Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - How Shane Seo Built a Real Estate Empire (400+ Homes)

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

On this episode of Escaping the Drift, we sit down with Shane Seo—real estate investor, fund manager, and entrepreneur behind multi-million-dollar portfolios spanning hundreds of single-family homes, apartment units, and commercial assets. As the founder of Elite Capital Management and Seo Capital Management, Shane shares the strategies, discipline, and vision that helped him scale in a competitive market.We dive into real estate trends, building wealth through smart investments, and what it really takes to grow and sustain success as an entrepreneur. Shane also opens up about his journey as a podcast host and conference leader, and how he’s helping others break into the world of real estate.If you’re looking to level up your financial mindset and learn from someone actively shaping the market, this episode is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below! ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford *************💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.*************✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:Instagram ▶️ / thejohngaffordFacebook ▶️ / gafford2🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here:Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283 *************#ShaneSeo #RealEstateInvesting #PassiveIncome #WealthBuilding #EntrepreneurMindset #RealEstateTips #FinancialFreedom #Investing101 #BusinessGrowth #RentalProperties #ApartmentInvesting #CashFlow #PodcastEpisode #EscapingTheDrift #RealEstateLifeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

And now escaping the drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm John Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now. Back and get back again for another episode of like it says in the opening, the show that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And today, live in studio, all the way from it. Atlanta, Georgia. This guy is an elite real estate investor. He is the host of his own podcast. He is the CEO of the So Capital Group. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. This is Shane Soe.

Shane So, hey, thanks for having me. See, what you don't know if you're listening to this is I called him Shane C.O in the other opening. And I owed it to him to record it again. That's what we just did. So dude, welcome, man. Glad to have you. Hey, thanks for having. Obviously, real estate near and dear to my heart. It's something I love. And you live in Atlanta, which is a place that I I spent a lot of my years as well. So I'm interested to hear kind of first, give us some color on the back story of shame. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, I started off in Ta-Wondo schools.

My dad, you know, he came to America like 200 bucks, barely spoke in English, did Ta-Wendo and then I grew up in it since I was three. I started one karate school at when I was 22. And then how I got into real estate is this guy bought the pizza joint next to me. He had his hair slick back, him and his wife had matching Cadillacs. And you're from the south. So, yeah. You know, I get it.

It's rich, in my opinion. So I says, what do you do, sir? And he said, I do real estate. I went to lunch. He laid out what he did. He did fix and flips, rentals, multifamily commercial. And I said, man, I want to try that. Okay, hang on a second.

So I'm going to back up. I'm asking you a couple questions based on what you just said. Number one, you operate in Taekwondo studio. Yes. So I have to ask the first question, which is, have you ever seen the foot fist away? Is that the guy? With Danny McBride? No, no.

You have not seen it? No, I haven't seen it. Okay. Is it great? It's one of my favorite movies. It's the enemy bride that did like eastbounded down and like all those different shows that are kind of crazy like that on HBO. Yeah, one of his first movies is called the Footfist Away, which is one of my favorite movies. So, yeah, it's not safe for work kind of movie.

It's hilarious. So watch that. Oh, no. Yeah. So, but you skipped right over something, which I thought was a lot of people skip over, which was you saw somebody that had a level of success. And then you wound up at lunch with him. Yes. Right?

Yeah. Okay, I don't want to skip over that too lightly because there was something in that interaction. Like people don't just go, okay, yeah, sure, kid, let's go to lunch, right? The fastest way to learn something new or to get successful in my opinion, and I talk about it. In my book, is to get a mentor. Oh, and in that moment, so what do you think in that quick interaction in that, hey, what do you do, led to him wanting to take you to lunch and pour into you? All right, yeah, actually something you said was very important.

I believe the next million-dollar idea or opportunity is in someone else's mind, right? So it's best to go to the top top of lead. That's what I know now. I didn't know that at that moment because I was from a small town. I was born in Albany, Georgia, moved to Rome, Georgia, which I'm sure you're familiar with that. Even then, Calhoun, Georgia. That's where I found this gentleman. And I don't know where I'd be if I never ran into him.

And I met with him, and he really planted a seed by telling me something that was completely, different than other people because the top like wealthy people in the United States is the 1% so 99% of the time I was getting information from the wrong people no matter how good they were but thankfully I ran into him and he was part of that 1% and just what he told me was changed and had a big paradigm shift for me really he said he was telling me about how he managed debt how debt was good because that's something I never heard he talked to me about you know not just doing fix and flipping all the time he said because that's technically not even really really estate, according to IRS. He said, you want to buy and hold. You want to know the difference between,

you know, rich is really income, wealth is really assets and net worth. So he explained those things to me. But why? Why did he explain it? Funny enough, when I went up to him, I said, sir, what do you do for a living? That's really what I asked. How old were you at this point? I was 25 years old. Oh, your kid, okay. Yeah, I was still young. And he said, you should take me to a lunch young man. That's exactly what he said. and we went to the richest place in Calhoun, Longhorns. That was the biggest place. I went there and that's where he laid it out. And sadly, he ghosted me after that to be honest.

I don't really never talked to me again. But at least he planted a seed. And I didn't get my first deal until five years later, to be honest with you. And looking back, I realized it was because, and it took me five years to get my first deal was because I didn't have any peers around me. I didn't have any mentor or any other people. Yeah. So, yeah, so I definitely know.

