18 to Big Business

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Say we have Ryan Zolin with 34 holdings, one more player in the Phoenix market, and he's gonna share how he did 24 deals in the first quarter this year for over 300 k before even turning 23 years old. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, sales trainer for some of the top wholesalers in the country, and I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires. A question I get all the time is how do I become one of the 100 millionaires?

The information on this podcast alone is enough for you to become a millionaire in the next five to seven years. Take consistent action and you will become one. When you hear a nugget, type in the comment section. And after the show, identify your single biggest takeaway and focus on just that for the next seven days. If you get value today, please tag your friend below, share this episode right now.

That way, we can all grow together. And this is a live show, so please ask your questions for Ryan to answer. You ready? Let's do it. Alright.

So first question is what got you into real estate?

Ryan Zolin: Super, super. So I started real estate at 18 years old. It wasn't until about, like, a month ago I was just able to kinda connect some pieces. My brother actually paid for me to go to a Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar. I was a senior in high school.

Obviously, I didn't take it that serious, but we were there for a weekend. I paid or he paid for me and one of my buddies to go. Buddy slept through the whole thing and I ended up graduating as a senior, obviously, high school and I was like, what am I gonna do? College was the only thing I knew was not on the table. So, I waited out of my options.

I'm like, you know what? Let's try real estate school.

Steve: College was not on the table?

Ryan: It was not. GPA was not there and I had no desire for college. So

Steve: was there any kind of like deliberation? Was there something like, you know, a conversation with the parents or yourself talk? Like, what do or was it just simple,

Ryan: not gonna happen? It was a mixture of multiple things. My dad told me he wasn't gonna pay for college unless I was gonna be a doctor, lawyer, attorney, engineer, teacher. I'm sure there's probably a couple more.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: And I looked at all those and I was like, well, I hated high school. So look at option one doctor. I mean, that's a lot of school. Attorney, that's a lot of school. Yeah.

I just crossed off everything pretty quickly and I got to the point where I'm like, I'm probably not even gonna be a good nine to five employee. So

Steve: Okay. So your brother paying for you to go to Resideo Puerto though, did that help at all or is not even It did. That was like a waste of his money?

Ryan: The only thing I was able to take away from it and I hate to say it, yes, wasted his money. I think it was like $2,500 for the weekend. Yeah. But it was a sales pitch. Those guys at the end of the day, they're going to tell you all this stuff about their program.

They're going to teach you enough to where you're interested in it. But then, at the end, it's like, oh, bring your credit card to the back of the room, $25,000 to be coached one on one by blah blah blah.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: So, I was like, I mean, I don't have 25,000, but

Steve: Right.

Ryan: I mean, sure, this maybe works. I don't know. So, I just kinda, I don't know. I ended up passing on real estate at the time being, but then I was still a senior in high school. So, it was just when I graduated, I weighed out my options and real estate seemed to be the only one that you you didn't need a college degree for and I could be my own

Steve: boss. What about real estate?

Ryan: Put that

Steve: in that direction.

Ryan: So my dad and brother have a restaurant repair company. That's what brought my family from Illinois to Arizona initially was my mom and dad starting up the it's when you see the equipment, restaurant repair HVAC company. And for me, I used to take my spring break, fall break, summer breaks of school, and I would work the the time off that I had from there over at his work. And nothing against, his company. I just realized pretty quickly that kind of like the conversation you and I had before the show was I'm not your guy that's gonna get his hands dirty.

I'm the student type business guy that can have conversations like this, present myself with somebody, and then hopefully make enough money to pay somebody to figure out problems.

Steve: Right. So Okay. So your first step Yep. Was real estate school.

Ryan: First step is real estate school.

Steve: Why real estate school? That's what

Ryan: my dad told me to do. Mhmm. Figured if I failed, I'd be 18. Worst case scenario, I'm out, maybe call it a thousand bucks.

Steve: What do you

Ryan: have to lose?

Steve: Okay. So then you went to real estate school.

Ryan: July 5.

Steve: Yep. What'd you do with that?

Ryan: Started off 07/05/2016. I just remember that because all my friends afterwards went on vacations with their family. They were given money from graduation. So, a lot of them kinda were stupid with it and spent their money.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: For me, I went right to real estate school July 5 because I took a little bit of a break from, I think it was like June to July, whatever, a month to myself. Then it was July 5, started the real estate school. I got out, I think it was a month and a half, and then I started off on a team. It was on a team over at Keller Williams. I was basically an ISA, an inside sales agent, just working through leads ten, twelve hours a day.

Steve: So was this like a situation where, like, they were coming to the school to recruit you? Or?

Ryan: No. I was full of myself in real estate school. They tell you to go and interview all these brokers. And so I put on my fanciest suit and tie and I went and I thought that I was the one being interviewed by all these brokers and I didn't realize I'm doing the interviewing. I have pick the one that aligns with what I think would work for me.

Mhmm. So, I ended up narrowing it down between two places. One was, like, the big fancy penthouse brokerage and then one was Keller Williams. I decided to go to Keller Williams because they offered me a salary even though it was only $24 a year and I thought that that was stability. And so I had that.

Another part of real estate schools, they teach you everything just like high school. They teach you everything that you need to know about how to do your job and how to live life. Right? No. Not at all.

Real estate school for me, I only knew 3% commission and that was the only thing I retained from the school. So when I was signing up for brokerages and teams, I saw seven and a half percent and I'm like, okay. Like, I can make some serious money here. Then I realized it's seven and a half percent of the 3%.

Steve: Right. So you see, you learn 3% is normal. 3% is normal. Oh, no, sorry, not normal. Common.

And then you see seven and a half, like, okay, that's way better than that that Yep. They told me in the store. I thought

Ryan: it was me balling balling. And this is with my $24 salary. I'm like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Steve: Right. Okay. So what did you learn working on a real estate team?

Ryan: You know, so my specific job being the ISA was just going through their CRM, working through their leads, their database, sales, follow ups. Most importantly, it was just having conversation. I didn't realize how many people are so scared to pick up their phone and just, hey, how are you? Mhmm. So especially young people.

People are all just text, text, text. So for me, it was, just honestly working through leads, figuring out kind of what the process was. You're not gonna close somebody on your second phone call with them. You've got between seven to 12 calls. So it was just mindset stuff having to get out of that hurdle.

Steve: How many dials were you making then?

Ryan: Man, I was in the office every day at like 7AM and I was there till about six or seven at night. So it was a dialer. I couldn't even tell you the amount. I was probably going through 5,000 a day ish, 3 to 5,000 a day, contracts. Okay.

Steve: So brand new, out of real estate school, 18 years old and you're just pounding mojo. Yep. Alright. How long were you doing that?

Ryan: Four months.

Steve: Okay. What happened at four months?

Ryan: So I was able to get some success pretty quickly because when you're doing numbers at that scale, like broken clock is right twice a day, you're bound to fall into something. And so I got four deals in my first four months. My first red flag was that I didn't get paid right when the deal closed, which is fine. I mean, each team has their own agreement and split. But because I was technically salary plus commission Mhmm.

I got paid when my paycheck was gonna come.

Steve: Gotcha.

Ryan: So I got the four deals closed and out of the four checks, there was a check for $900 and I was like, woah. That's not seven and a half percent.

Steve: Yeah. So Okay. So you close your deals Yep. And then that's when maybe reading the contract might help you. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Understanding the contract. Yep. So you get your first paycheck and literally it was a paycheck. Mhmm.

You look at it and It

Ryan: was before vacation too to make it even even better. I was about to go to Chicago for my aunt's wedding.

Steve: And I

Ryan: was like, hey, can I get my check before I go?

Steve: Like, I

Ryan: don't want everyone to buy my sports stuff and give me a check for 900. I'm like, well, that's the flight. Yeah. So

Steve: So that's not seven and a half percent of four deals.

Ryan: Yep. Okay.

Steve: And then so what was that? Was that an abrupt ending at that point then?

Ryan: No. So I ended up, transitioning to the investment side where I had no idea what I was doing. I was just kinda connected with another guy in the team. But for them, I think it was no stress. They didn't have to pay me a salary or anything like that.

Mhmm. It was just based off deals I bring in. But I had no idea how to work through any of the systems other than I mean, I saw the entire database. The database they had was, like, 30,000 leads. Mhmm.

