My Cheat Code for Real Estate Property Management

Steve Trang: When did this plan start?

Steven Hunt: This plan started when I was about 21 years old. Okay. So my wife and I both together, we were both broke at the time, both serving tables, but we decided that we wanted to become rich. We didn't know what that was gonna look like. How are we going to achieve that?

But we know that people are doing real estate. That's what rich people do. What can we do? What kind of industries can we go into where we can make a lot of money so we can go acquire more real estate? And when I got into my first sales job, because sales was a high income job.

Steve: So at some point, you realize you don't need to use your own money. Money.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: But you kept going in medical sales. Why? Here. Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of real estate disruptors.

Today, we have Steven Hunt with Haboo Property Management. And Steven is another real estate expert in the Phoenix market. I'll be sharing how his property management company is his Chico for real estate. Now, guys, I'm gonna mention create a 100 millionaires. Information on the show alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years.

If you'll take consistent action, you will become one. And, guys, if you get value out of this show, please hit that subscribe button. That way we can all grow together. You ready? I'm ready.

Steven: Thank you so much for having me first and foremost. What a privilege and honor. So many big names have been on here.

Steve: So many big names for sure, and you are another one of them. So I appreciate you you coming on.

Steven: Thank you. Thank you.

Steve: Yeah. So first question, what was your life like right before you got into real estate?

Steven: Wow. That's a loaded question. I was in corporate America before I got into real estate, and the whole reason why I was in corporate America before I got into real estate was so that I could get into real estate. I was under the impression that that traditional way of doing things go down to bigger pockets. Right?

Save up your 20% down payment, buy as many rental properties as you can. So I said, how am I gonna afford all these houses in Phoenix, Arizona where we have a very hot market? Things are very expensive here. I'm gonna have to have a high income job. So for me on that side of it, I was trying to figure out how I can make as much money as possible, what's the biggest corporate job where I could make as much money as possible, and that was gonna be the route so I could save up these big down payments one after another.

Steve: Obviously, that shifted. When did you realize you see, you got a job so you could buy real estate. Yeah. When did this plan start?

Steven: This plan started when I was about 21 years old. Okay. So my wife and I both together, we were both broke at the time. Mhmm. Both serving tables, but we decided that we wanted to become rich.

We didn't know what that was gonna look like. How are we going to achieve that? But we know that people are doing real estate. That's what rich people do. Right?

So we thought, what can we do? What kind of industries can we go into where we can make a lot of money so we can go acquire more real estate? Mhmm. So going all the way back when I was 21, I got into my first sales job because sales was a high income job. If you Google what are high income jobs, sales is gonna be one of the top ones.

Right?

Steve: So just when you're 21, how old how long ago is this?

Steven: I'm 29 now. Okay. So almost eight years ago now. So eight

Steve: so eight years ago, it was a plan. Yeah. We're gonna buy real estate.

Steven: We're gonna buy real estate.

Steve: And then BiggerPockets, you're listening to that, and they're saying basic the the information you gathered from that was we need money to put us down payment.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: Okay. So eight years ago, that's, 2016. So real estate values are still somewhat I think we're starting to move up aggressively.

Steven: Yes. Yeah. Right. Well, and at that time too, at that time sorry. Pausing here.

Yeah. So at that time as well, real estate still seemed way out of the question.

Steve: Even a

Steven: $200,000 house at that time was something that seemed way too crazy for us. Even a 5% down payment to start doing house hacking Mhmm. Didn't seem like it was gonna be something that we could do. We just knew we had to develop a skill set in sales so we could make more money in order to achieve that.

Steve: Yeah. So you're a server.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: And you decide, I'm gonna get a career. So oh, Google tells you sales.

Steven: Google tells me sales.

Steve: And then you just jump right into sales.

Steven: So I jump straight into sales. Yep. And the first sales job that I got was working for a staffing company, and this was old school boiler room type of sales. Right? So there's a office of all people from Boston.

They just opened up this staffing company in Arizona. They came from Boston, opened it up in Arizona, and it was really, really intense. Super old school. We're talking about the old school phones where you're dialing. You don't have a headset.

You're picking up the phone, doing the cold calls, and they had no training whatsoever. And it was probably the best sales experience I ever got because on my first day, they go, hey. I was placing senior level software engineers. I knew nothing about software, knew nothing about sales whatsoever. They're like, you need to call into companies and see if they need senior level software engineers.

And that was the extent of the training there. They didn't give me leads. They gave me nothing.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: So I had to start cold calling, and I had to get on LinkedIn. I had to get very resourceful in order to figure out how I was gonna find these people, and I think it was one of the best experiences I could have ever had. Did I hate it in the moment? Absolutely. Yeah.

Steve: Oh, it was awful. Why was it a great experience?

Steven: It was a great experience because it taught me how to be resourceful in sales, and that was one of the most entrepreneurial experiences that I had at that moment in time Mhmm. Because I was creating something out of nothing.

Steve: Yeah. And this is it's fascinating. Right? Because, like, Summer has been with me forever.

Steven: Mhmm. You know?

Steve: She's ride or die. She joined me when that was my business. Really? Right? It was like, well, come in here, and we'll figure it out.

Yes. Right? And then go you go try your best, and then I'll help you answer your questions. And that was it. There were no policies and procedures.

There were no personality profiles. Mhmm. There was no 30, sixty, ninety, no, probation period, onboarding, like, none of that. Right? Like, but the people that survived, me being a terrible manager, are some of my best people Totally.

Because they're resourceful.

Steven: Yes. They get it. Yeah. Right? So being in that situation, though, in that kind of environment where I felt like I wasn't necessarily getting the help, obviously, in that situation, it became a lot of self learning for me.

And luckily for me, I love learning. I'm a lifelong learner.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Still to this day, every single night, I'm studying two, three hours a night just because I enjoy it. Mhmm. Right? So how do I become good at sales? So on all my lunch breaks, on my drives into work, as soon as I would get off of work, I would read sales books.

