Cody Hofhine Shares How He Will Earn $2.5MM in Wholesale Fees in 2019

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. We got a special one today. We've got Cody Holthein, with Wholesaling Inc. Flying in from Salt Lake City.

Not a far fly. Not a far fly. And he's gonna share how he's on pace to do almost 2 and a half million in 2019. Pretty good numbers for those of you guys aren't good at math. That's $200 a month.

So if this is your first time tuning in, I am Steve Trang, broker and owner of Stunning Homes Realty, founder of the OfferFast Homes app, the only MLS for off market wholesale properties. And I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires. So if that's something you wanna do, let's connect on Instagram at steve dot trang. And if you're excited for today's show, please give me a wave, give me a thumbs up. As a friendly reminder, I don't charge a dime for the show.

I don't make any money doing this. So here's all I ask. This is what it costs for you to listen to this show. I've been advised by a consultant I need to get the 505 star reviews in iTunes to hit some of my lofty goals. So please do me a favor.

Go on iTunes. Subscribe. Give a five star review. If you can write that, what do you like about the show? That'll be even better.

And this is a live show, so please ask your questions for Cody to answer. You ready? Let's roll. Let's get this going, guys. Alright.

So first question is what got you into real estate?

Cody Hofhine: Holy smokes. How deep do we wanna go on this? We got time. Okay. So getting this going into what got me into real estate, I was, I was doing insurance.

My first stab at entrepreneurship. 2010, I get into insurance. And really what kinda led me down this, like, journey, it's little steps, little little steps along the way. But, I was building the the insurance company, and I started to think of, like, who's my avatar? Who would be a great person to insure?

Who would have, like, great houses, great cars? Like, who would build a great book for insurance? Mhmm. And I started thinking of all the different ways to do this. And I I thought, okay.

Do I want the older crowd, the younger crowd? But ultimately, what I narrowed down to was, hey. What about investors? Investors have multiple, like, properties. They have rentals.

They hopefully have some nice cars to insure, and hopefully, they have their own homes. And I just started that's where I started going.

Steve: Yeah.

Cody: And so then I just started googling. I'm like, okay. How do I meet investors? That didn't help out. I'm like, where do investors for, like, real estate meet?

And also real, Ria, real estate investor association. So I I went to, Salt Lake, real estate investor association. And I sat there and it was like, so what do you do? Are you a cash buyer? Are you a fix and flipper?

Do you buy homes? And I'm like, I just insure homes. Like, I I don't do anything. They're like, oh, and then they kinda turn around and walk away

Steve: another vendor

Cody: one of those guys.

Steve: Yeah.

Cody: And so II sat there and I got to know the president of that Ria and got to become like friends with them. He started having me quote all of his, like, fix and flips. Now this is a awful policy because it's on the books and it's off

Steve: the books.

Cody: So he doesn't stay, so there's no renewal. There's nothing great about it. But I figured if I can serve someone in a place where they're not getting served and all of them had the wrong policy, they're on rental policies. And so if there was a claim Oh, really? It was going the wrong way.

It wouldn't have been covered. And so I had to help them understand that, yes, it cost a little bit more, but it's because of this. But But got your credit. Started. That's right.

So this is how it all started. Then he started passing me around. He's like, hey, guys. If you don't have Cody as your insurance agent, like, you are crazy. And I was just like, yes.

Like, this is good. This is going good. I get passed around to a bunch of investors. I end up building probably the largest agency insuring investors. I started insuring, like, a 150, 200 fix and flip investors, and it was an awful policy, but it was in hopes to get, like, the better stuff.

Steve: That's right. The last thing

Cody: with and it yeah. And it would end up leading to that, which was good. But Yeah. That's how I got introduced to to investing in real estate in general. Like, it wasn't by me wanting to get into it.

It's by me, like, my my own selfish purposes of actually just building a book of business so I could provide for my family. And that's really how it all started.

Steve: Well, that's funny. So we

Cody: have a mutual friend, Matt Strong. Matt Strong's a stud.

Steve: I met through strategic coach, and he's actually gonna be on the show next month. But, I remember after I met him. He introduced us, on Facebook. Yep. But he was out here, last week, and we're I was telling him you were coming on the show.

And he's like, I still remember Cody was the guy that would call me, like, once a week. He's like, hey. Anything you need to insure?

Cody: I was that guy again. I was

Steve: that guy. But you did it. That's right. You did it. That's right.

Okay. So you started in 2010. You're insuring investment properties. Yep. When did you start doing your own transactions?

Cody: So fast forward and why I even got further into it is insurance is really a snail's pace. Like it can be a great endgame. So I'm not here to say insurance agents. What a horrible game.

Steve: It wasn't working. You're making a lot of money.

Cody: Yeah. It's like long term, you might be able to do something. You might be able to sell your book and and hopefully it turns into a great residual. But it wasn't out of the gates. It's like it's not it's a it's a very slow race.

Like, it's not fast at all. And so I'm out there insuring people. I make $19,000 my first year. Like, period. The end.

There's nothing more to that. There's not like, oh, and a bonus. $19 my first year. That's it. I had two kids, my wife.

I had a mortgage payment. Thank goodness we had all the other stuff paid off. But it it 19,000 does not provide for three and a home. Like, it just doesn't happen. No.

It doesn't help out. So I start going down this path of, like, going to the real estate investor associations, and I start, like, listening to it, but I'm, like, not really engaged because I'm, like, yeah, but I got this thing going. And, hopefully, in the future, it's gonna be like this empire.

Steve: Yeah.

Cody: And, it it just didn't go that route. Every time I bring on book of business, I'd be like, okay. This is gonna be awesome because I'm gonna be able to have this much more coming in next year if they stay on the books. But then what I didn't know is every time you bring on a ton of people, you're also gonna have to hire your next teammate or your your employee to come in and help manage that book. So when I thought I was gonna

Steve: topic here.

Cody: Net scale. Yeah. It ends up being where I'm like, crap. I thought I was gonna make $50 more next year, but really what I did is take $50 and hire a new employee to help manage that book and then bring on more. And every time I just brought on more, just another person I had to bring on to help manage it so I could keep the inflow coming in.

It was just spinning wheels. I came home. I saw my wife. I came home early one day, and I walked into the house, and I walked through the kitchen, and my wife's crying. And I can tell she's crying.

Like, it's not a soft quiet cry. It's like Oh. A cry that I know she's crying. So I go in there. I'm like, sweetheart, what's wrong?

And she's not answering. I'm like, babe, like, what's wrong? And she looks up, and this is like a few years into this. So this lets you know how slow this journey was. She looks up, and she's like, Cody, I don't know how we're gonna pay our mortgage.

I don't know how we're paying our bills. I don't know how we're gonna put food on the table tonight. And I just sat there, like, in this false world dream thinking, oh my goodness. Insurance is gonna come through. It's gonna be awesome.

It's gonna be amazing. But reality is I'm not even providing for my family. Like, I could be losing my home in the near future if this keeps going like this. And so that's when reality hit me, and I happened to had a RIA meeting that I had to go to that night and speak at. And a gentleman stands up.

He's like, I just found this deal three days ago, and I flipped it, without even buying it. And I made $29,000. And I'm like, oh, fofo. Like, I was almost like, you dirtbag. Like, I worked three hundred and sixty five days, like, eighty hours a week for my first $19,000.

Steve: Yeah.

Cody: And in three days, this guy makes $29,000. So then I'm finally thinking, I'm on the wrong side of this. Like, bag insuring these guys. Let's become one of these guys and give this guy, like, real competition.

Steve: Yeah.

Cody: And so that's when when I just started looking into it. And I stumbled upon, Tom Kroll. He was on a bunch of podcasts, and he's just this bubbly guy. He's like, oh, yeah. I did this.

In my first year, I did this. And I'm like, man, if this guy can do it, like, I can do it. Like, let's do it. Let's roll. And so I joined as a student, under Tom Crowell for Wholesaling Inc, and that's really my journey.

It was May 2015. Thirty nine days later, I do my first deal for twenty four thousand dollars, and that's when it's like, oh my goodness. This is real. It's not just hearsay. It's now like this took place.

And when I turned it from faith to fact, like, okay, I no longer have to believe that it could be possibility when it happened. That's when it was just like, let's throw gas on this.

Steve: Let's go. So I think one thing that people miss lose sight of. Right? Because it's five years Yeah. Of struggle.

Yeah. Right? And there's this we all look at the you know, we get into entrepreneurship. We wanna be our own boss because we wanna be on the beach drinking mai tais. Yeah.

Traveling the world. You know, you're a different country. Everyone like, this is a vision that everyone pitches you. But when you're really an entrepreneur, it sucks. Yeah.

Bad. Yeah. And as you scale, you have to hire more people and then you're like, oh, all the extra money I was gonna make. No. You're not making that money either.

