Vic Heredia: It's hustle. Hustle on both ends. Like, you know, you wanted to make out of the hood and make money, you had to hustle. In the corporate world, same thing, you have to hustle. But also it's about relationships.
Just like in Maryville or any poor community, you have gang. Right? In the corporate world, you have a company you belong to. So you need those relationships. Gangs are bad, of course, but people join them because they they want a sense of belonging and they wanna feel protected and because there's power in numbers.
Right? That's why nowadays we have masterminds. Mhmm. Because there's power in numbers. Like, you're able to exchange ideas and in a ways you protect yourself from from outside events because you have that knowledge that you're sharing.
It comes down to, again, hustle and relationships. I think that's what I learned key factor in in both of them. Right?
Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of disruptors. Today, we have Vic Heredia with Home Offers America and Quality Skip. And Vic is back again, another disruptor in the Phoenix market. And today, we're gonna talk about how he went from selling bananas in Mexico to selling portfolios to hedge funds.
Now, guys, I'm on a mission to create a 100 millionaires. Information on this show alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years. You'll take consistent action. You will become one. If you get value out of the show, please hit that subscribe button.
That way we can all grow together. You ready?
Vic: I'm ready. Let's do this.
Steve: Alright. So you were here. I was looking at the notes two years ago.
Vic: Yeah. Yeah. It was two years ago. Yeah.
Steve: August '22. You You guys wanna go watch, right, in the archives Mhmm. At the, that late night It was a late show vibe.
Vic: It was a cool vibe. Yeah. I I felt I felt like a celebrity.
Steve: Yeah. Well, you still are. Oh. You still are. About that much.
Right? Erin, anytime in an important room, I see you kinda lurking. Right? Whether it's IMN. I see you lurking at IMN.
Vic: True. True.
Steve: Right? Making your presence felt. Yeah. Or I was at Sean Terry's event, speaking about, installments. Yeah.
You were there as well. Right? So, like I I tried to
Vic: get into the rooms. That's that's the key.
Steve: You are kind of a celebrity in the real estate world. So, before we talk about what happened since August, let's just give a quick quick rundown. Right?
Vic: Gotcha.
Steve: So, talk about, you know, what has been your journey in in in real estate? Because you've done you've done 5,000,000 in
Vic: fees. I think over. Yeah. Yeah. Right.
Steve: It's pretty Yeah. Pretty big now.
Vic: I was being conservative. Yeah. I didn't want I didn't want to, like, embellish.
Steve: Yeah. So let's talk real quick about your journey. Like, how you got here?
Vic: Yeah. I mean, so from you want from the beginning, I guess, from the beginning.
Steve: Just real quick, and then we're gonna talk about the transition because a lot has happened into the last few years.
Vic: Well, I think I think I came into it around the same time. Well, you're already doing it, but a little bit after. I just heard about bunch of young guys making a ton of money with real estate. It was Jaylen White, Alex Saenz, Carlos Reyes, which now Carlos, and Alex are good friends of mine. Mhmm.
So I, heard about them. So I reached out to them. Then I found out, you know, where where they learned it from. I'm like, okay. Let me look into Sean Terry.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: I got his course and studied that, learned that. And it's interesting. A lot of guys say that it took them, you know, six months to close a deal or nine months to close a deal. But me, I mean, and I'm I'm glad it didn't affect me, but I studied for, like, three months straight, and I did my first deal in ten days. But I think I think that studying really helped.
I think that's one thing that people just don't do enough of. They don't study because I get guys that call me all the time, and they're like, hey. Is this a deal? I'm like, dude, that's not even close to a deal. And so I think that that education, factor is really huge, really huge.
But, yeah, that's I just heard about these young guys making a ton of money. Mhmm. And, wanted to to improve my quality of life and my income and just got into it. That's how I met you.
Steve: Right.
Vic: And went to Dean Graziosi's event. Yeah. And,
Steve: yeah, just a quick backstory. Quick backstory. Right? So, Vic, I met Vic, when I was door knocking.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Right? I had my office off of 51st Street
Vic: Mhmm.
Steve: And I'm knocking on all the doors Yeah. To see who does what Yeah. And, to see, you know, these people that'd be interested in doing real estate with me, and I met you.
Vic: Just by luck, we were two buildings apart or one building. Or Yeah.
Steve: We were the next building over. Next building over.
Vic: Just by luck. That's kinda crazy. Right?
Steve: Right. Yeah. Right? And then you're like, oh, you know, I'm trying to do this wholesaling thing. It's like, tell me more about that.
Yeah. Because I know a thing or two about wholesaling. Yeah. And then you would talk about, like, yeah, there's these guys on social media, Carlos Reyes. Yeah.
And was it that was it. It wasn't all a nation. It was a cash offers America. It was I can't remember what his company was. Right?
Yeah. Like American cash offers, something like that.
Vic: Yeah. First phase investments and then Well, that was National cash offers.
Steve: National cash offers. That's what it was. Right? Like, have you heard of these guy Yeah. These guys?
National cash offers. Yeah. I was like, yeah. I've heard of these guys. Anyway, so that's how we got connected, and we deepened our relationship.
You invited me to congrats to EOC. We went to
Vic: That was a good event. It's a
Steve: great event Yeah. Which led to all this. So, you know, talking about, the from selling bananas in Mexico
Vic: Exactly.
Steve: Where you are today, how did you go from selling bananas Yeah. To doing a large volume of deals?
Vic: Yeah. Well, the banana business was a family business, and and it it paid well. I made, you know, I made, you know, 6 figures a year. It it was a good job. I had my own office, but I just felt I could do more.
Right? I could I felt I could do more. I was I had potential to do more. I wanted a bigger life. I've I've I had my own business, in my twenties.
I I was part owners of a produce company. We would supply restaurants and hotels with with produce. So I I was a business owner at one point, but then I went to work for my cousin as a I guess you could say consultant because I had I had done a I've always had that entrepreneurial spirit. Right? I always had that.
Always wanted to to to do something big. And but I ended up working with my cousin at the time. You know, they needed help and, you know, I needed the income. And so it just it just worked out. I had I had a fallout with a business partner at that time.
He was twenty four years older than me, so he was kinda letting me do everything. So it was it was just too much work for me. So, basically, I just started working with my cousin, and, we would private label bananas for Walmart and Whole Foods. Mhmm.
Steve: So if
Vic: you ever went to a Walmart or a Whole Foods, you ever and it's it's an organic banana, that was probably our product. It was we private label for them. Yeah. So I did that. I really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed working for family, but I hated the logistics side. And for the the monetize, I'm like, okay. This isn't worth the money. Yeah. And so I just wanted more, and I felt I could do more.
And then also too, the owners were my were my cousins. Like, it was one it was three three brothers that they're all they're all the owners. And to see them being multimillionaires and I wasn't, I'm like, okay. I I gotta do something else. Right.
That's kinda how the journey started.
Steve: Yeah. And, you had a nice space to yourself. You had maybe one other employee in there. Yeah. Right?
Vic: There's only four of us in that office.
Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So in your office, you get to watch all the videos. Yeah. Right?
I think, one time I came to visit you, and you were watching, like, a a replay of one of Sean Terry's events.
Vic: Probably. That's probably right.
Steve: Right? But you're studying. Right? You're using that time you have
Vic: Correct.
Steve: To improve yourself.
Vic: Mhmm.
Steve: Right? So then how did you go from just getting started to selling to hedge funds?
Vic: Yeah. So that's kind of a that's a that's a, I guess, a journey. But, so I I started, you know, wholesaling to cash buyers, and then I I got a property that I purchased in Austin. Mhmm. And I just you know, you always look at the buyers in the area.
Right? And there is this area where, one of the buyers I looked at the properties he was buying at, and I clicked on it via PropStream. Mhmm. The guy had at that time, he had 23,000 properties. I'm like, woah.
Who are these guys? Mhmm. I'm like, well, let me call them. So what I did, I called them. I called them three months straight, and they would not return my phone calls.
And it's similar because it just it shows the power of persistence. Right? Because I I also for three years, I called on Whole Foods, and they never they would reply to email like, oh, we're good. Thank you. But they would never, like, move forward.
Mhmm. But I knew eventually something's gonna happen. Their vendor's gonna let them down, or there's gonna be some kinda issue or there's gonna be a breakdown. I knew that you just gotta stay in the game. Right?
Mhmm. So after the third year, they're like, hey. You know, let's talk. And so that's why I ended up getting the Whole Foods account, which is that's a huge account. Really, even to this day, it's a great, great client.
Steve: So you were calling Whole Foods corporate.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: What was the title of the person you were calling at Whole Foods?
Vic: So you always go with the the global head buyer.
Speaker 2: Mhmm.
Vic: So you reach out to the head buyers. And if they if they ignore you, you go to the the buyers. Below that, you just you're hitting up everybody.
Steve: And if everyone is listening, what is a buyer?
Vic: So the they they buy the product. They call them a head produce buyer.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: They buy the product, for the supermarkets. Yeah. And so every every com every commodity at a supermarket has a a head buyer. Mhmm.
Steve: The reason why I'm bringing this up because, like, not everyone knows.
Vic: Mhmm.
Steve: Like, what is the buyer supposed to do?
Vic: Yeah. So they negotiate prices.
Steve: They just beat you the hell down.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: That's their job.
Vic: Exactly. Yeah.
Steve: Right? Yeah. Find out all the people that are willing to sell their stuff at a stupid low price Yeah. With a long of term as possible
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Of paying them. Yeah. Right? Like, I think it's not unusual for Walmart to have a a one year Yeah. Hey.
Right? You give me the banana today Yeah. And I'll pay for the bananas a year from today.
Vic: Well well, actually, for in the produce business, like, because there's a there's a pack of law. Mhmm. So by law, you have to be paid within twenty one days.
Steve: Okay.
Vic: So produce That's protect the farmers.
Steve: Okay.
Vic: Yeah. But actually, Whole Foods was a great client. They actually they they didn't really beat you up too much on price. They paid well. They took care of you.
Yeah. They well, because we had we had organic fair trade bananas. So they really value that. So they took care of us even to this day. You know, they're they're they're great customers for for my family.
Yeah. Walmart was was good too. They're, as you can imagine, little more of a challenge.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: They will beat you up more. But I guess when you're when they see you as a, you know, a private label provider vendor, they're they're easier on you. They're not as they're not as hard. It's not a straight commodity. It's like it has a Walmart label.
