He Bought 1,000 Houses From Realtors Nobody Else Was Calling

Speaker 0: I'm gonna be the best closer that Steve's ever seen. The best way to learn whatever you wanna get into is to go work for someone that's already doing at a high level. It was a cheat code. 200 contacts a day was the, like, the metric. Still haven't seen anyone do, like, 200 contacts a day.

Like, 200, no. Not interested in selling. Every single day. 600 calls a week is the minimum standard that my team needs to do per rep. If you're gonna have a partner, your core values need to be aligned.

Whatever core values are to you, they need to be aligned perfectly. If you want a long lasting partnership, I'm making a lot of money. I'm, like, I'm not happy.

Speaker 1: This isn't what I wanted.

Speaker: This isn't what I wanted. My most valuable lesson was

Speaker: Welcome and thank you for joining us for today's episode of disruptors where millionaires are made. Today, we have Miguel Prado with Sol Pod Homes, and I'm super excited that Miguel here today. He's another operator in the Phoenix market. I don't know how we have so many freaking operators in the Phoenix market. But he came in today to talk about what he's learned after buying a thousand houses from realtors.

Guys, I'm gonna mention create millionaires. The information on the show alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years. If you take consistent action, you'll become one. Miguel is an example of that. And before we jump in, if you're here to learn how real entrepreneurs are building real empires, make sure you hit that subscribe button because every week, we're sharing lessons that can help you create your first or your next million.

And right now, you got a 100,000, 250,000, maybe more just sitting inside your CRM. Resurrect all your old and dead leads inside the CRM using our objection proof AI calling agent text cash to the phone number 33777 to unlock the money that's just hanging out in your CRM. You ready? Ready. Been a long time coming here.

Speaker: I know, man. Full circle moment right here.

Speaker: Very much a full circle moment. So let's talk about what your life was like right before you got into real estate.

Speaker: Okay. Right before real estate, I was raised in Mexico eighteen years. Great family. Little little hometown about 60,000 people. And from there, went to college in The United States.

Mhmm. That was the dream. Right? The programming of, like, supposed to go to high school, play sports, go to college. Unfortunately, five seven, couldn't play sports in college, and then get a job.

That was kinda like the thing that I was not really even told. It's just like that's what I saw everyone else do in my life. So went to college, graduated college, and then applied for a job here in Phoenix, got the job. So I guess I'm moving to Phoenix, Arizona. This was early twenty sixteen and started working that job.

It was at Enterprise Rent A Car. Like, I can't believe that they needed a degree to work to rent cars. You worked

Speaker: at Enterprise? I

Speaker: worked at Enterprise for eleven months. Alright. Then from there, I went to another corporate job for about six months, and that's when the transition started into real estate. Mhmm. So that happened because one of my best friends was buying a house.

I just went with him to the showing to see the house. And you know this friend. He's Rodolfo. Mhmm. And I started talking to the realtor, and the realtor starts telling me how he makes money.

And he's like, oh, I'm closing two transactions a month. I'm making about $6,000 per transaction in commission. I was making $2,500 a month with a degree, and I'm like, what do you mean? Like, you're closing two deals. So you're making $12.

It's like, yeah. I'm like, holy.

Speaker: Whatever. No. Limited.

Speaker: Holy crap. I'm like, what am I doing? So talked to him. He's like, what do I need to do? Well, go get your real estate license.

Do all that. So I was in debt. I was like, student loans debts, credit card debt. Like, I was making $25 a month. Like, I couldn't pay back anything.

Right? So I quit my job in late seventeen. I go get my license. I get my license. I call the guy.

I said, hey, dude. Got my license. What do we do? He's like, oh, come to my brokerage. And, like, he wasn't really, like he was a good mentor because he ton of he had a ton of real estate knowledge, and I learned a ton, but he had no sales framework to go get deals.

Yeah. So I closed two deals my first year in real estate.

Speaker: Okay. So you learned from him? Learned from him. Were you honest with him?

Speaker: I was it was so weird. It was a weird transition. Like, he first hired me as his assistant. Mhmm. And then I was was like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing here as an assistant.

Then he's like, you should becomes a you should become a buyer's agent. Mhmm. Okay. I become your buyer's agent. And then I started prospecting, and then the deals I closed with him were two deals.

And, like, I don't know. Like, I got paid pennies and then the Keller Williams brokerage split. I was like, what am I doing here? Yeah. So I left him after six months, and I kinda went and started my my own thing.

And first year first full twelve months in your real estate, $12,000.

Speaker: Not making a ton of money? No. So then what?

Speaker: So then when working with this guy, I have to give him credit. Like, he instilled personal development into me, like, taught me about reading books, personal development, taught me a lot of real estate knowledge. So I'm like, okay. Let me start look looking for real estate stuff. And I run into the Real Estate Disruptors podcast.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah. That's when I meet you. Right? And I start listening to this podcast, and I start Carlos and Sal and Alex Saenz and these guys, and they're, like, closing deals, and they're making buttload of money. And I'm like

Speaker: Ridiculous amounts of money.

Speaker: Ridiculous amounts of money. And I'm like Yeah. Okay. Wait. Like, I hate showing houses.

Like, this is not my thing. This sounds more like a Miguel thing. Yeah. And I start listening. And then I think I just emailed you or texted you.

I don't remember, honestly.

Speaker: Well, I think you were wholesaling. No. At k w.

Speaker: No. I so the guy I was working with, I was like, dude, we should start wholesaling. Yeah. Like, this sounds amazing. Like and he was like, anti wholesale.

Like like most realtors are, like, no. That's garbage. That doesn't work. Mhmm. Blah blah blah blah.

I'm like, alright. I'm gonna go do this. Mhmm. I'm gonna go do this. Thank you, but I'm gone.

And then I I I don't know how I got a hold of you. I don't know if I emailed you, texted you, DM'd you. I don't remember. But I was just like, hey. I wanna join Sunny Homes Realty.

Yeah. That was kinda like my name. Brokerage. It was the old brokerage.

Speaker: Back in the day. Not not not around so much anymore.

Speaker: That was the that was the in for me. I'm like, I'm a realtor. I'm a licensed agent. I'm gonna go join this brokerage. Yeah.

Join your brokerage, and then I'm like, hey, Steve. What if I join your wholesale team?

Speaker: Right. That's when you apply to work at Max Cash offers. Correct. Alright. So what was that?

You wanna talk about what that was like, that interview, that experience?

Speaker: Yeah. I mean, I think you remember vividly. I think, it was a it was a that experience there, I think. I wouldn't be where I am right now if it wasn't for that experience, like, just point blank. So I have a lot to thank you for.

But I sat down with you and I told you that, hey, I'm gonna come in. I'm gonna give you twelve months of you're gonna the hardest worker you'll ever you've ever seen. I'm gonna close deals for you. But after twelve months, I'm gonna leave and go do it on my own.

Speaker: Right. And that's also the thing. Like, I brought up on this podcast and part of the discussion before was, like, I appreciated because you don't hear this a lot from, like Yeah. People that come in. It's like, hey.

I wanna learn everything I can here and then I'm probably gonna compete against you in a year. Right? Well, do you remember what I said back? Sure. You remember?

Speaker: Not really.

Speaker: I said, if you come in and bust your butt for twelve months, yeah, like, I'll give you everything you need Okay. To go do it. Right? But you have to commit to giving you twelve solid months. Like, I'm not gonna be helping you

Speaker: every day. Gave you, like, eleven months and two weeks.

Speaker: Yeah. No. You still owe me six days. Yeah.

Speaker: I know. I gotta I gotta pay you back. I'll figure it out.