But not only that, the spouse suffers well. And I think people lose sight of the journey. Right? Like, you it's it's you're hopeful you can eat the bag of crap all day

Cody: That's right.

Steve: On your own. That's right. But when your wife has to suffer it too or your husband, it's a different Or

Cody: your kids?

Steve: Or your kids. It's a different situation. So I think people don't really talk a lot about that as a journey. So, I mean, that's that's a powerful story that you shared because it's kinda kinda overlooked.

Cody: It is overlooked. And Steve, let me tell you something that I think is crucial. When I got involved, we didn't have any money. Like, it wasn't like, okay, I have the 5,000 for the program. Let's roll.

And also, you need a thousand dollars in budget marketing. I'm like, yeah, I've got this. I this is what I told Tom. I'm like, Yeah, I've got that. My wife's like, No, we don't.

Like, not even close. So we got a credit card for that. Anyways, long story short, here's what set me up for a win that I think would be valuable for anyone to hear because it works so well. Now, it's not like I learned this from anyone. We just we just stumbled upon this because we do this with other areas of our life.

But I sat down with my wife, and we actually involved our kids. And even though they're really, really young, we involved our kids. We sat down one evening, and we're sitting there talking. And we wanted to make this more of like a family event. Like, this is what dad's gonna do really hard and there's gonna be some sacrifice.

And so we sat down and said, Wendy, kids, like, here's what it's gonna be and Wendy's involved. She's like, yes, we're gonna do this. And so kids, I might miss some sports activities. I might miss family dinner. I might miss putting you down for bed.

I might miss some of these things that are very important to you, but it's for the short term. Dad's gonna really bust his butt off for the next little bit and start getting some deals coming in and then figure out how to start putting a team in place where ultimately I can start replacing myself and turn this into a business.

Steve: Right.

Cody: And so coming back to what you're saying, entrepreneurship's tough. If anyone sells you it it is easy, like, holy cow, I wanna punch that guy and and or girl, I wouldn't do that. But I just I oh, when someone says, oh, it's so easy. I'm like, no. It's not.

It's not. It's not at all. But because we had that mutual understanding of what it was going to take, that I was gonna be out long hours, when entrepreneurship did kick me in the teeth Mhmm. And when entrepreneur did punch me around, I didn't come home to a ticked off wife. I didn't come off a home to a ticked off family.

I came home to a wife's like, hey. It's okay. You got this. Keep going. We're behind you because we agreed on the first place.

Had I been kicked around by entrepreneurship and wholesaling and came home to a ticked off wife or ticked off kids, that just adds that much more pressure. So we had a perfect understanding, and we set the expectations right out of the gate that this is gonna be a sacrifice up front. And because of that, I had their support through the whole thing when Bentley, my at that time, was probably, like, seven years old, was like, oh, dad. Why didn't he put me to bed? My wife would be like, hey.

Dad's out there. Remember, we talked about this. Dad's out there to do this, this, this, so we can do this, this, this in the near future. And I had that support, and that was crucial because you know as well as I do, entrepreneurship will throw you around for the first little bit. In fact Yeah.

I don't know if it ever ends, but it throws you around. You don't wanna come home to a TikTok family.

Steve: No. You don't. And it it never gets easy. It gets easier.

Cody: Yeah. It

Steve: never gets easier. No.

Cody: You always have to stay uncomfortable. Yeah. Alright.

Steve: So that was so 2015, you did your first deal. You said 39 k?

Cody: 24 k. Thirty nine days into it.

Steve: Okay. Yep. So what was your first year like?

Cody: First year, it was May '15. By the end of the year, I'd already done, like, a quarter million in assignments. Because once I turned it into, like, fact, it was just go. Like, now I was kinda just almost without even knowing what I was doing. Almost reverse engineering is like, okay.

I sent out this many mailers, and I got this deal. So if I want three deals, like, let's just send out triple the amount of mailers, and I just started reverse engineering what it'd take. And there really wasn't a whole lot of people doing it at that time, for sure under Wholesaling Inc. I was the first tribe member in Utah. But there was a few other handful of people, but no one really, really going at it.

But you could kinda look at it and say, okay. I'm gonna do this, and it happened. Mhmm. And all of a sudden, you're like, man, I just did three deals in one month. And now you're like, oh, like, you feel like a king.

You're like, what do I do now? But first year, right around a quarter million was the first year. But it's because I had that first deal. That first deal makes all the difference on just going in there now.

Steve: Oh, 100%. Right? Your mind changes completely. Completely. Yeah.

So then what were some of your early struggles? I mean, $2.50 is a pretty good first year. So what were some of the struggles you had when you transitioned into wholesale?

Cody: The struggles still come. I I think when someone thinks that, oh, money's in, so things gotta be great. Things are awesome. If I kept at the pace that it took, because I was wearing all the hats. I was wearing everything.

I was the acquisition manager, the disposition manager, the lead flow flow manager, the marketer, the I was everything. And I was gone a lot. And so if I were to continue that route and not think of future, how do I replace myself, or how do I get a team in place, I think what is the slippery slope is you start to lose what's most important in life, and that's your family. That's your relationships, your core relationships. I could have very easily had I just kept going down that journey of sixty, seventy, eighty hours a week.

I still working a ton of hours to get that. So it sounds great that, oh, this money's coming in, but you are sacrificing things. You are, if you're gonna make money, sometimes you're sacrificing time or relationships, whatever it may be. If I were to kept going down that journey, it probably is a slippery slope where I may not be with my wife in the future.

Steve: Mhmm.

Cody: Which in turn will make a awful relationship with me and my kids. Mhmm. So I had to start thinking ahead. So the struggles were, how do I continue to be profitable? How do I continue to do more deals but bring in a team to do it?

And these are real struggles. So, in fact, I'm wearing the shirt today, scale. If you don't have the plan, like, having, like, the the end picture in mind and how to get there, that's hard. It gets tough scaling and getting the right team in place, and now everyone's looking for a players. And how do I find a player?

Should I hire the acquisition manager first or the disposition manager first? Do I get a virtual assistant or I just do this in house? There's so many struggles that go go on, and I felt every one of those. Mhmm. I hired multiple people, and I'm like, man, this is awful.

They they they stunk. They were awful. They're I had to fire them. I I shouldn't even share this, but I maybe I will on air. I I hired my aunt, and I had to fire a week later.

Like, there these are real struggles. And then I had to go to that Christmas dinner and face my aunt and be like, hey. So how are things going? Like, I have my struggles. How's everything going?

Yeah. Yeah. It was it was brutal. Like, I had to go through the pains of I can't do this every day. I cannot work eighty hours a week or I will sacrifice what's most important to me and that's my family.

And I didn't want that. So those struggles were wanting so bad to already get somewhere quicker than maybe I I thought I probably should have taken it slower, but I was already like, no. If that means I take home less, I don't care. I don't wanna spend a lot of time with

Steve: And I can appreciate that because I'm the one that's always gonna hire as soon as I can. Right? Like, we gotta fill that role.

Cody: Yes.

Steve: And I think what's what's interesting like, we can all have different sales and marketing styles. Right? Yeah. And that's totally fine. But there's only so many different marketing styles.

But once you start getting people now we're talking about unique ability.

Cody: Yeah.

Steve: Now we're talking about what you're good at. And depending on what you're good at, your team looks completely different. Right? Your team's gonna look different than my team. Yeah.

It's gonna look different than everybody else's team. Yeah. And there's no right answer because now we're talking about people, unique abilities, and strengths.

Cody: That's right.

Steve: So That's right. That's the one that gets really challenging.

Cody: Or what about even, like do you have here's where my struggle is, delegation. Mhmm. I think that word right there is the most powerful word in entrepreneurship is those that are good at delegating. I thought no one can do it better than me. No one's gonna care like I'm gonna care.

So how am I gonna find someone that's gonna replace a Cody Hoffman? Because no one's a Cody Hoffman. Because Cody Hoffman can do it better than anyone else. That gets to be at this this trap, and it's not true. I my team members are so much better than me.

Oh. So much better. This, everyone

Steve: in the office knows, like, if you wanna make sure it doesn't get done, give it to Steve. Right? Like, Steve's not gonna be the one that's gonna get it done. So I I guess unfortunate. You know, I'm the oldest of six boys.

Yeah. So it was delegating. It's easy. Right? Mom wants you to go do this.

Mom said she wanted this clean before she got back, so you go do it.

Cody: Right. Right. I had a

Steve: lot of practice delegating growing up. Delegating is the number one key.

Cody: If you guys could learn anything, it would be learn to delegate early because most entrepreneurs wanna hold on to everything.

Steve: Well, it's two it's two ends. Right? There's there's they wanna hold on to it. Yep. Or they wanna abdicate it.

