How To Close 100 Deals Virtually For $2MM

Steve Trang: Train. Jump on the steep train. We real estate disruptors. Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of real estate disruptors.

Today, we got Michael McDonald with Rocket Homebuyers and Michael Flynn from Las Vegas to talk about how he's wholesale the 100 plus homes for $2,000,000 virtually. Right? So I wanna make sure to create a 100 millionaires. The information on this podcast alone is enough to help become millionaire. In the next five to seven years, You could take consistent action, you will become one.

Now I've been talking about that for years now, and we still see some people struggling to take action. So we created a form to help you get get some clarity about where you're at. So you wanna get some clarity on where you're at financially, go to wealthevaluation.com. We do have our live in person training coming up March 31. We're spending two full days giving you every tactic, strategy, and tool to close more deals.

The market has changed. And if your sales skills have not, you are leaving money on the table. We have clients telling us that they're closing deals now that they thought were not even closable. So to attend our live event, go to salesdisruptors.com. And this is a live show, so ask your questions, Michael, the answer.

You ready? I'm ready. Alright. So first question for you is what was your life like right before real estate?

Michael McDonald: Alright. I love this one. So right before real estate, I was working a nine to five job, actually, at a hospital doing dietetics. Mhmm. And just kinda confused talking to the dietitians, realizing that I wasn't making that much money, and I wanted to start a family.

And so that's what I was doing right before I found out about real estate. And then, went to a seminar and, like, jumped in, and the rest is history.

Steve: Working as a dietitian? Yeah. You You said that was not enough. I mean, what kind of money were you making?

Michael: I mean, gosh. I was making 30 probably 35,000, and I was not a dietitian. So I was a dietetic technician. And the dietitians who I were were working with, like, I was, you know, subordinates with, they were making $4,550,000 a year, and they had master's degrees. I had an associate's degree.

I was not wanting to continue on that path. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So this is like, are you married?

Michael: Yep. So I was married. And we just, yep, just bought a house. The kids are gonna come here down the road here.

Steve: Okay. Very important part of the So you just bought a home with your wife, and this 35,000 is not gonna cut it? No. Okay. So you went to a seminar, you said?

Michael: Correct. One of my buddies set me up and said, hey. Check out this seminar. It's, you know, make money with little to no money down. And I'm like, cool.

Steve: That title sounds really familiar, I think.

Michael: Oh, yeah. For sure. Yeah. And I'm like, let's go check it out. What what do we have to lose?

So we did. We went and checked it out, and I found out that you could make $2,030,000 dollars wholesaling. And they're like, but you have to go to the next event, and it's gonna cost you $2,000. I'm like, I don't have $2,000. Like, I'm paycheck to paycheck and just bought this house and bought the house 3¢ in our name.

Like, didn't have any money. And so we put the money on the credit card. My friend talked me into it, and we went to the three day event. We're at that three day event, and they pitched another one. Mhmm.

They're like, this one's 20,000. And I'm like, dude, like, don't even like, we're not gonna go there. And he's like, they're telling us we need more help. And long story short, we ran our credit. We got approved for $50,000 of c capital Mhmm.

And swiped the card. And Got it. We went in.

Steve: So at this time, you're in Nebraska or you're in Nevada?

Michael: So I was in Nebraska at this time. Okay. Still living in my house that I owned Mhmm. That we just bought.

Steve: So you're going to this conference. You swiped $3,000, you said?

Michael: 2,000.

Steve: 2,000.

Michael: Yep. So you

Steve: went to some smaller events, some sort of, like, $69, $99 event.

Michael: Yep. They

Steve: upsold you to $2,000 event. Give you a little more information. Right. Lesson information off the table. Right.

I'll sell you either a $20,000 event 20,000. Yeah. For you and your buddy or each?

Michael: Me and my buddy, he he said he would split it. He didn't have the money, though, so it was a payment plan back. So I

Steve: pretty much fronted everything. 20 k for the two of you.

Michael: Yeah.

Steve: Was that finally the right decision? Because it seemed like the first two were kinda, like, suspect.

Michael: Yeah. The first the first decision was like, what do we have to lose? Mhmm.

Steve: And it

Michael: was, like, we don't even have close enough information to feel like we know what we're gonna do Yeah. With this. The next decision was just added value, value, value, and we took it and and started to run with it. Mhmm. But that wasn't enough either.

So $2,022,000 dollars in credit, didn't know how I was gonna pay it back. The best part about this story

Steve: So the 20,000 event still wasn't enough?

Michael: No. Nope. It keeps going. It keeps going. But here's the best part.

We get home, from this event. I had to call my wife, and and ask her, hey. Like, how do you feel about this decision? And she says, well, I trust you. That's a lot of money, especially when you don't have any money, and go ahead and do what you feel is right.

I'm like, okay. So I made the decision. I swiped the card, get home from the event, and she says, hey. I gotta show you something. Like, what's going on?

This is weird. Like, you've never done this before. You're taking me to a room. What's going on here? Find out she's expecting.

Mhmm. She shows me the pregnancy test. So not only do I just have credit card debt, a new house, I have a baby on the way, and I don't know how to do real estate investing Mhmm. At all to this point. Right?

And so this all happened so fast, and we were off to the races. I I just started failing forward. I'm working a full time job trying to wholesale What was that exactly? So I was doing, education for heart patients about how to eat, like, a, you know, a sodium free diet or or whatever the thing was. Right?

Yeah. And it was just like yeah. It was it was not But,

Steve: like, how long ago was this?

Michael: That was five that was five plus years ago.

Steve: Five years ago. Yeah. So you go to this event, to this event, to this event. And you said that the 20,000 still wasn't enough, and they tried to upsell you to something bigger. Right.

Yep. Or they're trying to upsell you to that from there.

Michael: Yeah. Oh, I know. Right? It's like, how much work could we go into this? So what happened is, I I have my mentor.

I was going through what they're telling me to do. I was making offers on the MLS. I had no sales process. No nothing. I was just trying to regurgitate all this information that they just threw in a drive.

Mhmm. And, like, I was just, like, overwhelmed. I mean, I barely find the time to do anything. Right? And I got a call one day from the coaching company, and they're like, hey.

How are things going? I'm like, my wife's asking me what's going on. Like, this isn't working. We haven't gotten a deal yet, and we're four and a half, five months in. And they're like, oh, well, you need a you need, like, a phone call, like, one on one mentorship.

So you need to do this. And at this point, I had probably 35,000 of credit on the card still, and, like, I was hoping to use that for marketing because I I didn't know any better.

Steve: Right.

Michael: And he's like, well, we have this special $25,000, and you can get this guy's cell phone, call him whenever you need to, so on and so forth. Steve, I made the most emotional decision. I said, forget about it. I have nothing to lose. Put another 25,000 on credit.

Another another 25,000 on credit. So this is all on me. 475 4047000 on credit. And I was barely making the bills the way it was, and so I was, like, just buried at this point.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So did that eventually turn into a deal?

Michael: Eventually, it did. So here's what's funny. As if that wasn't enough, I I was, like, the you know, go go to the local meetups. Like, find people to rub shoulders with. Right?

So I did, and I met a guy who had done some coaching for Robert Kiyosaki, through his Rich Dad seminar education, and it was a hands on in person training. And so when I started rubbing shoulders with him, I actually started to see how these negotiations are done. I started to see how were we finding deals. All of this other information for the $45,000, it was probably telling me that, but I wasn't hearing it because my learning approach was different and and well received over here.

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: So I called the Zillow lead on a Sunday. This is six months in to this journey. And it was a tired landlord, went straight to the appointment, got the property under contract, put it out on an investor group, sold it for 30,000 above what we contracted it for. Mhmm. And that day, I looked at my wife, and I'm like, this is it.

Yeah. This is why I went through this six months of pain to get to this point because this is gonna change your life forever.

Steve: Yeah. That's huge. I'm happy to hear that. Yeah. Do you think if you didn't spend $47.05, this would happen anyway, or do you think that was a necessary investment at least to get you framed right to start doing deals?

Michael: Yeah. I gosh. I think about that a lot, man. I think it's it was part of the journey. Mhmm.

I really think that was needed because had I not had the skin in the game, I may have just been comfortable continuing to go like I was, and I had to get so uncomfortable to put that much money on. And it was painful, man.

Steve: Sure. Yeah. So you got this deal of Zillow's for sale by owner?

Michael: Yep. For sale by owner.

Steve: You call them, hire landlord, you contract it, and then you sold it for 30 k. Yeah. Were there challenges with this deal? You you know

Michael: how the first deal goes.

Steve: Right. So what were some of those challenges?

