Marco and Hillary Romero Share How They’ve Acquired 30 Units and Buy Everything With Private Money

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disrupters. Today, we have Marco and Hillary Romero, and they flew in from San Antonio, Texas to share how they've acquired over 30 properties, and they're buying everything with private money. Yep. If this is your first time tuning in, I am Steve Trang, broker and owner of Stunning Homes Realty, founder of the OfferFast Homes app, the only MLS for off market wholesale properties, and you'll be in Texas come October.

And I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires. So that's something you wanna do. Let's connect on Instagram. If you're excited for today's show, please give me a wave. Give me a thumbs up.

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Ready?

Marco Romero: I'm totally excited.

Hillary Romero: Ready. Thank you for having us.

Marco: Yes. Thank you.

Steve: I'm glad that you guys can come out, make it a trip, for the whole family and everything. It's been a

Marco: We did. We made

Hillary: it a Today's been a nice break

Marco: away from the kids. Break from the family.

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

Hillary: Well, that's easy. Marco got me into real estate.

Marco: Yeah. Actually, so I, what really started off for me, was I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad in high school. And there was that completely changed my mindset in a lot of ways. I was on the normal trajectory of get good grades, go to school, and, get a good job. And there was a lot of great concepts in there like passive income, those type of things.

Everybody talks about, Rich Dad Poor Dad. Mhmm. But one of the main takeaways that I took from that book was, getting jobs to build certain skill sets. And prior to that, I never had a job. So I took a bunch of jobs.

I used to sell knives. I worked at different restaurants to build my sales skills because I always wanted to be a real estate investor and a businessman. I eventually ended up joining a, real estate education and mentor group. Before that though, I did pay a mentor $10 that ended up moving like a month later. So Oh, wow.

That was a big, loss right in the beginning. I was, like, 22 or 23. Very quick lesson learned. Yes. Very, very quick.

But then I ended up joining a education mentor group. And I was young. I was, like, 22, 23, and I was there all the time at their office.

Hillary: Annoyingly so.

Marco: Yes. Very annoying. I was that annoying young guy that was just, like, wanting to get as much as I could. I wanted to be around them. I wanted I was in the office all the time.

I know

Steve: that's annoying.

Marco: I I imagine I was pretty annoying. As long

Steve: as you're eager and doing stuff.

Marco: That's true. That's true. Well, see, that was, that put me in a position for opportunity because they recognized that I was there all the time. Right. And they asked me to become one of their in house agents to, represent their members, because I was a member first.

Mhmm. But to represent their members to find, investment quality properties for them and to represent them. And I found that to be an amazing opportunity because I was able to leverage my, their experiences and learn on how they dealt with problems, how they found properties when fires came up, what they did, how they got the financing in place, how they evaluated it. And it was like a crash course in learning.

Steve: So this was a a firm to buy rental properties for cash flowing for clients? Like, it was Yeah.

Marco: So it was an education mentor group, and they, brought in members that they taught how to cash flow rental real estate. Mhmm. And they had two programs, one for single family and then another one for multifamily. So I became an agent focusing on the single family clients. And I was actually at that membership level originally.

Mhmm. And, did that for a while, but as an agent, your income is really capped, based on the price point of homes that you're acquiring. Right. And I found out about wholesaling. I, started wholesaling, probably after three years or so.

I was an agent and then I started wholesaling And, did that pretty successfully on my own. My income skyrocketed. I was doing much better. I was learning really quick. And then eventually, I, was wholesaling And

Hillary: then we met.

Marco: Right. That's where we met.

Hillary: And I was like, what do you do? And I thought, like, wholesaling, I was like, this has to be illegal. Like, I don't understand what's going on. But he explained it to me, and I was like, you never would have thought that you could make money doing something like that. And I remember I had to go to work, and I'd be like, okay, well, bye.

Enjoy laying in bed while you're on your phone and making deals happen. I didn't understand it, but I was just, like, jealous that he got to do that and have the freedom to do that.

Marco: I think she was watching Breaking Bad a lot during this time too. Right. So she, you know, didn't understand what was that.

Steve: What year was this that you got into this, mentorship membership

Marco: program? So that was about ten years ago, and that's how I kinda got started. And then I started wholesaling about seven years ago.

Steve: Mhmm. On your own?

Marco: On my own. And then I and then I did that for, like, two, three years. The timeline's kinda fuzzy there. And then at the end of me doing it independently is when we met. Mhmm.

And then I had at that time, I was wholesaling a lot to, a bunch of people, but particularly one company. And they asked me to join their company and run their acquisition team. Mhmm. And so I ended up joining them and that's when our relationship started to grow. Her her talents got deeper and deeper in.

Mhmm.

Steve: What company was that?

Marco: ATW Investments. Okay.

Steve: So not a hedge fund or nothing like that?

Marco: No. But at the time, they were, doing a lot of volume. They're probably one of the top, in Central Texas, one of the top companies creating notes. They would sell property owner finance. Mhmm.

And they were actually bringing in money from, overseas, to do their deals.

Hillary: Australian investors.

Steve: Gotcha. Primarily.

Marco: Right. But all over the place, they had contacts everywhere.

Steve: So you had this experience working for this first firm Mhmm. On how to wholesale or what what the wholesaling business, and you went off on your own. Seamless transition? Any challenges?

Marco: No. So when, I already had the concept of I knew the concept of wholesaling, but I had a lot of mental blocks of, like, oh, I can't do it on my own. I don't know how to do it. Those type of things. But eventually, I just kind of, you know, went on my own and I said, you know, I'm gonna try and figure it out.

And I, you know, went out there and just I just tried to connect with people. My first deal that I did, I kinda, like, partnered with somebody and we kinda made it happen. But then we ended up joining this company and I ran their acquisition team that we had a eventually, we had a total of nine guys that I was kinda overseeing. We did over a 100 deals in one year, so we were doing a lot of volume. And I really learned from how they had things.

But the big change is actually, at this point, Hillary and I decided to get married. Mhmm. I proposed to her. Was it a good proposal? It was

Hillary: a it was yeah. It was a good one. I wasn't expecting it.

Marco: It was

Hillary: on my thirtieth birthday, so I was not prepared for that. And then we had a quick engagement, like a three month engagement, and so we got married pretty quickly. Mhmm. We just both knew there was no point in, like, delaying it. We just wanted to get married and be together and start a family.

Well, not that quickly, but

Marco: This is where it gets interesting because, we, you know, we got married and, we we planned our honeymoon a little ways out ways out. And, leading up to the our honeymoon, we had already decided that, you know what, Hillary? You know, why don't you quit your job? Because she wasn't happy where she was. Why don't you quit your job?

You know, I already have this position where I'm at, with this company and, you know, we'll use that as our income and, you know, you can figure out we'll figure out what you want to do, find something that's more fulfilling. And then what happened?

Hillary: Well, we got or I got pregnant very quickly, like, immediately, like, wedding night. And so that was, so we took our honeymoon about a month later, and so right before the honeymoon, I found out I was pregnant. And so I was like, wow, this is kinda scary, because I had already quit my job. And, on the honeymoon, we went to The Bahamas. On our honeymoon, he was reading four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris, and he

Steve: Fantastic book.

Hillary: He, yeah, he looked at me. We were up by the pool, the fun side of the pool, and, he looked at me.

Marco: Those were fun people, right?

Hillary: Yeah. It was like the fun, deep music was going, and, I was not drinking.

Steve: Not really. Not really. Yeah.

Hillary: But I was not drinking. And he was reading this book, and he just put it down. And I remember him looking at me and just being like, I think I'm gonna quit my job, and we're gonna do this full time. And it was scary, but like super exciting at the same

Marco: time.

Hillary: And So many changes, like, I quit. So I was used to having a salaried pay job. So I was I was used to the consistent, security of every two weeks getting paid, and he was bringing in money and I was like, oh, I don't know how to go down to this one, you know, salary. And

Marco: And she came from the mindset of, you know

Hillary: Four zero one k. Yeah. Exactly. Secure job. Save up.

Marco: You know,

Hillary: bring that up to your

Marco: investing. That was, like, very foreign. That was

Hillary: hard for me. So it was very scary, but I was excited too because we at the time, we really didn't get to see very much of each other. We were both working so many hours and we'd come home at 07:00 at night, cook dinner, do a quick workout, go to bed, and, like, sometimes the weekends would happen because he was often working.

Steve: Oh, you were working on weekends too?

Marco: I was working on

Hillary: weekends too. There were some yeah.

