Ivo Draginovic on Flipping 200+ Houses and Wholesaling 8-10 Houses per Month

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today we got Ivo Dragunov. Am I saying that right? Correct.

With Hire Offer. And he's here to share how he's flipped over 200 houses and wholesales eight to 10 houses per month. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trank, broker, owner of Stunning Homes Realty, cofounder of the OfferFast app, the one app you need for wholesaling, and I help people become real estate entrepreneurs. If you're excited for today's show, please give me a wave, give me a thumbs up. And before we get started, I did start the show because I wanted to give back to our community.

I've had a lot of struggle when I first started. I'm sure you faced some struggles when you started. And what we wanna do is shortcut that struggle for as many young leaders as possible. Possible. I don't charge a dime for this show.

I don't make any money doing this. So here's all I ask. This is what it costs you to listen to the show. If you get value out of the show, please tell a friend. Either share the episode now, tag a friend below, or tell them your best takeaway from the, show takeaway from the show later on.

That way, we can all grow together. Don't forget, this is a live show. Please don't hesitate to ask questions throughout, and, EVO will be happy to answer them for you. You ready? Absolutely.

Yep. Okay. So first question, what got you into real estate?

Ivo Draginovic: It's a good question. So my real estate journey started in 2007. Great time. I got my real estate license, right before before finishing high school. Wow.

I fixed and flipped my first house with a buddy of mine. That was 2008 in April. I think we bought it. We literally did the work ourselves on the house. We borrowed some money from my parents.

Mhmm. Sold it four months four months later. Ended up netting 26,000, I believe. Split of the profits. And then I, you know, bought my second house by myself.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ivo: Bought that one for, like, 43,000. That's when the market basically corrected. Right. Sold it on December 31. I ended up netting about $1,718,000.

And from then on, I just started picking up more and more Yeah. Properties. The way so I've been basically fixing and flipping mostly part time from 2008 up until 2015. Mhmm. 2015, I bought a property in July from a local very well known

Steve: wholesaler. Mhmm.

Ivo: And the funny thing is I noticed on the settlement statement, there's two assignment fees. So I'm like, what is this assignment fee? I'm calling the title company, and they're like, well, they're technically buying a house for this much. They'll be selling it to you for this much. So I so they're making, like, there's 15,015 thousand assignment fees, and I'm buying it for, let's say, $1.20, I think it was.

Mhmm. And which got me thinking. You know? So, I mean, I I ended up selling the house. I made about, you know, 20 plus thousand on it.

But it took me five months to, you know, renovate it and reselling. We had the deal fall through. So when we had another offer, so it took a long time. A little bit after that, I started listening to a lot of podcasts, Bigger Pockets. One of the podcasts that I started listening to in, I think, in June, July 2000 and that's 2016

Steve: Mhmm.

Ivo: Was Sean Terry. Yeah. Flip to Freedom. So I started listening to the to him, and funny thing is he had an event coming up in Glendale, you know, of extreme freedom.

Steve: Great event.

Ivo: Yeah. Great event. I've been

Steve: to one.

Ivo: Awesome. So I'm like, oh, I'll just go check it out. It's $300. I can't lose anything. Yeah.

So I brought my sister, Annie, to the event, and it sounded like just super easy. You know, you buy a list, you mail it. Yeah. You take the phone call, get the deal, resell it. That's all you have to do.

That's all you have to do. So, you know, I did that. You know, first thing, like, after the event, I literally posted on Craigslist. You know, we buy houses. I got a call literally, like, the next day.

Really? A guy, I mean, he's super motivated. Hey. I just got out of prison. I am I need to sell this house.

I'm a great I'll meet you at the house. I meet him there. We signed the contract, and I'm thinking this is like a $7,080,000 dollar profit. It was just super easy. There were no reservations.

Steve: In fact, he just got out of prison.

Ivo: Yeah. Okay. So we opened escrow. It was, like, a lot of title issues with this property. It was, like, my my first property, my first basically wholesale type of deal.

So it was just a lot of title issues. You know? He assigned it to a brother, to a wife. They divorced. They're just the mess.

Yeah. So long story short, couldn't get the deal closed. We had to cancel on it. But then, obviously, you know, we started doing direct mail, and that was, like, our first marketing source. We started doing direct mail.

And then slowly, we, you know, got into other types of marketing, you know, cold calling. And cold calling just recently got into it. So Yeah. But at the moment, I mean, that's kinda just in a nutshell, that's my real estate fixing and flipping and wholesale journey. And then I've also been picking up some rental properties

Steve: Okay. So, one question I wanna ask you because, you know, you have a lot of track you've done over 200 houses flipping. And right now, you're wholesaling eight to 10 houses per month. So why don't you help someone that's, newer into the business if they're trying to decide whether to flip or wholesale first? What would you or which which do you like better?

Which you which direction will you push people into?

Ivo: I mean, at the moment, I'll I'll say wholesaling just because it's easier. Mhmm. But, and

Steve: and

Ivo: so my business right now is primarily wholesaling. Yeah. And part of it, like, last year, it was a different case. This year, like, July, we sold our last two fix and flips, and I, you know, I don't have any more besides some new constructions that we're doing. Mhmm.