Michael: Yeah. So the first the first thing that happened was I'll never forget this, man. We accepted the offer. Well, let's start with this. We had an inspection.

I told the seller our partners are gonna be coming through. Right?

Steve: Sure.

Michael: The typical, hey. My partners are gonna be coming through. Yeah. 15 people showed up.

Steve: Very Partners.

Michael: They have 15 partners. Right? 15 people. The very desirable, building. It was a brick fourplex contractor for a 180,000.

So just a little bit of context. Seller's like, man, you have a lot of partners. And I'm like, yeah. I didn't realize this many people would show up. Like, I didn't know this many investors would be that interested.

Right? Yeah. Didn't frame it correctly because I didn't know what I was doing. Right. You

Steve: don't know what you don't know.

Michael: Didn't know what I didn't know. The guy's offer we accepted wasn't just a clean cash offer. It was through an agent. So we not only had to pay an agent fee with all these disclosures, we had to go through a line of credit. The bank wanted an appraisal, told them it was a cash deal.

We had the bank come back with the appraisal. Me, the investor or the the appraiser and the seller standing right there. The appraisal just got finished. He's looking at his paperwork. He says, man, I'm confused here.

The purchase price says 180, but the appraise appraisal needs to be at 211. Like, I'm confused here, man. What's going on? And I my heart just dropped. I'm like, I don't know.

Like, my partner's, you know, my partner's coming in and buying this property with me. He's like, man, the seller goes, man. He kinda smiled. Like, he he knew what was going on. He was like, I left a lot of money on the table, didn't I?

And I'm just like, yeah. I mean, I needed this deal to go through. Like, I needed this deal to go through. And so that happened. We had a COC inspection.

All of these things come up on the list, and so I was like, I'm not doing it. Mhmm. And And I'm looking around. I'm like, I don't have the money to even pay anybody to do this. Well, I guess I'm doing these repairs.

I'm changing out door locks. I'm doing these repairs that I have no business doing. Mhmm. And it was, like, forty five days in. We finally closed.

And tell you what, man, the biggest relief when I picked up that check that day at that I bet.

Steve: I bet.

Michael: It was painful.

Steve: But I love that you're out there doing the work. So, like, you know, I don't talk about this a lot, but, you know, part of my journey was I mean, I remember selling condos for $30,000 where I have had to go, like, change, like, the mailbox lock, right, just to get the deal closed. And it's, like, three percent on 30,000 is not a lot of money. No. So is it you know?

But you do it in the hot sun, and you're dealing with the post office and this and that. Like, there are a lot of things that you kinda forget were involved in getting started, so it's cool. Like, you you did the dirty work to get your way here. So 15 partners, that's awesome. Deal with appraisal, dealing with a, certificate c.

Was it, certification of occupancy? Was it? Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Alright. So you go through that, and then it closes. And was it smooth after that?

Michael: I mean, questionably. After the certificate of occupancy was satisfied, it was pretty smooth sailing from there.

Steve: Got it.

Michael: But I was holding my breath all the way to the day of closing.

Steve: I'm sure. Yeah. So how did it feel then when you did pick up that check?

Michael: It was just, like, the most relieving thing, and it was, like, this weird feeling of, like, okay. This is real. Like, it was weird before that because I'm like, I don't know if this is even real. Like, I hear people talking about it all the time, but it it didn't seem real. And then to realize that I made that much money in one transaction

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: When I had made 30,000 on my year my job that year

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Michael: It was such a mind like, just the top popped off. It was crazy.

Steve: Yeah. How did your wife feel about all this?

Michael: She was extremely happy, as you can imagine, because she was starting to doubt me. She was starting to she she never doubted me, but she was starting to question. Mhmm. Like, hey. What's going on here?

Is this really gonna work for you? We've got this credit card. I know you're stressed out because I can see your eyes are bloodshot. Like, you're not sleeping. What's going on here?

And then when she saw that, she was like, okay. Yeah. This is this is there's something here.

Steve: So there are six months of, like, hustle and everything else. Right? It's like, what were you doing to get deals up? Like, you got this other mentorship or whatever you wanna call it.

Michael: Uh-huh.

Steve: What was involved in that? What were you doing in that one for meeting the people in your area?

Michael: Yeah. So I was just going on the MLS. I seeked out an agent, and I was making offers on all of these properties on the MLS. You paid

Steve: $47,000 to learn how to reach out to a realtor?

Michael: Basically. Yeah. Essentially. Yeah. And, like, there were other things.

Right? But like I said, I mean, I was so overwhelmed. Like, I just gotta stick to one thing

Steve: Mhmm. To

Michael: see if this is gonna work. And, clearly, at that time, this was this was five years ago. Yeah. It it wasn't working because like, I thought maybe I'd just make a lowball offer and somebody just accept it. I wasn't following up.

I wasn't doing things like how, obviously, we know we should

Steve: Right.

Michael: At that time. And then the mentor's deal was I didn't get to keep that full 30,000. It was let's do six deals together, and I honor those six deals, and we would split the profits.

Steve: How much?

Michael: Six deals for for, 50%. Yeah.

Steve: You paid 25 k?

Michael: I paid him 2,500.

Steve: Oh, 2,500?

Michael: Yep. So I paid the $47.05 to the company. I paid this guy over here $2,500.

Steve: Oh, the new mentor?

Michael: The new mentor.

Steve: Got it. The one the one

Michael: that the one that I actually took the I thought

Steve: you were saying the one you paid 25 k, you just gotta pay him too. It's like, sheesh.

Michael: No. No. Okay. So,

Steve: what would have happened if that first deal never closed?

Michael: We wouldn't probably be sitting right here today. I I would have continued to go, and I would have figured it out. But that $20,000 net profit or whatever it was was needed. It was necessary because what what was happening is we had sixteen months of 0% interest on these credit cards. The day I quit my job, which was about a year and a half into that journey, was the day that that last dollar of credit card debt was paid off.

So it was like, I gotta I gotta do this to pay this off before I take any profits. So I was just barely paying myself enough Mhmm. To get to that point.

Steve: Gotcha. How did you continue? Right? So you closed your first deal off of Zillow. How did you continue your momentum?

Michael: Yeah. So from there, I figured out what driving for dollars was. Mhmm. Started driving the streets, started getting aggressive, started going and knocking on some doors. And I was driving by, and I started sending postcards out.

So I was cold calling and then sending those people who I drove for dollars on postcards. And so I started getting deals from that. I got six deals that first year from basically July through the end of the year. Mhmm. And then that that's about the time my wife started realizing, hey.

We have something here. This is this is starting to get more consistent. And, by the way, you're only spending seven hours a week on this?

Steve: Yeah. So what were the other obstacles that came up early on in your in your journey?

Michael: Other obstacles, man. Where do we start? I mean, capital is a big one. We we took on probably more than we could chew Mhmm. Right out of the gate.

In what way? So the first after the first year, I had sold a lot of the same deals to my now business partner. I actually cold called him off of for rent signs, seeing if you wanna sell that property. And he said, hey. You're out there.

I can see you're active. I wanna quit my job. You wanna quit your job. Why don't we talk about going into business together? Mhmm.

So felt it out. At that point, I was on top of the world because I figured out how to wholesale real estate. Right?

Steve: Right.

Michael: I made some some money, and, we had decided to join forces. So 2019, we decided, let's partner. Let's start our company, Rocket Home Buyers, and let's put our jobs, and let's go full time. Yeah. And so we did that.

And the biggest challenge in the beginning was just, like, capital because we were taking a thousand dollars out of our own personal bank accounts before we were making any money for the first five months as a business and just contributing it into marketing. Mhmm. Thousand each, just consistently. And then four months in, we got our first deal. And so it was just that was the most difficult piece.

And then as we continue to get momentum and deals, we're like, we gotta find all money. Like, we have six contracts.

Steve: How are

Michael: we gonna buy these houses? Right? So capital was a big thing.

Steve: So what did you do to solve that

Michael: problem? So we seeked out some relationships. And, the first year, we used a lot of hard money. So we used probably we probably bought 15 houses the first year in our partnership with hard money.

Steve: So then it sounds like you guys were really more closing on deals than wholesaling them.

Michael: We were closing on more of them because my partner, just as a background, he he had flipped houses. Mhmm. He's he's a bit older than me, and he had, real estate appraisal experience, and he had experienced flipping. And so he was like, well, you're not wholesaling this property. We can make 25,000, 30,000, and this investor only wants to pay his 5.

Mhmm. So if it were just me, I would flip this property. And I'm like, okay. Cool. I I trust your judgment.