But then each individual agent on the team had their own, like, sub domain to the CRM Mhmm. Where they had maybe, call it, couple 100 leads. So for me working through that, I was like, woah, hold on, like, I don't have any leads now. I saw the 30,000 we had. Who's working those 30,000 for me now?

Mhmm. And so, it was kinda like, I think that limbo stage where it just didn't make sense for me to be be at that team anymore. I didn't have somebody working leads for me, setting up appointments. And then also, the leads that I did have were, like, five, ten of them. Like, it wasn't anything crazy.

Steve: Oh, you're you're now officially working?

Ryan: On more on the agency side, I guess, as opposed to admin.

Steve: But you're on your own to hunt?

Ryan: For sure.

Steve: Yeah. Right. Okay. So how how long did you do that for?

Ryan: So I was with them then, it was like two weeks. Okay.

Steve: Yeah. So what'd you do after that?

Ryan: I split apart from the team and I went and found a guy that has a pizza shop in, Tempe that my dad took care of and it was right across from ASU and I was like because I called my dad, I'm like, yo, what do I do? Like, this didn't work out but I'm not done with real estate, I can see the potential. And so I had made connections with a couple other agents over at Keller Williams when I was there, Templeton was one of them. Mhmm. And, kept in contact with him, but when I split apart, I ended up finding this guy, his name is Jeff.

He has that pizza shop in Tempe. Mhmm. I called him up, I was like, hey man, I've got a proposition for you. You know my dad, but let's meet up for coffee. Right.

So we did. I thought I was shooting for the stars when I sat down with them because I was like, hey, I got a good idea. You worry about the deals that you've got, I don't want anything to do with it. Anything I bring to the table, let's split it $50.50. And he said yes.

Steve: Yeah. That was a really hard sell.

Ryan: You know, it's funny because coming from where I thought I was getting like just completely screwed over to that, I felt like I was like, oh, man. Like, why would he say yes to me? In hindsight now, if somebody were to even come to me and say that, I'm like, yeah, you're no risk. Like Alright. Why not?

Come on in. You don't want any money? You don't want any okay. Yeah. Sure.

Bring me a deal and I'll I'll split it with you.

Steve: It's called

Ryan: the JV. Right?

Steve: So Okay. So you go work for Jeff and this is a different brokerage.

Ryan: Yes. Different brokerage.

Steve: So you went to a different brokerage. And I remember because I I know I know the owners are there. And they're like, man, like, this Ryan kid is is, out of this world. He's gonna crush it. He's kind of like the future face of our company.

And then, that didn't quite happen.

Ryan: Yeah.

Steve: So you went well, let's say let's talk about what you learned under Jeff, and then before we talk about what you went after that.

Ryan: For sure. So under Jeff, I learned everything real estate. One thing that a lot of people don't know about what I was able to learn when I was with him is we specialized in commercial and business broker transactions. So we sold, I mean, 9 and a half million dollar car washes. We sold $500,000 commercial buildings.

Like, we sold anything and everything to then even nail salons, restaurants, a recording studio company, like

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: We did a bunch of business transactions. I learned a lot of just things that I could tell you the traditional agent does not know. So, there was that and then also, obviously, just the traditional business of helping people buy and sell.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: I was super intimidated by the paperwork and just, hey, man. Obviously, like, I don't read the paperwork, so I don't know how to do it. But, you know.

Steve: So you start off inside sales agent. You're calling leads. You eventually go work for a commercial guy Mhmm. And then you connect with Templeton.

Ryan: Sort of. We So him and I were like a mentor mentee relationship for a year, and then we ended up starting our own team at that brokerage. And that lasted like another seven, eight months. But we grew the team pretty quick. We were the number one team at the brokerage and did pretty well.

And then you went to go? To eXp.

Steve: Yep. Right. And you worked with Templeton?

Ryan: Yep. Was it Templeton that kind

Steve: of opened your eyes to the investment side?

Ryan: Absolutely.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. So what what were the things you learned from Templeton?

Ryan: So it was actually just one breakfast. It was kind of funny how it all played out but I think similar to what you had heard about the old brokerage, he heard through the grapevines that I was doing pretty well on the traditional side.

Steve: Mhmm. Went

Ryan: out to breakfast and I always say like this story, it's hysterical when I explain it, but I went to breakfast with this dude and he's telling me like he does like $3,040,000,000 a year on traditional sales and I'm like, okay, I think we're on track for 3 to 5,000,000. Okay. Like, okay. Jeez. Whatever.

So there was that. And then he's like, yeah. And I do this thing wholesaling. I bring in an extra 400,000 on the side every year. Mhmm.

And I like just stopped dead in my tracks and I just I put my fork down. I'm like, did you just said 400,000 on the side? So you're implying this isn't even like your your full time job. What are what are you doing? Mhmm.

And as I kind of connected the pieces of what this wholesaling concept was, I was like just mesmerized. I went back to the brokers, the ones that where I had I was with Jeff and I was like, wholesaling. This is the future. Nobody's doing it. Trust me.

They didn't trust me.

Steve: So they didn't see eye to eye on that?

Ryan: They did not. They told me wholesaling was not a way to make money in real estate.

Steve: Right.

Ryan: Mhmm.

Steve: And I've said similar things a long, long time ago. Right? None of us are perfect. Of course. And so you go to learn from Templeton who's doing the show twice already.

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: And so at which point then do you start actively wholesaling?

Ryan: It wasn't until I had actually switched over so we switched from that brokerage to eXp where we were under Templeton MLM, and then we left eXp, and it wasn't until we were at Stunning Yeah. With you.

Steve: So you move your license over here

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: Where our studio is, guys. The students inside the brokerage. So you come over here. So you got Templeton over here. Mhmm.

You're over here. But before you blew

Ryan: up to

Steve: where you are today, there was also another friend of ours with Jamil. Yes. So you wanna talk a little bit about that?

Ryan: Absolutely. So when we switched over from eXp to Stunning Homes with You, I had basically felt like I got kicked in the teeth. Like that was, I was going from top team, top producer to when I went to eXp, I felt like we took a hit down a little bit. I was like, I need to just redo this because I'm starting a team on my own now. I don't have a business partner.

I don't have any of the agents on the team except for one. Like, what am I doing? So I really relied heavily on you and relationships Mhmm. And you kind of opened the door for a lot more opportunities and just conversations that I felt like I could at least hold my own on. Right.

And so I went, the story of how I met Jamil, it was crazy. You gave me his number. I texted him. We were gonna meet up at, we'd planned for his office. I called him an hour before the meeting.

I was like, hey man, just wanna let you know, I'm on my way or I just wanna wanna make sure we're good for an hour. We're gonna be meeting an hour. He's like, yeah, sounds good. I'll send you the Zoom link. I'm like, well, I'm local.

I'll be there in twenty. And then it's like, oh, even better. And this dude had never met me, never even knew who I was, maybe had a simple conversation with you about me.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: But as soon as I walk in that door, it was like just family. They were like, everybody come on in. We love you, Ryan. Let's show you the operation. I mean, I had no idea what acquisition, disposition, like any of what their departments were.

Yeah. But I was like, dude, Templeton Templeton makes 400,000 wholesaling on the side and Jamil does this full time. Like Yeah. He has to be legit. Yeah.

So it was, it was like a I don't even know. It was that same day he told me that they were gonna be releasing a course called Astroflipping.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: And I I don't know what in my head was going on. I just handed him my credit card. I was like, he didn't tell me an amount.

Steve: Jimbo's a closer.

Ryan: You know, in the moment, didn't even feel like it, which probably says that he's a really good one. Yeah. But, no. I gave him my credit card. I was able to, once they told me the amount, I negotiated it to be a couple payments.

Nice. Sweet. But I was actually the second student in that program.

Steve: Oh, you're the second student in Astro?

Ryan: Number two.

Steve: Oh, I had no idea.

Ryan: Number two. Who's number one?

Steve: I don't know.

Ryan: I haven't figured that one

Steve: out yet. I'll have to ask him that. Yep. Yeah. So, you you get into Astro and I because all all along this way, you and I, you know, we we mentor together.