Mhmm. It has a Whole Foods label. So they're like, hey. These guys are labeling our our brand. So they they do take care of it.
Steve: Treat a little bit differently. Correct.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Right? Yeah. So, like, I know for a lot of, from what I've heard, you know, other people that supply Mhmm. Like, their products. Yeah.
Right? Like, pay pay in 30, pay in 90 is, like, good. Yeah. Right? Sometimes it's paying $1.80.
And, again, some people are just paying a year. Yeah. Right? So that's what buyer is, which is not that different than people we sell deals to. Correct.
Vic: Yeah. Exactly.
Steve: So so you had that experience from Whole Foods, and then you translated to finding hedge funds. And talk about how you translated that.
Vic: So, basically, when I found this this, this fund, I'm like, well, that's a huge company. I gotta do business with them. So I'm like, okay. I'm just gonna be persistent persistent. So I did.
I just called on them, you know, every week for three months straight.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: Now at that time, they weren't really, doing business with a lot of wholesalers at the time. So they said get in touch with this guy, guy named great guy, Joe Peterson. I reached out to him. He happened to be from from channel as well. Mhmm.
And we just developed a relationship. Luckily, we hit it off, and I started submitting all my all my deals to him. And he's like, hey. Bring us more. And then kinda went from there.
So that that that was kinda how it all started.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And then as we would have conversations, he would mention other funds names, and I would write those down Mhmm. And then reach out to them. Yeah. And so eventually and then I joined a a mastermind collective greatness with a bunch of friends of mine that we that we're still we still have it. We just had a call today.
Great guys. What's up, guys? And, we kinda shared our buyers. We shared our resources. We just shared our knowledge, our power.
And it got to the point where, like, we were, like, submitting deals to 16 different hedge funds at a time. Yeah. So, yeah, it it really it really worked out. But but that we really leveled up, the hedge fund, aspect of the business when when we joined Collective Greatness because we worked as a team to to really target these funds. And there's there's some really great smart guys in that group.
It's a small group, but just they're all smart, great guys.
Steve: Yep. So when you were here two years ago, was kind of the door had just or or or the I don't what you call it. The bottom has fall had fallen.
Vic: The door started to close.
Steve: Right? Yeah. Like, even though June wasn't the first rate hike of '22, it was the most impactful. Yeah. Because we had already gone up before then, but June, it seemed like Yeah.
The world stopped.
Vic: Well, I remember, I'll be on that podcast, and, and we were talking. And I said, yeah. Well, if their offers are too low, I'm just gonna I'm gonna take it down, and I'm gonna hold on.
Steve: I remember that. Yeah.
Vic: And I was doing that, but I didn't realize how severe things were gonna get. Yeah. Like, I was not like, I didn't I didn't know it was gonna get that bad.
Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So how have you pivoted? Right? So you go from a guy who's slinging deals, hedge funds.
Right? Like, you got a deal in Phoenix, you call Vic. Yeah. And Vic consult to a fund from way more than a flipper is gonna pay.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Right? Way more than an owner occupant would pay. Because these are just stupid prices with the hedge funds.
Vic: Yeah. There's some deals I sold at 95¢ on the dollar. There's one deal. It was fully remodeled. I sold it I think ARV was $3.50.
I think we sold it for $3.75. Yeah. Because it was fully remodeled. So the above market value. It was it was nuts.
Steve: Yeah. So everyone got spoiled with this world, and you were one of the guys, like, hey. You called Vic if you got a deal.
Vic: Yeah. Correct.
Steve: So then you started buying deals. So how have you pivoted the last two years?
Vic: So a couple of things. So we we stopped we stopped selling the funds because there's there's a couple funds that are still buying, but their offers are are are they're still low. Mhmm. But there's a couple that are still buying portfolios, so I'm still talking to them. They're they're making offers and portfolios, but they're still not as competitive as as as we'd like.
Mhmm. But we're working on a couple deals that that might happen. We're working on a on a 100 pack right now
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: In Tulsa. And then I just got another one in Florida. It's a 112 properties. So we're we're working on that. We'll see we'll see what their offer is.
Typically, they're a little more aggressive on on those because it's a portfolio. But other than that, we're not really doing much of the funds. So, you know, yeah, you got
Steve: Why would they be willing to pay more for a portfolio?
Vic: Because it's it's just the volume. Like, they're they because so you think about it. Like, what are they doing? They're accumulating assets. Right?
They're buying a lot of properties. Right? So they have to go through the process of buying one and one and one and one and one. So that's a lot of work. That's that's you know, they have their whole company, the whole system set up to buy properties one at a time.
Yeah. So if they get an opportunity where it's a 100 properties at one time, they're like, okay. This is a it's gonna it's easy. It's easier for them. You know, they hit their quotas.
It just it's just for them, it just makes sense to to put a little more effort into it because it's such a big deal.
Steve: It's fascinating. Yeah. Usually, when you sell a portfolio Yeah. You want a bigger discount.
Vic: That's no. That they still buy at a discount. Mhmm. But but they'll they'll be willing to pay a little bit more versus just one a one off property.
Steve: Right. But I'm saying even, like, more of a discount than that. Right? So, like, I wanna pay 70% for a single family or for a single property. I'm buying portfolio.
I wanna be
Vic: at 60. That's well, it's true, but here's the thing, but they want that on their books. Like, they want they want they wanna increase their their their assets. Right? So they're like, man, if we could get these 100 properties, let's try to bump it up as much as as much as we can.
And they'll tell me, hey, Vic. This is my max price. This is the best we can do.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And then once I get that price, then I go back and I negotiate.
Steve: Sure. So So you submit more or less a spreadsheet of properties?
Vic: Correct.
Steve: And then from there, do you have you don't tell them what the homeowners are asking for.
Vic: I I do. I I do. I I tell them, like, hey. This is where we need to be at. But, typically, you know, when it's a when someone owns a portfolio, that's a smart investor.
Mhmm. He's like, yeah. Give me full market value. So then I'm like, okay. Well, he's asking full market value.
What can we do? Right. So that's what it is. So, yeah, they do tell you they're asking price. So they're asking price as full market value.
Steve: But you're okay.
Vic: So it's the
Steve: price that we already know. Yeah. The touchpoint's not gonna pay.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Okay. So then how long is the underwriting? Right? Because, like, we've seen you know, I haven't been involved in any major portfolios. I've been adjacent.
Right?
Vic: Like Yeah.
Steve: Friends doing it and so on. Yeah. I mean, they typically it's like they can underwrite, like, 20 properties a day or whatever. So it takes, like, a week, and then you gotta after you underwrite it and, like, okay. Let's double check the numbers Yeah.
Because it's a big deal.
Vic: Yeah. How
Steve: long has it taken? You're probably a great closer. You're spending tens of thousands of marketing, running appointments, and getting contracts signed. And we both know the only difference between where you are today, where you wanna be, are those contracts that you didn't get signed. If you had those contracts signed, you would have more money to spend on marketing, more cash on hand to hire the person that you've been looking to hire, and you wouldn't lose any sleep wondering if that one contract is going to close, which would allow you to have more free time to spend with your loved ones or working on your business instead of working in your business.
Once you attend our two day event, you'll walk away with all the tools you'll need to create deep personal trust, overcome any objection thrown at you, and get homeowners begging you to buy their home. So you have a choice. You can keep doing what you're doing now and getting the results you've been getting, or you can join the hundreds of people that have attended and are simply crushing their respective real estate markets. To attend our event, go to closemysales.com/realestatesales, and I'll see you there. How long has it taken?
Vic: Well, before it was, like, four or five days, but now it's it's taken about two weeks. But the reason that it takes longer now because so there's there's a there's a couple funds that I work with, a few funds I work with. But a lot of funds, they all sell to each other. Or or and they're like, hey, Vic. This isn't a a deal for our fund, but let me reach out to these other guys.
So if I you know, I've I've noticed, like, Opendoor would buy from Amherst and Amherst would buy from Opendoor and and and they go back back and forth a lot. So they're selling deals among each other. You know, like, in Roofstock, you know, they work with a lot of funds as well. Mhmm. So so they sell to each other.
So I send it to these guys like, hey, Vic. This isn't for us, but I got these other funds that that probably will buy it. Mhmm. Let me see what they offer, and then and then we'll go from there. Yeah.
So that's kinda how it works.
Steve: So then, what kind of fees in your quest off a portfolio? Right? Because, like, we wanna do 10 to 15. I think a lot of the hedge funds, they had, like, a cap. Yeah.
A 15 k on a property.
Vic: Yeah. So, so they they cap you at a $25,000 assignment. If it's more than that, you then we would double close on it. Mhmm. I think our my biggest deal to date on a single property was a 113,000.
Mhmm. So that one I had to double close. But 113 on one house, that's really good.
Steve: Yeah. It's awesome. So on a portfolio
Vic: On a portfolio, they don't look at that, but I think our average is probably, like, 7 to 10,000 per property. Mhmm. So but just pretty pretty decent. Right? But on this 100 pack, then, yeah, it's probably gonna be $23,000 a property.
It's not gonna be that much. But still, I mean, if we close it, that's, what, $500,000. It's still a good deal.
Steve: Great deal.
Vic: But, yeah, with those, we can't we can't get as much. And and a lot of times too, if, let's say, if if the seller's asking 7 and they're offering, you know, 7.3, then, you know, it it don't doesn't leave me a whole lot of room to to negotiate. Because on top of that, they're gonna inspect the properties Mhmm. And there's gonna be concessions. Right.
So I I chew I do try to get it cheap enough so I can absorb those concessions because sometimes that kills the deal. Mhmm. You know? So Yeah.
Steve: So what are you doing now then to source more portfolio deals?
Vic: So those I right now in our business, because those are you know, they're kind of they don't come very often. Mhmm. So I just put the word out. Hey. If you run across a portfolio because everyone runs across portfolios.
So we run it across a portfolio, send it over. Right? Send it to us. But our main business right now is we're doing a more we're dealing with cash buyers, and we're doing a lot of novation. So we're listing a lot of properties on MLS, with an attorney in fact.
Mhmm. That's kind of our focus. That's our that's the shift we made since the hedge fund stopped buying.
Steve: Mhmm. We
Vic: just went back to selling the cash buyers and and and but even cash buyers are are more conservative, right, in this market. So we're having to list properties on the market, which is what's working for us right now.
