The Science of Flipping - Faith Over Fear: The Bold Leap in Real Estate That Changed This Man's Life | Anthony Cota

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

In this episode, I sits down with Anthony Cota, a former car salesman who traded 90-hour workweeks and a six-figure salary for freedom, family, and fulfillment through real estate investing. Anthony shares how he made the leap without even closing a deal yet, what sacrifices were necessary, and the mindset that powered his transition. We break down the early struggles, how he did 10+ deals before spending a dollar on marketing, and why he believes REI Live is a game-changer for new investors. This episode is a masterclass in faith, grit, and real estate hustle. --   About Anthony Cota: Anthony Cota is a real estate investor and founder of Cota Creative Capital. A former high-performing car salesman, Anthony walked away from his job—and a six-figure income—to pursue full-time real estate investing. In less than two years, Anthony has built a business that allows him more time with family, while helping others succeed inside the REILive.co community. He's a mentor, family man, and an example of living life by design. Instagram: @cotacreativecapital -- Thank you to Mando for supporting today's podcast! Stay Fresh, Stay Confident with Mando! Tired of body odor? Mando Whole Body Deodorant keeps you fresh for up to 72 hours—pits, feet, and everywhere in between. Grab the Starter Pack and get $5 off (over 40% off!) with code [COLBY] at ShopMando.com. Smell fresher, stay drier, and boost your confidence. Get yours today! -- About Justin: After investing in real estate for over 17 years and almost 3000 deals done, Justin has created a business that generates 7 figures in active income through wholesaling and fix and flipping as well as accumulating millions of dollars of rental properties including 5 apartment buildings, 50+ single family homes, and 1 storage facility Justins longevity in real estate is due to his ability to look around the corners, adapt to changing markets, perfecting Raising private capital, and focusing on lead generation which allows him to not just wholesale and fix & flip, but also accumulate wealth through long term holds. His success in real estate led him to start The Entrepreneur DNA podcast and The Science Of Flipping podcast and education company, and REI LIVE where he’s actively doing deals with members. He has coached and mentored thousands of aspiring and active investors over the last decade. Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby​ YouTube: Justin Colby​ TikTok: @justincolbytsof​ LinkedIn: Justin Colby  

And again, you know back to the YouTube University the challenge is and I think we all kind of faced this in the beginning Is without a coach it's so easy to get shiny object syndrome Like you said everyone has the right answer everything that you see on YouTube is possible and tangible But if you're kind of just trying one of everything you're never gonna get anywhere in like I'm guilty of it You know when I first got into coaching like not necessarily under your advisement, but like I bought every comping tool, I bought, you know, everything imaginable. Right. And still through the first year, I was like, okay, should I go try, you know, to learn

tax deeds and should I try this and that? And so like not having a coach to guide you and just tell you like, hey dude, like just chill out, you know, which I think we've had to have that conversation quite a few times. It, I think you, it's just a lot of time wasted. What is up the Science of Flipping family? I am back with one of my most special guests of all times and I know at times I can say that a lot, but this one is near and dear to my heart because he is a student of mine. He has been a long time science of flipping coaching student as well as an REILive.co

member and he has crushed it over the last year and a half to two years. And he went all in on this business. He was making six figures in his other job. He said, enough of that. Let me go all in on creating my life by design. And he is one of those shining examples that I wanna highlight here on the Science Flipping podcast. My man, Anthony Cota is in the house.

That's right, brother. Good to see you. Good to see you, man. So I want everyone who is newer in this industry, everyone who's having challenges in this industry, anyone who is trying to break in as a real's having challenges in this industry, anyone who is trying to break in as a real estate investor, trying to figure out how to do their first deal, or maybe done a couple. I want everyone to pay attention to this because he is my student,

has been for about a year and a half, two years, something like that, right? Yeah, about two years. About two years at the Science of Flipping Coaching, but also has joined the newest coaching, which is reilive.co. So check that out, it's only $200 a month, at reilive.co, five days a week. So much so that he is actually one of the leaders in the group that helps other people get the deals done. But I want people to hear your story,

and not just the story at 30,000 foot. We're gonna dive into your first deal and your second deal and how you got them. But I also want them to understand where you came from in the sense of nine to five job, killing you newborn, not seeing your family and how to make a change. Why don't we just kind of start there? What were you doing? What did it all look like? And then ultimately, how did you find me?

