Increase Net Profits by 57% with Wholesaling – $1.4 MM in 1 Market

Steve Trang: Everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of real estate disruptors. Today, we have Sean Zabry with Greenlight Offer, another rock star coming in from Houston, Texas to talk about how he kept 50% of his revenue last year doing 1.4 mil in just one market. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, sales trainer for some of the top wholesalers in the country, and I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires. One question I get a lot is how do I become one of the 100 millionaires?

The information on this podcast alone is enough to help you become millionaire in the next five to seven years. All you need to do is take consistent action. You will become one. When you hear nugget, please type it in the comment section below. And after the show, identify your single biggest takeaway and focus on just

Sean Zavary: that for the next seven days. If you

Steve: get value out of the show today, please tag a friend below or share this episode right now. That way we can all grow together. And this is a live show, so please ask your questions for Sean to answer. You ready?

Sean: Yes, sir. Let's get it cracking.

Steve: Alright. So first question is what got you into real estate?

Sean: What got me into real estate? So it was about five years ago. By the grace of God, man, I got in. I wish I had this episode. And, basically, I come from a background, family business background.

Did a furniture company. It's a well known furniture company in in Houston, about seven, eight locations in town. So I was working with them for about seven, eight years, years, doing everything from accounts payable to accounts receivable to, you know, delivery manager, warehouse manager, sales, all that good stuff.

Steve: A lot of hats.

Sean: A lot of hats. A lot of hats.

Steve: And it was So it was your parents' business?

Sean: Yeah. It was my parents' business. And, they started back in '98. And, it was great, man. It taught me a lot.

But, you know, it really, I really stopped enjoying going to work. I just didn't like the furniture business. I didn't didn't see myself doing that for the rest of my life. So I was actually in still in college at that time where I was having these thoughts. And, my girlfriend at the time, now she and my wife, we're sitting there just trying to, you know, think of what what can I get into?

Right? And, obviously, wearing all those hats, I know that the best the best position that I enjoy the most was sales. I love talking to people. I love connecting with individuals. So we're like, alright.

We'll go we know it's gonna be in the sales industry. So where? And she randomly said, well, why don't you get into, you know, real estate? My my she used to work she used to work for a broker. Oh, no.

Not a broker. A builder. Meritage Homes. And she said, why don't you get into the real estate industry? My boss made, like, over 900 ks last year.

And I was like, she made 900 ks last year selling homes? She's like, yeah. I was like

Steve: Revenue. Well Whatever.

Sean: Well, real estate is. Let's go to real estate. So, my plan was to be a real estate agent. I liked watching HGTV shows. I'm a fix and flip houses.

I'm a first get step in you know, get in the door by, being an agent and then just flip houses and started researching real estate and whatnot. And as I was researching real estate, I guess the algorithms from Google pushed to Instagram. Mhmm. And, Nick Ruiz popped up on my newsfeed. Heard of him?

Steve: Of course.

Sean: Yeah. Yeah. He's popped up on newsfeed talking about wholesaling. And I was like, what is this? So he's talking about, you know, selling contracts, not having to buy the houses.

And I was like, this is real estate. This is real estate investing. This is, you know, flipping properties. I'm like, all right. So bought his book, and, he had a course out.

And that's what I'm telling you about the grace of God, man, because this course was $2 in that same month. In the month of May, it was for he was running a promo for $2. So I bought it and, basically watched a few videos on his course. But what I kept watching was the testimonials that his students were writing, like how they had big checks and what and that's kind of what made me a believer in the system. So I just started taking action, read his book, and putting bad news signs up.

And from there, it went on.

Steve: So working in the family business, you started working at what age?

Sean: When I was a senior in high school. My dad wanted me to get a job. He just didn't want me to come into the family business. He wanted me to get an outside job so I can kinda learn, like, how to clock in, clock out, being on time. So I used to work at Chuck E.

Cheese, actually. I was the best Chuck E. In town.

Steve: Oh, you were Chuck E?

Sean: Oh, yeah. Because whenever whoever was game room attendants, like, as in the ones who were fixed the games and delivered, like, the buzz boys, we had to be Chucky as well.

Steve: Oh, awesome. Definitely not gonna let my kids watch this episode.

Sean: Chucky, they changed up Chucky a little bit. Now Chucky's really skinny, and he he doesn't look like the same anymore. I took my nieces there a few few months ago, and I was like, this is not the same. It's not the same

Steve: for you. Your family had the business already.

Sean: Yeah. You

Steve: had to go work somewhere else before you can come and work for your family. Right. And then you did that for a couple of years.

Sean: I did that for a few I did that for about nine or ten months.

Steve: Nine or ten months.

Sean: Worked at Chuck E. Cheese.

Steve: Oh, no. No. I'm talking about with your family.

Sean: Oh, my family. I worked there for seven years.

Steve: Seven years. Yeah. Okay. And then what kind of money were you making? Because this is leaving a family business is not like an easy decision.

Sean: Right.

Steve: Right? So what kind of money were you making at that time?

Sean: I was making good money. And I was making good money. I mean, I was It was My bills were paid, which I didn't have much because I was living at home. I was still in college. But, what type of money I was making, I think it was $4,000 or $5,000 a month.

Steve: Okay.

Sean: Depending on what position I was doing, right? Because like I said, when I was in sales, then it was I would get the salary and then I'll get commission on top. Do you know what a SPIFF is?

Steve: Of course. Of course. Of course. But you should explain it.

Sean: Yeah. SPIFF is basically like incentives, right? Bonuses. So, it's like whoever can get x amount this month or this today, who can get five sales today, gets the extra $500 And this is when I knew I was really good at sales, because whenever my brother would say because he's the one the sales operation guy. When he was like, hey, we're doing spiffs for, you know, Tuesday, you get this many sales, you make this much bonus, that would kinda just fire me up.

And I would become first or second place in the spiff. My brother would never pay me out just because he was like, we'll pay the other guy. You know, just cause, I guess, just for morale.

Steve: Yeah. It looks

Sean: bad. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So that's when I knew sales.

Like, I was like, alright. This is something I like.

Steve: So and you mentioned earlier, like, you were in college when you were having these thoughts. So what were the expectation from your family? Were the expectations that Sean was gonna go to college, get a degree, get a good job? Or was his expectation to work in the family business?

Sean: It was whatever Sean wanted, to be honest. I mean, I I've I come from a family background, a family, like hardworking family background. So they said that I can't work at the furniture store if I don't have a degree.

Steve: Okay.

Sean: At that time, I was not I've never been too fond of school. But my dad was like, you're not gonna be able to work with us if you don't have a degree. I'm like, dad, I don't need a degree to work here. He was like, yeah, you do.

Steve: Doesn't matter.

Sean: Yeah, he was like, that was his push to, you know, you can't just fall on the family business. We need you to complete school. Yeah. So, yeah, it was it was the thing was just to stick with the family business. That would that was

Steve: But it wasn't be an engineer, an accountant No. Or or attorney or or doctor.

Sean: No. That was an expectation. Because that's the general Asian Yeah.

Steve: Middle Eastern, you know, that part of the country Right. Or part of the Asian Yeah. Middle Eastern, you know, that part of the country Right. Or part of the world. Okay.

So you were to go to college, and then what was your intention going to college? Was it to because and the reason I'm asking this question, because a lot of our audience is like, should I go to college? Is college the right thing? Right? So just kinda wanna answer that question a little bit is when you were in college, was it to, after you get your degree, work in family business?

Or was it like were there other directions? Or what were the

Sean: basically so it took me about six years to finish college. From year one to five or five and a half, it was get a degree and work with family business for the rest of my life and grow that. Because it's an empire, right? I'm talking about 50,000 square feet warehouse stores, seven stores. It's huge.

Well known in the Houston market. So it was it was just work, you know, get a degree and then work with the family business and just grow that.

Steve: Okay. And then when you started having second thoughts, it was because this work thing is not as fun as it. Yeah. Right? But it's not like you get into real estate and it's easy.

