$50 Million in Phoenix Single Family Rentals

Steve Valentine: Amazing.

Steve Trang: Yeah. Five. Five. Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors.

Today, we got my good buddy, Steve Valentine, with Limitless Real Estate Strategies, another operator in the Phoenix market. I know. And he's gonna be talking about how he's got up to $50,000,000 in single family rentals. Now I am on a mission to create 100 millionaires, and the information on this podcast alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years. If you'll take consistent action, you will become one.

And we all know that you wanna be a successful real estate investor. In order to do that, you need to be able to buy houses consistently at deep margins. Problem is you may be contract you may not be contracting enough houses or buying them deep enough causing you to feel maybe frustrated or anxious. We understand how deflating that can be when you walk out of the house without a signed contract. Now we've helped hundreds of people buy thousands of houses at deep margins.

If you're interested in finding out how DM me the word sales on Instagram, and we so you'll never have to worry about your revenue again. And the show is brought to you by our sister company, Investor Lift. Get access to over 2,000,000 cash buyers across the country. Go to investorlift.com, put in disruptors to get 10 off. If you get value today, please tag your phone below, share this episode right now.

That way we can all grow together. And we do have our shows, pardon disruption and certainty talks tomorrow and the day after. Now this is a live show, so please ask your questions for Steve to answer. You ready? Ready.

Let's do it. Alright. So it's been, like, three years. Right? Or two years.

How long has it been since the last time we

Steve: It's three. Well, I was I guess, one or two.

Steve: You were pretty early. So yeah. So early. Four years.

Steve: Four years.

Steve: Four years has been on the show. Few things have changed.

Steve: Few things have changed.

Steve: Alright. So let's talk about some of those changes. You've gone through a few evolutions since the last show. And we met, like, six, seven years ago. Yep.

Steve: And you

Steve: already gone through a few evolutions since then. Yes. So what's changed in the last three or four years in your business?

Steve: Well, I think, seeing the last three or four years is just really understanding the power of investing in real estate. Right? You know, understanding how to the new evolution is really solving problems for people. Right? The bigger the problem I can solve for somebody, the more income I can earn or the more wealth I'm gonna generate.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And then it's also taking that one step further and teaching real estate agents how to build generational wealth. You know, the the stat that I had from a couple years ago, which will get updated, but 95% of real estate agents don't own real estate.

Steve: It's a little hypocritical.

Steve: I'm just saying. Yeah. But they'll sell anybody an investment property.

Steve: Yeah. Well, Well and that's something that's, I've talked to we talked about this uncertainty talks. Right? It's we talk about there's what you say and it's what you do. In a perfect world, they line up.

Right. But there are people in real estate that preach real estate that don't own real estate. Yep. Yeah.

Steve: They will I mean, I remember speaking a couple years ago, and it was just always intrigued me that only 5% of the room owned it. Mhmm. But a 100% of them will sell you something that they don't know anything about.

Steve: Right. And, you know, I can say personally, in the early part of my career as a realtor, it was a lot easier to explain, like, when I went through this. Right? And we like to use third party stories. But when I say, hey.

Here's I remember, you know, when I was going through this scenario, here's how I felt about it. It always built a stronger connection. Yeah. Right? Versus, like, yeah.

So, like, this is what we're supposed to do. Right. Yeah. So you notice that 95% of people don't own real estate. So then what did you set out to do?

Steve: So I set out to do, which is really you know, it was a trigger for my dad. Actually, this week was seven years ago, my dad passed. K? He died of terminal cancer at age 63. And the thing that changed everything for me going forward was the fact that at age 63, he owns no real estate.

But yet, he helped investors buy a thousand homes at trustee sale during the downturn. Yeah. So now what what it was was my real estate license is my greatest opportunity to build wealth and pass on wealth to my kids and show them. So that that's where everything kinda changed for me is that there's opportunity in this business to, you know, do some of the things that you train, right, on the wholesale side. And then there's opportunity to list and and represent buyers and sellers that all creates income.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: But then there's the opportunities where you start to you know, Wendy and I first started with, I wanna buy one rental property a quarter. And then they got addicting, and we started figuring out how to do it more creatively Yeah. To where we were able to build it faster and stronger without a lot of money.

Steve: Yeah. Well, if it was seven years ago this past weekend, then, obviously, we've known each other much longer than seven years. So I remember you went through that scenario. I I remember one thing that stuck out, for me was you were helping your dad who was ill in the hospital, and it was, like, an eye opening moment for you in that you had all these investors that were supposedly friends

Steve: Uh-huh.

Steve: That when things went dark, wouldn't give you guys a time of day.

Steve: Well, I mean, my dad's biggest, and so here's here's the big point to that. My dad went through, and this is my new thing with my investors. Mhmm. I will work with you. I will not work for you.

Yeah. K? So we will build wealth together, but you're not gonna drag me along like a chihuahua. Right? And that's where a lot of these people, the investors, they come into these seminars and things, and they wanna go find a real estate agent and drag them around and make them do all this work for the commission.

And that's what my dad was doing. And so the one investor that my dad built I mean, that guy's portfolio is probably worth 10 x what my dad bought at a trustee sale for. Mhmm. It was 500 homes. Yeah.

So that portfolio is probably worth about $500,000,000 right now. And that guy literally gave my mom and I two middle fingers on his way out the door after my dad died.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And that was the last time that I would ever, like, put my faith in somebody that is like, yeah. We're friends, and this is all all the promises he made. Mhmm. And then he was peace out. Yeah.

And then I really, really did really well at Barrett Jackson this year because I walked right past him

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And I didn't say anything. Yeah. But it's still it's still an angry moment for me.

Steve: Well, absolutely. Right? I mean, this was a friend to the family.

Steve: Yes.

Steve: So yeah. So you're you set out to, help realtors understand or at least, maybe take advantage of opportunities presented to them.

Steve: Right.

Steve: So how is that going?

Steve: It's really good. So, you know, I'm doing what I call situational group coaching for agents right now.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? To where I'm showing them how to capture opportunities, how to solve problems for their consumer, and then figure out what direction do I take this property. Right? Yeah. Does it turn into a listing?

Is it a wholesale? You know, a lot of my students, they end up bringing me the deals because I help them work through it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And a lot of them you know, the biggest running joke right now is I go on more listing appointments with my students than I do my own clients Yeah. Because I'm always the buyer there. Right?

Steve: Right.

Steve: And so having that reputation as an agent, as a problem solver, that's where a lot of my stuff comes from is that I can solve the problem. We can be creative with it. And so teaching the agents and watching them build their portfolios, helping them work through creatively, and then also help them solve problems and create that wholesale piece or that, you know, instant instant sale. So Yes. You know, I've got about 20 students right now that are weekly.

It's kind of fun. I'll even do, some live calls, you know, that are that are warm calls for me as far as referral Mhmm. And then letting him listen to all the way through what it looks like to put that deal together with that person and how to take him down that road.

Steve: So I remember one thing that one conversation that came up, right, was, during the mastermind that, again, we met through, Lizzie Hoefer's mastermind, was there was a time we were talking about commissions.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Now there are no standard commissions. Right? Nope. Obviously.

But some people like to charge six. And I think you and I are talking about charging more.

Steve: Mhmm. And

Steve: they're like, how can you possibly justify this? Right? Like Right. And they were, like, really adamant. Like, you're being unfair to the homeowner.

And, Emery, you and I were like, you guys are, like, looking at this the wrong way. Right? Like, the homeowner needs help, and we could provide a solution that no one else can. Right. And for that reason, we're charging more for those services.

Can you talk through that? Because I I it was such an interesting, like, dynamic in that room for until until they finally, like, got it.

Steve: Right. Well, I think talking through the commission thing is is one of those pieces. What do you value in yourself? Right? So I can bring these solutions to you, and I have twenty years of experience Yeah.