Yeah, absolutely, man. So I think, you know, I always find the nine to five talk funny. Cause I think anyone knows that has been any type of sales industry before, you know, it ends up being more like, uh, as soon as you open your eyes to, as soon as you go to bed, you know, whatever it looks like. Yeah, exactly. So, uh, yeah, I mean, I was in the car industry, you know, four years. So, just like we were just talking about, you know, eight hour days were not really relevant to me. It was more like 12, 16 hour days. And that kind of laid six, seven days a week.

And I don't want to say it's necessarily like burnout that got me to a place where I wanted more, because I don't like to say that about myself, that there's any sort of burnout there. But a perspective that I had that the burnout didn't even come for me, it was more for my family. So from putting in those 12, 16 hour days, five, six, seven days a week, missing the birthdays,

missing the sports games, you know, not going to any family members, wedding, like pretty much limiting everything to try to, to grow a life for us quickly realized that the time part was more important than the money. So, so we kind of had to reverse engineer, um, where we wanted to be. Right. And so we, we took a step backwards and started with time first and then started looking for money. And I think that's how we came across to you. You know, we were looking for avenues and always found real estate as a vehicle that could get us that time back as well as that money on the backend.

And funny enough, um, my wife actually caught you on a grand Cordon episode. Um, I was like, Hey, we to check out this Justin Colby guy. And I was like, man, you know, like I've never heard of him, but I know Grant. Like I've watched him for a while and dude. Big shout out to GC. Big shout out to BT. I appreciate it. Grant put me on and you know, so.

Yeah. You know, it's funny because on our first call or like how I got introduced to your program, you kind of challenged me. Um, cause the reality was, is we sat down for a while cause it was kind of like a week, uh, like before we made the decision to join your program. And one of the things that you said that kind of still rang true to me to this day, cause we were pretty much ready to tell you, no, like that was the decision we made. Like, hey, this is too risky. We don't really know this guy. You know, all the excuses that everyone makes, right? And I remember getting on a hold and kind

of looking over at my wife and just asking her like, man, like we've spent so much more money on way stupider things than to actually just invest in ourselves. So like what are we actually risking here? Right. So yeah, again, that was, you know, 2023, May of 2023, and here we are, man. It's been such a blessing to be a part of this community and, you know, be, you always say, you know, do business with people who you know, like, and trust. And I definitely think over two years, we've developed that for sure. Yeah, I wanna kind of go into the mindset

that you talked to, because I think you've heard me say this, and I think everyone has heard me say this to some extent, is there's five principles in my world, and maybe there's a six, but there's really five that I believe to be just true, regardless of what you're doing. But it's like success principles in life,

not just in business, but the first thing is you need to decide what you're doing, but it's like success principles in life, not just in business, but the first thing is you need to decide what you want. And that's what you and Ashley really had to sit down and figure out, right? And then as a part one A and one B of that, you have to decide what you want as one A, but then you have to decide who you need to be to get it. And that is the bigger conversation, right?

Is what do I not want? I want to not miss my family's birthdays. I want to not miss my family's weddings. I want to not miss this. So what do I want? I want more time. I want to be at these things. I want to have more time with the kids and the wife and the weddings and the birthdays. So that's what I want. And then who do you need to be to get it? And I think that's a really big takeaway that you did really, really well. The reason why you're here right now is because I've always admired that you are like cut from the same thread I am, which is you're willing to do whatever it takes

to get the thing that you want because you decided what you wanted. Absolutely, man. And funny enough, I was lucky enough to learn this at a really young age is to find a person that emulates the life that you want to live, you know, so I got really granular on my wife and I both like that person not only needs to have the finances that we want, but they need to have the family that we want. They need to have the kids raising them the way we want our

kids to be raised. So, you know, obviously through time that it didn't happen on our first phone call, but we found that out through coaching with you for two years now. That's kind of the development process that we needed. Like we needed someone that had all those aspects of life that we're looking for. And just like you were saying, I had to find out who I wanted to be. And then great mentor once told me, you know, you have to find that person who's doing exactly

what you wanna do and just beg them to help you. And luckily, you know, here we are. As many of you know, I'm constantly on the move, juggling multiple businesses, traveling, and ensuring I get my morning workouts in. Staying fresh isn't just a preference, it's a necessity. But let's face it, after back to back meetings, juggling two kids at home,

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That is S-H-O-P-M-A-N-D-O.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Smell fresher, stay drier, and boost your confidence from the head to the toe with Mando. You know, and funny enough, I've done a lot of coaching in my life. Like I've cut checks for coaches. I've cut checks to be a part of Masterminds. I am a product of what I created.

