Max Maxwell – From Broke in 2016 to Earning $1MM in Wholesale Fees in 2018

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's very special episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we've got Max Maxwell with Wholesaling Elite flying all the way from Salem, North Carolina. Thanks for coming in.

Max Maxwell: Absolutely, man. How are you doing today?

Steve: Doing good. And today, Mac's gonna share how you went from broke in 2016 to earning a million dollars in wholesaling fees in 2018. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, broker owner of Stunning Homes Realty, founder of the Offer Fast Homes app, the only app you need for wholesaling, and I am on a mission to create 100 millionaires. So please message me if you need any help at all with your business. If you're excited for today's show, please give me some waves, give me some thumbs up.

As a friendly reminder, I do not charge a dime for this show. I don't make any money doing this. So here's all I ask of you. This is what it cost to listen to this show. If you give value today, which I know you will, please tell a friend.

Either share this episode right now, tag a friend below, or tell your best takeaway from the show later on. That way, we can all grow together. Don't forget, this is a live show, and Max is an open book. I promise you that. So please post your questions.

He's gonna answer them. Are you ready? Yeah, man. I'm ready. Alright.

So first question is, what got you into real estate?

Max: A lot of other failures. Right? I'm I'm a serial entrepreneur. Yeah. So starting something new is not new.

So I've I I just had failed launching an app. We we launched it. It didn't work out the way, funding was needed. And, a childhood friend of mine, Tony, most people know him as Tony the closer. His dad is like, he's in real estate.

I just never knew to what capacity. And then I was just having a conversation with his dad, and then his dad mentioned wholesaling one day. And I just wanted to find out what that was. So I went home and googled it. And then from from there, just never stopped.

Steve: So you you heard about it? Yeah. Got it. Just something. Mhmm.

All in.

Max: All in. Yeah. I went home and I was like I was like, this guy is successful as he is and he talked about wholesale. Let me figure out what that's not only thing he did, but, you know, I couldn't own all those properties he owned right away. So he said wholesale.

And I was like, cool. Let me check it out. I went home, checked it out, and I and I stayed in my room for, like, three weeks. Oh. Yeah.

Literally. Yeah. Just trying to

Steve: figure out what it was. Very cool. So talk about your first deal. I

Max: remember it. So after three weeks in in my mom's keep in mind, I moved back home because I'm broke now. I'm at 30. Yeah. Right?

I'm about to be 31. So I moved back home, to my mother's house, and I learned about wholesaling three weeks straight. I think I know everything in the book there is to know about wholesaling, between I got I got, like, a bachelor's degree on YouTube University, like, in three weeks. And then I said, you know what? I'm gonna go driving for dollars because that is the only thing I could afford right now.

I had negative dollars in my Bank of America account. I had a 2004 Volkswagen Jetta. And I was I said, let me go driving around. And I picked up a friend, Bryce. We went driving around and we found we actually went on to a neighborhood I lived in, that grew up in, on a street I grew up on.

Okay. And we found a house on the corner. And literally, I was like, this is it. I can't this is it. So it was grown tall grass and tall bushes, and it was it was everything I dreamed about.

And it it was literally that simple, my first deal. So it doesn't happen that often, but that's how I found my first deal.

Steve: But you put it out there for the universe.

Speaker 2: Because I

Steve: know you're gonna do it. Yeah. Three weeks. About it. Yeah.

Three weeks. That's crazy. And just so for context, like everybody, like, when did you close your first deal?

Max: So I got my first deal under contract September 28 at Tyvola Tyvola Boulevard in Salisbury, North Carolina at the Waffle House parking lot is how I signed the contract. So 09/28/2016, and then I got it assigned four days later and and made a $14,000 sign of fee.

Steve: Yeah. And you got a saying, you're only one deal away. Yeah.

Max: So And yeah. That and that's true. And that's why I came in with that saying. When you're saying when you're one when I say you're one deal away

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: I really mean, like, you're one deal away. That first deal will forever change the way you think about how to earn money. Yeah. And just three weeks worth of working and couple hours driving around, here I am $14 later. And I said, wow.

This is crazy. So coming from somebody that was in the military, I think my highest rank, I made, like, $23,000 a year

Speaker: Really?

Max: To making, like like, $14,000 in three weeks. I was like, you know what? This is where it's at.

Steve: Yeah. This is it. Yeah. You've landed. So, you know, the one of the reasons why I do this show is to inspire people, you know, to give people the motivation to see that this is possible.

Mhmm. And, you know, right now, you kinda look like an overnight success, but not really because No. There were a lot of trials and tribulations. So, like, you were a realtor for a little bit. Yeah.

How did that affect So or impact how you how you got

Max: into this? Well, kind of rolling back a little bit. '17, I went into the United States Air Force. Uh-huh. And I did my term there.

I figured out that I wasn't a great I it wasn't meant for me. I enjoyed every bit of it. I love the karate. I love the guys, people I met. I just had I just seen bigger things for myself.

I got out, got my real estate, license. I was actually in the last class where you can get your broker's license back to back. So you can go to sales school and broker school and then go straight and get your broker's license. Well, they can't do that anymore in North Carolina. Now it's like I think it's like two year waiting period or something.

Steve: Okay.

Max: So I got my, I worked for a company called Alan Tate for a year. Did pretty well. And then I went out on my own, started property management and investment company. A guy from Southern California gave me his entire portfolio one day.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Steve: I think it was,

Speaker: I think

Max: it was, like, a $15,000,000 portfolio of properties. Wow. And that's a lot of money. I know it's not maybe a lot of it's, like, seven houses out here in Arizona. But in in Carolina, that's multifamily, single family.

That's everything. And I managed his entire, his entire portfolio until the economy started to collapse. Mhmm. And he started selling off his, portfolio before it collapsed. So I don't know if he had a magic ball at home or something.

Yeah.

Speaker: And,

Max: you know, so we did that. And when the economy went down, he was like 90% of my business. So there I go too with it.

Steve: Okay.

Max: And, I was in that's why I enjoy I loved it. I I it was okay. The real estate buying and selling side was cool, but I really love the property management and the investment side of things. Yeah. And when that when that failed in 2008 is, I think, is when I left.

And I was like, you know what? That's it for me in real estate. I'm done. Yeah.

Steve: And And then I and doing an additional digging, I saw that, you know, you you had that dyslexia.

Max: Mhmm. Growing up. Yeah. I didn't know until, like, probably my, like, sophomore year in high school that the reason why it was so hard for me to, like, learn the traditional way is because I had a hard time reading. Yeah.

And I didn't understand what it was. I just thought it was kinda normal. Mhmm. And then I found out I had dyslexia and stuff like that. And I and but having that made and and knowing what I had at that point made me enhance other skills.

Right. My communication skills became a lot better, because I was unable to, like what would take a person five minutes to read would take me probably, like, fifteen, twenty minutes. Wow. So I could do it. It just takes me time.

Yeah. And so I lacked in that, so I picked up other skills to to help me get along.

Steve: Well, the reason why I wanna touch on that is because you had some you know, it's a weakness. Right? It's a disability in one way or another. Yeah. But you embraced it and ran with it.