Delegating does not mean not doing it. That's right. Delegating means handing it off, but making sure it got done.

Cody: That's correct.

Steve: And that's, like so a lot of people and that's what I talked about, is is cold calling. And a lot of people I I talked to, oh, when do I hire a VA to cold call? I was like, that's the last one you wanna get rid of. That's money making. That's right.

Spend all this money on leads, all this money on data, and then not cold call it. Right? Like, I'm not saying don't ever hire someone, but don't just hand it off and expect it got done well.

Cody: Yeah. Yeah. I think I think every one of us have our unique abilities, like you said, our unique, gifts, our unique talents that each one of them been blessed with. And it's hold on to those maybe the longest because I think so many times people ask, and I got this question actually this morning just at Brent's office. The gentleman asked, hey.

Who should I hire first? The acquisition manager or the disposition manager? I said, I don't know. Let's let's, like, unfold this. Like, what do you like to do best?

He's like, oh, I love, like, once the deal's in, like, bringing it all the way to closing. I'm like, okay. So hire the acquisition manager first

Steve: and Exactly.

Cody: Keep on doing what you're really good at and keep that going until you have to delegate that off. But right now, you're acquisition manager. Then some guy's like, well, I love acquisitions. Well, then, your first hire will be dispositions. Yeah.

But hold on to what you're good at and what you're strong at as long as you can.

Steve: And that's the biggest challenge of scaling, which I'm sure you're gonna talk about in a little bit. Yeah. So one thing I wanna talk about, and hopefully, you know, you feel comfortable sharing all this stuff. Sure. But what I've heard about Salt Lake is it's crazy.

It is crazy. There's you know, on Wednesday, we talked about abundance. Right? We had Jamil here. We had Pierce here.

And we were just talking about collaboration, abundance, and sharing, and this and that. Yep. And I've heard Salt Lake is just brutal to get into because it's like a good old boys network. Yeah. And if you do anything wrong, any one thing wrong, you're getting reported.

And you're like the outlier. Yeah. Right? You're the one that doesn't quite fit in. And this is what I've heard.

Yeah. So maybe you can fill in.

Cody: Yeah. I think there's anything in life, there's a good way of doing it, and there's a a right way and a wrong way. And so many I think when we talk this abundant mindset, unfortunately, I think there are many that fall into the scarcity mindset that if a wholesaler gets a deal, that means it's less for me Mhmm. As a as a real estate agent. And I'm not gonna get a deal now, and and now my company's not gonna get a deal because this wholesaler just took that deal.

And I think they fail to realize that nine out of 10 of these deals are not even a deal they're gonna go wanna go list or do anything with. Half of them have meth in them. Like, this is a trouble. You're gonna go there and be like, yeah. I can't do nothing for you.

Good luck. Well, we're not. We're the ones saying, hey. We can still be here

Steve: for you.

Cody: Let's help you go to a closing.

Steve: Right.

Cody: But what happens, they feel like there's it's less for them. So if if I'm doing a deal and it's a wholesale deal, they're thinking, oh, that's less for us realtors and so, yes, people go out there and they start reporting and you could be called in by the division of real estate and they could bring you in. I've been brought in before and I have an incredible real estate attorney that helps the facilitate the whole process. And it's been great. Every time I walk out of there flying colors.

Why? Because I do it right. It's no different than if I was to build a podcast room. Mhmm. There's a right way of doing it, and there's a wrong way of doing it.

If I was to make a cake, there's a right way to make the cake taste good, and there's a lot of ton a ton of ways to make this cake taste like crap. Yeah. But find out what your regulations are. Find out what the rules are. If you're a realtor, find out what your realtor bylaws are and everything and abide by them.

And if you can abide by them, anytime that you may get a call by someone that's complaining saying, this guy is doing it wrong and I just want him in there because it's taking all the deals away from me. Mhmm. You can go in there and with a straight honest answer, you can tell them step by step how you run their business, and they're like, okay. Yeah. That's great.

Keep doing it like that, and you'll be just fine. And we walk out. So did you find

Steve: that you're fighting a lot of unnecessary fights on when you're coming up?

Cody: Not a lot. Like, I may have been called twice. And and like I said, it's very cordial. It's not like this, hey. How can we investigate?

We're coming into your office. They'll ask on deals. They'll say, hey. Here's I wanna know about this deal. What happened here?

And we'll bring in the HUD statement. We'll bring in everything, and we show them. And they're like, okay. Yeah. That's fine.

And so finally, try to have this, like, how can we help each other? If someone's doing it wrong, I get it. But now I've been brought in a couple times. You see I'm doing it right. I don't I don't fall away from my process.

My process is my process, and I'll keep doing it this way. How do we help people understand that when they complain against us that you now stand up for us and say, hey, guys. I brought them in a couple times. They're doing it right. And who knows if that will help in the future or not?

But, again, it's it's making sure whatever state you're in, go find an incredible real estate attorney that can bless your business, that can say, hey. Here's how you need to do it if you're gonna do it in the state and abide by that. And if you abide by that, that attorney will stand behind you. If there's any other flaws that come up or that someone calls you and says, hey. We need to talk to you.

Great. Now you got an attorney that says, hey. If you did it just like we said, I'll come I'll come here and I'll start with you. And and it's it's been awesome. So just make sure you do it right.

Steve: So as far as getting reported, is it realtors, wholesalers or flippers? Realtors. Yeah. Realtors are really like Yeah.

Cody: They're the ones that it's just I don't know. It's just So again, I don't want

Steve: good old boys network. So it's not a good old boys network. It's really the realtor community. It's the realtor community.

Cody: Yeah. And so the big beef is between the realtors and the wholesalers or the realtors and the investors. It's always that, oh, by them taking that, it's less for us. And it's like, it's not. Like, if you put forth the same energy and effort consistently day after day, like, these individuals are over here, you would see the same exact results.

Like, you would see the same results. Correct. Because I just sit there and I'm like

Steve: There's so many more opportunities to list than there are to buy.

Cody: And and I wanna be honest. Like, when we're talking at the beginning that we are on pace to do 2,500,000, I also want people to really understand, like, that that comes with a hefty cost. I mean, $40.50 grand a month in marketing is not a unheard of thing that we have to do. And it's like, if you guys could just think think about, okay, why are they getting deals? Well, we market the heck out of it.

If you guys sent spent that same $50, you might even, like you said, get more because there's a lot of people that we market to that don't wanna sell.

Steve: They don't fit the box.

Cody: That's right. And so they would be a great fit for them, but they will never know about them because they're not spending the same exact marketing as I'm doing.

Steve: Or working as hard.

Cody: That's right. Okay.

Steve: So going back to Salt Lake, you know, it's what's what's the market? How many people are in there?

Cody: Well, just in counties. I mean, you got a little over a million just in Salt Lake County, but you got, I mean, big counties. I I can go fifteen minutes. I'm into the next county Mhmm. Each direction.

So I'm right in the middle of Salt Lake County. So plenty of millions every direction I go.

Steve: So how is your operation different than everybody else in Salt Lake on the wholesaling side?

Cody: I don't know if we're much different. I think there's some people that focus just on a county because there is a there's plenty of homes just in Salt Lake County, but we're in Salt Lake County, Weber County, Davis County, Utah County, Tooele County, Summit County. Like, we try to go as as wide out as possible, but we built up to that. So where I think the strategy, if anyone's thinking, okay, I'm I'm in this county, but I wanna grow to multiple counties. It still take the sniper approach, shoot one bullet at a time, get really good at that, get a process, get a system in place.

So if you're in Salt Lake County, go into Salt Lake County and just become the best at Salt Lake County. Once you have a process system, maybe team in place, then bring on your next county. But, again, it's the sniper approach. Shooting one bullet at a time, not shooting the machine gun and just going everywhere because you'll find out that a lot of your efforts are gonna be wasted. Mhmm.

Dominate one market first and then branch out to your next market.

Steve: Makes a lot of sense. And I think that's something that's we don't talk a lot of, or not we're not talking about here, but, you know, a lot of guys are in wholesale are trying to do virtual. Yeah. So there are multiple states.

Cody: Yeah. I got plenty of awfulness on that and good, by the way.

Steve: So talk about I mean, have you have you done virtually in other states?

Cody: We tried it. We two years ago, we tried to go into Indiana. We heard it was a great market, and it was all hearsay, good stuff. Like, you can do this and you can do, like, you can turn, like, 30 homes a month. And we're like, man, why would we not wanna be part of this?

We could do it. Like, if we're good here in Utah, why not be good in Indiana? So we branch out to Indiana. And, like, the first week, we find this seller, and they're like, yeah. I have two homes I wanna get rid of.

And my cold, yeah, my cold caller is like, this is awesome. Like, hey, guys. I think I've got one here. And so he's talking. He's like, okay.