It's just the market that's especially in Phoenix, it's just stuff. Yeah. I mean, I'm making the same amount, if not more, than if I was to just fix and flip the property. Right. So, my first choice would be wholesaling, but it's got its own challenges as well, obviously.

Steve: So what are the challenges in wholesaling versus the challenges of of flipping?

Ivo: I mean, wholesaling, you're in the marketing business at the end of the day. Yeah. You know? And I didn't know that, you know, at the extreme freedom event, I was thinking it's just an extension of what I'm already doing. It's just I'm gonna, you know, pick it up for cheaper.

I'm gonna get a bigger spread at the end. Mhmm. But it's just two completely separate businesses, what I've learned along the way. Right. And, you know, kind of the things that we've struggled with, kind of throughout is how much of my time that that do I dedicate to, you know, fixing and flipping and then wholesaling.

Mhmm. And it's a fine balance that, you know, we gotta keep. But, at the end of the day, I would just recommend wholesaling. I mean, especially in this market. Yeah.

Well It's a little bit too risky.

Steve: You say especially this market. What what do you mean about especially this market? What does that mean again?

Ivo: You know, obviously, prices are skyrocketing and inventory is low. And just, you know, we get a deal. We wholesale it and sometimes, you know, we get first time flippers. I try to educate them as much as I can. Yeah.

But the reality is a lot of our buyers are for first time fixing flippers. And, So you're saying that

Steve: the reason why you're saying that in particularly in this market is that, the the margins lower the margins are lower. Yeah. And it's, you're not a 100% confident that it's gonna keep appreciating the rate it's appreciating at. Because depreciation hides a lot of mistakes.

Ivo: Correct. Absolutely. And I I just think it's just a way it's just riskier at this point in time.

Steve: Mhmm. I

Ivo: mean, if the market corrects and I'm holding on to 11 fix and flips, like, in December, we had 11 properties on the books fix and flips. You know? We were reselling. And, I mean, obviously, I don't see the market correcting the next couple months. But Right.

When it does, I'd rather be wholesaling.

Steve: Right. Yeah. Okay. So, we got a good friend of ours, and he says you're like a robot. You just find ways to make things happen.

And I thought that was kinda funny. And we talked about you and I, at a different event that you've got so many licenses. What are all the different licenses you have?

Ivo: Yeah. So the reason why I was, like, kind of working part time in real estate in 2010 to 2015, it was my dad's construction company. It was an air conditioning plumbing company. We kind of morphed it into, like, a general contracting company as well.

Steve: Okay.

Ivo: So we have, you know, electrical plumbing, AC, both residential and commercial, and to k b one k b one and k b two, which are general contracting licenses.

Steve: Yeah. So if I so if anything comes up, if I call Evo, he could probably probably fix it.

Ivo: Yeah. Maybe. I'll I'll give you good advice on how to fix it. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So knowing what you know today, what will you do differently in your business?

Ivo: As far as the wholesaling goes, I would find a mentor before. I mean, it's especially getting started. And I actually did that, in the wholesaling. So, like, my second year, I found a mentor. It just it wasn't the right guy.

Okay. It it just, you know, I paid him the money. You know, we we talked on the phone. Just the value that I didn't get any value out of him quite Okay. The wrong person,

Steve: So not just finding the mentor. Finding the right

Ivo: Finding the right mentor. Yeah. Okay. And I think that mentor has to give you a certain value. I mean, he's gotta give you value at the end

Steve: of the

Ivo: day. And then obviously, the other, like, advice would be just burn your bridges behind you. Mhmm. Because, you know, options can kill anything that you're doing. Yeah.

So for me, you know, I was I had passive income in real estate even, like, when at the extreme freedom event. But I told myself, look, I'm gonna make this work. If this guy, Sean Terry, is making it work, I'll make it work as well. Mhmm. It's just a matter of time.

I'm I may I may not pick up traction as let's say, it may take me a certain amount of time to pick up traction, but I'll make it work. Yeah. So I told myself there's no way behind I mean, there's no way going back. So

Steve: Okay. So I think you said something I wanted to address. Okay. We'll get to it later. So what bits of wisdom would you give some of the young guys right now that are getting the wholesaling?

Because, you know, we're we're pulling back the curtains a little bit. That's one of, you know, the goals of the program is to educate the young people on how to do it or not necessarily young, but newer people. What are some of the bits of wisdom you give to the guys getting into the business right now?

Ivo: I think it goes back to just finding finding the right mentor. Mhmm. Joining a mastermind, which is, like, huge. I mean, the mastermind that we're in, I mean, has opened up so many doors for me personally. Mhmm.

Just the connections that I've made in it, they're just it's priceless. Yeah. And then, like I said, just bringing your bridges, you know.

Steve: So

Steve: So yeah. So going back to that, you're saying that, the mentor wasn't the right mentor. How did you know they weren't the right mentor so that someone could avoid that mistake?