Let's go ahead and flip these properties.

Steve: Okay.

Michael: So we And that was the right decision? 100%. Gotcha. 100%.

Steve: So then were there I mean, I know it took six months, right, of struggling. What doubts did you face along the way?

Michael: Yeah. So doubts I mean, what happens if this doesn't work out? What if I can't pay these bills? Mhmm. I mean, what if I bring my daughter into this world in nine months, and I don't have this figured out?

Like, there was I mean, that's just to name a few. Right? There were so many doubts.

Steve: And And how'd you overcome those?

Michael: I started taking the negative habits that I had, the circle of friends that I had at that time, and just tunnel vision. I started reading books. I started waking up earlier. I started studying on the weekends and the evenings. I was focused.

I was reading. I was understanding values in real estate, and I just cut all the negative junk out of my life and and big surprise. Like, it was what exactly I needed to do.

Steve: That's awesome. It's awesome that you're able to figure that out early on in your career. When when exactly your business like, man, like, this is it. This is a real deal. I can I can confidently rely?

Like, this is gonna be my career.

Michael: Yeah. This is this is a unique question because, I I'd say for, like, the first, like, year to two years in a business, it's kind of like you don't really know, especially if you don't have a team working for you. So I would say when I started to really feel like we're onto something was when we had team. We had a transaction coordinator. We had an acquisition manager, and he was buying the houses.

They were transacting it, and, like, deals were still happening Mhmm. Without my active involvement. Yeah. And that was when I was like, cool. Like, we can build this up and continue to scale.

Steve: How long ago

Michael: was that? So that was that was about a year I think two about a year and a half to two years in. I mean, I was the one closing all the deals. I was hustling, the first year, the second year. And when when it really was an to me, Steve, is when I moved to Vegas.

We haven't even talked about that yet. Right. But when I moved to Vegas and I closed my first deal over the phone, and the investor who went to look at the property, who bought this wholesale deal from me said, dude, how did you buy this house from Las Vegas? I know you're I know you're in Vegas right now.

Steve: Right.

Michael: How'd you do this? I'm like, well, like, they told me that they had an offer for $1.20, and I asked them what would they need to get this done today. And they said $1.21. I said, cool. I'll send it over, and we'll get it done.

Mhmm. And that was it. And, like, that was, like, an for me because I'm like, I can truly be anywhere in the whole world and buy that same house.

Steve: Right.

Michael: It was just like another mind shift.

Steve: What are some of the biggest victories for you along the way?

Michael: You know, the victories, I would say gosh. This is there's been so many wins. Right? But when you can take and teach what you know to another individual so for in in my case, it was my first acquisition manager, and have them start having the same type of success. That to me is the most fulfilling thing ever.

Yeah. To show what you know to somebody else for them to go and do and have the same results.

Steve: Got it. That's awesome. Yeah. What was the biggest, deal you've done so far?

Michael: Yeah. So, I mean, we're playing in Nebraska. Right? So medium price point, $2.42 50. So we don't have these California spreads.

We gotta preface it with this. We did $2.06 figure flips in small towns in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska.

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: Super cool deals, and they were, like, the easiest deals ever because it was a Google ad. There was no competition on it. The seller told me what they needed. I contracted the house over the phone, and we bought a house for 17. We put probably $35.40 into it.

We sold it for $1.65.

Steve: Yeah. So Yeah. Yeah. Those those are pretty pretty awesome news.

Michael: It was pretty nice.

Steve: Yeah. So what brought you from Lincoln to Vegas?

Michael: Yeah. So my wife's sister had lived out there for a few years, and she's like, guys, why are you still living in Nebraska? Nebraska's winters are brutal. We just got done with a terrible winter, and we're like, I don't know. Like, it's kinda scary to move across the country.

Right? We just had a baby. I just got this job, and things were not comfortable. Thank God. Because if they were, we might still be there.

Yeah. But she was like, you guys would love it out here. Come visit. My wife just turned 21 at that time. We went out there to visit, and we came back, and we said, we're gonna move.

Like, we're gonna sell the house.

Steve: It was it was an immediate unanimous decision.

Michael: It was easy. Yeah. We we we went out there. We're, like, going to the pools, like, just, like, hiking and, like, experiencing everything. Right.

And we're like, this is it. Like, we've gotta sell our house. My wife actually approached me. She's like, hey. In order for you to quit your job, you've we've gotta sell the house.

Mhmm. And I'm like, what do you mean sell the house? Like, this is the American dream. Right? Like, this is why we work so hard.

And she's like, no. Like, in order for you to take this business to where I know you want to take it to, we need to sell the house. And so we sold the house, and the day that money hit my bank account Mhmm. Paid off the rest of the credit card debt, and we found a short term lease until we found a place in Vegas. And adios.

Steve: So I'm a do, you know, a 100 deals. Right? So for someone who's listening right now, what would they have to do to be able to build a virtual wholesaling business?

Michael: Absolutely. So I think the first thing is is you you've gotta know how each department of the business operates. So you need to learn how to do it yourself. I feel like you that's that's really important. And from there, if you have capital, some people watching this may not have the capital.

Right. And so if you have the capital, then you can start to bring on team members. Right?

Steve: So step one is you got to do deals successfully by yourself first.

Michael: Understand the process. Yeah. Yep. Know what you're doing and how to do it.

Steve: And I say that, and it might sound totally, like, ludicrous. Right? Like, that sounds so basic. But the reality is there are a lot of people that just get in and just start hiring VAs, just start spending money on marketing. And they don't even know how to do the transaction all the way from a to z.

Right? Because, like, there's all this information out there. You know? We're guilty of putting out that information. Now you can university.

But I've heard countless people that are trying to scale with VAs and this and that, and they haven't even closed their first deal yet. Yeah. Right? So step one is start doing deals by yourself.

Michael: That would be an amazing place to start.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Right? And then after that, you say, once you have capital, you would hire. So who's the first person you're hiring if you're doing your business virtually?

Right? Let's just say going back to your example right now. Right? You're in Vegas. You're doing deals in the Midwest.

Who's the first person you hire?

Michael: Transaction coordinator.

Steve: Okay.

Michael: Yep. Transaction team, admin paperwork, get that out of here as quick as possible.

Steve: Okay. Is that, virtual?

Michael: It could be.

Steve: So is this a person that's living in the market you're doing business with, or they could live anywhere in the country, or are they, like, overseas?

Michael: Could be either way. However you want

Steve: to start

Michael: your biz it it doesn't matter.

Steve: Okay. So you hire a transaction coordinator. Mhmm. And they're and they're offloading what activities again?

Michael: So they're doing, like, any admin work, any paperwork, transaction coordination, communication with title, payoffs, all of the stuff that transaction

Steve: you, it's t c slash admin. It's not straight transaction coordinator.

Michael: Right. It it was in the beginning. Okay. Yep.

Steve: And they got t c slash admin. How many deals are you doing at this point?

Michael: At this point, I had done probably 35 deals before before we made that first hire.

Steve: Right.

Michael: I'm kind of, like, somebody who just has a hard time giving up things. Like, I love closing, so I wanna be on the phones. And so the that was the first thing I needed to get rid of is just the paperwork stuff stuff that kinda drained me. Mhmm. And then it was acquisitions.

I knew I needed to give up acquisitions, but I had a really hard time with it. How

Steve: many deals a month were you doing when you hired TC?

Michael: We were probably doing three to four. It was about a deal a week, I would say.

Steve: Okay. And then after that, you hire an acquisition manager. Mhmm. What was your deal volume when you hired that person?

Michael: At so this is a fun one. At this point, we had done right at about a million bucks. And the reason I know that very specifically is because the acquisition manager that we still have today, he came from an insurance sales business with phone sales, and he said, like, dude, this is, like, your new business. Like, this is, like, taking a pretty big leap of faith. He asked me for our tax return.

Mhmm. And I gave it to him. I said, hey. Like, this is what you can expect. Like, we made a million bucks.

Mhmm. And here's how you would be compensated off of this million bucks. By the way, this is where we're going. We're not going backwards. We're going this way.

Yeah. And so I had to really sell him on why he should come work with us. And I think that million year was two years in, and we had done right around 60 deals

Steve: Gotcha.

Michael: That year.

Steve: Same question here. Because I'm asking I'm asking all these questions because you're running a virtual business. Yeah. Right? Where is the acquisition manager at?

Michael: This is good. So our market in Nebraska, he's there. Mhmm. So I'm virtual. He's in the market that we do business in.

That was not always that way. We had a guy pry we had a we had another guy that we tested in another market. Mhmm. And the personality of of that closer wasn't somebody who's gonna be building rapport and closing deals over the phone. The guy who we have in Omaha Mhmm.