No. Right? So, I mean, what was that was it harder than you expected? Or do you just, like, you already had that grind in you, so, like, this is easy?

Sean: I had the grind in me. I come from working twelve to fifteen hours a day.

Steve: Gotcha.

Sean: It was it was my family did not treat me like it was not like, oh, you know, you're one of the bosses. You know, you can only work six hours. It was like, no, you're one of the bosses. You work twelve, fifteen hours. Right?

So that's what I'm saying. I come from a background where it's just put your head down and grind.

Steve: Gotcha.

Sean: And so when I came into the real estate world, putting bandit signs at two, three, 04:00 in the morning was nothing to me. Like, this is what I do. Yeah. You know, this is this is this is we come from the work ethic.

Steve: It's not a grind. This is just normal.

Sean: Yeah. This is this is this is it. We got we put our heads down. We work.

Steve: Okay. So when did you make your leap? What year was it?

Sean: 2016, as soon as I graduated college.

Steve: Okay. And then we were talking earlier. So you you joined boardroom at some point. Right. So that was and it wasn't that much later from 2016.

Sean: Right.

Steve: So let's talk about your your first deal. What was your very how'd you get your first deal?

Sean: It's from Bandit Signs. Okay. Bandit Signs.

Steve: Alright. And the Bandit Signs, you learned that from picking Nick's course?

Sean: Yeah. Nick's course. And, basically, it was Nick's course and Sean Terry flipped to freedom. Mhmm. That was in my ear twenty four seven.

Steve: Yeah. Which is great. I mean, he Sean Terry influenced a ton of people. The pioneer. Alright.

So bandit signs, two, 03:00 in the morning. How was your first deal?

Sean: Basically so those bandit signs that we put up, miss Ruby called me. I still remember her name. Ruby Davis. So she called me. She said that she had a, a house to sell, and it was not a livable house.

And it was her grandmother's house, and she wanted me to check it out and whatnot. And I was just her grandmother's house and she wanted me to check it out and whatnot and I was just excited to get the call. And I was like, all right, yeah, I'll come check it out. You know, I'll come tomorrow and x, y, and z. So went to the house and it was in the Houston area.

So it was kinda like in, it's called Independent Heights in the Houston. It's very close to 610 Loop. So it's a high demanding, high desirable area. But at that time, I didn't really know what that area was, what was going on. So I got to the house.

We couldn't even get into the house. It was just it was condemned. Basically, I just it was a railroad right behind it. And she was there, and she was like, what would you give me for this? And I'm like, this looks like a teardown to me.

And she was like, yeah, I think it is. And I'm like, okay, what do you want want for it? And she was like, well, it's behind, I think she said it's behind like 14 or 15,000 in taxes. So, I said, okay. And she was like, and there's three of us, so we will be okay with walking away with like, you know, 5 ks each.

And so that was like 15, so I was like, that's 30. I was like, what if we do, you know? Obviously, we negotiated, got it under contract for twenty, twenty one, twenty two thousand. So, got it under contract for like twenty two thousand. I didn't have a contract at that time.

She was like, all right, I was like, I'm gonna come back to your house, I'll come to your house and we'll fill out the contract and kinda go from there. And so, she left, took some pictures of the inside and outside of the house, just outside basically from the windows. And then I started driving around. And I used to do a lot of driving for dollars. So driving for dollars, Direct Mail, and Bandwidthsands, those were my three marketing channels when I got started.

So I was driving around, driving for dollars because, you know, my podcast, Sean Terry's, like whenever you go to appointments, drive around, right? Look for other houses. So I'm driving around, I see a for sale by owner sign. So I'm like, all right, so let me call this person. So I call for sale by owner sign.

I'm like, hey, driving around, we just picked up a house on the same street. How much are you looking to sell your house for? He's like, no, it's not the house that I'm selling. I'm selling the lot. I'm like, what lot?

I mean, there's no lot. They're like, yeah, that little, little lot right there. I'm like, how big? I'm like, that's like a 1,500, 2,000 square foot lot. He's like, yeah.

I'm like, oh man. I'm like, no, I'm not interested, man. He was like, so he was like, yeah, do you have any other properties? I'm like, yeah, I do. I'm like, are you a buyer?

He goes, yeah, I buy real estate. So I'm like, all right, well, I got this other house that I just picked up, on x you know, I told the address, I think it was 322 East 37th Street. And he said, okay. How much are you asking for it? And I'm like, oh, crap.

And he was gonna ask this question. I don't know. I have no idea. So I was like, I don't know. How much do you want for it?

And that's what I always learned. I always knew to never give your price first. Right? I'm like, how much do you want for it? He's like, well, let me come look at it and then, you know, we'll go from there.

And I'm like, alright. He said, I'll be there in about twenty minutes. I'm I live real I live nearby. So at that time, I got the contract printed because I didn't even have this house under contract yet. So he comes and he was, he looks at it and he was like, All right, everything looks good.

I'll give you 40 ks for it. And I'm like, 40 ks? That was 18 ks right there. I'm like, okay, done. Right?

So literally, and within an hour I didn't even have this under contract yet because I didn't go to her house. He came before. So he's like, all right, let's go to the title company and let's do all the paperwork. I'm like, well, I gotta go somewhere. Let me just meet you up in an hour or two.

And he says, no, man. He's really being really urgent. And now he's like, I'm I'm going on a fishing trip tomorrow. I need to do this today. I said, alright.

Don't worry about it. We'll meet around five or 6PM and we'll get everything taken care of. Meanwhile, I went to miss Ruby's house, signed the contract, called, and I was like, alright. We're ready to go. He put the earnest money deposit down.

Everything was ready. And, so, yeah, signed the deal within the same day. So

Steve: That's Pretty smooth deal.

Sean: Yeah, that was smooth deal on the first end of it. But then this first deal that I put under contract was not my first deal I closed on. Got it. It was my third deal I closed on. Mhmm.

Because there was a lot of title issues. There was a lot of, you know, basically a lot of title issues. And by the time I was ready to sell this property, when the title got clear, the buyer didn't have funds to close on this property. So he was like, Sean, I don't have funds to close on this property. And I said, okay.

He's like, so can we, like he's like, I'm gonna tell you the and at at that time, it was like two, three months in, and I kinda knew more numbers about that. And I knew I had gave it to him for a low price. I'm like, alright. How much do you want from this deal? He's like, if I walk away with 5 or 6 k, I'll be alright.

And I said, alright. So I reassigned it. So I gave so 46, 47. He was gonna walk away with 46, 47, and I reassigned it to someone else for 55. So I got That

Steve: was awfully generous on your part.

Sean: Yeah. So so yeah. So that's kinda how we did it. So he got yeah.

Steve: So your first so the the one with miss Ruby and the first and the FSBO guy, that was your first closing?

Sean: No, that was my first deal I put under contract. Not my first deal that I closed on. My first deal I closed on was driving for dollars.

Steve: Okay, so that guy that was going on that fishing trip, that was the guy that had the bill?

Sean: Yeah, he had to He didn't have He had funds. He said that he used some funds and me and him still have a relationship till this day.

Steve: Okay. How funny.

Sean: Yeah. Shababy is what I call him.

Steve: So you start off, hit the ground running, right, in 2016.

Sean: Right.

Steve: And it didn't seem like it was very long then. Then you sign up for the boardroom, which is a mastermind. Right. That was a pretty quick jump, pretty fast. Like, not not many people like, let me start wholesaling.

Let me check out this thing on on Instagram or Facebook and then turn into joining a mastermind. What's the thought process behind that?

Sean: So it was '20 was it 2016 or 2017 when I went to Sean Terry's Flip to Freedom event that he has here in Phoenix? And at that time, Kent was there. Kent Clothier was there as well. Few Justin Kobe was there and they did a presentation about Boardroom Elite. And, you know, when you're in sales, you close on easily.

Closers get closed easily. Right?

Steve: Closers are definitely the easiest to

Sean: close. Yeah. So I mean, I got closed. They closed me. They're like, dude, I'm done, let's go.