That's why I'm doing this podcast. That's why whenever you're doing my show, that's all the stuff I would pick your brain. Yeah. I mean, it's so true that you are a product of the environment you're in. And if the internet has done anything, man, it is,

it's, it's, it's change your ability to, to get in those groups, to get in those, those investment groups and do those things. Oh, yes.

So, I mean, fast forward, you know, to like now, now we, I join all the masterminds I can. I try and be as many rooms as I can.

And I'm naturally more of an introverted person. Hence the reason I'm still new to the podcast game with what you, You're doing a phenomenal office, by the way, and just what you have here. So, yeah, I'm trying to just put myself in rooms with people like you, really. So what, you said you joined all the masterminds you can? What masterminds are you on? Oh, I did so with Tai Lopez, Grant Cardone.

You know, there's some in Atlanta. There's a Christian group that they have there. I did that one. And then I probably put about a million eight. And we counted about a million eight in the last three, four years in masterminds and just gatherings. I went on Richard Branson's Island, and I was 50 grand for the week to be around people, you know. I saw you did some stuff with Brad Lee and maybe friends with them. Yeah, yeah, I got to meet him there, Andy Elliott, and a lot of great people.

So I'm trying to put myself out there. Yeah. Cool. Well, let's talk about that first deal that you got at five years, right? So what was, so this planted the seed at 25. And you say it took, why did it take five years to get the first deal? Yeah. And like said, my story is really a pathetic and like pitiful story.

So when I was 25, he planted the seed. He goes to me literally the next week. Like he texted me a few times, but then never responded again. So I was looking on YouTube. And all I had is reference was HGTV stuff. Like you just call an agent, buy a property, fix it up, try and sell it. That's my mentality of it, you know. And I said, and then one day I'll be able to do rentals.

Well, for five years, I know that you own a brokerage here. I got 33 houses under contract and I canceled each time in due diligence. And I made every agent hate me. Oh, yeah, that'll do it. They, yeah, no, because they waste a lot of it. And I feel bad. I look back on it just feel awful. But I just, I didn't know how to get it across the finish line.

I didn't either didn't have the money. I didn't have the credit or I didn't know how to do a loan or a mortgage or anything like that. So I canceled. What year was this? That was, well, that was from 25 to, I was 25 years. It was, I was a month from turning 30. So it was 2017, January that I bought my first property. So five years prior to that.

And, man, that's what you should have been buying them. I know. Oh, man. Oh, man, I looked back. I went and looked at some of those properties. I got under the contract. I could have bought for $30,000. Oh, man.

There's one specific house I could have got for $220,000. It's like $750,000. Oh, for, yeah. So, I mean, that's the cost for not having a mentor being around the right people. I look back now and I know. But what helped me get my first property was actually an agent who lied to me. Okay. I think you can't lie like that.

Well, what happened? I'll tell you. All right. So I got the property on the contract. It was a foreclosure. I had lowballed the heck out of it, $45,000 for this three-bedroom, two-bath home. Good area.

It was like a three-level kind of thing. And during due diligence, I called him like I did, all the other agents to cancel it. That's awful, right? But he said, Shane, you can't do it on this one because they'll blank and blank. They'll sue you.

And it scared me. He lied. And I asked him later, and what it is, is he was trying to double-dip. He wanted to sell me at Get Commission, and he knew I was going to try and sell it. Yeah, and he knew that. And he's a good friend of mine now, by the way,

so I don't want to throw his name out there. But one thing that it did do, because this is kind of like a mentor in a sense, he changed my mindset to I can't do it to. How can I? I have to do it. So I panicked. So I called a buddy from high school and I said,

hey, man, I got this house for $45 grand. I don't have the money. I'm basically going to get sued. It's worth maybe $90,000 in my mind, which ended up selling for $1.24 or $130, I forget, like right around that. But so he put up the money. We split 50-50. I maxed out my credit cards to do all the repairs and maintenance, do the whole, you know,

remodels. First time doing the contractors, first time stressing out over, man, I'm going to lose my buddy's money. And I maxing out credit. First time getting in debt, actually. And it only costs it $20,000 to do all the remodel. And then we flipped. I actually bought it. We bought it, flipped it, sold it.

That was my first deal. So it's really a sad store. It's not like a sexy thing. So you're buddy to put up the money. How much of the deal did you give them? 50%. Yeah, he was like, Shane, let's do 50, 50. And he put the 45 and a little bit of closing because it was a cash deal.

Yeah. But I don't know. I was worried it's like, man, what if 2008, 2010 happens? Because I had no knowledge of real estate. Yeah. And I was just worried like some kind of market shift. It wouldn't sell. Ended up selling okay.

But I did have a, I learned a lot. I learned I didn't like fix and flips at that time. I didn't like doing a contract because one contract did bail on us after we paid him a little bit. It was like two grand, but he still bailed. Yeah, that's an interesting concept. Something you just said, though, because you were like 17, 16, 17, 18 when the crash happened. Yes.

So that's got to be like a really, like you don't have any frame of reference. And that's your first kind of where your brain sort of starts thinking like an adult. So that was probably pretty polarizing of a thought to you. I think that was the biggest fear because I added on it. Because any time, even though that initial investor told me what he did, when I was 25. Yeah. Every time I mentioned real estate to people trying to find people in my small little town,

they always talk negative about real estate. But I knew I wanted to do it, but I was just afraid. But I didn't have enough knowledge, and I was just terrified and afraid. All right. So you got that first still done. That's done. Yes, sir. What happens next?