He doesn't go on every appointment. Yeah. He could, but he knows how to close over the phone. Yeah. And we don't just do deals in that market.

We do deals in other markets too. So we can get into that, but we've done deals all over the place.

Steve: Sure. So you see then acquisition manager, and that guy can handle what? How many deals a month can that guy handle?

Michael: He probably single handedly closed 50 deals last year.

Steve: Okay.

Michael: Six maybe 60. So what is that?

Steve: Four four or five a month.

Michael: Five a month. Yeah. I would say about about one a week is is where he can consistently perform. Obviously, our expectations are higher. So, like, you know, two, three, ideally.

Steve: Right.

Michael: But, obviously yeah.

Steve: And then, there's a dispo person to move the deals Yep. Who's doing that.

Michael: So we have a gentleman who he was in Texas. He moved. But, yeah, he's full time, and that's all he does. Just disposition.

Steve: Got it. Yep. And then you got lead manager?

Michael: We have three lead managers.

Steve: So three lead managers for one or two acquisition managers? For three acquisition managers. Three lead managers for three acquisition managers.

Michael: Yep.

Steve: Okay. So the acquisition managers are, not necessarily market specific. Lead manager, are they stateside or overseas?

Michael: So these ones, we we had to let somebody go, unfortunately, who was in States. But what I found is Central America, Belize is where we have all three of them. They're very understanding of our language Mhmm. And they do a great job. And so they're in Belize.

Steve: Gotcha. And then, and I asked this question because, like, you know, Jason Lewin just Jason Lewis and I. Right? He's obviously an investor fuel.

Michael: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? So he's got investor machine, and then we collaborated to create a lead manager training program.

Michael: Okay.

Steve: And he's of the belief that you want American lead managers because when a homeowner calls in and has any hint of an accent, you can lose all sorts of rapport. Obviously, your perspective is a little bit different. So what are your thoughts on that?

Michael: Yeah. So this has been, like, a really I would say this is a limiting belief. And I talked to Jason Lewis about this at the last investor field Yeah. And I still gotta connect him, but I wanted to test these out first so I can make my own opinion. I mean, we didn't let the person in The States go, because they were outperforming her.

It was just like a performance issue. But for for that belief, it's if you let it conversations go too long and they start asking too many questions and there's too much of language barrier, yeah, you're gonna lose a lot of trust Mhmm. Especially if you're dealing with, like, some older crowd or demographic. Mhmm. But with the way we do it is we have a very brief conversation.

We get the four pillars, and we get that other way. And if there's motivation and it qualifies for a pass off, they're getting pushed over to our acquisition manager, ideally, live transfer or callback ASAP to bridge that gap.

Steve: Mhmm.

Michael: Because if they can just say, hey. I'm not gonna be the one going over numbers with you. It's gonna be Justin, my home buying specialist. He'll be the one to go over that with you, and get them on the phone ASAP. It usually is not gonna be a big deal.

It's for those people who start to ask me questions and the conversation gets too long and maybe they're overqualifying. That's when it can become an issue.

Steve: So you mentioned, the handoff, the transfer live transfer ideally. What software are you guys using for live transfer?

Michael: So we've been using ReSimply. Mhmm. I was a Podio guy for the first three years in business, and I had spent way too many hours and time, trying to work with the developer to customize this as we continue to build this out. And I just, like, I can't do this anymore. I can't take it.

Like, this is just too much. And so, we switched to re Simply just like a turnkey system for it. And for the longest time, they didn't have some of the features. And so, like, we were just being as patient as we can. We almost switched to Salesforce.

They just came out with a live transfer feature.

Steve: Gotcha. And then, you got okay. So three acquisitions, three lead managers, one dispo? Yep. Okay.

And then what are your lead sources that are doing well? I think I heard you say Google Ads earlier or at least one of your deals is Google Ads. So what are your lead sources predominantly?

Michael: Yeah. So Google Ads has been Steady Eddie. We've used that one since day one. And then, it's ever changing. You know how it goes.

You know, texting and cold calling have been hit and miss, and TV has been a big one for us.

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: Shout out to Tony Javier Mhmm. Helped us get on TV. And so, what I love about that is is we're a big fan of inbound. So people calling us, people seeing us as the authority in the market, and so TV, Google Ads. God, I love direct mail.

Yeah. It it works. I don't care what anybody says. It works. Maybe not in Phoenix.

Steve: It works in Phoenix. So then, I guess, doing TV, you gotta be in a market then. Right? Because TV doesn't work if you're not in a, if you're doing virtually I guess, ask us another way. The big appeal for virtual is that you can do Google nationwide or whatever.

Yep. Right? But if you're doing TV, you're generally planting a flag in the ground. Absolutely. So what markets are you doing TV in?

Michael: Yeah. So we are doing TV in Nebraska. Mhmm. And then we rolled out a campaign in South Dakota as well. So we are focusing on the Midwest, specifically Nebraska.

I would say majority, even though we do a lot virtual and when when I say virtual, we do have a very specific mark. We're not, casting a net nationwide and doing deals in every market and, like, intentionally. Right? Mhmm. We're very strategic about the markets that we do select.

So we know we we know what we can do in our main market where we have a footprint. Mhmm. And we know how to do deals with Google Ads anywhere in the country. Yeah. So we wanna just pick markets where we feel good about that we have buyers for because you reinvent a new wheel every market you open up.

Steve: Right.

Michael: It's it's a it's a lot more work than, what maybe you've heard.

Steve: So Sure. Yeah. So then what is your budget then between, TV, Google Ads, and direct mail? 45

Michael: a

Steve: month. Thousand? Where is the majority of it going to?

Michael: 15, and that's going to TV.

Steve: So that's not a lot. It's reasonable.

Michael: It's reasonable. Yeah. Yeah. It's reasonable. Another 15, depending on the month.

Yeah. 20 on Google Ads. And then we're probably 5 on direct mail.

Steve: That's not bad at all.

Michael: Not bad at all. But we're not we're we're not I've done this before where I've sent out mail to 50,000 people. And it is so painful because you you basically spend $20,000 on the campaign, and you know it's gonna come back. It's just scary. Right?

Steve: Right.

Michael: So we do Facebook marketing as well. Didn't touch on that one, but that one's been a lot of people don't know about Facebook. We've done Facebook for three plus years.

Steve: Gotcha.

Michael: We we consistently spend probably a couple grand on that a month.

Steve: Okay. Yep. So, another question then. Oh, by the way, you say, you know, 15, grand a month. Like, Tony Javier was back on the show late last year.

He's like, you can get started if you need 15 kids. Like, really? Alright. Well, then I guess we're gonna try that.

Michael: He told me the same thing for Las Vegas. Yeah. I'm like, really? Do I do I wanna compete against Ryan Pineda?

Steve: Why not? Right? I mean Why not? Go baby go home.

Michael: Absolutely.

Steve: Yeah. So, you got you say you're a big fan of inbound, and we're talking about the lead managers, right, being in Belize or Central America. So I see you. Is it your face on the ads? Yep.

Alright. So I see your TV commercial. I pick up the phone, and I call in. Who's answering the phone?

Michael: Yep. So this has changed a little bit. I had my in state lead manager processing those calls. Yeah. And it got to the point where we felt like we were overqualifying people, and then my acquisition manager would call them back anyway Mhmm.

To have another conversation. Then we started getting, hey. The lady before just asked me that question. Like, why am I answering the same questions again? And so I started forwarding those to my acquisitions team.

Mhmm. And so my main acquisitions guy in the market that we do TV who knows the area, started answering those calls. And then if he was on an appointment, if he wasn't able to take those calls, it went to an answering service. They processed it. They submitted the form, and then we jumped on it.

The lead manager would jump on it at that point.

Steve: So, I guess a question for you then, for me, just out of curiosity, if you got boots on the ground in that market, why are you doing it virtually? Or we're saying that Michael's doing it virtually, but you have him going on face to face appointments.

Michael: In that market, there's really no reason why we're doing it virtually besides the fact of some situations call for it. Mhmm. Other ones don't. So for example, he knows that if this lay this if this seller is telling us they're sick of the property, they're over it, they basically spilled the beans on everything that we need to know, and then we've determined that the price that they want works, we're just gonna contract the house. We're not gonna waste any time.

We're just gonna buy it, and then we still gotta validate and verify and Right. And do our due diligence. In other cases, though, if if it's an older seller

Steve: Mhmm.

