what's possible because a lot of the audience that's listening to us right now, you know, they're just trying to get that first wholesale deal under their belt. Or they've got a couple wholesale deals.

Now they're trying to figure out how to get seller financing so they can start building their real estate or that they're buying whole portfolio. And, you know, when I share with people so frequently, and it comes off across from the feedbacks from the podcast, it comes off from the feedbacks on my social media posts and then the ads that we run on social media. And just scam, scam, scam, this, that, you can't do that. He's a liar. He's a fraud. And I'm like, I have to hold, pull so much back on what I've been able to do with Littleton, no money and no credit. And you very much got started the same way.

If people. I couldn't even talk to me. Right. If people came into our mastermind group and they saw what people are doing and what they're thinking about, I mean, they just, they wouldn't even believe it unless they're actually there to see it. And just to hear you, like you've been doing this for a decade, you got started when you're 20, and you're doing 100 deals a year. And now we're just looking, I'm looking at a chain of boutique hotels at doing this. And that's a realistic view. And I just, I just wanted to point that out because wholesaling and fixing.

and flipping a house a month, that is just the beginning. And so I just like to, I appreciate you coming on because it really allows people to think bigger than what they're doing. And that what they're doing right now, they're just, you know, just barely getting started. Even if they're doing a couple deals a month, you're just barely getting started. There's so much more available for you out there. But, you know, if I just sat here and talked about that all day, people just couldn't even relate because it's so distant.

But there is a community out there that is doing this very successfully, very consistently, and doing it on a much bigger scale. I mean, I went into the group. When I first went into the group, I was the smallest fish in there. And up to that point, I was the most successful person I knew. I don't know what your experience has been. It's the same exact thing. When I went in there, I felt like, oh, my gosh, you know, so many people. I'm one of the smallest guys in the room.

And up until that point, you know, I dominate my local market. So it just opened my eyes. And, you know, I really feel blessed to be part of the mastermind group. And to go back what you're saying about people out there doing it and barely getting started, the trick is sticking with it. And, you know, keep keeping moving, sticking with it, keep advertising. I mean, you will get deals. And there's many ways to buy properties.

No money down at works. So you don't need credit or money to get started. You know, I started a one-bedroom apartment with, you know, barely any money. I think 12 out of my first 15 deals were division of proceeds, subject to the existing mortgage, owner financing. I mean, if you believe it and you have a goal and you move forward, it's going to happen, especially with real estate. I mean, you see through the mastermind, and there are so many people out there doing so well with it. And, you know, to a lot of the naysayers, I remember when the market got bad, it's like everybody I ran into, they said, are you still in real estate?

Like they thought or were hoping I was out of business. And it's just, it's amazing to me. Now, a lot of people are jumping on the real estate bandwagon now, it seems, but a lot of it's sticking with it. And I think the other most important part is taking action. Mm-hmm. My own family to this point still kind of looks at me like, when am I going to get a real job? Is that real estate being blown over yet? The market's going to shift. I don't know if you want to gamble your future on that. And I was like, you know, we're going on 10 years myself right now. And I was like, no, it's shifted twice during the time that I've been doing this. So I got it. I got this. Yeah, you've done so much in 10 years. No, I completely agree. You're going to laugh at this. My first three years doing real estate, my,

Dad said, now, okay, you got lucky. What you need to do is get one job for 20 years and a second one for 20 years, so you have two pensions coming in. It's his mindset all money, but it was funny. I was like, you know, why would it, you know, how could anybody give me this advice? Right. That's exactly what my grandfather did. He worked for aerospace for 20 years and then went to Builders and pour him for 20 years,

and he had two pensions. He just thought. Yeah, I mean, that seemed to be the trick, and I just, you know, I didn't see myself doing that, and I'm very glad I stuck with real estate. Six and a half years ago, I had an opportunity and I took it. I bought the home. My parents lost the reclosure when I was younger, had to give up and fixed it up and moved them back into it.

It's one of my biggest achievements in real estate. They're still there to miss day. That's fantastic. Thank you. That's awesome. Thank you so much, Mike, for sharing with us. What can I do for you? What can we do for you?

How can we help? You know, I'm a big fan of your podcast. I love what you do for people just starting out in real estate. It gives a lot of motivation. You have a lot of great people and they share a lot of great tricks to the trade. So, you know, I'm sure I can think of a few things. But when I do my boutique hotel, you can help me promote it. Okay.

I really want to – I got this thing. I'm going to say it's better than even Trump could do. And, you know, we'll see what media attention I get from that. I love it. I love it. So if anyone wanted to reach out to you and contact you, Would you be open to something like that? Absolutely.

What's the best way for them to do that? Absolutely. Probably the best way is, and I'll give my, you know, my assistant's going to kill me. But I'll give, she's going to kill me if I get a bunch of emails. But I'll give my Facebook page and my email. My company Facebook page is Gideon Properties, G-I-D-E-O-N properties. And people should be able to find me that way, Mike Fitzgerald. and then my email is Mike at Gideon, G-I-D-E-O-N-P-R-O-P-R-O-P dot com.

Got it. Super. People will contact. If I get a bunch of emails, I can see her getting a little upset with it. No, we'll get back. We'll get back to everybody. And, you know, I just encourage everybody out there to stick with it, to take action. I mean, if you take action, you stick with it.

You're going to do amazing. and it's an eye-opener through our mastermind to see what you can do and what you can accomplish sham in real estate. Yep. Amen to that. Amen to that. And I know I have people in your area, in your region. In fact, are you far from D.C.?

No, actually, you know, we do about three or four deals a year in D.C. We have one right there on Adamsree right now. I did my first million dollar single-family home in D.C. last year. But we have one there right now about to hit the market for $9.50. So I don't do a lot there, but I do a little there. It's about an hour away. Cool. So I'm actually going to be in D.C. on November 19th to go to the D.C. Ria meeting.

Oh, really? Which one? Is it traction? I'm not sure. I'm actually making a site visit with one of my coaching students. But I'm leaving. I'm catching the red eye. Are you going to the mastermind in San Diego?

I am. I can't wait. Okay. I'm so excited. So I'm catching the red eye on our last night there to be in. DC first thing in the morning. So you might not be back by then. Yeah, let me see when my texts are.

I think I've already been bought, but if I am, you know, I'd love to go with you guys. Cool, no, I'd love for you to go because basically what they want to know is how to network, and I just would love to take the gift for Gab Guy with me. Thank you. Yeah, you bet. I'm looking forward to seeing you. You know, this one, and this is my first time. It's been about a year since I joined now.

This is my first time on this one where all three groups get together, so I'm totally psyched about it. We did this last year and it was my favorite one that we've ever done. So you're in for a treat. I can't wait. Super. All right, Mike. Thanks, bud. Let's do this again for sure. And at the very least, I will see you in November. Sounds good. I'll talk to you soon. You have a great day. And if there's anything I can do for you, let me know. I appreciate it. Thank you. It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. Flipping houses can make you rich, but holding them will make you wealthy. Subscribe to a new real estate and Investing podcast. Hold That House with Matt Andrews and Matt Terrio. Subscribe for free. Listen,

learn, and earn. Hold that house. Subscribe today. That's it for today. I'll see you next week on another episode of Epic Real Estate Investing. I'm Matt Terrio, 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 enjoy, the 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.