I would listen to sales books. I would do whatever I could to learn the skill set of how to become good at sales, and that ended up aiding me a lot in that job and ended up being one of the top performers at that company Yeah. Which was great.

Steve: Do you think I mean, how much then you're because you were serve serving tables. How much do you think that helped you? Serving tables? Serving tables to transition into sales.

Steven: I think that it helped a lot because I had a lot of patience. Mhmm. Right? Serving tables, I think everybody should get the experience of serving tables for at least a year at some point. Get your teeth kicked in a little bit.

Steve: Get you all that Right. For somebody you can't control.

Steven: And then if you wanna get a further level of experience, go straight into cold calling and get your teeth kicked in even more. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: So I think it aided me quite a bit. I had a little bit of tough skin going in there, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was going into with sales from that degree. Doing straight cold calling, not knowing what I'm doing. I mean, I was making a 100 to 200 calls a day. I had no idea what I was doing.

Right? And I the only thing I could do was try to learn something in a book and apply it the very next day and see if it worked. Yeah. Right?

Steve: How long until you started getting sales?

Steven: So just to give you insight onto that, so it took me three months to get my first sale of that company. But on average at that company, it took people one year to get their first sale.

Steve: Is there a base?

Steven: So the base salary was $30,000 a year.

Steve: Okay. Yeah. So there's there's a base. It's not it's not terrible for sales.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: And then your your first sale three months, what was the commission?

Steven: So that was the unique thing about this. It was contracted engineers that we were placing Yeah. In that role. So for as long as that person was placed at that company, I was getting a small spread in between of what they were making. So that sale generated a thousand bucks a month for me

Steve: Okay.

Steven: For a six month period of time. That was the length of the contract that we had signed that that person would be there.

Steve: Because they were temp.

Steven: Yep. It was a temp.

Steve: Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. So you do this to make money so that you can buy real estate.

Steven: Yeah. How

Steve: long did you stay there?

Steven: Stayed there for about eight months.

Steve: Right. And then?

Steven: So and kinda going back on that too, I ended up getting, a contract with NASA at that company, which we were the first nongovernment funded agency to get a contract with NASA.

Steve: Okay.

Steven: And it was more so because people were telling me, hey. Stop calling into NASA. They're never gonna work with us. We have to be a government funded agency. Mhmm.

You're crazy. But there's a lot of people at NASA, and I knew somebody needed something there. Right? So that was a huge proving point to myself that I'm not gonna listen to what other people have to say. I'm gonna beat to my own drum, if you will.

Mhmm. Ended up getting that contract signed, placed four or five different engineers there. But, again, still wasn't getting the support that I needed. It was a huge win. It was a huge victory.

They're still benefiting from it to this day because they still have that contract in place. I'm sure of it. Nice. Right? But at the end of the day, I still wasn't getting fulfilled there, and I needed to be able to level up my sales skill set.

And then in my mind too, my corporate skill set because, ultimately, I was trying to get to medical sales because I thought that was where the big money was going to be.

Steve: The holy grail.

Steven: The holy grail was medical sales. Mhmm.

Steve: We know that no longer to be true, but at

Steven: the time Correct. At the time. Yes. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So did you get all the way to medical sales?

Steven: I did make it all the way to medical sales. So I went from that company over to a software company. Mhmm. Started selling software, did really, really well there. Notice that the biggest issue that that company was happening was an attrition problem because people weren't performing at what they were doing.

So because I took this role of exponential learning on with myself and I had so much trial and error that I was able to take advantage of because when you're cold calling that many people, you get to try new strategies every single day and figure out what works best for you. I started implementing sales trainings for a lot of the team members that I was working with at this new software company. Built out a whole sales training program for them. They ended up implementing that into their system. They still use that sales training to this day Mhmm.

Because all of our teams have started doing phenomenally well. Right. I got no credit for that. Not better. Corporate world.

Corporate world. That's corporate America for you. Yeah. But there was also a great learning experience. It taught me a lot about leadership at that time too.

So all this time that's going on, I'm over here trying to develop my skill sets as well because I knew that that would aid me eventually someday in entrepreneurship or in real estate or whatever I wanted to do in the future.

Steve: Yeah. So then when real estate?

Steven: Got into real estate just under two years ago.

Steve: Just under two years ago?

Steven: Just under two years ago. Yep.

Steve: Okay.

Steven: So got done with the software sales situation, ended up moving into medical sales, and that's when the corporate world really started to get to me because there were so many rules, so many regulations, get my hands slapped for anything. Even though my numbers were far exceeding, I was a top performer, it It still wasn't going in the direction that it needed to for myself because I was not checking the boxes and that's what a lot of corporate is. It's Well, I

Steve: think particularly for medical is just a lot more probably a lot more compliance.

Steven: A lot of compliance there and I am not a great rule follower. Well, you're

Steve: in real estate now, so

Steven: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So got into medical sales, did that for a couple years, and then I had a candid conversation with my boss one day. He called me up and he goes, hey, would you be open to a mutual separation from the company?

And I go, hold on. Can I can I put you on mute for just a quick second? I ran over to my wife and I go, hey, it's like 07:30 in the morning. And I'm like, hey, this is what's going on. He wants to know if I wanna do a mutual separation.

She's, like, hell, yeah. Mhmm. Hell, yeah. She's, like, this is gonna keep happening to it every company you go to. She's, like, you go outside of the box.

Mhmm. She's, like, nobody cares that you crush your quotas because you don't follow the other rules.

Steve: Right.

Steven: She's, like, so just call it quits and do real estate full time. Mhmm. Just go for it.

Steve: Did you offer your severance?

Steven: A two month severance.

Steve: That's nice.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: So now it's, like, my big, like, wish. Right? Like, I I shared this with you and Drew the other day. Right? Yeah.