Michael: I think it's really important to go belly to belly with those types of people, whether if it's a boots on the ground or whether if it's your acquisition manager. Mhmm. Trust is so important. Like, if if you if these people can't shake your hand, you don't even exist.

Steve: Right. Right? I mean, I just think it and this is totally a limiting belief. Right? But I'm just thinking Midwest.

Alright. The Midwest, the South, if they can't shake your hand, right, like, why would they do business to you? But you're also still doing a lot virtually, though.

Michael: We are. And one of our biggest wholesale deals this year so far, which in Omaha, $46,000 assignment fee was a situation where the leak came in on a Sunday. It was an absentee in here, like, just a vacant house. And the lady, just gave us a review lately even though we closed in the first month of the year. And it was actually very interesting case study.

She was the demographic we're talking about, and she didn't like, she was uncertain the whole time. She's like, this seems too easy. Like, why did I not show you the house? Why did you buy the house over the phone? Like, I haven't seen anybody.

Like, she started to ask these questions. And and in her review, I'm not I'm not very happy about it, but she left us a four star because we we we go for five star service.

Steve: Mhmm.

Michael: You know, that's important for our brand. And so, anyway, I I asked my transaction team. I'm like, why was this set? Like, was some expectation not set of, like, what they could expect? And and I think there was something that was miscommunicated.

Steve: Right? Yeah.

Michael: But that's just the proof that that demographic values that in person experience.

Steve: Yeah. What questions I'm gonna ask you about virtual that you typically get?

Michael: Do you get the contract first, or do you get somebody to look at the house first? That's a question that I get all the time, and my answer has changed on this. I was a big believer in, hey. Why would the seller sell me the house if I haven't seen it? Well, that belief system came from not asking good enough questions.

Sure. So if we dial in our questions and get specific about the age of the roof, the furnace, the HVAC, all these things, then the seller knows, hey. I've given them everything that I pretty much have. Mhmm. And so the process is we take that information back to our team.

They let us know what the property qualifies for. Mhmm. We simply deliver that to the seller, and and then we negotiate the deal and get the contract. But we still set the expectation that we're gonna go ahead and still have our investors or partners. And depending on the circumstances, we may not even be the one to buy it Mhmm.

If it's an ovation. And so we do set that stage, and we do get the contract first.

Steve: When does the due diligence start? The day the contract is executed. So one thing that we've done for ourselves when we were doing a lot virtually was a fourteen day due diligence period did not begin till after we got access or photos.

Michael: I like that.

Steve: Right. So it gives us a little bit more time. Right? So and then it also put urgency on the homeowner because there are times where they're like, I don't wanna send you photos. Now we gotta play this game.

Like, you're not sending me photos, so, like, a week before close of escrow, this isn't gonna work for anybody.

Michael: Oh, man. I can't tell you how many times we've had deals almost die, and and some die. Yeah. Because the seller says that they'll send us photos, but it never happens. Right.

And so we really try to put an emphasis on that upfront. Mhmm. And if we don't if we get the impression that they're just not gonna ever give us photos Yeah. We just hire somebody to go out and take them for us and Yeah. And then that eliminates that.

Steve: But that gave us the ability to instill some sort of urgency, in in the homeowner. Right. One thing you wrote down about here was team building. So talk to me about team building.

Michael: Yeah. So for me, like, I didn't wanna create a high paying job. I knew from the first year in real estate, there was a lot of money to be made in this business. Mhmm. But that wasn't like, don't get me wrong.

Like, you gotta make money. Right? You gotta be making money to be in business. But for me, I was more intrigued about how can I build this up to the point where if I am with my family, if I'm on vacation, or if I'm doing something that doesn't require me talking to a seller, the transaction is still gonna happen? Mhmm.

So my vision for the company was how can we build this up to we have a team, they have the tools, the resources, everything that they need to be able to go out and execute. Yeah. So that was the importance for the team piece. And then for that, for for next, is we just started thinking to ourselves, okay. Well, how many leads do does each acquisition manager need to do x y z?

And then we just reverse engineered it. Mhmm. So we started thinking in terms of, okay. This they need this many leads, or we're gonna have to spend this much more marketing. Gotta bring in this many leads, and then this is the average profit.

So we just started really taking everything from, like, the beginning and then working it backwards and then plugging in more marketing, plugging in more people. And the team thing has been a work in progress. I know we'll talk about maybe some some lessons and stuff like that, but I would say building a team virtually Mhmm. Has certainly had its challenges.

Steve: What would you say is the biggest challenge building it virtually versus building it, you know, within an office?

Michael: Yeah. So, I mean, I love in person energy. I love being able to high

Steve: five people. Energetic person.

Michael: I I've been told that. Yeah. I yeah. And some and yeah. We'll we'll get to that.

But my point is I I just the energy in person is exciting. And, like, when you can go high five somebody, you can ring the bell. You can see something happen in real time and then be able to point that out and call that out

Steve: and

Michael: solve a problem where speed is important when it comes to these deals. And so my point with all that said is, virtually, we can do our daily huddles. We can do our numbers. We can go over everything that we need to go over, but you don't get that same energy. Right.

We're competing for a belt right now. Mhmm. And I'm on I'm on that. I'm I'm trying to step out of it, but I I gotta keep my acquisition guys hungry and motivated. And so I'll close the deal every now and then.

Mhmm. I'll jump in there, and I'll close the deal. And so these guys, getting that excitement every single day when you're just sitting in your own office at home, like, not in an office environment, it can be it can be challenging. Yeah. You know, for somebody who's motivated, it's like, no big deal.

But I own the business. Like, they're not gonna be as excited about it.

Steve: Do you replace that? Because you're saying with everything that's, like, more challenging. What did you do to to rectify that?

Michael: Yeah. So I mentioned the belt. So that's just something we can

Steve: have fun about. So belt's for all the acquisition managers, whoever's buying houses.

Michael: Yep.

Steve: So who What what does it take to win that belt?

Michael: They have to be, at the end of the month, top projected profits. Mhmm. And, this is a new thing. So this is a work in progress because we've been asking like, this is a challenge, by the way. We've been asking all of our mastermind friends, like, hey.

Who runs virtual teams? What's the best approach for this team bonding and all this. And so that's one thing. Giveaways. So we still have a wheel.

It's a virtual wheel. You know, this sounds silly. Right? But in office, people have wheels. And so each week, we'll we'll spin the wheel for somebody who went above and beyond and and recognized them.

We did a rock star of the month. So, somebody who stood out, we nominated them, and we talked about them personally. So it's just getting to know them, not on a business level. Yeah. But, like, today before I came here, I had lunch with my acquisition manager who lives in Scottsdale.

Steve: Oh, nice.

Michael: Yep. So I gotta I do some team bonding there and and just really get to know our people. And so we have a recruiter. Didn't mention that. That's all she does is team, bonding and team exercises, and we have surveys and questions and things that we can really start to understand, like, something that they're not gonna tell me, like, in in passing.

Right?

Steve: Okay. So you got a recruiter. Where is she at?

Michael: She's in California.

Steve: She's in California. Yep. So then, you know, we talked about all the different people. So I apologize. So you got the acquisition, disposition, TC recruiter.

What other seats are at your company, that we haven't talked about?

Michael: Yep. So we haven't talked about we have a an IT, gentleman who has really helped us with the website, really helped us with SEO efforts. Yeah. And so he's an expert in that. I have a social media manager who helps us with Google, Facebook advertising Mhmm.

And then just, like, the creative copy. Yeah. Let's see. Who who am I missing here? I have an acquisition manager in Vegas.

Mhmm. Virtual works, but I do like the idea of having a central location. I don't care if you have a central location and you do deals in another state. I think having a central location eventually is something that I wanna get back to.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's something that I know, like, Ryan and I, we just ran in sales leadership this past weekend. That's what we talked about. Like, even if they're in all these multiple markets, there's still a preference for, like, everyone in the same office.

Right? That's one of the challenges. For sure. So I wanna get into audience's questions. But before we do, just a quick quick message.

Speaker 2: I mean, everything. I mean, let just the the persuasion skills and the scripts that he taught us and the techniques and just overall, it's like just learning a to z on how how to go out and go go right on an appointment with the seller and make the most out of it and, you know, different exit strategies and whether you're wholesale innovation, just everything. You got a whole new new arsenal of tools you can use directly with sellers just going on an appointment right now. Knowing what I know now, I mean, a lot. Like, just in terms of just, you know, having sellers where we listed their houses and just, you know, listing appointments that we could have wholesaled or could have flipped or just different exit strategies.

Definitely definitely a lot of money that we left on the table. What type of person would benefit from the sales training? Anybody. Anybody in sales, anybody in general. I mean, just, like, communicating with family, with friends.