So what are you looking for? He's like, $2,500. And he's like, so $2,500 per home to get the to get these two homes. And he's like, oh, no. 2,500 for two homes.

And he's like Jaws, like, like, you can't even buy a trailer in Utah for $2,500, and you're buying two homes for 2,500 in Indiana. And I'm thinking the first week out of the gates, this is a grand slam. This is gonna be such a big grand slam, such an easy win that why would I not just keep pumping some money in here and really start turning this on? I couldn't move those two homes for more than a thousand dollar assignment. The average at that time was, like, 20,000, let's say, in Utah.

It's like, where do you spend your time and efforts? And so what size we were in Utah, we're like, instead of ever doing that again, like, let's just focus on how we can just gain more market share in Utah. And, unfortunately, we didn't we didn't pull out of Indiana quick. It's like a three month process. Every month, we were doing, like, 6 figures every month.

Every month, it dipped to, like, 75 in Utah. Mhmm. Then it went down to 60. Oh. Then it went down to 40.

40 doesn't even keep the lights on in Utah, like, for me at all because my marketing budget's that. So we're like, stop. Like, pull out. We are done with this. And, magically, when we got done with that, that's when we had to build that traction again, though.

We had to start pushing that train again. We had to work a little bit harder, but we got it back up to where it was.

Steve: Yeah.

Cody: Since then, we have opened up successfully in a different market Right. That we could talk about too.

Steve: Well, so one thing that we talked about before or offline was you have multiple businesses Uh-huh. That have done seven figures. Yeah. And one is doing eight figures.

Cody: That's

Steve: right. Let's start with the

Cody: seven figures. K. So the seven figures. So, Utah sell now. So the wholesaling business that we do right now in Utah, I have that with the business partner, Mark Stubler, and then the coaching business.

So Wholesaling Inc, there's, there's our other second business that me and Tom Kroll run. Mhmm. Awesome fun time that we get

Steve: to talk. Student.

Cody: So that was August '16. Me and Tom became partners to just take it to more people. So he could only manage so many and help so many, and then we just connected so well that he's like, Cody. Like, let's go. Let's let's let's go make an impact.

Let's help more people because there were plenty of Cody Hoffines and Tom Krolls. Tom Kroll was borderline, like, when I say broke, he was borderline, like, bankrupt. And so his and my story, the uniqueness is we were stuck in a way thinking how are we gonna do this? Like, how are we gonna make it for our families? How are we gonna do this?

Tom finds a way, then I find Tom, and Tom teaches me the way. And then we're sitting there thinking, there's so many people in statistics. 67% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and only have $800 or less.

Steve: Is it that low? I thought it was higher than that.

Cody: Well, this is just, like, I would say within the last, oh, eight months, just like a CNN report. Right? $800 or less to hold them over to the next paycheck. So I just sat there and I'm like, there's so many Cody Hoffines and Tom Krolls out there that in it was in, August '16. We collided together and said, hey, we've gotta help more people.

Like, we gotta help more people become financially free and quit living this paycheck to paycheck. Holy cow. How am I gonna live next month? How am I gonna make my mortgage payment? That was us and so our mission was just how do we help more Cody Hoffine?

How do we help more Tom curls? So that was August '16. That was the second, business and

Steve: then 8 figures.

Cody: 8 figures ended up being that insurance company. So as I was doing in or as I was doing, wholesaling, I still owned the insurance agency and I kept it going, but it wasn't me pumping it. And so we built that up to where 8 figures in income, not 8 figures of how much am I making take home. Home. Now I should say that for everyone on here, when we talk 7 figures, I'm not taking home 7 figures from every business or 8 figures from every business.

But those were those were gross margins for the insurance company was the eight figures and then the coaching and the wholesaling business. And the wholesaling and coaching is what I still do. I sold the insurance agency now.

Steve: There you go. Alright. So Wholesaling Inc. What's the mission?

Cody: Wholesaling Inc. Talk about

Steve: a little bit, but, like, what what is the long term vision

Cody: Yeah.

Steve: Of Wholesaling Inc.

Cody: Yeah. Our our biggest focus Shout

Steve: out to the rhinos.

Cody: Shout out to the rhinos. I'll tell you, the biggest thing is it's it's like we just said, helping more people become financially free and realizing there is a way to do it. And it doesn't have to be buying into a Subway franchise or have to be some some crazy thing selling lotions and potions and everything else. It's it's how do we help them do this? And so many people is what we found out.

It's such almost like an American dream to own real estate. And for so many people, it makes sense like everyone wants to get into it. They just don't know how and so our message in branding is helping them understand that this is a way to do it without having to buy the homes and buy rentals because not a ton of people just have $50,000 to put down on a down payment to own a rental. That it's not that you have to fix and flip it, and now you have to borrow money and then figure out the rehab. These are all great ways, and they're all channels, and they all work.

But for someone that's coming into it, like majority of our students and even myself and Tom, we came in broke. And a lot of our students are coming in, like, I don't have a whole lot of money, but I love this because Wholesaling Inc or I should say wholesaling in general allows you to get into real estate with your sweat, determination, motivation, and a little bit of money. If I said it was free, I'd probably be lying. It does take some marketing dollars. It does take your time.

Your time's worth money. It does take if you're gonna drive for dollars, you're gonna be paying for gas to go in that car. So but it allows people at a very reasonable way to get into real estate, which then can blossom into so many different venues.

Steve: Alright. So one question Allison Kazan has is since you pretty much own all the data from list source and all the other data providers, do you keep calling the same data over and over and over?

Cody: Do I keep calling the same data over and over and over? So list source, just to be clear on that list source, they are the ones that I use for my high equity. So whether they're owner occupied or absentee owner, but high equity. So I don't buy any of, like, my probate or tax delinquent or code violation or divorce or or notice a default or eviction. Those all come from different sources.

So just list source itself, I pull that list, the high equity, and I have my own little criteria. I would say make sure it's at least 15 years old and older and that it has your limits of how price range you want. I like the c's and d's markets. Some people may like a and b market, so that's totally up to you. But get your criteria, but I only pull that list once a year from list source.

I don't use it more than once a year, and I'm only calling that data or mailing that data for that year. And then I pull a new list, and I can suppress it against the previous year.

Steve: Gotcha. And Devon Burrow wants to know how do you keep a positive mindset and kill self doubt?

Cody: Oh, this is such a good question. Devon, is that his name? Mhmm. Devon, thank you for this question. This question is crucial.

Every one of us have to be careful who we share our dreams and our goals with. And here's why I say this. I remember vividly even family members when I first bought my first rental. I had family members say, like, why did you buy a rental? I heard they, like, smoke meth and they, like, do this and they do this and they'll trash your home and then you're out a bunch of money.

And I'm like, family member, how many rentals have you owned? And they're like, I haven't owned any. And I'm like, do you see how I can't accept that message? So one of the best advice, Devin, there's two things here. Orin Woodward, a good friend of me and Tom's, incredible individual, he shares that don't ever accept advice from someone that's not in the place that you would gladly switch places with.

So if you're not willing to switch places with the person telling you the information, you, like, literally have to shun it. Shun it like a plague. Shun it like it's cancer. And don't listen to it because they cannot give you that information because they haven't done it it themselves. And so first and foremost, only seek advice from someone that's doing it or that you would gladly trade places with.

Second of all, it's so crucial to have a tribe or a community. So find your tribe. Find your community. Find when Jim Rohn says you're the average of the five closest individuals you spend the most time with, it means that if you're gonna be talking wholesaling, it could be be careful who you share your dreams and goals with because your very family members could be the ones that when you have a hard time, like when you said, how do you fix your mind How do you stay positive? Well, when you get beat down, which I do still today, when you get beat down, sometimes you'll go to a Sunday dinner, and it could be now this is not the case for me, but it could be that you go to a family dinner and maybe someone in your family says, well, I told you.

Why would you ever get in real estate?

Steve: Did you

Cody: not see what happened in o eight? Like, why don't you just come back and come do this business? Or why don't you just go do that? I mean, you've got a four year degree. Why did you even leave it in the first place?

And I just sit there and I'm I'm like, be careful who you share your dreams and goals with. They may have love for you, concern for you, but those very people can also take you in your weakest moments and make you even weaker and never come back. And so find your tribe. Find your people that are doing it. If you wanna be successful and stay motivated at wholesaling, then find five incredible people that you would gladly switch places with.

Keep hanging out with them so that when you get to a low spot, you can go to those five and say, I need some help, guys. Like, I'm running out of I'm running out of fuel. I need some help here. And those five, instead of saying, well, you should really actually quit, they will say, oh, man, dude. It's worth it.

I was there. I've done this before. I was in those hard trenches. And I remember it just, like, breaking me right to the core. And then the next day, I closed this deal, and it paid me x amount of dollars.