I can charge more money. You go to an attorney, you can go to the the the bus boy the bus guy Yeah. And he's probably whatever it is, or you can go to this guy, which is gonna charge more because of experience, reputation, those types of things.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And I also just believe that if you want to be discounted, that's fine.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: But that's not the service that I wanna provide.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And nobody realized from the consumer that, your you don't realize how poor your agent is until shit hits the fan.

Steve: Until it's too late. Until it's too late. Until it's too late. And that's, like, the thing that we always see over and over again. It's like, the time you realize the value of a good agent, there's nothing you can do about it.

Steve: Nope. Yeah. You you already have a problem.

Steve: Yep. So, you've been coaching agents. Is this nationwide? Is this locally?

Steve: It's locally, but I've got a couple of agents that are nation, you know, in in parts of the country.

Steve: So then, like, what do you like, what is, a process that you walk them through to to build their portfolio?

Steve: So it's really being situationally aware and understanding that every seller has variables. Mhmm. Right? And if we can ask better questions and have a better conversation, really get to the pain points and talk through it, that's where the opportunity arises. Right?

So we wanna get through those pieces in order to guide them to what they want. So I'll give you a great example. The the live call that I did with my students a couple weeks ago, guys, 92 year old grandmother going to assisted living. K? It has a $50,000 mortgage on it.

They have about 300,000 equity. We work through the first call to get to the point of a number and what it would cost to actually repair the house and put it on the market. And the last thing that I asked him, I said, when grandma gets this $300,000, how are you gonna grow it in order to sustain her living? And he says, nobody's ever asked me that. I says, well, can I show you how we can do a wrap and I can help increase grandma's money?

Mhmm. And I can buy the house and everything can be solved in this way. Right? So by getting to the point of asking that last question, how can I help in one more pain point that they don't know about? Yeah.

A lot of people in those situations, they don't understand what am I gonna do to protect grandma's money. And one of the reasons that it's so near and dear to me on that is that my 92 year old aunt, I never thought she'd live to 101, and it cost our family $7,000 a month for her to live ten years.

Steve: $7,000 a month?

Steve: A month for her assisted living facility.

Steve: Wow. Uh-huh. Yeah. I didn't know.

Steve: Getting getting old is expensive.

Steve: I had no idea.

Steve: Yeah. It's it's ridiculous. So same thing with him. He was gonna be about $5,000 a month for grandma. Mhmm.

So I'm like, what if we can grow this by an extra $20,000 a year at this interest rate? Mhmm.

Steve: And

Steve: so that's how we solve the problem. So it's getting to that point and trying to figure out what solves the greatest problem. Is it an all cash out? Do you wanna put it on the market? And then also, the other thing that I'm really teaching the students, which is always hard in this part of the business is, what does it cost to renovate something, and how do you determine what that cost is?

Yeah. Right? And I have the secret weapon. Right? Because my wife's a general contractor, and, she's done almost a thousand renovations to date.

Steve: Wow. So, I guess and let's talk about you said there's five different evolutions in your career.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: So what were those five evolutions?

Steve: I I I wish I had a picture for you of, when I wore, like, the slacks and the tie and the long sleeve shirt. Swear to God. No. Swear to God. It's terrible.

It's awful. I look back and I was like, what was happening? So, I mean, that was when I first gotten traditional with my dad. You know, I came out of the automotive business and then did traditional through o five when it was kind of normal. Mhmm.

And then it changed a little bit, doing the traditional buying and selling. Then in o six, we got into pretty heavy into the investment space. My dad was selling to investors. We referred to a bunch of people in California. You know, this is when your dog, your daughter, your unborn child could get a loan Yeah.

With no money down.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And, Which

Steve: is kinda happening again. But anyway Right.

Steve: So in o o five, I think we sold 800 homes to investors that never saw those homes, and it was insane. We were number two realty executives team at the time. We were doing property manage all the things. The second evolution of that with my dad was he sits down one day at a at a coffee table. He was like, we need to start a painting company.

All we need is two guys in a van. Like, that sounds awesome at age 25. Sure, dad. That sounds awesome. Let's start.

So that was another evolution of all of a sudden we have seven construction companies. We have plumbing, painting, a high pressure misting company, a landscaping company.

Steve: High pressure misting company.

Steve: So, like, when you think about the restaurants, the outdoor restaurants, the misting systems. Yeah. Some guy needed needed my dad's help to keep his business going, so all of a sudden we owned that company. And by the '7, we had taken our eyes so far off the ball in real estate. When everybody else was flipping homes and doing things and making a bunch of money, we were managing 75 employees and 25 fleet vehicles.

And what my dad thought was gonna work was taking our real estate reputation and utilizing it to build those companies. And what happened was those companies actually took down the real estate reputation. Because now I referred my painting company to a client. The client's pissed off about the painting, and now they're calling me back because my last name's on the company. Yeah.

I'm like, never again will I do that. So, you know, fast forward 2,008, everything goes away. We lose our house to foreclosure. I even, this is how bad it got as a family because I'm like, I'm peace out. One of the investors gave my dad an opportunity to bail out of the building that we owned at the time, which I had put the down payment on, and he wouldn't let it go.

He wanted to go file bankruptcy anyway. And so, so I bailed. I actually it was so bad. I watched my mom take a closed fist swing of my wife in my office, like, family wise, like that. Yeah.

Right? So, so we fast forward, and then the evolution was I was broke, had nothing. I left my parents. I'm on my own, and that was when I got the opportunity to do Dario's Fannie Mae Freddie Mac.

Steve: Right. So I

Steve: went through that evolution. When that died down, it was like, okay. Well, what now? So when my dad got sick watching his business in the investment side, that was when we started getting into flips and investing and rentals. That's where Wendy created her general contracting company, and that's where I really got focused on it.

And now the evolution is really going into we we still hold all that real estate, and we still do that, but now the evolution is teaching people to do it for themselves.

Steve: So $50,000,000 in in rentals is, you know, is no small feat. No. So if I were to, you know, come to you and say, hey. You know, I wanna start buying rentals. I wanna build out this portfolio.

What other steps involved in making that happen?

Steve: So what I learned early on was to get really creative, and this is, like, the biggest thing, and I think you'd probably agree with this. I think the biggest thing that agents don't I mean, general public in general, they don't understand how money moves and breathes. Yeah. Right? Yes.

They they they don't understand, like, interest rates and moving things around and what it looks like. And, you know, we're playing chess, not checkers.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Checkers is when you just go buy a house with a loan and 20% down. I'm like, well, I don't have 20% down. So how can I get creative? So I started looking and talking to the lenders and trying to figure out so if I can buy a property at a deepest discount and explain to the seller, like, you've got a 10% cost of sale, commissions, repairs, closing costs, and condition.

If I can buy this deep enough and hold it with hard money for six to twelve months and let it season

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And the market kinda helps out, obviously, the market helped out over time, right, I can refinance using the equity as down payment. Yeah. So that's what we did over and over again. And it started to be one of those things where the more people I talk to, it's it's so insane to think that today, every conversation that I have when I'm with a real estate client, I'm like, so, hey. What do you what do you invest in?

What kind of rate of return do you have? And you ask them, they're like, well, I really don't know what my rate of return is in my four zero one k. Well, how much does the investment company charge you to manage? I don't know. They really don't know what the rates of return are.

Yeah. So we started building it out to create money relationships with our clients. So over the last seven years, the better I got with the conversation, we've raised $20,000,000 in private capital. Mhmm. It's one house at a time, one investor at a time showing them how to make money and how we can all win together, and that was probably the biggest thing.

So we we started with I remember my first investor. I borrowed a $110,000 from him. My hard money was negative $300 a month when I had that rental. This is a mindset thing. Because people are like, I want cash flow.

I'm like, well, cash flow comes with cash. Right. Right? You have to own it free and clear if you want the cash flow. So we did that, and it was negative $300 a month for twelve months.