I mean, you know, any salesperson, especially real estate, solar. I mean, just anybody in general, I think, would would benefit from the sales training.

Steve: Alright. So first question on YouTube is DCP one. How are you handling walkthroughs virtually? Hopefully, not 15 partners walking through.

Michael: Very carefully. Very, very carefully. So this is, oh, this is ever changing. Every situation is different. So in some circumstances, we may have one buyer or two buyers, and we can set the stage with the seller.

We can set the stage with the buyers. Listen. Every conversation the buyers might ask you about price. The buyers might ask you questions. Don't worry about that.

They'll get back to us. We'll have that conversation about price, anything like that. So that's the first scenario. It's maybe a couple people. If you have a deal where you have 15 investors, please don't send them to the house without anybody.

In that case, we'll hire an agent. Sure. So we'll consult with an agent. We'll say, hey. Would you be able to go do this house?

Just open it up. Here's what to expect. $100. And most agents will tell you you're nuts.

Steve: Mhmm.

Michael: I would wouldn't do that for a $100. And if that's the case, you can negotiate with them. Or, worst case scenario, you find somebody on Craigslist. And Right. I don't recommend that because you never know who you're gonna get.

So find a professional, ideally.

Steve: So you said that those are expectations except for the homeowner. What expectations are you setting for the for the buyers?

Michael: Yeah. So for the buyers, it's pretty consistent. So I think the the key with this business is you wanna make sure that your message with the seller is consistent, especially if you're wholesaling with the seller as it is with the buyers, as it is with your acquisitions team, your transaction team. Everybody's telling the seller the same thing. Otherwise, what's gonna happen is the people just get confused.

So for our message with the buyer, it's just like, hey. We've got the property under contract. You know, we're simply just gonna take the highest and best offer. So once you look at the property, please go ahead and just send us your highest and best offer. We'll be making a decision this day, this time.

Steve: Yeah. And that's it. Cool. Stradaddy on Instagram wants to know, how did you grow your team sales team virtually?

Michael: Yeah. So this is shout out to, shout out to Josh and Tiffany for helping us with the teams. Josh and Tiffany, hi.

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: They've really helped me create a framework around this. And so we weren't having, like, daily huddles. We didn't have reports. We didn't have, like, very clear expectations. Now that we've implemented some things, every single day, the same time, the same place, we always do our numbers.

We always, do daily training. We're always looking to improve. At the end of the week, we're gonna review the goal. So we'll set the goal at the beginning of the week, and at the end of the week, we're gonna talk about it. Today, you know, we're it's Wednesday.

Maybe the goal is a 100,000 for the week projected profit. Mhmm. There's a percentage. How much profit do we have on the board? And so my point is with all this is it's it's just expectations and accountability.

Yeah. And that's how we can manage it virtually.

Steve: How are you, sourcing talent, though?

Michael: Good question. So we have a recruiter. We use WiseHire Mhmm. To hire, and she is just looking for rock stars. Yeah.

Her full time job is to find talent. Mhmm. And it's, you know, it's a work in progress always. Sure. Like, we're always looking for rock stars.

Steve: So WiseHire ads, is there anything you guys are doing differently, or are you guys just doing the same thing as everybody else?

Michael: Yeah. So I don't know what everybody else is doing. I I know what I did. When I first started hiring, I had one conversation, and I said, you got the job because I'm like, I don't have time for this. Right?

And so now that we have a recruiter, we do have a process. Mhmm. So the first conversation, it's culture.

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: We're gonna get to know they're gonna get to know who we are. We're gonna get to know who they are, what's our culture. The second conversation, that's gonna be more about maybe their job history and the position specifically. And then the third third one might be, ideally, it's like an in person, like, let's see if we even like this person, their personality. And then that's that's pretty much it.

We have a three three to four step depending on the person in the position hiring process.

Steve: Gotcha. Tim Harridge on Facebook says Mike's a beast. He was on the show last week. That guy, a monster, what he's been able to accomplish. Dean Rogers on Facebook.

Which do you think is better? Going all in on one market versus going smaller in several markets?

Michael: I really like this question, Dean. This is a good one, man. I've been so back and forth about this because I know the power of national multiple markets. I still think it's best to go all in on one market. Mhmm.

Because if I look at all of our revenue from last year, 80% of it was done in one market. Yeah. We have deals, and we've had good deals closed in virtual markets, but we can't run TV. We can't go as heavy on the marketing, all these markets. So, I mean, if we had an unlimited budget, we could.

Right. So we're I'm I'm I'm big on focusing on a couple over one market and then going from there.

Steve: Gotcha. And then Steve Estrada on IG. What are your thoughts on Propwire? Have you looked into it? Propwire?

Michael: I've never heard of it.

Steve: I believe it's a PropStream competitor, from our good friend Jerry Norton.

Michael: Oh, okay.

Steve: But I have not had a chance to check that one out specifically yet. So let's see here. You're going back right now. Like, what, your so you got yourself in Vegas. You got three different people.

One in Vegas, one in Scottsdale, one in Nebraska. I guess one question I have for you, because we did TV in New Mexico, and we did TV in Oklahoma. And in both markets, apparently, when you're in a smaller state smaller population state, that channel just goes to the whole state. Right? So Yeah.

Like here, if I advertise on Phoenix, it might make it to Flagstaff. Probably not gonna make it to Tucson. Right? But when we're out advertising Albuquerque, we're getting leads in Santa Fe. We're getting leads at the border.

We're getting leads where the states literally where the border lines are. Right? And then the same thing happened to Oklahoma when we were advertising on TV. There are people that were an hour and a half away. Right?

And it's like, remember we bought this product. We contracted. We didn't buy it. We contracted this product for $8,000. Yeah.

It's a great deal. Right?

Michael: Right? And

Steve: I was like, how can we lose money on this deal? No one was interested. Right? Ugh. So I

Michael: have stories.

Steve: So talk to me about doing TV in a smaller population market because, like, I mean, how what is the population in your market?

Michael: Two hundred to two fifth I mean, two fifty for Lincoln. Yeah. Omaha's close to a million.

Steve: How far away is Omaha from Lincoln?

Michael: That's what's great. They're only forty five minutes apart. So, like, it's really, like, Scottsdale. Like, Phoenix. Right?

Like, it's all together pretty much. Yeah. But they're two separate stations, so we have to pay two different markets.

Steve: Gotcha.

Michael: Still working on Tony with that one. But we yeah. We gotta pay for two different markets. But to your point, these small towns, we had a house under contract for $500 once, Steve. Nobody wanted to buy it.

Yeah. Why? That's weird. Why wouldn't you wanna buy a $500 house? Right?

But we've bought houses for 500. We've bought houses for $1,500. Like, just buy for cash and then seller finance to somebody else and, you know, you get your, upfront cost back in three months.

Steve: Right.

Michael: And so, you either, a, buy it really, really cheap, and we simply just try to disqualify those leads as hard as we can. Some of the people, though, they just wanna give give it to the house. It's junk or whatever. They they don't want it. The key, though, is you're going to get those leads.

There's nothing you can do about it. And if you don't have a strategy for it, you are just shredding money. Like, those leads cost money, so you're shredding money. But we started to figure out innovations. Mhmm.

And with these small towns, we just say, hey. Look. This doesn't qualify for a cash offer. I mean, we'd have to buy it for way low, and you probably don't wanna do that. Right?

So Yeah. We disqualify them. And then but if you're interested, we do have another program that you might be interested in. I don't know for sure if it qualifies. But if it does, we might be able to get you your price, but here's what we're gonna need in return.

Yeah. So we're teeing it up to where it's gonna be an ovation. We're gonna get the contract. We're gonna put the property on the MLS. And if you can get the property in these small towns on the MLS, they typically will sell.

Mhmm. But that's the that's the trick.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So the $500 house, you close on it?

Michael: No. No. No. We didn't close on it. It it was just like it it was a junk house.

Like, it was foundation issues falling apart and yeah.

Steve: Follow-up question from DCP one. You let the sellers know that you're wholesaling. Yeah. So this is

Michael: a good question. And I think a lot of people, are gonna have different opinions about this, but this has changed for me. In the beginning, it was like, I didn't really wanna disclose it. But now that we've built up a brand and we have a reputation, the last thing I want is for the seller to get a curveball. And so when we are wholesaling it, we're pretty open about, like, hey.

It's not us. We're gonna be selling this to another, investor partner, and that's it. And if that's not gonna work for you, I totally understand. But this is this is a hard conversation to have. I'm still working on this conversation with my acquisitions team because I can I can tell a seller that, but getting them to fully disclose because they don't wanna miss out on the deal?