So the science of flipping and now more recently reilive.co is developed because I understand what was given to me from others, right? In the knowledge and the wisdom. The difference between just simple knowledge and wisdom is the act of going through it, right? They've gone through it. So they have the wisdom of experience. And so what I do at REILive.co is to really help you guys do deals. But part of that is just the simple understanding of I'm way further

down the path than most of you, not in all segments of life. You, I think you've even actually been married longer than I have, right? But we have a, you know, you started earlier, but we have a similar, you know, desire to be family men, to be lying, to provide for the others. And that's what keeps a connective tissue but also it is really important for all you guys watching this and listening to this and I don't care if it's reilive.co or not if you are not investing in someone that is further down the path than you want to be don't complain about not having the thing that you want okay that's my

suggestion if you want the thing make the want. Okay, that's my suggestion. If you want the thing, make the investment. Right? And that's why I created REILive.co at a price point of $200 a month is because I'm well aware of all the coaches, which used to be me. Right? When you first joined, I had the classic $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 coaching, but now REILive.co is $200 a month

because I can help more people if I allow myself to open up the gates more. And so going back to kind of what we're talking about here is your commitment to say I wanted something different. You were working as a car salesman, you were working 80, 90 hour weeks. On the clock. Yeah.

I mean, who knows how many hours off the clock, but yeah, about. Yeah. And I mean, weekends were torched, right? And so you said I had to make a change. Now, how was the start of your journey? How was the start of you breaking into real estate, right? You still, you didn't quit your job, because I'm not a coach that tells people

to quit their job. Like I don't just say, all right, go all in, burn the boats, blah, blah, bro. I say, listen, you have kids, you have a wife, like you gotta pay the bills. I get it, but let's set up a plan. Let's set up a structure so you can reach a certain level of goal and or see the light of the end of

the tunnel and then you can quit your job, right? So how was that initial journey while working full time with the newborn, with the wife and now bringing on what I would call your, at the time, your second baby. Now this would be your third baby, but like, you know, when you create a business, this is our baby, it's our wife, it's our next thing, it's our love, it's our best friend, it is the thing that takes our time just like family would. At least for successful people, some people treat their business like shit, but how did you bridge that gap? How did you change it? What did you, you know, what did you do? Yeah. I mean, man, when I first started again, working full time in the car industry, I had to start waking up earlier. So I'd already, I drove an hour for work.

So I'd already have to wake up at, you know, 6 30 to make it to work by eight. I had to realistically start waking up at four to start dialing people on the East coast, cause I live on the West coast. Um, and just making adjustments like that in their lives. start dialing people on the East Coast, because I live on the West Coast, and just making adjustments like that in our lives. So, you know, I take lunch breaks to be on the calls, to be on the coaching calls. You know, I'd spend my nights comping properties, you know, after the kids go to bed.

So, I mean, you know, people always say, you think you're gonna quit your nine to five for like freedom, but you know, you end up getting a 24 seven. And that's how it looked like freedom, but you know, you end up getting a 24 seven. And that's how it looked like for me, you know, uh, up until I actually got the opportunity to leave my job. And the funny thing is, is that journey was about eight months, right? From, from when I met you until I actually quit my job and under, you kind of go back

to not telling people to burn the boats, you know, and that was kind of your advisement towards me and I was just like, Hey man, like I have so much faith in what's happening here. Let's just go ahead and set them aflame. You just didn't listen to me. I mean, now, by the way, you've always really listened to me, but this one, you just said I'm done. Like I've had, I'm up to my threshold and it's over. Yeah, 100% man. And it's kind of like I spoke on before. It wasn't because of my burnout. Just like you said, we're cut from the same cloth.

I can go 100% all day every day, get four hours of sleep, wake up the next day, be ready to go again. But man, my family was getting burnt. They were getting torched. Again, no weekends. Not even a thought of a weekend. Luckily, kids weren't in school yet yet we were dealing with newborns but you know when you have a wife that is just coming off her pregnancy and you

know we're preparing for another one like it's it's not easy for them you know and and having a separated husband like we were kind of living two different lives you know she was being a parent to our kids and and I was being an employee to this business. So that journey lasted about eight months again of just grinding early mornings, late nights, and just giving all my spare time even at work. Again, I was lucky enough to work at a job that allowed me breaks to where I can get on calls and learn the information, but just really long days in the beginning.