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: Like you said, like, there was something about Astro that kinda, like, opened your mind. Like, yeah, you heard a little bit from Templeton. Yeah, you see you from Jamil, and there's Pace and and other guys in town. Yep. And the stuff that I've shared with you.

But there was something that you said within Astro that kinda like opened your your your mind. Yep. What was that?

Ryan: So for me, obviously, I'd been in real estate on the traditional side for two, three years, grew a team and all that. I already had about like 20 ish million in sales under my belt. Mhmm. So for me, I was still a little bit intimidated by escrow and contracts, but I kinda had the perception that escrow, they're gonna tell you if they need something and contracts, everything's fixable with an addendum. Mhmm.

So I, like, got rid of those limiting beliefs right away going into the program because week one was all about mindset. I was like, I'm gonna take this so serious. I have a guy on my traditional team, Kyle, that is my director of operations. I was like, hey, man, I'm gonna go MIA for a little bit. I'm gonna be locking myself in my room and going through this course.

If you need me, call me. Other than that, don't need me. Yeah. And so I went through the course and again, having that prior traditional experience, for me, a lot of the stuff that I think people really overthink in the escrow contracts and then the whole process of wholesaling, for me, once I was able to understand inspection period, earnest money, equitable interest, assignment contract. Yeah.

Done. K.

Steve: Yeah. And it's something I've said before, and I don't think anyone takes me seriously, is that the the biggest challenge to wholesaling or the biggest threat to wholesaling is other realtors.

Ryan: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Because there's a lot of overlap between the two industries. And I think if someone's a really good realtor

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: And could get off their high horse And judging the wholesaling industry, they can crush it in this industry. Unfortunately, a lot of them won't get off their high horse. Yep. And so let's talk about you you started real estate 18 years old. Mhmm.

You were doing deals. Yep. And then how old were you when you started doing the wholesaling?

Ryan: I was 20. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Because I still remember you couldn't drink at the Christmas party.

Ryan: I do remember that too.

Steve: So you're doing your first wholesale deal Mhmm. At 20. Yep. Let's talk about your first wholesale deal.

Ryan: Sure. It was a fun one. It was a Facebook group. Shout out to my man, Christian. He brought me a deal.

One of the techniques taught in the program is you can actually have your buyers, your end buyers, tell you what their buy number is Mhmm. Prior to you giving an offer out. So you just gotta be sly with your words and how you're word and everything. Went to one of my, reps over at Kegley. I'm like, hey, I have no idea what I'm doing.

This is my first deal. Got Got this guy, sent me a deal. Where do I need this to be at? And they said something like ninety five.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: This guy had sent me the property at fifty five. So right off the bat in Tucson, I'm like, okay. They said they need ninety five. I have it at fifty five. Let's get a little strategic here.

We utilized an option to get the ability to blast it to Kegley first and then once they end up blasting it out, the only thing that made it kind of a nightmare was we had five or six wholesalers ended up being on the whole transaction when it was all said How many? Like five or six. It and it got crazy towards the end because, we ended up finding out there were some liens on the property. It was like 5,000, $6,000 and me just being problem solver, I'm like, hey, wholesaler one, hey, wholesaler two, hey, wholesaler three, you take a thousand off, I take a thousand off, you take 500 off, you take 200 off.

Steve: So you're negotiating with everybody along the way. Yep. I think that's frowned upon.

Ryan: But I made it happen.

Steve: You made it happen. Man. And you got to go close. Yep.

Ryan: So I instead of making 11 or 12 on the first one, I made like 9. But I It's still solid. The course costed 7. Yeah. I mean, I was So right

Steve: off the bat, you paid off your, the the cost Yep. For the wholesale course. Yep. So that's huge. How long from when you first got Astro to when you closed

Ryan: Month and a half. Month and

Steve: a half. So that's huge as well. Yep. Alright.

Ryan: So I also do like to preface it by saying, when they started the course, I had basically one on one training with Josiah Grimes, where it was me and, like, two other people in their calls twice a week.

Steve: Yeah. So Probably helped a little bit.

Ryan: There's a lot of information you can get from a guy like Josiah when you're talking to him two, three hours a week.

Steve: Yeah. So Yeah. For sure. Yep. There's actually someone in our mentorship program.

And he actually mentioned, like, he loves signing up for new coaching programs because for the first six months is when you're gonna get, like, the best out of the guy. Absolutely. Yep. Alright. So you closed your first deal.

What'd you do after that?

Ryan: After that, I just reinvested it. Put it right back into marketing and I said, let's do it again.

Steve: Yeah. Because I know along the way, you were doing deals in Tucson and you were selling them to our friend, Ryan Bonita. Yep. So talk about that transaction.

Ryan: Yeah. He's bought a couple from us. There was one, you know, it's been a while now. He I I don't remember where I saw him. I think it was probably your show or it was social media or something.

Yeah. And I just called him and I was like, hey, I got a deal. It was prior to him blowing up on TikTok and all that stuff.

Steve: Yeah. Before he became an influencer.

Ryan: Right? Yeah. But no, he was just a super normal person picking his phone. I was like, this is where I got the property. This is what I think I could sell it at.

He's like, send the assignment.

Steve: Yeah. I'm like, okay.

Ryan: I hung up and before, like, I could even finish the assignment contract, he had earnest money deposited, title, wired and everything. And I was like,

Steve: he's a pro. Yeah.

Ryan: And I was like, alright. Cool.

Steve: And I really love that transaction. It has a special place in my heart. Yeah. Because that was how only know what I know about that transaction was I saw an Instagram story where you tagged me, Ryan, and Magnus. Right?

So you tag so you do a deal with Ryan in Tucson. He's my title company. And I find out about it, the closing, on Instagram. Like, that's like the best way

Ryan: Perfect scenario.

Steve: To do it. Right? Love it. And it's just the power of networking for everyone here. The the the networking create in a community, face to face and through social media

Ryan: Oh, absolutely.

Steve: Is mind boggling. Okay. So how did you go from there? Right? That was so that was three years ago or two years ago?

Ryan: Two and a half years ago. Yeah.

Steve: So how did you go from that

Ryan: two and

Steve: a half years ago to where you are today? What were some of the big Yeah. Learning missteps or whatever?

Ryan: How much time do I have?

Steve: I know. Plenty of time.

Ryan: So I've made pretty much every mistake I would say well, let me rephrase this. Mhmm. I have made a lot of mistakes for the hiring and firing and expanding. Like, I've tried to scale too quickly with teams. I think that was probably my biggest issue was last year about this time.

I was trying to just grow a team. I thought more bodies meant more production Mhmm. And that's not case. You need to have people that want to be there because those are the people that produce.

Steve: So So, big big learning opportunity for a lot of you guys listening is scaling too fast.

Ryan: Yes.

Steve: And you having too many bodies that you're responsible for.

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: What would you attribute that to, the desire to get a lot of people?

Ryan: I thought that I think okay. I think a lot of it has to do with being in this market. You see so many people that are just crushing it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: And so, it was almost like that level of comparison of like, well, so and so has acquisition managers, disposition managers, some people even have senior and junior acquisition and disposition. I need to have that. Right? And it was me also trying too hard instead of doing the work myself and figuring out how to do it so that I could best coach the people on what I'm trying to have them do. Yeah.

I mean, that was probably the first first of many mistakes.

Steve: And another thing too is you you you look around, especially in this market, like you mentioned. Right? You walk into Kiwi's office. They got, like, 30 people Yep. At at a computer.

Mhmm. You go down to the batch's office, there's a bunch of people in there. Yep. Right? So I can kinda see why going to these rooms, seeing these other people that you're trying to catch, you kinda have this keeping up with the Joneses.

Yes. That's a that's

Ryan: a very good way to put it.

Steve: Perfect. Yep. Okay. So you learned that lesson. Yep.

Yep. What did you do with that lesson?

Ryan: Cleaned house again. So that was last year about this time. We had five acquisition guys, two door knockers, three VAs, and then an assistant.

Steve: So you went huge on the traditional side, winded it all the way down Yes. And Alcala just runs that. Correct. And then you went huge on the wholesaling side, and now you've winded that down.

Ryan: This is correct. Yep.

Steve: And so now you kind of have a happy medium?

Ryan: I have a fantastic happy medium. Correct.