Mhmm. If if I tell the seller this, they're not gonna wanna do the business. It's just not the truth. Right. If you have an easy button for them, they don't really care how they're gonna get paid Right.

As long as they get paid. Yeah.

Steve: They just want the money on closing day. Exactly.

Michael: So we set up the stage that there is an inspection period, and that that is gonna take time before we can give you the the green light. The worst case scenario here, seller, is we messed up. Yeah. And we gotta come back and have that conversation.

Steve: Right. Gotcha. Okay. So you're talking about, you know, doing this virtually. What freedoms have you found, you know, running your business the way you ran it?

What does it what freedom does it afford you?

Michael: Yeah. I love this one. I mean, I work from home. I I don't go into an office. This is challenging, so I'll I'll start with that.

In the fact that my kids and my wife are in the other room, and I'm in my home office. So it's it's a blessing that I can just go out there, but it's also challenging in the fact that I might be on the phone in a business meeting, and my two year old might just scream because he's mad. Right? And so, that that freedom has been amazing. And then the other component is is, like, I'm here right now, and my team is still on the phones.

Yeah. It's it's, yeah, it's a blessing for sure.

Steve: Besides the the the freedom to do what you want where from wherever, what other what else do you love about real estate?

Michael: I wish I would have found about real estate when I was 18. I I wish they'd teach this stuff in school because it's just the ultimate freedom. Like, when you can take a asset and you can borrow against it and you can have tax advantages, there's just so many things. I mean, the list just goes on. I love closing deals.

To me, it's, like, it's fun. It's a game. And so closing deals, the tax benefits, the the freedom that it can provide for you, where do I stop? I mean, there's just so many.

Steve: Well, I'm with you on that because that's the reason why we have the podcast. Right? So we can you know, we we're on a mission to create a 100 millionaires. Right? We're preaching the the the gospel of entrepreneurship.

Right? We want people to know about it, but, you know, because it's not on school. Steve says it's crazy that, he's always been told not to tell a seller you're a wholesaler. What does your market marketing look like for 2023? This is a question from Jason Toledo on YouTube.

Michael: Alright. So 2023. So I don't know if you guys heard. We actually missed the boat on the hedge funds because hedge funds were not buying in Nebraska. So that didn't affect our business, but what did is the wholesale market is squeezed.

I don't know if you guys have felt that at all. And so with that, we've started looking at just total overhead. So we are looking at nonrevenue, generating payroll and just making decisions on, hey. Is this position when the market was this like this still needed today when the market is a little bit different? But at the end of the day, we understand that the market is the market.

It doesn't affect the way we do business. So we are still continuing to market. We're still running these channels that we talked about. TV, though, is one that we did back off on a little bit just because of the it's just a pretty significant expense. So we we've pivoted and just cut down a little bit, but we haven't changed anything.

Got it. The channels are the same.

Steve: What is your why?

Michael: It's my family. Yeah. 100%. So the, you know, the day that I found out my wife was expecting was the day that I found a true purpose Mhmm. Along with real estate coinciding.

And I just wanna give my family the the life that they deserve. Yeah. So for sure, it's family.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle today?

Michael: Biggest struggle today. Oh, man. I mean, I would say I would just say being the best leader that I can for my team, I get out of bed excited every day. I don't know if you could tell. Like, I I'm I'm excited.

Steve: I can tell.

Michael: I I I I I love real estate. I love connecting, and I love all of that. But when I'm yelling it through a screen sometimes to my team, I feel like sometimes the message isn't getting heard. And so I'm working on this myself as just becoming a better leader, asking better questions, setting better expectations, just a better leader because I don't want to be the one that holds our business back from reaching the next level.

Steve: What does yelling at the screen mean? Is it like you're fired up or you're, like, chewing them out? Yeah.

Michael: I I'm not the type of, yeah, I'm not the type of guy that really chews people out Okay. For for anybody who who's watching who knows me would probably agree. But it's more, like, let's go. Like, we're excited. Right?

Mhmm. Like, we're here to close some deals today and and make some money, and it's it's more of an excitement yelling than it is I'm not yelling at you. I'm trying to fire you

Steve: up. Gotcha. Okay. And how are you measuring success?

Michael: Yeah. This is a good question. Well, I mean, for me, it's time with family. Mhmm. So this has been ever changing.

In the early days of business, I, like, my brain barely had the capacity to, like, figure out how to run the business

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: Let alone do all the time blocking stuff. And so for for me, it's just quality of time with my family. The hardest part is this is something I'm working on, has been just full attention. So I'm with my wife and my kids. We're sitting at dinner, and they look at me, and my mind is over there.

I'm there, but my mind is not there. So Right. The hardest part is just, like, focusing on being fully present, and that to me is

Steve: what I want. What are

Michael: you doing about that? Yep. So working on this one, cashing out. So anything that's on my mind when I'm in my office, even though I'm at home, is either, a, getting it on paper, number one, and then shutting my phone either off or just leaving it in my office. As easy as it sounds, sometimes it just somehow finds its way.

Steve: It just sneaks in there.

Michael: It just, yeah, it just sneaks out. Yeah. And so shutting the phone off has been a game changer or just leaving it in the office because then I can't, like, get the itch to go look at my phone and, like, see something and then tell me to you know what I mean? So it's just, like, that's what I'm doing to improve that. And then the other thing is just time blocking.

So from this time in the morning to this time, I do my best to have breakfast with my family. In the evening hours, from this time to this time, there's no phone. Very intentional about having that time with my kids, playing with my kids, going for a walk, doing something together as a family.

Steve: That's awesome. Has this has this, been a situation where it's come up within the family where, like, hey. Like, you know, dad, you're you're on the phone too much. Like, has there been, like, significant pushback here?

Michael: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if my wife's watching right now, but, I would be lying to you if I told you no. Like, it it definitely, came up. And I I think many business owners and driven individuals would probably tell you that is the thing that if you don't fix that, then it's gonna become an issue.

And so for me, the reason why we started this business was to spend more time with our family.

Steve: Right.

Michael: So it freaks me out to think that business would consume me to the point where I don't find time for family. And so when I have that conversation with my wife, it's like, this is important. Like, I trust me. This is really important to me. This is more important than any money, any business, anything.

And so here's what I'm gonna do to make sure that you can see that.

Steve: Yeah. It's a struggle. Right? Because, you know, you said that your wife's your family, and, you know, I've got this theory. I'm not saying it's right.

I've got this theory that we all start off for the business for money. Right? Usually for money, and then, you know, there's elements of time freedom. Right? So there's time freedom and financial freedom.

Like, I think most entrepreneurs start for time freedom and financial freedom. Right? So that's their why. And it gets to a point like, okay. I'm doing this for my family.

Right? What if you're doing for your family, like, how much money do you really need for your family? This poll. Right? So then is it truly your family, or is it something else?

So have you gone deep into this, or you're, like, planning your flag in? Like, no. It's a 100% my family.

Michael: Yeah. Well, you make a good point. This changes. I think every entrepreneur, every business has a season, and I did this seven layers deep exercise. Anybody who's watching this, if you haven't done the why seven layers deep exercise, just look it up and do it.

Dean Gracios, he talks about it. Mhmm.

Steve: Change your life. Yeah.

Michael: It's a great

Steve: exercise. Great exercise. Definitely generally, recommendations, do it with someone that doesn't know you well. Yes. And if

Michael: I've done this with my family. I've done this with my wife's parents. Mhmm. We've done this as a family. At the end of it, we were all crying like babies.

Yeah. And if your why isn't big enough for you to cry, then you need to dig a little deeper is is the concept. And so my point with that being said is my family is always gonna have that component of why I continue to push forward even when times are tough. Mhmm. Even if we have to let somebody go.

Whatever's going on, I'm gonna keep going.

Steve: Yeah. But

Michael: as I continue to mature and grow as a business owner, my why starts to be become a little bit more about, legacy and impact in in in helping more people, and and it's not as selfish anymore. It's not about me and my money and my family. It's always that's always gonna be important to me. But as long as we can take care of that, now we can start to think about bigger picture impact, changing lives, helping more people, and that is the season that I'm transitioning towards.

Steve: So what have you found out about that about yourself in in in that capacity?

Michael: I found out that it's if you're not prepared to commit to it, it can take away from what you're currently doing.

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: So for example, if I'm needed for this many hours in my business and I'm over here trying to juggle this ball and this ball and give my time to my family, pretty soon I'm spread too thin. Yeah. And so that's been a juggling act in itself.