Yeah, and this is, you know, it's funny. We talk about your, you know, job and no weekends and working to the bone and 80, 90 hours a week on clock and 30 hours a week like, and then people take this like creating their own business entrepreneurship and they treat it like dirt, right? And they don't take the same amount of sacrifice. You are willing. Most people are willing to do that for a boss, their boss, their boss says, I need you to work 80 hours a week.

All right, boss. That's what you're supposed to do. That's what my dad did. My grandpa did. This is what happens is blue collar. you work. Not just respecting it. But then you go start your own business and you don't take that same work ethic in your own business. And that was actually what I see to be your breaking point is you're like, I can't give my own business, my own journey, my own life the same amount of time I'm giving this

car dealership. And that's where you broke and said, I need to be able to invest the same amount of time. Cause if you do, you'll ultimately reach the reward, which is the bigger thing, the more time. And you know, I got a very sweet text message. Uh, your wife the other day was so proud of you with your son at baseball practice. And she was like, thank you. You know, for everything, because you now get to have those moments. And that's again, money is great. And I want you guys to be beyond rich, but like at the end of the day, that is ultimately what it boils down to.

And you couldn't do that by serving two masters, right? Like I say, kind of funny, but I say you can't date two chicks at the same time. Like it never works out, right? Right, right. So no one loses. And so you made the right choice, but you guys listening, I'm not telling you to quit your job either.

And neither is Anthony, I don't think. I just think you need to really make a decision. Like, are you gonna put forth the effort, right? Because if you are gonna hold a job and start your business and be a real estate investor, what are you sacrificing? I mean, give, give some examples of the things you were sacrificing doing all this. I mean, weekends, toast, mornings, night.

I mean. Yeah. I mean, honestly, you know, and it kind of, I don't want to say like hurts me to mention this on camera, but you know, like there's of, I don't want to say like hurts me to mention this on camera, but you know, like there's even my own kids birthdays that we've sacrificed, you know, like our own, you know, holidays, like we've never put too much emphasis on, you know, like those additional holidays, you know, like Valentine's Day and all those things. Like we make very short work of them, but I mean we've sacrificed just about everything and on top of finances

You know like we we kind of went into this solely based off faith just through the understanding like hey There there can't be another way and just like you were saying before like can't serve two masters Like when I go into something I'm kind of all in so I realized like working in the car industry I was kind of half-assing both and it started to affect me as well. For sure. So yeah, I mean when it comes down to sacrifice, I mean, man, we were going to sacrifice it all, you know. And to some extent, I know you have, right?

Yeah. And we don't have to go into everything you're doing right now, but you know, being a lender and all this other stuff. But I think this is not for everybody. And what I'm about to say is not for everybody, but it is also for everyone. This is why the first principle of success is that decide what you want. Because Anthony Kota could have, could have effectively kept his job and done a couple deals a year. Probably not much more, right? I mean, you were pretty time restricted, but you might've made an extra 20, 50,

maybe a hundred grand a year, which would have been nice, but wouldn't have been fulfilling. Yep. Am I correct by saying that? Right? Like sure, normally, but I'm still working 90 hours of the dealership and I'm still missing weddings and does that make sense? Yeah.

So the advice that I think everyone should hear but also you need to make your own decision is you need to very quickly get to the point of, excuse me, what do I want? And be clear on it. And I'm not just talking about like, you know, what's my why type thing. I'm talking about like, what is the vision of what you're trying to do for the rest of your life? And if it's not congruent with the work you're currently doing, the time you're

currently spending, then you need to rewire pretty quickly. Again, I'm not telling you quit your job, but the sooner the better if that's not congruent, right? For some of us men, right, it is the providing mentality. I need to keep my job, I need to provide, I get that. That's why I don't force people to quit their job. But the faster you can get to like, I'm ready to live my actual life and not just what historically speaking men do,

then that's what you need to decide. And I haven't even gone to the other four points of success, but this is the main one and that's why I think ultimately, even though in the last two years you still are not where you would like to be, but I also don't think two years is enough runway to measure where you're at, right? I mean, the reality is this is going to be a lifelong journey in real estate for me and for you. I'm not where I want to be.