So that's kind of where at that event, I signed up, but I didn't sign up. I had a, I think they had stopped working for her builder. She was an assistant for the builder sales rep, and she came on and hopped on with us in January. And then I told her about boardroom, and she was like, this is something that we need. We need direction.

Mhmm. So that's when we signed up in January 2017.

Steve: It's amazing. It was a very quick jump. So you went from working with your family, thinking about getting a license, bypassing that, wholesaling

Sean: Mhmm.

Steve: And joining a mastermind.

Sean: Yeah. In the middle of that, I was actually trying so basically when I grad So when I graduated, I graduated college on like May 16. Mhmm. May 14, somewhere around the May 14 or May 16. And my first band or something I put out was May 31.

So it was about, what was that, fourteen days, two weeks? In those two weeks I tried another business, which was credit card processing.

Steve: Okay.

Sean: Where you sell credit card.

Steve: That's a super competitive business.

Sean: Yeah, so I tried that for about a week, week and a half, and I was like, oh, I can't do this. Not that I can't do that. I was like, I don't wanna do this.

Steve: That's another brutal business where you're Yeah. A lot of cold calling, but it's b to b.

Sean: It was business it was door it was basically door to door to door that I was

Steve: I had

Sean: a suit on, and I was like, hey.

Steve: That's gotta be nice in

Sean: Yeah, right? In May, May 2016, summertime. So Yeah. And then asking the most uncomfortable about that business was meeting someone and then ten or fifteen minutes later when they're like, all right, what's your rate? And be like, well, I can't give you a rate until you give me your credit card statements.

You're like, you owe my credit card statements. You just walked in my door fifteen minutes ago. Yeah. So that was the most difficult part of that business and that's where I was like, maybe this is not the I was like, let's go back to Nick Ruiz.

Steve: Yeah. Gotcha. Alright. So then you you how many deals did you think you closed in 'sixteen?

Sean: About seven. Seven to eight.

Steve: Pretty rock solid start. Joined the Mastermind. What happened next?

Sean: Structure. It was it was it was 2017. It was just me and my my wife, and we were just rocking and rolling. We're just the main part of the mastermind was getting around other individuals and knowing what the possibility was of this business. Right?

Like seeing other rock stars doing, like, enormous numbers, doing amazing things. It was really mindset.

Steve: Mhmm. It was

Sean: really mindset that helped me out. I didn't even start building a team in 2017. It was just me and her just putting our heads down and just working. I really started building a team in 2018.

Steve: Got it.

Sean: So it was just really more of the mindset and just kind of being the technician at that time.

Steve: So along the way, what were some of your early struggles? Whether doing your first deals, being a small team, building a team, what were some of your biggest struggles in the early process?

Sean: In the early process, the biggest struggles, I would say, was consistency on the on the deal flows coming in. We did a fair amount of deals actually, but just having that and, actually, I take that back. It was more mindset on marketing consistently. Right? Because I'm like, I gotta I'm spending $1,015,000 a month.

I mean, I have I don't have a deal coming in yet or I have this deal coming in two months. Like, that the mindset of like, should I stop marketing right now and then wait for that deal to come in and go? But what I learned in the mastermind was I never stop marketing. Mhmm. So it was really just the battle of stop marketing.

You don't have The CEOs are not in yet or continue marketing. So it was just a mindset of just keep going.

Steve: Yeah. I love it. Dean Graziosi calls it marketing stamina.

Sean: Mhmm.

Steve: And, you see it eventually, right, as you mature.

Sean: Yeah.

Steve: But in the beginning Yeah. It it's hard to stomach the idea of spending money every single month not knowing Right. If it's gonna pay off.

Sean: It's an investment, man. It's it's a huge investment. You're you're betting yourself on on data or just, you know, know, the marketing channels. Right. But, yeah, what really helped us was was the bandit signs in 2037, 2018.

It was just we were putting 400 bandit signs a week. Well, not us, but we were hiring individuals.

Steve: And And then around sometime in '18, someone reached out to me. I'm like, you gotta get Sean on the show. And I begged you. You wouldn't come. Right?

And so but we talked about it before the show Yeah. What it was. Yeah. So wanna talk about that conversation. What was it, you know, when I reached out to you before that you didn't feel like it was the right time?

Sean: Yeah. It was actually 2019 when you reached out and I had a team at that time, but I was still there was a lot going on. Right. Building a team, training, onboarding, getting the systems and processes in place. I wasn't ready yet.

I mean, my mind wasn't there. I mean, I was still There was a lot going on. Still, I mean, a lot going on. I mean, that's how life is. You know, you got things going on.

But I just didn't feel like I was credible enough to come on real estate disruptors.

Steve: Well, and I think because part of the thing too is like, you know, just like stepping out, right, leaving your team to function without you. And this is something I just wanna highlight for everyone that's, you know, watching is that this is the aspiration. This is the goal, right, to be able to build a business that doesn't rely you rely on you a 100% of the time. Now it's gonna rely on you, but it's a 100%. Maybe, like, 10% of the time.

Right? Where you're coming in, kinda like the surgeon. Like, Sean, we got this problem. We need you we need your insight. We need your experience involved in this.

But 95% of the business doesn't need Sean.

Sean: Right.

Steve: Right? And at that time in 2019, you didn't feel the business was sturdy enough for you to leave for two days.

Sean: Yeah. So And I think you mentioned, I heard you're the king of Houston. I was like, No, man. I'm no king. There are bigger players here.

Steve: So All right. So then we talked about, there's two things. So A, one market and B, super profitable. I think we'll lead first with let's talk about building a super profitable business. Because this is one of those businesses, and I'm just gonna talk about me a little bit.

I left, not left, but transitioned, right, in my focus from the traditional business to the whole wholesaling business. Because, what I saw was there's a lot of ego, a lot of, like, man, these guys are doing really big numbers. But then you look behind the curtain and it's like, well, they're doing big numbers, but they're not keeping a lot of it. This is we see a lot of ego, a lot of chest puffing, but not a lot of take home.

Sean: Right.

Steve: Which is really cool in the beginning, but as you get a little older, take home's a little bit more important

Sean: For sure.

Steve: Than revenue. So I was like, well, let me let's look at wholesaling, because now it's a business. You don't have to worry about the puffing, you know, the ego, and the flash, and whatever, and you learn very quickly. No. That's not true at all.

It's the exit it's even worse.

Sean: Even worse.

Steve: Right? And so let's talk about profitability, because I think that's something that, I like to harp on. I don't think it's talked about enough. So let's talk about the profitability component. How do you run a profitable business that's more than 50%?

Because I think most of them are in the 15% to 25% profitability.

Sean: Really?

Steve: I think so. So let's talk about I mean, even getting north of 50% is admirable. So how did you do it?

Sean: Like I was telling Larry, I mean, thanks to COVID, to be honest, man, we cut out all our fat I mean, I had a huge team, around 2019, 2020. I had, a sales team of, like, seven guys and gals. I had one girl. And I had a dispo, a transactional coordinator. So we had a lot of And then to feed them too, right?

You had marketing expenses to allow You had

Steve: to spend to feed.

Sean: You had to spend to feed. So when we looked at our numbers, January or February 2020 and a lot of 2019, we were spending a good amount of marketing. I mean, we're spending anywhere close to 40 just on marketing. You have to understand there's marketing expenses and there's operational expenses and you got payroll expenses. Combine all those up and you know, you gotta get a few deals too.

You get a little uncomfortable. Right, exactly. So, our team got leaner. Right? A lot of services that we didn't need, we cut that out.

So what we really what really played a big role into our net profit increasing, to that plus 50% is the follow-up agents that we have on board right now. So, basically, they're we call them junior acquisitions as well. So what they're doing is they're prospecting. They're calling individuals who haven't picked up the phone, you know, Someone that we missed a follow-up date on. Someone we sent a contract but hasn't signed or just ghosted us.

They're calling those individuals, those sellers. And whenever they get them on the phone, seeing if they're still looking to sell, ask a few other pre qualifying questions, seeing if they're ballpark prices in our ballpark price and then do a live transfer to our senior acquisition, the closers. So right now, currently we have two senior acquisitions and one transactional coordinatordisposition agent. She's two and one. Because I feel like that position goes hand in hand.