Okay. So I bought the house in January. We sold it in August 1st of 2017. In May, when I was in the middle of the stress from the contractor who bailed and me just like, oh, man, what's going to happen? I found a YouTube video, and this is the video that changed my life. This is a YouTube video. This is an old guy with horrible audio, had a tint of brown on the screen,

and a very country guy talking about buying properties, seller finance, and you don't have to always go to an agent. And I said, because all the agents were mad at me at this time. Yeah. I mean, let me be honest, how often, you know, if I got 33 properties under contract through you in Canada, nobody's not going to talk. You're never going to talk.

Yeah, so I pissed them all off, really. So, but he said, you know, small, small town like that. Yeah, and he said, you can go directly to the seller. And I said, you know what, I better try that. I mean, why not? So I looked on Craigslist at that time, and I found a house for sale by owner. And I called that, and I'm an introvert, remember. So this is the first time I called a seller. I called the seller. I said, I'm going to try and get them to seller finance me. So I told her, hey, you know, why are you selling? They said, hey, we have a tenant in there. Come by and take a look at it. I got to give 24-hour notice.

I showed up at the house, looked at the property, and I pitched her seller financing. She said no. So I left, and I just kept following up. She kept saying, no, no, no. And I was like, man, that's awful. Well, let me at least try one more time. So I found another property. There's a for sale by owner's sign in the front yard in an older part of our town called the lady.

And she said, I'm going in the middle of an eviction right now. The tenants will be out by Friday. And you can come take a look Saturday. So I went out and talked to her Saturday. And when we got there, it was in horrible shape. And I have this whole story, which I don't want to bore you with it. But ended up, she agreed to sell her finance me properties and office. Well, because you caught her in what I call the HGTV moment of pain.

Highest motivation. Yeah, the people think they want to be a, they want to be a real estate investor and tell they got to deal with the first eviction. And then they're like, I don't ever want to deal with this again. They want this passive income. It's not as passive as they think. So, yeah, I think even now, we still target. landlords because, you know, they're the most highly motivated in the middle of an eviction.

Oh, yeah. One to two, one to two home, one to two doors, maybe one to three doors. Yes, sir. You pull the eviction records and then call them? We do. We do. That's really good. Yeah.

So in Georgia, some of the counties, you can actually pull it up online. You don't have to go to the courthouse. Oh, man. And it has the, they actually scan the document that the landlord fills out with their phone number. Oh, man. That's really good. Yeah. So we call them and sometimes they have multiple.

So anyway. You're like, hey, you're done yet? Yeah. Is that the pitch you tired? Yeah. So it took me five years to get the first deal. You already heard that. And then from August to December, once I got the first one, I got 60 homes from that August

of December. 60? 60. And it changed my life. I just got obsessed to it. I started reaching out with all the landlords that I could. I created my own in-house presentation style. And there were a lot of motivated sellers.

I learned subject to during that time because I didn't. that existed, but then I had to figure that out. I also acquired with lease. I just lease it with an option to buy, file the memorandum at that courthouse, and it's no different than seller financing. It might just you don't get the appreciation, you know, at first. And then I started buying in bulk, so I reached, as I said, I targeted landlords. And that was it. The biggest thing that changed my life was I bought 92 homes from one older gentleman. I go into Little Caesar's pizza. I saw the little first sub-owner sign, and I don't have the boy with the whole story, but he ended up selling me.

And that changed. You got me going. Yeah, you did. You bought 92 homes from a dude because you saw a little. Is that a little Caesar's time? You got to talk. Okay, okay. Well, I went to Little Caesar's pizza in Albany, Georgia, visiting my grandma.

And I went in the drive-thru software, sell by owner's sign. I had a friend with that said, hey, go get that number. He went and called it. I mean, he went and got the number. I called the gentleman the next day, and he talked about the house. And I tried to buy it, seller finance. He said no. And he said, well, actually I got two homes.

That's, oh, okay, well, great. Well, how about this? If I, you know, buy one, can you set up financing? The other one, he goes, I don't know. And he told me a personal reason. He was getting needed for legal fees or something. I said, okay, well, as I talked to him to Moore, and he's 80 years old at this, you know, this older gentleman, I found it he has 92 homes.

And I said, how about this? You need two, oh, he need 180 grand. These are cheaper homes in Albany, by the way. You're familiar with Albany. And I said, how about this? I'll buy two homes. traditionally, let that be the down payment, but then you seller finance me the other 90. And he agreed.

So it was the first time I ever got a loan because I'd already bought all seller financing at this time or acquired a lease option or subject to. And basically, I put the 20% down on the $200,000 home, you know, which is $40,000. He got a loan for $160, bought it. He seller financed me the other $90. Then what I did is- At what terms? if y'all let me ask it yeah so i bought it uh well he had three lCs and he wanted each one of

them set he was an old banker i bought him at 4% interest um over a 30 year term and he wanted a seven year balloon i mean pretty pretty good yeah pretty good terms and then what i asked him too is because he's older he says well i'm not going to get paid i'm going to be dead you know because he's 80 and i said well sir and this is what i think helped also to add on to for nerdy talk i said Well, let me ask you a question. If you were to pass away today, what would happen to the properties? This is why I've got a son and a daughter. My son lives in Florida.