I didn't tell, like, please, like, let me go. Please. Like, put me on your layoff, and they absolutely win. So voluntary severance package

Steven: Mhmm. Was

Steve: the company going to tough times over? Is this just a Steven issue?

Steven: This is a Steven issue.

Steve: Okay.

Steven: Oh, yeah. I was not, like, doing the things that they wanted me to do.

Steve: Yeah. So So in that last twelve months you were there, what kind of money were you making?

Steven: I was making that year, I cleared over $200,000 in that role.

Steve: So you made over 200,000? Mhmm. And they said to you, hey. Maybe we should see other people, and you're like, deal.

Steven: Yeah. Done. I said, absolutely.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. So at this point, did you have the 20% to start buying real estate?

Steven: Yes. We did. So my wife also does medical sales too. That was, again, both of our goal. We put both of our heads together.

Let's go after this. So she was making $200,000 a year too. So we had a little nest egg savings that we'd put together, but we'd also started learning, hey, don't use your own money. Right? So during this time, we're still going through the learning process.

We're learning more and more about real estate.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: So we're like, let's not use our own money. Let's try to figure out how to use other people's money. So that wasn't a consideration to even use that money at that point in time.

Steve: Right. So at some point, you realize you don't need to use your own money.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: But you kept going

Steven: Yeah.

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Steven: There was fear to jump out of the corporate world. It's a $200,000 job. You know what I mean? And that was that was my first year with that company in particular. I worked for two medical sales companies.

So I saw a huge trajectory of where I could get to, and I hadn't finished climbing that corporate ladder yet too. So I'm I'm going in my mind, this is easy to climb the corporate ladder. Mhmm. Right? Why would I jump out of this and go straight for entrepreneurship or there's so much uncertainty?

Mhmm. Do I truly believe in myself just yet? So it was based out of fear. So I was gonna keep going for that until my manager actually hit me with the, do you wanna go through a mutual separation?

Steve: Yeah. So we have, Jimmy Vreeland. He's been on real estate disruptors, a regular on par in the disruption, and this is similar story. Right? He was in medical sales, and he did well.

And, I can't remember exactly why they parted ways, but he's like, this just isn't working. Oh, I I think what what it was was like, you're making so much money in real estate. Like, why are you still doing this? It's like, because I can't. Yeah.

Right? It it wasn't, it wasn't a fear. It was really more like the reason why you started and where you're at. Like, sometimes we forget because we're we're so deep in the weeds. Other thing he's talking about is fear.

And Jonah Korchin was here Yeah. Right, just a couple months ago.

Steven: Great friend of mine.

Steve: Yeah. And he's talking about fears. Right? Talking about things that stop you from doing what you know you need to do. I mean, we start off every podcast.

Right? Like, the information here alone is enough. Yeah. You gotta take consistent action. But taking consistent action, doing the work, there's a lot of fear in there.

Fear of failure, fear of rejection. Mhmm. So talk to talk to me about the fear of failure, and then why was it easier once you were offered a chance to part ways?

Steven: It was almost like an moment. Like, wait a minute. I've done this. I I reflected back on all the experience, all the way back to the staffing experience of Mhmm. Wait a minute.

I was generating my own leads. They didn't even give me leads at that job. I was just cold calling. Why why I don't need anybody to do this for me. I just need to go out there and start hammering things, and and I need to figure out a way that this is gonna work for me.

Yeah. Right? Because at the tail end there too, with medical sales, that's when I started to dip my toe a little bit into real estate. I started paying for VAs. Mhmm.

Never really got a chance to follow-up on those leads because I was too busy in medical sales. It was a waste of money for myself at that point in time. However, I started to dip my toe a little bit into real estate. So as soon as I started to transition away from the medical sales world, I cut off all of the VAs, cut off everything that I was doing, and I said I gotta figure out a way that this is gonna work for me. Mhmm.

I cannot follow somebody else's plan. I gotta do my own thing here.

Steve: Alright. So what was your plan?

Steven: So my plan was to leverage what I already knew, which was business to business sales. Mhmm. So I had already been selling to CEOs and VPs and high level corporate executives, and that's a very different conversation than talking to a distressed seller. Yeah. It's a very different conversation.

Right?

Steve: For those that aren't familiar, how is it different?

Steven: It's different because you're talking about the revenue that that company is generating. How are you gonna make an impact for that company? What is that going to look like in building value for the organization Mhmm. As opposed to building value for how can I get you out of this crappy situation?

Steve: Right.

Steven: Right? Mhmm.

Steve: Yeah. So one aspect, you're selling a dream Mhmm. And how you look like a hero.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Other one is, like, hey. This situation sucks. How can I help you out of it? Right. So one is all about selling the dream, which charisma charisma transferring of emotions was really helpful.

Mhmm. On this side, it was, like, a lot of empathy and helping them see the light.

Steven: Totally.

Steve: Yeah. So how was that transition? Because you already done all the sales books. You already gone through the courses training all all the other stuff. How was that transition?

Steven: That transition when I originally started going direct to seller, I was way too corporate for these people, and it almost made me seem like a snake oil salesman. But I was talking to them because I was so professional with them, and they're going through a distressed situation. They're about to lose the house, you know. So I had to be able to level with them, and I was struggling with that transition of having that type of sales conversation. So I thought to myself, how can I start having conversations I've already been having, but in the real estate space and start getting leads coming my way?

Who can I go to that I can start finding leads where c suite people can start referring leads to me? How can I make something like that work out? Yeah. So that was what the journey ended up turning into.

Steve: Got it. So, how did you find your first deal?

Steven: So I found the first deal. I started a company called Golden Age Property Solutions, and I call it Senior Gaps. So you can go to seniorgaps.com. And what I did was there was I basically created this idea of turning real estate transactions into a service. Mhmm.