Steve: Okay. So if anyone has a portfolio deal Yeah. How do they send it to you?
Vic: Reach out to me. My IG is vic dot heredia, h e r e d I a. Yeah. Send me a message. Say, hey.
I got a portfolio. Also, my email is deals@SFR,singlefamilyresidential,SFRdeals.com.
Steve: Deals@SFRdeals.com. Correct.
Vic: It's a
Steve: good domain.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Okay. So but you're not really spending a lot of effort marketing for portfolios.
Vic: No. No. I'm not. Because we we've target more, certain markets. Like, we like Arizona, North Carolina.
We like Florida, Georgia, Atlanta. Mhmm. So we're hitting those areas. If we you come across one, then, yeah, we'll we'll submit it.
Steve: But a
Vic: lot of times, there's there's I talked to one guy today. That's all he does. He does portfolios. Yeah. So I talked to him today, and I was I was interested in that.
Steve: That's all
Vic: he does. No. He's in Florida.
Steve: Florida.
Vic: Yeah. So Dallas is Texas is tough for portfolios. Well, for hedge funds in general because property taxes are so high.
Steve: Yeah. Well, I was just saying that because I know Lance Wakefield in Dallas.
Vic: Oh, okay. Gotcha.
Steve: That's his thing. Yeah. Portfolios.
Vic: Oh, okay. Yeah. I've heard of him. I I think I maybe talked to him once, but Yeah. Yeah.
I don't really know him too well.
Steve: Okay. So so you pivot to Novations?
Vic: Correct. That's our that's what we pivoted to. Yeah. The problem with Novations is it's you can imagine, it takes longer to sell them because they're on the market. Mhmm.
So that's the one thing I we were having a call about that today. They're like, oh, we love Novations. I'm like, I don't know. I kinda like working with hedge funds because it's faster.
Steve: Well, yeah.
Vic: You know
Steve: what I mean? All cash. Yeah. All cash over pay over.
Vic: Yeah. Of course. Yeah. But but, you know, Novations are good because you you're also selling it at market value. But what what I tell my guys, but even though it's it's your it's a novation, you're gonna listen to MLS.
You if it looks like crap, you still gotta factor in a remodel cost.
Steve: Yeah.
Vic: Like, sometimes some people get it confused. And we we did that in the beginning. Mhmm. We would lock up properties, and we're like, oh, we can list on MLS, get full full full market value. But the reality is you still have to factor in the rehab cost because someone has to pay it down the line.
Yeah. So that's that's one tip that I think people need to be aware of.
Steve: Yeah. So novation is funny because, like, I watched Eric Brewer talk about it. Mhmm. You know? In the beginning, when I first met him, I met him in April 2020.
Vic: Gotcha.
Steve: Right? And I'm hearing him talk about novations. I was like, what is this thing? He's like, oh, you know, we just we contract it, and then we replace ourselves with somebody else. We notate the contract.
I said, okay. That's cool. Like, you know, like, how'd you learn about it? Yeah. He's like, I made it.
I was like, no. No. Seriously. Like, no. Yeah.
Vic: How did
Steve: you come about it? Like, you know, we all learn from each other. It's like, I made it. I was like, oh.
Vic: Right.
Steve: Okay. He's like, yeah. I've been doing all these. Like, okay. Great.
Let's put you on the show Mhmm. And let's promote the heck out of it.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Right? And it was a freaking dud. Like, in 2020
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: No one cared. Right? And, like
Vic: Correct. Yeah.
Steve: We,
Vic: because the funds were buying. You didn't need to do that.
Steve: The funds were buying. And so I remember I think he came on around, like because, like, COVID was March. I met him in April. So maybe, like, August August 2020, I think he came on. And like I said, it was a complete dud.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: No one cared. And then interest rates,
Vic: which is
Steve: the other side of COVID. Right? Let's print all this money.
Vic: Exactly.
Steve: Now we have to pay the price Yep. For printing all this money. Yeah. And that's when novations became valuable.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Yeah. So talk about your experience then in doing novations. Because you were saying it's not all sunshines. It's not all rainbows and Yeah. Unicorns.
Vic: So we got into it out of necessity because we noticed cash buyers are they're they're just buying properties, too cheap. They want them, you know Well,
Steve: let's just be clear. Right? All the cash buyers in in in Phoenix became worthless. Like, they were just not
Vic: Well, there's some good guys.
Steve: I mean, yeah.
Vic: Zack Zack Keeps is is
Steve: is is good.
Vic: There's some but still but even Zack's buying at at a deeper discount.
Steve: Yeah. I like Z. I I like Zack.
Vic: Right? We
Steve: were we were on a panel together. Yeah.
Vic: Right?
Steve: I was on a panel. It was Zach Keeps, Brian Kondeski, and can't remember the other person. But there was a four of us. It might have been Rich Wonders.
Vic: Gotcha.
Steve: There were four of us. Yeah. And they're talking about the power of relationships. Right? You have to have relationships and friendships because these cash buyers, you never know when you're gonna need them.
Vic: Yeah. That's true.
Steve: I completely disagree with that.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: I'd rather buy it myself because the numbers the cash buyers acquired at the '22
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Were really hard to make those numbers work with a homeowner.
Vic: No. That's true. But but here's the thing. Like, let's say if if you you're looking at three properties a month and and the offer from a cash buyer is 65%, then, yeah, you'll just buy it or 70%. You'll just buy yourself and and list it on the market, rehab it, etcetera.
Steve: We did.
Vic: But the problem is if now if if you're looking at 20 properties a month
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: You know, some guys are looking at thirty, forty properties. I mean, you can't buy those. It's it's too much. Mhmm. It's it's it's too much capital, too much work.
You just it's not it's not doable. You were
Steve: clearly a better marketer than I was because I was not locking up 20 Gotcha.
Vic: Yeah. A month. Yeah.
Steve: Right? But, yeah, like, for me, you know, I think the whole deal, like, the relationship and this and that, I felt like at that time, you know, the cash buyer is like, it's our turn. You've been abusing us.
Vic: Which is true. I agree with that.
Steve: You've been abusing us. Right? Sight unseen. Earnest money deposited. First one to deposit the earnest money gets the deal.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Right? Go dance for me.
Vic: Yeah. And I
Steve: felt like the cash buyers are salivating Yeah. On that. So, like, I, for me, I don't know. I could be too transactional.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: I felt like the whole, like, be friends with your cash buyers thing, didn't really work
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: In my favor.
Vic: Well, with me, because I see I come from a corporate background. Mhmm. And because I you know, in produce, it's it's so competitive because it's a commodity. Right? It's very service driven.
So when I talk to these big cash buyers, like a good friend of mine now, Kyle down in Tucson, when, you know, when COVID hit, I had a company that was doing all my decimal. They canceled, like, seven contracts on me. I'm like, well, shoot. I gotta get these sold. So So I started looking through my assignments, and I'm like and this guy kept popping up.
I'm like, hey, bro. I called him. I you keep popping up on my assignments. Let's let's have lunch. Mhmm.
And so, yeah, I think now they own, like, 1,200 properties.
Steve: Yeah.
Vic: And, you should have them on your your podcast, by the way. You you know Kyle.
Steve: I know Kyle.
Vic: Yeah. And, so I went down there. I had lunch with him, and he's like, you know what, Vic? You're the only guy everyone calls me to either buy a property for me or sell a property Mhmm. To me.
You're the only guy that that offered to come have lunch with me.
Steve: Mhmm. I
Vic: was like, really? He's like, yeah. I'm like, wow. To me, that was like, wow. That's crazy because Mhmm.
Like, that's not the way business is. It's it it really is it is about relationships. Right? And and, honestly, like, we've done made a ton of money together. We've done a a ton of JVs.
We do I do hard money lending as well. So we do a bunch of hard hard money loans, transactional funding. Like, we made a lot of money with that relationship. So and because of that, there if there's a deal now in this market, I'm like, hey. Hey, man.
Can you do this? Can you pay more? You know? And so now I have a a lot other cash buyers. I'm like, hey.
Can you give me an extra 5 k on this deal? Do this. So so if you have that relationship, they are open to to paying more because they know if it they know if it's a good deal. You know? So with me for me, it it helped.
Yeah. But, yeah, at one time, it wasn't really necessary because the funds were buying everything.
Steve: Right. And Kyle's an interesting person, you know, because, we we sent a deal to him. Sent him multiple deals. And Yeah. He didn't buy any from us.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Right? But one of the deals he did buy, pay 15 k more
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: With a realtor.
Vic: I was
Steve: like, that was interesting. Like, our team sent you the deal. You didn't respond.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Nothing. And then a week later, like, hey. Who was the end buyers we can add onto our list?
Vic: What's interesting go ahead.
Steve: I was like, it was Kyle. Yeah. He paid 15 k more
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Because he used a realtor
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Versus just work with our bot.
Vic: So that's really what turned us on to because I heard about Innovations, but, you know, we it it just felt like too much work. Right?
Steve: Yeah.
Vic: And I and we had a property. We had it locked up. It was in also in Tucson. And I think we had it at $1.13, and we were gonna list it on the market. But I'm like, well, let's see if I get some cash offers.
Mhmm. Cash offers were 85, 95, 90, 100. I mean, nothing above a 100. And our contract was $1.13. I'm like, okay.
Well, let's just let's list it. So we list and and I I had clean I paid, like, $2,000 or 1,500 to clean out the property because it looked like a mess. I figured with that, we'd get more money, but still the offers were crap. We finally listed on MLS, and we ended up, selling it to a guy that made us an offer, I think, at 90,000 or 95. Mhmm.
That same guy made us an off because his agent sent it to him, made us an offer at a 130,000. Yeah. After inspection, they ended up paying 127.
Steve: Yeah.
Vic: So I was like, woah. So the thing is, I think the reason is on MLS, an a realtor will see the deal and then send it to their buyer and say, hey. Listen. Look at this deal. It's a good deal.
It's a good area. You get solid at this price. So I think it carries more weight when it comes from their agent.
Steve: Are you arguing that realtors are valuable?
Vic: I some aren't. We I I have some really good realtors. I got one guy that does An
Steve: unpopular opinion on the show.
Vic: Yeah. Well, I got one guy that does well, here's here's the thing. I talked to him and I, hey. Listen. This is what I do.