But when it when it refinanced, it was worth a $180,000. I got I had zero money into that deal, and it cost me $3,600 to buy that $80,000 in equity. Yeah. And the tenant helped cover that. So we started doing it over and over again, and then we started realizing, well, wait.

If we do these flips and we renovate them, then this is what we can capture, and we can pull some cash out. So we just started getting really, really creative with how we were gonna do it. And that's what I'm trying to teach students. It's like, you have to get over the mindset or the mental hump of using hard money to buy a rental property if you're buying at a deep tough discount.

Steve: So if there's one regret I have in real estate, was that mental hump specifically. Yeah. So I remember November 2007. Right? I get licensed in May 2007.

I go to the annual ASRA event. Right? I don't know don't know if you remember them. Right? They're at the Coliseum.

Right? And, like, there's this

Steve: Michael Jordan play there.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Right? So you have active funding group. I think that was, like, the big one at that time.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And they're, like, 18% interest rate.

Steve: When we got back then. Right? The house was only $20.

Steve: I know, but, like, looking back, I was like, 18%. That's worse than my credit card. Why would anyone agree to that? Right. Right?

Meanwhile, I got people coming in from the Salt Lake, Canada, all over the country, flying in the Phoenix, paying cash for these $50,000 homes that I'm showing as a realtor Yep. Making $1,500. $1,500 commission. Finish your splits. Before splits.

Steve: Right.

Steve: Right. So after splits was, like, I don't know, $1,200.

Steve: Right.

Steve: If I would've just bought those properties at 18% interest, I would've been cash flowing right off the bat. Yep. Right? 18% on 15 on 50,000. That's, like, $700 a month.

Yep. I've been cash flowing right off the bat and, beginning my empire. But so like I said, if there's one thing I would've changed, would've been that.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, that's that's really been my advice to agents when they get into. And then when I do these private strategy sessions with people showing them, like, what's your dream life budget, and how are we gonna reverse engineer that to get there? And it's all gonna be in real estate or you have it split up so that they can start to mentally think about it and mentally be prepared. See, I've never gone out just to buy a property to buy a property as an investor.

Mhmm. It's always been prepared for the right opportunity. So either I have access to money or I have access to the right people so that when that thing pops up Yeah. I can take advantage of it. Right.

And most agents are solely looking at it's the example I always use and, you know, because, you know, being in the business together early on, you get that great deal that you're gonna put on the market. And you know what we do? We go chase the buyer to make an extra $6,000 rather than go chasing the money to make it.

Steve: Double lend it. Yeah. We wanna double double lend it. This is gonna be great. Yeah.

Steve: It's gonna be great. It's gonna be a huge win. I'm like, you know how much money the investor that you just sold it to made?

Steve: Yeah. Especially over the time lifetime of the of that, asset or

Steve: whatever. Yeah.

Steve: So getting understanding money. So that's one of the things you focus on in teaching. Yes. I completely agree with you. Like, I think money is just one of those topics that realtors, probably more so than the general public.

But in general, I think most people don't really have a, understanding of money. And it's something I said before, like, sales marketing. Right? I appreciate it. Sales marketing.

We're all in the sales marketing business. I love, sales and marketing. Right? But once you figure out sales and marketing, that money skill is that other skill that not that many people have. And if you can figure out that skill, it is way more important than the sales and marketing skills.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, there's there's something that I teach on a regular basis, and it's a dripping faucet fills a bucket. Mhmm. Right? So it's time that that bucket will be filled up with little drips.

And so many people are like, when I get here, I will do. When I do this, I will do. And then they never do it because the more money they make, the more their lifestyle increases because they never made the small habits of putting money in certain places. And it took me years to figure out, like, I need to do that differently, and I'm teaching my kids how to do it differently and making sure that the agents that I'm teaching now, like, guys, this is so important that you create this habit. Right?

And I'm sure you've read Profit First. Right?

Steve: Oh, yeah. For sure.

Steve: So so you look at how he breaks the business down in percentage so that it never changes. Every paycheck does the same thing. It's not, well, a $100 here based on the check. It's based on percentages.

Steve: Right. And, for that point, I would say, you know, we had David Richter here. Profit First for real estate investors. Definitely go watch that episode and buy his book. So money is the first thing.

What's the second thing to be to building up your portfolio?

Steve: So now it's the mindset. Right? And so when I when I teach them, the easiest thing for an agent to do is buy a house for themselves. Right? So interest rates low, low down payment, all the things.

Having the mindset that I'm not gonna be here forever, and I'm gonna buy this. I'm gonna keep it, and then I'm gonna utilize the equity or refinance it, and I'm gonna go move to the next one. If an age if I would have done that at age 20 and stayed on that course, actually wrote it down. I said, one property a year for twenty years of my career. So I went through all the ups and downs in the market, And, like, I would definitely be fully retired right now Mhmm.

Had I just stayed that course. Because even right now crazy thing. This morning, I was talking to someone. I'm like, you know what drives me nuts? Six months ago, you would run out and compete with 14 people Mhmm.

And take on an extra $50,000 in debt and pay $50,000 over list price. And now all of a sudden, the rates are a couple points higher. And you can buy stuff at a discount now, but you're so concerned about the stupid monthly payment that mentally, you're not there. You're not thinking about the money. Yeah.

Right?

Steve: So You're focused more on the monthly versus the value of the home.

Steve: Or the debt that you took. Yeah. Right? So right now, you could buy something with $50,000 less debt, and the payment's gonna be an extra $4,000 a year.

Steve: So I, there's a guy, Jason, I wanna say Rothman. I'm totally butchering it. But, I I I heard him say this in a in a Zoom call. Jason Hartman is what it was. Jason Hartman.

He was sending this on a Zoom call, and, he was talking about how, like, we all understand real estate values the wrong way.

Steve: K.

Steve: We look at, like, comps and this and that. Right? He's like, you guys got it all backwards. The value of the home is based entirely on what someone can afford monthly. Yep.

It's like the way that people buy cars and the way people buy houses exactly sounds like no. Like, it's for cars. How people don't treat houses like they do cars and wealth clearly. Clearly.

Steve: Remember the four square box when you're buying a car? Like, they get you to focus on the payment, and you get screwed everywhere else.

Steve: Yeah. So that's, so, yes, to your point, you were saying this morning you're upset. Yeah. People make decisions based off of payments versus value.

Steve: But they also are making decisions like a lot of people in the current market. They're like, no. I'm not gonna buy anything right now because the rates are too high. Rather than going, you know what? I'm gonna set my sights on something different, and maybe I'll buy something that's less house, a less bedroom so I can at least get into homeownership and start that process and knowing that the rate's not gonna be the same forever.

Yeah. But the value that I can buy in that house will be there for me down the road, and it's starting my investment journey.

Steve: Alright.

Steve: It's not gonna be that way forever. So people give up, and people try to time the market perfect. Never never works. Some people get lucky.

Steve: We learned that in 2007. So, alright. So the mindset of, I'm not gonna be here forever. So that's the second thing.

Steve: Right.

Steve: Is there a third step here?

Steve: The third step is really understanding, money. Right? Understanding how to be creative with things, how to make things work Mhmm. Rather than doing the, you know, the Dave Ramsey, Susie Orman thing of, like, gotta pay your house off, and you gotta put 20% down. Well, I didn't have to put 20% down.

I had to create the 20%. Yeah. And you can do it. And because we're in real estate, we see those opportunities. And it always it always kills me when I when I watch things.

I'm like, especially and I I know you see this in in your side is, you know, in the influencer role and people like, look at my $100,000 check that I just flipped. I'm like, cool. Half of that goes to the IRS. Mhmm.

Steve: And

Steve: you also probably paid 20 or $30 for real estate fees, closing costs, the other things. It's really not that much. But if I kept it as a rental property or I did a ten thirty one exchange or like so understanding that is probably, like, the most critical thing. Because if you don't understand the numbers

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: You make decisions based on that that bottom line HUD, and that bottom line HUD still gotta go out to IRS at the end of the day.