If you can All you really need to do is have a VA market it out for you to email and all that, especially with the hot market right now. And then you just take the incoming calls, lock up the deal, and then that's when the transactional role comes in where you send the assignment contract and kinda get the deposit and and you get the clear title. So currently right now, there's four of us in in office, including myself. So payroll expenses kinda went down. The operational expenses where we didn't need this service, where we were like, why are we using this service?

You know, it was a lot of stuff that during quarantine, when I was like, man, I don't need this service.

Steve: A lot of vendors felt that hurt.

Sean: Yeah. I don't need this. I don't need that. I got this, this, this is the same thing. I have PropStream and Propelio.

Why do I have both of them? So not to throw any shots out. I mean, just, you know.

Steve: A lot of service providers got hurt.

Sean: Yeah.

Steve: That's the reality. It was that everyone was looking at their credit card statements, like, do I still need this? Do I still still need this? So we were expecting to get hurt. We didn't get hurt.

But the people that we pay every month

Sean: Right.

Steve: On a SaaS model

Sean: Right.

Steve: They felt that pain.

Sean: Subscriptions. That can really rack it up. But yeah, so that's kind of what helped us, become, you know, a really our net profits go up.

Steve: So let's talk about then, you know, the follow-up agents. Sounds like you call them follow-up agents. I hear other people call them lead managers. Because it sounds like they're nurturing component. Am am I off base here?

Sean: Yeah. They're they're nurturing. Yeah.

Steve: They're nurturing. So Mhmm. Let's talk lead managers. I just

Sean: don't like to call someone in that position a manager.

Steve: Okay. What's the thought process behind that?

Sean: Because they're remote. They're they're basically part of our cold calling company. Mhmm. If you call them a my opinion, whenever you call someone a lead manager or a a manager, then they feel like they they they need more than what you what you give them.

Steve: Gotcha. So it's kinda like the opposite where, like, everyone at a bank is the vice president. Yeah. Like, every person at a bank is the vice president of something. Exactly.

Gotcha. Okay. So, compensation, you know, what do you how do you, pay someone that's in a junior acquisition role that tees it up for an acquisition person? What do you pay the junior person? What do you pay the acquisition person?

Sean: Yeah. That's the sweet spot. So basically, they are they're from our cold calling company. Mhmm. We're paying our cold callers $5 an hour.

Mhmm. So we're paying our lead our follow-up agents $5 an hour. Gotcha. And then we'll give them a bonus every time. So they have they have KPIs as well.

They're part of our team. So we have I have one on ones with them as well each week. They're part of our sales training as well. So whenever if they're able to do, you know, their their their, KPIs are doing at least five live transfers a week. Mhmm.

Right? And then, if when $75 bonus for them, which is amazing to them.

Steve: So I'm assuming that they're not in Houston.

Sean: No. They're not. They're they're in Costa Rica.

Steve: Gotcha. Okay. And then your acquisition guys. Yeah. What are you paying them?

Sean: They're paying, $2,000 a month salary Mhmm. Plus the incentive of $500 bonus if they're able to reach their numbers, their KPI numbers as in contracts, you know, contracts per week, minutes talked, number of processes. So they get a $500 bonus if they're able to reach their numbers. Mhmm. And that's 7% commission.

Steve: That's awesome. So you get a 2,000 base, 500 for doing what you're supposed to be doing.

Sean: Yeah. Exactly.

Steve: And then 7%.

Sean: 7%.

Steve: Awesome. Yeah.

Sean: And then, you know, we do spiffs every month. I mean, every week, basically.

Steve: Very cool. And I think the Dispo thing, and transaction coordinator, right, like, it's an interesting role. Because I I agree with you. Your person doing dispo can do transaction coordinating. But I think also at this exact moment in our market, dispo is not as hard.

It's not as hard. Right?

Sean: Right.

Steve: Right right now. Yeah. But that could change

Sean: Yeah.

Steve: In December. Yeah. Okay. So then

Sean: what about your

Steve: marketing then? Right? To get the kind of volume because I don't think we talk about units. So what kind of units and what kind of marketing channels do you have to do to get there? Units?

You mean How many transactions a year?

Sean: Last year, we did 104.

Steve: Okay. And what kind of marketing did you have to do to yield that?

Sean: Roughly ranges anywhere from between 15 to 20,000. So I'll say about, like, seventeen, eighteen average in marketing. Mhmm. And that's including data. We're doing cold calling.

Currently, right now, present day, cold calling, SMS, and radio.

Steve: Radio.

Sean: We just started doing radio in January. It's been a hit.

Steve: Awesome. Very cool. Yeah. Not a lot of people are talking about radio.

Sean: I know.

Steve: It's very cool.

Sean: That really comes from the furniture background because

Steve: That makes sense.

Sean: My brother is all over the radio, all over TV. It gives you that celebrity status. And that's what, that's kinda like the mindset I had going into it. I'm like, you know, how do you differentiate your marketing channels from your other, you know, friends and competitors? And no one's really doing radio.

Steve: And then the other thing we're talking about in just one market, it's it's interesting because virtual became very sexy, sexy, particularly, like it was already sexy, you know, before COVID, but then everyone with COVID, right? You're doing everything virtual now.

Sean: Right.

Steve: So that became more attractive. Right. But you're gung ho. You're shoving all your chips in in Houston. Yeah.

Let's talk about that.

Sean: Yeah. I just feel like it's and we tried doing virtual model, which we we did a couple deals in Jacksonville, Florida. Mhmm. So that was our secondary market that we were gonna dive into. And we started that January 2020.

And we started that, we had a couple deals under contract and then COVID hit. And a lot of of the buyers in Jacksonville went stale. Nothing like Houston. Houston buyers, they're still buying. Jacksonville was like, oh, we need to buy at 60%, 55%.

So at that time I told my dispo guy, let's Let's just try to sell these deals for what we have them under contract for. We couldn't even sell them what we had under contract for. So, we just dropped Jacksonville and we just went really deep and narrow into Houston. And we're just like, it's a huge city. You know, and we also It's a

Steve: beautiful state.

Sean: Yeah. And we also went from the whole quantity in deals to quality in deals. So our assignments went up as well. Assignment fees went up in 2020, 2021, and they're actually even higher. So we're actually focusing more on quality rather than quantity.

So rather than focusing on, you know, 10 to 12 transactions a month, we're gonna be focusing on, you know, five to seven or five to eight transaction, but bigger deals. Just working smarter, not harder at

Steve: What are you doing to get larger spreads?

Sean: Sales training. You know, it's a mindset. It's a mindset thing. It's like, hey. We're not gonna we're all for this.

We're gonna all for this.

Steve: And then what was your average fee in '19? And what's your average fee now?

Sean: 19 was 11. 2,019 was 11. 2,020 was 14. And 2021, I haven't checked, but it has to be in, like, the 20 range.

Steve: That's good. Good. That's huge.

Sean: Yeah. Especially with the where the market is right now. And we're getting excited and seeing over asking Yeah. From my dispo.

Steve: That's fantastic right now. Yeah. Are you flipping at all or just wholesale?

Sean: No. We we tried the whole flipping thing. Just wasn't our cup of tea. Mhmm. Would and then the hoteling as well, but I just like the wholesaling.

I just do what works. Alright. And it's working, so might as well keep doing it.

Steve: Makes sense. So what does your organization look like today? And we talked about, you. Your wife is still involved in business. Yeah.

You got an acquisition. Two Two acquisitions. Two acquisitions. You got a dispo transaction coordinator. Two, follow-up agents.

Two follow-up agents.

Sean: And then two VAs in The Philippines. And Gotcha. One of my VAs, Michelle, she's been with us. She's my first hire. So they do KPIs.

They do the s m they do SMS. They do the, the underwriting as in on on pro on Podio. A lot of, like, admin tasks. Yeah. Michelle and Hazel do.