Yeah. Right. It didn't you didn't let it hold you back. You you you embraced it and and went further. And that's like, you know, Richard Branson and Steven Spielberg are two of the most, you know, famous people that grew up with dyslexia.

But because of that, you had to maximize your other skills and you went and did that. So there's no excuses.

Max: And see, I never knew that. I never really knew that because I didn't read my first book till I was 30. Yeah. From cover to cover, I didn't read my first book till I was 30. So I didn't I never knew that other people out there, successful people had it.

Yeah. The second thing you just was quiet about. You Mhmm. Some of your close friends knew something was different. Right.

But, you know, you just embraced it. Yeah. So

Steve: if you were starting over today

Speaker: Yeah.

Steve: What will you do differently with your wholesale business?

Max: You know what? I don't I don't think I would do anything different. Yeah. I had I've I've I've took some l's. Mhmm.

I've learned from them though to make me what I am now. And I still recommend now everybody when you're starting, go drive for dollars. That's the number one way to one, you're gonna learn your market. Mhmm. You drive enough, you're gonna learn what's hot.

Yeah. If you're out and about and people are flipping houses and you have that that communication skill to get out the car and talk to the contractors, you'll start getting learning more and more and more about the actual, you know, that that area. So I don't think I would change anything

Speaker: Okay.

Steve: At all. That's fair. What would you attribute your success to?

Max: Not not giving up. Like, I know I know finding the first deal in the first three weeks helps. But, man, I've took so many l's before that. I've owned restaurants. I've had failed car lots.

Mhmm. I failed an app. I've had other businesses that you could think of. I had a notary business. I've I've had everything you could think of.

So just like, you know, just just not giving up, knowing that you know, just wanting to not wanting to be better than what you are every day. And that's

Speaker: why I'm trying to

Max: be yeah.

Steve: So, you know, obviously, there are a lot of big names in our space nationally, locally. I kinda joked earlier, like, this is wholesale capital.

Max: It is.

Steve: But nationally, I mean, how is your different how is your wholesaling business different than everybody else's wholesaling business?

Max: I think I started out so I think a lot of people go the traditional route with some of the more expensive marketing methods.

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: I embrace cold calling and a lot of other cheaper strategies because it was a budget thing for me. Yeah. And while I embrace them and they became a core of my business, I started I found it was much easier to scale with those.

Steve: Yeah.

Max: So I would say my business has a little bit less overhead than most people have for what we produce. Mhmm. We keep more of our profit, and we we can change our marketing on a dime. Right? So we can react to what the market gives us pretty quickly.

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: I know some guys, some big guys are sending out $30,000 worth of mail a week. Mhmm. Right? And you can't just stop that. No.

No. You because it's a trickle thing. Right?

Steve: Yeah. The day you stop. Stop.

Speaker: Yeah.

Max: So week stops ringing. We can try new things, like, run we we've been doing RVMs heavy this year. Mhmm. You know, cold calling. We've been I've been big on cold calling myself from day one because it was cheap.

So that's kind of what what separates us.

Steve: Okay. So Sonia Ray wants to know, what's your plans for 2019? Some

Max: of some I can't really talk about. Okay. But, exploring new markets.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: We're looking to explore something not right in our backyard. Yeah. We expanded this year, but we're looking to go into some other states

Steve: Okay.

Max: And and try to get some low hanging fruit there.

Steve: Awesome. And she all wants to also wants to know what's your favorite book and why?

Max: Rich Dad Poor Dad. It just changed my mindset. I mean and it was also the first book I read cover to cover in my life.

Steve: Okay. So it was it just it's

Max: a mindset changer, and it was a great story. Whether it's true or not, it made me believe.

Steve: Story doesn't matter.

Max: It doesn't matter. Right?

Speaker: Because it

Max: got me thinking exactly. It got me thinking what the book was intended for me to think.

Steve: Right.

Max: And I just look at money and life a lot different now.

Steve: Yeah. Absolutely. Antonio wants to know what markets are you dominating right now?

Max: My whole market, the Triad area, which is selling Greensboro and High Point. Triad area.

Steve: That's what you guys call it? Triad. Yep. Oh, okay. Learn something new.

Right? So Monique May wants to know. She was in a tax lien state, not a tax deed state. How does that are you finding people not as motivated in taxing states?

Max: So that that's cool. So we only do tax I've I've never done a tax lien state.

Speaker: Mhmm. We

Max: are a tax deed state, which means you you you don't pay your taxes. They sell your entire house. How fast? Sometimes our our state is, like, three years maybe if you haven't paid your tax in three years. They really don't have a timeline.

The statute says you could they can start from day one. But what I've seen in the trend is probably about three years. Hotter hotter areas, it's a little bit it's a little bit faster.

Steve: A little less forgiving.

Max: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because they want that property, up and produce some taxes. Tax lien state, there is strategies with that, but it's more of a long strategy because they most people know the rules Mhmm.

Speaker: And

Max: know that they have time. Right. So but as long as you, but it ends up it at the end of a tax lien, from what I understand, at end of a tax lien sale, when it when it matures, they end up losing the property anyways.

Steve: Right.

Max: So you just have to wait. So some states, it's a one year mature. Some states, it's a two year before the lienholder can foreclose

Speaker: on it.

Max: Find out your state statue and then wait it out. Or find out the ones that were done two years ago if you're at a two year state.

Speaker: Right.

Max: Pick them up at twenty two months to start remarketing that.

Steve: Yeah. And for you guys there in Arizona, I believe it's two years.

Max: Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So there are some questions here. Some of these questions I'll be, I'll be asking Max later on. When did you know it was the right time to scale your business?

Max: When I couldn't handle the calls anymore. When I started screening potential leads according to what voice mail they left.

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: Right? That's bad business. Right? Because you never if They're qualifying based

Steve: off the voice mail.

Max: Yeah. So I've probably left a lot of money, tens of thousands in the voice mailboxes because, oh, that doesn't sound that motivated. Because we were putting out so much marketing

Speaker: Yeah.

Max: As far as like like bandit signs, cold calling, like, all these things that were created so much incoming calls. I do a lot of PPC now too. But inside on inside of these these these inbound marketing strategies. And it's like, okay. I am I'm wasting so much money by not being able to answer these calls lives.

Yeah. So when I my second hire was a person to answer the phone, my leads manager.

Steve: Okay. And then, where was it? It was Brian wants to know, if you were to buy something off list source, do you buy off list source

Speaker: right now? Yep. What's the first list you would

Max: buy off list source? Absentee owner. Absentee owner?

Steve: Yeah. Okay.

Max: And it depends and and and it depends on your state. Like, absentee owner in Florida is probably no good. Everybody owns a house in Florida, lives somewhere else. Right? Yeah.

I'm not sure what it is in Arizona, Phoenix area. But in North Carolina, if you own a house and you don't live there, it's probably because you don't live there.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: You really don't live there. It's not a vacation house that you have. Right. So I would go after that. And the reason why I say is because it's it's all about timing.