You know, if you help me out, I'll get you all my listings, etcetera, etcetera. So I got one guy. We got 22 listings right now, in Arizona with one agent. So so he loves me. I we've done a ton of deals with another agent in, in Florida.
Mhmm. And I tell them, hey. Listen. Can can you listen this in this market? They're like, no.
I'm in Jacksonville. I can't do Orlando. I said, dude, just do it virtually. Just handle all my deals in the state. They're like, I can do that.
I'm like, yeah. There's one guy even offered to pay his MLS fees in a different market. I said, I'll pay your MLS fees. Don't worry about it. Yeah.
Because for me, it's just convenient to have an agent just do contact. One point of contact to do the whole state. Yeah. So that really helps.
Steve: That's pretty smart. How did you find these realtors?
Vic: The one in Arizona was just a personal relationship. I've known him for years. He's actually used to work for me years ago. The one in a lot of them, we just look them up on realtor.com, and we do a we do a sort, you know, find agents, per ZIP code. And then we look at the ones that they have the good we look at the guys that have really good ratings, but very, low amount of listings.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: So if they got one or two listings, either he's hungry.
Steve: Right.
Vic: Like, if I see someone that has 12 listings, I'm I'm not calling them because they they they're they're busy. Yeah. They're not gonna give me attention. But if I know they have one or two listings
Steve: You're the biggest client.
Vic: Yeah. But also too, I look at solds. If they only have three solds, I'm like, oh, he's not a good agent. Mhmm. But if they got, like, like, seventy, eighty solds and two active listings or one active listing, that's that's who I wanna talk to.
Yeah. So that's who I kinda sort who to talk to.
Steve: A little bit of nugget there for everybody here. Yeah. A pro realtor wholesaler in here.
Vic: Correct. That is not busy at the moment.
Steve: Okay. So
Vic: Someone someone hungry. Yeah. We want someone hungry. That's the key.
Steve: So what were some of your surprises in doing innovations?
Vic: The amount of headaches, I guess. Yeah.
Steve: Let's talk about it. Yeah.
Vic: Because no one That was a surprise. The amount of headaches. That's it.
Steve: Right? Because, like, we talk about, like, pivot to innovations. And, like, I'm a very big proponent of innovation. Like I said, I heard Eric Brewer talking about it. I heard Frank Cava talking about it.
I was like, the world needs to know. Yeah. Right? But we don't do necessarily a great job with all the warts Yeah. And all the challenges.
Vic: Yeah. That's true.
Steve: So you're good. What so still do them, but what should someone be prepared for if they're doing innovation?
Vic: So I think the only positive is that you could get more money for the property.
Steve: Big positive. That that's a big positive.
Vic: Agreed. But a lot of times, we have, you know, we have to clean them out. There's a lot of times we have to do work because they they don't qualify, for FHA funding as is. I gotta worry about the. I have to provide the clue.
They're just a lot more paperwork. It's more work. It's more hassle. And a lot of times, we just we have to like, I got one property now here in in, in Sun Lakes that we had to repair the roof. Luckily, it had insurance, so that's being paid for.
But I had to pay the the the deposit because she didn't have money.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And then, I have to fix, some some leaks, some water leaks, fix some some drywall. I'm gonna get that money back, but I we gotta put money into it. Because that's kinda when you do a cash deal, you're like, oh, no repairs. Right? But if it needs too much work, now guess what?
Now I'm doing repairs.
Steve: Right.
Vic: We follow memorandum to protect ourselves. Mhmm. But also too, it does help because when someone sees a seller sees that you're putting money into their property before it's sold, they're like, oh, wow. Like, they feel like, okay. These guys are they're they're putting some money and work into the property.
Mhmm. So then at that point, they're a lot easier to work with.
Steve: Yeah.
Vic: So that's it's a positive.
Steve: Once you put money in Yeah. It's a better relationship.
Vic: Yeah. Correct.
Speaker: Okay.
Vic: It's a positive in that respect, but it's still a hassle you're having to do that. Whereas before, a cash buyer, you just take it as is or hedge fund, take it as is. They'll do a concession, and you're done.
Steve: Right.
Vic: So I I don't love novations Mhmm. But it's a necessary evil.
Steve: Yeah. It's, a way of life now.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Yeah. What percentage of your deals are novations versus cash?
Vic: We're listing everything that we can on MLS, but then we will push it out on investor lift and to cash buyers and to see, because I prefer a cash offer than than a conventional FHA loan. Right? But even then, on MLS, if if it's a cash buyer, we'll just say, hey. Can you do assignment or we'll do a double close on it? Mhmm.
So, it on on MLS, I even prefer a cash buyer even if it's a little bit less because it's just easier for me.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And if it's not if it's a big difference, then, yeah, I'm gonna take the the conventional buyer buyer. Right? But, normally, we'll go with the cash offer.
Steve: Yeah. Do you get them do you tell them what the other financed offers are so they'll come up?
Vic: Oh, yeah. A 100%. Yeah. We got an offer this. Yeah.
Oh, a 100%. You gotta use that. You you know how that goes. Right?
Steve: I know. Some people Yeah. Go back and forth on it. Like, I was always transparent. Like, look.
I got offered this. If you match it, it's yours. Yeah. You don't, like, I gotta go with the other guy. What what do you want me to do here?
Yeah.
Vic: Yeah. A 100%. You have to.
Steve: Yeah.
Vic: Yeah. You have to.
Steve: Okay. So, so innovations was a was a big pivot.
Vic: Yeah. That's that's the one thing I could say, it's it's a big pivot. It it really helped made a big difference in our business. The problem is and I've gotten this from a a couple guys that I know that are doing really, really well. Ben Tov is, you know, is a guy that I met in the last, six months, which is a great guy.
He does, like, fifty fifty, which is really smart. And we're trying to shift more towards that because, at that point, you're not too dependent on what's on MLS. It might take sixty, ninety days to to sell. Right? So so I think doing some wholesaling is smart.
It's a good way to go. Mhmm. And and we're starting to do that as well.
Steve: Gotcha. So we talked about growing up in the corporate world. Yeah. But you also grew up in a challenging environment.
Vic: Yeah. I grew up in Maryville. So it was kinda I didn't feel it, but it was kind of the head.
Steve: So, I grew up on the East Side of town. Yeah. Right? I mean, that's
Vic: always a nice part of Phoenix. Phoenix.
Steve: Yeah. So I grew up on 44th Street in McDowell.
Vic: Okay.
Steve: Right? Which
Vic: Well, that's okay area. Yeah. It's It's not it's not Scottsdale.
Steve: It's not Scottsdale.
Vic: But it's okay.
Steve: But it was kinda rough, but it wasn't bad. Yeah.
Vic: It wasn't bad.
Steve: Right? I learned Spanish. Right? I I knew how to swear Spanish pretty well, right, in the 44th McDowell. And then my family moved to Chandler when I was, eight.
Gotcha. Right? So that's when, like, the sheltered life began.
Vic: Yeah. Correct.
Steve: There was there were no problems anymore Yeah. Living in Chandler, Arizona.
Vic: That's the life we're living now. Yeah. Yeah. Right? Totally.
Steve: And then, you know, I did the went to Corona Del Sol, went to ASU, lived that good life. Then I get my real estate license. Yeah. And then I'm starting, like, show properties in Meriv.
Vic: Then now you're back on the West Side.
Steve: I was like, what the hell is this place? Right? Because I never had to go to the West Side.
Vic: Like,
Steve: the only time we go there was, like, it was, like, 35th in Calumac. We had, you know, Great Wall. Right? The restaurant, the Marriott's Restaurant. Yeah.
Uh-huh. But beyond that, we don't really go to 35th
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: On that side of town. Right? And that's still that's still not technically. Maryville, that's, we always got up and coming.
Vic: Right?
Steve: So, anyway, I was reading this is 2007. I got my license. And my first understandings of Marybelle is I was reading, like, there was this one, like, convenience store that was robbed, like, four nights in a row.
Vic: Yeah. It's nuts.
Steve: Right? Like, it's like, This is a very different environment. So going back to that, so talk to me. Like, for people that don't know, talk about Maribel. Today's show is brought to you by motivatedleads.com.
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Vic: Yeah. I mean, I didn't really realize it until, like, all of a sudden, there's gunshots, you know, drive bys, you know, a lot of there's a lot of gang activity. Actually, it was actually worse when I was in high school because there was a lot of gangs at that time. It was there's a lot of bloods and crips.
Steve: About a time frame. Yeah. That was high school.
Vic: That was back in 1991. So I'm I'm dating myself.
Steve: That was in 1991. Significantly older than I.
Vic: Yeah. So I'm dating myself. So, it was rough, but then they opened up that that police station on 67th Avenue in Encanto. There's a police station there. Okay.
They opened a police station, and then that really helped. That kinda that kinda cleaned up the area. But it's still it's still rough, but it believe it or not, Maryville used to be worse. Mhmm. I remember once I went to a really nice restaurant.
I don't know if you know Tuti Santi here in Phoenix. They get it's the best restaurant here here in town Okay. In my opinion. No. Actually, it is.
My wife says so. Anyways, I went there once because I know the owners, and I was at the bar having some drinks. And, like, oh, yeah. We gotta go home. And then and then, a couple says, where do you live?
I'm like, oh, we live in Maryville. And then the wife was like, honey, honey, did you hear they live in Maryville? I'm like, like, was that a bad thing? But, yeah, that's so that just goes to show how bad Maryville was, I guess. So
Steve: yeah. So lessons in Maryville, lessons in corporate world, and how have you brought it all together?
Vic: Well, I think it's interesting. I think it's hustle.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: Hustle on both hands. Like, you know, like, if you want you wanted to make it out of out of the hood and make money, you had to hustle.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: In the corporate world, same thing, you have to hustle. But also it's about relationship. Just like in Maryville or any poor community, you have you have a gang. Right?
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And in in the corporate world, you have a company you belong to. So you need those relationships. Gangs are bad, of course, but people join them because they they want a sense of belonging and they wanna feel protected and because there's power in numbers. Right? That's why nowadays we have masterminds.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: Because there's power in numbers. Like, you're able to exchange ideas and in a ways you protect yourself from from outside events because you have that knowledge that you're sharing. So, yeah, it comes down to, again, hustle and relationships. I think that's what I learned the key factor in in both of them. Right?
Steve: Did you, did you join again?