Marco: I was committed to

Hillary: He was above and beyond committed to this job, and it didn't feel like a whole lot of payoff. Just his time was very limited. And so it was exciting at the same time because even though I was scared to take this leap into the unknown, I put 100% faith into him, because

Steve: I knew And into us.

Hillary: And into us, but I knew that we could do it together with his knowledge and background in education, and just experience with being an agent in wholesaling. But I was also really excited. I was looking forward to getting to spend so much more time with him. And Yeah. We now were together, like, 98% of the time, like, all the time.

Steve: All the time. All the time. When you put your job, how much were you making?

Hillary: Not very well, compared to what he was bringing in, doing it independently, I was probably making, like, 52,000 a year.

Marco: Okay. It

Steve: was like What were you making?

Marco: I was over 6 figures. Just about 6 figures at that job. So I knew I could support us and we'd be, you know, comfortable. Obviously, it's a little bit of a scaled back. But, I knew that I could support us, but then, you know, I threw everything for a little and that was all at the same time.

We had just got married, just had our money honeymoon. And we had a baby.

Hillary: We both

Marco: quit our jobs simultaneously, basically. Mhmm. And we had a baby on the way. So there was, like, a countdown to, like, try and get things done. Well, I

Steve: think that's really important. Right? Because a lot of guys or a lot of people are listening to the show. And it's like, you know, know, when's the right time to quit? You got security.

Marco: You got

Hillary: There's never

Marco: any time.

Steve: Two weeks, you get your paycheck coming in. And I have friends that that, you know, listen to the show, and they're making well north a 6 figures. Like, when's the right time? And, really, it's just no right time. You just gotta put your stake in the ground and just do it.

Hillary: You gotta just do it before you look back. Ten years have gone past, and you're like, I always wanted to do this. And time goes by so quickly now. I feel like this last year has gone by insanely quick, and so you just have to do it or you're just never going to.

Marco: And, you know, it wasn't, we weren't, like, in a dire situation either. You know, when we both decided to quit our jobs and do this, I had, extreme confidence because I had already supported myself independently as a wholesaler. So I knew what kind of money I could bring in, and I was making 6 figures then too. So I knew that I could Right. Really do it.

And, you know, we were be doing it together, and that was kinda always the vision that I wanted for our family. We wanted together is to be able to, do this, altogether. And we also had a decent sized nest egg. We had, like, $40.

Hillary: And we were living way below our means. Yeah. Like, way below.

Marco: I had her move into my

Hillary: little house. Sketchy townhouse.

Marco: But it was, like, it was, like, $6.50 a month.

Hillary: It was. And water was paid.

Marco: Saving yeah. We were saving a lot of money. I had it took me a lot to convince her, but

Steve: But that's part of entrepreneurship.

Marco: Right, in

Steve: the very beginning. Yeah. You had to live below your knees.

Hillary: I actually kinda liked that place. She talks about

Marco: the fun fun memories. I mean, you said

Hillary: started our life together, and it was, like, you know, the beginning. Like, we came from this place where, you know, you walk out your front door and there's cop cars and you're like, wow. We're, like, really in the sketchy sketchy part

Marco: of the park. Front door. They were

Hillary: a little bit over. Yeah.

Steve: Down the road. They weren't right in front. But So we got, I think, you got Quentin.

Marco: Mhmm.

Steve: You got was it Michael?

Marco: Giannis.

Steve: Giannis? Yeah.

Marco: They're all great people. You got

Steve: Aaron out there.

Marco: Hey, Aaron. Hey, Mike.

Steve: JR Hernandez out there. JR.

Hillary: Mhmm.

Steve: How is your business different than your local competitors, local peers?

Marco: What would you say how we're different?

Hillary: We're husband and wife duo. I don't know. I mean, they're all awesome people.

Marco: All those are great people. The fact that we do it together is huge. We're very family focused because we're growing our family. And the whole reason we're doing this is to be able to create a life that we our family is always around and we're always growing and doing things together. We try and do we really try and, particularly do things the right way and bend over backwards to make sure we hold to our word and our reputation.

We hold that really high. Mhmm. I wouldn't say that makes us different, but that's something that we hold in very high esteem and we try and, ingrain that in our team. And, the one of the things that we are different about is the private money. There there aren't too many people that do it fully like we do.

There's, you know, there's some people that don't do it at all or some people that do it, you know, sparingly here and there. But that was a commitment that we really tried to push towards is developing the relationships and and growing private money. But we're also doing that in combination with wholesaling.

Hillary: So And kids.

Marco: Yeah. The kids.

Hillary: So hard.

Steve: So, let's take a step back. You said, you know, you guys are really family focused. So does that mean, like, in your office, everyone else is family focused, or were you saying just the way you guys run your business is family focused?

Marco: I guess the way that we run it, but we bring our kids to the office and they're with us. I mean, for the longest time If

Hillary: we have to. Yeah.

Marco: And we're kinda getting at the point where we don't bring them anymore, mainly our son.

Hillary: Just because he's at that age where he's

Steve: Banging on everything.

Marco: Yeah. And we have, like, this whole He

Hillary: has this whole corner of all this amazing kid stuff, but he wants to play with my computer cables.

Marco: Cords and everything else. You know,

Hillary: all the fun stuff

Steve: that you can't get

Hillary: to play with. So it's been a little bit challenging because when we're when we do bring him, it's I need to do a couple of really important things so he'll take the baby and then he's not very productive. And we kinda keep passing him back and forth, so then neither of us are very productive all day.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: So But our team really helps us too. Oh, yeah. They'll step in

Hillary: and pull the baby and

Marco: walk them around and take care of them and try and help them walk and cross.

Hillary: Yeah. The team's great.

Marco: Our team really helps us with our children. They're they're very, they love our kids.

Hillary: Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So then going back to the private money, elaborate on that. What does that mean that you guys are using private money?

Hillary: So we pretty much 100% purchase all of our portfolio with 100% private funds. So that's purchase price, closing costs, rehab. We really don't come out of pocket at all, unless there's some for some crazy reason, you know, the rehab, the foundation screwed up all of these different things and, you know, our miscellaneous budget to take care of those items that come up, you know, you always wanna have, like, little safety money on a, on a rehab project. Maybe worst case scenario, we've come out like $2. Like, we had one scenario where the foundation we fixed, and, like, we came to look at the house and, like, the entire roof was waived because

Marco: Yeah. Buckled in several spots.

Hillary: I was like, well, that needs to

Steve: be fixed. And it

Marco: was a good roof.

Hillary: It was perfect roof. And so, like, because of shifting of the foundation, like, we had to put a whole new roof on it.

Steve: Oh, wow.

Hillary: And I think also the plumbing foundation

Marco: wasn't even that bad. It was kind of a surprise. Yeah.

Hillary: It wasn't bad at all. But you always wanna have, like, that, you know, money just in case that something like that comes up. So, I mean, I think in in the past, we've come out out a couple thousand maybe, but it's really been very minimal, probably 5,000 or under per deal. And that's not every deal.

Steve: So when you guys talk about private money, though, I mean, there's wholesaling, there's wholesaling, there's flipping, and there's buy and hold.

Marco: Mhmm.

Steve: Where are you guys primarily using the private money to your advantage?

Marco: So we have two main focuses. We have the wholesaling side, and our company for that is Hilco Homes, and that's where we have our team. Mhmm. And there's 11 of us total. And then, we have our other company, which is called Bella Byers, and that's just Hillary and I.

Now we do hire contractors and those type of things, but those are all third party. They're not part of our company. We don't do any wholetailing. We don't do any flipping. All we're doing is buy and hold them as rentals.

When we first started out, it's been an evolving process, but when we first started out, we were focusing on owner finance exits. So we were creating notes. But we've changed our model, and now we're primarily focusing on rentals. And the private money is strictly for, strictly for those rentals. Though we do, have worked with some, we call them campaign investors.

Other individuals sometimes are our private lenders. Well, they'll give us some funds on their wholesaling side, and they'll give us funds to market Mhmm. For deals, and then we'll split, the proceeds of that deal with them. So

Steve: Gotcha. Campaign.

Marco: We call them campaign investors.

Steve: Interesting. I haven't heard that before. Yeah. So are you guys leveraging because, like, this what what I do is our private money basically helps us support our wholesaling operation. Because when we tell a seller we're gonna buy the house, either we're gonna buy the house or we're gonna wholesale it, but we can't wholesale it.

For sure, we're performing.

Marco: Mhmm. Right.

Steve: So for us, private money is huge in that we have a financial backstop to close on a deal than as a wholesale or a flip. So are you guys using it for that, or you guys aren't using that for that at all?