Right? When your marketing hit them, is it the right time? It's like, does the intersections cross at the right time? And one is if you keep marketing to that list or that person, and then they get motivated at the right time, whether there's a family emergency, whether they receive too many where the tax bill comes at the wrong time, they see it and they just, you know, that that that emotional

Steve: It's that window.

Max: Yeah. It's that window. Exactly. That's a better way to say it. Yeah.

Steve: And that's something that we talk about in our market. Like, you know, there's so many freaking people here, but we're still friends around here even though we're in the same industry. Because when you call and when I call, who knows when we're gonna get them the right time? Correct.

Max: It's all about timing. Right? When is that dial gonna stop Yeah. At the right time?

Steve: Okay. So Kimberly Ford wants to know, when you flip a house, why do you listen to MLS versus waiting to sell into a known investors?

Max: When she says flip, it's like a like a real flip?

Speaker: Yeah.

Max: I think so. Well, the the the MLS is the biggest buyers list you can ever get. Yeah. Right? So we even list I'll say it.

We list some of our wholesales on the MLS. In North Carolina, you

Steve: can't. Right.

Max: So because it's the biggest buyers list out there.

Steve: Yeah. And it makes sense? If you can take it down.

Max: Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So we so, obviously, if we're flipping it, we take it down.

Yeah. In in North Carolina, there's there's a there's a if you have the intent to take it down, you can list it as owner is not yet record. Seller is not yet owner. Seller is not yet

Steve: owner of record. Interesting. Yeah. Is there We're probably gonna need that field soon in Arizona.

Max: But it it helps because if if I'm if I'm gonna take it down, I can go ahead. I don't have to wait if I have a scheduled closing.

Steve: Alright. Yeah. Okay. And then, Jaren, Simon wants to know. I think this is a good question for you.

If someone's active duty, how would you advise them if they're active duty military also wholesale on the side?

Max: Yeah. So I I got a I got a guy right now. He's actually in Japan. He just he just just inboxed me today. And he's like, look.

I made 30,000 in the last, like, you know, couple months wholesaling on the side. Now keep in mind, he's active duty in Japan, wholesaling virtually in whatever market in America. So it's possible. Now as as a former active duty person, it all depends on your job too. My active duty job would not allow that type of activity because I'm always on call, always doing something, always traveling here and there.

But if you have downtime, if you have a traditional job where you're working ten to twelve hours a day in the military, then, yeah, you have time. I would look into being a virtual wholesaler. Or if you're based in somewhere that's cool, like if you're based stateside, Florida or somewhere, Georgia, then look to do it locally. Right. I think I think any area with a base is a good market because there's always influx of people in and out.

Steve: And I love that he's thinking about this. Right? Like, there's no excuses. He's working. Yeah.

I mean, you

Max: you might as well get it started now so that your transition that you're making into the civilian world is so much easier when your pockets are fat. Right.

Steve: So Aden Rodriguez, his challenge right now is how to change mindset and improve the law of attraction.

Max: I would say I would say believing. One thing you have to do so, like, for me in the last two years and two months, nothing has changed around me

Speaker: Yeah.

Max: Other than my mindset. And I say that a lot. Like, people were still doing what they were doing before. Mhmm. Money is still worth the same.

Only thing changed was what is in between my ears. And I would say, like, to do that, you might probably need to change your surroundings of the people you're with. And that's it. Because once like, I very often tried I I try not to be the smartest person in any room. Yeah.

If if you are the smartest person in the room, then you need to leave. Mhmm.

Speaker: So

Max: if you're hanging out with your friends and you're the ones always giving advice, find some new friends.

Steve: Oh, that's

Max: When I started hanging out with millionaires, I wanted to become them. Yeah. I found myself sitting in the in in the chair and listening way more than I was talking.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: And when you see people do certain things in their mannerisms, you're like, man, I wanna do that. I wanna become that. And if you can if you can change your circle, your mindset will change.

Steve: Yeah. Absolutely. And that's incredibly powerful. I think that, you know, Jaylen was on the show a couple weeks ago, and I think he's talking about man, I can't wait to have those problems. Yeah.

Right? But it's because he's hanging out with people on a bigger level.

Max: Yeah. So when when people are like like people are like try to like I have friends that are wholesalers and they're trying to become the biggest wholesale in their state. I'm trying to become the biggest wholesale in the country in some way, Fitch. You know, have a real estate empire of x y z. Right.

Right? Just because the people I hang around with in their respective industries, they are the largest. Mhmm. So you don't try to have that small thinking. You want to be as as big as your mind will allow you to be.

Steve: That's awesome. Elijah Rubin wants to know what you do with your fire damaged properties.

Max: Elijah, what's up, man? I honestly, I've never done a fire damaged property. Really? Never done one. I don't know if we got good firefighters in North Carolina or what, but I've never done a fire damaged property.

And I'm and I'm not a guru, so I won't answer a question that I don't have the answer to.

Steve: Yeah. Jerry wants to know, how do you decide when to cold call versus RVM?

Max: We do both simultaneously. Yeah. What we found out through strategies, because I we we created a software called REI Rail. Mhmm. What we found out is that, the first touch is good.

Statistically, the first touch is better and this is just over testing thousands of calls. Yeah. Because if you can get that outbound strategy to become an inbound Mhmm. Way hotter. Yeah.

Right? So if my first interaction with the with the person is a voice mail, then, it's way more softer. Now we call and RVM at the same time.

Steve: Yeah.

Max: So it's it's just and use it. If you're gonna do RVM, make sure you use a female's voice. There's a little tip there. I don't know why

Steve: it works better, but it does. A lot less, what's the word? Intimidating. Yeah.

Max: That's it. Sourcing deals.

Steve: So, like, where do you get, like, your best deals right now?

Max: From inside. So it's not any list buying service we use. Our best deals come from what we, create from our county of records. Yeah. Right?

So digging at the, let's say, like, the eviction court

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: Or digging in through the probate files at our local county. Like, list like, any list you can't buy is where you're gonna get the biggest deals. Right.

Steve: Point So there's no online service for it.

Max: There's no online service. So there's not Tom that's it's not anybody listening that's named Tom. But nobody named Tom with a huge credit card that can send out thousands of pieces of mails every week sitting in his living room in his underwear can't can't can't compete with you.

Steve: Right.

Max: So you take the money factor out. We were talking about that before. Like, you take the money factor out of this how successful you can be, and if you leave it to just straight hustle, you'll get a lot of deals.

Steve: I like that you level the playing

Max: field. Yeah. Abs absolutely. Absolutely.

Steve: What does your organization look like today as far as, like, acquisitions, dispositions, and cold callers, so on?

Max: So we got, so I have I have two sides of my business. We have a, a virtual side

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: And we have an in house side. Yeah. So virtual, I have, two full time co callers. No. One one now we're down to one full time co caller.

My lead manager is actually Laika. She she's in The Philippines. Mhmm. So she's the first touch of communication when you do an inbound call to our company.

Steve: Yeah.

Max: I have a admin personnel person that her entire job, Alexis, her entire job is first making sure every all my other cold call everybody that works overseas is taken care of, and she manages all our lists that we procure online

Steve: Okay.