I've done this for almost two decades, dude. Right? I'm still not where I want to be. Now, am I a lot further than sleeping on the couch? Of course. But you know, I think that's really important for people to understand is, is what you're talking about. At what point is enough enough and then go.

And totally. And I'll kind of touch on that just for a second. is what you're talking about. At what point is enough enough? And then go. Totally, and I'll kind of touch on that just for a second. You know, I was making a couple hundred grand a year like on autopilot in the car industry. Started to become where I started to get repeat business, stuff like that. But one thing that you kind of touched on again is like purpose, like who do we want to be as men?

Again, we all have that kind of provider instinct that like hurts if you can't do those things. But one thing that my wife and I decided like when leaving the car industry, cause I didn't do a single deal when I decided to quit. I had two deals that blew up in my face, like on closing day. So that's always fun, but I didn't get a single deal yet when I decided to quit. Um, it, and it was solely based off of the idea of just like you said, like, where do we want to be in the future?

You know, like I, I know financially, like I probably could have gotten to where we wanted to be somewhat in the car industry. I don't know if I would have had a relationship that stood on it, you know, we'll say like when it, when it comes to making the leap, like, and you know, we talk about this often, like it comes down to a decision of who you want to be in the future. Right? Like I knew that more important to me was my family walk, you know, like the finances came second.

And that's kind of going back to what I said earlier, like we kind of had to flip the script on what it is that we're actually seeking. Because before it's kind of like money first, family came second, you know? And so turning that around, a family first, and then money second. And I think that's what convinced us to make the ultimate leap. But we had to sit down with each other and just say,

hey, like we built whatever we built, you know, no big deal, we're 30 years old. You know, if we happen to lose it all in the next two years based off of us taking this risk, like we'll lose it all. Like literally every single thing. We'll sell our houses, we'll sell our cars. Like if we can, if we come out of this thing in two, three years and we're, you know, God forbid 33, 35 and we're back at zero and we have to start over, like we had three to five years of spending time with each other, getting more time with family that we ever had and just living life on our terms.

And that was the number one dream that we had as a family since we first met was, hey, we want freedom to make choices for ourselves, not someone else making the choices for us. So I thought at the end of the day, even if we went down to zero, man, the three to five years is a dream come true. Yeah. I mean, that's how it's gotta be. It's, it's, it's worth the risk, right? Because you get the time.

Like we're in, you and I are technically right now, like in a very similar scenario with our children and I'll tell you could, if I didn't have children right now, could I be making more money? Probably because I take the time to be with my children. And dude, it is the greatest moment of my life. Right. And I'm sure you would agree, right? Our kids are literally like so close and it is crazy.

But dude, I literally this weekend, I was like, this is the greatest time of my life right now, watching these two grow. Because we have this window with kids, right? Where they're not really that cute anymore when they get into the eight year old, 10 year old, right? They start to get stinky and kind of like, so like we have this window and it's just, I'm enjoying it. And I think many of you out there might not be relating to this because maybe your kids are older.

Maybe you don't have kids, but I wanted the understanding of what is important in life is living your life on your terms like Anthony just said. That is all that actually really matters in this life because one of my mentors told me invest in current living. That's good. And that is the very same thing that Anthony is talking about. It is not about leaving it to your kids or your grandkids. It is not about hoarding it. It is not about how much is in your savings account. It is the current life that you have is one round, you get one trip on this roller coaster. It always ends by the way, no one has ever made it out of this roller coaster alive. And he said, dude, invest in current living, make money and spend money. Respectfully, he's not saying go buy boats and be an idiot.

He's just saying like, do the things, invest in current living. It's the same thing about being present and, you know, creating your life, right? That you want to live. And so let's dive into a little bit of real estate. I know I wanted people to get the headspace of what you've done, why you've done it, the commitment you've done, because I need people to really get serious about this because real estate can create the very best life anyone has ever dreamed about.

Ever. Right? Now let's talk about some of your deals. You know, it took you eight months, I think, nine months, hence from chain. Like nine ish, nine, 10 months. Yeah. So you and I again, we're like same person. Took me nine months to get my first deal.