Speaker: At some point, I still want you to go door knock for six days. So because you you last you left before the twelve months, but there were some other extenuating circumstances.

Speaker: There were.

Speaker: Right? Us finding your friends probably didn't help.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: So, so let's talk about what it was like because you you did the realtor thing.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: Weren't in love with it. Mm-mm. Did the wholesaling thing. Working on someone's team, like, you weren't doing your own thing. So what was that experience like?

Speaker: It was really eye opening. It was really I mean, I think the best way to learn whatever you wanna get into is to go work for someone that's already doing at a high level. And it was a cheat code. Right? It's just like, okay.

So I'm getting to learn the game that I wanna learn, and I'm getting paid while doing it. Mhmm. And just that was my first experience with understanding how important sales is. I know you're big fan of sales, and you you instill that process of having a sales process and understanding how you need to communicate with people Mhmm.

Speaker: To

Speaker: get what you want. Yeah. So I went all in on that. I went on and on. Alright.

I'm gonna be the best closer that Steve's ever seen. And to this day, I I I mean, tell it to the camera. Who's the best closer you ever had?

Speaker: We were talking about it before the show. It's like, who was the best closer we ever had in in Max Cash offers? And I cannot come up with a name. Alright. So I'll make it.

So here's a couple different things. Right? So, like, when I was, first getting introduced to Collective Genius Mhmm. And I was talking about the scorched earth policy, preventing remorse, and all all these other things. Right?

They're like, well, like, the concepts are cool, but, like, can you share with us some recordings? Like, okay. Let me pull up Miguel's recordings. Because if you remember, like, we had a recording. It was like, hey, this doesn't work.

I think it was the cat lady. Right? I was like, hey, like, this doesn't work. I go, what are we gonna do with the cats?

Speaker: Oh, yeah. I remember that one. Right?

Speaker: So I show the show the recording, like, preventing remorse. Like, you asked, like, three times, like, are you sure? Because, like, if there's any reason, like, let's not do it. It's like, no. I wanna do it.

No. For sure, I wanna do it. Like, you were, preventing remorse. Other stories I've shared, like, you know, when our our active sales training, I can we still do sales training today. We we tell the team, like tell the clients, like, hey.

Like, you guys get a practice anywhere and everywhere, including in the office. And I talk about how, like, when we first started doing sales training, it was literally impossible to have an actual conversation because everyone was reversing everyone else. And Yeah. You were doing it probably the worst, but I wasn't mad about it because, like, this is the skill set we wanna have him to have out in the field. Yeah.

Yeah. So, you learned sales there. Did you learn anything else about how to run a business, not to run a business? I mean,

Speaker: you learn through friction. I learned a couple things. One, I learned how I didn't wanna be as a leader. Mhmm. Like, not with you through other interactions.

I'm like, okay. That's one way not to work with the sales team. That's, like, that's not how you should do it. Okay? Yeah.

Great. I understood the concept of, like, okay. Wholesaling is not really real estate investing. It's sales and marketing game. Mhmm.

I understood the concept of, like, having like, okay. You need to market, get leads. You need to nurture those leads. Mhmm. You need to close.

You need to disposition that lead, and it's all like a little funnel. Mhmm. And I learned those concepts of, okay. I just gotta go create these funnels. I I learned about SMS marketing back.

Do you remember SMS marketing? How Yeah.

Speaker: We we were texting. It was Yeah. The the, the cost per contract for $400 was a good time. It was

Speaker: a good time. It was a good time.

Speaker: And this is where you picked up the nasty habit of calling me mister Steve.

Speaker: Yeah. Mister Steve. Alright.

Speaker: I texted Summer and let her know, like, you know, you said hi. But, like, it's funny. Like, when you met Summer, she was an office manager, and now she runs operations here. So you left Mhmm. And you went with Rodolfo.

Speaker: Yes. Right? So this was late nineteen.

Speaker: So the friend that we fired Yeah. You went to go work with him to go do your thing.

Speaker: Yeah. He was my roommate at the time.

Speaker: Which made it made it easier for you to leave. Yeah. So talk about

Speaker: Yeah. What that experience was. So really good experience. Obviously, like, alright. Leave max cash offers.

I mean and then from there, it's like, alright. We're here. What do we do? And I remember vividly, I was like, alright. There's nothing else to do but to pick up the phone and start calling.

Like, that's literally what we do. We things we learn, how to go get lists, how to go get data, skip trace it, do all that. So what we did is we bought it. We bought a dialer. We bought the entire Maricopa County list.

Mhmm. We bought a headset, and we would just sit in our bedrooms or in our home offices, and we would dial from 8AM to 8PM. Like, 200 contacts a day was the, like, the metric.

Speaker: Both of you.

Speaker: Both of us. So we were doing, like right now, like, I I still haven't seen anyone do, like, 200 contacts a day. Like, 200, no. Not interested in selling every single day for about six months nonstop. That was kinda like the play.

Like, there was nothing else to do.

Speaker: I bet you got really good

Speaker: Really good.

Speaker: In that short period of time.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. So did that work?

Speaker: That did work. I mean, in those six months, I think we closed about 30 deals Mhmm. In those six months. And then COVID hit, and we just started getting I mean, obviously, you know COVID, it was, like, went down and then it start skyrocketed.

Speaker: Went crazy.

Speaker: Went crazy. And then Rudolf and I had a really good thing going on. Then from there, we meet Templeton Mhmm. Walker, great friend. And we kinda, like he has this brand.

We have this direct to seller thing that we have, like, really dialed. So let's, like, let's join forces, and we created, like, this big company in early mid twenty twenty.

Speaker: Mhmm. And for reference, Templeton, you guys wanna go look. The very first episode of Real Estate Disruptors was Templeton.

Speaker: Yeah. So it's a good episode. You guys should go listen to it.

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We'll install our done for you AI sales system right into your CRM. It runs your lead management, qualification, call reviews, and sales team management so that the only thing left on your plate is closing deals. It's the same system that took Nick Perry's cost per contract to $450 and cut his team from six lead managers down to two. And here's the promise, 10 signed seller contracts in your first ninety days where you don't pay. Our top clients pull a lot more than that, but 10 is what we guarantee.

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Speaker: And then we start we form this company, and it's called Solpod. And we just kinda, like, start doing our thing, and we're doing our direct seller. Really no structure. Just we're doing a bunch of deals. We're doing, like, just taking massive massive imperfect action.

Speaker: So was it six months working together, just the two of you before you combine? So Yes. Not like a long period of time. Mhmm. Okay.

Go ahead.

Speaker: And then we just I mean, for me, I just saw it as a, like, okay, we're here. Templeton was a little bit more advanced in his career than we were.

Speaker: And you had the marketing side down.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And you had the brand and relationship down.

Speaker: Yeah. So we was like, alright. We have these things. Let's just merge. It was his idea actually.

When he brought it up, I was like, okay. Sure. Love it. And then, like, we went all three of us, we went all in on it. And, I mean, we can go year by year there, but, like, in late twenty twenty, we hired or no.

Early twenty one, we hired Harper Solutions Mhmm.

Speaker: To give

Speaker: it to give us some structure.

Speaker: In 2021?

Speaker: 2021.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. Because I remember Templeton asking, like, should we hire this this these guys, Gary Harper and Sharper Solutions, like, yeah. You should hire.

Speaker: Yeah. So we hired them, and then 2021 is like I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, it was the mark like, it was the market, but we were also, like, we had a really good thing going on. Like, we we went and closed in just Phoenix Metro Area, 360 deals, like

Speaker: In a year?

Speaker: In a year. Yeah. So we grow this whole thing. We have about

Speaker: 36. I didn't know you guys did that many.