Steve: Yeah. Definitely. And I've experienced that as well. Right? So, again, that's what you reason why I asked, like, is as you get into this part where you're growing, like, you know, you said that it was impactful.

One of your biggest wins was helping your lead man or acquisition manager. Right? Teaching him something. Yeah. So part of that kinda goes back to, like, you want to give back.

And so now you got this challenge. Right? And, you know, like, again, it's a theory. Right? But when someone says, like, you know, I want care for my family, it's almost like, you know, when you say, like, hey.

What are your core values? Like, you know, integrity and this and that. It's like, well, everyone should have integrity. Like, that's like Yeah. Right?

That's just a start. Right? You can't you can't hang your hat on integrity. Right? So that that's the reason why I I dive deeper on that.

So then what is your superpower?

Michael: My superpower is speed implementation. Mhmm. My wife and I talked a lot about this. So if she's watching, she's gonna laugh at this because it took me a second to think about that. But I think so many people, Steve, spend way too much time on things that just don't matter.

Mhmm. Business card. I spent so much time on business cards. And by the way, this wasn't always my superpower. Yeah.

I spent so much time trying to come up with the domain. What was my business name gonna be? All these things that just didn't move the needle. And now that I've went through that and I've watched the business develop, I realized that any great deal, anything thing that required a quick decision resulted in the highest return if we could just make that decision fast. Yeah.

If we jumped on that seller lead within the three minutes that we're supposed to, if we solve that problem, if we made the decision to come on the show or do whatever. Like, if you give yourself too much time to think Mhmm. Indecision happens. Indecision

Steve: combined with anxiety, combined with regret, and fear of missing.

Michael: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, man. For sure.

Steve: I'm with you on that. That that's that quick action, fortunately, for me, is is just one of those things kind of, like, built in. But, man, like, you look around and people that, you know, take longer to take actions, like, it sucks because, like, who knows what you might have missed on them? But they're always like, but what if something bad happens? Like, what if something good happens?

Michael: Yeah. What if you didn't do that? Right. Like, my did we talk about biggest fear?

Steve: No. Go ahead.

Michael: Okay. My biggest fear is wishing that I would have done something. At the end of my life, if I have to look back I mean, I think just the fact that we have this life, we gotta look back and live with our regrets is is looking back and saying, man, I wish I would have done that. I wish I would have tried this. I wish I would have made that extra call.

I wish I would have started that business. I wish I would have whatever it is for you, that's my biggest fear. Yeah. It's just not doing what I knew that I was capable of.

Steve: Yeah. There's a great quote great quote on that. Right? Like, a greatest fear is not what we, like, miss out on. Our greatest fear is what, how great and awesome we could be.

Something along those lines. I'm pushing that quote. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah.

So then along those lines, what is your biggest regret? Biggest regret?

Michael: Mhmm. This is easy. It's wholesaling so many properties. Mhmm. And and and I and I don't wanna spin this in such a negative way because I believe that there are paths, like, freshman and sophomore year wholesale.

Junior year start to flip. Senior year, maybe you start to buy properties. It is crazy to me, though, to look at all the properties that I wholesale three years ago. Number one, to see how much they sold for. Mhmm.

But number two, to realize what my net worth would look like had I kept even a fraction of those. Yeah. Because in the beginning, yeah, we were we were flipping everything. We were selling and flipping, and we we hold we hold some properties. But, I mean, we're talking hundreds of deals.

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: So I wish I would have kept some more. And I I and I I would still that's my focus moving forward, just trying to figure out how to keep more.

Steve: Yeah. That's good. How did you learn your greatest lesson?

Michael: Alright. So this is, this is a lesson that I think a lot of real estate investors are gonna be able to relate to. So you know who David Richter is?

Steve: Mhmm.

Michael: Right? Of course. Profit First. My mine is just not hiring somebody to focus on the books soon enough Yeah. And and not using other people's money and having all of my cash tied up into flips because I don't know if anybody can relate.

When you have so much money in your flips, you just feel poor. The operation has to keep going. Your marketing keeps going.

Steve: Yeah. Property rich, cash poor. Property rich, cash poor.

Michael: Yeah. So that that would be a big the a big two.

Steve: Yeah. And, again, you know, we just put together our wealth assessment. So go to wealthevaluation.com. I actually reference David Richter in this. I just put six pages together on how to assess your wealth.

Yeah. David Richter is one of those sources in there, right, on assessing your wealth. Because I think you can't create something that you don't measure or you can't improve something you don't measure. So we put something supposed for people to measure, where their net worth today.

Michael: What book have you gifted more than any other? Miracle Morning. Miracle Morning. Do you

Steve: need Miracle Morning? I mean, you seem like you're fired up. Did you were you were you last fired up before?

Michael: Steve, man. If you would have met me five years ago

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: You would have think that I just came out of, you know, whatever. Like, I I've always been a happy go lucky person. Mhmm. But when you have zero energy because you have zero sleep and you have zero money in your bank account

Steve: Yeah.

Michael: The energy is just a little bit different.

Steve: Right.

Michael: But miracle morning, I would say it it's been a huge game changer for me. Yeah. When I I didn't when you don't have, like, habits or routines Mhmm. You just kinda fly by the seat of your pants.

Steve: Kinda drift.

Michael: You kinda drift.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So Miracle Morning is one of my books I recommended the most. It's an incredible book. I was kinda surprised because you got this you're you're not, you know was it t 2,000 or t 1,000?

What was the Terminator in in in Terminator two? Right? The Okay. You're not quite that guy, but I can kinda see that you're just stepping out here and just going to a full sprint with, like, without breaking a sweat. Am I crazy here?

Michael: I I mean, you're, yeah, no. You're not. You're spot on.

Steve: Right.

Michael: I'm I'm excited because it's this is it. Like Yeah. This is all we have.

Steve: Yeah. No. That's absolutely right. I love that. I love that energy.

So I want you to think about a message you wanna leave the auto listeners with, last thoughts, and I'm gonna just read something real quick. Everyone that's listening right now, we see a wind of opportunity in this market, and I am personally excited to seize this moment. So if you have capital and don't know where to get started in real estate, you can invest with us. If you have killer deals that you need help closing on, you can partner with us. So go to teamwithsteve.com, and let's do business together.

If you guys got value today, please like, subscribe, share, comment, and, well, I guess, don't forget we got part of the disruption tomorrow. What are the last thoughts you'd like to leave all the listeners with?

Michael: Yeah. For for those of you who are watching this, if you've thought about investing in real estate, if you've if you have a business, if you have big goals, just decide and take action and and go for it. Mhmm. Because it's you're just one decision away from changing the trajectory of your entire life. I know going to that seminar five years ago changed my life forever.

Steve: Yeah. Well, that's a big thing. You know? I know we're supposed to wrap up here, but, like, this is something I struggle with. So we look at that service provider, you wanna call it.

Right? And it feels a little scammy. Right? But if it didn't exist, you wouldn't necessarily be here. You might be here.

You might not be here. You don't know for sure. RJ Bates. Right? He talked about it, on one of our, partner disruption episodes.

Right? He talked about, like, he felt like he got scammed by $60,000 for by a guru for $60,000. But would he have continued moving forward if he didn't have to pay his mom back? Right? It's a good point.

We don't know. So, myself personally, I I got out to my eyes in credit card debt in building my business. Right? I went all in on me. Who are we to say you shouldn't go all in on yourself?

Right? So it's just it it's a struggle. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. It's a struggle. This is just this spectrum here.

Michael: That's really good. It's bet on yourself. It's the if it's decide, and and know that the decision that you're making could have consequences. Right. I'm not telling you guys to go put $45,000 on credit cards when you don't have the money to pay it back.

In fact, I don't recommend it. You might lose some sleep. But We

Steve: I don't recommend it either, but it's also hard to tell someone not to do it. It's like

Michael: I know. No. I I I hear you. Yeah. I think you gotta have skin in the game.

Steve: Yeah. I think you absolutely have to have skin in the game. How can someone get ahold of you?

Michael: Yeah. So you can check me out on Instagram. It's, Michael Mcdonald, r e I, and you can check my website out. It's the virtualmillionaires.com. We talked about being able to give back and help people out.

Yeah. Can we talk about the special link? Sure.

Steve: Yeah. Go ahead.

Michael: So I'm giving away, just a entry level course for for investors. It's the virtualmillionaires.com, for Steve's listeners, slash r e d, and you can grab a free course right there.

Steve: Awesome. Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Michael: Absolutely, man. Pleasure.

Steve: For sure. Thank you guys for watching. See you guys tomorrow on PTD.