Steve: Now there are a lot of people in Houston. They've been on the show. Right?

Sean: Right.

Steve: And I know even more, right, that haven't been on the show.

Sean: Mhmm. For sure.

Steve: What separates you from all of them?

Sean: What separates me or my company? Both. Both? So what separates my company from them, I would obviously say it's our core values. Right?

I mean, I don't think they have the same core values as us. Work ethic. Right? Just because like like I said, it would come from a background that is just, you know, grind, which I'm kind of changing that the whole mindset has changed a little bit. It's more working smarter, not harder, especially with, like I was telling you, having a daughter now and life changes.

But yeah, I would say it's, we're not trying to get rich off of one deal. There's been numerous times where after closing, instead of price dropping a seller, we gave them more because we were like, we made a good amount on this assignment fee. Let's give them a little bit more. That's awesome. So that's part of our core value integrity.

Right? Faith, man. Honestly. That's what separates me from I mean, I'm sure other investors, competitors, friends, they have faith as well, but, you know, my relationship with God is different.

Steve: What are your core values?

Sean: We have faith, integrity, work ethic, fearless, and teamwork.

Steve: I haven't heard fearless before. Let's talk about that.

Sean: Fearless, man. Yeah. That's a good one. I love it. I love fearless.

Fearless, man. So fearless works on every part division of the company. Right? So you got acquisition of a marketing part. Let's start with the let's start with the marketing part.

Marketing part, fearless. You gotta be fearless when you're spending these marketing dollars. You gotta have faith that it's, you know, you're gonna spend this money, and it's hopefully gonna come back. So the fearless best part for that, marketing department. Acquisition, fearless on giving offers.

Don't be scared of these sellers, like, when you give them a lower offer. Like, I see a lot of my acquisition guys or just acquisition guys in general. They're like, you know, okay. I'll I'll give you a callback with an offer. But they don't give an offer because they're they're scared that the seller is gonna react a certain way if they give them a lower offer.

Yeah. So fearless on giving offers, Fearless on basically asking certain questions on, you know, those what's the situation? What's going on? You know, or, you know, why? And then you're asking questions as in so, you know, how long has that been going on for?

You know, things of that nature. Being fearless in acquisition department. Disposition department, fearless of the buyers. Buyers can intimidate you. They can feel they can make you feel like you work for them or that you need them more than they need you.

So being fearless on that part of it. Transactional coordinating, being fearless, you know, being fearless with the sellers by making sure that they give, you know, the correct paperwork and you they're giving you the correct information, things of that nature. So I love it.

Steve: I mean, it kinda goes back to the mindset thing you were talking about in the very

Sean: beginning. Alright.

Steve: Alright. Just having that mindset. Right. So that's huge. So we're going to some of these questions.

I love the first question is, what did you major in?

Sean: What we're doing right now, communications. I I went in for business, business supply chain management, that's what I went in for. I minored in that, I just The whole stats and math stuff didn't sit well with me.

Steve: It happened to sit well with you.

Sean: Yeah. Come on. The whole x, y, and z, man. The numbers. When they put when they put numbers in math, it's just like, oh, well, I thought it was addition and subtraction and multiplication.

Steve: The background, you can't have to be good at math. Yeah. Well, Ben wants to know what's your favorite mastermind?

Sean: What was my favorite mastermind? Mhmm. I mean, all of them were good, man. Like like I'd said before the show, I would've been in Sean Terry and Kent Clothier's, Elite. I've been in the DM family with Mark Evans.

That was great. That was a different mastermind. It was not focused on wholesaling. It was more focused on business, entrepreneurship, on being on kind of manifesting what you want in life and, not the who, but the how. Right?

Steve: And

Sean: Mark focuses a lot on that. Tenant CEO. But, yeah, that and, I've been in Carlos since I was executive elite. That was that really helped me structure my business on the correct paper. That really helped me focus on my business, my wholesaling business as an actual business, the onboarding part, the paperwork, the non competes, non disclosures, everything like that.

Yeah, man. Just the mastermind, you can basically It really depends on the person, right? And it depends on what stage you're at in life.

Steve: That's really important.

Sean: Yeah. So, you know, you gotta really research on the mastermind and really research on the people who are in the mastermind. Because if you can't connect with them, then it's kinda pointless.

Steve: Yeah. Because

Sean: that's what you get in the mastermind for.

Steve: That's the most valuable part. Right. Shardae wants to know, how did you create, structure, and automate your business?

Sean: Just going through it. You just gotta go through it, man. It's the process. It's the process. But I would say, leaning on, it's just copy and pasting.

What's working? So there's two parts to that answer. So the one is just going through it, and two is seeing what works for other individuals and trying it for yourself Mhmm. And and kinda doing that.

Steve: Yeah. I love I love copying and pasting from other business owners.

Sean: Don't don't try to, like, people say this all the time, but don't try to reinvent the wheel, especially in this business. I mean, you don't have to. It's in all businesses. It's just

Steve: There's so many people to learn from. Why would you try to invent something from scratch?

Sean: That's why I don't I don't know why they they don't allow cheating in school anymore. No.

Steve: I'm kidding. Just kidding. I mean, the ones that did well did cheat in different ways. Seth Hardy wants to know, how did you structure your marketing campaign in the earlier part in your in your business, maybe when you didn't have as much funds to work with?

Sean: A lot of it was, was my time driving for dollars, putting bandit signs on my own. Mhmm. My wife and I, we would she would drive. I would jump out of the car and put the bandit signs. So it was a lot of my time since the funds, you know, was I was on a shoelace budget.

Yeah. Right? So writing letters, sending posts not really postcode, it was just writing letters. I would just print papers out and just write my initial on the bottom and just send it out, until I started getting some deals coming in. When I started getting some deals coming in, then I always learned that it's 15 to 20%, marketing of what you're getting.

So if I would make let's just say, for example, I'm I'm not I'm not gonna make this in my early stages, but just for number's sake, a $100,000. And I know 15 to $20,000 is going to marketing. So I can structure it in that way.

Steve: That's good.

Sean: Learning from the masterminds, obviously.

Steve: And Matt Smith wants to know how much did you net?

Sean: How much did I net? Mhmm. And what?

Steve: I guess for 2020.

Sean: So you guys, you know, pull out your calculator and

Steve: 57% of 1.4.

Sean: 57% of 1.4.

Steve: Juan was also also wants to know, do you do any creative financing or any term deals?

Sean: We do subject to. We do subject to deals. We haven't got into the owner financing part of it, which I love that part of it, but I just just haven't got into it.

Steve: Brian Tapia wants to know, why do you have two watches?

Sean: So yeah, man. It's not a watch. It's a whoop. It's It's a whoop. So basically it tracks your sleep, tracks your, your activity throughout the day.

But that's that's a good question though. I actually did have two watches. I used to have the Apple Watch on the right hand and my regular watch on the left hand, but then that looked silly. But now I feel like this whoop, I mean, you gotta really look close to see it's not a watch, it's just a band. It's like a Fitbit, I guess you can say, but it tracks a lot a lot a lot more things than it.

I just literally, my wife just got it for me a couple days ago.

Steve: Awesome. Very cool. Yeah. Cody Wilmoth Wilmoth wants to know, what's your take on memorandums, which apparently is a growing issue in Houston market?

Sean: So, Cody, what was I gonna say? What's my take on memorandums? I feel like memorandums are important on certain deals depending on the seller. Because there's Before we We do memorandums on about 70% of our deals. And I would say before we started drawing of memorandums, the reason why we got into memorandums was because sellers, the sellers we're dealing with, I mean, they're shopping around with offers, right?

They don't know the real estate rules, especially if you explain to them that, hey, you're signing a legally binding contract. You can't go and get another offer. If you don't explain that to them, then they just think it's normal. They just think that they can go in. They

Steve: don't know what they can't do.

Sean: Yeah. And you're in Houston. We're in a competitive market. So, they're getting calls left and right. So and also when you blast out a deal, there's some people out there who would call that seller that you blasted out the deal and try to get it.