Steve: So, for many years, I would argue with my accountant. K. Turns out he was right, you know, getting to the end. But, like, I'm flipping this house. You know, let's say I bought it for a 150, and I sold it for, like, 200,000.

Right? Make, like, a $15,000 profit. Nothing sexy. Right? And I'll put I would report 15,000 IRS.

He's like, no. Like, what are you doing? Like, are you trying to get out of it? It's like, no. I only brought in 15,000 in revenue.

He's like, no. You brought in 200,000 in revenue, and your costs were were 150,000 plus everything else.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And I will I mean, I'm just being honest here. Like, two or three years, I would consistently argue with him. And took him two or three years to get it through my thick skull to understand, like, how the IRS, taxes you or at least is looking at your Uh-huh. Numbers, right, reviewing your numbers. And I think to your point that people may sometimes forget is that whenever we close a deal and make some profit, uncle Sam has a seat at the dinner table.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. And and he's hungry. He's hungry. He's hungry.

Steve: Always gotta take care of people's student loans. So Don't start. So but on top of, you know, like, you were saying, understanding how money works, I think it's not just it's not what you gross. We know that, obviously.

Steve: Right.

Steve: It's not even what you net either. Right. It's what you keep after After. Everything. Yep.

Right? Including uncle Sam. Yes.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, the other thing too that I've really been showing agents to understand is well and that's probably one of the biggest thing is the value in having, like, the best CPA on the face of the Earth is is priceless. Yeah. Because they're they're guiding you and going through all those processes, and that was, like, one of the most important things that I found.

And she specialized in real estate and really walked me through a lot of different stuff. But, you know, one of the things we started doing and I get it. We're trying to flip homes. We're creating income. And when you flip a house, that income is taxed the same as if you got a commission.

Yeah. Right? It's ordinary income that year. So when we started building specs this last year, rather than flipping them, we held them for one year so that we could ten thirty one exchange the profit. Mhmm.

And so the cool thing is by understanding that that move, even if I have to sell the house for less money in the current market, being able to move that money tax free to end up with a half 1,000,000 or a million dollar home free and clear Mhmm. That I can now pull all my profits out tax free and refinance and then let a tenant pay for it. Yeah. It it, like so once you start, like, understanding the rules and how how to move it and start playing chess changes everything.

Steve: Yeah. The elements of cash out refi is not income. It's just a tax free loan

Steve: Yes.

Steve: That you can continue to build up. And, like, it might sound what's the word I'm looking for? This might sound crazy. Right?

Steve: Right.

Steve: But this is what the super wealthy do. Right? Like, Elon Musk doesn't pay himself an active income. He just gets loans against his portfolio. Right.

Jeff Bezos just gets the loans against his portfolio. Yep. Doesn't Amazon doesn't w two Jeff Bezos. Nope. Right?

So we're talking about what the truly wealthy you gotta understand how the wealthy operate. That's what you've done.

Steve: Yeah. So so we've just done that. Right? We leveraged our portfolio earlier this year where, you know, a lot of our homes, we were down to about 40% leverage on.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And we shifted them to 60% leverage. But the amount of cash we were to pull out, property is still cash flow.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And now that money has moved on to other investments, and the tenants are still paying for that couple million dollars that we pulled out.

Steve: And that's so another, you know, time of mindset. Like, that's another reset. So before, it used to be like, man, if I can't have all these properties paid off, that'd be fantastic. Right. Really, you don't really want to pay all the properties off because you can continue leveraging that Right.

To get more cash flow.

Steve: You can keep you can keep moving it. Right?

Steve: You know, you're talking about your dad. I was so Mike Delpre, he was a a guest here about a month ago. Okay. And we were talking about, you know, I'm I'm speaking to Asriel. He's like, you know, see, you gotta do what Dan Valentine did.

He's like, who? Like, Dan Valentine. He's like, he was like one of the biggest names at Asriel. I was like, who? Yeah.

It's like Steve Valentine's like, that Dan Valentine? Oh, okay. So, I mean, you're talking about the reputation.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: He definitely had a reputation. But the other thing too, you talked about how having those companies ruined the brand name. So, you know, a lot of times we're thinking about currency. And this is something I've been learning. I was talking about we have this on Friday, we have our blockchain Mhmm.

Content or uncertainty talks. But one of the things we talk about is that we all think about, as far as currency as a resource we have available, like time, money, and energy. That's what we think about. But there's also two more. We're talking about timer.

There's also influence. And lastly, reputation. Yep. Right? Like, sometimes we think reputation, is is, what's the word?

It could be priceless, but it could also be tarnished Yes. And ruin the brand. And then you don't get to just recoup it.

Steve: No. You don't. Right?

Steve: It takes even longer to rebuild that. So I just wanna touch on that because I think that's one of the things that, you know, people may, miss out on. So you also have, for fun, Muns Park. Yep. Talk about that.

Steve: Muns was the magical place for us to start over. So in 2008, you know, we're dead broke. We have nothing. We have two two infants, and, they were one and three at the time. We had good friends of ours invite us up there.

We stayed the weekend, and it was just this breath of fresh air that we hadn't had in a while. And, Wendy and I started walking around there and dreaming, like, one of these days, we might be able to own something like this. And this is a big piece too, and I know you've done really well with it is understanding the power of partnerships

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And relationships with people. So, you know, mutual friend of ours, you know, George Lawton.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: You know, we we dreamed about doing the month's parking, but we really weren't there to, like, be able to afford a second home. And what does it look like? And this was this was before, like, really the VRBO days. And then in 2016, we were up there. I mean, we'd still gone up there every year.

2016, we finally got to buy a place. And it ended up being a listing that George referred to somebody. It came back. On the way down the hill, we're like, dude, what if we bought a place together and we shared it, the affordability? And then we can rent it out a little bit to try to cover some of our costs.

George and I were still, like I mean, we're just come out of the REO business, and he's starting to build his team. And Mhmm. I'm starting to do things. And I called the guy. The seller came into the office on Monday.

It was listed at 03:30. I walked him through commissions, a price reduction, everything else, and I bought it for $2.65 with $5,000 down on a seller carry at 4%. Nice. And George, to this day, will still go, I don't know how you did that Mhmm. But it was pretty amazing.

So we own that house up until 2021. And Oh, you sold it? Yeah. We kept we sold it. We started putting money into some bigger investments up there.

It was the height of the VRBO market, and I I'm still back and forth on the VRBO stuff. Some people love it. Some people hate it, but Muns Park is my my enjoyment, and I got tired of, hey. Can you go put a window AC unit? No.

I'm busy. Right? I'm sitting on the patio.

Steve: Well, I like how Muns Park is, like, your positive story. Yeah. Because it's my negative story. Alright?

Steve: Yeah. That's what you're saying.

Steve: Yeah. So, like, I've only had one foreclosure. Should have more. But we only had one. It was a property of Ottomans Park.

Right? And this is the time like, you talk about making the right decision, wrong decision, whatever. Like, we bought this property as a flip. 2007, Red Rich Dad Poor Dad and all that fun stuff. And the market turns.

And it's me and three of my best friends, and we're still friends. Right? But, like, we bought this property to flip it. Market adjusted, if you recall.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And they're like, well, since we're not gonna make a profit anymore, let's keep it as a rental. And I was like, no. We should just sell it like we intended because we don't we're not property manager. We're not landlords, especially in Munns Park. Especially Munns.

Right? And they're like, well, let's just keep it and see what happens. So we kept it as a v r b o. Like, vrbo.com existed back in 2008, 2009, whatever. And we had to do v r b o just to keep it cash flowing.

And then after a while, like, you know what? Like, we're spending all this effort to break even f it. They just let it go. So yeah. I saw them right.

Eight ninety five reindeer. That's, that's our our foreclosure property. So I'm

Steve: looking that up when I'm up there this weekend. Yeah.