Ivo: I mean, it's tough. You gotta do your homework and I think you gotta just me personally, I have so it's one of my kind of faults where I just I literally decided to do something and then, like, I'm I'm doing it in the next hour. Uh-huh. So that was

Steve: kinda what It's

Ivo: Yeah. So It's

Steve: a it's a it's a personality trait of entrepreneur. Correct.

Ivo: Yeah. So, I didn't do my homework

Steve: on it

Ivo: at the

Steve: end of the day.

Ivo: Yeah. I just literally it was just a phone call. I'm doing it.

Steve: That's it. So you just signed up?

Ivo: Correct. Okay.

Steve: And the, and the value you got out of it was didn't line up with what you paid for it?

Ivo: Correct.

Steve: And would you sign, like, a contract? Or is it

Ivo: It it was a one time fee basically for the whole year. I mean Okay. So, like I said, I mean, I've learned so much so much more just hanging out with, you know, a group of, you know, guys, like, in the go giver group where Right. I'm just getting much more value and

Steve: Okay. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of value to that. And I think maybe that's something we need to create a a program for us. Like, what some questions to ask in mentoring?

Because I'm seeing this theme. You know, a lot of people saying they they're having a hard time finding the right mentor. What would you attribute your success to?

Ivo: I think my work ethic primarily, and I picked that up from my dad. Mhmm. I mean, I think like what Gary v says, you know, I may not be the, you know, let's say the brightest or the smartest, smartest, but I will outwork everybody. And I think that's kind of served me well in life. And I'm up at 05:00 every morning.

I mean, I make myself get up regardless of what time I went to sleep. And, it just I just have a much better productive day if I get my work done in the morning. And that's just how I've always been. So if

Steve: I need anything from you, I can text you at 05:00 in the morning?

Ivo: You can. Okay. Yeah.

Steve: So maybe this is what Brent was talking about when he said you're a robot. You just if you wanna make if you want something, you just make it. Okay. And what does your organization look like today at Hire Offer?

Ivo: So it's me, my sister who's the operations. She kinda keeps everything together because I'm kinda all over the place.

Steve: Well, you're the quick decision maker.

Ivo: I'm the quick

Steve: decision maker.

Ivo: I'm the decision maker. Correct. Yeah. So she has to slow me down at times.

Steve: Yeah.

Ivo: And then we have right now, we have two acquisitions, a leads manager. Mhmm. We have eight cold callers and then two virtual assistants. Okay.

Steve: And the cold callers, are they local? Are they overseas?

Ivo: They're they're, overseas, and

Steve: they have a disposition person as well. Okay. So is there a particular region you like to source your wholesale your your cold callers from?

Ivo: We've tried. Yeah. I have some from The Philippines, Costa Rica, and a couple from Mexico. Yeah. So I'm kinda just honestly split testing some things right now.

So just figuring out what works better for me. You know, at the at the end of the day, what's my ROI on the money that I spend, the money that I get back.

Steve: And you get KPIs for each one of these? Correct.

Ivo: Co callers?

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that, Max and I were talking about is we need to get a quality control person because we have cold callers, but we're not listening to all the cold calls.

Ivo: And and it's tough. It's tough. I mean, you can't listen to it. I mean, it's not my day job to just listen to everybody's, you know, conversation. Yeah.

But you pick out some conversations, and you do the best you can. Yeah.

Steve: Right. Okay. And, how are you sourcing your deals right now?

Ivo: Direct mail has always worked for us. I mean people say obviously price, you know cost per deal has gone up drastically. I think when we started we were about I don't wanna say maybe 2,503,000 now last month, we were at about 5,400. We'd lowered it down to 4,800. We closed some deals.

So right Cost per Cost per deal. Cost per deal. Yeah. 4,800. 4,800.

4,800. Correct. Direct mail. So and that's probably about 25 to 30% of our deals. Mhmm.

You know, we used to mail about 30,000 plus mailers a month. Now we're down to about 15,000 a month.

Steve: Okay.

Ivo: And just we're just what we're doing is just targeting people better. Right. List stacking, obviously, and I've had they have multiple pain points. Those are people that we're going after. Cold calling has been, like, a big thing and then, obviously, Brandon Daniels' TTP.

Yeah. I I was go I was basically getting into, you know, cold calling and then, basically, Brent kind of pushed me over the edge. Yeah. And that's been, like, a big contributor to our deals Mhmm. Especially the past couple months.

Steve: Okay.

Ivo: I think I we struggled a a little bit, gaining traction with the cold calling side because we we had some acquisition people's, you know, change job positions, and we didn't have the right people in the right seats, beginning of the year. And we've made some, obviously, progress in the past four months. It's been working great.

Steve: Okay. So I think one of the things you you kinda mentioned there was stacking. That's an interesting concept. Can you elaborate what

Ivo: stacking means? Yeah. So, I mean, one of

Steve: the software we use in our property

Ivo: list manager which just gives us the ability to upload, any kind of data, any kind of list in there. So I'd go and select okay. So I want everybody who's on tax for on for tax default plus foreclosures plus plus it's a vacant property. I mean, you can go, like, very granular. I mean, for instance, like, I'll take three days ago, I pulled a list.