Right? So I productized real estate transactions. So we have subject to, seller finance, cash deals. There's so many different ways to transact real estate. So I said, what if I just turn this into a service and I start offering my services instead now to these organizations that could benefit from them.

So the first place I went was something that I already knew about which was the medical industry. So I started going to hospitals, assisted living communities, started going to memory care facilities, started going to all the places where people are in urgent situations where they are no longer allowed to live at home. The doctor said you cannot go back home. Yeah. So and just to give a little context on that too, most seniors in America have less than $1,000 to their name.

88% of the homes that are owned by seniors in The United States Of America are free and clear. They've been paid off. Right? Doris bought her house back in 1945 or 1950 Mhmm. For $40,000.

It's free and clear. It's good to go. However, as we see somebody's health decline, we're starting to see the property decline as well because once that window breaks, they're not getting it replaced. Once there's a little bit of a flood, they're not getting it replaced.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Right? So I was starting starting to see a lot of that kind of stuff in commonality. Yeah. And how can I help these people transition now from point a to point b? Mhmm.

And that was the whole idea behind it. Hospitals, same situation. People would go into the hospital. They're supposed to be there for two or three days before they go to their next assisted living community, but they have less than $1,000 for their name. So they can't pay the $5,000 deposit to get into the community and they have a hoarder house over here that's falling apart.

So what are they going to do? So we figured out a way to create this service, right, productizing real estate transactions where we could turn this conversion that takes six months to nine months for most seniors making that transition down to two weeks.

Steve: So instead of going after the homeowners

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: You went after the people who, you targeted the people that will service the homeowners

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: The the senior, homeowners. You went straight to them. So you didn't do the cold calling, the texting

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Direct mail. You went straight to b to b.

Steven: B to b. I went straight back to that staffing experience. Went on LinkedIn, searched all the assisted living communities. Right, and then set up appointments, called in. Hey.

I'm looking for Sally, blah blah blah. Wanna set some time on the calendar with her. I'd go in. I'd give them a pitch about how we can shorten their sales conversion from six to nine months down to two weeks. Mhmm.

Obviously, that's a hell yeah to them. Wait. You can shorten it. How how would you possibly be able to do that? Well, send me somebody, and I'll show you.

Mhmm. And so the first time I went out and did that pitch, they sent me somebody the next week.

Steve: Okay.

Steven: And that was the first house that we purchased, and that was March 2022.

Steve: Yeah. So your very first deal

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Came from an assisted living facility

Steven: Yes.

Steve: Not from a direct to homeowner

Steven: approach. Correct. Yep. So the business sent me the lead, and we closed on that in two weeks. We got her out, took care of everything for her.

We paid her moving costs. We did everything for them, and it was a seamless transition. And by the end, the homeowner was crying and said, wow. You guys are my saving grace. I don't know how we would have possibly gotten out of the situation.

Thank you so much. Just keep in mind, most of these people too, their their kids, which are usually in their sixties, right, are out of state. Mhmm. They're in Texas. They're in Washington.

They're somewhere else. So mom's here all by herself.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Who's gonna help her?

Steve: Right.

Steven: Right? So we're facilitating the entire thing for them and making it a very seamless transition.

Steve: Yeah. So March '22

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: First one. How about your second one?

Steven: Second one happened, again in March. Got another one in March from a different community Mhmm. At that point in time, and it kinda just kept snowballing from there. So we did about 25 deals a year all from assisted living communities.

Steve: So let's talk about the very first one. So you get the call from the assisted living facility.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: They connect you with the senior. Mhmm. You go to her home.

Steven: Go straight to her home.

Steve: Yep. Go straight to her home, and you run your appointment. Yep. After you run the appointment, she signs the contract. Right?

I'm assuming it's in one

Steven: One call close.

Steve: Yep. Talk to me about the transition or how what what did you do to move the property after you got in the contract seeing as how this is your very first deal.

Steven: Yeah. It was a little bit of a shot in the dark for me. Right? That was the scariest deal ever was the first deal because I'm like, am I running my numbers correctly? Am I doing this alright?

So, I mean, I I got that one deeper than I probably should have, truly. I'm grateful for the price point that we got that one at, but I didn't know what I was doing. So I was like, I'm putting a little bit more meat on the bone here. I'm using a random calculator that I think somebody had sent me from Brent Daniels from who knows what year. Yeah.

Right? Just random calculator. Mhmm. And I dropped another 20 k after that because I was like, dude, I don't know anything about construction. Construction.

I don't know how to fix this thing up. I know nothing about anything at this point in time. I'm gonna use this as a learning experience, and we'll go from there.

Steve: Mhmm. Did you close on it, or did you wholesale it? Closed on it. Yeah. So you were the buyer?

Steven: I was the buyer.

Steve: What kind of financing did you use?

Steven: You started money on that one. Mhmm. Right? 10% down payment, hard money, and then they cover the renovation as well.

Steve: Right. So you flipped it?

Steven: Kept it. You kept it. Did a burr on that one.

Steve: So you kept that one?

Steven: Kept that one as our first deal. Yeah. Kept it as a burr.

Steve: Deal, you didn't even flip for profit. You held on to it?

Steven: Held on to it. Yep.

Steve: Okay. Great. I mean, that's the reason why I got into it.

Steven: Exactly.

Steve: What about your second one? How'd you exit that one?

Steven: Kept it.

Steve: Kept it?

Steven: Yep. Kept the first 15 properties that we went under contract on. So currently have about 15 rentals.

Steve: Awesome. So you kept the first 15, and you burnt out of them. Mhmm. With burning out of them so this is 22. Mhmm.

How's the cash flow after you burnt out of them?

Steven: They all do a minimum of $500 a month in cash flow.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: So I made sure that the numbers had to work in that regard.