My daughter is an event planner here in Albany. That's okay. Well, what would happen? He said, well, I guess they'd be, you know, trying to take them over. I said, well, here's another alternative. And I just want to say this is usually in my experience, if you pass away, your kids will liquidate it for dirt cheap or want to do more work than the other and expect more money. And it tends to cause a little issue. Here's another alternative.

why don't you let me buy them and God forbid you pass away, they get an equal check split between them and they think of you. And that's what really I think help. An equal check and think of you. Yeah, it's a think of you. Yeah, they don't have to, yeah, it helps a lot. So write that one down, people. Oh, yeah. Damn. That's good. Well, I got to say the story anyway. That's good. No, that's great. It's great. Yeah. That's really good. So 150 doors now, like lightning speed. That's really quick. So how many, so keep going. Oh, yeah.

So we grew, I mean, I did 60 the first year, 180 the second year. We got right at 400 houses. And honestly, my biggest mistake now and now going back to mentors is they were telling, Shane, you should have gotten out of single family a long time ago. Yeah. And I said, you know, it makes sense because that's 400 insurance policies, 400 parcels. It has been horrible. So we have pivoted.

Your taxes have got to be just. Oh, gosh. I mean, it's horrible. property tax. And then I got to find them. Having to do your taxes has got to just be insane. My account hates me. I just got the bill yesterday. But, you know, we've pivoted into apartments now. And the only reason I did it was a grant card on video. This is before I met him. And he said on there, he said, you should do apartments. And he talked about forced appreciation. And that made sense to me so much better. Apparently, banks liked it. And what I learned. And I did learn later that.

He says, well, if you can't buy it, at least just be around it. So I said, you. you know what? I'm going to do it. So I went to LoopNet where where deals go to die, basically is what they say. So there's the worst deals. Yeah. And I had seen this apartment complex on there for two years, never sold for like a million nine in Calhoun, Georgia. And now whenever I go look at it, they want 2.6. It's like, why? Well, because A, because none of the information on Loopnet is accurate, number one. There's because there's no governing body. Well, there's, all right, listen, that's like, people don't understand this. If you're thinking, I'm going to go look on LoopNet because you just heard this, understand this.

With like the MLS in any way, like realtors are policed by realtors. So the data that goes in the MLS is accurate and of house sales. You got a market sold and take it down. There's stuff on Lutnett that sold three years ago. The commercial brokers will just leave on there is bait to try to catch somebody to get a phone call. That's right. Yeah, which makes it terrible. I mean.

Yeah. And sometimes commercial brokers are some of the worst, at least in Georgia. I bet, you know, not here, right? Well, we've got some good ones that work for our company. But outside of that, I can't vouch for it. Yeah. But anyway, I called the seller directly. I went out and met him and he was three brothers who owned it.

And they said all the same motivations of a single family. And I got that one, no money down for $2.5 million. Interest only at 6% interest only. My payment was 12,500 a month. Rents was 18. So I was still negative for a while, two, three months. We raised it to $28,000, which is still way below market value. But then I bought new countertops, new air conditions, new flooring over the next year or two.

And I did asset-based lending on some of it. And I used business lines of credit. And now it's worth $5.7 million. So I ended up pivoting into that. And it's just so much easy. Everything's more condensed. Yeah. Yes, sir.

So. And you have on-premise, you have on-premise leasing. Well, we were trying to do third party, but it just didn't. So I made my own team, my own guys, and they do it to my standards and my policy. So we have two maintenance guys that are good friends of ours too, helping me with all my property's local. And then I have a really buddy that I call like a little brother. And he manages and does it to my standard.

Yes, sir. Yeah. It's easier to find big market. Well, I'm going to ask, have you found any big market multifamily deals that have made sense over the last two years? Not traditional sense. No. I did buy 59 units for 36,000. down 2014 builds and it was the same kind of situation just older young didn't want to do the day to

day so i like that but it's but that was in albany door but in atlanta it's been told we found some stuff in tampa that we almost tried to get uh but it was very difficult um i want to do something panama city but we haven't found it it's hard it's hard to find it at least where i'm at right now i was literally you know it's hilarious i swear to god i was on loop that last night looking at panama city Looking at something. Really? I swear there's three play. Let me save me the loop net trouble.

There's literally three things that are all garbage. Yeah. Yeah. It's awful. I'll save you. It's tough. I literally was looking there last night for that exactly reason. That's funny.

Oh, no. Oh, that's really funny. I was looking all down 30A all the way from Gold Shores, Mississippi, all the way back. Oh, shoot. To Alligator point. I just didn't. Oh, looped that's garbage anyway. But you never know.

You never know. Yeah. You know how they have connected with Co-Star and you can look at it. I've been just trying to contact. some of the sellers directly, if I can. Yeah. But it's still tough. Well, you know, over the last couple of years,

I saw my multifamily a little more because, you know, what became in vogue four years ago was these syndicated deals. Oh, yeah. You know, everybody's running these performers on, you know, when rates come, we're going to refy out of this deal when it gets back down to sub five. And then all of those syndicated deals are flopping right now. They're all hurting.