Max: And the ones that we get ourself from the courthouse. She is the manager of all the data. Okay. She's a bottleneck of data. So that's that.

What else we got? Stateside in my office, three cold callers, an office manager, two acquisitions guys.

Steve: Okay. Yeah. You said something about making sure our virtual assistants are taken care of. What

Max: does that mean? So they're part of my family. Just because they don't come in the office every day, they get bonuses. They get taken care of. We pay bonuses according to their holidays and not our only.

Steve: Oh, I love that.

Max: Yeah. So we I mean, we take care of them. They're just like my longest employees are have been my virtual ones. Yeah. Right?

So, yeah. We've we've got well, my all my virtual staff has been over a year.

Steve: Okay.

Max: Yeah. So we've had we've had one turnover because of a personal reason reason somebody wanna leave. Yeah. But everybody has been with me since we started is is still there. Okay.

Like, when I started hiring virtually. So everybody's over a year. They're family. Straight up.

Steve: That's incredible. So your acquisition guys, they're taking the inbound calls. Right? Or no. They're so they're doing outbound calls.

Max: We got co callers. We got co callers at

Steve: two. So

Max: we have our our acquisitions guys technically don't do too many outbound calls because they're fed leads from one, either Lyca the lead manager or two, our in house co callers. Yeah. And there's a funnel system that these leads go to and they get signed Okay. Once they come in.

Steve: Awesome. So what do you pay the acquisition guys?

Max: Commission. Yeah. Base and commission. So I think it's 35 plus commissions. Now they can make, you know, they can make quarter million dollars a year.

It's up to them. But, you know, it it averages out where they you'll they'll touch 6 figures if they need to.

Steve: Awesome. And then did you say you had a disposition guy?

Max: So one of my acquisitions guy, which is actually a realtor, is is a disposition. But we have a we have a disposition factory. It's it's it's kinda easy

Speaker: Yeah.

Max: Because it's all done online through we use text. So my office manager

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: She sends out the email blast, text message blast in order to be able to, you know, reach our buyers. And it's it's kinda seamless.

Steve: Okay.

Max: So you don't I don't need a full time person that's just dedicated to that.

Steve: Right. Okay. I see. There was a question. How far back do you go on the probate list?

Max: As far as as as far as the property is still owned by the person. Yeah. So we go we go back. We we we have we catch new records and go back as long as there's an open file.

Steve: Okay. And then you mentioned Triad. That's you're primarily predominantly in Triad for now?

Max: Triad, we have a couple other markets that I won't really talk about because

Steve: It's just It's in the works?

Max: Well, no. I have a market that we're in now. I just don't talk about it because it when when I say a market's good, people run there.

Steve: And it's just just what

Max: it is. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So services offered. I know, like, you you offer ringless voice mail.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Steve: Looks like a CRM. What do you what is

Max: like like, products we've created? Yeah. REI rail is pretty much it. REI rail is it's a it's an intelligent ringless voicemail system.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: What we found out so after doing so much cold calling and so much RVM, we used to use all these RVM situations, but they were unintelligent RVMs. That make sense. Right? So typically, you get a list, you blast it out the same message everybody gets it. What happens when they call back?

It's like, oh, I'm not in front of my computer. What property were you calling about?

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: Already a guard goes up. Right? So you gotta you gotta hack the trust equation. Yeah. Right?

In order to do that, we use technology. So we came up with this thing where a list you upload your list and each list gets its own identification number. And it's more than you just uploading a phone number. You're uploading the person, the property address, all the information you have about them. And when you send out that blast of milliseconds before the phone rings on your computer screen, pops up all the information about the person and anything we could find about their house online.

Tax value, last sell date, square footage, any pictures we can dig online, everything. And then we have this we've got this thing called deep tracing where, say, you call me, it's gonna pull up everything about you it finds out. What college you went to, your last job, all this stuff. So now you have an just so much information about the person. So your call say, hey, Steve.

Yeah. You're calling about the house on 123 Main Street. Yeah. I'm interested. It's a much more intelligent conversation.

Mhmm. And let's just say you work at Pepsi Cola and I see that. Oh, yeah. My dad worked at Pepsi Cola for twenty two years. Try to bring that up in the conversation so you can hack that trust equation.

So that's what we did with REAR rail. It's way more than just a RVM machine. The simple saying is that, yeah, it's a crazy RVM machine, but it's built from it's built from the ground up. It's not just white labeled something and put it out there. It's built from the ground up.

You got Vince and Justin. Those guys really busted their butts to make it work, and they're part of the customer success team and everything. So shout out to those guys for building such a crazy software.

Steve: What I like about it is that you're doing this business.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Steve: So you're doing a tool you you created a tool that you're using.

Max: It was an internal tool first. Yeah. So it was never meant to be released to the public. Alright. It was that we were using this.

And when I met Justin and I said, listen, I got an idea. And they're like, that's crazy. We were just working on the same stuff, same type of thing. And I was like, hey. This would be cool if it had.

Mhmm.

Speaker: And

Max: you locked them in a room for six months, and then they come out with these beta data vert. And we were using it internally, like, for five months before we even released it out to anybody. I started having beta testers. And then September 1, we released it, and it was like, let's let's do this. And it's just been it's it's phenomenal.

It's what I've been using to to to hack some things.

Steve: Alright.

Max: Because RVM is one thing, but intelligent RVM is way different.

Steve: Yeah. No. I'm sold. Yeah.

Max: Try it out. Get a demo. It's free.

Steve: Your demo is free. So, there was a question here about redemption. So in a tax deed state, is there a right for redemption?

Max: Oh, heck yeah.

Steve: Okay. So how do you Well,

Max: it's not a redemption. So what happens in North Carolina, if you read the statutes

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: This is like a hack. So anybody that is in this business, make sure you read the statutes. It's boring lawyer lingo, but I'm telling you, once you understand it, it's gonna make the difference a world of difference. Because think of think about this, Steve. If we are problem solvers.

Right? If you don't know the ins and outs of the problem, you're not the best guy to solve it.

Steve: Right.

Max: So I say that because, for example, when we have a tax foreclosure in North Carolina, the foreclosure the foreclosure can happen one day after you're late for your taxes. But it typically doesn't. So the four the four yeah. That's what the law says. It's never happened from my regular from what I know.

Steve: Yeah.

Max: But you what you can do is they they have the sale at the courthouse. That sale that sale day is not final.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: Okay? So a house goes up for auction at the courthouse, and what happened is there's a ten day upset bid period that you have ten somebody can walk in anytime to the clerk of court and place a new bid 5% or x amount of dollars or whatever is higher. Yep. Within ten days of the actual auction. So the auctions are pretty bare at nobody really goes to the auctions because you don't need to go.

Steve: It's not the real auction.

Max: It's not the real auction. Yeah. So I walk in on day nine. I placed my bid 5% more. A new ten day starts.

Ten days, ten days, ten days.

Steve: That's gotta be irritating.

Max: Well, if you if you understand that, my team was like, listen. While that ten day happens, we'll just go to the owner. Mhmm. You go right to the owner because the property hasn't conveyed yet.