Speaker: We did. We we had an a motto about a deal a day, and we actually did it. Like Yeah. It was it was actually crazy now looking back. But now it's also we look back, and I'm like, dang.

Like, we're we're a little dumb. Mhmm. Like, based on, like, what everything that happened and transpired later on. Right? But we had this entire 60 virtual agents up to 80 virtual agents sometimes.

We had 10 closers on the floor. We had just this whole thing going on. Mhmm. And What's all that like? It's like a $100 a month.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: I mean, just each VA was about thousand bucks a month. Mhmm. And then plus additional marketing spend, and just added up to, like, $80,100 grand a month.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Not only that, we made a lot of mistakes from this will lead up to the next story. Like, we we made a lot of mistakes from wholesaling, which was our thing. We started flipping. Mhmm. And we went started flipping at scale.

Speaker: So wholesaling Mhmm. Some overhead. Sure. 100,000 a month. Doesn't sound so bad if you're doing a deal a day.

Speaker: We were doing 4 or $500,000 a month. Yeah. So it was like

Speaker: It's not so bad.

Speaker: Not so bad.

Speaker: Yeah. So good. No problems really. No. So let's switch it up.

Let's switch it up. Alright.

Speaker: No problems. Started flipping at scale. We were making so much money. We had no cash flow management skills. Mhmm.

Right? And then it's like money comes in. Like, oh, yeah, dude. We have money in the bank. We can go flip some houses.

I'm just gonna fast forward to, like, April, May 2022.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: We shifted and I'll take like, I always take the blame for this because in late twenty one to mid twenty two, you know the hedge funds were buying like crazy. Mhmm.

Speaker: And so before we get to that Okay. You guys got so were you flipping heavy and then you got involved with hedge funds? Or you got involved with hedge funds and then you got flipped? We were

Speaker: flipping heavy and then we got involved with hedge funds.

Speaker: Okay.

Speaker: But they kinda co mingled.

Speaker: Okay. Alright. Go continue.

Speaker: So we I make a decision to we're like, alright. These hedge funds, they're buying at $85.90 cents on the dollar. Like, we are shifting our entire business model to sell to these hedge funds. Mhmm. So we just, like, went crazy in acquisitions, and we started, like, just selling these deals to the hedge funds.

Like, but we're we would we would have this model, like, we would close on them, trash them out, sell them to the hedge fund. Like, that was kind of, like, the model that we had going on. Why? Because they would pay more. They would pay a little bit more.

Speaker: So if you if you wholesale it to them, was there a cap when you can make on on your wholesale?

Speaker: You there was a cap. So some companies would only allow $20,000, like, max.

Speaker: Alright. So if you wholesale to them, 20,000 max. Mhmm. If you took it down, cleaned it out

Speaker: Doesn't matter.

Speaker: Doesn't matter what you make. No cap. Okay. And that's the reason why Mhmm. You took them down.

Speaker: Main reason. And then only one of the hold only one of the hedge funds allowed, like, assignment fees. I think two. The rest was, like, no. We don't buy on assignment fees.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: So it's just, like, alright. We'll close them. We'll clean them out. Resell them to you.

Speaker: How'd you guys get those relationship with the hedge funds? Because that was a hot commodity.

Speaker: I mean, it was really through networking. Like, it was going to the events. It was meeting people. It was like even like, I know Phoenix is a very, very competitive market, but really everyone's a giver or or at least everyone that I know. Like, I I had people in the same space that were competitors or our competitors that would give me, like, hey.

Meet John from Roofstock. Mhmm. Oh, thank you. And then I would give them, meet this guy from this hedge fund. And it was just, like, collaboration.

Like Yeah. So we kind of built this little portfolio of five, ten hedge funds that we're buying and we're making insane amount of money Right. Till we weren't.

Speaker: Right. Okay. So things are going good.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker: How many deals are you doing then?

Speaker: We were doing about the site that's like wholesaling. We were still doing about 20 deals a month. Mhmm. And then we were flipping about 10 of these houses to the hedge funds, like, per month.

Speaker: Okay. Alright. And then?

Speaker: And then rates change Mhmm. In April and May 2026. We have 35 active projects. 17 of those, we are under contract in escrow to sell the hedge funds.

Speaker: That you're gonna clean out?

Speaker: Clean out. Okay. We already own them. Our name's on title. We have a hard money loan on them.

We bought not at a good price. Why? Because these hedge funds buy at $85.90 cents on the dollar.

Speaker: Get an exit.

Speaker: We got an exit. From one day to another, we just get emails from all these hedge funds. We're done buying. We're not buying anymore. Here's our earnest money.

Sorry.

Speaker: Oh, keep the earnest money.

Speaker: Yeah. Keep the earnest money. We're not buying. Sorry. Like, and it's like, okay.

So now these deals that we maybe bought at 80¢ of the dollar, 85 to sell them at 90, like, in a month, in two months, like, values went down just because of the whole, I don't know what the word is. I mean, no one knew what's gonna happen.

Speaker: Yeah. The bottom fell out.

Speaker: The Yeah. So it's like, okay. So we bought house in '85 at 85¢ a dollar. We still have to go renovate it.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: Holding costs, everything, and we're gonna have to sell it around $85.90 cents a dollar.

Speaker: Yeah. You got caught with holding how many?

Speaker: 17, really bad, and about another, like, 18 bad, but not that bad. So 35.

Speaker: So what's bad and what's not that bad? Or what what's really bad and what's not that bad?

Speaker: So over those 35 homes, we probably lost 1.8 like, a little bit over $1,800,000.

Speaker: To get out of them?

Speaker: Yeah. Like, to get out of them.

Speaker: Yeah. Did you get out of them?

Speaker: Like Got out of them. Every single house we got out of it. Thankfully, we were we were we were smart. Like, we kept money in the bank. Like, unlike a lot of operators, they spent it, and we kept money in the bank.

So we had high reserves, high liquidity, and I I felt like I was I made it. Like, I've I made it. Like, I was even gonna reach out to you in '22. I was like, dude, Steve, pat me on the pot, dude. Like, I made it.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: And then just everything went crumbling down. And I think what saved us was we we used for, like, private money for first position to acquire the asset, but we never raised capital to fund renovations. We always self funded every single rental, like, out of our own cash. So we were we were leveraged, but not as over leveraged as a lot of operators were because they would get first position, second position. Some would even get third position to fund these flips.

Right? Because everyone was making money. Mhmm. Thankfully, we only had those that first position lenders to pay out. It was a blurry, blurry 20 the rest of 2223, and we didn't really get our head out till, like, early twenty four.

Speaker: So 1.8, you said that you weren't good at cash flow management, but it sounded like you're good at least at cash management.

Speaker: So here's what here's the interesting part. It's like, when when when stuff like that happens, many people take the back seat, they get scared, they cut costs. And the first thing I went and did is I went and hired a fractional CFO. Like, that's the very first thing I did. Like, when everything started to go bad, I went and hired a fractional CFO.

Mhmm. It's like, it was about $3,000 a month. Like, if someone's gonna teach me how to manage this cash and, like, the other capital that we got come come in, like, it's this guy. Like, I don't know what I don't know. Like, I'm Mhmm.

Speaker: So How'd you connect with that guy?

Speaker: Sharper Solutions.

Speaker: Got it. Okay. Was it David?

Speaker: Yeah. No. I don't remember his name.

Speaker: Anyway, so how'd you get out of that bad spot? So I guess when I was asking, did you fully get out? I mean, like, did you pay everyone back?

Speaker: Everyone. Like, we

Speaker: That's substantial. Like, 1,800,000 in the hole.