Steve: It's a great property. I, like, I looked forward to, like, retiring and, you know, one day is, like, just hanging out here. But, anyway.

Steve: So it was cool. I mean, you know, it went from being a summer home, and then we bought another house that was bigger with George and Jen and, 3,500 square feet. Wendy remodeled it, did all the things. And, and now we we sell real estate up there. Like, I do it.

Steve: Oh, really?

Steve: You know, on the weekends, I love it. We go up Thursday through Monday. Yeah. It's a town of 3,000 homes. Mhmm.

Pretty much know everybody, and I'm known as the mayor of Munns Park. I've I've made a reputation there.

Steve: That's awesome.

Steve: And, it's been a lot of fun. And you talk about CPA and knowledge. We, you know my love for cars. Right? Mhmm.

So I have this '72 Blazer that I bought that was next door to my rental property down here. I bought it from the guy. And I finally got to fill one of those bucket list items where we did a complete frame off restoration on it for the last year, and it got delivered to Muns Park for fourth of July weekend. And it's it was done through the business as a marketing ploy, so we got to write it completely off, and it stays up there. It's it's just been it's been a fun fun journey.

That's awesome.

Steve: The other thing too is you were, I think, the first if if you're not the first, you're one of the first to go over the real. Yes. So why did you go over to real?

Steve: I didn't do it for the purpose of what everybody else typically does real. They're they're looking at, like, the recruiting and the that stuff. That's great. Mhmm. But when Kim Ryan, who was my life coach for a while, she coached me through.

My dad died. Lot of lot of history there. She came to me. She says, hey. If lightning's gonna strike twice, would you like to be there where it strikes again?

And we went through things, and to work with Kim again was was awesome. And, I looked at it from the investment side. I looked at it from the stocks, the awards, and some of the matching programs that they did. I'm like, this is free money for doing the things that I already do.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: So why shouldn't I do this? And, by the way, you know, I think every real estate agent's to ask themself what their ROI is on the money that they pay in splits and the things to their brokerage. Yeah. Right? Where I was at before, I'm writing a 15,000 check year, a year plus transaction fees.

I'm like, what do I get out of this? I own my own office. I don't need training. I I don't need the brokerage support for for that stuff. So I'm like, what is my return on investment?

There isn't one. So my own pays the amount of money, and I have these other abilities to do this. What's my long term play on it? Oh, and bonuses, if I have organic conversations and other agents come over and I can do that through my coaching and some of the other things, great. That's a bonus.

But I was looking at the free money that I was giving back through it. I'm like, this is a no brainer to me. Yeah. Why doesn't anybody else see that from the traditional side?

Steve: So I'm gonna put you in the spot here. Do it. I mean, eXp could make the same exact argument. Why real over eXp?

Steve: Real was something that was it was new out of the gate. Mhmm. Right? I got to meet the Tamir, the owner. You're, like, number two

Steve: over there or something.

Steve: Yeah. I just I felt more comfortable with it even though, like, a lot of my friends, a lot of our friends are over there. I didn't like how it came out of the gate with eXp. And and I know that that was rough for them. Right?

It was a very hard recruiting. We've all been there. Nobody's gonna lie about it. If you met a real estate agent at a conference and they were with eXp, it's like sitting next to a real estate agent on a plane. You're like, can I please move?

Steve: Yeah. It's really bad. Right? Like, to say this, but, like, it got to a point I was like, I don't wanna take this call anymore. Right.

It sucks. Like because before we could just talk Right. I was like, are they gonna recruit me? Like Right. Don't wanna take this call.

Steve: And I think some of them did it well and some of them, you know, really pushed, but I also watched some of our friends from the mastermind Mhmm. Go from selling real estate to being recruiters. Yeah. And I was like, That's interesting. I'm like, I get it.

Right? It's it's it just changes things. Yeah. And that's okay. Whatever you wanna do, I'm good with it.

It just wasn't for me at that point. And so when Kim came around with real, I'm like, I like this. Plus, Kim was a big proponent in getting me to move. Right? It's just having that conversation.

Steve: Well, obviously. Right?

Steve: Right. She

Steve: was influential. So, I wanna take some questions, from the audience before we do that. We're gonna take a quick commercial break. Alright. So looking at the questions here, first, we got, Ingrid Hernandez who says she loves Steve Valentine.

So that's very nice. She's always been great. Very, very supportive. So let's see. We got this in real places.

One problem we will face if this media for the rep negates him, I don't really understand these questions here from real places. So question from from Ingrid. Reality is that getting paid off revenue versus profit is highly attractive. Why wouldn't you plug a recruiting component that's leaving money on the table in my honest opinion? So I guess we're talking about MLM.

Right?

Steve: Right.

Steve: So why wouldn't you, plug the recruiting component?

Steve: Well, first of all, I'm not plugging it yet, but I wanted to be it real for a year, number one, to make sure I was still gonna be there. Right? Is is all this gonna work out? Yeah. We've had too many people.

They're like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, they're not there anymore. And so I wanted to see how it played out.

And I also wanted to figure out what that's supposed to look like for me. Mhmm. And so, you know, I'm talking to some agents in Denver, but they were organic. I'm not going to Instagram and Facebook and going, you should be over here with me and doing those things. I wanted it to be organic conversation that you're seeing what I'm doing, and you wanna be a part of that, and you wanna know why.

And so that's that's why I left it that way from that standpoint.

Steve: Are you louder about it now?

Steve: Not as vocal. Yeah. I I probably will start to. We're we're getting ready to to work it, like, you know, like what Pineda has done and and, you know, some of the other guys where they're creating networks Mhmm. You know, in that.

So, we're experimenting with some of that, you know, as we're kind of drafting that out to see what that's gonna look like.

Steve: Yep. I know one thing, we haven't we haven't talked about yet today, was, you went to go work Chris Harder.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Alright. It's limitless. Yep. That was a I mean, that's not cheap investment. No.

Talk to me about why you did it and what you got from it.

Steve: So Chris Harder, are you talking about the mastermind that I did with Chris? I would encourage anybody, as much as I do real estate conferences and things like that and the different things that we're doing, I would encourage anybody in the real estate space to go get out of the real estate space and go experience what other people are doing that you can bring back to the real estate space. Yeah. So So when I first met Chris, at Lewis House event, I was in his inaugural mastermind, his first one that he ever did. I don't even think he knew what he was doing at that point in time.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And, it was such an insane connection with him. So I'm still in it five years later. I think you're still in Collective Genius. Right?

Steve: Still in Collective Genius. Yep.

Steve: I won't give it up because of the relationships. Yeah. So many people will look at the expense versus the value you get out of it. Mhmm. And the relationships that I built over the last five years, I joke with everyone.

Like, it's, like, $5,000 per year per new friend.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And what what I gain out of that is insane.

Steve: Well, you know, it's it's interesting. Right? Because you're right. A lot of people look at this as a cost. Like, do I wanna spend this kind of money?

And everything I've been in has made me more money than being in it than the cost. I mean, it's just something as simple. Right? As and I know you've experienced this in your own traditional business. But, like, my kids go to a piano school.

Right? Music Valley, Yamaha Music School. Right? You see me post about it sometimes Yeah. On on Facebook.

And when there was a real estate transaction to be had, they're like, hey, Steve. We like you. You guys have been here for these years. Will you help us with this transaction? Yep.

Like, legit if we if we look at this piano school as a mastermind, that's more profitable than what we paid the school over all these years. Like, the cool thing about our industry, we really don't have a lot of cost because it always ends up coming back to us in one way or another.

Steve: Right. So And that's I mean, that was the same thing with Muns Park. Right? Yeah. I didn't go up there and start marketing and advertising.

I went up there and started donating the charities and being involved here and playing pickleball. I'd like the more people I got to know, the better the relationship was, and that's what what threw me, you know, or pushed me forward up there.

Steve: Yep. So what did you get out of being in that mastermind? I mean, five years.