We've looked at a lot of syndicators. They're just losing their investors money, sadly. Yeah. And it's just, it's just going to go. So do you think that there's, like, how many of those syndicated deals do you think are actually going to wind up being REO? Or do you think there's a lot of them? Yeah. We looked at 556 doors that was scattered amongst from Macon, which I don't like making, to be honest with you.

Who likes Macon? Nobody likes Macon. But, you know, I don't, I have family there. So I'm just joking with you. But, like, I just don't like to invest there. Look, if you're listening to this and you know where Macon or Albany or Albany or, you know, those stuff is. And we're sitting here making fun of that. Here's a fun fact. I'm actually from Lake City, Florida. So if you know that part of the world, you can laugh at me all you want back.

So yeah, you pick it where I'm from is worse than where you're from. So there you go. There it is. Aubrey's pretty bottom of the barrel. But I have family there and I still visit, you know. Sure. We're not picking it. No, we're not picking on you. Yeah, yeah. But no, there's 556 doors there. And, well, there's three packages there and two in Albany, actually. And the guy bought it for like 50, 60 million bucks. And we have a friend that got the stocking horse on at 39 million. And I was pushing to get it from the 20s. It's just he bought it tip top and then let the occupancy drop on it to like 40% or something. It was just horrible. But same thing, just syndication. And I feel bad for all the investors. And then we had another one that was a

hundred unit. Freddie Mac was doing a technical default because they just didn't, what is it, do like the clubhouse or something for 150 grand. Then they came back so no, it's going to cost 600 grand. And then they're like, can't do it. You know, so a lot of that's kind of,

they're kind of getting crunched pretty bad. Well, you know that. Yeah. Oh yeah. It's horrible right now. So where, I mean,

obviously, you know, late at night, loop that is not the way to find deals. Where do you find, where do you source your deals? Oh, same thing.

I love going to landlord meetings. We've been doing conferences, our own conferences in Atlanta. So we've done three now in the last two years. We had about four or five, 500 people just weekend or two weekends ago. And then we kind of meet people and then they bring us deals just some of the young people there or landlords. What else do we do? Co-star. I love Co-Star. And making friends with as many brokers as I can without making

a mad like I did. Right. I first began. I know you're real buyer. Yeah. Now we really buy. And I just, you know, and I apologize to all them guys by the way. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. But that's how we're basically. So it's pretty, pretty simple right now. Are you exiting the single family or just recapitalizing? I am. So, yeah, so I made a mistake so maybe you can help me. Maybe we'll talk about it more afterwards. But so I have 33, no, 35 right now under contract to sell with one group, nine under another

one. And I just got two duplex under contract to sell. So I'm trying to liquidate in 1031 either into commercial rentals or, or multifamily. That's my two cents. And I haven't done development yet. but I've always wanted to try, but it's just scary. Yeah. I've never done it before.

Yeah. You know, I was just talking to somebody else about the opportunity that's coming to redevelop some of the commercial stuff that's out there into residential that'll solve some of that housing issue. There's actually since you're from the South, there's a guy named Pace Burt. Have you ever heard of him? Uh-uh. Oh, man. I'm going to show you some pictures in a moment, but he's taking all the old meals in like South Carolina and LaGrange, Georgia and things like that.

And they're like 500,000 square foot old meals. And he's converting them to multi-family. Yeah. And he's all in for 30 to 40 grand a door. Yeah, that's crazy. It's amazing. Yeah, that's really good. And that's a cool project.

Oh, and it looks fun. I'll try and show you while we're talking, but he's doing getting like historic tax credits, which I've never, I'm not on that level yet. Yeah. But I definitely want to learn. Just phenomenal stuff that he's doing. Let me see.

I actually, I don't know if I should be doing this live while we're doing. No, you're fine. Dude, it's real life, buddy. This is what we do. This is real life. Yeah, I went with him to look at this. And this is actually one he did in Arkansas. I got to go.

I think he's almost done with this one. He bought this for $2 million bucks. $500,000 square feet. What? Oh, man. And I'll get on Facebook later and show you like how he's got it finished. It was a hospital? It was an old VA hospital in Arkansas.

He's a phenomenal developer. Yeah, and this would be easy to convert. Oh, and the police. station was on the back renting for 12,000 a month on the back part. So they're there. And then here's another. If he bought it for two million, the police stations financing almost the debt. And that's the legrange that he was doing. So seeing what he's doing just has me really intrigued. Of course, that talking about mentoring, I'm trying to find some really great mentors to follow or just do some deals together first to learn that game before I just try it on my own and

mess it up. I'm going to make a recommendation for you. I would love that of the room you should be in. Okay. And as soon as we get off this thing, we're going to go in there and I'm going to make a call and connect you. I appreciate it. But you should be in boardroom, which is Kent Clothea's. It is the real estate mastermind group. It is, it is the group. And the guys that are playing in there are playing at a very, very high level.