Right. Keep going, but surround yourself. Find those people because we're human. We do have weaknesses. We do have moments where we're like, oh, man.

I wanna give up. And if you share those with the wrong people, you will give up. But if you can share it with the right people, they'll put you right back on that rhino and say, get freaking charging right now. Like, get going.

Steve: That's that's awesome. So what does your organization look like today, particularly at Utah still now?

Cody: Yeah. It consists of about 13 of us. There's it's gets bigger and bigger. We have from cold callers to acquisitions, dispositions to operations, lead flow manager. You name it.

We we have it, but it's a team and a team effort. The reason why we're able to grow each and every year and every year, I hope this is the same for everyone, where you can look at the end of the year and say, man, that was our best year ever. And I'm gonna say that in 2019, but I'm also gonna say that in 2020, 2021, 2022 because my goal is always be able to say that. That was our best year ever. And the only way I think I heard it from one of my mentors, he says when it comes to, building success or building this, the business that will keep growing, he always says, don't share with me your dreams.

Share with me your team. Like, don't show me your dream. Show me your team. I wanna see your team. I don't care about your dream.

Show me your team because it's the team that's actually gonna allow you to really go to the levels that you really wanna go to.

Steve: I love it. And that's something that, you know, I I I've shared a couple of times is that your team can only go as far as you can lead them.

Cody: That's right.

Steve: But you can go only as far as your team will allow you to.

Cody: That's right. Right?

Steve: It's it goes both ways. So I think maybe there's a good time to talk about scaling. Right? Because we're talking about people. This is for for guys that don't know yet, this is the hardest part.

Right? Like, finding leads, like, you can go you can come here. I can go to Salt Lake. Yeah. We can both close the deal in thirty days.

That's right. From what we know. That's right. Right? The challenge is not sales and systems or or, sales and marketing, which it is for a lot of people.

Yep. The challenge is and once you've got all these things all these things in place, it's the scale

Cody: of the Replication.

Steve: So talk about what scale is.

Cody: K. Scale happened to be something that we just did our first one. It's a three day workshop that we do. It's it's in Salt Lake. It's in my office.

You're with my team, and we're going through everything from you name it, from how to hire, who to hire, what's the pay rate. But I think some of the most beneficial ones that people learn, they'll see acquisitions and dispositions. They'll see all that and they all love it. Then there's things that I didn't know, like, that I didn't even know. I had to hire it out to get it.

There was an individual that was going through, our program that didn't love the wholesale side Mhmm. But really loved being in real estate. Reached out. We started talking, and she's like, I'd just love to work for you. And I'm like, well, what are your strengths?

And she starts talking, and you would've thought she was speaking German because she was talking numbers. And that's just, like, right over my head. So I'm sitting there listening to her, and I'm like, I don't even know what you said, but it sounds phenomenal. Like, let's let's get you on the team. And she starts going through this.

Janet starts going through a whole business model, and she's like, oh my gosh. So I'm thinking, how do we get more money in? How do we get more money in? How do we grow our business? She's like, no.

That's just one side of the coin. Like, now there's this other side that if I can decrease your expenses, then your profitability still grows. And I'm like, I don't even know what you're saying, but keep going. Like, just go. And she's like, look it.

You haven't done a deal in five years. You've been mailing, to these five ZIP codes that have never ever ever resulted in a deal. By just minusing out these out of your direct mail and out of all your marketing channels for this year, we just profited $12,000 in savings by not mailing or marketing to those ZIP codes that you've never done a deal in before. And I'm like, oh my gosh. This is starting to make sense.

And then she's like, oh, and by the way, we took your name off the postcard, and now it says Mark. And it went up point 04% response rate. And I'm like, who knows this stuff? So better yet, like, three months later, we took Mark's name off. It's now Janet, and it went up point zero seven even higher than that.

And I'm like, who is this lady? So she's tracking all the data. And so scaling, it's understanding that you want a players. Everyone wants a players. But if you're not an a leader Mhmm.

You're not gonna keep or attract a players. A players come in and you can find them. I did it. I found one. The very first hire me and Mark had was an a player.

And after a couple weeks, he's like, this sucks. Like, you guys suck. And he left. I'm like, we don't suck. Suck.

Like, we're gonna do this this year. And then I had to look in the mirror and realize he didn't stay because Cody wasn't a leader that he was looking for. And so me and Mark started working on ourselves. Darren Hardy talks about this in the compound effect, how he wrote a 40 page document about his wife. 40 pages.

My wife's gonna look like this, like these are gonna be your habits, and this is gonna be your joys and thrills, and this is this is this is this is this. And then he goes to a Jim Rohn event. And Jim Rohn's like, if you want any whatever you want in life, you have to become worthy of the person that it is you're or or worthy of the thing that whatever it is that you're looking for, worthy of it. You have to become that person first worthy of what it is you're seeking. And so he's like, oh my gosh, I did this so wrong.

So he wrote 40 pages on himself of who he would need And he writes down these 40 pages, and he goes to work. And he becomes this person on the 40 pages. And within two years, he found this dream girl Right. That was on the 40 pages that he wrote about what he wanted in a wife. And he says how eerie it was, how close it was to the 40 pages he originally wrote.

But he did not get that wife until he became. So where I share this in the team, you can find all the a players you want. But if you're not a leader that they're looking for, they will leave quick. So you have to work on you, become someone worthy of an a player. Because once you become them, you actually don't have to find them anymore.

You start to attract

Steve: 100.

Cody: Those a players.

Steve: Have you met Georgia?

Cody: I have not.

Steve: Have you gone to high performance forum?

Cody: No.

Steve: Gotta do it. You're a Darren Hardy fan. I mean, he's one of my heroes.

Cody: He's awesome. And he's smart. He owns all of Jim Rohn's rights.

Steve: Yeah. So high performance forum, that was that's a killer event in Georgia is she she kinda is part of the a team Okay. When you go.

Cody: So definitely

Steve: check that out.

Cody: That's awesome.

Steve: So let's see what else there was. We had a question here from. Are you doing any subject to deals?

Cody: Contran, subject to deals. So I don't do those right now. Those have been something that, again, it's it's really picking what you're really good at and just get really good at it. And there's always room for improvement. There's always room for growth.

There's always room for market share. And so many times, if I if I could tell you where I hear most of the problems I hear out there from successful individuals that have been lost at all or just individual starting and then never really take off, it's because they focus on too many things. Mhmm. So even though it's like we're still talking real estate, subject to is very different than wholesaling. And they are two separate different businesses.

So even though it sounds like, but it's real estate, it is something that if you don't have this all taken care of and the process in place and you start doing this, it could be very much like when I went to Indiana.

Steve: Exactly. And you

Cody: can start syncing your business. So no to the the long answer that I can share short. No. I don't. But that's the reason.

It's because we don't wanna lose traction on what we're really, really good at.

Steve: Yeah. Abs absolutely. Arnold Camaro wants to know, is there a source you recommend to find property owners in BK in bankruptcy?

Cody: In bankruptcy, you got your pre foreclosure list. Possibly, that could transfer over to that. But, no, I I don't have any sources on BK. Now one thing that we we did have for a while, we would have an attorney. So anything on bankruptcies and what state is he talking specifically?

Steve: Yeah. You're gonna have to let us know, Arnold, what state you're in.

Cody: Because that's gonna vary state to state anyways. But my best advice that is universally used because some people, they can go down their courthouse and get that, by the way. Other states are like, no. No. You're not getting that.

The one that's universal is every state has bankruptcy attorneys and go make friends with those bankruptcy attorneys so that when let's say someone's going through bankruptcy and they have to do certain things or get rid of assets that they think of who's someone that can help this family out really quickly and they call

Steve: it a resource.

Cody: That's right. 100%. So bankruptcy attorneys is a universal way that anyone could use it.

Steve: Philip Berg Beggs asked asked a great question. Is what percentage of your, income should go towards marketing? Whoo. So

Cody: here's what I would say. That's kind of a fluctuating thing on where to start. I always started at 15%, and I have grown it a little bit, but the the the model grows. Where I got understanding and clarity on this is through a book called Profit First, Mike Michalowicz. It's a great book.

And so if you're looking for, like, easy information that would be better than anything I could say because I could say 23% and maybe it shouldn't be 23% for is it Philip?

Steve: Yeah.

Cody: Philip, maybe it maybe isn't 23%. So what you gotta look at is just look at this book. I'm telling you, it'll start you off in the perfect direction. Profit First, Mike Michalowicz, and it'll set you up on pay yourself first, pay this, pay this, pay this, and it teaches you how to really start splitting those up in a very effective way, but where you're profitable right out of the gates. How many times have you heard people on, like, the Shark Tank and they're all, so how much money have you taken home?

Well, I reinvested it back in the company, and they're like, so you're broke. And they're like, no. No. I reinvested back in companies. Oh, okay.