Speaker: See

Max: what I'm saying? You go right to the owner and you negotiate with the owner. You get it in writing, get the paper, and then you can walk down to the courthouse. You can get it closed. And at the closing table, everything's paid off.

Yeah. And if you need more time, go up go upset bid yourself.

Steve: So we have I would say it's a strategy. That's something people do here is they follow b k that postpones the foreclosure.

Max: You can do that too. It's a little bit more paperwork and messy.

Steve: That's a lot more expensive than submitting a new bid.

Max: Yes. And a b k is kinda dirty. But we we we just just knowing the state statute allows you to to know how to solve the problem the best. And sometimes these auctions could go on for three, four months, ten days at a time.

Steve: Man, that's awesome. So monthly overhead, like running your business, what does that what does it cost for $28.05.

Max: Okay. And we just went up to, like we just added on some people. So it's, like, 31 something. Okay. 28 yeah.

That's where we're at, and that's with marketing.

Steve: Okay. That's with market.

Speaker: So how much

Steve: of that is marketing?

Max: Probably about half of that. Yeah. So, like, your base salaries am I saying that right? Yeah. A little bit less than half.

So we probably marketing wise, we're probably at, like, 12 to $15,000 a month. Okay. Depending if I wanna try something off the wall new that I'm right? That can go up by $5 or so.

Steve: Tanisha wants to know what RVM program you're using.

Max: REI rail is the one we created.

Steve: Yeah.

Speaker: And I

Steve: but just wanna give her opportunity to get Check it out.

Max: Reirail.com.

Steve: So are there any resources that people need to know about?

Max: Themself? Mhmm. That's it. That's the number one resource is themself. Because I'll I you know what I found?

You probably know this too. A lot of people ask you for, like, this magic button formula or list that's out there that just makes you thousands of dollars. It's not that. Yeah. I think a lot of people have to I know there's a lot of education out here.

You have to scale back all of that stuff and really look at yourself as just a problem solver.

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: And once you become the number one resource to your customer, that's all that matters. Right. Can you solve their problem? Not how much much money can you make first? Right.

What is their problem? Assess it and how can you solve it? And during the solving process, if you're good enough, you will be rewarded for solving somebody's problem.

Steve: How valuable you are as a problem solver.

Max: That's it. Yep. I mean, it's not difficult. I know it sounds so elementary, but that is the reason how we've been able to scale and get to the point where we are now. And then as you can you can systematize solving problems.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Steve: Alright. Yeah. The solution is easy or simple. It's just how you hard is it to get there. Correct.

What CRM do you

Max: use? I use Investorfuse. Okay. I've been using it since day one. Mhmm.

And I don't I've never tried anything else. So I know my buddy, Donald Ross, has a good one, but I haven't I haven't tried it.

Steve: We use it. We use Don's.

Max: Use Don's. Yeah. So Beast mode. Yeah. So beast mode beast mode is legit.

And I I've heard a lot of people say it, but for me, it's one of those things where, man, I need I I I I don't even wanna entertain the switching side of it going to switch my CRM. There's so much on there. But what the day the day will come because I I know even Investrefuse has a new one, and I haven't switched over that.

Steve: I have not heard great things about that one.

Max: Me neither. And I think they're working on that. I hope they're working. Dan, if you're listening, what are you doing?

Steve: Yeah. Any other tools or systems you couldn't live without?

Max: My phone. My phone. And

Speaker: let's

Max: see. What what apps do I have that I just absolutely love? I like to do this. I'll give you one. A couple.

So I have a whole real estate folder. Deal machine for sure. Yeah. Deal machine for sure. And I got the ponyo.

I got simple crew. Simple crew allows me to manage where my bandit signs are. Right. And that's pretty much it. And my hello sign so I can sign my documents when no matter where

Speaker: I'm at.

Steve: What would you do if the market took a dip?

Max: Wholesale a lot more.

Steve: Love that answer.

Max: Because because when you fix see, and that's what I'm saying. A lot because that question's coming. Right? Because the Wall Street Journal's you know, what I've seen the other day, Wall Street Journal writes an article about how the market's tanking.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: And then they turn it into a sponsored post. Yes. If you're it's a sponsored post. So I was like, what are they trying to what what are they trying to send the signal for? Right.

And I thought that was crazy. But if you look at yourself as a problem solver and the market tanks or has a correction or whatever word you want to use Mhmm. There's gonna be more problems to be solved.

Steve: Right. Exactly. It's more opportunities. Money. Yeah.

What is your why?

Max: My why. So I don't I I don't I'm I don't have any kids. I'm not married. So I don't have the typical why like most people. I just have a drive, man.

I just like my mom, my dad's always been hard workers.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: So for me, it's like it's just passed on to me. And it's like my why is like, one, you know, I I semi retired my mom this year. Cool. And then, like well, so she went part time. And then, like, just being able to to do what I wanna do when I wanna do it, and then being able to, like, enjoy life, like, the way I think it was designed.

Now for other people, that's that means a lot of different things. Like, it can be $50 and a and a and a cake, you know, make make cakes out of your garage. It's it's different for everybody else. But I think being financially free so so that one day I I always had that mental thing or, like, you know, I'm gonna get married, but I wanna do it. I wanna be financially independent.

I wanna have kids, but I wanna be fine you know, that those

Steve: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Max: Blocks we put in. So having that reaching those goals so I can create a family and

Steve: do all that type of stuff that I wanna do. I can tell you as

Speaker: a husband and

Steve: father, there's no right

Speaker: time.

Max: There's I know. That's what people say, but

Steve: it's not those blocks you put in your head. There's no right time.

Speaker: But I

Max: what I would tell you is any problem you have, money makes it a little bit easier.

Steve: That's it solves a lot of problems. So there's something that you and I were talking about before we we started the recording, though, was that you've got this warehouse that you're creating opportunities. So let's talk about that.

Max: So, Steve, when I I said I used to say back in the days before I had when I had the poor mentality. Mentality. Mhmm. I used to say when I hit the lotto. Right?

That's a poor man's thought

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: Is when I hit the lotto. Right? Because you can do all your things and you can become wealthy without hitting the lotto. But I used to think I said, when I hit the lotto, I used to say, listen, I wanna create a three story school that is all about multimedia type things. Right?

Podcasts, video, photography. So what what we got we got a warehouse space that we're gonna create into a creative space. Yeah. And we're leaning towards a nonprofit side so that we can get kids into multimedia. Because it's the future.

Right? Like, if kids if imagine two 12 year olds in here having their own podcast.

Speaker: Yeah.

Max: That's that's cool. You know what I mean? So getting that type of thing in here, having kids do video and photography and stuff like that. Photography and stuff like that. Just a creative space so that people have the opportunity to to, like, create.

Right? Because I think you can you can get rid of a lot of frustrations when you're creating stuff.

Steve: I think there is, you know, there are a lot of things that happen whether it's the right or or not. Mhmm. You get hit with a felony. Yeah. Whatever.

They can't get a job anymore.