Speaker: In the hole. Like, we would pay hard money payments. We would pay everything. And it's not like we wrote a $1,800,000 check. Right?

But it was, like, throughout time, you would just see the bank, like, boom boom boom. Go down go down go down. $120,000 loss here, $50,000 loss here, $105,000 loss here. So sometimes we would have $100,000 into or $200,000 into this deal or $1.50, whatever. And we would lose, and we would only get $50,000 back.

Like, on some deals, we would get capital back because we were front loading all the renovations.

Speaker: Put so much money into your property. Okay. So, so you couldn't shrug a check for the whole thing, but you were kinda getting some money back. So it wasn't as I guess my one of the questions is, like, do you do a lot like, do you continue to do deals to dig yourself out?

Speaker: Yes. Like Yes. So 100%. So it was just honestly, Steve, it was it's blurry in my brain. Like, I got anxiety.

I got depression. I got, like, all this Really? Yeah. Like, all these things, like, from, like, those twenty four months, like, they were blurry. It was just survival mode and high stress.

I mean, it's just when you're having to write $60,000 a month in hard money payments and then another $100 a month in contractor draws to know that you're gonna go out and still lose that money. Mhmm. But it was, like, it was just the right thing to do. We could have easily just like, here, take them. Mhmm.

And just to and to this day, we still use the same lenders. And, like, right now, it's just, hey, lender. I'm flipping 123 Main Street. Mhmm. Title company, close of escrow, send some money.

Speaker: Yeah. Well, of course. Yeah. Because you're able to pay them back, which is huge. I mean, that's a huge testament.

Because, like, I think there's so many people that, like, alright. It didn't work. Mhmm. So I'm done with real estate.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: I'm gonna go get a job and, like, sorry. Yeah. And that's the end of the story. Mhmm. But you made everybody whole.

Everybody. Everybody. Okay. So if you had to do it all over again, obviously, the first answer is, like, don't take these properties down. Yeah.

Of course. But we had to do it all over again. What else would you have done differently?

Speaker: I think if I had to if if we time machine go back '21, I would not flip a single house. I would just wholesale.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: That's all I would do that year. Like, nonstop. Wholesaling. Wholesaling. Wholesaling.

Even though, like, you get the shiny object with flipping and you have these fast appreciation moments where you can go make these these big rips. I think I would just keep wholesaling. Like, the I love wholesaling.

Speaker: I remember those converse because I remember there was two different people, two different voices in my ear saying I was making a mistake not taking these properties down. Almost Templeton. Right? It's like, dude, we got nine and nine right now going. And I was like, I said I said to my wife, she's like, you're out of your mind.

You think I'm gonna sign up on that. Right? But the other one's Ryan Pineda. Right? Because he's like, dude, like, these things sell so easily.

Like, why would you not do it? And all I have I didn't have any, like, logical answers. All I have was, like, I've been around.

Speaker: Yeah. Exactly.

Speaker: Like, I was around in o seven, and, like, you don't know when the music stops.

Speaker: But you have a sensation around like, a tingly sensation around it.

Speaker: No. No. You just genuinely for me, I just I genuinely didn't know when the music would stop. I just knew that was always a possibility.

Speaker: Yeah. There was always a

Speaker: possibility that music it did not like, what happened in '22 was crazy. Yeah. I did not see that coming. Right? But, like, that was always my fear.

It was always in the back of my mind. It's like, if that happened, I don't know what I would do. And that was the only reason why, I didn't and I and I you might have heard me say it. I said it to a lot of people. Like, I know I'm leaving money on the table.

Yeah. I recognize I'm leaving money on the table. I don't have Are

Speaker: you were you really? Like

Speaker: I didn't have the courage to step to to to lean into it.

Speaker: Yeah. I guess it it's just tough. And, I mean, I know Ryan lost big. Panetta lost big in that season as well. But I

Speaker: would A wholesale only.

Speaker: I would wholesale only. I would not buy a house there. And I always had this sensation of, like, you listen you read these books, personal development books, and you read listen to these stories, and they always have a downfall. Always. And I kid you not, Steve, in the back of my mind, I didn't know when the music was gonna stop, but it's like, I don't know when my downfall is gonna be.

Like, I generally don't, but I know something will happen. I don't know when, and it happened. And I know there will be other downfalls and stuff will continue to happen, but I was like, okay, like, I built this thing. I just lost everything. Mhmm.

Not to account, like, flipping was one thing. We still had, like, we turned, like, the machine the whole selling machine was still running. We were still paying marketing dollars to lock up contracts that were not selling because buyers were not buying.

Speaker: So it

Speaker: was like I

Speaker: remember that too.

Speaker: It was like these two things of like just the hole just gets deeper and deeper and deeper on all fronts.

Speaker: So how do you address the wholesaling side?

Speaker: The honest answer is I don't know. It's like it really is like blocked in my brain. Mhmm. We just kept wholesaling. Like, we just kept we we did stop marketing.

Like, our marketing spend went down. Mhmm. And it we really oh, you know what? It was a face to face. We really went all in into, like, the meetups and relationships and kind of, like, more on the referral based thing, and that's what kept us alive.

Speaker: Yeah. So is this when Solpod was born or Solpod was around before?

Speaker: Solpod was born like, Solpod, like, the was born in '21.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: Like, that was kinda when it was born. And then in '24 is when I kinda remarket it, like, rechanged the the the rechanged it a little bit, pivoted to Solpod Homes. Mhmm. Which now it's like it's it's now it's a company. Now it's a Solpod was was more like a brand in '21, and I made it now in '24, a company, an organization that I wanna grow and has a mission, a vision, and a purpose.

Like, back then, it was just like, oh, Soltop.

Speaker: Alright. My LLC. Yeah. So face to face event. So because you say face to face, like, usually means it's just face to face in living room.

But, like, you were you're organizing events for people to come.

Speaker: Yeah. Just Solpod meetups or meetups.

Speaker: So explain the meetups.

Speaker: We would just literally organize, like, hey. We have a Solpod meetup this Wednesday or next month. We would get hundreds of people, wholesalers, realtors come in. We would provide value. We would help out.

And then by those just having that belly to belly interaction, next day, you get, hey. I have a deal. And we would see the deal. We would underwrite it. We would wholesale it.

We would just do the thing. And just it was just, like, wake up every day, go to work, come back, repeat. Like, until, like, I remember early twenty four, it was me and Templeton. We were having conversation. It was like, I think we're I think we're good.

Mhmm.

Speaker: So how long it took you two years?

Speaker: Yeah. It was like about you

Speaker: got out of that hole?

Speaker: '22 because it was just starting. '23 was bad and then about, like, early twenty four, we were out of the hole.

Speaker: Gotcha. Okay. So all along this way because, you know, one of the things I talked about on on on titles, like, you know, you're doing buying houses from realtors. You're also, like, wholesaling. So in getting out of the hole, was it more marketing to sell homeowners, or is it going through realtors?

Speaker: Both. But no. I stopped the direct seller marketing. It was going through realtors and relationships. That's what So

Speaker: you dug yourself out of a hole working Mhmm. Realtor network?

Speaker: I got yes.

Speaker: Okay. So then, talk to me. Like, what what is this realtor model that you're running?

Speaker: So, in late twenty three, and I got to give credit where credit is due, I'm I meet this guy, Nick Frisky. He he works with me in Solpot Homes. And I I guess he could see me in, like, in our office. I was just like, I was tired. Right?

And he just brings up. He's like, hey. Well, like, why don't you start direct to agent a direct to agent model? I'm like, I've heard about it. Like, tell me more.

Mhmm. It's like, yeah. Well, instead of marketing to sellers, you market to agents. Agents bring you deals. And then the more I started, like, listening to that and thinking about it, I'm like, okay.