Steve: Yeah. And then we have to pull cash out or these are you're into it and you you just

Steven: Got all the cash back out that we'd put into those properties. Yeah.

Steve: So that's awesome. Right? So you're the one of the handful of people that have actually been doing BRRRRs

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: In the In

Steven: this crazy market. After 2020, right, in the

Steve: Phoenix market. Because that's one of the things that's tough in the Phoenix market is to have the numbers work. You have to buy them pretty deep for the numbers to work.

Steven: Very deep.

Steve: So is that what happened here? Is you bought them deep enough to do a BRRRR, or is you have a different technique that's working really well

Steven: for you? Bottom deep enough to do a BRRRR to begin with. But as interest rates continue to climb because keep in mind, March 2022, we still didn't have these crazy interest rates, though, were coming up just yet. 6% seemed crazy at that time, and we weren't at 6% yet in March. Mhmm.

By the time summer rolled around, that was different, and that's when all my construction was starting to finish up. So I ran them all as long terms. They were all doing great. In that case, and that's where I had to start getting the pivots of having different exit strategies of Mhmm. Hey.

Do I need to do an Airbnb? Do I need to do a group home? Do I need to do something different? So that's where I was starting to try different exit strategies with those holds.

Steve: So what are the different strategies that you tried?

Steven: We did long term rental if we could. That's always my first go to because it's consistent. Love long term rentals. Then we went into group homes, sober living, that kind of good stuff, behavioral health. Mhmm.

Did Airbnb's, short term rentals, all that kind of good stuff too.

Steve: Right.

Steven: And that that was basically where we were landing.

Steve: Any major mistakes along the way?

Steven: Oh, yeah.

Steve: So what were some of the major mistakes you made along the way?

Steven: Over renovating properties was a big one Mhmm. Because I got really excited about how pretty I could make the properties. Right? And I was also going through this learning curve of trying to figure out what is fixed and flipping, what what does all this look like, how do I not own over renovate, but how do I make sure that it would sell fast or do well when I'm listing it as a rental. Mhmm.

There was just a ton I overspent on a lot of those properties Yeah. To begin with and I've learned a lot of lessons from that.

Steve: What's the most painful lesson along the

Steven: way? Oh, man. Setting up properties that should not have been Airbnbs to begin with, furnishing them, going all in, and then being like, man, this is not cash flowing now, and then having to sell those properties for a loss. Because I definitely took some losses too in this period of time.

Steve: So you bought them to turn them to Airbnb?

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: And then they were not Airbnb properties.

Steven: They ended up not being good Airbnb properties.

Steve: What could you done differently to know

Steven: that they wouldn't have

Steve: any great Airbnb properties?

Steven: I was doing it with almost any property Mhmm. At that point in time too because the first Airbnb we went live with was doing really well. And I was like, man, I why would I not just keep doing this? So I started doing it with all the properties, things that properties that didn't have pools, properties that weren't in prime locations. I was just throwing it out there, and as the interest rates continue to go up, the cash flow is so so minimal and things weren't getting filled.

Because as we went through the shift of the increasing interest rates

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: A lot of travel slowed down too and a lot of the booking started to slow down. So we weren't at a point where we had these developed, you know, stabilized Airbnbs that had consistent proof. So the new ones that were hitting the market weren't getting the traction that they needed.

Steve: Right. So you said you sold for a loss?

Steven: Yep.

Steve: Yeah. How many did you sell?

Steven: Three of them we sold at a loss.

Steve: And then what kind of losses we're talking about here?

Steven: I would say probably a total loss of about a $100,000.

Steve: Okay.

Steven: Yeah. It wasn't anything too too crazy in terms of volume that we were doing. So we definitely were net net in the green, which is great. But at the end of the day too, nobody likes to take a loss, and it was definitely painful lessons to learn.

Steve: Well, I'm thinking some people are listening. It was like, man, this kid comes out of nowhere. And then in his first year, there's 25 deals. Like, there has to be something painful here.

Steven: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: Okay. And this is a time where Airbnb was slowing down for everybody.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Like, I I I know multiple people whose businesses were Airbnb that were not having a good year last year.

Steven: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Yeah. So, then let's just go back then into this conversation. Right? Because, like, we've had other people on the show where they talk about, you know, dealing with assisted living facilities and this and that. Mhmm.

What sets you apart? Because I know other people that have tried it

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: And it failed. Yeah. What sets people. You apart from another wholesaler in talking to assisted living facilities to have them trust you to help the problem versus someone else?

Steven: It's a great question. So for us, we are the end buyer. Mhmm. Right? I don't wholesale any of the deals that I get.

I've only ever done one wholesale deal in my life, and that's because a contractor brought it to me, and I didn't feel like taking on that deal at the time because we had nine projects going. And I said, no. Thank you.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: I actually gave him a a crazy low number. I said, you get that property for 90 k and sure I'll buy it. Mhmm. And he did. I'm like, okay.

Actually, what if you didn't do any work on that property? Because he wanted to do the work on it and I just got you 15 k Mhmm. Instead. And he's like, you would how how would you even well, let me take care of that for you.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: But the big thing that sets us apart is the fact that we are the ones buying it and we come to the table with more solutions than just wholesaling Mhmm. The property. So we are coming to the table with all of these productized ways to transact real estate. Right? We call them equity payments.

We call them mortgage adoption instead of subject to.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: We have we just rebranded everything and we have the ability to navigate and help people figure out what's gonna afford them long term care over the long term versus how can we get just get cash in their pocket right now.

Steve: Right.

Steven: What's the best financial decision for them to make this last for them?

Steve: Well, so there's two different conversations. Right?

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Because one's with the assisted living facility and one's with the homeowner. Correct. Right. So starting off with the assisted living facility because I think with the homeowner, right, like, we should all be equipped from that by now. Yeah.

So I think the differentiator then is the assisted living facility. So, yes, you're the buyer. What is your, approach? I mean, are you just, are you are are you walking out to the, you know, to the receptionist? Like, hey.