Steve: Got it. Okay. What other lessons did you learn along the way?

Ryan: So for me also, you don't need to spend a lot of money to make a lot of money.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: I've realized also and it seems like this whole perception is reality is just the running theme here. But through social media as well, we've got a lot of connections out here where guys are spending $250,000 a month in marketing. I was spending 5 to 6,000.

Steve: I'm

Ryan: like, that's not enough. I need more opportunities. I need this. I need that. And it actually, it wasn't until you had your event, where was it?

It was over at the guild office, I think, with all of the, the guys. It was like your first shop that you did, your first workshop.

Steve: Yeah. Yep. Well, we had a we had basically all the guys in town. Right? Everyone so we have a brokerage with a lot of wholesalers.

So we had Templeton, Jesse, Evo.

Ryan: Yep. And Corey was there.

Steve: Corey was there. Jared Vidalas, because his team was here. I can't remember Brent Daniels was in there, but I don't think he was in. Matthew Potter was in there. So basically, everyone that's doing off market deals Yep.

At our brokerage was in that room. Correct. Yeah.

Ryan: And so, I think just being at that event, my first real, like, good moment of, oh, wow, you don't need to spend so much money was when you started going through your systems. I was like calculating my head because I wrote down every website and I went back to my office. I'm like, those systems add up to like $2,500. What Yeah. What am I doing wrong?

And so I started like basically reverse engineering it all and then it was like two weeks later, three weeks later, we went to your sales workshop.

Steve: Mhmm. And

Ryan: then I started implementing that. We ended up putting one of the acquisition guys through Sandler afterwards. Mhmm. And so I really doubled down on the sales skills. Bought all the Sandler training books even though I didn't pay for the the program and basically just tried to pick as much as I could.

You and I meet a couple times a month and I'm like, did you just Sandler me? And I I I know I say that to you all the time too, but Well,

Steve: I definitely did. Not just that time but multiple times too.

Ryan: Well, of course. Of course. I

Steve: Can't help myself. Alright.

Ryan: Yeah. Sales.

Steve: Now, along the way, there's other communities that you surround yourself with as well. I mean, you got Brandon Simmons. Mhmm. Right? You got his group and then you got Nick Perry and whatever you get.

So talk to everyone else about the power of reaching up or reaching across the country.

Ryan: Yeah. So for me, I mean, I can even specifically even here too, not just countrywide. I've only gotten as far as I've gotten because of other people. Like, straight up. I have not I'm nothing special.

I graduated high school to one point I don't know. I was talking to Alvarado, 1.8 or 1.9 GPA. I, like, nothing special over here. I just surrounded myself by people that were smarter than me and better at things that I didn't wanna do. Mhmm.

It was that simple. So when I first started the team, I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I needed to work leads. The salary was obviously a good kick in and made me feel like I was stable. Yeah. Then from there, Jeff, Templeton, you, Jamil, like you said, Brandon, all these groups that I'm in.

I'm in a lot of masterminds. I always try to make it in where I'm in a room where I'm the dumbest person. Yeah. I wanna be a sponge and I wanna absorb as much information as possible. And as I started to be in these rooms, you start to take, like, good things from people and bad things.

You're like, okay, take this with a grain of salt, take that, whatever. But for me, it was really just an eye opener to realize that the same thing I just said was the same opinion and perspective that everybody else had. Mhmm. They had this mindset that I wanna be in these rooms with these guys. I I can't tell you how many of those guys have come to me and they're like, you are like a breath of fresh air being young and in this room.

It's not like it's all just talking shop. First in here like, I I walk in and I'm like, what's up guys? Energy. Let's go. And so it's just, I don't know, you are who you surround yourself with.

Your network is your net worth like Yeah. Straight up though, those guys are now some of my best friends and I call them weekly like, we're in that mastermind with Nick Perry and Corey and all those top hitter guys, and we meet usually twice a month, one halfway through the month and then one at the beginning of the month, and we go through our p and l's together, we go through all of our, like, goals for the month, goals for the year, we have accountability partners, like, it's that kind of mentality that I want to be around because it helps me get to the next level too.

Steve: Yeah. And, again, at age 23, it's incredible that you're already at that level to be learning. Right? Because I mean, at this time, I will see I wanna say I was just finishing grad school. School.

Right? I was getting ready to go work at Intel, going to get a nine to five job.

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: And so, you do traditional and you do wholesale. How do you balance the two? Because there are people that think you can't do both. How

Ryan: do you balance

Steve: the two?

Ryan: You can't do everything on your own. I actually was just talking about this with my team today. You have to do everything, like, in a process but by relying on other people. So just as I said a minute ago about relying on other people's strengths, for me, I could tell you paperwork and transaction coordination, that clearly was not it. Yeah.

Kyle handling the transaction coordination, all the paperwork for the files on the traditional side, the onboarding of the agents, the hiring of them, That took a load off of me that I wasn't able to realize until I really got into the investment side that I was like, wow. And I had a lot of people on the way, of course, saying shut down traditional, shut down traditional. As I stepped away, our production actually went up. Mhmm. And I think it's because I was like a helicopter just above it, monitoring, being like, this is my baby.

This thing has gotta be perfect. This is my name, my reputation, my brand. And as I stepped away, we started just expanding, bringing on other people that were more like minded, but also, I was like disconnected a little bit so the word Kyle could come and say, hey, this system should change or we should try tweaking this or what's your opinion on this? Mhmm.

Steve: And it

Ryan: was things that kinda just helped me take a step back and be like, wow, You're right. Yeah. Or I'd be like, man, I have nothing to lose. Let's do it. Let's take a risk.

So

Steve: How has your age affected your business?

Ryan: When I first started, it was my biggest weakness. And now, I would tell you it's my biggest strength. Weakness, mindset, you have this mentality when you first get into the industry, especially being 18, that high school didn't teach me anything and I'm surrounded by people that are two, maybe even three times my age. Mhmm. And on top of that, this is the most, like, important and biggest purchase and sale people make in their entire life is buying and selling a house.

Why would they trust me at 18? Yeah. It's a limiting belief to an extent, but I've also had a lot of people tell me, no way would I trust an 18 year old.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: So I had the mindset of just surround myself by somebody that makes it look like I'm credible. So when Jeff and I were partnered up, we used to go around telling people I was the social media guy. He was the business guy and I could tell you all these business owners would eat it up because they're like, he's he's 18, he's 19. He knows how to use technology. I am probably the worst technology, like, driven person my age that I've ever met.

And I have these older guys being like, he's half my age. He's gotta know what he's doing. Right?

Steve: Right.

Ryan: So for me, it was just kinda leaning into that, now being my biggest strength, I've got the time that other people don't.

Steve: What does that mean?

Ryan: I would say most people that are twice my age that are intimidated would be the fact that in twenty years, they're probably not in the industry and I'm still going. Mhmm. So I've got plenty actually quite a few people come to me and say, if I could give you everything I've acquired, all my properties, all my money, everything to go back and have your age, I would do

Steve: it. Absolutely.

Ryan: And I take that pretty seriously and it's I'm in

Steve: that I'm in that category.

Ryan: I appreciate Yeah.

Steve: If I could have what I know now at 23, I would give up everything to do that. Okay. So now but you started three companies now? Three. Okay.

What are those three companies again?

Ryan: So we've got the traditional side, the Zolin Group, the one that helps families buy and sell. We've got 34 holdings. We flip wholesale, have a few properties that we own to. Mhmm. And then the

Steve: staging company that we just bought. Got it. And you're doing a 100 k a month now? Yep. How does that break down?

Ryan: So, it's usually a it's a mixture of really just the two companies of traditional and wholesale. Mhmm. The staging company, we just bought two months ago. But between the the two other companies, we're doing about it ranges anywhere from a bad month on traditional is two to three deals. A great month is $6.07, all the way up to 10.

Mhmm. On the investment side, we're fortunately now just got over the bubble where we're hitting 10 a month, but we're averaging between 10 to 15 of those. Average spread on the wholesale is about 12,000. And then we're getting a lot of obvious on market deals too.

Steve: So Gotcha. And so talking about the the the wholesale side, you're doing double digit. Mhmm. You have a process that most people think is impossible. Let's keep it that way.