Max: Yeah. And that that's one of my big things is, like, if if if you have a skill Mhmm. That can't be taken away with a criminal record, then you'd be forever good.

Steve: Right.

Max: Right? Like, if you know how to to record video, take pictures, your video, like all that great creative stuff, it doesn't matter.

Steve: Right.

Max: Like, if you have a record or if you have anything like that. So I think creating giving people an opportunity to be creative, I think, is is, like, the ultimate, like, thing. I mean, that's what I wanna do.

Steve: Well, I think it's awesome because I had so I am not an athlete. Right? But I played in a lot of basketball leagues, and one of my buddies I mean, we had guys that play for the Cardinals that were on our team.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Steve: You know? And then, like, the other team was, like, Terrell Suggs' team, and we play against them. And that's a whole another story. It was really embarrassing when I tried to box out Terrell. But, we had one of the guys that, you know, after this football career is over, he was hanging out with his buddies, got into a bar fight that he didn't instigate, got hit with a felony.

And now he's like, Steve, you're the only one hiring because I can't get a job. But it was just one night. What he didn't even start it.

Max: Ruins your whole life.

Steve: Ruins your whole life. So I love what you're doing because you're giving opportunities back to people Yeah. That have lost those opportunities.

Max: The what the system gives you only matters if you're trying to play within the system. Yeah. And when you're a creative person and you can travel the world taking videos, photography, whatever it is, or creating content that makes people money

Steve: Yeah.

Max: Then you don't have to ever worry about what the system labeled you as. Yeah. So

Steve: So I heard a rumor that something happened in Dallas.

Max: Yeah. It's not a rumor. It's true. So a crazy story. I don't know how much time we got.

So Got plenty of time. This year, me and a friend, Brian Erigbu, were gonna we were gonna do an Instagram live. And this is when they first came out where you can have top and bottom, like, you can go live with somebody.

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: So we were gonna go live on May 29. And Instagram didn't give me the feature yet. So we tested it and wouldn't work and wouldn't work. And then I said, you know what? Let's do a Zoom call.

So I get on Instagram. I say, look, sorry for the inconvenience. We're gonna do a Zoom call. I think, like, I think the number was, like, 500 and something people signed up in those two hours. Wow.

And then we did the Zoom call, which was another two hours. And I think two hun 300 people watched the entire and we're just talking real estate and talking like we're talking now.

Steve: For sure.

Max: And I was like, man, this is crazy. And I was like, I got to the point where my following started getting up and I was like, everybody's like, when you putting out your course, when you putting out a course? And I was like, man, I don't wanna put out a course. Like, I just don't wanna do that. I don't want your $300.

Steve: Right.

Max: And it was like, so I I in bed that night, I was like, you know what? I woke up and I said, I'm gonna need to do I wanna do a live event. And the only live event I've ever went to was Sean Terry's. Shout out to Sean Terry. And I was like, you know what?

Sean Terry did a cool event. I can do one too. Yeah. So I did, I I I it was crazy. So I'm involved in local politics, local specifically for the sheriff race.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: And Denise was the social media person for the guy that was running for sheriff. And she would come to my office every Tuesday, and we would implement new social media strategies for the following week. So she came in, she looked at my computer screen, and I was on Cvent, like, writing out all these stuff. Lecture, so I don't write that much. It was, like, one word.

It was, like, sentences long when they wanted, like, paragraphs of description of what you want. She's, like, oh, what are you doing? I was, like, oh, I'm trying to create an event. I'm gonna do an event sometime this year. And she was, like, well, that's what I do.

I'm an event planner. I'm like so she took the computer. She's like, oh, let me see. I gave her my login. She went home.

She filled all the stuff out from what I told her. The next morning, we got, like, 15 different hotels hit us up. Yeah. So it was that Thursday, we go to Charlotte. I meet a hotel, the Crowne Plaza.

I liked it. I said, let's do it here. I said, what do you have available? She said, October 12 to the thirteenth or something like that. I said, let's do it.

I gave her a deposit and that was the beginning of the first one. That was called Wholesaling Elite eighteen. We call it We Live eighteen. Mhmm. So we did that.

Steve: We did That makes sense.

Max: Yeah. Right? Wholesaling Elite. So We Live eighteen. Yeah.

So it just happened. That was just born. So we sold that event out in one month. 430 people. Wow.

Wholesalers, like, from across the country. Yeah. And I was so amazed. We went we did the event. It was so flawless.

Everybody had fun. We learned so much. We interact. It was just like a big it just was so good. Everybody learned, and we just had so much fun.

It was so organized.

Steve: Yeah.

Max: And everybody's like, you gotta do this again. You gotta do this again. And this is at the conference, and I was like, what do we do? And it was like, listen. We should do, like, somewhere in Texas.

Was like so the second day of the event, we said, listen. We're doing We Live nineteen in Dallas, Texas.

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: And, we show, like, a hyper reel of everything. And then so we just released the tickets, like, two weeks ago.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: This one is going to be the largest wholesaling event ever.

Steve: Oh, yeah?

Max: So there's, like and so and I looked this up to make sure because I know the man that does the biggest events is like Sean Terry.

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: And I've never seen a 1,200 to 1,500 people event just for wholesaling. Yeah. So we went that big. So, tickets just went on sale two weeks ago. You can go to wholesalingelitelive.com Mhmm.

To buy your tickets. They're running out the door right now. Last month, we sold like, it was crazy. So when we did WeLive eighteen, people like to buy tickets within the last two weeks before the event starts.

Steve: Yeah.

Max: Well, we were sold out in a month. Mhmm. We were sold out with a hundred days ago. Two weeks before the event, everybody's trying to get a ticket. People that had tickets bought extras to Scalp?

Yes. They were scalping. I promise you Your first event? They were scalping tickets to the first event. I loved it because that's just like the hustle mentality.

Like, you waited, you were paying $200 more to get to the event. So don't be one of those people that buy an event ticket that's $200 more this year. You can go check it out.

Steve: Wow. That's nuts.

Max: So it's what month is it? It's gonna it's March 22 through twenty fourth two thousand nineteen. It's a two and a half day it's a three day event. It's it's huge. We got special guests coming.

We're having a crazy party on Saturday night with the, secret performer that we haven't announced yet. Mhmm.

Speaker: A

Max: lot of breakout rooms. I think there's three or four breakout rooms, like, to talk about certain things in wholesaling. It's just it's just gonna be a crazy event. It's just gonna I just wanted to have so much fun. People learn, like like, your goal to make so many millionaires.

Yeah. Like, I just want people to be financially independent, like, to be able to where they whatever that is for them, that's what it is. Like, I want somebody to leave that nine to five. Because the worst thing you could ever do is wake up every morning and go to a job you hate.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Max: I mean, that's the bulk of your day. You go to sleep angry knowing you gotta wake up to go to this thing you hate.

Steve: You're dragging out of bed.

Max: Yeah. So even if the people even if somebody can just replace their w two income wholesaling, that's my goal. Yeah. That's my goal right there. So they can have more time with their family and do things they actually like

Steve: to do. That's that's amazing. So Adrian wants to know on the topic of wholesale virtual wholesaling, he's entered two markets and built relationships with multiple properties. Boost in the ground. What's the best advice for someone seeking a high quality team of individuals in a different market?