I think that makes sense. And then I know, like, there's other guys in this industry that have done it and it's not rocket science. Like Yeah.

Speaker: I mean, there's, like, there's Jamil Jamil.

Speaker: Yeah. Astra flipping, Zolan. Like Yeah. It's like, it's not rocket science, but I've, like, I learned direct to seller. I was that was my thing.

Right? I learned it from you. That's why I did that for years. So it's I was tied to that identity of, like, no. I gotta sit in someone's living room and close them.

Speaker: Right. Like,

Speaker: I have to do that. And then I was just I just started thinking about it where I was like, alright. I'm gonna go all in on this thing. Like, let's let's just go all in. And from that time to right now, like, it's just night and day what what I've like, what we've been able to build.

Speaker: So you're saying it's not rocket science, but there's gotta be something you're doing well to execute. So what are you doing well? What are you doing differently Okay. That other people aren't doing?

Speaker: So I think everyone treat everyone that does direct to agent marketing treats it, like, as a lead source, and they don't really treat it like a business, like a like a like a model, to build something that you can go sell. Not that my goal is to sell the company. I don't I don't think a wholesale company is sellable. However, I look at brands like Andrew Homebuyer, Doug Hopkins, Opendoor, Offerpad. People remember those companies.

Right? Mhmm. My whole thing was, okay. I'm gonna go build Solpod Homes as the company that buys houses, like, that's built for agents by agents. Like, this is where when it when an agent has a distressed seller and and they need to go sell their house, I want them to think of Solpod Homes.

That's the whole premise behind my thing. So it all got started with, like, that vision. Right? Be the number one home buyer for real estate agents in Arizona. Period.

Like, as far as what I'm doing is the same concepts that I applied to previously is just marketing agents, which is cold calling agents every day, email them, emailing them, texting them, running ads. But the ads don't serve I the ad the purpose of the ads is not to get leads. Like, I get agents and I get leads and the purpose of the ads is for brand awareness.

Speaker: Top of mind content.

Speaker: Top of mind cohesiveness. Just like you see those offer pad ads. It's like I want them to start seeing that brand of Solpon homes, Solpon homes for whenever my sales rep gives them a call. Like, hey. This is Tom with Solpon homes.

Oh, yeah. Like, one on one. Mhmm. That that's what I'm trying to build and been building right now.

Speaker: So the is the secret sauce then the ads? The secret sauce Or is the secret sauce just hard work?

Speaker: The secret sauce is hard work. Like, right now, we have a database of close to 10,000 real estate agents just here in Maricopa County. Mhmm. A little bit of Tucson just because they kinda like so 10,000 agents that we've cold called, like, that's our first touch. Everyone's our most of our competitors, what they're doing is they're text blasting.

Mhmm.

Speaker: I'm

Speaker: sure you get those texts. Hey, Steve.

Speaker: Do you

Speaker: have any fixer uppers yet you wanna sell?

Speaker: Yeah. I do get those text messages.

Speaker: I get those text messages too, and I don't wanna do that. Like, that's against my core belief of, like, providing value first. So it's our initial outreach is a cold call, which is a pain in the ass, I know, but that's what I'm good at. That's my power. We have a good conversation.

Hey. Do you mind if I give you a call every thirty, forty five days? See if you come across anything. Sure. Click the button, goes into the CRM, all these go high level workflows, and now you're in our database.

Mhmm. So we've added 10,000 agents like that in the last two years. Yeah. That they get now they get called. They get emailed.

They get texted. They see our ads. Every single month, they hear from Sol Plott homes every twenty to thirty days.

Speaker: Yeah. And so what are you telling them so that they to get them to think of you. Right? Because, like, it's one thing, like, hey. Like, you know what I do.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: And I have things for them to think I gotta call Miguel.

Speaker: So my entire so I'm I have my entire email campaigns that I run. So let's say you're you're in my company. Right? Mhmm. You're Steve.

You join my team. You have to go build your database. Realtors are gonna know you. Right? And you're gonna have Solpa branded marketing material, but the emails, texts, all that are gonna come from you.

Most companies, you get an Offerpad email and it's from Offerpad. Yeah. Like, you would a realtor would get an email from Steve with brand with SoulPOD homes branded. Right? Mhmm.

My entire email marketing campaign, I never asked for a deal. I never most of my test texts, I never asked for a deal. I have value driven pieces of content. I have MAO calculators, net sheets. I have scripts.

I even have, an agent prospecting toolkit where I, like, I I, like, literally three pages. Like, hey, agents. If you're struggling to get deals, this is all you need to do go do. Go to batch leads. Buy this list.

Call it with, this dialer. Like, I literally just provide value in different ways to realtors. Mhmm. If you want this Net Sheet, reply Net Sheet. If you want this, reply this, and they reply.

And then once they reply, that's when we ask for the deal. Hey. By the way, we're still looking for fixers if you got anything. Yeah. That's a that's one thing that we're doing a little bit differently.

Speaker: Okay. I'm just trying to think, like, all the things that, like, to for someone who's listening. Right? Mhmm. Someone's wholesaling.

Like, alright. We've maxed out PPC. We've maxed out direct mail, whatever. Like, I wanna add someone in my organization Mhmm. To start buying deals from realtors.

Okay. I was just thinking step by step. Like, what are all the things someone has to do to start buying a heavy number of houses from realtors, not just, like, I wanna, like, have one person to start calling realtor. Like, what has to be in place to buy a large number of houses from realtors?

Speaker: So here's here's the difference. You can go text blast Mhmm. Realtors, and you're gonna get deals because it's a numbers game. Right? That's not the business I'm in.

I'm already in I've I've already come from the business of hunting. Mhmm. Like, close a deal from a seller and never talk to them again, onto the next. Yeah. That's what text blasting is.

Mhmm. If you wanna close a lot of deals with realtors for a long period of time, and I'm talking forever Yeah. You have to be able to eat some shit for the short, like, short term. Why? Because if my competitors are texting, that's all they do.

And

Speaker: it's faceless, no brand.

Speaker: I am calling, and then I am providing value through emails, value through text. I am following up every twenty, thirty days to see if they need anything. And then I am also provide I'm starting to provide education events, like meetups for realtors.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: Like, that's the difference. Right? But if someone wants to come and buy a lot of houses from realtors, that's where they need to start. Yeah. Like, pick up the phone, start dialing, and create a value driven process for your client to start sending you deals.

It just takes time.

Speaker: Yeah. I mean, it sounds in some ways kinda like what a loan officer needs to do or a title rep needs to do.

Speaker: I've you have no you don't know how many conversations I've had. Like, this model of of business, of marketing agents, and just providing value, and just following up with them every twenty, thirty, twenty, thirty days, and talking to them. I'm like, realtors are so front facing to the consumer on all ends. I've had conversations with roofing companies, HVAC companies. I'm like, dude, if you do this, if you do this, if this is your sales and marketing play, you will make more money than any other roofing company.

Yeah. Like, think about how many how many transactions or roofs do do

Speaker: Well, it's funny. Like, because when I when I used to my wear my realtor hat, which is, like, a long time ago, I think, at this point, ten years ago. Yeah. Right? When I was wearing my realtor hat, as a realtor, people ask, like, hey.

I need help with this. Like, no problem. And it's, like, the next person on my phone. Like, I can connect you to any roofer, any plumber, any HVAC, which is cheaper than anything you're gonna find online. Mhmm.

Right? If you go to Google, you're paying not quite double, but significantly more, and you don't know how good the quality is gonna be. But if you call me, I was like, oh, yeah. Here's here's my AC guy. Yeah.