No. We're not gonna keep it that way. So because you're in one of the most competitive markets

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: In the country. Right? And you're doing deals. What is your number one lead source?

Ryan: MLS.

Steve: How is that possible?

Ryan: You know, I love when I talk to people about this because, you know, I coach a few people too and stuff from social media. And I always tell people this is, like, my number one lead source. And the faces of these people when I say that to them is comical. Because everyone's like, it's on the MLS, it's already gotten offers, it's already too high, their retail value, their terms are ridiculous, there's commission involved, there's a listing agent that whatever their excuse is. For me, same thing as when I started the Astro program, flip my hat around.

I'm like, I can pretend like I know what a realtor thinks because I am a realtor.

Steve: Like Mhmm. So

Ryan: when I call somebody and say, do you wanna make twice as much money? And they say no. I mean, I I I'm appalled. I'm like, woah. What do you mean you know?

Is it your broker? Is it you? Is it your client? Okay. No worries.

We'll write it ourselves and we'll take the commission. That's fine. Or we'll go unrepresented. So we've really just dialed in the MLS process of building rapport with these agents. You could probably even answer this one.

You guys list a property. Do you get offers that are cashed without them calling you or following up?

Steve: Yeah. I think, I think the the most atrocious one I ever got was from Jared Bailey.

Ryan: Dallas, of course. Yeah. 30 for 30¢ on the dollar. I I saw him last week and I said that to him, like, bro. He's like, it was automated.

I'm like, that's your problem. You didn't call me. That's why I would have gotten the deal. But, I actually wanna give a shout out to one of the guys on the team, Albert.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: He just locked up a deal three days ago. It was Monday. Or maybe it was last week, whatever. It was listed at five seventy five. We got it at $4.55.

Steve: How?

Ryan: I don't even have words. Like, this is the biggest price off from the list price that we've gotten

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: So far since I've been doing this. He built such good rapport that he was on the phone with the agent for over an hour, and it got to the point we went out and looked at the property and everything that they had two other offers on the table, conventional and FHA, that were at least 20,000 higher than us and they decided to go with us because of the report that we built with the seller's agent. Gotcha. So we get commission, obviously, and then we'll see what happens.

Steve: So what are the strategies though? If someone wanted to go, you know, go do the MLS thing, what are the strategies?

Ryan: I think it's being specific. I think just like on the approach of people do the the mass texting cold calling RBMs, the problem that people have is that they're not dialed in. They're not specific enough of what their search is. So we do a little bit of texting and cold calling on our ourselves, but it's very dialed in. Just like the MLS, it's specific searches.

Each MLS is different. Mhmm. But out here, we have the public remarks, private remarks, semi private remarks. You type in motivated and semi private, but then you remove it from there and you put it into the just public one. Those are two different searches.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: So it's like having okay. I'm gonna go through all the motivated between those three today. I'm gonna go through all as is. As is could be typed in one word, as dash is, as is with a space. I mean, there's so many different ways.

My favorite's invest. You catch investor, investment, investments. Mhmm. But then also, if it's been on the market in Gilbert or anywhere in the East Valley that's super desirable for people that don't know, that are listening, aren't local, if it's been on the market in a desirable area like that for seven days, we're on the phone. Yeah.

And it's just because if it's on the market seven days in the market where I could sneeze and before I'm even done with my listing paperwork, I've got five offers. Mhmm. There's something wrong. And what I teach there is that it's either a bad agent or it's a bad seller. Sometimes you're lucky and it's both.

Steve: Yeah. So Yeah. The one and we don't do a lot of MLS deals, but the one that I I enjoy the most is one that we, it was listed for like $2.75 and we contracted for 200. And then we listed it the following for $2.70. And all we did was clean up the backyard.

I believe it. And it's crazy to me. Yeah. How does that work? Yep.

By the way

Ryan: That was probably a mixture of well, that was probably more so Bad Agent. Bad Agent where they couldn't walk in and just say, let's clean this thing up and we'll get our $2.75. Yeah.

Steve: Well, on that one, I'm convinced this is only a year ago, right, that they were using an iPhone four to take photos. Alright. So, let's talk about how much wholesaling you're doing and how much flipping you're doing.

Ryan: Yep. So, wholesaling, again, ten, fifteen a month. Flipping, right now, we've got two active projects. Third one's on the way. We just sold our big one up in Scottsdale a couple weeks ago.

Steve: And What'd you do on that one?

Ryan: The one up in Scottsdale? Mhmm. We netted $1.40.

Steve: $1.40. Yeah. On one deal?

Ryan: One deal. We picked it up at 05:25 Probate MLS. Got commissioned to buy it. We put in 55 into it and sold it at $7.55.

Steve: Yeah. And I think that's one of the things that you you you kinda giggled by. I see you, like, on TikTok. Right? It's like, not only did I buy this as such a good deal, but I got paid a commission Mhmm.

On top of it. Yep. And these commissions are not small amounts.

Ryan: No. I mean, two and a half, 3%. And the best part is too, again, thinking traditional agent, how many agents do you have even at the brokerage that you've talked to in the past that would die to have a $500,000 buyer? I'm writing the offers as if I'm the buyer and getting the commission off a $500,000 deal without even buying the property.

Steve: Yeah. So Yeah. That works out pretty well.

Ryan: For sure.

Steve: Okay. So then what does your company look like today?

Ryan: So I spend most of my time with Thirty Four Holdings. That's on the investment side. I like to be going through, just my MLS deals, offers that we're submitting. I sign all the paperwork for all the contracts we send out. It's usually about, like, anywhere from 30 to 50 a week, just depending on how many people we've got in the office that week.

Aside from that, on the Zollin Group, again, that side I'm disconnected from. I'm only helping people with buying and selling that are personal friends and family. Mhmm. Aside from that, we've got Kyle, Director of Operations, and then Amber, and those are my two traditional agents. And then on the investment side, we've got Albert, myself, and then we've got a bunch of acquisition guys we're hoping to bring on here in the next week.

Steve: Yeah. So you're recruiting as well.

Ryan: We are. We had, I think it was six interviews this week and I think a few of them made it past.

Steve: So Gotcha. Okay. So one thing that you and I talk about quite a bit, and I just kinda touched on it a little bit, is social media. So I'm always pushing to go harder on social media.

Ryan: Yep. What do

Steve: you wanna I mean, what what what is your opinion of social media?

Ryan: You know, I it's a double edged sword because while I can list off the things I don't like about it, I think it's better to start with the things I do like. Mhmm. It has an extreme value and where today we're at as a society, the amount of impact that we can be as influencers, that we could be as business owners, that we could be as even marketers with social media ads and what we're doing with all that fun stuff, the endless opportunities of what I think it's even a limiting belief of people like my parents age that were like, hey, you need to go to college. No, maybe not like less. They didn't grow up with Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

Like the opportunities are ridiculous. As for the things I don't like, I really struggle with the whole let's deep dive into somebody's personal life. I am all about the whole privacy. I feel like I work so hard throughout the day, ten, twelve hours, and I'm like wiped. Yeah.

At the end

Steve: of the

Ryan: day, I'm like, I'm done. I wanna go home. I wanna spend time with my dog. I wanna watch some TV or I just wanna unwind, rebook, whatever. And social media, I just feel like it's perception is reality.

It's so easy to get in a fight with a spouse and go on social media and be like, I wish I had this person's life.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: And I just I don't care for that at all.

Steve: So Yeah. So what are you doing to intentionally create content?

Ryan: It's usually when my team forces me and they say, hey, remember how you yelled at us this last week for not doing content? Mhmm. What are you not doing right now? And I'm like, content. And they're like, camera.

Let's go.

Steve: Yeah. Well, because you know it moves the needle.

Ryan: It does. And on top of that too, even while MLS is my top resource, social media is a very, very close second. Like, out of the money we've made so far this year, a third of it has probably come from social media.

Steve: So talk about that. What are you doing to get that?

Ryan: So I think that honestly, it's just that we've built such a good reputation in this community. And being around some of the guys like you, I mean, we're able to mooch off of you guys amazingly, so thank you. Yeah. But we can tag you guys. You tag us back.

But it also shows, hey, these guys are credible. They're friends with Steve. Like, I get people that ask me all the time, how are you friends with these guys? I'm like, I show up and they don't tell me to leave. Like, it's fantastic.