Steve: That's Yeah. Five years. First year, it was like, opening a cage of squirrels and watching them run all over the place. She's like, well, this person over here, they're making money coaching. This person's doing a course, and I could do that.

And then I realized, like, wait. Wait. Wait. I need to stay the course, which was how can I take the influence community and bring it into the business? And that's that's where we started going with that, which changed how I was probably the biggest thing on it was, as real estate agents, what do we do when investor comes in?

And I'm gonna take this outside of, like, the traditional homeowner. So investor comes in, like, I wanna buy an investment property. You're a great I'll start sending you list or off market or whatnot. Well, now what I've created is another piece of my business where I do a four week private strategy session with them, and it cost them money to come in the door before I will sell them a house. Yeah.

Because I need their mindset to be the same as mine. And if they're willing to pay that, then they're gonna be willing to invest. And if they don't invest, that's okay. They paid me for my time versus running around the car trying to teach something that you know that you specialized in. So it's been a lot of, like, hey.

I have value that people are willing to invest in, not charge. Mhmm. People will invest in my time for that knowledge, and that was just another leg of my business. And, you know, just understanding that part of, like, all the different operations of the business was really, like, the most beneficial thing that there was more value than just this the transaction.

Steve: Yeah. So when you say that, it's it's interesting because there's two things that come to mind. There's a guy up in Salt Lake. I wanna say Rex or something. But he has a meeting every year in his office or his team does

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: With all their investors.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? And this is like, if you have a financial planner or financial adviser or whatever, every year you go to their office and you look at your investments, like, what's good, what's not good, what changes we need to make. Yep. But by doing that, you're top of mind conscious and you're the professional when they need help. You're the guy.

Yes. Alright. So that's the first thing. Second thing, I remember, reading Millionaire Real Estate Agent many years ago. Right?

Mhmm.

Steve: This is

Steve: over ten years ago now. Yep. There was a gal. I wanna say she was in New Mexico or whatever, but it was, if you wanna work with her to buy a property, it was $5,000 upfront, or you don't wanna pay it, that's okay. You just don't get to work with her.

Steve: Right?

Steve: And that's kinda what you're doing here.

Steve: So it because here's here's the thing. Especially on the investment side Yeah. But I also believe that everyone's an investor. If you're a first time home buyer, you're an investor. Yeah.

So getting to walk people through that process and showing them the power of real estate as far as the house hack or, you know, going from one house to the next. So doing those strategy sessions is where I really enjoy it because I feel like that I'm I'm carrying on my dad's legacy. Yeah. Right? This is this is what I wanna do.

You know, your legacy of, you know, a 100 millionaires, right, is that a 100 millionaires or a thousand millionaires?

Steve: 100, but we'll get to a thousand.

Steve: I'll be number two.

Steve: Oh, we already got we're we're we're past number two.

Steve: Nice. Yeah. No. But I love that. It's like, what's the legacy?

So when I look at things, I think about some of my younger clients that are just buying their home. When when I sit down and do a discovery call with a buyer, I'm already injecting the investment mindset. Yeah. Because I wanna know what their end goal is.

Steve: Yeah. That's powerful. You wanna hear another stupid thing I I said in the past? Can't wait. So I remember, again, as a young realtor.

Right? Someone come in and was like, I wanna buy these properties, you know, and the problem is all these realtors are buying these good deals before I get them. It's like, what? Why would anyone do that? The way we get paid is off of commissions.

Right. That sounds ridiculous. Right? No. I realized how stupid I sound back then, but I believed at the time.

Now it's like, yeah. I wanna buy these houses at 70 65% of market value. That's great. Why would I call you?

Steve: That's so true. I mean, I think about it. So have you ever you know, back when you're doing more traditional business, do you remember when the bigger seminars like Fortune Builders Oh, yeah.

Steve: Coming to buyers.

Steve: Right? They'll come in and then they're teaching the seminars, teach them. Go get your real estate agent to write all these contracts and go find you something at 50¢ a lot. They will do that work for you.

Steve: For free.

Steve: I'm like Yeah. If I'm gonna buy anything at 50¢ on the dollar, it's gonna be for me. Yeah. Right? And then and then I will charge you for finding the deal.

Yeah. Right? But, I mean, that's the same thing we talk about. If you go out to a listing and, like, same thing with the wholesale, what why would I give that up? Yeah.

I I'd been in the business twenty three years. I've earned the right to keep that deal. Yeah. And then I will let go of the stuff that I don't want to keep.

Steve: Yeah. So I was really, really naive at that time. So Real Places wants your opinion on this comment. Alright. So in a saturated market full of competition, all else equal, it is a is it efficiency?

It is it is efficiency and conveyor belt that will determine the winner. So read that there. So what are your thoughts on that comment?

Steve: No. I think everything. Right? Even in a competitive market, I'm assuming they're talking about competitive in a place of a bunch of real estate agents.

Steve: Or investors.

Steve: Right? So both. I think what what we've done really well is that we've become known as being able to solve problems for people in different ways. And I think no matter what the saturation is look. There's all kinds of billboards all over the place.

There's all kinds of advertisements for we pay cash for houses. I've never run one of those ads. But what I have done is I've gone into the community, and if somebody knows that you're a buyer or a problem solver, you've created a relationship, and that relationship is what pays you. So I think last year, we we acquired 80 homes that we bought. Wow.

40 of those came from agents.

Steve: That's impressive.

Steve: They still got paid. Yeah. They still got the pay paid the same thing. The difference is, like, one of my students this year, they came to me. They're a year in the business, and the wife had a relationship with a probate attorney.

He's like, I I don't know how to have the conversation with the guy that's managing the trust or the probate or the executor. I said, well, hey. You don't have to, but let me show you how it's done. Let's get him on a Zoom call. So I got on the Zoom call with the seller.

It was managing it. I walked through the stuff. I told him this is what it would cost to fix it. Here's all the things. We ended up inking both those deals in Moon Valley.

Mhmm. My student cleared 50 k in seven days Yeah. Because he gave me the power to do it for him

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Rather than stumbling and screwing it up. Right. Right? He was willing to do that. And so, you know, we turned around and, you know, he bought he made 50.

I made 200. Yeah. But the power was, like, I was able to do that for them. So and it was a relationship game. So, you know, having that relationship with people and people really understanding what you do because I think if you're just out there being known in the world as a realtor, nobody knows you're a problem solver.

Steve: Yeah. So I think to to add to your point, right, is that on all else being equal, I think it's the relationships you have and the resourcefulness you have. Agreed. And the resourcefulness comes from experience and everything else. But, their knowledge, understanding how money works, that's a valuable skill, and that's that's I think that's what's gonna determine the winner.

On YouTube, Dimitry VanCamp, what percentage of gross rents rent what percentage of gross rents would you say go towards expenses and capital expenditures?

Steve: Gross rent. What percentage of my gross rents

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Go towards expenses and right now, probably 80% because everything's leveraged.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: I see you've got more

Steve: By design.

Steve: Like that. Right.

Steve: Yeah. So, keep finding away, your questions, guys. The other thing I noticed too, and I kinda commented on you, on a couple months ago, three months ago now, is I know you've been active on your on your media, but I've noticed a recent leveling up on your media. What's changed in your strategy?

Steve: Finally figuring out who the hell I was. Yeah. Right? So when I started to talk about the investing stuff or the coaching or what I was doing, I felt like I was gonna alienate the retail part of the business. Mhmm.

Right? So

Steve: The realtor the retail part of the business as in, like, your existing database?

Steve: Yes. Right? And so I was afraid, like, if I'm talking to agents about solving this problem, like, what are my sellers gonna think? Mhmm. Right?

What does it look like? And and so it felt weird to figure out, like, where am I going to influence and impact the most? And once I found that lane of I just wanna talk about problem solving and investing and strategies. Right? Because I think that real estate has multiple strategies.