Right. Took you about nine. And I was coaching you by the way. So it wasn't that you didn't know what to do. I was lost. I didn't have a coach. But it's, you know, again, two deals blow up at the closing table, buyers flake, you know,

like walk us through that kind of initial journey For the first handful of deals and what it all looked like Yeah, so again that that was a challenge and that I Respect the coaching aspect a lot because I think without having a coach like I would have given up on those first two blown up deals like the way they happened how it all happened like if I didn't have someone there in my corner to tell me like hey man everything's gonna be okay like there's gonna be another deal that's coming along like you know don't worry about x y and z I probably wouldn't have made it past those first two two deals so just speaking on just that really quick like you know for all the people

who more so believe in like youtube university is the way to go, I think you can get by doing that. But man, I just find it hard to believe that if you, that 10 months or nine months, however long it was of, of literally just dialing agents, you know, day in, day out, five to 10 agents a day follow-ups. And I mean, it wasn't a huge deal by any means. I think my first deal was like a $5,000 deal. Um, I want to say it was in Birmingham, Alabama of all places, which, you know, beautiful place to invest, but yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which I own a lot of real estate in. Yeah, definitely. But yeah, I mean, they really just came from outbound agent outreach. You know, I think that's where my firsthand full of deals came from because I didn't really have any, you know, I didn't have the funds or, or honestly, the confidence to go and start doing any off market acquisitions or anything like that. So I'd say my first handful of deals, three, four or five deals, all just came from talking

to agents of properties that were already listed. Yeah. Again, shocker, I coach you. That's exactly how I got my first deal, right? You just were ahead of the curve in the fact that you have software now are you a leading machine and others that can actually give you access to listings and I was just cold calling realtors Crazy, you know, it's funny a lot of people and I still to this day rei live co We focus for the people that don't have marketing budget. We focus on realtors and the reason being People say all the time you need to find motivated sellers.

Like that's our industry quote, like, oh, what's the best way to find motivated sellers? They are literally everywhere because they're on the MLS. There's no higher sign of motivation than a listed property. They're trying to actively sell their home. Now, what we need to do is be good negotiators and salesmen and show the other side the value that we see and why right and if you do that, then you can win the game but going and getting a free deal is

great I want to say the national average on deal cost is about five grand if you talk about spending money and And that's on average across platforms. So it could be a little bit higher or a little bit lower depending, but if you make 10 grand on ad spend, you're effectively netting five just from the cost of the deal.

But if you go to get a deal from a realtor for free and make five grand, you've netted the same amount and you didn't have to go spend the money and take the risk. So I'm still a massive proponent of working with realtors. How many deals did you do out of the gate kind of with realtors before you started spending money on marketing? I was probably at like deal 10 to 12 before I started spending any money on marketing. I was probably at like deal 10 to 12 before I started spending any money on marketing. You did 10 or 12 deals with realtors before you started spending money. Yep.

You must have a great coach. No doubt man. One thing I want people to understand is like one thing that you said that kind of resonated with me is like off market is great. Like I think there's a lot of potential there, but realtors can feed you forever. You know, if you get 10 good realtors on your side that can feed you one or two deals a year,

again, just kind of like I was talking about in the car industry, like you almost get to go on autopilot and then everything after that is just cherry on top. Once you build that trust and relationship, people know you can close, know you're honest, ethical, like you get, they start feeding you deals without you having to go search for them. Yeah, no, that is one thing that people don't realize.

You build a good relationship with a realtor and they will feed you forever. And it's not like you can buy, typically, most homeowners own one home. So typically, you do one deal with one homeowner, it's great, but you're done. Realtors will feed you for days. I still do deals with realtors in Phoenix.

I haven't lived in Phoenix for four years and it has not been one of my main markets for a very long time, right? Probably two years before COVID, so call it 2019. So my point to that is I still make money from the relationships, but that's true about everything, right? That's true about the relationship you build with a homeowner on the phone. When you're on the phone, a lot of people get into the numbers and start negotiating, trying to wheel and deal with the homeowner. And like they don't even know you or what you're doing. And on the next thing you know, you're trying to negotiate them to a low price, right?

So focusing more on the relationship, the conversation and being sincere, that has always proved to be a better tactic. You come from a place of sales. What was it like converting from realtor and I think you're still doing deals with realtors, correct? Yeah. Well, you've also done a deal came from. The most recent came from realtor as well.

Yep. And you've done however many deals direct to homeowner. What is the pros and cons that you've experienced between the two? Like is there one you prefer? Is it really just like they both work? It's just function of finding enough time to work them both. What are your thoughts between the two?