Marco: Not currently. And we haven't really had situations like that come up where we had to do, like, a, you know, jump in and save the deal or anything like that, really, from a private lender standpoint. Mm-mm.

Steve: Okay. So then it's primarily just to fund your buy and hold.

Hillary: Yes. Exactly.

Steve: Okay. So then in funding this or in raising capital, what do you guys what strategies are you guys using for raising private capital?

Marco: So going back to we both quit our jobs

Steve: Mhmm.

Marco: And, you know, that that time was, like, what, October 2015? Yep. Okay.

Hillary: And you officially quit, like, Thanksgiving time.

Marco: Yeah. So we said, alright. Alright. We're getting towards the end of the year. We're just gonna take the holidays to just kinda chill and relax.

And then January 1, we're really gonna go at it. Right. So, and also, at this up until this point, I've been in real estate at that point, probably about seven years at that point. And I had helped a lot of people acquire their own properties, not only as representing them as agents, but also wholesaling. Mhmm.

And I had a lot of mental blocks, a lot of mental barriers, and, like, excuses I was telling myself to why I hadn't kept my own properties. Now I kinda had done some partnerships, like, with my family for, like, maybe a flip here or there or a rental or whatever, but I never really acquired one on my own. And since we were doing this together, that was fundamentally something that was important to both of us. So the first thing I did was just make a big ass list and call one by one by one by one by one. And I tell everybody that.

And, And he

Hillary: still calls down the

Marco: list. Yep. And, and it it's it's really important for everybody to do that. And I tell a lot of people do that to do that, and not a lot of people do it because there's a lot of fear associated with that. As you're making this list, you're immediately your brain just automatically goes, oh, that person doesn't have money, or that's gonna be an awkward conversation, or, I don't wanna bring that up with them because they're my grandparents, and that would be an awkward dynamic or whatever.

Mhmm. Whatever. Mhmm. And I just say, hey, you know, put down all your family members, put down all your friends, put down all your family friends down, put down all your old coworkers, your old bosses, people you went to school with. And it turns out our first private money lender, was one of my old college buddies from back in the day.

And he's known that I was in real estate for all these years, years, years. And eventually, I just called him up and said, hey. I'm serious. We are gonna, we're gonna purchase properties and, you know, come in this next year, that time was two thousand sixteen. If we found one deal, would you be interested in working with us on that deal?

And we got a lot of no's, some maybes, and then DJ was his name. He said yes. And so then we did our he he brought all the money, we did all the work, and we were able to do our first Mhmm. Deal. And the story has been basically that same story across the board.

Mhmm. All of our private money lenders are just real people, who are typically older. They have money just chilling in a bank account or in a retirement account, four zero one k, IRA, or something like that.

Hillary: Or they were investors that are tired of being landlords.

Marco: That's a big one.

Hillary: They just wanna they're older. They're just like, we'd rather make our return on, you know, right?

Marco: Some of our best private lenders were people that Yep. I represented as an agent, like, three years ago or four years ago.

Hillary: They're just tired.

Marco: They used to do it themselves, But now that they're older, they just wanna travel. They don't wanna have to go through the grind of finding the house and communicating payments. All that stuff. So we try and handle all that for them.

Steve: Gotcha. So are they are you paying them a set percentage? Is there an equitable position? Like, how does that all how is all that structured?

Marco: So our very first deal actually, our first two deals we did as a partnership. We were kind of a money person, and we were the do all the work couple. And then we were orchestrating to where it was a fifty fifty split of profits, once we tile tallied everything up. Excuse me. But what we wanted to do to be able to grow faster is have more control of the equity and more control over the deal even though we were, like, the decision makers on everything.

Mhmm. There's that, responsibility that's there. They feel like you kinda need to run everything through your partner. Mhmm. Even if they're, like, yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. You know, there's that whole element of, you know, running through, things through them. So having more control.

Hillary: That just slows us down when you, like, you know, you have to, like, make sure everything's up to you.

Marco: Sometimes. So I've had,

Steve: you know, situations where I had private money partners on flips. And it's like, I'll call them. It's like, this is what we're doing. Okay. Great.

So then you feel like you don't need to tell

Marco: them. Mhmm.

Steve: You don't tell them, then they freak out.

Marco: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: They're like, what's going on? Exactly.

Hillary: So So at the very beginning when we were going that route of partnership, we were like, we need to figure we just need it. We just need straight private lenders because then they're giving us the money. And if obviously we don't pay that payment each month, they can foreclose on us, which is never gonna happen and never has happened, but it's just easier. We can get what we need to get done without all the little, approvals, you know, and, so it really slowed us down at the beginning and so we started to change our strategy. And that's when we were like, okay, No more partnerships.

We're really going forward. Just need to continue to do it this way. And once we did that, it started to get more systematic and quicker.

Steve: So what do you guys offer as far as interest rates?

Hillary: Anywhere from six to nine and a half or nine point or no. Nine and a half and we're we're averaging, what, like, 8.25%?

Marco: That's probably your average. Just depending on the deal. And that's what I tell everybody.

Hillary: It always changes.

Marco: So, we a lot of these concepts when when you're talking to private lender are the same concepts that you have when you're, like, wholesaling. You know, when you're wholesaling, you're talking to a seller and they usually aren't, like, come buy my house immediately, let's sign the contract. It's usually, like, a conversation, and then you call them up again, and then there's another follow-up, then you finally go schedule a walk through, and then there's another follow-up, then another follow-up, and then tenth communication, you finally get a deal done. It's very similar with these private lenders. You gotta talk to them, talk to them, and, you know, tell them what you're doing.

And we like to we have, like, a whole list of people that we're, you know, trying to attract as private money lenders, and we tell we email blast them with updates of our next deal that we're looking at, you know, our finished product, our Facebook, all that. So they we're always kinda in front of them.

Hillary: Because it might not work for them now. Like, they might have their funds tied up in something else or a different project. But then, like, when they see the email blast come out in four months and they have their money available, they're like, oh, yes. Let's go. I'm gonna give this money back to them.

Marco: Because a lot of people are watching even if they ain't saying anything.

Hillary: No. They are.

Marco: And so we we present it and, like, hey, this is a range of the interest rate, and then we tell them every deal is different. You know, every deal has a different rehab budget, budget, a different valuation, you know, different purchase price that we've negotiated. It might be a wonderful purchase price, but cash flow is low on that one because of low, low rental rates over there or whatever. So each one's a little bit different, and we do the math per property to to determine what kind of interest rate we can pay on it. And then we put it out there, hey, this one we're paying 7%.

This one we're paying 8.75%, and then people kinda raise their hands and then we, you know, call through them and go from there.

Hillary: And even if we don't have a deals like like an actual deal that we're working or trying to find funds for, we're still calling and we're still trying to, like, touch base with people. And it's you know, too, it's not just about, like, do you have money because I want it. It's it's also, like, just how are you doing? Let's just go go grab coffee. Let's go grab lunch.

Let's just have a relationship with each other. So, we're constantly trying to build that rapport with people. And when the time is right for that person, we make it work. We'll figure it out. So that's kind of, I mean.

Marco: And sometimes when we get a really good deal or one that we really want, we'll contract and we don't necessarily have the private lenders

Hillary: In place.

Marco: In place or not necessarily know how much money we're working with, but we know it's a slamming deal and we can make it work in whatever capacity. And then we'll just, on this specific deal, we'll just call down the list. Hey. We haven't talked in a while. Where you at?

I got this great one. Let's look at it together. I'm gonna send you the email. Let's look at the numbers or the photos or where do you wanna go look at it with me or whatever. And

Steve: then Right.

Marco: Try and get some interest right there on the spot.

Hillary: It's all about planting the seeds.

Steve: Do you guys have, like, a or do you or your clients have, like, an LTV, like, where they feel comfortable investing?

Marco: So, honestly, our private lenders really don't. They as far as numbers and all those different components or the intricacies of it, there are some private lenders that are very particular and they're very savvy and maybe they were old investors themselves and they have, specific guidelines. Mhmm. But honestly, most of our investors are just it's a pure trust thing because we've really built the relationship with them that they just, hey, you think it's a good one? Alright.

We're following you. How much do you need? Okay. Great.

Steve: So they'll fund a 100% of it.

Marco: Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah. They'll fund the purchase, rehab, and closing cost for us. And sometimes we'll get even a little bit more.

But LTV wise, I originally started when we were running our numbers was 80%, but I've kinda, bumped it down a little bit to 78%. So we don't get a loan any more than 78%, LTV. And then our target is always to get everything included in that amount. And so that's Why 78 versus 80? Well, I was just when it comes to the refinance component and the exit and, just looking from a long term perspective, I wanted to have a little bit more cushion room in there for all of us because it better protects us, you know, in our exit, but it honestly better protects the lender too.