That's the only one that I, that's the only one I'm associated with it. Oh, no. On a scale one to 10, I'm like a two and a half three. And I'm just trying to get to six or seven. Right. Well, okay, listen. Listen, don't do that. Because there's somebody listening to this thing right now that's trying to get their own, their first property. And they're thinking, if this dude just said he's a two and he's got,

you know what, how many doors total now? 400 homes. 400 homes and how many, 50, multi-family and then just like almost a dozen commercial. Okay, almost a dozen commercial. Yeah, you ain't a two, buddy. I mean, that's a long way from a two. I'm, I will give you a solid eight. Oh, no. I'm just going to say the last two. The last, the nine and ten.

is our big steps. We'll go with that. I think that's what entrepreneurs do. We tend to like really, I feel like we're insecure. Sometimes we got to keep growing and building. So, you know, if I feel like I get close to a good spot where I'm feeling settled, like what settles goes to the bottom of the tank. So I guess we, I don't know. I feel like a two or three. Only one of the coast is downhill. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't want to do that. I think that's about resetting your zero, right? It's about just resetting the expectation for what its success is. And I think that's where a lot of people So if you had to go back, like let's say that you had to start from zero right now, what would you do in this market that we're in right now?

Well, number one, I would call all the landlords. I would do the same thing we're doing right now. It's very like in Calhoun, Georgia, we did this. We found an 18-unit apartment complex off of the records, reached out to them. We got a three-year term, no money down, $12,000 a month, principal-only payment. and I said, well, I need some money on this one. I don't really like these multifamily. So I found a group that they would, I master leased it to them with an option to buy.

They paid $20,000 a door, which is $360,000. And then we charged a little bit above what our payment is. And they bought it. So we bought it for $2.3. They paid $2.7. And I still own it. So I get all the depreciation, all the tax benefits. And I made the $3,000, which I can't $10.30, what that.

But when they cashed me out on the back end, since it's past a year or two, I can 1031, the back end. I would repeat those over and over again instead of just wholesaling all the time. That way I'm still able to, number one, have some, I get paid up front, I get monthly residual and I have a back end pay and I get the tax benefits. So I'd repeat what we're doing right now. And it's funny you said that because one of the team members that I have with me right now, so I'll give a shout to my buddy Tim Stone.

Whenever he first came to work for me, not only did he get a 10 unit with no. money down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, no money down, and $4,000 a month principal payments. I was very proud of him. He just shocked me. He was 21 years old. We spun a wheel and it landed on a random city. And I think his landed on Orlando. And I sent him there for seven days and I said, you have to come back and have gotten a deal.

So he did a wholesale deal, though. And that's okay. But he did, but $15,000 wholesale deal in one week. So I would just make a goal for me of here's the date that I need to have to, to, to have whatever I'm trying to accomplish done and be obsessed and go nuts over it until you get it during that time. So I'd choose a seven-day goal, a 30-day goal, a 90-day goal and a six-month goal. That's what I would do. All right, well, let's go to the seven-day goal. So you choose a seven-day goal. What's the

easiest, fastest way? Okay, easy way without going to the courthouse or doing anything. So if it's going on Facebook marketplace, not for sale, but for rent. Those are sellers or landlords who are willing to take a monthly payment or with their property. So I would contact them and I'd tell them I'm interested in the home and say, look, you know, what are you wanting for rent and just build a relationship. Then I would say, well, hey, look, here's the thing. If I was to rent from you and let's just say three years, five years, seven years goes by and I want this to be my forever home or I want to keep or I want to buy it. I don't want you to end up selling it to someone else. What would you be willing to

sell it for? Then they give me a price. I said, well, do you mind if I have the option to buy it for that then in the five, seven years or however long. I just want to make sure that you don't give away the home that we're possibly going to, I may live in or I may, I may rent it out. I don't know, I just, but I really love the home. Now I have a lease and an option. Okay. Okay, I lease it to control it, an option to have the price. And if it appreciates, I can fulfill that. If it goes in, I don't have to fulfill it, but I can still sublease up, a master lease base. Or sometime during that time, I converted over to seller finance, it depending if it's paid off or something like that. So you take it. So what if the lease says something in it? Oh, I give my lease. And I do tell them. I'm very honest and

transparently. I say, look, I may lease it. I may do, you know, I may sell lease. I may use it for corporate housing. I may use it for Airbnb. I'm just letting you know. Yeah. But at least you're dealing with a professional, I mean, not a random joke. Yeah. This is a professional investor. Yes, sir. You're always going to get your money. Yeah, do good with me, you know. Or the other way that I've, I'd go about it. And this is how I have done it as a system is I say, I talk to this and I say, look, I see that you have this property. You're trying to rent it out. Let me explain who I am.

My name is Shane. So we own a company where we build a pathway to home ownership. We have a group of families that are interested in a house exactly like yours. We're just curious. I know that you're wanting to rent it for now, but would you be open to selling it in the future? What we do is we have a family that want to put their family in it, live in it. They're quality people just not qualified right now. We're going to guarantee the lease.

Yeah, and they're not qualified right now because they either have student debt, medical debt, they're in their job history or whatever. We're giving them time to fix what they need to get fixed. So how it would work, whatever you want for rent, we'd like to agree on a rental price, a purchase price. They'll come in, we'll do all the repairs and maintenance, and we'll guarantee the lease as a company. And I don't get paid from you. Whatever you decide to sell it for, you will net that amount.

There's no fees. We make money off the buyers. And then I'm just being transparent that I'm putting someone in there. That one tends to work best as well. And it doesn't make you look like an investor coming to low ball either. I try and frame it a lot different. And we really do that. We've helped a lot of people become homeowners.

I have a system where they can start in my multifamily. Okay. So you have the master lease. I'm just, I don't want to skip over this. You have the master lease. You do this lease with them. They give you the option.