So you're broke. And they're like, they don't get it. They're like, no. No. I reinvested it.

No. You're broke. That was

Steve: my first five years. Yeah. Right? It took a while until I finally got into, ENTRE Leadership, money makeover Yeah. Dave Ramsey and eventually profit first.

So, yeah, all of us, we're all guilty of it because in our minds, like, oh, we're just gonna reinvest it back in the business while we're I mean, kinda like your insurance situation. Right?

Cody: It's correct. So that's correct. And Profit First teaches you how to be profitable day one. You have to pay yourself so that you can already consider yourself profitable day one. It may not be a huge profit, but you're profitable.

Steve: And what's kind of crazy is that's how I grew up in my personal life. Yeah. I'm a very frugal person, but paying yourself first makes total sense when you're a w two employee. But for whatever reason, when you become self employed, that all that went out the window. And then someone says, you gotta pay yourself first.

Cody: Like, oh, yeah. What? What? I lived that for x amount of years, and I forgot that part.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. So, Sergio wants to know what two books would you recommend.

Cody: Sergio, what two books? Okay. Let me give you two books that I love. And if you wanna chime in, of what specific area you're looking for. But one book is, leading an inspired life.

It's a big thick book. It's Jim Rohn's. You can't even buy it on Amazon. You have to buy it through, Darren Hardy at the success store, I believe. I think it's successstore.com.

But leading an inspired life. And what it does is it breaks down all of Jim Rohn's best teachings in, like even though it's a book this big, each segment is, like, three pages, two pages. So you don't have to, like, read 20 pages and, like, I'm in the middle of a chapter and you feel like you can't break it up. You can break this up and chew it in bite sized pieces. So that's the first one.

The second one, I would still go back to, like, one of my favorites, and that was Darren Hardy's compound effect. That book was awesome. It coupled hand in hand with slight edge if you want something a little different.

Steve: Yep. It's amazing what Jim Rohn was able to share. The the All

Cody: of the greats today are only regurgitating in all reality what Jim Rohn put out.

Steve: I was in, Biloxi for real estate roundup. Uh-huh. And, That was just recently.

Cody: That was, yeah, that was just, like, a couple

Steve: of weeks ago. Yep. And Leon Johnson was on stage, and he was speaking. And I met Tony Robinson senior at WeLive in March, and I met Leon Johnson. And these are guys that have been doing wholesaling real estate Yeah.

Longer than we've been alive. Alive. Yeah. And my biggest takeaway is do not negotiate against these guys. Yeah.

These guys are so far ahead of where we are. Because, like, when you said, like, he started creative financing in 1978, I was like, wow. And he's passed like, I think it was like passive cash for, like, half 1,000,000 a month. Can you imagine? Oh, my goodness.

That's when

Cody: it gets good. That's when you're no longer trading your time for money. Money's just making you money.

Steve: Yeah. And what he kept preaching on stage was like, you know, you guys are trying to buy houses on wholesale prices. I buy I buy houses on wholesale terms. I was like, man. You're a

Cody: son of a gun. What do you think of this?

Steve: But these older guys, you just gotta watch out for them. But Jim Rohn, you know, is that category. Just so much wisdom at that age.

Cody: Solid. Solid.

Steve: Eddie wants to know what kind of contract are you using when you're wholesaling land?

Cody: That's Eddie. Mhmm. So, Eddie, here's the thing. That's gonna change state to state. So I don't wanna give you anything that would be bad advice.

I would get with a real estate attorney and get one specific for your state because that that's not an answer I can give, that would work universally. And I just wanna keep it either universal or just tell him how to do it. The best would be go to a real estate attorney, get his blessing on something to do land, and then move forward. Because once you get his blessing, you actually feel better about moving forward versus getting advice from me anyways because I'm not an attorney. So you'd still probably be hesitant, like, oh, well, Cody said this, but just get his blessing and move forward.

Steve: The great thing about having an attorney is when something goes south, like, this is what you told me, and they have to go back it up in different That is exactly right. Jason Toledo wants to know what were some of your biggest bottlenecks in the beginning, in the beginning, and how did you overcome them?

Cody: I had so much hunger that I'm trying to really pin down what it was the first even before I did my first deal in thirty nine days. It's that scarcity mindset of of letting go and putting out money. So there's that scarcity mindset. Like, I remember dropping off my like, getting mailers and, like, shaking thinking, I'm dropping, like, $500 in mailers right here. Will this come back?

And you're just sitting there I remember seriously shaking. I was, like, almost holding on to it. Like, I don't have this money. Like, I'm already putting this on a credit card. I hope this comes back and you start putting this faith in the system.

So the bottlenecks are very, very real even when you're being mentored by someone that is in the destination that you wanna be at and does understand this. Those bottlenecks are still very, very real. But if you wanna have fewer bottlenecks, I don't care what coach it is. There's so many great coaches out there. So I'm not here to promote myself.

I'm here to say there's so many incredible coaches out there. Go find one that you resonate with that's already in the destination. Yes. It's gonna cost a little money, but that will I have people call us all the time saying, I'll do my first deal, then I'll come back. And then five months later, they come back and says, I I I wish I woulda just went with you because now I'm $10 in the hole, and I still haven't done a deal.

You can save a lot of time, a lot of headaches by just finding someone you already connect with and just getting to where they're at quicker. Like, they're already there. We don't need to we don't need to reinvent the wheel. The resources are there. Tony Robbins always says it's just our lack of being resourceful.

Mhmm. So our our nation fights obesity. Obesity. There's a gym on every corner. The resources are there.

It's just our lack of being resourceful.

Steve: Diet industry is a 2, $2,000,000,000,000 industry.

Cody: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: I'll see what else is there. There. Maspeth wants to know, what does your end goal look like in the ability system working backwards from your goal?

Cody: What is my end goal? Mhmm. My end goal my end goal is I wanna turn everything so passive that I never see the office ever again. My whole definition of success, and I've said this to my wife from day one, is when my family sees me more than my employees see me. Mhmm.

That is success. It has nothing to do with money. It has nothing to do with when I have $5,000,000 in the bank. It has nothing to do with when I have 50 rentals. It's simply when my family gets to see me more than my employees do.

And the only way you can do that is if you start taking this money even though and I'm I will tell everyone on this. It is never convenient to buy a rental. I don't know if how many rentals do you own rentals now? Two. Two.

Was it ever convenient on one and two to buy those?

Steve: No. Money was tight. It's awful.

Cody: And even when you bring in a $100,000 in a month, I promise you that story will not change. Like, it's a story that it's just I'm trying to tell everyone to understand. Like, when you make your first $200,000 a month, you're thinking, oh, I might just buy a ton of rentals. I'm telling you, it's never convenient to buy passive income. It's never convenient because the money is so big that you could take right now for a $500 passive a month.

You're like, la dee da. Yeah. It's not comfortable, but you have to do it. If, ultimately, you want your family to see you more than your employees see you, you're gonna have to invest in passive income, and that's what it's gonna take, whether that's apartments, single family, however you wanna do that. But I don't wanna always trade time for money.

So will I be in this business? I hope to be in it forever, but it won't be me running it. It'll be me just kind of simply in the background.

Steve: Well, the question wasn't for me, but I'll I'll answer. I have it written down a 100,000 a month passive. That's the goal. K. Right?

If I get then, I'm not working anymore. Right? That's just we're gonna continue building that. Yeah. But 100,000 a month passive, that's what, the end goal is.

Cody: What was the name of that gentleman?

Steve: Leon Johnson.

Cody: So Leon, one thing to think of

Steve: Oh, this is the guy that asked.

Cody: You don't

Steve: have to ask that? It was shoot.

Cody: It's okay. Yeah. The gentleman that asked that, the individual asked that, the one thing I think of, I'm never done, though. Think of Tony Robbins when the individual came to him and says, Tony, I wanna be you. Like, I wanna be where you're at.

And Tony Robbins, because he's a big guy, looked down at him. He's like, and when you get there, you'll be who I was. So I want you to think about this. Even Tony Robbins, who is at the top of his game, is still not at the top of his game. He's always learning.

And so even though you hit your goal at some super at some point, don't let that goal be the end of your journey because you should always be growing in some way. That's why most NFL players come after two years. I think it's over 50% go bankrupt. Mhmm. Why?

Because they live this life and they're like, when I get to the NFL, I will have reached my goals. Like, I will have done what I'm supposed to do. I wanna be in the NFL. Then they go to the NFL, and when they're done, because their goal was met, now they just fall apart. They don't know what to do anymore because, well, I already hit my goal, so I don't know else is next.

And many of them go into bankruptcy because they're in goal mindset versus growth mindset. Always be willing to grow. So even though Steve's saying when I hit a 100 k, I'm done working, it's probably in certain areas, but he will always continue. Like he says, find more ways to build that 100 k to a 100 and k and then a 120, then a 150. Right.