He's gonna take good care of you. It's gonna be significantly cheaper. He's not owned by a hedge fund or private equity firm.

Speaker: Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Right? He's gonna take good care of you, and I know the job's gonna be good. Mhmm. So, like, that was the value I brought as a realtor to

Speaker: Yeah. To your clients.

Speaker: To my client base. Yeah. So that makes total sense. Yeah. Right?

If you just market to realtors Mhmm.

Speaker: You will

Speaker: get a lot of referrals because you'll be top of mind. And, yeah, realtors are they talk to everybody.

Speaker: Talk to everybody. Like, they talk to everybody, everyone. And one thing that I really wanted to get out of was the sales business. Not sales in terms of selling, but sales business of, like, you close a sale and you're on to the next Transactional. Transactional.

This it starts off it starts off as sales. It's a transactional business. But if you really pour value into it and you pour you put a little bit of thinking behind it over I know for the next five, ten years, like, I will create a resale business that realtors will bring me repeat business every single year. Like Yeah. We already have realtors in our database that have brought us more than six deals in the last two years.

Mhmm. So it's just a matter of time. But that's the issue. Most people are not willing to play that long game. Like, hey.

I'm gonna take the the hard route here. I can go text bossed. Yes. I can go get big rips for that way, but I'm gonna go take the long way Mhmm. Part of it.

Speaker: A relationship business.

Speaker: Build a relationship driven business because that's I really believe that real estate will forever stay a relationship business. Mhmm. I think AI will make run your machine better and more efficient and increase your margins and do all those things, but I do believe that real estate will always be a relationship business.

Speaker: So do you have a 100 k a month in overhead? No. No. What's your overhead now? 20.

20. To run that?

Speaker: To run that.

Speaker: Alright. But you have, like, do you have still acquisitions, disposition reps, or anything?

Speaker: I don't have any dis so I don't have any dispositions. Mhmm. Dude, that's one thing. Right? I was listening to your podcast and I heard and I listened to all these stories, these mega companies, these insane teams, marketing, dispo, like, that's what I thought that I wanted to do.

Mhmm. And it's like, okay. I'm gonna go do it. Then I went and did it. And then when I was doing that, even though we were making a lot of money before things got bad, I was miserable.

It was like I felt obligated to something that I, like, I'm like, I don't like this. Mhmm. It's like it was like a weird feeling. I'm like, I'm I'm making a lot of money. I'm like, I'm not happy.

Speaker: This isn't what I wanted.

Speaker: This isn't what I wanted. But a small, lean, and mean team

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: With people that I love to work with, like, I general like, those are like, they're my family and I love them, and I couldn't do what I do without them, honestly. Like, with a way less burn rate that's super manageable. Also, in a couple 100 houses a year and flipping a couple twenty, thirty houses a year, like, that for me is a good life.

Speaker: Yeah. So what does your organization look like then?

Speaker: So right now back then or right now?

Speaker: Right now.

Speaker: Oh, so right now, it's, obviously, it's myself. Then I have Nick Priski. He is kinda like he's the guy that gave me the, like, not the idea, but, like, put in my brain, like, we should do direct direct agent marketing. I have Marcus. I have Cameron, Isaiah, Tyler, and Kim.

So Nick and Marcus run run the kinda like the sales team. They both do a great job running the sales team. Then I have three other acquisition reps. I have Tyler, does media, and Kim is director of operations.

Speaker: What is the what's the difference in running the sales team and being acquisitions? So

Speaker: acquisitions pretty much is, like, they they they are producers as well, but they hold the other sales reps accountable and they Mhmm. Like, there's a standard KPIs they need to hit, and that's one thing they hold them accountable to, but also they train them.

Speaker: Okay. So there's two two people running

Speaker: these sales. Two people. Okay. And so everyone's team it.

Speaker: So everyone's calling realtors, and then the realtors are sending them the deals. Mhmm. What are you doing with those deals?

Speaker: Wholesaling 80% of them.

Speaker: But you don't have dispo? No. Are you dispo? I dispo. Okay.

Who do you dispo to?

Speaker: So here's here's what I was gonna get to. I have over obviously, I've been in the game for a little bit, so I know some people. So I have my phone with buyers and my I have a buyers list.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: But it's not that big. It's like I know the people that buy here. When I can't source it to one of them, I just go to a dispo company. Mhmm. So one of the things that, like, one of my mindsets, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm a big fan of the one thing and, like, less is more and all that.

So my focus is Sol Plott Homes is an acquisition company. Our our whole thing is we acquire distressed assets, and then we figure out if we're gonna wholesale it, flip it, or keep it, whatever. Like, that's our company. I don't want like, once you start with, I'm gonna create a dispo and I'm a train dispo, like, yes. I I can go make more money or save the $1,500 $1,500 that I'm paying Spencer Caldwell if he's selling the deal, but I can put more time, effort, and energy into this and go get two or three more deals that are gonna pay me $1,315,000 dollars.

Yeah. So that's my whole mindset and that's why I refuse to kinda, like, create a dispo department.

Speaker: So you just kinda, like, threw, Spencer under the bus.

Speaker: Spencer Caldwell is one of the biggest resources to my company.

Speaker: He charges me 3,000. So, Spencer, like Oh. Maybe he raised his fee. Spencer, you and I are gonna have a conversation.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. Sorry, Spence.

Speaker: Right? Because that's it. It's, Connor. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. I I I don't even get Spencer's name. I get Connor. Okay. Alright.

Speaker: Well, I get all of them. It's like we have a group text with Connor, Ethan, Spence, everyone. And it's just like, hey. Here's the deal.

Speaker: Yeah. Spencer, we're gonna have a conversation. Sorry, Spence. That's alright. I don't send him that many deals, so probably makes sense.

Speaker: I do sell them a I do send them a lot of deals. So maybe I get that.

Speaker: It probably makes sense. Okay. So your philosophy then is you acquire from realtors

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: And then there's no need to have a dispo team because for you, you have your handful of buyers.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: And then if you they don't buy it, then Spencer. Which is like, you know, we got Doug Hopkins. I really should probably have him back on the show. But yeah. Like, he he's the dispo.

Speaker: Yeah. I know.

Speaker: Right? And like, I was like, well, so what's your dispo process? Like, when I'm driving back from the house, I call one of five people. Yeah. And by the time I get to the office, like, that property is sold.

It's like, that's your dispo process. He's like, yeah. That's it. And his he made the same argument. Like, I could make more Mhmm.

But I have to manage more people.

Speaker: Exactly. That's that's less is more. Like, addition by subtraction. Like, I would rather if if if I can see a friend or colleague or someone, like, I hey. This is my price.

That's the thing I do. Like, I don't tell him to like, what can you sell this for? No. Like, this is my price. Great.

Go sell it. If you go sell it for $1,500 more, 5 more, 10 more, I don't care. Mhmm. Like, that's my price. That's the the the target profit that I'm trying to hit.

If I hit it, great. Now now if you if I tell you I wanted the 2 hun $200,000 for this deal and then you work me down to one ninety and then I go see a $20,000 assignment fee Mhmm. Then we're gonna have a conversation around, like, hey, dude. Like, that's not how this works. Right.

You could have gone mainten and be perfectly fine. I would not have said a thing. Mhmm. So that that's kind of, like, yes, my philosophy, same as Doug.

Speaker: Yeah. So you make it sound extremely simple. Am I missing anything?

Speaker: I think it's it's simple. It's not easy.

Speaker: Okay. What's not easy about it?

Speaker: I mean, doing having, like, the part that people are not willing to do, pick up the phone and start calling. Like, 600 calls a week is the minimum standard that my team needs to do per rep.