And I felt AD was a little bit too close to that fringe of, pushing the numbers, and I didn't wanna be putting ourselves in that position, but also our lenders. And so that was What position

Steve: are you putting yourself in?

Marco: Well, just in a situation that, hey, what if there's a downturn in the market or whatever? And, you know, you know, values drastically drop or, you know, just worst case scenarios like that. So, we just wanna put ourselves in a good position for all scenarios. So we thought that was a little bit more of a a little bit better conservative number compared to the 80%. So that's how that frame of thinking came.

Steve: So you guys have your your wholesaling side and you have your buy and hold side. I'm imagining that your buy and hold side is being fueled or being fed by the wholesale side.

Hillary: Yep.

Marco: Yep. Partially. Partially.

Hillary: Yeah. We don't find everything for Bella buyers or buy and hold portfolio from Hilco. We we get a lot of stuff from other, wholesalers as well in the area.

Marco: Right. Right. But they usually know of us because we're so involved in the wholesaling realm or they'll come through our wholesale

Hillary: But we've definitely picked up our own Hilco deals. So it's nice.

Steve: When you guys do that, what kind of assignment fee do you

Marco: guys pay yourselves? So the way the way we've done it on that side is actually we've opened it up to, everybody in our Hilka Homes, our wholesaling company, to be able to take advantage of purchasing the properties that come through the funnel. And then what we basically do is we look at what, the property would sell for from an assign assignment standpoint, and then, break up the numbers, based on that. So for instance, for our acquisition team, we have them making 35% of the, assignment fee. For our disposition people That's really high.

Yeah. I know. Mhmm. We we're pretty generous. For our disposition people, we have them paying 15 per or get paid 15%, and then our portion is 50%.

So if we acquire our own property based on that, well, we're kinda getting a 50% discount on Right. The amount. So that's kinda how we make sure it's a good deal. And same for the acquisition person. Just

Hillary: wanna make sure they get paid.

Marco: Yeah. The acquisition person, they get, like, that 35% discount based on what the assignment fee would be.

Steve: Yeah. Because we have in our contract, the way we have it written up is if one of us takes it down, we start to pay the average assignment fee Mhmm. To the team

Marco: There you go. Yeah.

Steve: Before you have the right to take it down.

Marco: Yeah. Exactly.

Steve: So you mentioned something earlier about mental blocks and getting over it. Was there something that you did to get over your mental blocks?

Hillary: Good question. I don't even know if I know this.

Marco: So particularly when it came to obviously, action is the true, breakthrough. There's a lot of breakthrough. There's a lot of things that tell you or in your head that you'll tell yourself. You'll come up with your own excuses to stop you.

Steve: There's a lot of BS we put in our heads.

Marco: Oh, yeah. Oh, there's a

Hillary: lot of us. Yeah.

Marco: It's it's just rationalizing situations. For me, the big the big change was when, when we both quit together and I said, alright. I have to make this happen for us. Because I was kinda leading us based on my experience.

Hillary: I had to put complete, like, faith and trust into him, because I didn't I didn't know real estate at that time. I knew he did I he was doing it, but I didn't know anything about it. And I had to, like, really also step up my game and read a lot and learn a lot and go to seminars and, like, get on board very quickly.

Marco: She did the podcast.

Hillary: While being pregnant.

Marco: While being pregnant. Yeah.

Hillary: Which wasn't the easiest.

Marco: But honestly, a big component was okay. I, you know, I really I actually implemented something then that I've done every year that's really helped is I created a, a resolution document that, we actually both, work on

Hillary: Mhmm.

Marco: At the beginning of each year because, again, we timed this kind of for 01/01/2016. Mhmm. So we made a resolution document and our documents are, like, nine pages long, 10 pages long of, like, all the things we want

Hillary: to work with. Going in and changing it and editing it.

Marco: Yeah. And so we look at that every week and it's in Google Drive and it's a living document. I think a big mistake that a lot of people make because they write and I had done this so many times because when you go to seminars, you read books, it's like rectangles down. Well, we write them down. But then usually, that goes in a drawer or, you know, it's in that binder that you never really you had that fresh binder for the seminar and then that was it.

Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. Is that correct?

Steve: Collecting dust.

Marco: Yep. Exactly. So, you know, we put it in Google Drive. It's a living, breathing, evolving document. We look at it every single week together.

Well, sometimes not together, but we look at it every single week and we're always kinda tweaking it and adjusting it. So that was really huge. And then the other big component was changing my conversation that I was having with the people around me. That was big. What I had been doing up until this point was always, motivated with the thought process of trying to sell a deal.

You know, are you buying right now? What are you looking for? What's your, you know, what what kind of numbers are you looking for? Do you buy in this zip code? What what about this deal over here?

You know, are you wholesaling? Are you a buyer? Do you buying that was always the conversation I was having. I was having a wholesaler conversation. When my true goals was I wanted to be an investor.

So then I started changing the conversation I was having with everybody. Not only the people I was calling down the list, but when I was going to networking events, the people that I've known for so many, years, our family members we had conversations with. And the conversation now was, we are gonna buy properties. It's gonna happen. We're looking for people to kinda join us on this journey and who'd be interested and potentially can participate mainly in a private lending scenario, but maybe there's other ways that could fit together.

And that was a big, change for me. And then once we got our first deal, it was like, hey, we can do this. And then the momentum goes from there because then you see the truth or the reality that can come from just going down that path and taking the actions.

Steve: Yeah. Actually,

Hillary: I was just gonna say, like, that first year, I mean, we did better than I even thought we could. And well, not that we had I had such lack of faith. I that wasn't that that didn't come out correctly. I mean, I was just, like, surprised because once we actually started doing it, it was like, oh, this isn't as difficult as I thought it was. Like, we're doing it together.

Marco: For her too. Like, I have the mindset. I'm going from wholesaler to investor, which is kinda just a step over. She was going from secure a job, four zero one k, to now raising private money.

Hillary: I've never not had a job, so it was really hard

Marco: for me.

Hillary: And I was also scared too, because it wasn't just me. Like, I know we can live pretty frugally, you know, but I'm like, I know kids are expensive, and it's coming and

Marco: And we didn't know. We we were not prepared for this little child and how much attitude she has.

Hillary: She's got so much attitude. Oh my gosh.

Steve: So you guys have when when what what was the exact date that you guys made the the transition where you guys both quit your jobs?

Marco: It was in she quit, in

Hillary: In October?

Marco: In October. I quit November. And then our plan

Hillary: 2015.

Marco: 2015. And our plan was to start 01/01/2016.

Steve: So you guys acquired, you said, close to 50 Mhmm. Units. Yes. And then you guys have sold since. So talk about that.

You know, when you said I'm gonna start acquiring properties, like, what was the objective? Do you guys have, like, a perfect home when you guys are buying the properties? Like, what are you guys what's the box you guys are trying to fit it in?

Marco: Well, it's been evolving. And even now, we're in a kind of a transition phase, at this point. When we were first looking for deals, we were just trying to get the cheapest deal possible so that we could, the money that we raised could cover as much as possible because we didn't wanna come out of pocket at all. Mhmm. So the first deal we did, we got it for a purchase price of 30,000, and and I think we put, like, 5 or $8, maybe even less into it.

Yeah.

Hillary: It was actually really nice already. We didn't really need to do much, so we kinda looked out on that.

Marco: Right. And then our second deal was a sub two. So in the beginning phase, it was like, just any deal we can get where we're not coming out of pocket. Then it transitioned to, okay, now we wanna, acquire properties, rehab them, and then sell them owner finance. Mhmm.

Because we saw the benefit of collecting the down payment, which could be sizable. And, the fact that once you have a note, you know, you don't have to worry about maintenance and those type of things. So that was our next transition. And in that arena, we were probably floating a ARV of, like, $1.45 and less. But then our first year of taxes, we realized that owner financing isn't the best route for the tax bill at the end of the year.

And we need it again, our mentality has been, like, trying to keep as much of our funds in these early phases as possible. So then at that point, we transitioned to rental real estate. And our we still try and keep to that one fifty ARV and less because the cash flow spreads better in that lower range. Mhmm. And these are San Antonio numbers, by the way.

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: San Antonio overall, I think the median is, like, $2.15 or something for a single family home. But, I would say our our most expensive house, ARV, are, like, $2.60, but that was a rarity. I think our average is probably, like, $1.50 range $1.50 to $1.70 range Yeah. Unless but we always try and go on the lower end because we're trying to get cash flow as a whole.