Let's say the option is to buy it for $300, whatever. And then you go out. Now you take it and market it out. again. Yes. And I'm guessing a cash flowing rent amount or a seller, seller financing. Now you go and market it as seller financing. Okay, no, that's a great point. Okay. So here's how we do. We give a, okay, our system is we always give three offers no matter what the deal. There's a cash offer. Yeah. A seller finance, which we call payment for equity program because there's a lot of gurus teaching seller and they're just ruining it in my opinion on the phone because they aren't trained all the way yet.

Yeah. So we do payment for equity program and a lease offer. option. I want to be respectful that we're giving all the different types of offers. At the same time, I'm sourcing properties. I'm sourcing tenant buyers. Okay. And basically, imagine me knowing that I have three people, one with 40 grand, one with 50, one with 20, and I know what they can handle monthly. And I'm going to talk to a seller. Let's just say you say yes to a lease option or yes to seller financing, but you want 20 grand down or 10 grand down or whatever. Just because you want money, doesn't mean I have to come out with it. Yeah. I have some people over here. that are ready to go.

That are ready to go. So it helps me with my confidence. So I would source both at the same time. I would take pictures in the middle of my apartment if I have to. So yeah, so I'd master Lisa with an option. And I always do a option to Dispo, at least a minimum of 50 grand or more, depending on it. So if I'm buying it market here, I'm still putting above market here. And the reason why is I'm guessing, I'm trying to guess where that property would be worth in three to five years.

And I can always come down if it doesn't appraise or if I feel like the market drop, I can always come down. You know, and then as far as minimum cash flow, I always do at least a minimum of 500 or more per property. If not, then I'll just cancel with the seller. I don't waste their time. One thing I did learn from my 33 properties in my pitiful store of five years is I can always cancel.

I don't waste the seller's time. I always try to do as quick as possible. When you structure with the buyer, you're structuring a lease option where they're giving you the down now and then their payment. Are you putting some of it? it against your because you have an inflated price over what the seller gave you, obviously. Yes, yes, yes. And so are you doing principal plus interest? Are you, are you packing some of that? Well, if I'm leasing with the option from the seller, it's a lease. And I try and get the

credit it's, the payments credited toward purchase price if I fulfill. So it becomes a principal only pay. Right, no, but I'm talking about with the buyer. And then with the buyer, no, it's straight up a lease. They're just straightly. They still owe this. So if it's one, if it's 200,000, they still owe 200,000, even after three years. That's what I thought. Okay. Yeah, just to make sure. Now, now, Do I work with him? It depends case on case by the tenant. And I have come down. I have worked with them. Yes, sir. So case by case. So the only real risk in that scenario is if the original seller was to default in the middle of your deal. That's what. And we definitely do check that. So we either use a third party servicer company. We have some attorneys in Georgia that will kind of

help me service in a sense. But yeah, we always get a receipt from the seller or I pay it directly and I give them. You want to take his mortgage over and pay a direct. Well, it's a lease at that time. Yes, but I still want to make sure that it's paid because I don't want to get stuck in a statement. That'd be the only thing would be scary to me. Oh, a thousand percent. Yeah, and same time with Subject 2. Like, I don't like Subject 2, to be honest, but we've done it. If I do that, I'm making sure if I buy it for 200 grand, I have 200 grand here in case that comes due on sale. Sorry about it. Man. Yeah, it's stupid. So, and also sometimes even when I buy Subjectu, I won't even do the lease option. I'll just only.

buy it's subject to and lease it if I have to. So with the new Fensile Rules that just came out March 1st. I saw that. Yeah. Yeah, that's cute, huh? Oh, it's going to be cute, yeah. Well, for those of you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a new rule that just came out on March 1st that essentially says if,

the story behind it is the U.S. government is trying to, it's trying to say they're trying to cut down on wire fraud and money laundering by like LLC's buying property. If you buy a property with any entity, you have to disclose the owner. of that LLC. I think it's for one to four units or is it? Yeah, one to four units. I think, yeah, I think the big stuff you don't have to. Yeah, I haven't, I haven't dealt with it. Yeah, I haven't bought something in March. We've been selling. So yeah, yeah, and I was curious about that, too. So it's interesting because like sub two now, I saw a video from some attorney the other day that was now

talking about like, you can't buy sub two with an LLC or a trust anymore because now you have to disclose the interest, which is going to trigger the due on sale clause. And then now, you're talking about like set up a land trust and then make the seller the, the beneficiary of the land trust and then they resign as the beneficiary and then you buy the land trust. Yeah, quickly. Yeah. So, a lot of that. Yeah, it's just. But I think there's a lot of dancing. Honestly, it is a lot of dancing. I'd rather just lease it with an option, which honest truth, lease option in some mortgages, but has nothing to a finery though, but lease option is still, it's a technical default on some of it. It still triggers a due on sale. Yeah. So that's one of

says, I like to have the capital ready if there's a loan. Most of my portfolio, How many properties are you acquiring through that lease option method versus just straight purchase? Well, we lease option. My house, my personal home is on the lease option. It's on West Pace's Ferry. Like, we got a great deal on that. We probably have cashed most of them out as far as single family. But my home is I have another apartment complex that's technically a master lease with option.

I did go to the bank and I made them waive the due on sale understanding that I'm doing the master lease with option. I like to talk to the bank. I have three letters that we send them. One to let them know that we're doing it. Two, for insurance. And the other one, like, hey, what do we need is this permissible? You know, in the way to do on sale rights. I think that's the correct way to do it.