Steve: Yeah. It's they're not kicking me out.

Ryan: Right. But I think that's a big advantage for me. So for social media being local with everybody

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: I've just been able to kind of shine with that. And then TikTok, I mean, I've really dropped the ball recently, but I went from zero followers to 20,000 in, like, two and a half months without trying, like, at all. Yeah. And then I got a got comfortable. I had a bunch of people that kept me up for coaching, got a handful of people that pay me monthly a good amount of money per hour for coaching.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: And I just don't have the drive to be, like, committed every single day. So I'm working on it. It's a work in progress. But Yeah.

Steve: But for everyone that's listening, right, I mean, this is just one more thing you can add. It's free.

Ryan: Oh, absolutely. I was just gonna say, if you don't have a high marketing budget

Steve: it's free.

Ryan: It's free.

Steve: It's it takes time, but it's free. Yep. And, FlipLab says you're the GOAT.

Ryan: What's up, Ricky?

Steve: So he wants to know what made you move into the new office space?

Ryan: Great question. So the space we were at before, shout out again to Kyle Holder on my team. This dude has been through the ringer and back. We have been to eight offices in three years. Eight.

So the arrangement we made for this last one was Kyle gave us the middle finger and said, I'm not moving. Pretty fair. I understand.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: For us, going to the new office was that we had just bought the staging company and Are we

Steve: including the the the penthouse in the eight? No. Okay. No.

Ryan: I'm not counting brokerages. I'm counting. So when we were at that brokerage and they gave me the middle finger, we went, I walked away for a minute. I was gone for like

Steve: a

Ryan: month or two and we were working on my dad's house. Mhmm. We worked in a Regis office that was about the size of this. Mhmm. We were in a bigger Regis closet that was about this.

Mhmm. And then, we went to a Gilbert office. We went to a Chandler office, a downtown Chandler office, a the one we were just at and now the one we're in today.

Steve: And then, at some point, you were in Merrill's office.

Ryan: That was the Gilbert one. Yep. Got it. And so, we the office space we were at was cool. They, cool isn't even the word.

They're shared workspace and that's what most of our offices have been was shared workspace. Nothing against other people. I think that we are just fine, but for me trying to run the team the way that I do and the culture we have, it just got to the point where we just didn't, we didn't mix.

Steve: It's kind of like having roommates.

Ryan: Good way to put it. Right.

Steve: You gotta have you gotta be able to pick the right roommates.

Ryan: Yep. And if

Steve: you can't pick your roommates, it gets complicated.

Ryan: Exactly. And so, yeah, we biggest reason though that pushed us over the the needle was that we had to get the staging company space.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: And so for us, I did the math on storage units and what the amount of furniture we bought. I mean, we're talking three or four storage units. When you're talking 300 to $500 per unit, even 500, easy math for me, $2. I mean, I'd rather have it all centrally located in one office building and all

Steve: that stuff.

Ryan: So

Steve: Yeah. So and and I think it's really helpful. Right? Just think about what it costs for you to do something else. Mhmm.

Like, we got our space. We're in 6,000 square feet now. Yep. And it's still so much cheaper than when I was running events at hotels.

Ryan: Yep. Oh, I believe it.

Steve: Right? When they're charging you $400 for cookies, $600 for coffee.

Ryan: Yep. Seriously.

Steve: Right? So you you make these decisions just because it's cheaper than what the alternative is. And it's not like it's free. It's not that it's cheap. It's a lot cheaper than the alternative.

Ryan: Well, I mean, we don't like I didn't realize like how much cheaper it is from a standpoint of what we were paying. We were in an office space that was 400 square feet. The last one, that was shared space, 400 square feet that I was paying $1,500 a month for.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: I mean, this one is going from 400 square feet to 2,400 square feet. It's a pretty big difference. We're at like 1,200, 1,300 office and I think the rest is all warehouse, like 900. Yeah. So, it's a definitely a different vibe, but we're

Steve: loving it. It works.

Ryan: Yeah. We're loving it.

Steve: Alright. So, Rich Gets Richard wants to know what is your best deal?

Ryan: Who? My best deal. We had a deal in Tucson MLS. We got 16,000 commission and a 65,000 wholesale.

Steve: Yeah. So

Ryan: So Nothing too crazy. MLS deal.

Steve: MLS deal.

Ryan: Wholesale it to an investor. Made the money and

Steve: So you wholesale that to a different investor that wasn't T'Kigali or Pineda? Yeah.

Ryan: Definitely. That was your

Steve: own buyer. Yeah. Alright. Yep. There you go.

So that's pretty good. And again, guys, like, we talked about this before. I know you guys don't want to get licensed.

Ryan: But you Get licensed.

Steve: Can't do this.

Ryan: Get licensed.

Steve: You're not licensed.

Ryan: I also predict in the next five years, you're gonna need one anyway. So you might as well do it now before it's harder to get in.

Steve: Yeah. No.

Ryan: Absolutely. The entry level is pretty easy.

Steve: So Baller wants to know, how are you buying these companies?

Ryan: Buying these companies. So this one, the the staging company we bought

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: That was only like 25,000.

Steve: So How did you find it?

Ryan: Albert. We were looking for deals on Facebook. Girl posted in in there, and just like the sales skills you've taught us, they wanted 50 upfront, and they didn't get 50. Then she wanted 40. Then she wanted 35, then 30.

She had another buyer at 30, and I told her, I'm not your buyer. I don't wanna buy it.

Steve: Took it away.

Ryan: Took it away.

Steve: She came

Ryan: back to us, no. I wanna sell to you guys. Okay.

Steve: Yeah. And that 25 included furniture. All

Ryan: the furniture. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. So really wouldn't be

Ryan: We've got, I would say, probably about it's all used. I think it's probably about anywhere from 35 to 40, maybe 45 and In furniture. Random stuff. Yeah. A lot of knickknacks.

Steve: It's kinda crazy to think about. Alright. And I'm actually going through a business buying course right now

Ryan: Yep.

Steve: From my friend Kyle Malyon. And it's just interesting to hear about this whole other world when you're buying assets and like when they say it comes in inventory Yep. How much inventory really comes in? Right.

Ryan: I wanna see your PNLs. I wanna see everything. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So Benjamin Bag wants to know, if you could have coffee with someone dead or alive, who would it be and why? Walter Payton.

Ryan: Easy. For me, that's what thirty four is, thirty four Holdings. I'm a Chicago boy. So for me, I I don't know everything about the guy. I've watched a lot of tape on what obviously, I wasn't alive when he was playing.

But for me, he's the biggest role model for everything he was about, everything he did, and the way he just held himself. So Yeah. Without a doubt.

Steve: I actually did a book report on him.

Ryan: Yeah. In,

Steve: I wanna say middle or high school. And the thing I loved most about him was he was attacking the defense. Yep. He didn't try to go around the defense. Oh, yeah.

He was picking the guy. Yep. It's like, I'm running the guy over.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. He's like, that's my guy. Yep.

Steve: And I think that's the kind of mindset you have as well in this business. Yep. Abood Roses wants to know what do you see as the future of your business?

Ryan: For me, I don't think I'm ever gonna get to that point where I'll be comfortable enough to retire. I just don't have that personality to to stop. For me, the future Well,

Steve: I mean, shoot at 23, you got like another eighty years.

Ryan: Right? When I first started, my initial goal was financial freedom by '27. From there, I honestly want to spend a lot of time teaching, giving back. Back. It wasn't until I started coaching the people from social media that I realized my passion actually is teaching.

I really love to not be so much of an influencer, I think, is the wording nowadays where everyone's like, oh, you're this influencer guy in social media. That doesn't really catch my drift. It's more of the guy that's just like, I'm the I wanna be that real estate mogul. I wanna be the guy that's like, you wanna call me? Okay.

Well, start the time. Like, it's

Steve: gonna be

Ryan: a thousand bucks. Attorney. Exactly. Yeah. So

Steve: So then, you see because we had our event here about a month, two months ago. Mhmm. Where we had me, Kong, Ryan and Sam.

Ryan: Yeah.

Steve: So you see what we did there. Yep. That's not the direction you wanna go.