There's also multiple variables, and there's multiple ways to get from point a to point b. Yeah. And so that was the leveling up was really finally finding the right people to help me level up as well. Right? So, I was very fortunate that my brother-in-law moved out here from Rockford, Illinois, and he was part of the media team of a very large, church, mega church in Rockford.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And so he came out, and he he started dialing things in. He hired a couple of different people to help him level up the social media. And, of course, you know, I'm watching you and Pace and some of these other guys go, man, I gotta get my shit together.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, it's very noticeable how much you leveled up. Another thing too is you kinda mentioned the church component. Like, I remember there was a guy that worked here, and he's like, oh, you know, what's his experience? Like, he worked in a church.

And in my mind, because I haven't been in a church since, like, 1999. Right. Right? I was like, so the guy knows how to plug in, like, a mic stand into, like, a speaker? Like

Steve: Church is legit right now.

Steve: I went to a baptism, I wanna say late last year, maybe early this year. Like, wow. This is a full blown rock concert. Like, I might get converted if I keep coming to this.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So he was responsible to bring the church online during COVID. Got it. So he was like and he's he's an avid photographer and all those things, and it's always crazy, like, the media people, like, how fast they can do something.

Like, have you seen me try to make a reel? Like, two hours later, I'm still sitting trying to figure out how to get the sound on it.

Steve: It really works a little bit differently. Yeah. Yeah. So Dean McCall. So clarify guest name and company, please.

So you wanna repeat it?

Steve: Oh, yeah. Steve Valentine. Instagram is I am Steve d Valentine, and, the company's Limitless Real Estate Strategies, which is our retail, part of the business, and then Steve d Valentine is my agent coaching platform.

Steve: Got it. And then which markets are you not currently in that you're interested in?

Steve: That I'm not in that I'd be interested in? Mhmm. I'm just I like my backyard. I like to be able to touch it, feel it. I know what it's like when I see an address.

I can tell you what it looks like. I've never I've watched people go back to, like, the Midwest and do different things, and I'm like, it's never really worked out. Yeah. So I just you know, plus, we have the property management company here. Everything's under one roof.

And remember, my wife's a GC. So Yeah. If I go somewhere else, I gotta figure all that stuff out, and it sounds painful.

Steve: Yep. And then, follow-up. So Real Place is asking. So, she was the one or he or she was asking the one earlier about, you know, what's important, and we talked about relationships and resourcefulness. So what do you do once you've created the relationships?

Steve: You have to be intentional with those relationships. So, let me give you a great example about how my real estate business was actually built over the last couple years. Most real estate agents, they're running around building the team. Right? I need buyer's agents.

I need TCs. I need all these things. I chose to build mine as I'm I'm the CEO, and I need a CFO, and I need the COO. Mhmm. And so Erica is my COO.

She handles everything.

Steve: Awesome that she's still with you because I remember working with her on a transaction years ago.

Steve: Yeah. Eight years. Yeah. You know, Tammy's been there eight years. Tammy manages the investor relationships.

So we manage about $20,000,000 in capital, you know, on different properties, plus of our rentals and all that stuff. But Tammy makes a a very good effort to maintain the relationships with the money aspect, and that is the thing that she has taken on. She's like, I want this piece. So it doesn't take me to reach out to the investors and make sure they're doing good, make sure they have the payments. She's got that.

Yeah. Eric has taken on the relationships on the on the retail side, and she's making sure that those relationships are intact. My job is really to be that voice and to be be there and and make the strategy for them. The team will execute the rest of it. And then I've got a couple of retail partners that do the showings and some of the listings and things like that.

But I chose to keep it small and extend my reach by having people that could help me manage and maintain the relationships.

Steve: Yeah. I remember in those mastermind days that you're always beating your head by, like, building out a team. Right. Like, I don't want a big team. I don't want to manage all these salespeople.

And you had your brokerage

Steve: Yep.

Steve: That you use, like, to help with this.

Steve: Yep. Peace out.

Steve: So, Arturo, what education did you plug into that changed the game for you?

Steve: Freaking school hard knocks. The education really came from my dad being a mentor. Right? Even though we didn't see eye to eye on things and the the the shit that happened when it did, my dad actually, let me back this up. Kim Ryan said the most profound thing to me when I was really pissed off my dad after he died.

So my dad dies, doesn't own anything, leaves my mom a very small life insurance policy, k, and a lot of debt. So it took me nine months to help him through from diagnosis to passing, and it took me eighteen months to clean up the mess with my mom. But what Kim Ryan told me was there are things that our parents teach us to do and not to do, and both of them are equally important. Yeah. K?

So she went through. She's like, your dad was generous. You're a good father, all these things. You didn't like how he managed finances and what he did, so you're gonna change those. So those lessons were equally as important.

And I would say so much of my education has really come from experience, but it's also come from mentors like Kim Ryan and my dad and, like, when we did masterminds. Right? It was it was putting yourself in those positions to learn from what others are doing. I don't know that there was specifically any one one piece or section of education because I think there's so much of it out there, but I do think that it's really important that you you have mentors and you have people that are going to consistently, help you level to the next next playing field.

Steve: I think the masterminds that, you and I were in were awesome. Mhmm.

Steve: I also

Steve: think you and I were the troublemakers.

Steve: I've always been a troublemaker. So How do we break the rules?

Steve: I think we might have drove, Lizzie a little crazy in some of those masterminds. I remember, there was one they're like, Steve, do you realize how much of, like, an asshole you sound on these things? Like, really? Because I've always been the one who's like, hey, Steve. Like, why are you doing this?

Right? It was always, like, you do something, which was, like, to me, like, immediately obvious that was stupid. Right? But instead, like, hey. How come you do it that way?

It's like, why'd you do that?

Steve: How How'd you do that?

Steve: Yeah. So I got pulled aside and, like, you realize, like, how bad you sound. Like, I had no idea. I'm trying to be helpful.

Steve: You mentioned her name earlier. You wanna hear something funny about Carly?

Steve: What's that?

Steve: The first time I ever met Carly and Jen when we were with Todd Bookspan at a mastermind in Scottsdale Quarter. Yeah. I'm like, why are you such a bitch? She's like, nobody's ever been that upfront with me. I'm like, well, I just gotta ask.

I'm like, is this gonna be expected forever? I just need to know.

Steve: The and you guys are obviously able to smooth that over.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. That's been fine.

Steve: Yeah. We love love Carly. So, what is your why? Like, what keeps you going right now?

Steve: Right now is knowing knowing that the things that I'm going to do now and I'll share a story about my dad in a second. Knowing that the things that I'm doing now are going to have an impact, not only on my clients, but their kids if they will follow the plan and not deviate from certain things. Right? So and I and I the other why is my dad's legacy. Right?

My my dad was at ASRIA. I've I've never been as involved as he was down there, but he created his his reputation and things. And so my reputation is a little bit different because I'm helping agents, and I'm helping consumers. My dad was trying to help the investors. Mhmm.

And I ran into a guy, in the lobby of our office, and he looked at me. He's like, you Steve Valentine? I'm like, yeah. He's like he shook my hand. He looked at me.

He's like, your dad changed my life forever. I'm like, what do you mean? He says, in 2009, I moved here. I quit my job at UPS in California, and I moved here. And I started to see some real estate stuff, and I I would go to your dad's classes.

And today, I wholesale. He's he's driving a nice car. He's dressed in a nice suit. He's like, your dad changed my life forever, and I'll forever be grateful for that. And so, like, those are the things you think.

Like, it's not the money, the stuff, the other things. Yeah. It's what are the lives that you impact and what do you change. Right? And we always talk about, like, social media and stuff, and that's what that's what I always love about socials.

Like, what is the impact of one person that never comments, that will never see anything, but the one thing you said might have changed or had an impact on their life?

Steve: Yeah. And that's the that's the most valuable, thing you can give. You know? Like, money is great. We need it.