Yeah, I think the often conversation is that I have people, especially like newer people that wanted to get into wholesaling. It's kind of like you have one of two things, right? Usually have more time than money or more money than time. And the select few are blessed to have both. So I was under the, I had more time than money at, you know, in the beginning. So the conversations with realtors are obviously a bit easier because they're already representing someone who wants to sell their house, but they're also challenging because they're listed on the open market to hopefully get the most substantial amount of value they could possibly get.

The realtors are kind of protecting that in a that like they're gatekeeping what the real price of the property should be based off of whatever they think it should be, right? It has nothing to do with what the real value is, just what they think it should be. So if you can't get past that realtor, you're kind of SOL, right? The benefit of working direct to homeowner is the opposite. Like you get direct to homeowner, obviously there's usually payment for speed and convenience of working with people like us, cash buyers, et cetera. So there's a lot of ease in that. And again, you get to build a report and relationship through that as well before making those lower

offers like you were saying. So preference, honestly, I think if you have the means to do it, I think there's a good balance of both. I think if you have the means to do it, I think there's a good balance of both. I think obviously realtors are free. You know, you can dial as many realtors as you want on the open MLS. There are, you're going to accrue costs trying to find off market deals, you know? So it's just, I think it's your threshold of what you're willing to spend and or how much time that you have. There's also free ways, man, like you've taught before the social media

method that you can find deals off market, just on Facebook, which I've done a few times as well. So, yeah, there, you know, listen, and again, this just goes back. Most people try to take a YouTube university approach. There's 62 different ways people are teaching on YouTube. There's no congruencies, no one's holding your hand. I'm not even saying those 62 are wrong. But if you just are trying the best you can, again it goes back to just like knowledge versus wisdom. If you're just trying to do it because you know the

process of doing it, it's like a recipe, right? Like, you know the recipe needs four eggs and you know it needs flour and you know it needs salt and you know, but you don't know the measurements and you don't know what sequence that you want to add these things and should stuff be cooked. Like, not having someone showing you how to bake that cake, so to speak, is really a detriment because there's a lot of different ways to do this at very low cost. I mean, I literally am looking at my own business right now and we have really high cost on some of our marketing, we're debating whether we want to get rid of

it to just go into a lower cost, wider volume lead flow, right? And I'm 18 years in the space and I'm still trying to figure out always what is the best. I pride myself on being someone that is the tip of the spear. So I'll go try things for everybody and then I'll bring it back like, Hey, this really works or Hey, this didn't really work. Don't do it. Because then you might ask, Hey, should I do this thing?

And I realized it didn't work. I'll tell you no. But the reality is this is an ever fluid business, right? Like there is a small handful of people, very small, and they have been around about the same amount of time I've been around that literally has stuck to the same thing, doing the same thing every day, same marketing strategy, et cetera. And it has worked for them for the most part. 99% of our

space should diversify what we're doing. Yep. On market, off market, free and paid. Agreed and again you know back to the YouTube University the challenge is and I think we all kind of face this in the beginning is without a coach it's so easy to get shiny object syndrome. Like you said, everyone has the right answer. Everything that you see on YouTube is possible and tangible. But if you're kind of just trying one of everything, you're never going to get anywhere. And like I'm guilty of it. You know, when I first got into coaching, like not necessarily under your advisement,

but like I bought every comping tool, I bought, you know, everything imaginable. And still through the first year, I was like, okay, should I go try, you know, to learn tax deeds and should I try this and that? And so like not having a coach to guide you and just tell you like, Hey dude, like just chill out, you know, which I think we've had to have that conversation quite a few times. Um, I think it's just a lot of time wasted and you know, people always say time is money, so from a coaching aspect, like you can go do the YouTube University,

but you're going to spend a lot of wasted time just filtering, finally trying to find what works for you. And the reality is all of them would work if you just stay true to one and kind of go, you know, head on. And give yourself the runway. Like you can't, too often I see everyone start to measure themselves 30 days in, 60 days in, 90 days in. And they measure themselves, they critique themselves, they judge themselves, or they judge, you know, they point fingers, the market, the interest rates,

the this, the that. You didn't even give yourself enough time to find the success, right? It's the classic book that was written in the image of like that guy, three feet from gold or the little image of the guy in a tunnel, like an inch away from diamonds, and then he turns around and leaves is that that's it. That's always it. It's right when it's like, you need to make one last call, right? Like every sales coach has always said, it's always the hundred and first call.