Ryan: I wouldn't mind that. I think for me, speaking at real estate events is all what it's about. It's just the whole fame and fortune for me. It's not it's not about the fame. I want to be able to actually provide value.

So a lot of what I'm doing with the people I'm coaching right now is I'm actually turning people away. I want them to be a good fit because I can take anybody's money and provide them enough value to get them going, but my natural instinct as a person is that I'm gonna schedule you for an hour coaching. You're getting an hour and a half because that's just me. I don't shut up and I try to over provide value rather than being like, here's enough to where you don't know how to close the deal, but you know how to get started, so you have to bring it back

Steve: to me.

Ryan: Yeah.

Steve: And I

Ryan: think that's how most of these gurus and courses are, so. So, you get a

Steve: chance to speak at Jamil's Mastermind. Yep. Yep. So, you wanna talk about that?

Ryan: Absolutely. Yeah. That was just the Astroflipping event.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: It's for they targeted people specifically in the program, but then also people that were interested in the program that just haven't pulled the trigger. It was like a three day event. There was a panel of some of the top wholesalers. I think there was like three or four of us. Mhmm.

And they called me and they said, hey, do you wanna speak on our panel? Right. And of course, I was like, absolutely.

Steve: So looking at my demographics, right, the people that actually watch our show, they're male, like 98% male. Yep. And like 60% of them are twenty five to thirty four.

Ryan: Awesome.

Steve: But the next demographic is those that are eighteen to twenty, eighteen to twenty four. Yep. Right? So what would you tell someone maybe what would you tell yourself when you were first getting started? What would you tell yourself before as you were getting into this business?

Ryan: I think the one biggest, like, misconception I had being in high school is, and I think a lot of younger people will relate to this, is that you can look at your teachers, you're looking at all these people that are authorities in your life some way or another. You think that they know more than you or that they know what's best for you because they're older. And it wasn't until I got into real estate and you start dealing with people's livelihoods and biggest purchase and sale of their life that you realize how many people's lives are actually not all rainbows and butterflies.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: More often than not, I would actually say that most people's lives suck. And I hate to say it that way, but

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: Seriously. And so for me, I think the whole take what you can, a piece of advice or take a a grain of salt from every person that you're talking to.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: The most important piece is making sure the person that you're taking the information from is someone that you look up to and respect.

Steve: Gotcha.

Ryan: So you don't need to be like, oh my gosh, Steve Trang walked by me. I need to ask him a question so I value. Mhmm. It's no, like, let's have a conversation

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: And maybe you could say something that I completely disagree with. Mhmm. But that's where you gotta be the glass half full and be like, you know what? He might have said this that I don't agree with, but he said this little nugget and this stuck to me, I'm gonna take this and that's how I'm gonna remember Steve. Yeah.

So it's just understanding that not everybody's gonna have your best interest, but everybody in the world will have at least some piece of value that they can give to you. Yeah. So for me, it was just understanding that and having to get through that hurdle and it's all just mind games being young.

Steve: Filtering what makes

Ryan: 100%.

Steve: What would, would you process, would you would you absorb? Yep. So Jesus Hernandez wants to know, on a cold call, well, do you cold call sellers right now? Do you do direct to seller marketing?

Ryan: We do direct to seller. It's mostly JV. So other wholesalers bringing it to me Yeah. Or, a referral of someone that says, hey, if someone so down the street wants to sell their house, go through all the options and it's not a listing, it's not rental for us, it's gonna be okay. We're gonna buy this one and

Steve: But you're not directly cold calling right now?

Ryan: No. I'm not cold calling.

Steve: Okay. So Meditation wants to know, if you have not closed a deal, but yet access to expired listings, how would you go about closing your first deal?

Ryan: It's a good question. So I really like the whole expired canceled game. For me, at the end of the day, what I always say, I like to break it down to two categories. I always do traditional investment. On the traditional side, the hardest part is finding a client.

On the investment side, the hardest part is finding a deal. For the standpoint of that, I would say that expireds, you had somebody that at one point raised their hand and said, I wanna sell my house. Mhmm. Again, I go back to the bad seller or bad agent. You know it's one of the two.

Bad agent, maybe it was overpriced. Maybe there was something that could have been done. Maybe the commission was too low and they only could get it at 3% commission total, so they're offering a flat fee to the buyer's agent. That's unappealing. Mhmm.

Maybe it's a bad seller and they're not allowing any showings. You don't know until you call, so you just call and you wanna have a conversation with them. Hey, are you still looking to sell 123 Main Street? Yeah. I am.

What happened? Oh, my agent sucks. I hate agents too. Tell me all about

Steve: it. Mhmm.

Ryan: Oh, okay. It's just a matter of figuring out kind of what's

Steve: Always the agent. It doesn't matter if it's a bad seller.

Ryan: Right. It's always the agent. Always the agent. Especially when you're talking to the seller. Yeah.

Steve: They always need to always the agent. Yep. So you got a chance to experience a whole bunch of different, guys in in our space. You know a lot of the guys in our space. Which education course would you suggest jumping into first?

Ryan: Man, that's a good question. I think it depends on what your experience level is. If you're experienced and you've done 10 plus wholesale deals, I haven't gone through it personally, but I would say probably an advanced one along the lines of the sub two course of PACE. For me personally being that I had no idea how to wholesale, the Astroflipping model was the best course that I've ever gotten myself into. Also self promo, if you need a discount code, call me.

But, no. Seriously, though, like, that course was just super in-depth detail. I always tell Jamil to his face, week one, you could have charged the entire amount for week one itself. Yeah. All mindset.

Steve: So those two. Yep. Miguel Prado wants to know what drives you?

Ryan: Oh. It's a really good question, Miguel. Mhmm. So I would say, for me, it's a mixture of multiple things. It's more of the fear of working for somebody else's dreams.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: So I'd rather wake up knowing that, okay, do I need to be at the office by 7AM? No. But should I be by the be at the office by seven, 8AM? Yeah.

Steve: Okay. Yeah.

Ryan: So it's more of just the mentality that I would rather do this for me than for somebody else.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: But with all that kind of contradicting itself, my later goal of future down the road is wife and kids. So I'm doing all this leg work now and I've put up all this that I have because I wanna have the ability to be a lot more present and just Yeah. Available later on. So

Steve: and I think also you kinda mentioned in the beginning that you don't really feel like you're employable.

Ryan: That's a very good one too. Somebody could tell me, hey, be at this spot from nine to five for x amount of dollars per hour and I'd be like, nope. Yeah. But Yeah.

Steve: So Abood wants to know, how many deals have you done in Arizona?

Ryan: This year? This month?

Steve: Altogether probably.

Ryan: I've done over Okay. I've accumulated and I've been a part of over $50,000,000 in transactions. Mhmm.

Steve: That's

Ryan: the easiest way to put it.

Steve: And Luis, I can't say that last name. Is what's What do you think are the success rate for people that are aged between 18 and 25 to enter this business?

Ryan: Depends on how bad you want it. I would say percentage wise of people that succeed, less than fifteen percent.

Steve: Yeah. I would say it's probably really low. Yeah. But the good news is, it's a lot of time.

Ryan: That's just what I was gonna get into. If you've got the ability to have more time on your hands being younger, yes. I've had this conversation with people on my team before with hiring. Is it better to go younger? Is it better to go older?

Older usually have more baggage, but they usually have a little bit more understanding of how life works. Young think rich, get rich quick scheme is real estate and most of them that are coming into real estate, no disrespect, but there are all traders like day traders, they're the serial entrepreneur guys that think that this is all amazing and fun and rainbows and butterflies every single day. And they get in, they're like, wow, I haven't closed a deal in two months.

Steve: That's a lot of work.

Ryan: Yeah. Why am I doing this?

Steve: Yeah. So But I think as the the problem is, the way they find us is through social media.

Ryan: Of course.

Steve: Of course. In social media, you only see the best one to 3% of someone's life. Let's see what else is there. Okay. So that's all the questions.

Guys, don't be afraid to ask any more questions. So right now with your existing business, how much are you spending a month in marketing?

Ryan: So we've actually just cut it back. Between the two companies, I'd have to get exact what they are, but I know it's under $7,500 a month now between the two.

Steve: Wow. So, really low.

Ryan: Yes.