I have about 700,000, 800,000 people in Phoenix area. Mhmm. We pulled a list. So all the vacant properties and basically deceased people that are deceased with vacant properties. There's about 200 of them Yeah.

In my system. That's a very targeted list. That's a very targeted list. Correct.

Steve: Yeah. I had my so I was talking to my best friend this over the weekend, and he was saying, like, why do I keep getting these freaking cold calls? I'm getting a call every other day. I'm getting text messages, ringless voice mails. He doesn't call it ringless voice mails.

Like, I'm getting these stupid voice mails. Right? And he was like, why is this happening? And I kinda kinda started laughing. I was like, okay.

Well, you moved out of state.

Steve: So you're in California now. And you have

Steve: high equity. You paid your house off.

Ivo: Yeah.

Steve: So now you're high equity out of state.

Ivo: Does he pay with his, paid his taxes? Or

Steve: so he did miss a payment. And so now he can't even get off that list.

Ivo: He's like, what do

Steve: I do

Ivo: to get off

Steve: that list? Like, sorry. You're you're on that list forever.

Ivo: For the next year at least.

Steve: Okay. So, REI Squad, what, what is that about?

Ivo: Yeah. So we partnered up with, so me, Annie, and, Jesse Burrell partnered up. And we're basically providing, real estate, like, resource, especially for, you know, people that are in the industry, like, new in the industry or they've been in the industry for a while. Just a resource company. We're gonna have a bunch of softwares coming out, and that's primarily been my, what I've been kind of focused on

Steve: the

Ivo: past month, just really building building out softwares Yeah. Which is like a three months ago, I I wouldn't have, you know, predicted, you know, what I'm doing today. Yeah. But, it is what it is. So it's, we have some softwares coming out, you know, for, you know, voice mails SMS, and, we do a lot of skip tracing for people.

Mhmm. So and I think we can compete with people on price just because we're committing to, like, very large volumes with our distributors. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. And if they wanna find out more about REI Squad, how do they find out about that?

Ivo: REI Squad, the website should be up in about a week. Okay.

Steve: So when you download this episode next week Correct. Or today.

Ivo: Reisquad.com? Reisquad.com. Okay.

Steve: And then I heard something interesting about how you're acquiring rental properties. So what's your process for that?

Ivo: You know, Bigger Pockets taught me how to do it.

Steve: It

Ivo: was, like, 2,000. Actually, I picked up some properties 2,012, paid in cash. You know, prices were cheap back then. I picked up a lot of them, 55 to, like, 65,000. Wow.

So and in 02/1516, when I started listening to, like, BiggerPockets, I'm like, okay. So I can can technically refinance all of these properties, get my equity out Mhmm. And buy more properties and just keep doing that and repeating it. Mhmm. It was what they call the BRRR method.

Right. So I started doing that. So 2015, I believe it was. Yeah. 2015, I refinanced my properties, three of them.

The fourth one, I kept it was a commercial building that I had, so couldn't refinance that one. Buying everything. Correct. And I just started I I bought 11 properties, I think, in 2015. And then this year, I bought four or five more.

Okay. So This year?

Steve: Yeah. Nice.

Ivo: Yeah. So A couple of them out of state. Okay. So one in Cleveland, one in, two in Denver not Denver, Detroit. Okay.

Steve: A little bit different.

Ivo: Yeah. And then I have one that I'm refinancing as we speak right now. And then we're doing a little bit of, like, you know, kind of besides the rental properties, we're doing a little bit of, like, new construction type of things. So we've built four, three houses. We just bought a vacant lot.

We could have wholesaled it, honestly. Made, I think, $89,000 on it. Small spread. But we just decided to keep it and build on on it and I think it's gonna we'll make a lot more, you know, building a brand new house.

Steve: So let's talk about that. So what's involved? I mean, obviously, it's great that you get all these different licenses. Right? But let's just say I'm brand new and I want to build on a piece of piece of land.

What's involved in that?

Ivo: It's a lot of things. And and at the same time, you know, I'm still learning a lot of it. I know I've gone through, like, three houses by now. So I can cut through a lot of the red tape. Mhmm.

But I would say, you know, for the biggest lesson I learned, don't go to the city yourself to get get the licenses because I've done that. Mhmm. And I've been there, like, literally, I mean, maybe fifteen, twenty times just for one house. And it's an nightmare. Wow.

So just get an architect, just pay for it, and get your licenses. I mean, get get your permits. As far as the construction side, I'm basically the general contractor. I license. I just hire subcontractors to do the majority of work.

And we've had some people that are actually that have worked for us, from the fix and flip side that actually, you know, they work on an hourly basis. We pay them at the end of the week, $10.99. Mhmm. But they work strictly for us. Okay.

And, obviously, that helps us, like, with our costs a little bit.

Steve: Yeah. So, you buy the land, then you get an architect. And I'm assuming there's sewer and electrical at the street level.