Vic: No. Never. To be honest, I I always kinda knew, like, that was trouble.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: Right? And I knew if I joined a gang, my dad would would would be disappointed with me. And on top of that, my dad was a big strong guy, and he didn't take any crap from anybody. Right. Like, I know he would have no problem slapping me around 10 times.
Yeah. So that's why I never I never joined again. Also too, we had a very Christian, background. So, you know, thou shall not kill was pretty easy. So, yeah, you know, I just
Steve: So I I wanna ask this question, like, you know, leveraging. Like, how did you like, were you friends with these guys, but you stayed out of trouble?
Vic: Like Yeah. I was friends with some. I would I would I would fight with some. I got once I got jumped by seven gangmakers, one time. So, yeah, I've I've I've I've kinda seen the the two spectrums.
I've had I had friends, and, you know, I knew what what they can they could do, what they were capable of.
Steve: Right.
Vic: I had some friends that that were killed in in school. I I have one friend. I was hanging out with them on on a Friday. He's super cool dude. And then on Monday, I found out he got killed over the weekend.
So, yeah, you you come across that, it kinda it toughens you up a little bit. Like, you don't, you know, now I don't scare so easily. Yeah. But even then, I I mean, I wouldn't want my kid to grow around, around that. But also, I did but also when you're around that, you just you don't think it's that bad.
But you just stay away from the bad guys. You know? That's what we did. Like, we didn't really I we knew them. I talked to them.
You you were you never disrespected them or or, like, looked down on them because then you could run into trouble.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: But we I always separated myself from them. I I had my own click click of friends.
Steve: Yeah. Do you feel like it give you street smarts?
Vic: Oh, definitely 100%. Yeah. Definitely. Okay. 100%.
Steve: So you took the street smarts, applied it Yeah. But also Whole Foods.
Vic: Yeah. Also too, like so one thing, like, you know, in the in in the produce, industry, my cousin, you know you know, he passed away, unfortunately. He dealt with he had, I think, two to 3,000 employees. And it was funny when when he would make some money, he's like, hey, Vic. Be careful with that guy.
Like, he was so good at reading people. And I'm like, oh, come on. You're just being judgmental. And you just just be careful. So he was so good at reading people.
So and and so you develop that, and it's true. Like, some of the guys that you knew were bad trouble in high school, like, when you get into the business world, like, you could you could tell, like, these guys are gonna be trouble. Mhmm. And it's I've seen it over and over again. It it's you gotta go with your intuition a lot of times.
And a lot of times being around those environments, you get that.
Steve: Yeah. So that makes sense. So reading people, you you feel like you have strength then in reading people?
Vic: I think so. Yeah. I think so. My wife says I can be judgmental, but I call it reading people.
Steve: Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot of that. So, you know, we try to, what's the word for? Be understanding and empathetic. Yeah.
But at the same time, you know, there are people that you just like, Yeah. I don't want you in my circle. Yeah. Nothing good can happen
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: If we're running in the same circle. Yeah. Right? You say you're lane, I'll stay in my lane. Yeah.
Vic: Exactly. So you can tell a lot by the way a person acts. But also too, like, you just see what they talk about. You know? Mhmm.
Out of the abundance of the of the mouth, the hearts the heart speaks. Right?
Steve: Say that again.
Vic: Out of the abundance of of the heart, the mouth speaks. Mhmm. So, like, what someone talks about all the time, that's what's on their mind. Mhmm. So someone's some constantly says, oh, yeah.
I'm greedy. I'm greedy. I'm greedy. They might say it in jest. They're greedy.
They're gonna be greedy. So, I mean, you always wanna watch what people say because that tells you a lot about themselves. Even even if it's if if it's in jest or it's a joke. Mhmm.
Steve: Okay. So let's talk about your business as it stands today.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: How are you sourcing deals right now?
Vic: So right now, we're doing cold calling. We do texting, and we do PPC.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And, we have right now, we have three acquisition managers, and then we have, three lead managers. Mhmm. And then we got about, I'd say about 10 cold callers. Mhmm. So 10
Steve: cold callers.
Vic: Yeah. Yeah. So we're still doing a lot of cold calling. We have about, 23 people total. Mhmm.
So we got pretty good pretty good amount of people. So, I mean, it's business isn't as good as it was during the hedge fund days. But Not a lot of people are. Exactly. Well, so a lot of guys are out of business.
Right?
Steve: Yeah.
Vic: So but we're still plugging along. I mean, it's it's it's still we're still busy Mhmm. Luckily. And and we do think now that the interest rates should drop, I think things will turn around a bit.
Steve: Yeah. So who are you cold calling?
Vic: So we're calling it's funny. I I I mentioned it earlier. Like, the bigger your your team, the you could open up your your your list. Right? Your data list.
Right? But I think, some people get it confused. They think that, you know, there's no secret list. And but I disagree. I think, like, if you're if you're a one man team or you got just one or two callers, like, you wanna be real specific.
You wanna call absentee, out of state owned, and then foreclosures and probates inherited. You wanna be real niche on your data.
Steve: The people that the the list that has the stress.
Vic: Correct. Exactly. And then, you know, the bigger your team, the more you you brought in that that list on. Mhmm. But that's kind of where where we start, and then we brought it in now.
Mhmm. Yeah.
Steve: So any particular list that's your favorite list?
Vic: So number one, it's very competitive. Mhmm. Everyone hits it, but we get those from rent. So it's a foreclosure list.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And then absentee, out of state first, and then absentee in general. Mhmm. Of course, high equity.
Steve: A
Vic: lot of people stay away from owner occupied, but I think owner occupied is good if it's, twenty years, owned plus Mhmm. On the lower end. I think right now, you wanna hit up lower end properties. Most people are are not, you know, really buying higher end properties. Mhmm.
Those are in you know, inherited probates are always good. The only thing is probates can be a lot more work, but that's pretty much what we what we focus on. In
Steve: what ways can probate be a lot more work?
Vic: Because then you you might have to do the probate for the family, or the person that owns the property. You might actually if if it's a pre probate, like, they haven't gone through the whole process yet, now you have to hire an attorney and you have to pay them to to get them to close, etcetera. So, you know, you're you're going through that whole process, and that could take time.
Steve: That could take time. But, I mean, I like those because you have less competition. Right?
Vic: Correct. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. No.
100%. And and on those, you say, hey. Listen. We'll pay your probate fees.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: We'll take care of we'll take care of everything. And so that helps us to get those deals.
Steve: Yeah. We just closed one where we did all that. Yeah. Wild. Yeah.
Having to keep them altogether
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Through all the bumps and headaches. Yeah.
Vic: So, you know, it's not it's not easy. Right?
Steve: It's not easy, but, you know, if everyone else is listening. Right? Like Yeah. I want I want them to kinda because we have people that listen to go from all different varieties. Right?
People that are still trying to do their first deal and people that are doing 20 plus deals a month. Yeah. We have a whole swath
Vic: of Yeah. Correct.
Steve: So because you have 10 cold callers, is it just 10?
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: You don't really target, like, any expensive list then?
Vic: No. But I do know there's some companies out there that that have really good data, you know, like DataFlake, eighty twenty REI, Adantic, those guys. But I think
Steve: calling so many people, it doesn't really matter.
Vic: So that's number one. But also, too, I I I'm pretty good at at data. I'm I'm pretty good at selecting data. Like, you know, we're we're pretty, pretty versed in that. I actually have people that I used to pull data for.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: So, I I just kinda know You
Steve: hired a data scientist?
Vic: No. I've talked to one before. Mhmm. But, no, I haven't I haven't, hired one, but I've talked to one. I've I've looked at I'm getting into that business.
Mhmm. We might do that down the road. But, no, I'm I think I'm pretty good with data as it is. So it hasn't it hasn't been necessary.
Steve: Okay. And so
Vic: If I if I thought I needed it, I would do it. But, just the way I pull data, I'd I've been doing it for six years now. Right? I think I'm I just don't need it. It's not necessary.
Steve: And then at one point, I know we still do, you had a call center.
Vic: Correct. Yes.
Steve: Right. Yeah. You don't have anymore.
Vic: Well, it's still there, but it's, you know, it's it's just it's kind of a hassle because if someone you're there's so many factors. You're depending on on their data, their, skip tracing, you know, then their their lead managers. Like, for example, we had one client. He's like, hey. You know, this isn't working.
I've gotten, 246 leads from you guys, but I haven't closed on any. I'm like, wow. I'm like, I don't think that's that's us. I think that's your that's your acquisition guy. Yeah.
Right? But There
Steve: might be a sales problem.
Vic: Yeah. That was a sales problem. And then we had another one says, hey. You guys submitted this lead. You know, we called him, and he said he wasn't interested in hanging up the phone.
And so then I called him, and I did my pitch. Like, hey. How are you? How are you doing? You know, you know, you you you know, kind of the turn on the charm.
Right? He's like, yeah. Yeah. I'm looking to sell in about, thirty days from now. I'm like, well, do you need any help with that?
Any assistance with moving, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. He's like, no. I'm good. But, you know, call me in thirty days. I'll be ready to go.
And I told him, I he says, listen. I called that same guy, and he's on board. Mhmm. Like, it's and and a lot of it is just the lead manager lead managers, I think, burned a lot a lot more leads than people realize.
Steve: You think so?
Vic: Yeah. Because lead managers, they're trying to disqualify. Mhmm. They're not trying to they're not trying to convert that lead. They're trying to disqualify it.
Like, let's disqualify. In my opinion, mostly managers disqualify leads.
Steve: Really?
Vic: My opinion.
Steve: Interesting.
Vic: That's my opinion. I I'd rather like, if it's a lead manager, hey. Listen. Don't try to disqualify. Try to make sure they wanna sell and they wanna sell at a discount.
Like but get the motivation. Right? So, It's interesting. So, like, I know, like, when
Steve: I was training my own lead managers, I was always saying, like, if they are interested in selling Mhmm. That's all I need to hear.
Vic: Correct. Exactly.
Steve: I don't need to hear price Yeah. Time frame No. Nothing. Yeah. If they say, yes.
I wanna sell Yeah. Send it along to our acquisition managers. Right? And they're like, why I'm sorry. For lead managers, they just need motivation.
So cold callers
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: If they say, yes. I'm interested in selling
Vic: on cold callers. Yeah.
Steve: Your job is done.
Vic: On on lead managers
Steve: Lead managers, if you're if they said why they need to sell Yeah. Your job is done.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: I don't care about condition. I don't care about time frame or anything else. It's like, yes. I need to sell. Yeah.