You set out to do a hundred calls, make one more. Cause it's always that call that gets you the deal. Great. Very briefly, let's talk about REI live, REI live.co. What is meant to you? What you see is going on in the community. Uh, I built it at the end of last year to launch this year. Um, what is happening with REI lab?

Let's talk a little bit about reilive.co. Well, first of all, I wish you had invented it when I first started. Yeah, I get it. I get it. Man. No, I mean, realistically, there's just so much value there. You know, just being able to have, I think we have at this point, 10 calls a week. You know, so 10 live calls where you're able

to transfer the phone over live to someone with, you know, 10 years, 18 years of experience, 20 years of experience, a collective amount between everyone that's coaching, you know, 40 years of experience in real estate. It's a, again, I just wish it was there when I first started because being able to transfer you, you know, or transfer Anthony, a homeowner and or an agent just say, Hey man, can you take over this deal for me and close it? Like, Oh man, again, I can't go back two years, but so I'll reminisce on that later, but yeah, just, just the value from a new person or even a seasoned person that not only needs help just closing the deal that might not have the skills of a closer or again, 18 years of experience, but also the

value of the disposition side. Like I found out five, six deals in, like, I don't want to do disposition. I don't want to do both because it both takes so much time, like acquisitions and dispositions need in my opinion, like their own category. So the fact that, you know, you're able to assist in whatever deals that we contract and help us disposition, and not only that, but through that, we get to leverage your day along the way. Totally.

There's so much value in that. I feel like I've kind of hung on your coattails doing that since I've started anyway, and now you've just given people the opportunity to do it as well so well she should I mean listen for those that don't know reilive.co and the running joke is it really is dot co I'm not mispronouncing it I couldn't afford the M right I couldn't afford the M so reilive.co if you haven't seen it heard about it been, been a part of it, check it out. But it is literally $200 a month to have up to 10 calls a week live in person, not just coaching, but actively doing the deals with you, right? Negotiating the deal, comping the deal, lean on me and my team, my general

manager and myself run the calls. Anthony runs the calls and we are actively helping you go get your first deal or second deal or gain consistency. But the reason why I wanted to do it is I didn't want to get rich off of people anymore. And I did that. Like I said, like you said, right, you wish you had it when it was, you know, uh, two years ago.

And I've spent a decade charging 10, 15, $20,000 for coaching. And I just said, you know, God literally spoke to me and said, dude, do more deals, right? That's where I ended 2024, do more deals. And I could have just built my business bigger, right? Spent more money, created more acquisition teams, or I could just do it with people. And yeah, I'm giving up 50% but so's the other side.

But now I'm doing more deals and I'm listening to what was told to me. And I just say, this is such a better way to win with people and get rich with people versus getting rich off people. And it just feels good. It feels way better. Um, and I enjoy it, right? I mean, we literally, after this podcast, we literally have an REI live call to go do

this exact thing, right? And so, and then there's a premium version where I'll actually buy you guys leads, right? Where I'm actually spending money as part of the membership to buy you direct to homeowner leads. So again, if you just go to reilive.co there's a jumpstart version, then there's a premium version. Doesn't matter $200 or $400,

but guys, it really is empower, it impacts me to make an impact on you guys by getting you guys these deals, right? That's the idea, is to get rich with you, not just get rich off you. That's right. So brother, this journey is not even over with us. We have a lot longer to go.

It's gonna be fun. That's right. We have a lot longer to go. It's going to be fun. Uh, we're going to go through a lot. Uh, hopefully most of it is just amazing on amazing trajectory. But as you both know, business is business, right? You take the good with the bad. So that's right. Yes, sir. I appreciate you.

Love you, dude. Love your family. Love to see what you've done, the commitment you've made to your family, first and foremost, but also to your own business, which is a part of your family. And so everyone go follow Anthony Cota. He is just a go giver. He's there for you. And Anthony Cota, Cota Creative Capital is also his handle.

And so just go check them out. But I appreciate you coming on the Science Fli. Absolutely brother, love you man, appreciate everything you guys have done. If this was helpful and you think a person or two could use this information or needs to hear this make sure you share it with two of your friends. See you guys on the next episode. Peace out bro.