Right? But, you know, hearing these success stories, hearing someone say, like, hey. My life changed because of you Yep. You'll never get tiring. I'll never get old.

Steve: And there's there's there's no price tag you put on it.

Steve: No. There's not. What is your biggest struggle right now?

Steve: Struggle right now? Time. Right? Always always trying to duplicate and always, like, who's the next person? Who's the next hire?

Mhmm. So that you can do more. And I think part of the the struggle too is, like, how many squirrels are you chasing?

Steve: You You

Steve: know, I think that's always a struggle for all of us that are that are in this world. Like, man, it was easier when it was just real estate stuff, and now it's like this and this. And, you know, my kids are older, and my wife is wanting to travel. And I'm like,

Steve: I don't wanna do any

Steve: of that. I'm still working.

Steve: I don't wanna travel either.

Steve: Good. That makes two of us.

Steve: What more do you want to do?

Steve: I wanna speak more Mhmm. Right, nationally. I am in the process. It should be done October. First book's being written.

Steve: Nice.

Steve: So I'm excited about that. And, what else? There's still you know, it's starting to look at the bigger picture of things of, you know, the real estate funds and some of the other things that can be created to do more with. And, you know, again, it's there, but there's all this other stuff going on. And I think my last biggest struggle is getting rid of the last 10 freaking houses I bought in April where I got caught with my pants down.

Steve: Well, you're not alone. Good. Yeah. So I'm asking this question, like, what more you wanna do? Because it's something I've been learning, again, you know, from Nick Peterson when we talk about uncertainty talks on Fridays, is there's this concept of, like, closer versus more.

So one thing I think is really awesome that you've always been very clear with your purpose. Right? You wanna have, like, a rewarding life with your children.

Steve: Right.

Steve: Right? So the question I'll ask you is does doing what you're talking about speaking and everything else get you closer to your goals, or is it feel like I have to do this because it's I don't know. I feel obligated to do it. No.

Steve: I don't feel obligated to do it. I think it's it's a passion that I enjoy. Yeah. And we're at a different stage in life. Right?

Yeah. So my kids are 17 and 19.

Steve: They don't need that anymore.

Steve: They they don't need it. Right? When we do get together, we're having fun. Like, I you know, it was really cool. Last two weeks ago, I did a, a custom gun build with them.

So we had a we hired a guy that didn't experience, bought all the parts for ARs, and we built three ARs together. And this is their first gun.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And, I watched my 19 year old pull out of the driveway in one of our, Super Sport Chevelle's. I'm like, it's time that I now have time to do the other things. Like, I've had the imp not that it not the impact's over.

Steve: Right.

Steve: But now there's some things that I want to accomplish that doesn't require me to be around as much, and I wanna do those things, right, to to create that legacy and that impact.

Steve: Yeah. That's awesome. How do you measure success?

Steve: I think you measure success based on the rhythm you've been able to create in life. So what I mean by that is I've got a good friend that said it once. He says, it's never work life balance. It's work life rhythm. Your kids are a different ages than mine are.

Mhmm. You have a different rhythm happening right now. As they get older, the rhythm's gonna change. Right? So my rhythm is changing, and I think that that's where the success is when you can find that rhythm and what feels good and what impact you're having.

Right? Because I think when I look at all the fights my parents used to have, it was because my dad spent so much time trying to help everybody else, but he wasn't doing it inside his own family Yeah. With his kids, with his things. Right? And so I've always been priority of family and kids and making sure that that we get to have that life, but also living a life of extreme generosity Mhmm.

In the same. Right? So I think that we get to make some money, we get to have some cool shit, and we get to give some stuff away and have a fun life. Right? It's never been I need a bigger house.

Like, it and that's a struggle that I always have with people when I start seeing them make more money is all of a sudden, it's the bigger house, the more toys, the more debt, the more things. Yeah. And that's not always I mean, some people, that's their success. Right? I mean, we live in the social media world, and we know what that looks like.

So

Steve: Yeah. It's it's fascinating that we have that in common because that was the same fights that I saw growing up. With dad was always helping everybody else Yep. But not helping enough at home.

Steve: Right. Yeah. Or he wasn't around enough at home or whatever, and it was always like, well, this person needs me here. This person needs me here. And there's a I think that even in our business or industry, there's some people have, savior complex or hero complex.

Right? Like, they always have to be that person trying to save somebody else. That was one of the demises of all those businesses that we had. Because my dad was trying to give so many people opportunities. Right?

So we had these houses that were, like, halfway houses. So you'd get the guys that were coming out of drugs and out of jail, and they were always our problem. But that was the way my dad would try to help. And and my mentor, he's 80. I still play racquetball with him.

He was a good friend of my dad's. He told me a couple years ago, he's like, your dad couldn't make the choice when I asked him. Do you wanna be a minister or businessperson? You can't mix. Right?

So if you're gonna be a business person, you can give to the ministry. You can't bring the ministry into your business because it's like you're never gonna perfect either one of them, and you're gonna screw them both up.

Steve: Yeah. No. That's that's totally powerful. Got a question here. Real places, what are some of the most recent innovations that you think are gonna impact consumers and then impact investors in the real estate industry?

Steve: You know, obviously, there's been some articles recently about, you know, Amazon and their fractional ownership. I think that there's some you know, we've got crowdfunding and source funding and some of the other things. I think that's great. You know? I think that's gonna be something down the road where you can gather people together.

I still looked at it and go, this is gonna be really complicated. So I talked to my CFO, and she's like, I'm not paying 20 people out on this stupid rental property every month. It's not happening.

Steve: Well, good news for you is that we're figuring out how to do that.

Steve: Okay.

Steve: Right? So the

Steve: blockchain teach me. We're gonna

Steve: be doing that through the blockchain. So we're actually talking about tokenizing, real estate assets.

Steve: Interesting.

Steve: Yeah. So that's what we're working on. That's something that if you guys are interested, right, obviously, tune into our show on Friday. Edwin Nunez, says he loves the show. How many signed contracts have you heard actually closed?

He's heard it's one in 10. Do you know what percentage of contracts get signed as far as investors, close?

Steve: Would I close?

Steve: Not you. No. Generally speaking. Right? The industry average.

Steve: Two out of 10?

Steve: Two out of 10? Yeah. So, what I've heard typically is five out of 10, which I think is really low. But yeah. So I've heard five and ten.

These lives make my substitute teaching job very very well. Thank you, Benito. That's awesome. Alright. So, I want you to think about, one message.

I'm gonna Gonna leave the listeners with while I make a few quick announcements. Guys, we do have part in the disruption tomorrow, and then certainty talks on Friday. And next week is gonna be a very special episode. We're gonna be on Thursday next week. I'm gonna be making a huge announcement.

You won't want to miss it, next week, same time, but on a Thursday next week, be sure to tune in. What are the last thoughts you'd like to leave the listeners with?

Steve: You have a choice in what your mindset is. And the reason that the tattoo on my forearms is limitless is that there's infinite possibilities. If you will take the time to surround yourself with the right people and you will put yourself in the right places, and you don't have to limit yourself to this is what it is and this is how it how it has to be done. Right? Real estate was my dad limited it.

So my fortieth birthday, my wife and I rode down a tattoo parlor, and that was the word that was going to be the mindset that I was gonna teach my kids. Today, it's tattooed on all of us. Both of my kids, that was their first tattoo. It's on the back of my blazer. It is a mindset that I believe we can all have and that anytime you think you're limited, there's somebody, like you said, right, there's a relationship or a resource Mhmm.

Somewhere. You just have to find it.

Steve: Right. Yeah. I think it's a very powerful message. Someone wants to get a hold of you. What is the best way to do that?

Steve: Instagram is the best place at I am Steve d Valentine.

Steve: Awesome. Perfect. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure. Again?

Steve: Again. Yeah. I gotta go back and listen to the first episode.

Steve: Yeah. It's been a while. Been a while. See you guys next week.