Ivo: It it depends which lot you buy. So, like Yeah. One of my nightmares is kind of, like, one the one of the biggest issues that I've had is we bought a vacant lot. Mhmm. We bought it from a guy.

He had had a power of attorney for his mom. Mhmm. His mom was, like, in in her, like, eighties, nineties. We ended up splitting the law, doing a lot split. It wasn't approved by the city, but the city said everything is in the process of getting approved.

It's gonna take about two, three months, but everything is signed. So we're like, okay. We'll just buy it. We bought the the vacant lot with with the contingency that it's going to get split. Mhmm.

Long story short, four months later, the city comes back and says one document was signed, but it was supposed to be notarized. And we go back to the original owner, and the mom the mom has passed away. Oh. The guy's power of attorney is no longer valid. So now it has to go to probate.

Oh, jeez. So that took like a, like, huge amount of time. We got the deputy the city dep deputy directors involved. I mean, it was just like a nightmare dealing with, so for that house, we had to literally do, you know, tear out half the street, put new sewer, new water lines, and then basically repave half the street about 300 linear feet and do a sidewalk curb and gutter, which was, obviously, something that I haven't done before.

Steve: It probably added a little to the cost.

Ivo: It did. About 60,000. 60,000? Yeah.

Steve: Oh my goodness. Okay. And then you got a lender in place then to fund the the acquisition of the land, acquis the the the cost, dealing with the city, construction costs.

Ivo: What's that Yeah. For for the lender, we pay it ourselves at the moment. I mean, we're kind of, we fund the properties ourselves. Mhmm. Same, like, we've actually started doing a little bit of hard money loans on some properties that we wholesale.

We provide the funds. So Oh, you're

Steve: in hard money lending

Ivo: us. We've done a we've done a few loans. Yeah. But like I said, not anything. Just properties that we we wholesale.

Okay.

Steve: Alright. And what Ceramic tools or systems could you not live without?

Ivo: We've been going going back and forth. We've changed a couple of CRMs Mhmm. Since we've started. System that we currently use is a investor PO. Property list manager is a big one.

Mhmm.

Steve: And those

Ivo: are the two primarily ones that we use, you know, for as far as marketing.

Steve: About property list manager?

Ivo: And I mentioned it earlier, like list stacking. So I would basically, you know, just upload everything and I'd pick okay on with everybody who's on multiple lists and those are the people that we're gonna be targeting. Mhmm. And I think that's what kind of, propel just kind of revamped our, like, direct mail campaigns because, like, at the beginning of the year, January, February, we were mailing literally twenty, twenty five, 30,000. I think February, we had no deals from direct mail.

Steve: Mhmm. And

Ivo: so, like, March, I'm like, okay. Something's gotta change. That's when we started cold calling, and it took a couple of months for us to kinda, you know, perfect that.

Steve: Yeah. And what's investor peel? What what do you call that?

Ivo: Investor peel. That's a CRM that we use. It's a Podio based system. Okay. So just the CRM.

Steve: That's different than Investorfuse or It

Ivo: it's FreedomSoft. It's I mean, a lot of the functionalities are the same. Yeah. It's just that's what we use at the moment.

Steve: Okay. Any interesting war stories in your house?

Ivo: I think the biggest one, honestly, is the I mean, we've had, I've I've walked personally into a bunch of houses where, you know, I thought were vacant, especially, like, back in the day when I used to buy more auction properties. Uh-huh. So, you know, house looks vacant. It's tall weeds, you know, boarded up windows. So I'm like, okay.

I'll just go and see it now before I bid on it. And, you know, people show up from inside the house, which can be, you know, pretty scary at at times. Coming out of closets? Coming out of the bedrooms and Yeah. You know.

I remember one guy. He's like, hey, dude. What are you doing in my house? You know? So it was it was I was out of there.

Okay.

Steve: Well, the good thing is it's probably a statue of limits

Ivo: on, a statue

Steve: of limitations on, on breaking and entering. So

Ivo: that's okay. But one of the biggest horror stories, obviously, is that the new vacant lot that we we build and, but everything ended up turning great. It just took a year and a half, quite honestly.

Steve: Wow. Yeah.

Ivo: It was supposed to take six to eight months, and it took a year and a half. Okay.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle right now?

Ivo: I think my biggest struggle is finding a balance sometimes

Steve: Mhmm.

Ivo: And disconnecting from work, personally. I mean, that's just my kinda thing thing because I'm always, like, working, working, working. And sometimes it gets difficult to disconnect them.

Steve: Yeah. Well, I think that goes back to your your strength. Right? So it's Correct. It's it's your your your strength

Steve: and your weakness. Correct. Yeah. So work life balance.

Steve: Yeah. Strength and your weakness.

Ivo: Correct. Yeah.

Steve: So work life balance.

Ivo: Yeah. That's probably one of the biggest thing that I'm trying to work on. Mhmm. Something that I've really implemented lately is just kind of time blocking, which has worked great for me. Mhmm.