Steve: So you mentioned the tax consequences of of owner financing. I don't think anyone's ever talked about that, at least on this show. What are the tax consequences of being owner financing?

Hillary: The higher capital gains. So

Marco: you So, so, we're not tax professionals. That's probably our weakest spot. But we spent a

Hillary: lot of time trying to learn.

Steve: Probably pay a lot of it.

Marco: And paid a lot of money learning. So our initial impression was, we would get capital gains tax, which you can't avoid on, that I'm aware of, you can't avoid, on an owner finance. And we thought we would only get that percentage deducted from the down payment we collected. So if, if it was $10,000 down payment, we thought we were paying the capital gains percentage on that $10. Turns out, you actually pay the capital gains on the sales price, and in a lot of cases, you're, like, trying to push that as high as possible.

Mhmm. Either that or the interest rate. But you you paid, the difference between, between, the sales price and what your all in number is. So if you have a big spread if you purchased it, you rehabbing your all in for 80,000, and then you sell you turn around and you sell it for, you know, 25, you're paying capital gains on that 45,000 even though you might have got a $10 down payment.

Steve: So you didn't realize the gain? No. But you're still paying taxes

Marco: Yeah.

Steve: On the gain?

Marco: Yes. So and because you're considered, when you're, when the IRS looks at you, you fall in one or two categories. You're either an investor or a dealer. An investor is somebody who intends to hold a property For

Hillary: at least a year in cash flow.

Marco: Right.

Hillary: Like, buy and hold.

Marco: Right. And the and the intense part is kind of the gray area.

Steve: Very gray.

Marco: There's a

Hillary: lot of gray areas. Yeah.

Marco: There's a lot of people that kinda dance that line for sure. I know

Steve: a lot that do. Yeah.

Marco: And then the dealer is somebody who

Hillary: Is a flipper owner finance.

Marco: They basically view you as, selling inventory, and your inventory is the quick turnaround on the property. And so, if you're in that category, you're exposed more to the full capital gains, where there's more tax incentives if you're on the investor side.

Steve: Right.

Marco: So We didn't have that. When we found that out, Surprise.

Hillary: And I think we had already done four owner finances at the time. So the first year was a little, like, oh.

Steve: Okay. Capital gains on, like, $100 that you don't have.

Marco: Right. Exactly. So

Hillary: So we changed our strategy. So now we hold everything for minimum of a year. Mhmm. And we try and line up actually, we try and line up all of our tenants to be out, like, the April, so that we have time.

Marco: All of our leases.

Hillary: We try and line them all up so that we have time to either renew again for another year if we really like the tenant or we're not ready to sell that property, or we have them move out, we clean it up a little bit if it needs some, like, you know, make ready, and then we put it on the market to sell, which I'm a realtor, so we I list my You're

Marco: a badass realtor.

Hillary: I don't like being a realtor.

Marco: No. She does that.

Hillary: I don't like I do it for us

Marco: or He's a broker. You can't say that.

Hillary: Or friends and family.

Steve: It's totally okay.

Hillary: I do it very minimally.

Steve: So because of the the capital gains consequences of doing seller carry, you guys went more on the buy and hold or holding it for a year. Mhmm. Are you guys trying to do a seller carry then if you guys aren't listing it?

Marco: That's an opportunity. But, no. Actually, now what we're trying to do is, we're slowly selling our properties, and we've sold a good amount. And we're slowly selling our properties. Originally, it was just to get more properties, but now we're selling our properties to try and get into small multifamily properties.

Hillary: And starting to go the ten thirty route ten thirty one exchange route.

Marco: We haven't done ten thirty one as a part of our strategy yet just because, when we sell the sell the properties in equity yet, we still kinda need to touch that so we can kinda feed our wholesaling business and try and acquire more properties.

Hillary: Mhmm.

Marco: But we're starting to we're getting close to the point to where we won't need to touch that any that money anymore. And then we'll our game plan is buy a property, hold it at least a year, either refinance it or sell it, probably more selling it so we can get more equity. When we sell it, use ten thirty one so that we can roll that money tax deferred free into small multifamily. Basically, get off, get rid of all of our houses and start moving into the multifamily realm. That's our current game plan right now.

Steve: How often you guys are revising your game plan?

Marco: All the time.

Hillary: Seems like Well, at the beginning all the time, we've kind of, I don't know, we haven't really revised

Marco: much. I think a major shift maybe every six months to a year realm now at this point.

Hillary: We always try and revisit the goals though

Steve: for sure.

Marco: Like look at our numbers, look at our new

Hillary: You have to be open to the change. You don't have to be open to things shifting because, I mean, if you get stuck in that mindset of, like, this is what we had planned, like, years ago, I mean, you have to have room

Marco: for growth.

Hillary: That's so

Marco: true. Right. Because I mean

Hillary: because we really came into this whole thing back in the 2015 with this plan. Well, that's changed so many times and you kinda have to just be comfortable and okay with, like, going in a direction you weren't thinking you were gonna go in because it's gonna now be what's best for everybody or you. I mean, what we do is not best for everybody out there.

Marco: Well, I mean, the world is around us and the market that we're, dealing in is always changing in in influx. But then there's the component that we as individuals are changing our status. You know, we're growing a lot in this section. Maybe we didn't grow as much over here. You know, our our goals, our wants change and evolve.

So, having a reflection consistently, and that's why I mentioned that we look at our resolution document very, very frequently, helps put in perspective of what we wanted and whether or not we still wanna go down that path.

Hillary: And it's not even just business. It's It's also personal stuff. So just goals we wanna accomplish together as a family or individually, and we really try and push ourselves to, like, accomplish those goals.

Marco: Yeah. Actually, these concepts that, apply to business, we've tried to stretch them in our entire life because we're, you know, our the only reason for us anyway that we're trying to be successful in business is so that we can have a successful and fulfilled life that, it creates experiences that we enjoy and that are memorable and fulfilling and increases the frequency of those experiences. So as an example, also in that resolution document are not business items, but fun items. So for instance, at the beginning of 2019 before we got to January 1, we already picked out all the things we wanted to do for the year or the grand idea of them and put them in the calendar. So we had all of 2019

Hillary: Land out. Planned out. As far as weekends and

Marco: things go. And then as time goes by, it manipulates and change and we're like, you know what? That probably is gonna suck. Let's not do that.

Hillary: Or we don't have babysitting, so we have to, like, change change it up a little bit.

Marco: For instance, we're gonna go to a wine stop two weekends from now? Yeah. Which I've never done. You I've

Hillary: done it like once.

Marco: And it sounded like fun. Right?

Hillary: It was fun. Yeah.

Marco: Well, that didn't sound very confident. Now I'm so

Hillary: But, like, like, we have, like, things out, like, just things we've always wanted to do together. So we have to make sure if we don't have it written down somewhere, we will forget about it, and then we might not remember about it for five years. So So we everything's We do

Marco: a lot of planning.

Hillary: We do. Yeah.

Marco: Yeah. To the dismay of Hillary sometimes, she loves to be spontaneous.

Hillary: I like both. I like both. Yeah. You have to have the best of both worlds.

Marco: That's right.

Hillary: You need a little spontaneity in your life.

Steve: So how much wholesaling are you guys doing right now?

Marco: We're about five a month, five plus a month on our wholesaling team.

Hillary: We're we have, like, four this week, which is stressing me out a little bit.

Steve: Why?

Hillary: Just because I'm here. I'm on my phone all, like, all day to day. Been on my phone, like, making sure deals are closing tomorrow and Friday. But it's it's definitely a good

Marco: thing to have. Yeah.

Steve: It's a great problem.

Marco: It's a

Hillary: great problem.

Steve: So you mentioned earlier, so you got like 11 people in your office. Like what so what does your organization look like today?

Hillary: The two of us. I do all the closings for the team. So basically, I make sure we have all the correct documentation, don't want to get in any lawsuits. So I make sure we do it correctly.

Marco: She's a documentation Nazi.

Hillary: I am, but it's like if I just don't want to do it the wrong way because the one time you don't do it correctly is the one time that you're gonna get

Marco: threatened with a lawsuit. So I make sure we

Hillary: do it right each time even if the rest of the team hates it, I'm constantly nagging them. And I also make sure that the closings we get to the closing table. So anything that title needs, if there's affidavit of errorships or death certificates or whatever it's gonna be, I make sure we get that stuff taken care of. And then we have, a systems and CRM guy. He does all our reporting, Plecto, Podio.

I mean, he's kind of a little bit of everything.

Marco: He He does a lot of our podcasts and Mhmm.