You'll never stop growing. So don't ever hit a goal thinking that's the end. It's not the end.

Steve: Well, it's it's there was this, the first time they landed on the moon, right, they came back. And everyone that came back was depressed. And that's when they said, man, going to the moon is not the goal. We gotta give these guys, like, you gotta come to the moon and then teach everyone afterwards what you learned in getting to the moon.

Cody: That's right.

Steve: Right? That's right. Getting to the moon, if that was your goal, when you got back, you would just felt unfulfilled, which is crazy. Right? Because you hit your goal.

Crazy. But you're unfulfilled afterwards. It's

Cody: nuts. Spot on.

Steve: So Nick Jensen wants to know, do you recommend a partner in this business to, to make it easier to automate on or or is this business easier to automate on your own? K. Good question. So I do have a business partner, so

Cody: let me talk to both sides. I can say yes and no. If it's the right partner, that's an easy said. When it's the right partner, it can be great. When it's the wrong partner, it can be awful.

I had a horrible, horrible, I shouldn't even say horrible so bad, but I'm gonna say horrible partnership in insurance. And that's why that one just never went to where I wanted to go because it was such a bad partnership. Mhmm. When it came to where I am right now with my wholesaling business and with wholesaling inc, two incredible, incredible partners. But it's because I learned from my mistakes of what a bad one looks like and what I'll never ever ever get in business with ever again.

But I usually tell people, be very careful. No different than you would pick this person to marry. So let's say me and my wife were married. I have to almost love this individual, this business partner, ever bit as much as my wife because in all reality, for most people, you're gonna see that business partner possibly even more than you see your spouse.

Steve: Way more.

Cody: You better learn like, you better love this individual so much that you can see this working and that you benefit from each other. Like, I'm not a numbers guy. Mark is a numbers guy. This guy can look at numbers and be like, oh, man. I'm gonna figure out a process behind this.

And I'm like, I just got a headache when you said that. Like, I don't want that. I'm like the high level, like, up here saying, okay. I'm gonna bring in this opportunity. And Mark's like, well, I'll clean up your mess when you bring it in, and we'll we'll put it all together and call it a business.

So, yes, for most people, businesses, partnerships fail. I I don't wanna say that to scare you, but for most partnerships, most partnerships fail. I say boats are usually the only ship that sells because partnerships usually sink. Mhmm. You've got to you've got to find the right person, and it's it's not easy.

And if you're thinking, oh, but up front, it'd be so nice because then we could share in the expenses. That's a that's the wrong way to be thinking. Yeah. I would got into it because I could see the business become something bigger, better, and quicker. That's why I got into a partnership.

I didn't do it to help me on my expenses, to help alleviate some of the burden I need to go through. Those burdens you just need to go through and realize that you could keep 100%. Mhmm. Versus giving 50% away just for the sake of, oh, but he helped with my marketing budget.

Steve: Right. I think a lot of people wanna partner because it's the easy way to go.

Cody: That's right.

Steve: And I think the easy way easier way to go is just to work with someone side by side, but have two different businesses.

Cody: That's right. Right?

Steve: Because I think a lot of times people think one plus one is two, and that's great. But, no, you're still only getting half of that too. Like, one plus one's gotta be three, four, or five. That's correct. And often, it's one plus one is zero.

Cody: That's Or, like, half. I couldn't say it any better. Like, that's so so so true.

Steve: Jemai wants is saying scaling is a major topic right now, and I think it is. It's like a lot of people are talking about it. Scaling? Yeah. K.

So can you talk about how much your company needs to make per month in order to be profitable? Oh,

Cody: the curve ball to that answer is you could be profitable only bringing in $5,000. I mean, really, it's up to you. What are you doing with that $5,000? How much is going into marketing? How much is not?

So there's no magic number to this individual. What was it? Jamal? What was it name? Jamail?

Jamail?

Steve: Jamai.

Cody: Jamai?

Steve: Yeah. I'm butchering it.

Cody: Well, either way, great question. There's no silver bullet answer on that one. At what point are you profitable? You should be profitable from day one. That's why I say get that book Profit First because you should be profitable even if you're only bringing in $500 You should be profitable.

So there's really no solid answer. I know that's a I'm almost laying down a bunt to pass on to something else, but it's there is no number. I mean, I don't know if you're gonna throw down agree on this, but you should be profitable from day one.

Steve: We should be profitable from day one, but I think the I think, you know, what you and I kinda talked about earlier, I'm quicker to hire than maybe the finding the right people. If I find someone, like, if someone was really good at systems and they looked at my systems, they would be mortified. Yeah. Because for me, I find an a player, we're gonna put them somewhere. I don't know where Get

Cody: on the bus, baby. We're gonna figure out your seat in a minute.

Steve: Yeah. And so I think for me, prof profitability is a 100% important. But if I can find a way to fit a person in

Cody: Yeah.

Steve: Bring them on. Let's go on the ride together. Yeah. Right? There's no reason to not bring this person and regret it later on because good people, really good people are hard to find.

Cody: Yep. So Don't hire when you're ready. Hire where you wanna be. Yeah. And I I I like, if you wanna go somewhere, hire someone to get there.

Exactly. Don't think of, oh, I'll hire them when I get there. It's not gonna happen. Mhmm. So I love that.

I love that.

Steve: Lucas Orozco has a great question here is, what is the biggest lesson you learned in 2019 about your wholesale business?

Cody: Oh, man. 2019 has all been about team and culture. So if there's the biggest thing I learned for 2019 is making the culture and the team your biggest priority of just going in there. So many times as entrepreneurs, we focus on building the business, and it's so different. Every year you go into it, you start to learn more and more about entrepreneurship in general.

But if there is something I wish I would have done in 2016 that I did in 2019, it's quit worrying about building the business and build the people and let the people build the business. So the more you can just focus on your team, the more you can focus on the people, the better your business will actually grow. And I that was my biggest this year was just simply focus on the people. Build the people. Let the people build the business.

Let them take ownership. Let them come to you with their ideas. Don't give out the suggestion right away. Be slow and just listen. Say, I don't know.

You tell me. What would you do with this? And let them respond so they can actually learn so that in the future, they don't have to come to me for that advice or mark for that advice. And then having it really fun. Every year, we do a big trip.

If we hit our goals, last year, we took our team and and their spouses to Puerto Vallarta. This year, we went down to Lake Powell on a houseboat, and we have a houseboat down there that we were down there for a full week, and we took them and their spouses. We do have another trip that we have to do over and above that. They're they're thinking Hawaii. And and what's great is because we have Janet, Janet, who's the number person, they're like, oh, and guess what?

This trip could be covered because I I eliminated these zip codes, and it paid for this trip.

Steve: There you go.

Cody: The whole point is have a culture that's fun that you yourself could see yourself saying, if I was part of this, this would be a fun part. Like, if I had to work for someone, I would want it to be like this. Create that, and you're gonna see a business that just starts shooting off.

Steve: Totally. Greg Ballard has another question. I mean, you guys are are asking great questions today. Would you be interested in selling your wholesaling business? Woo.

Cody: Would I be interested? If the numbers were right, I think at at a price, I think anyone would be crazy not to entertain something. So if someone came to me with an offer that I just couldn't resist and it allowed me to accomplish what I wanted to do with that money, then I'd say, yeah. I think it's like, Pee Wee Herman when he says, your bike's for sale. He says, my bike's not for sale.

He says, anything's for sale. Right? And it's it's it's it's yes. I think anything's for sale, but it would have to be, the right price and the right number because I just love this team so much. Like, they do so much, and we have such a great time together.

We have all of our our team building stuff that we do during the year. It'd be hard. It'd be hard. So it'd have to be it'd have to make sense. It really would have to make sense.

So, yes, I think anything's negotiable, but it wouldn't be for anything on a discount like a wholesale price.

Steve: So what else was there? Lots of I mean, there's there's some really good questions. So what channel do you recommend for newbies with a limited budget? Limited budget. So let

Cody: me talk about two budget or two marketing channels that I really like, and I'm gonna say the pros and cons so that you can select which one makes sense. Direct mail is gonna take a little bit more money. But if you're working a nine to five and you don't have a ton of time, direct mail will do your heavy lifting for you. So I still do direct mail today. So do we start out our students just through Wholesaling Inc.

Is through direct mail. Because many come to us with a nine to five job. Mhmm. They don't have the time to proactively pick up the phone and start cold calling. So that is the pro.

Direct mail can help you if you don't have time. It will cost a little bit more than cold calling, but, again, it'll do the heavy lifting while you're working. Now cold calling, what's great is it is a fraction of the price, but now you better have the time to pick up. Brent Daniels always shares nine to twelve is the best time. Nine in the morning till twelve is your best time to start calling.