Speaker: Okay. And you have three of them.

Speaker: Three I have five of them.

Speaker: Five of them.

Speaker: Looking for more.

Speaker: Alright. So for each rep

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: They they must hit 120 dials per day. Correct. And let's say, right, I hit one twenty day one, got a pretty good day on Tuesday, right, at a 130.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: And a 100 in day three.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: 90 day four. I'm kinda tired. You know, it was a really rough week. Mhmm. Right?

And then, like, I leave early on Friday. Okay. What's happening?

Speaker: Alright. So we have this thing called scorecard. Yeah. Where on Monday at 10AM, we're gonna have a team meeting Mhmm. And we're gonna pull up the scorecard.

Yeah. And it's gonna show, Steve, you made 500 calls. What's going on? Like, first, I'll ask you, is like, everything okay? Mhmm.

No. Everything's fine. She had a rough day, like, or whatever. Okay. Perfect.

Strike one. Like, okay, dude. No worries. Like, there's a standard here. It's the first time that happened.

No worries. This week, let's get you up to 600. Happens again. Strike two. Now we're having a conversation.

Happens again. If it gets three weeks in a row, you get put on warning. Like, hey. If it happens one more week, you're out.

Speaker: Yeah. So but that was like you said the managers are doing that, or is that Miguel doing that?

Speaker: Both. So where where I'm at right now is I'm really trying to set this company for success Mhmm. Where I could step out and the company will run, and they'll continue to close deals. But I really want that I went to an event, a mastermind. You've actually had him here on the podcast, Brett Tanner.

Mhmm. And he talked about how leadership is what really scales companies. Like and I'm like, just like, okay. Like, I'm all in on that. Like, for the next twelve to twenty four months, I'm gonna leadership is all I'm gonna think about.

Right? So I have leadership days on Monday. I have meetings with my direct reports. I do all that, and I still try to hold them accountable. What I'm trying to do is tell like, by showing my sales managers in the future, in a year or two years from now, how they need to handle those meetings, how they need to track those KPIs and do that.

If I just tell them, like, hey, dude. You're holding those people accountable. Good luck. Mhmm. They're not gonna know how to do it.

Alright. I have I do it. We do it. They do it. Mhmm.

That's kind of like a thing that I think

Speaker: So the hardest thing is is is managing the people that are managing the salespeople. Yeah. That's your greatest challenge right now?

Speaker: No. I think my greatest challenge is find finding talent Mhmm. Right now. Like So how

Speaker: are you finding talent right now?

Speaker: Through social media. Yeah. I have two great guys. Like, Nick and Marcus are great. Honestly, that's not my greatest challenge.

It's it's really hiring it's finding talent. Like, we'll find talent. We'll hire, and then it's like, dude.

Speaker: Were you around for max cash offers when we had, like, eight reps? No. Yeah. That was a disaster. Because they're like, yeah.

Like, hey. Like, everyone says they want it. So we brought them in. Man. Yeah.

No. They did not want it.

Speaker: No. That's the thing. Right? And then it's like we hire people and then not that they say they want it, but it's like they've never closed a deal in their life and then they're they're telling us what to change in the system or

Speaker: Oh, really?

Speaker: Yeah. It's like They're very helpful. Yeah. It's like, dude, oh, thank you. It's like, coming in how many deals you've closed?

No. I was like, okay. Then,

Speaker: like Right.

Speaker: Close a 100 deals and then we'll have a conversation.

Speaker: Yeah. What's your criteria? To hire?

Speaker: Mhmm. Just hard work. Yeah. So hard work, they're come they're willing to come in, part work hard for six months. I'll pay for their real estate license to just stay on the team.

Mhmm. Like, that's just my criteria. Yeah. People wanna come in, work hard, be interested in real estate.

Speaker: Okay. And then they report to sales managers?

Speaker: They report to sales managers, but I'm still involved in the day to day operations.

Speaker: Gotcha.

Speaker: Like, you'll see me there every day. You'll have access to me.

Speaker: Where am I gonna find you?

Speaker: Where are you in my office.

Speaker: Yeah. Where's your office?

Speaker: 481 North Arizona Avenue in Chandler.

Speaker: In Chandler. Alright. Not that far. Not that far from where I live. Okay.

So right now, Solpod is Miguel. Yep. But it was Rodolfo, Miguel, and Tempe. Yes. So, you might remember I had a partner Mhmm.

At Max Cash Offers, and things ended whatever. Mhmm. There were a lot of lessons I learned there. What were some of the lessons talk to me about, like, you know, like I mean, your your friend and roommate, you know, you guys parted ways, and then eventually, like, you and Templeton parted ways. Mhmm.

What were the things you learned about yourself, things you learned in the process that you're carrying forward now now that you're running Sol Plaat on your own?

Speaker: So for myself, I the my most valuable lesson was if you're gonna have a partner, your core values need to be aligned. Mhmm. Like, whatever, like, core values are to you, they need to be aligned perfectly if you want a long lasting partnership. I had a very beautiful and fruitful relationship and partnership with both Rodolfo and Templeton. We're still best friends.

We still talk every day. We, like, we're, like it was amicable. It was everything. But it was because we had those core values that was, like, dude, like, we had a heart to heart conversation. We both agreed upon it.

We're good. Let's continue being friends. For me, what I did learn is, like, having partners is hard. Like, it's it's great and it's exciting at the moment, but just making sure that you are both aligned on the same vision and that you're committed to going there together

Speaker: Mhmm.

Speaker: And not deviating because, I mean, you go from shiny object to shiny object to shiny object, and it just creates this friction and just just have a mission and just stick to it and just do that one thing and do it for a long period of time, and you're gonna win. Mhmm.

Speaker: What did you bring to the partnership? Operator. I used

Speaker: to be the operator in the business. Mhmm. Still am. But, like, I I ran the operations, everything pretty much, and I still perform and then I was still, a high production guy.

Speaker: You can run operations?

Speaker: I can run

Speaker: And close?

Speaker: And close. That's weird. I know.

Speaker: That's not normal.

Speaker: I know. So I was the was I mean, still am the operator, but yeah. And still, like, I was very high producer.

Speaker: Yeah. Anything else?

Speaker: In terms of lessons? Mhmm. Just be a good dude. Like, be a good be be a good human being. Like, I mean, everyone is looking out for their best interests and just know, like, if if someone doesn't wanna be there or you don't wanna be there, just Mhmm.

Like, if it was the other way around, they're trying to do what's best what they think is best for them. Just be understanding of that. It's just be mature enough to understand that, like, hey. They're looking for their best interest. That's it.

Speaker: Yeah. So two things. You say you still talk to them. You guys are still great friends. I wish I had that.

I don't have that. And then the other part about, the vision alignment, that was when things started going Mhmm. Several ways. Right?

Speaker: Yeah. It was

Speaker: like, we had just had different visions. And, like, for me, selfishly. Right? Like, I'm going to Collective Genius.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Right? I see Eric Brewer. He's doing, like, 400 deals.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Are you right? See Frank Cava.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: He's doing only 300 something deals a year. Right? Yeah. And, like, massively profitable. Yeah.

Right? I see Phil Green. And I see so these are the people in their network.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: They're openly sharing what they're doing to be successful. And then I'm like, hey, partner. Like, we should do Yeah. All the things these guys are doing. And when he was resistant to it, that's kinda like when things just started going.

So I was like because when we started, I wanted to have, like, yeah. You know, if we were the most profitable wholesaler

Speaker: in Phoenix,

Speaker: like, that's good enough. Yeah. Right? And then maybe I got distracted. I was like, yeah.

We could do a 100 deals a year, or we could do 500 deals a year. Yeah. Right? Like, let's Do 500. Let's do 500.