That's it. Job's done. Yeah. Send it on to the acquisition manager. Of the acquisition manager to to earn it.
So this is just speculation here. The lead manager is spending too much time disqualifying.
Vic: Mhmm.
Steve: It's because the owner of the company is letting the acquisition manager dictate the terms of the conversation.
Vic: Yeah. I think you're probably right on that. I I I think so. Yeah. As
Steve: a matter of fact, in our lead manager training, one of the things that we train on is how to talk to the acquisition manager. Yeah. Because you have multiple clients. Right?
Vic: You have
Steve: to talk to the homeowner. Yeah. Right? But you also have to learn how to talk to the acquisition manager because in any organization, the biggest divas can be the acquisition.
Vic: Yeah. A 100%. Yeah.
Steve: Right?
Vic: Well, any salesperson is a diva. Yeah. Like, yeah.
Steve: Right. I
Vic: mean, that goes without saying.
Steve: So so, yeah, I think so it's interesting when you say that because that shouldn't be the case. I'm wondering what is going on if those organizations that we manage are are disqualifying too much.
Vic: Yeah. I I I think so. Well, it depends on the list too. Because here's the thing. If you got, like, a really motivated list, I mean, come on.
There if you got someone that's really good on the phone, like, you're gonna be able to close them Mhmm. If it's a motivated list. So Yeah. So I'm like, hey. Listen.
Just just I want them to tee it up for the acquisition manager.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: So, hey. Find out their price. Find out how soon they wanna sell because that really tells you. If they say I wanna sell in two weeks, super hot lead. If they tell you a year, not so hot.
Right? So that for us, that's a that's a critical question. I mean, I would prefer that if it's real to their asking price
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: Because that tells you their motivation. Because at that point, if they say, well, I wanna sell next week, price doesn't matter. Mhmm. Right? Because that's gonna be a deal.
Steve: Right.
Vic: You know?
Steve: 100%. So we don't spend a lot of time working on that, and I agree with you. Right? Like, if they have to sell in two weeks, it's a deal. Yeah.
Right? The only reason why we don't ask how soon you wanna sell is because a lot of people will lie to you.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Right? Like, oh, I don't need to sell. I'm in a rush. And, like, that's the reason why we don't like, that question for me is not as important Yeah. As, like, you know, why do you need to sell?
Vic: That's true. People people will lie a 100%. But we we try to get that. If we if you get the two weeks, ten days, then great. That's that's that's what we're looking for.
Steve: Yeah. Right? I mean, like, the best, you know, like, one of the best deals I ever did was they're like, you know, how much do we want for your house? And they told me the price. I'm looking at numbers like, that's 25% of market value.
Yeah. I'll be there tomorrow.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Nothing else Yeah. Matters. But how often are they telling us, like Yeah. I need 25% of market value.
Vic: Yeah. I I my acquisition guys are like, hey. We're getting a lot of leads, but they're all asking full market value. I'm like, most people are gonna they're gonna That's
Steve: their job.
Vic: That's what they're gonna do. They're gonna they're gonna tell you. They're gonna look at at Zillow. And it's like, well, I I want Zillow, and that's for market value. Like, it's our job to work on those leads.
Mhmm. You know? That's just the way it goes. Yeah. You know?
Steve: So now you got the cold callers. You got the list. Now you skip tracing them. Yeah. Talking about skip tracing.
Vic: Yeah. So yeah. I mean, skip tracing is is it's a big factor because if the data's bad, then forget about it. You're you're not gonna contact people. But we've been, you know, skip tracing all our our data for six years now.
Right? You know? So that's a big part of the business. That's why, like, the call center, we still have it as platinum VAs. Mhmm.
But we don't really platinumva's.com. But we really don't push it because I don't like to deal with, like, someone that's new, that doesn't know the business, is not pulling a good list, is not using this good skip tracing service. That's why we don't focus on that. We're focusing more on on our own skip tracing company now.
Steve: Yeah. So you create your own skip tracing company.
Vic: Correct. Yeah.
Steve: Okay. And why create one when you could just use somebody else's?
Vic: Well, it started just just because I you know, because we pull so much data, it's just a lower cost. You know? So for me, you know, I I get it at a much lower cost, so that's why we started doing it. And then I could I I know the quality of the data. Like, is it a good source?
You know, where's it coming from? It just it it's more control.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: So it's control, of quality quality control and and price.
Steve: Okay. And then it's 15¢.
Vic: Yeah. Well, that's 50 that's a regular price. But with the code, it's 50% off.
Steve: Yeah. So if anyone wants to go, for those of you guys are watching, go to skipfast.com, you get 50% off.
Vic: Correct. Yeah.
Steve: Right. So skipfast.com. Check it out. 7 and a half cents. Right?
I think that's cheaper than everybody else.
Vic: Yeah. I think it's it's pretty competitive price.
Steve: So not saying switch everything over, but, like, check it out.
Vic: Just test it. Test test the data to see see how you like it.
Steve: Yeah. Do a 100. Do a thousand. Right? Compare it to your existing list.
See if it's any good. If it's good, switch. If it's not good, then
Vic: go use it. But that's what we use. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Steve: So Yeah. So that's what you're using to do how many deals?
Vic: Right now, we have about 62 deals, under contract.
Steve: You have 62 deals?
Vic: 62. Yeah. We have a little bit too many. Yeah. So How
Steve: are you here?
Vic: Yeah. It's we're we're pretty busy. I'll be honest. Just in transparency, we are having a little bit of a dispo challenge because that's a lot of properties. Mhmm.
But we're moving them. I mean, they're they're they're moving, but those are listings too. So what happens on on listings, they're gonna be on the market longer, so we just we just expect that.
Steve: Right. Yeah. So 62 Yeah. Properties. Under contract.
Yeah. Between two realtors?
Vic: No. Those are those are four real no. It could be five realtors.
Steve: Five realtors. Yeah.
Vic: But if I five different
Steve: markets are you in?
Vic: So we do California. So we do PVC nationwide. Mhmm. And then we do certain states.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And then we do cold calling Arizona. We do cold calling California. We do cold calling in North Carolina, Atlanta, and in Florida. Mhmm. And then we're targeting foreclosures in in some, hot markets, like, kinda sleeper markets.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: We do that as well. So we kinda I did some research on what markets are are really hot Mhmm. But aren't like, it's not a a market. It's more like a b or c market, but it's a hot market. Days on market are under thirty days.
So we I pulled that data, and then we're focusing on foreclosures in those in those areas.
Steve: A lot of work.
Vic: Yeah. Yeah. I like but I like I enjoy data, though. I like it. I I'm a little analytical.
So I like it. People would
Steve: know that looking at you. Yeah.
Vic: You're
Steve: a pretty big dude.
Vic: Yeah. Correct.
Steve: Intimidating. Well, I
Vic: don't know about that much, but yeah.
Steve: I think you walk in a room, you got a presence.
Vic: Oh, yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Steve: So alright. So then let's talk about, as far as then organization. Yeah. 62 is a lot.
Vic: That's a lot. Well, I think I think we got too many in country because now we everyone's doing a lot of work.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: But now I have I had three dis no. Four I had four people on dispo.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: I just hired a fifth one. That's that's really good. He's he's been doing dispo for four years. So right now, and I I I think it was Danny McBran. I don't know if you you've had Danny on your show, but he's he does a lot here in Arizona.
Mhmm. And he's and he said and it's true. But when he said it, it really hit. He's like, right now in this market, your dispositions has to be as strong as your acquisitions. Yeah.
And that's really true. So right now, like, we're we're building up the disposal side so we can move them as fast as they come in. Mhmm. Because right now, they're they're coming in faster than we can move them.
Steve: Yeah. You have a, you have a conveyor belt
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Where you have all the all the, the the items are coming in Yeah. But they're not moving it down the line.
Vic: Exactly. But part of it is the market too. The market, there is a slowdown. It's an election year. Mhmm.
You know, clearly, there's a slowdown. I've talked to I've talked to some flippers. He's like, yeah. I got 35 properties on MLS Mhmm. And we're not getting offers.
Yeah. So right now, there is I think you talk to a lot of people. There is a slowdown. I heard Washington is hot. California is always hot.
But there's some other states that that they're seeing a seeing a slowdown.
Steve: I don't disagree with the slowdown. Yeah. I'm just wondering. Right? Like, you need to spend more effort than to like, more intentional focus on the Dispo side?
Vic: A 100%. Yes. I think right now, like, you gotta focus just as much on Dispo, if not more so than acquisitions.
Steve: So is your wife in the business?
Vic: Yes. She runs our PPC campaigns, and she she calls herself, like, a a over overqualified VA, personal assistant.
Steve: Okay. So when you when she's running the PPC, do you mean she's actively involved in PPC or she's dealing with the PPC providers?
Vic: No. She she runs a campaign. Like, she she learned how to do PPC.
Steve: Okay.
Vic: Yeah. She actually just had a call with Jacob Blank.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And and she was kinda giving him some tips on on his. Yeah.
Steve: Okay.
Vic: So So But a lot of that was, because we were in, Nick Perry's eight figure cartel.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And so he taught us, like, how to set up, PPC campaigns. He was really instrumental in in that, you know, shout out to Nick Perry. If you can, you know, I I recommend his, 8 figure cartel or 7 figure cartel. So he was very helpful in our PPC campaigns. Mhmm.
And then before that, we learned it from Sean Terry
Steve: Right.
Vic: Which is big in the PPC as well. So we and we're in his syndicate nine as well. You know, Sean's a great guy. Mhmm. So between those two, those are the two masterminds I'm in right now.
Yeah. And within those two, you know, that we really it really, helped helped our business.
Steve: Okay.
Vic: Especially on the PPC side because that's what they focus on.
Steve: Sure. So you're wasting PPC. Yeah. Who's running operations?
Vic: So myself and, Julio, Julio helps me with operations. And then we our acquisition guys, I got Dominic and got Ramon, couple of other guys are really strong. Julio is in Mexico.
Steve: So Julio is, an integrator in Mexico?
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Okay. It was sales manager?
Vic: Yeah. That'd be Dominic.
Steve: Dominic's a sales manager. And is he closing as well or no?
Vic: Correct. Yeah.
Steve: He's closing as well.