So it's it's important, I feel. I think it's valuable. I think it's something that you should do on, majority of the property that you put under contract.

Steve: Yeah. And I think that, I think some of the people that do them are kinda shady, but that's only the contracted property that they had no intention of buying Right. And then filing a memorandum.

Sean: Right.

Steve: But, yeah, if the seller signed a contract with you that you intended to buy, then I'm all about filing the memos.

Sean: Yeah. Do you file the memos?

Steve: Absolutely.

Sean: Yeah.

Steve: Alexis wants to know, do you let your buyer give you a price on the deal, or do you give them the price?

Sean: For our disposal side, so, yeah, we have a starting price. We don't have a wholesale. We have a starting price now. Mhmm. So basically because the way the market's so hot, so if we're asking $1.35 for a property, we're gonna put starting price $1.35.

Steve: Mhmm.

Sean: And then we just kinda take it from there. Give them about forty eight hours for all the offers to come in. We have a Podio web form that they submit the offers, and then we go with highest and best. We don't do bidding wars nor do we disclose on, hey. We have $1.40 on the table.

If you can do $1.41, we feel that's very unethical. And I had stressed that on my dispo person to never don't ever tell the buyer how what offer do we have on the table. Just say, hey. We have a lot of competitive offers, but you never say the number. But, yeah, we we we have a starting price.

Steve: Yeah. I love that. Leo Aguirre wants to know what is your why?

Sean: My why? That's a good question. So, you know, as time goes on, I mean, your why changes. It's changed for me. You know, 2017, 2018, it was different.

2019 was different. And now I have a daughter who's eight months, and my why is, to be a front row dad, to be someone who who's there for my kids and for my wife for, like, for my kids' milestones for, like, when they're a baby, when their, you know, their first gymnastics or their first tennis tournament. I wanna I wanna be present. Mhmm. So giving them my time, like, is time is a huge commodity.

So giving them my time, traveling with, you know, my wife and my kids, taking them to, you know, enjoy amazing experiences. And, you know, basically leading them to, the side of root, you know, basically, like, leading them in the religion part of it where that my my mom and dad kinda guided me towards. Mhmm. Never force it on them. But the way that my mom and dad taught me about religion was, I feel like was very special.

And that's the way I wanna I wanna kinda leave that on my kids.

Steve: Do you think you know, were your parents having their businesses? I don't know how long when they started it. But do you think the time with your daughter, how important is it to you, is in any way related to you growing up?

Sean: So my mom was a stay home mom. So my mom, like, gave her all the time. My dad, really balances time, but it's the opposite of my brothers. My brothers are just work, work, work from, like they still even, the business been, twenty two, twenty three years now since they started in '98, they're still, you know, working ten to twelve hours a day. And I don't wanna do that.

I wanna be able to, you know, give that time to my kids, to my wife, to my family, because I feel like that's the biggest thing that we have.

Steve: It is. It is. But not everyone sees that.

Sean: Yeah. No. It it's true. And, and I didn't see that before at before I was in the office from seven, seven to I mean, until seven to 8PM at night. But now it's just like, I wanna be I wanna be home with my daughter.

You know?

Steve: Right. I

Sean: wanna be home with my wife.

Steve: Matt Smith wants to know, is there any particular software that you use or maybe you can't live without?

Sean: Yeah. Propelio no. Podio, obviously. Mhmm. That's our CRM.

Propelio, what we run our comms on. Yeah. Those are the two that we can't we can't function without.

Steve: And Alejandro, Verduzco wants to know, where do you find your cash buyers?

Sean: They're all over. But basically, the way that we kind of grew our our buyers list in the beginning stages was posting our deals on Craigslist. Right? Facebook groups. There's a bunch of Facebook groups that are, you know, in Houston.

So whenever someone will post a deal, a bunch of people will put their email addresses and we'll just copy and paste them. And then and My House Deals, we post our deals on My House Deals. All four Fast, that's a good website as well. And, basically, that's pretty much it. We just now we don't even grow our list.

We have people who contact us to put them on our list.

Steve: Yeah.

Sean: But before it was Craigslist, My House Deals, and on Facebook, just putting a prop putting, Hey, I have a property in 77089, drop your emails, and a bunch of emails goes in. You just, you know, copy and paste them. That's pretty much it.

Steve: That's awesome.

Sean: That's how we grew our list.

Steve: Ben wants to know, do you have any coaches or mentors right now?

Sean: Yes. Absolutely. Always.

Steve: Who's who's who's mentoring you right now?

Sean: So I'm always learning from someone. But like I said, Mark Evans is is a mentor of mine. So, Carlos Sal and Alex, they're mentors. As in a one on one mentor, no. I don't have a one on one mentor.

I haven't So I just went to Tiffany and Josh's event a couple weeks, last week. And even though I see them as friends or whatnot, but I feel like when we talk, I feel like it's still kind of, you know, there's still some kind of mentorship that goes on there because you learn from your peers. Right. But currently, I'm not in a mastermind nor do I have any personal one on one mentorship going on, to answer that question.

Steve: Awesome. And then Juan wants to know what the growth that you have now, do you stick with wholesale or do you have, other sources of profit?

Sean: So is he asking that if wholesaling is my own only source of income? Yeah. No.

Steve: Okay. So what else do

Sean: we have?

Steve: That's credit card processing.

Sean: We're not doing credit card processing. We have a couple e com stores Yeah. Amazon, crypto, and wholesale. Yeah. Yeah.

And we're obviously now, and we have some passive income coming in, but I wanna grow that passive income because the life that I want, you know, I can't be in a transactional business. I can't you know, I know that the life that I want with the time and, you know, the traveling and all that, I have to that, you know, my that has to be I have to supply my income in in a passive way. So we're looking more into, you know, creating that passive income from self storage facilities.

Steve: Gotcha. Why self storage?

Sean: Because you don't have to deal with tenants.

Steve: Makes sense. Makes sense.

Sean: And it's it's it's it's cash on cash. Just look at the numbers.

Steve: Yeah. So Alexis wants to know, how are you advertising your deals? So we kinda talked about that actually already. Matt Smith wants to know, how do you manage your lead list?

Sean: My lead list? Podio? Or as in, like, the raw data that we get?

Steve: My guess is maybe you use a lead stacker or

Sean: let's Yeah. We use batch. We use batch as lead stacker. Batch is real cool.

Steve: You see them while you were in town?

Sean: No. Not yet.

Steve: There's always, like, this little tour when people come in here. Right? Yeah. I know. You gotta see Brent Daniels.

You gotta see Carlos and Sal. You gotta see whatever. So, what is your biggest struggle right now?

Sean: My biggest struggle right now, in business or personal? Both. Both. Business wholesaling business, I would say the struggle, it's not really a struggle, but it's kind of a decline than it was last year. And it'll be more on the acquisition side since inventory is low with, I guess, nationwide really, right?

We're still getting you know, a good amount of deals. Still closing anywhere from six to nine deals a month. But I would say the acquisition side is a struggle. For for personal, I would say the shiny object syndrome, man. There's so much things, so many things going on.

I really gotta focus. And I have a goal on what I wanna focus on with the wholesaling business, with the passive income that we spoke about. But it's just, you know, you have so many people, you know, promoting, you know, so many things. Like, you know, like I said, crypto. You got the sports cards.

You got

Steve: You got any sports cards?

Sean: I put in a little investment in for it. But yeah.

Steve: It's it's you're you're you're spot on, though. Right? There is that element, like, how do you stay focused? So last week was, I didn't have anything going on Thursday or Friday, and I was freaking out. Right?

Like, I'm used to, like, being super busy and super behind.

Sean: Yeah. Right?

Steve: And I had too much free time last week. So told my team, like, we're launching two or three new products in the next couple of months, so bear with me, guys.

Sean: Yeah. No. So that's that's, that's something as well, like struggle as in like not feeling that you're behind, just knowing that it's a process, that things are gonna happen. Because sometimes I just want things to happen like instantly. You know, I was like, I just wanna start making 50,000 a month passive income.

Why can't it happen like that? So like just knowing that's a process. Patience patience is is, you know, it's it's a huge thing.