Who's the person I talked to? And what is the process to have assisted living facilities want to pick up the phone and call Steven, particularly Yeah. You were 27 when you started this.

Steven: Yeah. Right? I was 14. Yeah. I thought I was a kid.

Yeah.

Steve: Right? So what what would have to happen for someone to want to call a 27 year old

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: About Doris moving in?

Steven: Yeah. It it it was, a, how I was pitching it to them, and I wasn't just going up to the receptionist again. I was doing my back end research. I was looking at the communities and looking at the urgent situations. Right?

I wasn't going to independent living where people are consciously making decisions. Hey. You know what? I wanna get out of my house and just go move here. It was urgent situations where people are in the hospital, and they had to make a transition.

So I was only working with those urgent cases.

Steve: How do you determine what what who has urgent cases?

Steven: Because that's what those specific communities are set up for. So if you're going to a rehab community, acute rehab community, if you're going to memory care, it's because somebody has Alzheimer's or dementia.

Steve: Got it.

Steven: Right? So they it is an urgent situation where they have to go to that specific type of community.

Steve: Back to what you're saying earlier, like, you have like, we're not letting you go home.

Steven: Yeah. You were not allowed to go home. Yeah. You locked yourself out of the house in the middle of summer, and you walked around for six hours pounding on the windows because you couldn't remember how to get back in. Mhmm.

That that you're gonna kill yourself. You know? That's that's doesn't make sense. It's not the right thing

Steve: to do. Mhmm.

Steven: So they need somebody to help in those situations.

Steve: Right. So it's kinda like foreclosure where there's an impending deadline.

Steven: Yes. Exactly. And this is health related, so they have to make a decision. Yeah. Something has to happen.

So I would do my back end research. Right? I find the communities that I wanna go target, and then I would figure out who's on the sales team, who's their executive directors, who's at the top of those organizational charts. And you can do that on LinkedIn very very simply. It's a boolean search.

Right? Assisted living communities and sales and Arizona. Mhmm. You got a list of 70 of them.

Steve: Right.

Steven: Right? And then you call into those communities and you say, hey, is Cheryl here? Or, you know, hey. I'm actually calling for Cheryl. If you do it very nonchalant, you're not talking to the gatekeepers.

They think that you're calling specifically for Cheryl because you know who Cheryl is.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Calling them out by name. Mhmm.

Steve: You set

Steven: up an appointment with Cheryl. Hey. We help seniors afford long term care with Creative Property Solutions. We'd love to be able to help out. There's a lot of other communities that we've partnered up with locally.

We've helped convert, the shorten the sales conversion cycle from six to nine months down to two weeks. Mhmm. We'd love to be able to assist with your patients as well. Is that something you'd be open minded to?

Steve: Yeah. Gotcha. So, again, going back to the corporate experience

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: And spying on them on LinkedIn.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: Okay. So calling up straight at the top Mhmm. Versus calling from the bottom. Because that's how most people start. They start at the bottom, and then they get like, who's the person I need to talk to, and they'll tell you.

Steven: Right.

Steve: You've done the research. You've avoided the gatekeeper by just calling that person directly.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: And then we tell tell them how we help other people do this. Yeah. So we deal with the concerns, like, how do I know you're real? Just right off the top of, you know, here's what we do. And then you're talking to the sales team who is motivated Mhmm.

To close the deal fast.

Steven: That's exactly why I go to the sales team. Yeah. Right? They wanna get that conversion. They wanna get these patients over, a, because it's the right thing to do, and they know that for health purposes.

But, b, they wanna make money too.

Steve: Right. So, yeah, salespeople are always motivated.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Administrative, not to say they're not motivated, but their sense of urgency might be a little different than a commission based salesperson.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: So you talk to the commission guy and say, here's what we do. Yeah. If you can get me paid in two weeks versus six months, you are now a partner or person I wanted for a business out to.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: Gotcha. Okay. Let's see. There was another question I had in there. So we're trying to think right for people that are listening.

Totally. If they wanna replicate this process Right. LinkedIn, look at who the sales manager, sales director is. Here's what we do if we can help.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: Gotcha. Oh, and you called as if they were expecting your call. Something we we really harp on, right, in sales training. Totally. Yeah.

Call as if they are expecting your call.

Steven: Abs absolutely. And and think about who you are calling. Does it make sense to call that person? On the sales side of it, they're the people that are first initially talking to these families that need to make that transition happen. That's that's the whole purpose of them.

When you go to get a gym membership, you talk to the gym salespeople. They're figuring out and going through the discovery process. What's that family going through? And then as soon as that family leaves, they give me a call, hey. Just talk to this family.

Mhmm. The house is really bad. I don't know if you want it. You know, they they all think that these are crazy situations. And to me, I'm like, that's exactly what we want.

Right. Those are

Steve: their favorite. Yeah. So we talked about so memory care, what what are the

Steven: Assisted living, memory care Mhmm. Rehab facilities, and then hospitals is another good one. Hospitals are really tough to get into. Mhmm. I just came from that experience.

So Right.

Steve: Why are hospitals harder to get into?

Steven: Because there's a lot of bureaucracy when it comes to hospitals, so you need to get to know the social workers and the case managers there. And it's very hard to get behind closed doors at the hospital unless you know how to talk hospital.

Steve: Yeah. Multiple layers, layers upon layers.

Steven: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. So that's the first year. Mhmm.

25 deals, flipping properties, dealing with contractors

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: With no experience prior. What about your second year?

Steven: So second year, did about 22 deals and we flipped a lot of deals Mhmm. That year because after you hold 15 properties, you become very cash poor very fast. You realize you realize that cash flows fickle like a cat. Sometimes it lets you, you know, pet it. Sometimes it wants nothing to do with you.