Especially kinda getting in the routine, you know. I wake up 05:00, you know, walk the dog, and then I get to work pretty much. You know, just some gratitude to get to work and I just focus on what what like, my one thing for the day. Yeah. Or one thing at least for the next three, four hours.

Right.

Steve: One thing, I I I had coffee with Gavin Timbs this week.

Ivo: Okay.

Steve: And he sits down. He's got two phones. I said, Gavin, what's this about? He said, I got my work phone. I got my personal phone.

And he says because he's got his work phone and his personal phone, it's easier to disconnect because with his work phone, once he gets home, that just gets put away.

Ivo: But that's an interesting idea. Yeah. Yeah. I thought

Steve: that was a really good idea.

Ivo: I gotta call Gavin. Actually, he called me yesterday.

Steve: But I thought that was a pretty cool idea, maybe something I gotta practice. He said the only struggle with that is sometimes he'll get stuck on Facebook with his personal phone. Okay. What is your superpower?

Ivo: I think just honestly, just cutting through the red tape and getting the deal done. I think that's kind of what I'm just just tell me what I gotta do and, you know, let's get this deal finished. Alright. Same thing though, that that first house that I mentioned that was supposed to end up netting us, like, 70,000, 80,000, I think it was. Mhmm.

I didn't follow-up on it myself because two letter companies told us it wasn't just can't we can't make it work. There's too many there's there's some lawsuits involved, some, you know, with the property. Just can't get it done. Long story short, like, a year later, a guy here from Phoenix, a wholesale company Mhmm. Contacts us.

And he's like, hey. You guys, you have a a memorandum on this property Mhmm. From a year ago, and we're in the process of closing on it. I'm like, how are you guys closing us so long? You know, they basically got an attorney involved.

They had Eileen Brown who was closing the deal. Mhmm. They just got the deal closed. I mean, we end up making a little bit of money just because of our memorandum

Steve: Right.

Ivo: Back then. But it, you know, it was it was a huge profit for them as well. And that's something that I should have followed up on and

Steve: I didn't. So why don't you explain

Ivo: to everybody what a memorandum is? So just a memorandum. It just gives us the right we have contractual obligations for this this property.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ivo: And sometimes, you know, sellers unfortunately want to cancel, because let's say they got a higher offer Mhmm. After signing a contract with us and just our memorandum just protects us

Steve: us from

Ivo: from And how

Steve: would you go about filing one of those?

Ivo: It's a one page document. Annie does it. So as she goes to the accountant, fills it out, goes to the accountant, recorders, records their contract, and it's it's pretty seamless process. Okay.

Steve: And, guys, don't forget this is a live show. So if you guys have have questions, please don't, hesitate to ask. What is the greatest lesson that you have learned?

Ivo: Greatest lesson that I've learned? Just keep pushing it. I mean, you know, sometimes you're gonna struggle in life Mhmm. With whatever you're doing, but just keep pushing it and you're gonna get through it. Yeah.

Like me, personally, you know, it took me a little bit of a while to kinda gain traction as far as the whole ceiling side goes.

Steve: Mhmm.

Ivo: But, you know, it's it's working now. Things are working. You know, it's just building yourself as well. I mean, just continuous continuously learning and just being the best that you can be.

Steve: Right. So I think grit is something that, we've we've talked about before. So I don't know. Is there a way you can instill that in somebody?

Ivo: I don't know. I mean, for me, I was just brought up just, you know, just obviously, you know, work hard and you're gonna achieve what you want.

Steve: Mhmm. You

Ivo: know, my summers I spent most of my summers I spent working. Yeah. So and even as a kid, you know. So it just that just got carried to my adult adult life.

Steve: It was just built into you.

Ivo: Correct.

Steve: You didn't have you didn't really have a choice. Yeah. Okay. So Brian wants to know, what's the best marketing strategy you do?

Ivo: Best well, so we're, babbling into, like I said, some softwares, which I think are gonna help us, like, lower a lot of our costs. And we're just, we're actually beta testing a couple of them. Mhmm. So if you want access, just contact me. But, it's, for right now, my our biggest ROI comes from ringless voicemail.

I mean, we're at about I think last week I looked at it, we're at about 1900% ROI Wow. Which is insane. I mean, as far as our direct mail was, like, 300%. Mhmm.

Steve: I'll take 1900%.

Ivo: Yeah.

Steve: It's pretty good. So okay. So why don't you elaborate? Like, what are the softwares that you're creating?

Ivo: The softwares that we're creating is we're creating risk like a a legal SMS marketing software. Mhmm. You know, that comes with a lot of, like, a different functionality, you know, voice broadcast, ringless voicemails. We're also kind of integrating everything, with skip tracing. So it should be it should be it should allow investors to, like, like, really lower their costs, marketing costs.

I mean, we spend, you know, 25 plus thousand a month on marketing and it's, you know, especially Direct Mail, that's like our biggest month to spend. Mhmm.

Steve: Any thoughts about backing that off since you're seeing a higher ROI on

Ivo: the I've I've, tripled down on my slide on my, you know, ringless voicemails. Right. And that was just two weeks ago.