Vic: So what we do now, we kinda use the Wall Street, model where you get, like, the the JV closer, and then that they bring they bring in the the the main closer to, to kinda close the deal. Mhmm. So or junior closer, I mean. So, you know, we have the junior closers and and, you know, Dominic, kinda helps, get the deals to the finish line.
Steve: The lead managers, junior closers, and the head closer.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Okay. So he's not really a sales manager per se. He's really more like telling the junior managers what to do to set them up so that they can close deals.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Gotcha.
Vic: Exactly.
Steve: Okay. Who runs Dispo?
Vic: I well, I run Dispo, but, again, we got Julio and they got three other people, not four, that are that are every well, so we have a Zoom every single day. We have a Zoom every day with sales team and have a Zoom every day with a Dispo team. So I'm telling them, hey. This is what we need to do. Let's review these deals.
Like, what's what's needed on this one, this one, and this one. So we go through all our deals every every morning. We discuss what we need to do. And then I just tell them, hey. Just get it done.
Just make the calls. At the end of the day, I tell everybody, listen. This business is in any business, it really comes down to conversations. Like, conversation is what gets you paid. Yeah.
If you're having conversation with sellers, you're gonna get paid.
Speaker 3: If
Vic: you're having conversation with buyers, you're gonna get paid. So just have conversations. Like, don't get bogged down in the minutiae of this or the that or, you know, the comps or whatever. Just have conversations, and that gets us paid. So that's what we we really try to focus on.
Steve: Yeah. And so, let's see. And you're also working with, you got some people that you've helped along the way as well, like, kinda, like, get into the business. Yeah.
Vic: I've had I've had a lot of guys, that and actually some guys that do that do coaching, believe it or not.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: That hit me up and ask me for advice. They're like, hey. You know, what what are your thoughts on this or that? Which I'm always open to, you know. And and I think because I just I've studied so many people.
I I think I have a pretty decent amount of of knowledge in the business. You know, I I try to always learn from others. Right? Yeah. And so when you learn from others, you know, you're open to sharing.
But, yeah, it's interesting. I had one guy call me. He's like, do you do any coaching? I'm like, no. Not really.
He's like, well, how much would you charge me for a for a coaching call? I'm like, it's a lot of work. Right? Because you do it. Yeah.
I'm like, dude, I'll I'll be, like, 500 for half an hour. And he's like, okay. He goes, how many how many, how much time do you think I need to really understand the business? Like, honestly, it's a lot of information. At least, like, two hours.
I'm like, so, if you wanna pay me $2,000, you can. He's like, okay. I'll I'll let you know. I'm like, alright. So I didn't like, that's a lot of money for for most people.
Right? And next thing you know, like, three days later, he sends me a thousand bucks. I was like, woah. And then he's like, hey. I'll send you the other thousand next next week.
Mhmm. And then he sends it to me. I'm like, wow. Okay. Let's let's jump on a call.
Yeah. And so we get on a call, and he's a young kid from Detroit, 21 years old. Shout out to Patrick. Patrick, how's it going? He, we did the coaching call, four sessions, and I think within, I think, forty five days, he got nine contracts.
Dang. And we're closing on seven of them. It was a portfolio. Mhmm. We're closing on seven of them this Friday.
So, yeah. So, I mean but he's he but he hustled. So he he took what I taught him in two hours Mhmm. And then he hustled. And then also to what I did, you know, because it what I said, listen.
If you want from this point forward, if you want a JV on deals, I'll support you. But I'm not gonna give you, like, free advice, you know, just for free. But if you want, you know, we we could JV on deals together, work them together. I'll support you. I'll help you.
I'll help you do the dispo. I'll tell you what what list to pull, blah blah blah blah, and we'll work together. And so now we're working together on on in the Detroit market.
Steve: Gotcha. Okay.
Vic: But it's it's super impressive because the guy is only 21 years old.
Steve: Love that. Yeah. Love the young hustler.
Vic: That's just that's hustle, man. That's just hustle.
Steve: And then so you are in, I saw you again. Like, we mentioned earlier, you're Sean Terry's mastermind.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Yeah. So why are you in a mastermind?
Vic: Because you're always you can always learn.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: I mean I mean, that's that's the key to growth. Right? Always always learning. Constant learning. One thing that and I and I think I mentioned this last two years ago, but, I mean, for people that haven't heard it, my cousin, you know, he was super successful, you know, two to 3,000 employees.
I think he was worth, I don't know, 100,000,000, 50,000,000. I don't know. It's worth a ton of money. He doesn't say. Right?
But the com it's a big company with that many employees. Right? And we're having dinner at at Shula Steakhouse, and I go, my cousin, like, how did you how did you do it? How did you get to this level? He's like, and I'm waiting for the magic formula.
Right? He's like, you know what? He was number one. He was and I was waiting for, like, the secret sauce. He was I was humble.
I'm like, what? He's like, I was humble. He goes, I knew I realized I didn't know everything about the business. I didn't know everything there is to know. So I sought out everyone in my industry that I knew was doing well.
Maybe not as well as me, some much better than me. I sought them out. I became friends. And I I asked them for their advice and their feedback. And everything I learned from all those people, I applied it to mine, and he ended up becoming one of the biggest in his industry.
I was like, oh, shoot. So so when I got into real estate, that's what I did, and that's what I still do. I'm I'm always I'm always learning. It it makes a difference.
Steve: You You didn't have that growth mindset before you you had that conversation?
Vic: I did. But once I heard how how impactful it was to his business and success, I'm like, oh, that's that's it. Yeah. So, you know, that's it.
Steve: Okay. So, we opened the show talking about how to how you went from, you know, selling bananas. Yeah. Selling portfolios to hedge funds. So right now, those portfolios are sending selling those hedge funds.
Are those existing relationships you had prior to everything kinda, like, falling apart?
Vic: Yeah. Those are those are guys that were there were funds. Mhmm. So there's a couple funds that we would we would sell deals to single. And then then I there's a deal when I said, hey.
I we got, like, a portfolio of 18 properties. She's like, oh, that's handled by our portfolio division. So then they referred me to him. And so I reached out to them, and I started selling them them deals. And then it slowed down.
And so one of those guys left that company, started his own business. It's similar similar. You know, started his own fund, and the other guy went to work at another fund. So now it's two different funds, but they do business with all the other funds. So that's kinda how that that relationship developed.
Yeah.
Steve: So if someone wanted to sell a portfolio
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: To a fund, step one, easiest shortcut. Yeah. Email Vic.
Vic: Correct. Yeah. Just send it to
Steve: me. Right? Yeah. It was deals@SFRdeals.com.
Vic: Deals@SFRdeals.com. Yeah.
Steve: The second way is to bang the phones.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Right?
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Do it with LinkedIn? Is that where you're harassing
Vic: Yeah. But I but, like, you could find hedge funds on Google or LinkedIn, but the ones that buy portfolios, it's gonna be hard to find.
Steve: I know. But I'm just saying Oh,
Vic: yeah. But you can do that.
Steve: If you wanted to do it
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Like, what are some things they would have to do?
Vic: I guess just look on LinkedIn for, like, residential hedge funds and then reach out to them. It's it's you just gotta call and talk to a lot of people. Yeah. I mean, one thing you can do is just look I can have like, a lot of funds buy in, as we know, Phoenix, Atlanta, or a Florida market. Mhmm.
So just do a search on PropStream who owns over a thousand properties. Mhmm. Or we wanna do 5,000 properties in Atlanta and see who those there's not many buyers and see who those guys are. Those are your funds. Mhmm.
And then then what you do, you look up you Google the mailing address because the fund name is not the name of the company.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: That's just that's the fund name. Mhmm. So then what you do, you look up the mailing address, you Google it, and that'll tell you the the corporate name.
Steve: There you go.
Vic: So that's that's the that's the trick. I I gave a little little hack there.
Steve: Yeah. And for me, right, if I were if this were my sole focus Mhmm. What I figured out, and this goes back to my REO days. Yeah. I was listing properties for banks, is go where they hang out.
Right? Again, you and I were hanging out at the IMN event.
Vic: Yeah. IMN is a great place.
Steve: Go to IMN event. Pay the price to be in that room and get their business cards. Yeah. Talk to them. Be friends with them.
And you have to dress nice. Yeah. Right? These guys are often wearing suits. Exactly.
Right? Dress like how they dress.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: But, yeah, like, this is how you get business. You dress like them. You show up to where they hang out. Yeah. Build a relationship, and then you can, you know, work together.
So, like, what I was doing when I was young was taking them out to bars and clubs and getting them drunk. Wouldn't do it that way today.
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Right? Maybe now we'll go to, like, city hall
Vic: Correct.
Steve: Or, steak forty four. Yeah. Right? Capital Grills. Something like that.
Vic: Yeah. But Exactly. A 100%. And I'll be at IMN this year as well. So if anyone wants to stop by and say hello.
Steve: But,
Vic: yeah, IMN is a great place to to meet some of these funds. Yeah. For sure.
Speaker: I'm filming this video for the man himself, mister Ian Ross. The guy crushes. The guy's the best person in sales I've ever seen. I've invested elsewhere, and I haven't got the same results. I've gone from being a setup, making 5 k a month, to being a hybrid role, making 11
Speaker: k a month,
Speaker: to now be four months down the line from 5 k to on a closing opportunity, inbound, full calendar with the best opportunity, the best offer in my space. OTE is around 20 k a month from month two. So I've gone from 5 k to 20 k. If that's not a return on your investment,
Speaker: I don't know what it
Speaker: is, man. If you're a salesperson and you don't invest in sales training, you're gonna get left behind because your job is to be better at sales, and sales training directly makes you more money.
Speaker: My name is Lance McCann. I have recently switched in sessions with Ian Ross. Those conversations with Ian has made me $50,000 in the past two deals that I've had. I was able to renegotiate, go back and renegotiate the original purchase price on one deal, and I say $40,000 and I got another $10,000 off by the deals. Call me when you give me a chance, you won't be ready.
Speaker 4: If you like what you just heard and you'd like to have similar types of results, similar success, text close, c l o s e, to 33777, and we'll see if you qualify to join Advanced Sales Mastery. We are taking people from good to great.
Vic: For sure.
Steve: Okay. So, someone wanted to skip trace, skip fast, skip fast.com. Right? They get 50% off.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: And then you are doing something with Rafael Cortez.