Steve: Well, you just had a baby, so you learned that you can't rush baby coming out.

Sean: You can

Steve: be patient.

Sean: Right. You

Steve: gotta let the process work to work its way through.

Sean: Yeah, man.

Steve: Chris Green wants to know what's your favorite list, and data source?

Sean: I use list source, listability, batch. All this I mean, all all of them are good, man. It's just about consistency. It's about putting you know, using those lists numerous times and using them through all different channels, cold calling, SMS. We don't do RVM anymore.

But, you know, doing that, and then that's just part of it. Then you got a whole you got the sales part. You got the follow-up part. You got the transactional coordinating part, the disflow part. There's there's a few different parts to it.

Steve: There's a lot of parts to it. Yeah. Cody Wilmoth wants to know, how did you find your first acquisition guy?

Sean: Cody Wilmoth was my first acquisition guy.

Steve: I guess how did you find him?

Sean: Was it Indeed? I think it was Indeed. We're still using Indeed. It might have been Indeed or Craigslist. Surprisingly, man, Craigslist, we've we've we got a lot of, a lot of people from from Craigslist.

Steve: A lot of people that are still with me today Really? Are from Craigslist. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But we don't advertise there anymore. But there's a lot of good people we have. Mhmm.

Sean: Yeah. We don't advertise there anymore either.

Steve: Daniel Tewelder wants to know, how did you find your cold callers? Are they in house or are they outsourced?

Sean: They're outsourced. Costa Rica.

Steve: And Matt Smith wants to know, what was the one thing that took you to the next level?

Sean: One thing that took me to the next level is faith. Knowing that if I put the work in, feels consistent with it, that, it was gonna pay back. So it was faith. And I always had the mindset of if they can do it, so can I? Right?

So that's why I watched those videos. And I still watch testimonial videos on different things that I'm trying to get into, like different ventures, or or talk to other individuals who are in that and kinda just have them share my share their stories because I always have that, like, if if they can do it, so can I? You know, we're all the same. You know? You know?

So that's that's my thing. Faith is is is is huge for me.

Steve: So one of my my best friends is my accountability partner. And he says this, and this is not like it's not said in the right context at all. But he says, like, if that idiot can do it, why can't I? Right? And he because he's like, he's in these groups.

Right? And he's seeing people doing 8 figures.

Sean: Yeah.

Steve: Right? And he's like he or I'm sorry. Nine figures. Right? So he's in the eight figure business.

Right? Because he's not in real estate. He's doing something else a little bit bigger. Mhmm. But he's in a business where they're doing eight figures.

And he's like, if I can do nine figures, why can't I do eight figures? Figures? And that motivates them.

Sean: Yeah. No. It's it's motivation for sure.

Steve: Yeah. What is your superpower?

Sean: So, you know, I knew you were gonna ask me this question. So I I had thought about it a few times, and I asked my wife, and I asked my team as well. And I I loved my wife's answer the most, and I felt like it was it was on point. And I mentioned it a couple times as well, but, always lean on faith, man. I mean, I'm a God fearing man, and I know that God has a plan for me.

So it's basically, it's faith. It's if I do right, I put the work in, I know I'll be taken care of.

Steve: I love it.

Sean: And no matter what trials and tribulations comes, because if you're not dealing with trials or tribulations, if you're not dealing with hard times, you're not doing something right. If you're not getting uncomfortable in your certain position company that you're running, then you're not living to the fullest potential. So I try to put myself in uncomfortable positions and, you know, and sometimes I'm like, why am I doing this? I'm like, because I gotta get out of that comfort. But I know that if I'm doing this, I know that I'm gonna be okay because faith is there with me.

Steve: Do you think the faith and the fearlessness are intertwined?

Sean: For sure.

Steve: Because you're you're you're getting your your your team. Right? Your squad is like, you guys gotta be fearless. But I think if you have faith, that enables you to be fearless.

Sean: 100%. They do intertwine.

Steve: What is the greatest lesson you've learned? Greatest lesson I've learned,

Sean: to enjoy the process, to enjoy the journey, you know. Which

Steve: is also different than being patient or than being impatient and wanting to resolve results now.

Sean: To to enjoy it, you know, just to kind of, to, yeah, just to enjoy the journey, to kind of, you know, keep it, to be present, but mainly to enjoy the journey.

Steve: What caused you to go from being impatient to learn learning to embrace the process?

Sean: Basically, going through it. Right? It's like it's because when that when that when the certain the the gratification happens, we're like, okay. Like, it happened. Alright.

Awesome. And, like, if you just, you know, were patient or if you didn't, like, really, like, get flustered at that time where you're like, I I need it to happen now, everything would have been okay. Things would have happened differently. And then, you know, just just knowing that I guess just going through it, like, realizing myself, journaling, knowing that if I could if I could've just stuck through it and just kept going through the motions, it would've it would've eventually planned out. And that's it it showed me numerous times that that if I just keep going through it.

The joy is in the journey. Yeah. And me numerous times that that if I just keep going through it.

Steve: The joy is in the journey. Right. Right. For sure. Because even if you hit your number today, you wouldn't be happy.

Yeah. Like, if you said the 50 thousand was passive. Right? Yeah. You said, I'm gonna do this, and in thirty days you did it.

There'd be something else. Yeah. There's always Exactly. You wouldn't stop there.

Sean: Right. So enjoying that and and and being grateful for that. Mhmm. They're like, alright, I hit this. Let's enjoy this time right now.

Mhmm. And not just set the next goal. I I need to do a 100,000 next month. Right. But enjoying that time right now, like, I hit 50.

Wow. I mean, I I had this vision three months ago, four months ago. That's amazing. What did I do to make to get this? Like, really just to kind of what I also started really doing recently is is journaling.

Right? Just writing my thoughts down. And it's really helped me out. I also try to start a podcast. But when I was speaking on the in the podcast, it was just me speaking.

And I really, like, enjoyed it. Like, after I was done with the podcast, like, speaking on the mic, which I was just really talking to myself, just that feeling that I felt that, like, wow, I got a lot of lot lot out of it. Mhmm. Like, I've vented, and just kinda just documenting your thoughts, I guess.

Steve: Yeah. I love it. And, what is your favorite best or most interesting failure?

Sean: You know, so in the real estate business, you know, you're always failing. There's always things going on. If you're not failing, then it's something's going on. So I'm always failing forward. I would say this question, I'll kind of put it more on personal.

So I think because I think it's interesting. I still think about it to this day. So my wife at the time my wife right now, my girlfriend at the time, which is not actually my girlfriend, she we we basically we we dated in high school and then we disconnected for seven years years. And we reconnected in college. Just randomly.

We met each other. We're like, hey, I know you go to the school and stuff like that. So, I was obviously trying to make her my girlfriend again. And, I was working with the family business at that time. It was in '24 This was 2014.

And, I know she was a huge Beyonce fan. I'm a huge Jay Z fan. And I had purchased, like, fifth, fourth or fifth row tickets to the concert that Beyonce and Jay Z were coming in town. So I purchased that and I was like, alright, I'm gonna get these tickets, you know, sit on the floor, you know, and we're gonna sparks are gonna fly, Bay and Jay are gonna sing, we're gonna rekindle, and we're gonna start this relationship back up. And, and yeah, I invited her, I asked her out and she denied me.

She denied me because of, because I guess her friend at the time, they were were like on this whole free soul, single life type of thing. Mhmm. So, I failed, but I stayed persistent. Mhmm. And since I stayed persistent, she's my wife now.

Steve: Awesome.

Sean: I had to take my sister actually. It was it was okay. It was it was

Steve: Oh, bless you. Enjoy the show.

Sean: She did. Had a good time.

Steve: Is there a book that you've gifted more than any other?

Sean: Yeah. Nick Ruiz Flip. Everybody who asked me how do I get into real estate, I recommend them that book. And then once they read that book, I tell them, hey. I'll I'll I'll teach you the game, but read this book.

And once you finish reading this book, then we'll we'll kinda take it from there. I have about 95% of people who don't hit me back up.