Hillary: Then we have, one in house realtor who kind of does all the retail sites. So if it's a, a lead that comes in that we can't wholesale or it's just the numbers are off, then he'll get the lead and try and work it from an agent standpoint.

Marco: Or we just need an agent. Like, for instance, we're we had a deal that was a short sale situation. Mhmm. So we needed an agent. Here's our

Hillary: Yeah. Hopefully, we can close that one. It's been kind of a nightmare. And then we've got one dispositions, and then the rest are acquisition. So oh, and we have a VA.

Yeah.

Steve: So you guys are saying earlier 35%, which is the most generous I think I've ever heard. Oh, yeah?

Marco: Well, we're generous people.

Steve: Yeah. So you hear that?

Marco: We're trying

Hillary: yeah. You hear that team?

Steve: Now everyone in San Antonio, like, fly.

Marco: There you go. Alright.

Hillary: Yes. Exactly.

Steve: So what does your

Marco: Actually, quick comment on that. Yeah. Okay. So when I originally started, I started as an agent. And, I was, like, barely making it.

Steve: Acquisition agent or a licensed realtor?

Marco: Licensed realtor. I wasn't wholesaling. I was representing investors acquiring properties. Okay. And, you know, these are like $60,000 houses or less.

So 3% of those is like very, very little. But in addition to that, I had first off 40% of that, the commission for an agent went to, the investor depending on what level they were. Okay? They got like a rebate. Then what was remained, I did a thirtyseventy split and then I got 70.

So after I think when I did the math, I got less than half of the commission. Mhmm. That's really nice. I was barely making it. So I remember that and I remember one of the big frustrations I had with that and I it was, you know, I went through some hard times not making it.

I was really depressed in a lot of ways and not motivated and that always stuck with me. So I always wanted to make sure that if they were part of our team that, yeah, I wanted to make sure they make good money monetarily, but I was also going to help them become investors themselves. Up until all the companies I've been part of, not they didn't really focus on the employees or the people on in the company acquiring their own properties. It was always focusing on the clients getting their properties. And I remember that.

So those were two really big sticking points for me particularly. So when we were building our company, that was something that was

Steve: important. I think that's honorable.

Marco: Okay. Well, great.

Steve: Still think it's a lot. So, okay. So let's talk about the responsibilities of the of the of your acquisition people.

Marco: Okay.

Steve: Right. Like, what do they do on a transaction? Like, what are their what are their responsibilities as an acquisition agent?

Marco: Everything on the front end, really. Everything that has to do with the sellers.

Hillary: So Take the lead, work the lead, get the appointment, get the contract signed, get all documentation.

Marco: So cultivating the lead themselves. Sometimes they're handed a lead from mailers or things like that, but they generate their own leads. All the negotiation with the seller, walk on the properties, evaluating the properties, and then getting it to contract. And then, beyond that point, they really just are kinda maintaining their the point of contact with the seller. They'll help with any, curative work on title if needed and, schedule closing on the seller side.

That's probably the extent of their responsibilities. Mhmm. Yeah.

Steve: And then the disposition is responsible for what?

Hillary: Same thing, but in reverse. So anything on the back end. They find they they sell the contract to an investor. They find the investor who wants to purchase the contract, get all the documentation, and then also coordinate anything with the buyer on the back end.

Marco: They handle our email blast, our text blast, our, you know, systems to get the word out. They'll out there they'll call all the investors, schedule all the showings, negotiate with the the investors, and, contract with the investors. And then if we need to get prepared for closing, they'll make sure the investor gets LLC deducted the title or, you know, they'll communicate with the lender, the lender or the buyer if needed to help make sure everything So they

Steve: have a little bit of a TC role, transaction coordinator role? A little bit.

Hillary: A little bit.

Marco: So Hillary I

Hillary: don't really have communication with any buyers or sellers just since I don't I wasn't the one that built relationships with either side. I kinda just tell them what is needed, and then they go after and get those items. But once they get them, they hand them off to me, and then I am the sole person speaking with title just because we had it at the very beginning when we didn't have very many people where there was no transaction coordinator, and so there was a lot of people, like, there were too many hands in the pot, and I was like, I was like, title's not only working on our files. So, like, because they're probably getting so many emails from different people, we had to systemize that process. And so now anything communicated with title comes through me.

So I'm the one really building the rapport with these title people.

Marco: And then she, like, hands the assignments out to the acquisition person or disposition person.

Hillary: But I keep it all very organized, so if anyone needs documentation or what's going on from months ago, because we still haven't closed this file, I have, like, super I'm, like, the most organized on

Marco: the team.

Hillary: And I'm, like, we needed it, like, four months ago.

Steve: Charles Hernandez suggests teaming up with HBHS. And You

Marco: need to get them on the show.

Hillary: Yeah. They're awesome.

Steve: I love to do it. And then Hernando Acres says that the the fee is generous and fair.

Marco: He's he's on our team.

Hillary: He was one of our, like I think

Marco: we just messaged him.

Hillary: He was one of our, like, top fans back when we were doing doing a lot of Facebook live, and then he joined us.

Marco: Yeah. He was always on our Facebook lives, and then he ended up playing. And now he he kinda runs our team for us. Oh, that's awesome.

Steve: Side. Yeah.

Hillary: Very cool. You mentioned

Steve: you have VA.

Marco: What do

Steve: they do? Oh, gosh. She does, like, everything. I don't even know all of the

Hillary: things she does. She's So she's everything. I don't even know all of the things she does. She's

Marco: So she, we try and hand everything. Everyone has access to her. We try and, give her all the responsibilities for the time consuming elements. So she facilitates email blasts, text blasts. She's the one that updates our website.

She also, will compile our lists or, you know, remove return mail, all, like, the data entry stuff. She'll also kinda navigate Empodium, keeping good communication. So all the little tedious elements she does, we we're actually gonna try and incorporate to where she is assisting Hillary more on the title side.

Hillary: So I can step out a little bit.

Marco: Yeah. And, ultimately, we need to get to a point with either her or maybe another VA where they can actually draft the documentation, for our team too. Because that's always a time consuming part that we've noticed, but we're not quite quite at that point yet. Mhmm.

Steve: What marketing techniques are working best for you guys?

Marco: Our number one is co wholesaling. So we try and, we try and do a lot of social media, a lot of Facebook. We're getting better at Instagram. I just said the Instagram. We're trying to do more, social media wise.

And because of that, particularly in San Antonio, we know a lot of other wholesalers are pretty integrated with the market. We know all pretty much the major players, but also a lot of the people trying to get into wholesaling, watch our videos and interact with us, so they'll bring us deals. So either established wholesalers or investors that come across a wholesale potential or new wholesalers, a lot of them bring deals to us. Now, I would say that's our number one source. Aside from that, we do, direct mail.

Hillary: We do generate well, we do antisides too.

Marco: And we'll do And some door knocking. Yeah. We'll do a little bit of everything. But number two, I would say, is direct mail.

Steve: So are you guys doing any cold calling?

Marco: Oh, yeah. We do a lot of cold calling too.

Steve: Gotcha.

Marco: So maybe actually, let me reverse. We'll do, cold selling, cold calling, then, direct mail.

Steve: Gotcha. And as far as markets, you guys are exclusively in San Antonio?

Hillary: Primarily. Mhmm. We have done some other markets, but it's not very often. We've closed closed a couple deals in Memphis.

Marco: I mean Dallas, Houston.

Hillary: Yeah. Around But we're

Marco: not, like, pursuing those deals. If an opportunity comes up, we'll try and make a deal happen or whatever. But San Antonio, by far, is our focus.

Steve: Gotcha. And how much you guys spending a month on marketing?

Marco: Probably about $5. Right around there, give or take.

Steve: And most of that's going to?

Marco: Direct mail. And I'll, you know, and then we also, on top of that, have all the different subscriptions, which that adds up for sure.

Steve: I don't know if they can $39 a year month to

Marco: death. Yeah.

Hillary: That's true. Yes.

Marco: Pay for the year for the discount.

Steve: How's your monthly overhead?

Marco: I I don't know what our monthly overhead is. I can tell you. But, we do have an office. We do have a lot of the subscriptions. Like I said, we we do a lot to, do more of the inexpensively.

So the co wholesaling is really big and then cold calling, really isn't too, money intensive. So we don't have, like, the largest overhead in the world. And then with Bella

Hillary: Too bad?

Marco: Yeah. And then with Bella buyers, it's just us. And Yeah. There really isn't really any overhead. That's also

Hillary: why we take 50% because we need, obviously, to pay for these things. Yeah. We have

Marco: to pay

Hillary: for the team. Are you

Marco: saying we need to take more?