Steve: And then what is your total overhead?

Ryan: What do you mean?

Steve: How much are you spending between everything? Lease yeah.

Ryan: Yeah. That's under 7,500.

Steve: Oh, that's everything. That's under marketing.

Ryan: Yeah. That's that's everything.

Steve: Oh, wow.

Ryan: We're running a very lean model.

Steve: Super profitable model.

Ryan: Yes, sir. We're at, like, last I checked, it was 75%.

Steve: Okay. Is there any one tool or system, something that I like is is a key that you could not give up?

Ryan: Oh. Okay. MLS, Gmail, cell phone, DocuSign.

Steve: Yep. That's it. Pretty solid.

Ryan: That's all I got.

Steve: And Gmail's

Ryan: free. Gmail is free.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle right now?

Ryan: My biggest struggle right now, for me, I would say, honestly, it's hiring the right people. I'd say that at this point, I mean, aside from everybody's send me your deals, finding finding the next one, it's really just finding the right people.

Steve: At the end

Ryan: of the day, like, again, going through with my team, we were able to kinda realize that I was being way too hard on ourself. I've hired over 30 people, call it 30, like just 30 easy numbers. I had in the office when we're going through this, they all looked around, they're like, well, how many have been good? And I'm like, here we are. And they're like, so three out of 30, they're like, that's 10%.

And I was like, well, there's maybe a couple extra good ones. They're like, so you're above 10% on success rate for hiring. That's pretty good considering it's commission based and you're self employed. And I was like, okay, when you put it in perspective that way, thank you guys for making me feel better.

Steve: Yeah.

Ryan: But at the same time too, it's about finding the right people and I think this is in most business and industries that finding the right people is the hardest part of it.

Steve: But You know, it's, it's interesting going going back to Kyle's course. Like, I was listening to it last night and, he said when you buy a company, the most valuable asset People. Are the people. Mhmm. Interesting.

Ryan: Especially if they, they know the system.

Steve: Yeah. Right? So Ryan or Miguel has a follow-up. Okay. If you can go back and pass and change one thing, what would be different and you can you're not allowed to say, no one change anything?

Ryan: Change anything.

Steve: Miguel's coming with the great questions today.

Ryan: He does. Yeah. I would say well, first and foremost, underwrite that, that assisted living deal. Appreciate it. Secondly, changing one thing, I would honestly say high school.

I would change my attitude. I was some punk kid in high school. I was the Were you were

Steve: you the star athlete? No.

Ryan: I was the guy in the business marketing club and I just had this level of confidence and presented myself, but I think I had the wrong approach quite a few times. So I think going back to change that would have been

Steve: So being a little more humble. Yeah. I don't know if that's possible in high school.

Ryan: You know what? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely agree with that.

Steve: Albert says you're the man. Brian Bell wants to know what's a reasonable amount to compensate an acquisition manager?

Ryan: All of our guys start at 15%. They disbow it. They get 10%. And then everything is negotiable based on production. Bring in more deals, you get paid more money.

Steve: And Kevin Mendoza wants to know what is your why?

Ryan: Family. 100%. I I we just talked about it a little bit, but for me, it's wife and kids that don't exist yet. Yeah. I was

Steve: gonna say they don't exist yet. I mean, it's like something you wanna share with me?

Ryan: Kids of the future, you guys are you guys are it. But Got it. No. Yeah. That's that's it.

Steve: And then what CRM do you guys use?

Ryan: We use Podio. So Podio on the investment side, BoomTown on the traditional.

Steve: Got it. What would you consider to be your superpower?

Ryan: Oh, my superpower. This is one I was, I was going back and forth on this one, but I would say my superpower is the ability to empathize. I think that as I grew up and you have to grow up pretty quickly as you get into these conversations in real estate at a young age. Mhmm. I was able to kind of put myself into a lot of people's shoes repeatedly.

So when I'm talking to somebody, even you and I, you explain something that happened over the weekend. I could put myself in your your shoes and understand how you were thinking, feeling, and why you made the decisions or what whatever outcome was, I can usually understand that. And so for me, I think that, especially on my team, everybody can come to me and I'm like, tell me anything that you want and I'm all ears. Like Okay. So I just think that

Steve: So you'll be present as well? Absolutely. What's the greatest lesson you've learned?

Ryan: Greatest lesson I've learned. I can't do everything on my own.

Steve: Was there something that taught you that?

Ryan: It's a mixture of a lot of things. But I would just say it's like, as as I gained momentum in real estate, my mindset was just like I was pouring into personal development and just understanding where the future realistically could be on the route that I've been. And so for me, it was like I would like to maybe, you know, if I decide to go to California tomorrow, I'd like to do that. Well, if you've got five escrows and you're running it all on your own and you've got to get keys to a client, deadline for paperwork and managing escrow and all that fun stuff, you probably can't take your trip. You could work remote, sure, but it's not Yeah.

A fun trip to me. So I realized like, if I wanted to go far, I mean, what's that saying? It's like, if you wanna go if you wanna go far, go together type thing.

Steve: Yep. So Yep. Exactly. Yeah. Is there a book you've gifted more than any other?

Ryan: I haven't gifted the same book twice. I actually have another one of Make Your Bed. That was a good one. Mhmm. I've given that one out to a couple people.

And then Think and Grow Rich, I've given out to a couple people. I just read a really good one. It was recommended actually at your event. I think it was I don't know if it's Pineda that said it or if it's Sam, but it was Who Not How Mhmm. That was a really good book.

I flew through that one twice.

Steve: So Gotcha. And then Luis wants to know, do you plan on getting into commercial or multifamily?

Ryan: Yeah. We've already done a handful of, multifamily and then commercial is my second language. So we actually just got under contract this week another piece of land that they're building a $1,500,000 commercial space on.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: We're gonna be listing their building they've got that'll be 1,600,000.0 probably in about a year. We've got, I mean, a handful of commercial escrows.

Steve: So Gotcha. Alright. So, think about what you want to leave the listeners with. Let me make a couple of quick announcements. So guys, we got our workshop literally in nine days.

So if you guys are interested, send me a DM. We're gonna be doing it here in our office, right, where we got our classroom. And if you have value today, please like, subscribe, share, comment. This helps us reach more people. And then next, we've got Sean Roark who bought 16 rental properties in his first year wholesaling.

So crazy to think about. And then I'm gonna do a quick selfish plug for myself here. Unbelievable. What would you say the working with me has done for you?

Ryan: I love that question. I've told you this one a few times, off the record I know, but completely on the record. Since being at Steve's Brokerage, my net worth has tripled. I know you have your group of a 100 millionaires.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ryan: I will be on that within about a year and a half.

Steve: Yeah. Or sooner.

Ryan: Or sooner. And so I just full transparency, I can't thank you enough for everything you did. I mean, you took the guy that was lost and confused that you saw something in that I knew I saw myself and really helped me bring that to life and just blossom in real estate. Yeah. So Oh,

Steve: I appreciate that.

Ryan: Of course. Thank you.

Steve: So what do you wanna leave what message do you wanna leave the listeners with?

Ryan: There is no right way to do life. Nobody has this whole thing figured out. It's just a matter of doing what you would like. I mean, every decision has a consequence, good or bad. But for me, the biggest thing is just knowing what it is that you wanna do, whether it's college, great.

If it's being self employed, great. If it's going in right to the trades or trade school, fantastic. Yeah. Most important thing for me is just making sure I'm happy. And that's what I care most about about people that I'm with and around is that they're happy too.

Steve: So That's awesome. So clarity on what you want.

Ryan: Thousand percent.

Steve: Alright. If someone wants to get a hold of you, how would they do that?

Ryan: Instagram is gonna be the best way. Just my first and last name, Ryan Zolan. And then, I won't make the mistake of putting my number out there.

Steve: It was simple enough. Just Ryan Zolin.

Ryan: Ryan Zolin. Oh, you know what?

Steve: You wanna share your TikTok?

Ryan: Oh, yeah. It's at wholesale houses. So I will Wholesale houses. Wholesale houses.

Steve: Simple enough.

Ryan: Yes, sir.

Steve: I love it.

Ryan: That's me.

Steve: Alright. Guys, thank you for watching. Thank you.

Ryan: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Steve: Thank you. Blast.