Max: Yeah. So I don't virtual wholesale that much. Mhmm. We do do JV deals a lot, something they don't really talk about. So we have we we figured out how to find buyers Mhmm.

In different markets without actually being physically there. Yeah. Virtual wholesaling, you you need to use services to be able to really build your team until you can really trust somebody that is on the ground for you. Yeah. And I say that because you have, like, you can use services.

Like, for example, if you wanna get a a contract signed

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: You can use something like a mobile notary service. Right? Right. You use 123mobilenotary.com. Go there and find a local notary to get and and it makes the person selling the house feel more official because somebody's coming to the house, and these mobile notaries are the same people that do refi loans for the bank.

So they're they they know how to stamp and go through documents. You're gonna not show up this person's house. They might be elderly, whatever. You get them to sign the contract. They get their copy the whole night.

It gets sent back to you. So something like that. If you need pictures of houses, you can use wegolook.com. Mhmm. You can get an inspection.

I think it might cost you $101.50 bucks for an inspection of a house.

Steve: Right.

Max: But use services to build your team until you can actually build people. But if you're in this business, virtually is a virtual is a little bit harder because you got to spend some dough upfront to get some things done, but it's possible. I know guys doing it. Like I told you, that guy that's in the air force, he's doing it from, Okinawa, Japan, and he's wholesaling in America. That's virtual wholesale.

Speaker: Yeah. For

Steve: real. And I saw that, Brent Daniels popped in. So what's up, mister TTP?

Max: Brent, I think I'm I think I'm gonna go see Brent if I have time between now and the the, the thing.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. You definitely should. So, he's the one that gave me your cell phone f y.

Max: Okay. Cool.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle right now?

Max: Hiring, man. Yeah. What about it? Finding people that that fit company culture

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: That have the vision of the future and are hard workers. I mean, listen, Americans are lazy. We are, man. We're lazy. Yeah.

We like to get paid for attendance.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: So finding somebody that and I'm high strung, and I have a lot of energy, and I'm like, I'm up early. I don't I don't go to bed late. I'm up pretty early, and I go full throttle. Right. And it's hard to find somebody that matches percentage of it.

Yeah, man. So expanding the team locally

Steve: Mhmm.

Speaker: Has

Max: been one of my biggest struggles this year and probably going into to 19.

Steve: Can I let you on a secret?

Speaker: Yeah.

Steve: That's gonna be a struggle for the rest your life.

Max: Okay. Cool. Well, as long as I know, then I'm just gonna deal with it. Right?

Steve: Because that's the thing with every business is there's two things that you always struggle with. One's business or one's systems and one's people. Yeah. So it never changes. It gets harder.

You get better at it. Think it's harder. It gets better I get harder.

Max: So And and it's good that good you brought that up because systems sometimes, it can become tricky. Right? Yeah. I am a visionary. So I'm not the systems guy.

Steve: Right. Right? Me too. I got that problem too.

Max: Yeah. So I'm I'm the thirty foot thousand feet guy. And I see the so I I to have a, a guy that's that is that could implement processes is something that, you know, we're looking for. I'm looking for as well.

Steve: You haven't found that guy yet?

Max: I'm better. I got I got I'm forced myself to get better at it because it was the only way to grow.

Steve: I know. But that's like, man, if you find that guy, there's a my buddy, Laith. I'm waiting for him to come on the show. He's in Vegas. Mhmm.

And he found the perfect implementer. Man, just gangbusters. That's it. Document the systems.

Max: Everyone knows what to do. And that's and we've we've got we've got a loan. Don't get me wrong. Our system is okay. But I know it can be a lot better because you know when you can only throw but so much at the system.

Mhmm. Right? I'm not the biggest wholesaler in the country. Right. I don't do the most deals every month.

Yeah. Right? That's not my MO. But we are efficient at what we do. Mhmm.

We do it cheap, and we do it well. Right. So we wanna keep that same robust feel when we're growing.

Speaker: So having that system work Yeah. Is what is what I'm really looking for. So I know you've got

Max: a partner. Right? And system work Yeah. Is what is

Speaker: what I'm really looking for. So I know

Steve: you've got a partner, right, in your business. Like, we kinda you talked you touched on a little bit lately. Right? Tony, the closer. Like, how does that

Max: Yeah. So he's he's not a direct partner in my business. Tony and I are childhood friends.

Steve: Yeah.

Max: Like, he came in on the sales side because he's, like, magnificent. Like, the guy like, if you come The closer. Yeah. The closer. If you came to his car lot, I don't care if you were just looking.

You left with a car. Right? Maybe two. So he's he's he's he's he's legit when it comes to, like, sales. He's he's got his own market.

He, like, he runs Raleigh and Durham area, North Carolina.

Steve: Okay.

Max: So we what happens is he helped with the sales process in the business. And, but I don't have, like, a partner in in my business.

Steve: He's not a partner in your business. Yeah.

Max: I don't I don't I don't have an actual partner, like, in my business. Does it

Steve: appear that you can just bounce ideas off of?

Max: Yeah. Because we're childhood friends. Like, him and I, we grew up together since, like, 11, 12 years old. So we never had, like, our friendship is based on, like, friendship. Like, it's not not it's not money.

It's not it's it's a friendship based business. But he helps he helps out when it comes to, like, the sales stuff and stuff like that because that's what he's good at. Right? You gotta know when what you're good at and what you're not good at. So him implementing a lot of the sales stuff helped grow.

Mhmm. And, you know, he's he's still like, if I need to hire new people, he'll come and help me hire new people because hiring at a car lot, which is where we like to get a lot of people from too. Hiring at a car lot is, you know, a lot of turnover. So he's able to identify.

Steve: So here's my struggle. Right? Because I know I've been told multiple times, go hire out of a car lot. Yeah. But I don't wanna be that guy that shows up not trying to buy a car, but trying to recruit.

Like, that's like when the guy calls you on your paper click, hey. Can I can can I put you on my buyers list?

Max: Hate that. Do not click on my ads. Ask man, I will give you a cussing out. But, no. Yeah.

It's it's something that we don't I've never been to the car lot hiring guys, but you can create ads that that Target. Target them. Okay. And car guys are always trying to leave the car world. Even though it makes them a lot of money and they're good at it, they want something that's less demanding.

Yeah.

Speaker: And they

Max: can use the skill that they acquired at the car lot.

Steve: Okay. That makes a lot of sense. What is your superpower?

Max: My superpower? I'm a people person, man. I I like people, and I I don't know. I just treat people I just treat people good. Yeah.

So I I guess that's my superpower right now. If I had if I yeah. That's my superpower. I just like to have fun, man. Like, life is not that hard, and I don't like drama.

I don't like any of that stuff. Like, life is just simple, man. So, like, if you treat people good, it's gonna it's gonna come back to you.

Steve: So we learn in school.

Max: Yeah. Simple. Right? Go everything goes back to elementary school. Right?

Some of those foundations of life.