Right? Gotcha. So, ended up swapping out some of those houses too. Like I mentioned, we sold some of those for a loss, kept a couple more after that. So we ended up set the same baseline amount of rentals Mhmm.

The second year, but also got hungry to try some new things. And that's when we started Haboo Property Management as well because

Steve: So before you go into Haboo

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: You're saying we. We. Who is we?

Steven: I always say the word we instead of I. It's a sales habit. I never refer to anything as I.

Steve: Gotcha.

Steven: Right?

Steve: Okay. So there's no partners?

Steven: No partners. No. This is Steve. My wife is my partner. She's my support, of course.

Yes. But, yeah, everything's we always.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. So then you you look at Haboo. Yeah. What's Haboo?

Steven: So Haboo Property Management. Haboo is an acronym. It stands for highest and best use, and it's a very common investor phrase that I'm sure all of us have heard a million times over. Right? So as I was going through these transitions of buying these rentals, I needed a property manager that could manage long term, midterm, short term, co living, sober living, all the things, and that doesn't really exist.

Mhmm. You're usually getting one person that does one thing. So you're going just long term or going just short term. Mhmm. So nobody could really do all the things and nobody was really there to be that consultant to help you understand how do I maximize the profits on the property.

Mhmm. So I partnered up with my best friend at the time, Drew, who was managing my properties, and I was forcing him to do all of these different exit strategies for me, which he kicked and screamed a little bit, but he ended up getting the hang of all of them. And I said, why don't we actually just partner up on this and start Haboo Property Management?

Steve: Well and then Drew already had a reputation.

Steven: Drew already had a reputation.

Steve: Alright. What was his reputation for?

Steven: Just being a great property manager.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: Right? He truly cared about people's properties like they were his own properties. Mhmm.

Steve: If I recall correctly Mhmm. He was known as, like, the Airbnb guy.

Steven: He was getting into that that space at that time. Yeah. He was just making that shift.

Steve: If you have an Airbnb, you call Drew. Yeah. Right. That was how I kinda

Steven: Well, he it wasn't even Airbnb for him at the time. It was vacation rentals, but not Airbnb. He came from the old school way of just posting it on the MLS and doing more of that midterm style of things. I'm like dude, you're already doing it. Just switch it to Airbnb Yeah.

And you you have more opportunity for you.

Steve: Right. Just a slight rebrand.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. So anyway, that was a quick tangent. Yeah. Anyway, so you reach out to Drew.

Steven: I said, hey, why don't we start our own property management business? Right? You're already managing all of these different exits for me. Investors would love this. Right?

They would love a place that they could come and bring their properties to and say, hey, what is the highest and best use of my property?

Steve: And we

Steven: could provide that for them and manage all those different types of exits.

Steve: Yeah. So that was the vision. Mhmm. And you, Drew, and myself, we actually had a sit down just a few days ago. We're just kinda talking about, like, you know, like, the the the intent of this and that.

And I I had a question for you, which was, why investors asking you this question? And you were saying

Steven: Well, I said, everybody wants to get these properties. Right? So I kinda made a Batman reference there. So the Batman movie with Heath Ledger in it, the Joker, he goes, man, the dogs always want to catch the mailman, but they don't know what to do with the mailman once they actually get them. Mhmm.

Right? And I look at that way with investors too. They finally get this great deal that they can do as a rental and they're like, but what's the best route? Now that I got the house, now what do I do with it? Right.

Right? So we wanted to be able to guide the investors to be able to make as much money on that as possible. Mhmm. And in turn, that's generating more revenue for us because we're only getting paid if landlords are making money.

Steve: Alright. So you kinda flip the property management. That's what I'm looking for. Not reputation, but the the concept Mhmm. On its head.

Right? Because what do you do? Right? If I gotta run a property, I go, I find the cheapest one, you know, either 79 a month or 8% or something crazy. Right?

And

Steven: Give it the landlord special, paint everything, including the outlets. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Steve: But That's what a

Steven: lot of people do. That's what

Steve: a lot of people do. Right? They just go with the cheapest option, and then here, go do go deal with this.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: You're not coming in as, like, we're the cheapest. You're coming as, like, well, let me figure out how you can get the most out of this. Yes. Very different perspective.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Also, a lot more lucrative.

Steven: Way more lucrative. Yeah. And there's way more value there. Yeah. Too is is the biggest thing.

I saw that that would be a huge value add to a lot of investors, and that's kind of the approach I come from with all of this that we're doing is how can I provide as much value as possible? And it's it's proven itself. We've gotten tons of referrals. It's grown rapidly which has been great.

Steve: So how is it evaluated?

Steven: Because nobody's really there to guide people. Mhmm. In those situations, we can help people from start to finish. Okay. Yeah.

Airbnb is the best route for you or yes. A midterm rental is the best route for you, but what does that mean? So So now what now you have to furnish it. Well, I don't know how to decorate a house. How do I make sure that people actually wanna stay there?

We guide that entire process for them. So we've partnered up with, third party vendors that will set up the furniture for them at a discounted rate. We've we've just made it such a seamless process for people. Mhmm. So that way, all they have to do is bring us the property, and we say, this is what you should do.

Yeah. Right? This is the safest option. This is the highest revenue generating option. Mhmm.

Which one are you

Steve: most open minded to? Yeah. So you're an analyst. Mhmm. You're a trusted adviser.

I mean, it's kinda like, hey. I wanna get a mortgage. What are the next two or three things I should do? You know, I say, pay down some of this credit card or not do anything or go get two more credit cards and call me back in sixty days. Right?

But it's advice for how best how to best move forward. Or, hey. I just got into real estate. What should I do? It's like, well, what are you good at?

What do you like doing? What do you hate doing? Right. Based off of that, here's probably the path of real estate you should go down.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: Right? So, again, being a trusted adviser, I'm now not questioning what you charge.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Alright. So, again, it's different it's a different paradigm. So you started off. What was the vision? Like, you did you think, alright.