Hillary: I know. Well, maybe we should.

Steve: I didn't say that exactly.

Hillary: We should revisit after this meeting.

Steve: Sounded something like it. So, any valuable resources?

Marco: Like Do

Steve: you recommend tools, programs, systems?

Marco: What are some systems you can do without?

Hillary: We actually the team doesn't really use it, but Marco and I are always in Trello. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's we constantly live in Trello. We have we share the same stuff and we task each other and live off of I don't know how many times a day we look at that stuff. Because if we didn't have it, we would I would forget everything I need to do. Yeah.

And we have, like, different columns. So, like, what's critical, what's something we need to do eventually, but not, like, completely critical. And I can see what he's got on his task. So if there's anything I can jump in and help him accomplish, it's

Marco: totally gonna

Hillary: be difficult.

Marco: Don't mess with any of my stuff.

Hillary: Unless I do it for him, then he's happy.

Marco: You can definitely touch those.

Hillary: Yeah. So I would say Trello, but, like, our the rest of our team doesn't really use it.

Marco: By far,

Hillary: no one.

Marco: But in

Hillary: Hilco, our team, we we have Podio as our CRM. We use Plucto for reporting. We have Slack. We constantly are in we're constantly in Slack with each other.

Marco: Slack is, just a communication platform. Just like a great opportunity to do, like, a bunch of group text messages really organized, and we use that a lot.

Hillary: And we have specific channels for different things. So you know kinda where to put it in. So there's always a way of tracking a conversation or whatever.

Marco: So some of the leads that we, there's one website. I think it's vacant home data feed. Mhmm. The Dolce h

Steve: d f. Yeah. Cameron.

Marco: Yeah. That

Steve: Cameron's last name.

Marco: That one's great, for leads. And we've used that a lot and that one's been good for direct mail. We're just now starting to incorporate, REI Pro. We haven't that's like actually happening right now, so I don't really have the experience in it fully. We just did our first campaigns with it this week.

But we're incorporating that. And, we have a bunch of just other subscriptions. DocuSign, we use a bunch. You know, pretty standard ones.

Steve: You mentioned co wholesaling earlier is one of your, is your primary

Marco: or

Steve: your best. So talking about co wholesaling, how are you building out co wholesaling?

Marco: Like, what

Steve: are your strategies to become because there's no shortage of of wholesalers that someone goes to. Right? I think New Western is pretty popular.

Marco: Yeah. In Texas. Yeah.

Steve: Not really liked. So there's lots of

Marco: I like New Western.

Steve: Do you? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But there's a lot of different options out there.

So, like, why go to Marco or Hillary?

Marco: I we do it.

Hillary: Because we're nice. We're fun loving. We'll have fun. We like to have fun. I can be nice.

Marco: I don't say anything.

Hillary: You're on my good side.

Marco: I can't say anything. Just bring her some, good cookies or something, then she'll really like you. Yeah. Yeah. Any particular flavor?

Hillary: Just anything nice would be good.

Marco: Okay. Yeah. Cool. So we do a lot of social media. So we put out a lot of free content, and I think that's a way way that, really has helped bring in a lot of leads, especially with there are a ton of people out there who are trying to get into wholesaling.

They've watched this show. They've watched a a bunch of other content out there, and they've taken steps to generate leads. And, you know, they've done a lot already. And, there's just a few pieces here and there that they're missing Mhmm. Or there's stuff that they just don't know they don't know.

And we found that a lot of people who've come to us and said, hey, I think I have a lead or here's like a list of leads or whatever. Yeah. That they have like a golden nugget sitting right there and they just didn't know it or maybe they were too scared to take the action or make the phone call or whatever. So we put a lot of content out there to kind of promote like, hey, if you have a deal, bring it to us and, you know, we don't necessarily have to work together. We'll be glad to give you, you know, information on like how to proceed forward.

But what we found is a lot of people are just like, you know what? You know, let's definitely work together. So that's been a one way in itself. But aside from that, I mean, we're just trying we're all about relationship building. So, you know, like Mike and Aaron and Quentin and all those people, we've done deals with all of them and

Steve: Yeah.

Marco: And, actually, Aaron, we're closing one tomorrow or whatever.

Hillary: Mhmm.

Marco: But, just building those relationships, touching base with them, having fun with them, non business stuff, you know, just keeping that connection strong is critical. You never know how you're gonna overlap.

Hillary: It's always doing right by people too.

Marco: That's great.

Hillary: Because people are very, like, short sighted and it's all about the money for some people. But I'd rather take less money on a deal knowing we can do more deals in the future than, like, trying to get every penny we can get just because if you do that if you do it that way, then you might not get deals in the future. So it's it's really just about it's really just about doing right by people and

Marco: That's a huge and

Hillary: being more farsighted. Like, being like, I wanna be knowing these people for years, not trying to just suck people dry.

Marco: Too many people, that's, like, a big mistake is they get wrapped up in, like, closing that deal, especially when you're new, you're desperate.

Hillary: And especially when they're big assignment fees.

Marco: Yeah. That's true.

Hillary: If it's, like, a $2,000 assignment fee, you don't really care, but, like,

Marco: $20 plus,

Hillary: you get greedy. It's like, I want every penny. I have to come down 500 to make it yeah. Just do it. Kinda like it's yeah.

Steve: What is, your guys' why?

Hillary: Our why, I think, primarily is so that we can retire early and be out of the rat race and travel and I mean, honestly

Marco: It all comes back to the concept in Rich Dad Poor Dad, which is a really simple concept. If you can generate enough passive income to cover your needs and wants, then you're free. And so we're working to get free, and we want to become free where we're not controlled, tied to money, so that the family that we're building, we can go on long trips together and build memories together. I can

Hillary: Like, here we are in Arizona, and I didn't have to ask anyone permission to not be in the office.

Marco: But I had to ask her permission.

Hillary: But I mean, like, you know, when you when you are used to, like, a regular job PTO or vacation hours and, you know, I remember I remember being in that in that role and not being very happy and feeling depressed, like, oh, it's Sunday and I have to go to work for forty hours this week. And it's just like that mundane, you know

Marco: You dreaded Sunday.

Hillary: I hated well, it was just like just a sad it was just like, you know, you're good at what you do, but you don't really find any passion in it or enjoyment in it, and it being the controlling factor in your life. Like, I need to go to the doctor, but I don't have you know, you're trying to figure it out, or just, like, anything. Like, I hated that part about having a real job. So I really like where we're at. Even though it's hard, what we're doing is hard work right now, it's still better than where we were a couple years ago.

Steve: Do you guys have a metric for when you guys feel that you guys can retire?

Marco: The number I wrote down was $12,916.67. Yeah. Because we did the math, when we first started, and that's a 155,000 divided by 12. Mhmm. So that was the number that we were, that we were shooting towards.

We're definitely not there yet, but that's, you know, the first main goal. I'm sure once we get there, you know, she she'll want a bigger number or something. But,

Hillary: Every time it'll be like

Marco: We want that

Hillary: not That's not like that's not like the forever goal. That's like the the first goal to

Marco: be like I see already.

Hillary: That's like the first goal to be like

Marco: The first main goal.

Hillary: That we can breathe and, like, not be so

Marco: worried about it. But we want that from our properties,

Steve: not from

Marco: our wholesaling Right. Which, you know, that that could be passive income too if you build the business. But it's from

Hillary: our property. From strictly cash flow. If we can bring that in every month

Marco: That's what we're

Hillary: we'll be writing easy. Yeah. Or easier.

Steve: Gotcha. What is your biggest struggle right now?

Hillary: Kids.

Marco: Dang. You said that so fast.

Steve: She was ready for that question. Yeah.

Hillary: It's just really hard. Like, we're we've had so many conversations where we talk to each other and we're like, we just gotta get through these couple years because this is the hardest we are ever gonna have to live this life. Like, building a business from scratch, trying to keep a team motivated, trying to keep ourselves motivated, and having two little tiny babies. I mean, we have two that are three and under. So it's just it's a lot.

It's just it's hard. It's really hard.

Marco: It's, puts pressure on a relationship Mhmm. Aside from business, you know, just having our own time to be able I mean, date nights.

Hillary: That's, like, really important to me. We get maybe once a month if we're lucky.

Marco: Yeah. I mean, those fundamental components just to keep a relationship happy, a lot of that goes to the wayside when you have children unless you have help in some capacity. So we've really had to learn to ask for help, which, you know, for me, I was a very kind of like, I wanna shoulder it. I wanna I'm independent. I wanna do it on my own.