Steve: So you're gonna do more ringless voicemails, but you're not necessarily backing out. You're

Ivo: I'm not backing out of direct mail. I mean, it's still working. It's still performing for us. Mhmm. Okay.

And we're actually implementing some new strategies with the ring direct mail, which, I mean, I can honestly, I don't even know, I mean, kinda how to explain it, but it

Steve: basically direct me with a text message

Ivo: type of Mhmm.

Steve: Okay. System. Andy's probably the one I gotta talk to then. Yeah. What is the name of the, ringless voice mail program?

Ivo: It's gonna be ringlessvoiceleads.com.

Steve: Okay. Cool. And what are you learning right now?

Ivo: I'm learning how to be a better manager and how to balance my life more.

Steve: How are you how are you learning that?

Ivo: Books, primarily. I mean, I just I try to read a lot of books. I wanna I wanna say I read a book a week, but sometimes doesn't happen. So but I I I try to, you know, do 25 to 30 books a year.

Steve: Wow. Okay. Any any books that you're you're into right now that's helping you with the work life balance or the managing?

Ivo: So, one of the last books that I that I read was, I forgot the the book's name, actually. So one, like, the last books that actually really made an impact on me Mhmm. Was The Go Giver. I mean, that book just I just had a mind shift with that book. Right.

A super short read. Just had a big impact on

Steve: me. Yeah. And, that was one of the ones that that that book, Brandon Simmons, you know, is

Ivo: like, hey. He's the one that gave it to me.

Steve: Okay. Cool. Yeah. He said, you need to read this book. And I'm reading it and this before or this is right after I started this podcast, but I think it was law number two, you know.

Like, you gotta give to as many people as possible and help as many people as possible. If you're trying to, generate wealth and so on, you have to help more people. And that was a great reminder of what we're trying to do here Yeah. On the show. Anthony, remember he wants to know what your cold caller say when they reach a seller?

Ivo: So it's it's just a script. I mean, just reach out to me. I'll send it to you.

Steve: You

Ivo: know, it's basically, hey, you know, where I'm I'm I I'm hey, my name is Ivo. I work work for Higher Offer. We're buying house in the area. Just wanted to see if you had an interest in a cash offer.

Steve: Mhmm. And

Ivo: then it basically goes from yes or no and then maybe and then it just follows the script. We've changed it up a little bit. I mean, I think Brent has a great script as well. We've changed ours a little bit to to better suit our needs as far as even our CRM goes. Mhmm.

Because we found out a lot of the leads, you know, at the end of the day, a lot of them are gonna be junk leads. Right. I mean, people that want, you know, 300% above retail. So just Zillow plus 50 k. Zillow plus 50 k.

Yeah. And it's just just trying to eliminate a lot of these Right. And focus on the better ones. So we've just kinda gone through a lot of couple of changes, you know. To sift that better.

Steve: Okay. And, how do same follow-up to that question is how do they hand that off to your acquisitions?

Ivo: So our CRM, basically, as soon as they click a hot lead, it goes into our CRM. Mhmm. And then our leads manager, she goes through, like, a deal triage type of thing. She looks if there's depending on what the notes are, sometimes we get a lot of notes. Sometimes, obviously, we don't we don't have a lot of notes.

We have the seller's name, address, and let's say he may be interested in an offer. So those if if she's not in if she's not sure, she's gonna call them. Hey. You know, just calling to get some little bit more information. Just kinda tell you what what we do, how we do it, just kinda setting the expectations however, if she, if there is a lot of notes in the system and she can determine there's motivation based on if the property is vacant, if they're out of state, you know, what value they want for the property and compare it to, like, our CRM, you know, those automatic calculations.

Mhmm. She's gonna pass it off to the acquisitions. And our that's our leads manager, her job is to basically distribute the lead to our acquisitions and to follow-up. And she does a lot of follow ups. I mean, she does, like, 350 phone calls every week.

Oh, wow. Okay.

Steve: And then Brian Devlin wants to know, what do you think is the best wholesale or REI training course?

Ivo: There's a lot. I mean, I've gone through, you know, the the the one that got me started was Sean Terry's, you know, of course. But, you know, after Sean Terry's course, you know, I've picked up a couple more courses, which, you know, I've learned some things. But at the end of the day, for me, I've learned the most in masterminds.

Steve: Yeah. Just being other other peers.

Ivo: Being, yeah, being around the right people.

Steve: But it's pretty hard if you're newer to hang around those people. Correct.

Ivo: But then there's, like, the meet ups. I mean, you go and you meet people and Yeah. You know, you you just talk to people.

Steve: Yeah. And, guys, if you're in the Phoenix area, I do the real estate disruptors meetup first Thursday of every month. So, if nothing else, you can learn, from that. Okay. What was your favorite best or most interesting failure?

Ivo: It goes back to that house. You know, I have, you

Steve: know, it's

Ivo: just It's

Steve: just in the back of your mind.