Steve: Ryan Benito does that. Oh, yeah? So, yeah, read my book. You know, until you read my book, I'm not answering any of your questions. Yeah.

Is there anything Leo wants to know, is there anything that you would change? Any regrets or anything you could have done better?

Sean: That's a good question. Yeah. I wouldn't have scaled I wouldn't have scaled so fast. Because like I said, in 2018, December was when I hired my first VA. And then 2019, like summertime, I started hiring all these, you know, sharks, really.

Mhmm. Real you know, sales sharks. And, you know, basically, I had a I had a room full of, you know, individuals who wanted to be who wanted who wanted to have a wholesaling business. And I didn't know it at that time. So, that's where my team kinda fell apart, and that's what really helped me, I guess, scale.

And at that time, I didn't I was regretting it. I was like, man, I really taught them the game and this and this and that. And I really regretted kind of just how things rolled out. But it happened Now, I remember that saying that things don't happen to you. They happen for you.

And because of that, it really helped us scale. But really, what I regret, I would I really don't regret anything because things you have to go through the process. But I would just say hiring better. Yeah. Hiring better.

Steve: And I don't think there's a single business person that doesn't feel that way.

Sean: Yeah. But that's part of experience, you know? And you gotta go through that. You gotta go through, you know, you gotta go through the process. You gotta go through the experience.

You can't really can't really vet people out until you actually run into those individuals that you don't wanna you want on your team who don't align with your core value. We didn't have core values at that time. But,

Steve: You can't shortcut hiring. Yeah. There's no there's no shortcuts Yeah. To hiring. We're still figuring it out.

Sean: Yeah. No. For sure. Same. Same.

They had all these these personality testing as well. But I mean, you know, it's you know, they're just tests. People can just manipulate what you want them to hear. Yeah. But we have actually, like, a three to four step hiring process now.

Mhmm. So we're really, like, vetting people.

Steve: So That's awesome. Well, then I guess, is there any tip you would give for someone that's hiring right now?

Sean: A tip? Yeah. So, really, I mean, I'll just tell you how we hire and maybe someone can get some tips from that. Yeah. So what we do is and I learned a majority of it from Terry Thayer.

He's a good friend of mine as well. So basically, what we do is we post an ad on Indeed, and then we get a bunch of people. Right? We're in Houston. We get, like, 150, 200 people who apply.

And then from there, they have to take a, basically, a test, a personality test. And then once they take that test, then basically they have to, fill out a survey. And when they fill out a survey, that survey kinda tells you, like, if they're comfortable with the the salary that we're giving them, if they're comfortable, you know, what are they looking, what are their what are their goals, what are their vision, you know, why do they feel like they're the best candidate. So they answer those questions from those. And then so basically, it reads from 150 people to, let's just say, 25 people.

And then from the 25 people, then they do the survey. That reads them out to like 10 people, five people. And then we hop on the phone with them, do an in phone interview. Then from there, we do an in person interview. And then in the in person interview, we also sometimes have them hop on the calls.

If it's acquisition, we have them hop on the calls and you know? Because someone could say that, hey. We're good at closing. We're good at sales. We you know?

We talked on the phone. We used to do customer service. This is the one thing we put some leads in front of them. I gotta call them. And then And

Steve: you find out what you really get. Yeah. Yep. Awesome. So, yeah,

Sean: that's that's our steps. So really just kind of, I guess, vetting these individuals out. And I feel like the best part of it is the best part of the system is really kind of just the host I really like the survey because I can really kinda read a person by what the answers are on the survey. And then from there, we choose on who we're gonna call for in person, in phone interview.

Steve: We're gonna have to compare surveys after this because we have our own survey.

Sean: Oh, nice.

Steve: Fair surveys.

Sean: Yeah. For sure.

Steve: Alright. So, I want you to think about something you wanna leave the listeners with as far as last thoughts go.

Sean: Okay.

Steve: Guys, we have our, sales training all day, on the April, so two weeks. If you guys are interested, shoot me a DM at steve dot trang on Instagram. And, guys, please like, share, subscribe, comment because this helps the algorithms. Right? This tells YouTube that this is worthy content if you guys interact.

So please interact so we can drive that engagement. And, so last thoughts you want to leave the listeners with?

Sean: Last thoughts I wanna leave the listeners with. So basically I would say for the individuals who are trying to get into the business or find traction into the business, in the in this wholesaling business or any business, really really get obsessed with it. Especially with the wholesaling business. I mean, there's so many individuals now trying to get into it. If you I don't know if you can cuss.

If you half do the business I don't know. I was gonna say that. But if you do half, half, halfway of the business, then you're gonna get halfway results. Right? Yeah.

So really go all in.

Steve: Or less.

Sean: Or less. Exactly. Or less. So really get obsessed with this. Put the work in, know that the consistency and work ethic, I feel like is, is the formula to this.

Right? You can have There's a bunch There's a 100 of ways to market to off market sellers. There's a 100 ways to, you know, talk to them. There's everybody teaching a sales course or teaching how to market or or whatnot. But if you can if you can really just put put the work in, do it on a consistent basis, you will be rewarded.

Steve: Yeah. Become a fanatic.

Sean: Become a fanatic. Exactly. Become a fanatic. And that's what I did. I mean, my in my ear, it was just Sean Terry.

When I met Sean Terry in October, I felt like I met a celebrity. I was like, dude, I know like I feel like I know you. Right? Same way I feel like I knew you when you came in. I wanted to give you a hug because I was like, I listen to your podcast all the time.

So like and always keep learning. Right? I mean, I'm always learning, you know, from different podcasts or different, individuals, on Instagram.

Steve: To this day when I see Sean Terry, I still feel like I'm seeing a celebrity.

Sean: Right.

Steve: It's crazy.

Sean: He's a pioneer, man. He's a he's a OG. So, yeah, just just get obsessed and just just put that work in.

Steve: Yeah. I I heard something great, last week. It was like, you know, if you died today, you know, would there be enough evidence to to convict that you were this person? So, like, you know, if someone were to pass away today, you know, you were in an accident, like, would people to say, oh, you know, Sean was this incredible wholesaler. Oh, you know, would we be able to tell?

He's leaving enough evidence behind to prove that he is. And the only way you can do that is you're a fanatic. You're going all in Yeah. Doing everything. You know?

The thing one of my biggest pet peeves is someone that sends me Facebook friend request. Like, I don't even know what this person does.

Sean: Yeah. I don't

Steve: know what industry you're in. I don't know what they're doing. Awfully political, but that's besides the point. Someone wants to get a hold of you. What's the

Sean: best way to do that? Someone wants to get a hold of me, they can, DM me on Instagram, Sean Xavier. Right? Or Facebook, message me, Sean Xavier. They can email me at sean, sean,@greenlightoffer.com.

And yeah. I I wouldn't want people to remember me as Sean the wholesaler, by the way, if I if I pass away. Right. Because I like

Steve: Six months ago.

Sean: Six months ago, yeah. But no, but it's it's that's that's a question I think of all the time as well. What do I want people to remember being when I pass away? Mhmm. Like do I want them to and that's the way I kinda want to live my life as in, like, what would that person remember?

Like, who was Sean? Was it the guy who always had a smile on, who always was positive? Right? So I think about that. It's funny that you brought that up because I think about that all the time because it was gonna be a whole different topic.

But because when my dad passed away in 2009, like, all people thought all people said was, man, he was a fantastic person. Oh, he was great. He always had a smile on his face. He was he was so joyful. Right?

So I wanna leave this world, like, with the imprint of, like, how people if someone says, oh, you followed with Sean? Like, oh, and then say, like, something positive. Yeah. So that's the kinda way I wanna

Steve: Another great thought to leave the listeners with.

Sean: Yeah.

Steve: Great exercise for you guys to think about.

Sean: Yeah.

Steve: Thank you so much. Pleasure, buddy.

Sean: It was an honor, man. Thanks for so much.

Steve: Thank you guys for watching.

Sean: Till you get out. Peace, guys.