And that's when, like, the I I would say that's probably when the friction started was the vision. And I will admit, I changed the vision first.

Speaker: Yeah. Right?

Speaker: As but it's hard when you want a mastermind.

Speaker: Yeah. Well, you see these successful people and they're like, holy crap. Like, what are they doing? Like, what am I doing? Right?

It's just like you're the dumbest guy in the room and you're

Speaker: Stephanie Better is flipping not flipping. Building 200 houses a year. Right? And, like, apparently in development, they're way more profitable and scalable than than flipping. Yeah.

And so he's like, hey, let's use her playbook. Hey, let's use his playbook. Yeah. Right? So, again, I wish I had the separation you had.

I don't have

Speaker: It wasn't really, of, like, that dramatic of a vision change. For me, it's like I truly believe that I can grow this company to be something special. Mhmm. And for Templeton, he was just he got burnt out on wholesaling, and now he's on to bigger and better things. Good for him.

Yeah. Wishing nothing but the best, but it's just I have a vision and one thing, stick to it for a long period of time.

Speaker: You sound like a Gary Keller, Keller Williams agent.

Speaker: I'm not a Keller Williams agent, but I I do believe in that philosophy. No.

Speaker: It's great. It's a great philosophy. It's actually what I I I subscribed to, in the last couple years and been tremendous in my development and my growth. You mentioned Brett Tanner. Just as an aside, you know, I saw him, a video, a clip he had about the whole Brandon Turner situation.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. I said I listened to his podcast.

Speaker: Yeah. I was like, he's the only one that's saying what some of us are thinking.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Right? So I thought that was fascinating. Good for him. He doesn't need he's he's doing well. He doesn't

Speaker: need Oh, yeah. He's doing

Speaker: He doesn't need anyone's approval. I was like, oh, he's just gonna go out there and make that just put that out there. It's like, good for him. So if you guys don't know what I'm talking about, just go follow Brett Tanner. You can watch his watch his snippets.

I'm pretty sure that one went went viral. Anything I'm missing here? Anything I didn't talk about?

Speaker: I mean, talked about pretty much everything. I think it's just anything you wanna ask me?

Speaker: Well, I know we played some basketball together and I would say there was a lot of trash talking before the basketball and I I I will say I I don't know I I don't know if it was backed up on the court.

Speaker: Okay. I'll I'll be I'll be honest. When we played basketball, that was 2023. I got fat. I was slow.

I let's play again.

Speaker: Oh, no. Now I'm fat and slow. No. Like, we're not doing that now.

Speaker: No. I know. I know. I did not I I I'll accept that I did not do my test.

Speaker: Man. Miguel talked a lot. Actually, I think also I thought not just at ten. Do you remember when we started studying homes? It was like me, you, we had Nate Randleman.

Yeah. Right? We had, oh, shoot. I cannot remember his name off the top of my head at this exact moment. We had but we had Ryan Nagar.

Like, we had Templeton. Yeah. And we had the best wholesalers. Yeah. Right?

And a brokerage. All and we're all in the same brokerage, which is, like, awesome.

Speaker: You were the like, if someone wanted a wholesale, like like, we're licensed and they wanted a wholesale, you're, like, the brokerage to be at.

Speaker: Yeah. But we had, like, the best wholesalers. But then, also, like, we had, like, the best, like

Speaker: Basketball players?

Speaker: Basketball players. It was it was nuts. Yeah. It was nuts, what we were doing back then.

Speaker: I remember, like, there was, like, this match or competition going on. Like, we'll play this team, this company versus this company. Like, I wanted to play them so bad.

Speaker: That was that was a lot of fun. Okay. So I guess the other thing, so you talk about leadership. Is there anything else we've missed on leadership?

Speaker: No. I mean, no. I think, I mean, it's just I'm learning how to be a leader. Like, I've I mean, it's a never ending journey on on how to lead people, and I think it's just one thing that I really learned from you and that Zig Ziglar quote that always stays online. Like, you help enough people get what they want, you'll get anything in life that you want.

So that's something I try to live by. And, as far as leadership for me, it's just I really care about the people around me, and I really wanna impact their life. And I know if I selfishly, I know if I do that, like, my life is gonna improve dramatically as well. Yeah.

Speaker: So this episode means a lot to me because you found me through the podcast. Yeah. And then you joined the brokerage and then joined the wholesale team. Yeah. And then went off to do your own and then had the success.

It's like when we talk about, like, you know, you put your head down for five to seven years and you did it earlier than five to seven years. Guess you gave some of it back.

Speaker: Lot of it back. Almost all of it, honestly. It's like a restart. Yeah. But here's what's crazy.

Like, it's the skill set that you develop. It took me from '20, obviously, knowledge, 2018, '19, all the way to '22 to build this empire that I thought I had. Mhmm. And I just rebuilt it back in less than two years.

Speaker: Right. It's You build the skill set. Yeah. Yeah. And so, but yeah.

Like, to go all the way back, become a millionaire. So, like, this is, like, the perfect testimonial episode.

Speaker: Yeah. No. Right? Like, if

Speaker: you, like and I appreciate it. And the things I've said to people. Right? Like, there's a lot of people that have too much pride to go work for somebody. It's like, no.

Like, the best way to learn is to get paid while you're learning. Right? You got to see the inside of an operation and then, yeah, like, you're here. Like, I'm proud. I'm grateful for you.

Like, I'll I'll I'll give you some snark every once in a while on social media.

Speaker: No. I'll do I'm so grateful for for meeting you and listening to your pod. Like, it it, you know, those stepping stones that really change your life? Like Yeah. It's like, this changed my life.

Like, I would not be where I'm at without that without real estate disruptors. Like, just Yeah. It's just a fact. I could be listening to something else or Mhmm. I don't know.

Speaker: And then again, on the application you put here, p s, best closer Steve has ever had. So I guess we should probably end on that note. Yeah.

Speaker: Let's end on that note because that's I mean, I don't know why you're afraid to admit it on camera. I don't know whose feelings you're afraid to hurt. But

Speaker: I would say I mean, like, on the wholesaling side, I would agree. The best close I've ever had. You you crushed it. Your activity was on it. You were the ones that what we would tell our we would tell other salespeople, hey.

You know, when a lead comes in, Miguel jumps on it right away. He's calling that lead before anybody else.

Speaker: He's the lead.

Speaker: Right? And then, like, maybe some people would be upset. Like, hey. Miguel's calling my leads. Like, well, did you call us?

Like, no. I was like, well, then what are we talking about here?

Speaker: Yeah. No. I remember when we were at your stunning home's office, it's like it's just I'm competitive. Right? So I would be on my phone calls and I would, like, I would not leave the office till, like, either Ruben or Rodolfo would leave.

Like, I would wait for them to step out, and then I would just close my laptop and then leave. Like

Speaker: Yeah. So, obviously, you're buying deals in Phoenix.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker: If someone wanted to work with you, how would they get ahold of you?

Speaker: You they can DM me on Instagram, miguel prado dot v. They can text me. I'm a do this PACE thing. (602) 800-9995.

Speaker: Say it again. I might have been laughing to the mic because it's crazy.

Speaker: Yeah. No. Well, dude, I mean, I'm sure that changed his life. So hopefully, this changes mine even better. Right?

So text me. (602) 800-9995 or DM me on Instagram. Happy to like, if you have a deal or you wanna work for me, love to love to talk.

Speaker: That's so awesome, man. Thank you so much.

Speaker: Steve, it was a pleasure. You know? Full circle moment. Absolutely.

Speaker: Thank you guys for watching. See you guys next time. Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. Disrupt us.