And, you know, that's naive in some ways.

Hillary: It's not too difficult. Where we had a conversation and we were like, we just need to ask both of our parents for help. Like, it it just got too difficult where we weren't getting anything done. And we just had to say, you know, let's swallow our pride and say we need some help. Can you at least commit to, like, one day or a couple nights for babysitting.

Marco: And, she says kids, but really kids is what highlights what the true problem is. And the true problem is the limited amount of time that we have. And whether or not we're trying to apply that time to being productive or, relationship is healthy or whatever. So our biggest problem is just, like, being able to set ourselves up to where we can kinda control our time more. We're not working in the business, as much as we we are.

We're the bottleneck in some instances. So we're really trying to make a transition now to kinda delegate more, give more responsibilities to the team members, trust more. Mhmm. Mhmm. You know, the stronger systems.

Even in our home life, we're trying to get a nanny now.

Hillary: Yeah. That's hard for me. The trust is hard.

Marco: Somebody to clean the home so we don't do that and, I mean, concepts in the four hour work week. Mhmm. So that's our weakness And that's what we're trying right now, we're trying to really focus on and fix.

Steve: Well, I like that you brought that up though. Because, you know, one of the things that was important to me having you both on the show was, you know, the challenges as a as a power couple. Right? Like, a lot of times we have, like, one person with a a guy or or or a woman, but, you know, they're kinda doing one thing.

Marco: She's all the power in this relationship.

Steve: But having a couple, like, you get to really hear, like, some of the other challenges, trying to run a business as two people versus just one person.

Hillary: Mhmm.

Marco: And something we did, that she made us do, because she wanted to make sure our relationship was really strong was she suggested when we first

Hillary: Oh, yeah.

Marco: Started dating

Hillary: Like, literally,

Marco: love languages.

Hillary: We both read that book.

Marco: Which was it's kinda like the Rich Dad Poor Dad of relationships. And so just being mindful of, you know, how she perceives love and how I perceive love and how I can fulfill her needs and wants and same in reverse because not everybody needs the same thing or responds to the same thing. And so trying to be mindful of that, given all

Hillary: We read that a long time ago, but we actually try try and reread it every so often just to like refresh, you know, because I mean especially with two kids and a business, it's like, you haven't fulfilled my love tank in a while. And so it's like you have to take a step back and not take offense to that, but like really just

Marco: think about like, oh,

Hillary: have I not done what he needs or has he not done what I need, just to feel loved, you know, on a day to day basis. Maybe it's not like this grand gesture of like, let's go to the nicest, most expensive getaway weekend, but it's maybe it's just something small, like, oh, I I came home from work and here's a gift I thought about you. Even if it's just like a love letter, like it doesn't even have to be monetary or expensive, it it just needs to be something that he thought of. And vice versa, like he loves when I do things around the house for him and whatever. So it's, like, just making sure you're in tune with that.

Marco: And honestly, that's, for us, the most important component. We have to make sure that our relationship is strong and that she's happy and I'm happy because everything is a tangent from that. Our our children are a tangent from our happiness in the world or the household that we're bringing them up in. Same with our business, being able to function well and communicate well. You know, we can't be pissed off at each other, but then I need to go talk to her.

What's the title update on this one? You know what I mean? And she's like, get out of here. I wanna talk to you. So I

Hillary: think it's really critical too, because we are together so much that we work on our relationship like we do. Like, we really have to figure each other out and communicate. Communication's key, because we are together so much. And if we don't like each other, then it it's really difficult.

Marco: Yeah. We'll we'll have meetings where it's just her and I, and we'll just talk about anything and everything and just kinda

Hillary: Re visit that resolution

Marco: space. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So Fire Language is Love. I think that's a great book. Mhmm.

I'm in the middle of something else right now. I can't remember the full title, but something along the lines of, how to fix your marriage without talking about it or how to make a stronger marriage.

Hillary: I've never heard of it. We'll have to look

Marco: that way.

Steve: So I'm kinda in the middle of that, and ask us some really powerful concepts in there as too. Okay. Look at all the fights that we've had that were completely unnecessary.

Hillary: I think that's every relationship, though.

Marco: I learned.

Hillary: Because we still sometimes have, like, completely unnecessary fights and it's probably just, like, a long day or the kids are extra frustrating or Well,

Marco: the book provides great insights as

Hillary: to why those things happened. I frustrating or

Steve: Well, the book provides great insights as to why those things happened.

Marco: The underlying components. Yeah.

Steve: Things that you

Hillary: We'll have to look that up.

Steve: That you didn't think were happening. So I'll let you guys think about a last thought. Guys, everyone is listening right now. So my business partner, Max and I, we're doing a two day workshop this coming September, limited access to select group of people. If you wanna qualify, see if you can come to our workshop, please go to disruptors.com.

And then I'll be speaking in Houston October for Whole Scaling Live. If you wanna register for that, go to wholescalinglive.com. Put r e d for 25% off. And I'll also be in Biloxi, Mississippi, October for Real Estate Roundup Live. Go to bitly, bit.ly/rerlive, to register for that if you guys wanna hang visit in Mississippi.

And tomorrow, we have Jeremy Tagg coming in from Richland, Washington. And two weeks from today, we're gonna have the legendary Sean Terry. So that's gonna be awesome. So last thoughts.

Marco: So this is exciting, next few weeks and months for you. That whole scaling is gonna be a good one.

Steve: That's gonna be good. That's a crazy crazy lineup.

Marco: Yeah. There is a lot of great people on that one. Yeah. So what was the question? I missed it.

Steve: Last thoughts.

Marco: Last thoughts.

Steve: No. That's yes. Gotta give your last thoughts.

Hillary: Oh, we just give our last thoughts?

Steve: Yeah. Anything you wanna leave the listeners with.

Hillary: I guess I missed that.

Marco: We're very prepared.

Hillary: Well, I don't know what you're planning on.

Marco: I'll go first. I need

Hillary: to think about it.

Marco: Overall, if there's big components, I would say from this one, we covered a lot of topics. Number one, your biggest decision by far is your partner. Not just like in business which that's huge in itself, but, your romantic partner is your partner in life. Picking that wise to where you have good commune and you start off with good communication is fundamental and really can allow you, open the doors and allow you to accomplish some big things when you're bringing in both your knowledge, experience, and resources together. Definitely, if you have some sort of, mental blocks and you know what they are, people listening, I knew that they were at the time and I, you know, reflecting on I knew.

Steve: It just starts with I can't.

Marco: Yeah, exactly. You know, you know, my mental block was I didn't know how I was gonna come up with the money for deals And, just changing your conversations, really going after it and taking the action is fundamentally what can change that world for you and you can accomplish it. And, come see us in San Antonio. Awesome.

Hillary: Basically what he said. I mean, it's hard to I but I mean, it's true. You have to it's really about positive mindset. For me, I still struggle with that if I'm gonna be completely honest. It's hard sometimes.

Like, there are just days that suck. So just knowing like we're in this knowing we're in this together I think is really helpful for me. So, yeah, I mean it really comes down to the partner you choose because there's a lot of people, like there's not a lot of people that do this with their spouse. So for those of y'all doing it out there by yourself, definitely, you have to have somebody rooting for you even if they're not with you on the day to day. So, they're either gonna make you or break you.

So you need to have somebody, even if they're not doing it with you, who's gonna be there every day rooting you on, because it's not an easy job. It's not easy getting out there and being told no a million times and having somebody who's okay with what you're doing. That's important, especially if you have a family with kids and

Marco: Oh, yeah.

Hillary: There's a lot of people out there that stop this this business because their spouse isn't understanding of it and they want you to get a real Yeah. They want you to get a real

Steve: job, a

Hillary: real job. Alright. So I would just say I agree with that.

Steve: Alright. Cool. Someone wants to get a hold of you. How do they do that? Facebook

Marco: for sure.

Hillary: You can go to Hilco Homes on Facebook. We're really active on that. Or you can find us individually, Hillary Romero, Marco Romero. Where are you? W Romero.

And

Marco: I'm Marco a Romero. And you can find us on

Hillary: Hilco Homes. We could go to Hilco Homes and find us too.

Marco: Bella Buyers on Facebook. We also have Instagram, but anybody can message any of us and work to help. We're open people. So any questions, thoughts, anything, we'll be glad to share. And if you just wanna come by the office and say hello down down

Hillary: to do that. Exactly.

Steve: Awesome. Thank you very much. It's a great show.

Marco: Thank you.

Hillary: Thank you for having us.

Marco: It was

Hillary: really fun.

Steve: Thank you guys for watching.