Vic: Yeah. So me and Rafael started a podcast. It's REI Big Shots.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: We've already, interviewed, Carlos Reyes. We've interviewed, Zach Keeps, Robert Wednesday with InvestorLift.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: So quite a few guys. We haven't, pitched pushed it yet or promoted yet because we wanted to have, like, a slew of of podcasts. Mhmm.
Steve: So I
Vic: think we're probably gonna start pushing that in about two weeks.
Steve: Yeah. So I was on that list. Okay. Fine. No big deal.
Vic: Well well, we only have a night.
Steve: We only have a night. Hey. Look. Yeah. We can have you on my podcast.
I can't get you on your podcast.
Vic: We'll have you next week.
Steve: It's alright, Vic. It's no big deal. My ego is not hurt. Right. So our big shots with Rafael Cortez.
You guys don't know who Rafael is. He's been on the show before. He's a CEO post guy. Really, really, really, really
Vic: strong guy.
Steve: Yeah. Very strong guy. And I always when I introduce him to people, like, in person, like, here's the one that was stealing food out of my family's mouths. Right? Because he was my competition.
Vic: That's funny.
Steve: Right? When, it was me versus Sean Terry back in the day.
Vic: Oh, that's right. He was He
Steve: was Sean Terry acquisition guy.
Vic: Yeah. Right.
Steve: So I'm losing the Rafael in the living rooms
Vic: A 100%. Back in
Steve: the day. So yeah. So you do alright big shots with Rafael. And you're doing an event in October?
Vic: Yeah. In October, I talked to, I talked to Chris. I'm like, man, Chris, like, without Chris Iman.
Steve: Right. So who do you guys don't recall? Two or three episodes back. Take down funding.com. Yeah.
Ask Chris Iman.
Vic: Yeah. And he was one of your first guests too back when you started. Back back in the day.
Steve: Yeah. He's one of the first deals guys that sent, that sold my wholesale deal.
Vic: Oh, god. Well, he well, he I mean, he used to work with, Jamil, with PACE. The guy's done 12,000 deals. And I told him, I said, hey, Chris. Like, you should you should have an event, man.
I you know, like, a high level event for for a lot of these these wholesalers that that are younger Mhmm. Or not as successful. I think you do really well. He's like, yeah. Well, let's put it together.
So we're we're having a two day, event here in, in Scottsdale at his at his Airbnb in in October. And the guy's on I think he has a $60,000,000 fund.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: He's on 12,000 transactions in his lifetime. I mean, he's a he owns he's a hard money lender. He has a wealth of knowledge. So I'm just excited just to be there, you know, and putting it on. I think it's gonna be a great event, gonna learn a lot.
So if anyone that's is interested in joining, hit me up for that as well.
Steve: Yeah. He there's there's not a lot that he has not seen. Right? When he was here, we talked about it. Right?
Because he started in '99. Yeah. Right? He was co wholesaling before co wholesaling was a thing. Yeah.
Right? He was lending, funding deals, doing the JV model where he'll fund your deal or he'll fund your earnest money. Right? Like, he's
Vic: Yeah.
Steve: Been creative for a long, long time.
Vic: Well, he wasn't all he was also, I think, Jamil's business partner for a long time before, you know, Jamil was right. They did
Steve: a lot of collaboration. I don't know the exact extent.
Vic: But I think they're business partners too before they did. I mean, Ram, that's what I that's what I thought before Jamil opened Kegeli. Mhmm. But, also, I think he did, like, pays his disposal for, like, two years. Oh, yeah.
Steve: Yeah. He just put a lot of pays his deals. Yeah. Totally. Nice.
Right? Because he would always fund it if he couldn't wholesale it.
Vic: Yeah. Correct.
Steve: Pretty good coal wholesale partner.
Vic: Yeah. No. He's a great Hey. He's
Steve: a great deal. I need you to wholesale it. And by the way, if you can't wholesale it, can you just buy it?
Vic: Yeah. Exactly. And they'll tell you, yeah. I'll I'll I'll take it. Yeah.
He's a great guy. Yeah. For sure.
Steve: And then I have my own sales event coming up in twelfth and thirteenth. You guys have seen the ads here, and Vic has honored us. Right? He's gonna be speaking.
Vic: Thanks for having me.
Steve: Yeah. So if you guys wanna pick his brain Yeah. At our event, right, September 12, September 13, Vic will be here for a few hours, to, you know, share any wisdom that you guys would like to, pick his brain for. So is there anything that we haven't talked about today that we think the audience needs to hear?
Vic: No. I think we covered it. The biggest thing is, you know, is, you know, just to provide value. Right? And, you know, this this business has changed, my life and my family's, life.
So, however I can I can help others, if people wanna reach out to me? I really don't do coaching, but, you know, if someone wants to reach out and do a coaching call, I'm I'm open to it. I mean, honestly, if if I can just help, I'm I'm I'm happy to do it. And that's why I wanted to come on on the show and make sure we we provided value for people. Right?
Steve: So are there any painful lessons you'd like to share that's happened in the last couple of years?
Vic: What's interesting, it's the same lesson that I had learned You
Steve: had to relearn.
Vic: In the produce business where your your operational cost will kill you.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And it's the same thing in in in real estate. In a turndown, you you gotta be careful because your operational cost will will kill you. So you gotta you gotta keep that in mind and and adjust as needed. Also, too, well, one thing that I've learned that when when things are are going really, really well, you wanna push on that. Mhmm.
For example, we did really good with the hedge funds, but we could have done so many more deals if we had just invested more in marketing, more in sales
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And just, like, really, really grown that, when it was at at, full full force. Right?
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: Because, like, we were like, okay. This is nice. We're making money.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And we just and we're making money. And just like, let's keep making money. And, yeah, we would push it. But knowing how good it it it was then, I mean, we could have just done so much more business.
Steve: You could have. Yeah. But there's always this thing. Right? Things that I've learned is press when things are good.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: But also take chips off the table to prepare yourself for the downturn. Agreed. Right? Yeah. And that's the thing that, like, that's a lesson that I had not learned until the last couple of years Yeah.
Is that you wanna press the advantage. Right? You wanna leverage what you got. At the same time, you also have to protect yourself Yeah. When the faucet just stops.
Vic: A 100%.
Steve: And that's where you talk about operational costs. Yeah. Because that's where I got in trouble as well. Yeah.
Vic: I think we all have.
Steve: Cost. We all have. Right? And we were, you know, the drinking our own Kool Aid, thinking our stuff doesn't stink. Right?
Like, everything we touch turns to gold. Yeah. And then you get humbled.
Vic: Yeah. Exactly. Right? Yeah. I think we all got a little humbled in the last couple years.
Steve: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Alright. So guys, again, if you guys are interested in, the skip tracing service, skipfast.com for 7 and a half cent skips, check out REI Big Shots with Vic and Rafael Cortez.
Be on a lookout for his event in October Yep. With Chris Eiman who was on the show. I wanna say four episodes ago with takedownfunding.com. And then we have our sales event. Right?
So, if you guys are interested in that, make sure you check out the show description. There there should be a link, in the description. And any last words I leave everybody with before we end the show.
Vic: I think the biggest thing is when I when I do a presentation, I I always have a picture of of, of Neo, right, in the matrix.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: The the key, like, to being successful is is, like, it's not gonna happen until you believe it can happen. Like, you really have to believe in yourself. You have to know that that you're able to figure it out, and while you're you're trying to get to that level. But you just you know, it's like Neil, he became the one when he believed he was the one. So it starts with self belief.
You have to believe it's possible that you can do it, and then you gotta put in the work.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: You know? And you gotta educate yourself. Yeah.
Steve: You can't just put the pictures on the wall.
Vic: Yeah. But I think it but I think it starts with sub belief. Like, if until you you you change your sub belief and how you see yourself, your life won't really change.
Steve: So how does someone go about doing that?
Vic: I for me, it was associating with people that were more successful than me. Mhmm.
Steve: Because
Vic: then you're like, well, if they can do it, I can do it. Right? Visualizing is is great as well. But a big part of it is just getting in a lot of rooms with a lot of people doing better than you, you know, masterminds, events, because then you start meeting all kinds of people. And they're like, man, they're they're killing it.
They're killing it. And and you get to know them, and they're like, well, dude, they're human just like me. And so that starts to shift your mindset a lot. That makes a big difference.
Steve: Yeah. Actually, I think that's probably the best advice is getting in the same room Yeah. With the people doing what you want to do. Correct. You know, so many people are, like, skeptical.
Mhmm. And you can't feel that when you're looking at when you're watching YouTube Yeah. Or look at someone's Instagram. Yeah. You can see it, but your brain still has this barrier.
It's like, yeah. But is that real?
Vic: Correct.
Steve: But he's in the same room as Vic. Yeah. You sit the same room as Sean Terry, Chris Iman Yeah. Nick Perry. Your belief system changes.
Vic: Totally.
Steve: Right? And that that talks to your subconscious, which now gives your your subconscious now gives your conscious the permission to believe in yourself.
Vic: Yeah. Because you because you have to educate. So if you have to learn the business, like, we talked about it many times, you have to educate yourself. But like me, my education, I didn't seek it until I found a couple young guys that were that were making money with it. And so at that point, I already knew it's real.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: Proof of concept was, hey. These guys in their twenties are doing it. I could do it. So then I sought I sought the education and the knowledge to put it into action. But I had already believed it.
Where some sometimes you get you get a course and you're like, I wanna study this. I wonder if it works.
Steve: Mhmm.
Vic: And then and then since you kinda wonder, you don't really try and you don't succeed.
Steve: Yeah. And you give yourself permission to procrastinate.
Vic: Correct.
Steve: So I think wonder will kill you.
Vic: Yeah. So if you get a course, like, get around the rooms as well because that's gonna make a big difference in your mindset. A lot of times a lot of courses work, but people just, they don't believe in them, so they don't take action, and they don't succeed. Or they take half assed action that gives you half assed results.
Steve: Yeah. And I used to think the mindset was a joke. Mhmm. Not that big a deal. Realizing at my older age Yeah.
How important it is. Yeah. You have to have the belief system. You have to have your subconscious in alignment with what you say you want. Yeah.
Because you can say what you want, but your subconscious doesn't believe it's possible. It will sabotage you.
Vic: Exactly. Yeah. A 100%.
Steve: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you.
Vic: Thank you. Appreciate it.
Steve: Yeah. For sure. Thank you guys for watching, and we'll see you guys next time.
Vic: Shout out to Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. Disrupt us.