So now you gotta look at it and say, oh, but I work a nine to five. That doesn't work. Or maybe you do have that time. Great. That's a great way to get into it.

So those are the two lead channels that the marketing channels that I if I were starting fresh, those are two channels I tell everyone. But it just depends. Do you have time, or do you not have time?

Steve: Right. Michael living living good wants to know what type of marketing are you doing?

Cody: I do a ton, and I it still goes back to the sniper approach. So I'm gonna share these marketing channels, and I'll share maybe the top four that are great. But I want you to know they were sniper approach. It was one at a time. We mastered it and then brought on the second channel, then mastered it and then brought on the third channel.

So, direct mail, cold calling. We call it just PPC or we can call it web. So PPC. And then our fourth would probably be I'm trying to think of what would be your those are, like, our top three. Our four, if I had to throw a number four out there, would be I don't know.

Referral's starting to be like our favorite because there's no cost to that. So even though it's not our highest bringing in, those are free. Like those are literally cost nothing.

Steve: From past clients or other wholesale?

Cody: Both. So other wholesalers, if you can be known in the market as the one that can facilitate a deal when they come to you and they're like, oh, man, I don't have a deal. Is it mean you don't have a deal, or does it mean you don't have enough cash buyers that want it? Or you just have 50 cash buyers and all 50, you're like, I don't want it. But really in all that two cash buyers are really cash buyers of the 50.

Mhmm. So they'll come to us and we can structure something that will work where they can refer us, then we can we can bring them in on the deal and we'll be on the deal with them. So that's referred from other wholesalers, but real estate agents, from past clients will call them up. And, really, here's the tricky one. We didn't know this until we dumbfounded upon this.

So this is something I'd share instantly for you guys. Call all your past clients. Like, call them. There's so many that they sell you the deal, and you're like, oh, that was it. No.

That was maybe one of 10 rentals. They just didn't even talk about the nine rentals. In fact, when we talked to them the first time, they didn't even mention any other rentals that they owned. But we followed up with someone because we thought we hadn't talked to them and then found out we closed the deal. And we're like, but wait.

I have this second home that I wanna that I wanna use you guys again. We're like, what? Like, how do we not call them? Who is he calling? Yeah.

I don't know. Hopefully, it was us, but maybe not. Right. But he had 10 others. So we started one by one helping him on each and every one of these rentals.

Yeah. And that was just coming up to follow-up on past clients.

Steve: Wow. And Matt Smith wants to know, are you doing any texting at the moment?

Cody: We do. It's, through Lead Sherpa. And, yes, we we do that. So that's something you can totally do, and I think we even have a code for those that want a discount. I think it's Rhino.

Steve: So what is your biggest struggle today? Biggest struggle today?

Cody: My mind, if you can see, watching up and you got that dog that runs around and is like, squirrel. Cody from squirrel disease. And every now and again, I'm always thinking, like, even though I have this wholesaling business, it's running. I have a coaching business. It's running.

I have different opportunities that are running. I'm always, like, looking and looking and looking for these other opportunities. My wife's like, slow down. Like, you've got some incredible things going on. Just put that same focus that you're over here doing your squirrel project into this project and watch what it does.

So my my advice to that, that's my problem and a lot of people's problem, is say no to more and yes to less. Let me say that again. Say no to more and yes to less. And the one thing I'll tell you is I run it through a good, better, or best filter. So when someone presents an opportunity to me, I have to look at it and say, is this a good opportunity?

Is it a better opportunity, or is it the best opportunity? If it's not the best opportunity, I say no to it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Cody: Say no to more and only say yes to a very small fraction.

Steve: I think Darren's way of saying this is if it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no.

Cody: That's right. That's exactly right.

Steve: And my wife actually said the same thing to me. I can't remember when it was, but it was, like, it was, like, in October. We were driving home, and I was telling her about this idea I had. And she said and she looked at me. She said, you have to make me promise, like, okay,

Cody: wait, can I hear first?

Steve: Promise me you're not gonna start any more businesses between now and end of the year.

Cody: Oh, like, I don't know. I was

Steve: like, okay, fine. It's only three months away.

Cody: What is your superpower? Oh, what is my superpower? This one, I I focus on this a lot, so I can say it quickly, and I I'll I'll follow-up with another story to this. Connecting. Simply just connecting with people.

If there is something that I love doing, it's connecting with people. Real estate, wholesaling has nothing to do with real estate. Mhmm. It doesn't. It doesn't.

It doesn't. It's like bullcrap. You're buying homes. No. That's the byproduct.

Mhmm. Really, what I'm doing is simply connecting better than anyone else of helping individuals solve their problems. And the byproduct is you get a contract that allows you to buy their home. Right. Connecting.

If everyone would take time to connect, one of my favorite books on connection, if you're looking for a good book so you can learn to connect because this is how you will outplay all of your competition. I don't believe in competition, so I even hate that word. But if you wanna outplay all your competition, connect better than they do, and you will win that deal nine times out of 10 even if you're not the highest price. Multiple times were not the highest price. So learn to connect.

The book is John Maxwell, Everyone Communicates Few Connect. That book is so solid on just learning how to connect with individuals. And if you can master that, that was something I think every one of us have unique talents. Every one of us are blessed with unique gifts. And I would spend time to everyone watching this.

I would spend time and really think about and ponder upon what is it that is your gift. What have you been blessed with that's natural to you? What are your gifts? What are your talents? And start listing them down.

Because when you act in your gifts and talents and you really start living in that, that's when you start to live in what everyone calls purpose. Mhmm. And that's when you're able to now do what everyone calls Tony Robbins. Like, he's the master at, and that's an impact, leaving an impact on people. It's because Tony Robbins lives in purpose every day.

Why? Because he knows what his gifts and talents are, and he just simply does his gifts gifts and talents every single day and shares those gifts and talents with everyone else, living in purpose, which that allows him to then leave an impact. So mine was connecting. I love connecting with people. And when I can when I can simply connect with people, I now can make an impact.

Steve: It's powerful. So I'm gonna make a few quick announcements. Think about what you wanna leave a lasting message k. For the listeners. So, guys, it's a month away from Skillathon in New Orleans.

So December, I'm gonna be in New Orleans with Chris Rood. If you guys wanna check that out, go to bit.ly/2019skill. That's bit.ly/2019skill. And Max and I are getting blown up by our two and a half day workshop where we go over everything in our business. So if you wanna make $20.20 your year, visit disruptors.com, disruptors.com to see if the workshop will make sense for you.

And don't forget to tune in next Wednesday. We got Charles Hernandez and Michael Yanez coming in from San Antonio. And the Thursday of next week, we got our monthly meetup at social hall. We got, Jesse Burrell, Annie Dragonova, Max Mendez, and Sonia Ray talking about what they would do today if they only had $2,000 in their pocket, how they would find their first deal.

Cody: So That'd be awesome. It's an awesome

Steve: meetup. So with that, last thoughts.

Cody: Last thoughts. For those of you in it right now, maybe many of you are looking for that first deal. I'll tell you, it only takes one deal to really ignite the fire. Stay ignited. So if you are struggling finding that first deal, I want you to really, really, really find five people right now that are crushing it.

And whatever it is you wanna do, whatever you wanna succeed in, find five people that are crushing it, and go find a way to surround yourself with them. It may cost a little money. It may be a meetup. It may be a coaching program. It may be just a seminar that they teach or maybe just free, and it's just people that are in your market or people that are phone call away.

Surround yourself with with those individuals. Because if you can surround yourself with those power five and whatever it is you wanna get good at, you start to tap into the gym room. You're the average of the five closest individuals you spend the most time with. I love that quote. I live by that quote daily.

Whenever you feel a little bit down, find those power five and let them build you back up. Because once you do your first deal, that's when you really I mean, it'll be you at this desk with Steve sharing your story saying how you did this and went to this and went to this and people are starting to seek advice from you. Guys, I'm just the individual that puts my pants on one leg at a time. I'm no different than anyone else, but I love what I do. And I'm grateful I found that first first deal of 39 in.

And it may not be that way for everyone, but get that first deal Yeah. Because it means all the difference.

Steve: Awesome. How can someone get a hold of you?

Cody: They can get a hold of me. Follow me definitely on Instagram, Cody Hoffine, or in Facebook. You're more than welcome to send me a personal email, Cody@CodyHoffine.com. So c o d y h o f h I n e. That h in there.

Yes. Hyde. It's a tricky spell. Yeah. It's German.

Those darn Germans. The h o f h I n e. But, yeah, cody@codyhawvine.com. Send me an email if you have certain questions, any way I can help. I'm honored to do so.

I feel like that is my purpose right now is to help as many individuals get their first deal so they can then become financially free.

Steve: Awesome. Thank you. You're welcome, Steve. Thank you. Thank you, guys, for watching.