Steve: It's just

Ivo: in the back of

Steve: your mind. You're never gonna recover.

Ivo: It's, I mean, yeah, we're we're actually closing on the on the property. So one of them I actually Oh, you

Steve: still haven't

Ivo: closed yet. Myself. One of them, we still I still I I moved into it myself. Uh-huh. The the other one, we're selling we're closing on the twenty fifth.

Uh-huh. We're gonna end up meeting, you know, know, close to 6 figures, which is awesome. Cool. But, it was a it was a difficult process.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. And the Anthony wants to know what's the best way for them to get that cool color script from you?

Ivo: I just reach out to me on Facebook. Okay. Either I'll send it to you or have my VA send it to you. Awesome.

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

Ivo: I've given the book to several people. It's called Why. Mhmm. It starts with y Yeah. I think it's called.

So Yep. It's a it's a great book. Yes. I'm giving it to yeah. I've given it to a few people.

I think the The Goal Giver, again, is a book that everybody should read. Anybody, like, the book that got me started in real estate, obviously, is, you know, Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Steve: Yeah. Everyone.

Ivo: Yeah. I've I've read that book in 2008, I wanna say, 2009, and then I reread it two years ago.

Steve: Yeah. And you do you feel like it was still as helpful

Steve: Correct.

Steve: Two years ago?

Ivo: Yeah. Okay. It just you know, it gets you refocused. I mean, it just Right. It's a great book.

Steve: Okay. And then why do you think, a lot of people fail in the wholesale flipping part of the business?

Ivo: Just giving up too easily. I mean, there's always gonna be struggles, you know, like I said, that we've had, you know, a lot of properties. Some okay. Not a lot of properties, but some properties that we, you know, close, there's issues. Yeah.

You know, I can think in back in July, we're supposed to be closing on three properties in a week. And, literally, all those deals felt kinda fell through. I mean, what two of them fell through, one of them, we just literally made a thousand dollars on it. Yeah. But then, obviously, next week, you know, more deals closed.

And it just kinda go go comes and goes. And Right. Just don't give up. Yeah.

Steve: And I think also, the importance, right, of having a good pipeline. Yeah. Because deals will blow up.

Ivo: Correct.

Steve: Things die in the last minute.

Ivo: Yeah. And and and valuable lesson that I've learned, especially in the wholesale game, is, like, you know, don't count the money until it's, you know, house is closed because I know, like, well, we're making, you know, x amount of money on the house.

Steve: Money spent already? Booking vacations? But,

Ivo: yeah. And then the deal falls end of end of ends up falling through. Yeah. It just happens.

Steve: Okay. Is there anything that keeps you up at night?

Ivo: Just, just, you know, issues with deals. I mean, they shouldn't, but sometimes they do. Yeah. Just, you know, obviously, problems. I'm constantly trying to figure out, okay, what do I do next tomorrow to correct what happened today, let's say, if there is some issues.

And Yeah. I just I'm constantly analyzing things in my head where what am I doing next? And just and sometimes if I get a new idea, like, I can't sleep because I gotta, like, I gotta implement it today.

Steve: I've got that same exact problem. Yeah. Yeah. If I got something, it's like, oh, this is gonna be really cool. Or this is gonna change the world.

It doesn't. But, you know, in your mind

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: I'm gonna implement this. This is gonna change everything. Can't sleep that night. Yeah. Yeah.

I go I can't have that by once a quarter.

Ivo: And then they can't sleep, and then they get up early so I can, like, actually start working on it. And it's Yeah.

Steve: So okay. I I know I've asked you, kind of this already. So someone wants to get a hold of you. They either wanna ask you a question, you know, Andy's already done a pretty good job responding about the script. So if someone wants to get a hold of you, how do they get a hold of you?

Ivo: Just Facebook. Yeah. Or my email is my first and last name at Gmail. Mhmm.

Steve: Okay. Perfect. Let's see. So Anthony wants to know which company you use for cold collars, but you you hire them yourself. Right?

Or do you outsource?

Ivo: I outsource it. I used to hire them myself. Okay. And it just got a little difficult part of the what you said, you know, you gotta man manage everybody. Mhmm.

And then I had three cold callers at, I think in March and April. And it just got a little bit too much for me to be able to handle what I was currently doing, you know, in in my business and then managing the cold callers Mhmm. Making sure they're, you know, listening to the recordings. They're following the scripts, and it just got too much.

Steve: You know?

Ivo: Then I have to pay them and verify their time. I just decided to outsource it. So who do you outsource through? I don't know. Actually, just reach out to me.

I'll send you the company's name.

Steve: Okay. Alright. So that's it, guys. Again, if you like this show, please share this episode right now. And next week, we've got Eric Sage coming on, and he's gonna be talking about, seller Carey and how to I mean, the stuff he's talking about really changed the way I'm thinking about the business, but how you can seller carry and create passive income where you can basically just travel and vacation whenever you

Ivo: want. Great guy.

Steve: Awesome. Awesome stuff. Alright. Well, thank you. Thanks, guys, and thank you for a great show.

Thank you.