Steve: Just the golden rule. Tanisha wants to know what's the best skip tracing service?

Max: You can use all types of things. We announced at the conference when we created REI Rail, we were using REI Skip a lot. We bought that service. We bought majority share in that company.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: So we own REI Skip, so I would be, we're the best. But we are using we're we created a new technology that's gonna be rolling out in January. Justin is we're actually testing it now, where you get your full list back in, like, fifteen minutes and you can skip individuals and all types of things. So skip tracing is all about it's there's there's no such thing as good cheap skip tracing. That's number one.

Steve: You get what you pay for.

Max: Yeah. Those things don't go together. So when you pay for your skip tracing and it's a reputable company, you're gonna do good, man. But there's there's a lot of services out there. But Yeah.

We use the one that we just bought. So Oh, yeah. Reiskip.com. I already

Steve: knew you're gonna say that. Just wanna give it an opportunity to plug it. What's the greatest lesson you've learned?

Max: The greatest lessons I've learned. I think before when I was doing any other businesses because of serial entrepreneur, I never looked at being a business owner solving a problem. Mhmm.

Speaker: So I

Max: think one of the greatest lessons I learned is that the value you bring to the table is what you leave with. Right? Yeah. So, like, being a true problem solver, man, when you when you really look at the business like that Mhmm. And not for yourself, man, you're gonna grow so crazy.

Right. And and the money just comes in. And then, you know, once you, you know, once you get the money, it's just there. It's it's it's just numbers at that point.

Steve: So, I get I have a coach. I have a sales coach. Mhmm. And his thing is seek the truth, and this all will take care of itself.

Max: It's true.

Steve: Right?

Max: It's true.

Steve: You go in there, try and understand the situation, understand their problem, really get in there, everything takes care of itself. So that's I love that. What's your favorite, best, or most interesting failure?

Max: Interesting failure. You know, I think oh, my most interesting failure. Man, I've had so many of them. I've had so many of them. Man, like, I had I I had a car lot.

Yeah. Most like, my most recent thing, I lost a lot of money on that one.

Steve: Yeah. When I was stalking you, right, on Facebook, I I saw, like, you know, buy this car or whatever. Yeah. Detailing.

Max: Yeah. So, like, I I I lost a lot of money on a car lot. I learned a lesson, though. I created an app, and the whole the whole entrepreneur thing we're in now where you're raising a crap ton of money to run your business, it's so fake.

Steve: Oh, what does that mean?

Max: Like, for example, right now, you can come up with a great idea

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: For an app, whatever it is, raise a crap ton of money, never make any profit, be valued at $100,000,000, and you've never turned profit. That's not that's not real business. That's not entrepreneurship at all.

Steve: That's Wall Street business.

Max: Correct. But that's why when Wall Street collapses or when the economy goes down Right. So does your business. Yeah. Because you're the people are not just giving out money that they don't really have anymore.

Like, my wholesaling business, I ain't I've never had anybody give me money to create where I am now to make millions of dollars. You know, it's just not it's it's the real business. Like, you gotta be making money from day one.

Steve: Right. And what I like about that too is, you know, you have that I was saying in the very beginning, kind of like an overnight success, but it's not like you failed over and over and over. And that's what it you took.

Max: I could write books about I could write a book about just my failures. Yeah. Dude, because you got you got to think. I started out real life at, like, 17 years old

Steve: Mhmm.

Max: To where I just turned 34 in November. So, like, I got a lot of years of failures to get to this point where the last two years have been the golden years of my life. Yeah. But, man, you got fifteen years of failure in there somewhere. There's a lot of stories.

Steve: Very cool. Very cool. So what would you tell someone, like because I see it, like, I wanna say, like, every two, three weeks where the wholesaling house is full time or wholesaling house is elite. Like, this doesn't work. This isn't for me.

Or, you know, everyone's full of, like, what would you tell that guy that's, like, giving up on the edge of giving up because they're frustrated?

Max: Well, there's two answers to that, man. Because one is go ahead and leave. Yeah. Right? Because you didn't start it in the right position or the right mind frame.

Mhmm. Number two, I think I just posted a video about this yesterday or this morning. I can't remember. Like, it's not working because you're not working. Yeah.

Right? Like, this stuff is simple.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Max: And I think and here's a lot of things that I that some of the problems that I have with a lot of these gurus is that different levels to learning this business. Yeah. Most people don't make $5,000 a month. Mhmm. Right?

So let's start the business level of teaching them how to replace their w two income. Right. Right? Because you can look at a business like mines that that will do, you know, $100,000 a month, and that's what you wanna model your business off. Right.

Like, I see people three weeks into the business. Hey. How do I hire VA? Are you kidding me? Right?

And that's because but that's what's taught.

Steve: Right.

Speaker: Right?

Max: Or that's what they've looked into and said, but the reality is you need to be able to to start somewhere to replace what you do and then you scale. Yeah. So the the business like you said, the business is not hard business. No. You just gotta start somewhere and it's not looking at somebody's business that is so huge.

Steve: Right. So, what's the last message you wanna leave somebody with?

Max: You're only one deal away. Like, seriously. And and it's it sounds cheesy, but you're one deal away. Like, that first deal, I I've never 09/28/2016, I'll never forget it. I'll never forget where I every time I drive past that exit, I remember.

Yeah. Like, that is the day that changed my life. That first contract, that first it just changed my life tremendously, and it just opened up my I mean, there's so much things I've done in the last two years I've never thought I've been able to do. Mhmm. And I'm just I'm just glad I took the opportunity and jumped off the bridge without knowing what was gonna be on the other side.

Alright. So just just know that you are if you truly want this, you're only one deal away. Yeah. Seriously.

Steve: I think that's a powerful way to end it. So, guys, in case you guys did not get the memo, we're doing a pop up tonight. Yep. Five thirty Mission Del Sol Church. It's in Tempe, McClintock And Warner.

Don't know the address, but look up Mission Del Sol Church. If it's off in Clintock And Warner, that's it. It's at 530. We do have limited seating. So if you guys wanna come, I would recommend getting there before 05:30 because the last couple you've done 200 people.

200 people. Right? It's packed outside. Thank you.

Max: It's cool. I love that, man. I love that.

Steve: And so, and since it is a church and they were able to accommodate us last minute, if you guys can bring in some canned foods or something, that'd be pretty cool too to to give back. It's that time of year.

Max: Awesome.

Steve: And then, you know, Max Jimenez, my partner Mhmm. We're doing a little workshop together, next month, you know, just helping some people get to their first deal. So if you guys are interested in that, hit me up. And, again, you know, I wanted to end 2018 strong. I think I brought the best guest for that.

I appreciate that, man. We did that for sure. So if you guys like this show, please share it because we want to help. I wanna create 100 millionaires. You wanna create people Yeah.

Absolutely. Replace their lifestyle or replace their their w two income. Yeah. And we can't do that if we keep this all a secret.

Max: That's true. That's why that's why we go out there and share this stuff.

Steve: Yep. Alright. Thank you, guys. And thank you. That was Appreciate

Max: it, man. Thank you so much.

Speaker: Man.