Sometimes they don't like it. And I said, well, how can we? I just like to have that communication, especially if I'm going to try and do the tenant buyer route. But, I mean, I don't have too many lease options. Now, I did a lot of them. I'd probably say about 70, 80 of them was a lease option. position back in the day.

Because I know that in some states, like for example, South Carolina, well, South Carolina just made it illegal. Nevada, it's coming soon too. It just missed the legislation

of cut off for getting passed. Release option? No, not at least option. No, no. They're trying to kill wholesaling. Oh,

okay. Just like South Carolina did. Because, I mean, if you look at it, most of the wholesale deals get done in this part of the world anyway,

a lot of them get done where English is a second language. and it's their predatory. Yes. They're predatory. And they're trying to, the language in the South Carolina bill said essentially, you cannot market a property for sale that you don't own deeded 50% of. So how would that type of a law affect your system?

Well, we're not assigning. So what we're doing is we're doing. But you can't market it for sale. No, we can't do it for sale, but we can't put as a lease option. So I sub lease it and I can sell option higher. Okay, I got it. But I can't, no, I don't market it. for sale. We can't do that. It's not for sale. No. And honestly, I have it. Actually, you remind me

of so many different things. I do make both the seller sign of disclosure and the tenant. And if I, when I used to buy subject to, which we still have, but if we do, now we got the finery stuff is, I even had the tenant buyer. If I did do that sign of discredit, understand that there is a do-on-sell clause with you. I'm very transparent about it. Yeah, I think it's the best way to do it. Rule number one real estate, man, disclose, disclose, disclose, everything. Yeah. And that way you don't get sued. Oh, yeah. 100%. Even me when I sell or fine, if you were to sell or finance me a property, I leave a deed and lieu and extended escrow with the closing in case I die so you don't have to

like stress out my family. Yeah. I do everything we can to just make it easy. You know, in the Bible, my grandma told me she says nothing's ever worth going to hell over. Yeah. So I just live by that. Yeah. And it's fun. If I can't put the puzzles together, I can't do it, you know. Yeah. So who was, I mean, dude, you talked about some pretty complex But nerdy stuff. Yeah, which I would, no, no, I dig it. I love it. So who would you say that you picked up most of this stuff from?

Who were the people that you've realized? Oh, man. Just. If he had to call it, if he had named him. There's a, there's a great guy in Georgia that he, his name's Lou Brown. He did some great stuff on seller financing and stuff. There's some things I didn't like, but a lot of it I did. There's an old guy named Ronald Graham in Jacksonville.

There's some little things there. But honest truth, it was me just sitting down looking at other people's deals. And my deal is saying, how can I do this? And then I would look it up. I talked to attorneys. And your attorneys were drafting your disclosures and all that. Oh, yes, sir. Yeah.

And some of them I would have some disclosures that I bring to at the closing to, depending on the deal. But yeah, I'll see, someone asked me that other day, and I said, man, I don't know how I'll learn something. I think it's just because I looked at so many deals. And I was like, how can I get it done? That agent who lied to me changed my life for the good. Yeah. He didn't teach me how to do a deal.

he taught me how to think it out. Yeah, and how to figure it out. And I think that's it. I mean, just talking to a lot of them. There's a guy named Nick Fordonato, I think, out of Tampa. I went to one thing where he talks about, and he didn't talk about a lot of creative stuff all the time, but he talked about his contract.

I learned some little things there. I just learned a little bit from every. So I call myself almost like the quilted investor. I have a lot of, I learned from a lot of you and patched it together. Made my own blanket. It's, well, it's funny, man, because I think when people get a moniker of success,

to themselves. They start getting a big ego. And the people that I know that are the most successful are always looking to learn, always looking for that next thing to learn from. And I get that vibe just oozing off of you that you just want to learn stuff. I don't know if you know what our other, like when we do our masterminds or our free education, our place is called good investor. And the slogan is a good investor is always learning. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah, 100%. Because I'm going to learn from you. I've already learned a lot from you. I'll learn about the market. I'm going to learn about development. I'm not going to sit and pretend like I know everything, you know. Yeah. A lot of time, I can't figure out some deals I just didn't get

because I couldn't figure it out, you know. Yeah. But you could have probably helped me get it. So the more people you meet, the better. I get it. Dude, no, really impressive. But dude, if they want to find you, how do they find you? Oh, man, you can find me all my socials, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. Which is what? What are it? Oh, it's at Shane. So at S-H-A-N-E-S-O. Yep. So it looks like you're selling marketing, but you're not. I'm not a search. I'm not a Google. or something. Okay. One thing I will say, though, is it is hard to beat on Google my name. Oh, yeah. Because all the SEO people are meeting me. So that's been my challenge, you know. Yeah, that's a challenge. You can't get there. All right. Do well, look, man. It was a pleasure

to have me. That was a great conversation. Listen, if you listen to this, of course, of course, of course, the best time to buy your first property was 2012. The second best time is right now. And there are creative ways you can do it. I would take exactly. exactly what he said and start getting on Facebook marketplace and pick up the phone today. See you next time. What's up, everybody? Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it.

Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escaping the drift.com. You can join our mailing list. But do me a favor. If you wouldn't mind, throw up that five-star review. Give us a share. Do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us.

But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.