We're gonna launch this thing, and we're gonna have 50 doors, a thousand doors. What's what what was the business plan when you and Drew initially partnered up?

Steven: So the business plan was to get to a 100 properties in our first year, and then by year three, get to 500 properties, and then by year five, get over a thousand properties under management.

Steve: Got it.

Steven: That was the goal.

Steve: What's special about each one of these milestones?

Steven: For me, I'm looking at it from the ability to sell a business as well and what that revenue projection would actually look like. So when you own a property management business, once you get to about 2,000,000 a year in revenue, all of a sudden private equity gets really excited. Companies like Macasa also get really excited. And YND get really excited. And you're starting to see people get seven x multiples Mhmm.

On the revenue that you're generating for the business valuation Mhmm. Because of having the volume of properties there. The other side of this too was I have my own rentals. I wanna keep building my rental portfolio. How do I take something that's on my balance sheet that's costing me money and make it start paying me money instead?

Right? So I always analyze my balance sheets and go, where's all my money going? Can I turn this into something that makes me money instead?

Steve: Right. Right? So you're starting off right off the bat with an exit in mind?

Steven: Yes.

Steve: Gotcha. Why a 100 doors in in the first year?

Steven: Because it's a great goal to have.

Steve: Okay.

Steven: Yeah. I was seeing a lot of other people that I would listen to podcast and, oh, you know, I've been doing this for three years. I'm at 38 properties. I've been doing this for five years. I'm at 62 properties, and I'm like, man, I wanna do a 100 properties in one year.

Steve: Those are really depressing figures.

Steven: It is really depressing figures. I agree with that. Yeah. I agree with that. I agree with that.

Like, that doesn't seem like something I wanna go after.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, the number I've always heard I can't remember. So I say always. I can't remember. It was 300, 500.

I wanna say it's 500. Right? Like, you were not gonna do 500 doors. Why are you starting?

Steven: Exactly. Yeah. And and that most property managers, it's such an old school, you know, industry for the most part. The majority of business owners that are property managers to this day, they're they're older. They're in their sixties, they're in their seventies and they've just been doing it.

They were agents that, you know, sure I'll manage that. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I'll do it.

And it just over time, now they have a 100 or 200 properties under management and it spits out consistent cash flow.

Steve: It's great cash flow. Yeah. But you're not here for the cash flow? No. You're here for the exit.

Steven: I'm here for the exit.

Steve: Yeah. So a 100 doors, that just feels good. Yeah. Alright. 300 doors.

What's special about 300 doors?

Steven: 300 doors is when we hit the $2,000,000 a year in revenue mark. So that at year three would put us at the 200 or $2,000,000 in revenue.

Steve: Got it. So 2,000,000 in revenue. It's just you and Drew?

Steven: Just me and Drew. We just brought on two more team members

Steve: Okay.

Steven: Luckily, which has been great. So they're adding a lot of value to us right now, administrative assistants. Me and Drew are highly unorganized people, but we work our butts off. There's a lot of nights here, right, where you're leaving the office and we're probably the last two people here Yeah. Because we're just constantly working.

We wanna make sure that we give a five star service to everybody. Mhmm. We wanna make sure everything's buttoned up. But when it comes to the organization of things and making sure we're documenting processes and things are getting done, when they need to be done or correctly, whatever the case may be, we needed to have people in place that we're gonna be able to pick up that extra slack, especially as the volume increases.

Steve: So 300 Doris, by your calculations

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Will get you 2,000,000 in revenue. Yeah. So two questions here. On 2,000,000 in revenue, what is the profitability you project? You're you're not there yet.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: What's the profitability you project at 2,000,000 in revenue?

Steven: I would project that we're gonna be around 1 and a half million in that profit. The cool thing about property management that I also really like is it's not a high overhead business. Mhmm. Once you get your baseline infrastructure going, right, I we anticipate for our team not to really grow in size up to that 300 property mark from the four of us that are there now.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Because I remember, like, one of my friends, she does property management. I was like, she was sharing how much she made. I was like, really?

Steven: Yeah. And

Steve: I was like, how much do you work? She's like, not a lot. I was like, dang. That sounds great.

Steven: Yeah. Yeah. So we're looking at acquiring a property management business right now. And as I was analyzing the numbers, it's because of what we already have in place, that would add another $280,000 a year Mhmm. In revenue to the business, and that would all go straight to the bottom line.

Yeah. Because we don't need anything else. We have everything we need, and we can manage that extra book of business that would come in with the team that we already have in place. So other than maybe the a dollar a month cost to add it to our software system. Right.

Right?

Steve: Yeah. And I've said, like, I'll do anything real estate except for property management. And right now you're getting me to maybe just kinda question myself. So, so, ideally, at 2,000,000, 75% profitability.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Now we were saying a moment ago, at 2,000,000, you you're getting all the, gaining Wall Street's attention.

Steven: Yeah. Private equity.

Steve: Private equity, which is closely interlinked.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: Right? So once they're interested, why continue to go to 500 doors?

Steven: You know, we actually have this discussion a lot too. We go if if if we hate our lives Mhmm. Maybe we look at selling out. If we don't hate our lives and things are actually going well and we have the ability to continue growing, why would we stop? Mhmm.

Right? Because if everything that we're adding on at that point in time is just adding to the bottom line and we can start to pay ourselves more and more and more and more, and it's getting to a point where it's self sufficient. Right? It can run itself for the most part because we have the systems and operations in place. Why would we sell it?

Why not continue to maximize that and continue to grow it so we can get a larger multiple down the road?

Steve: Is there a larger multiple if you get to a different target?

Steven: Not necessarily, but I mean adding an additional million dollars in revenue. Mhmm. Right? Or let's let's put it in this this term as well. So if we went from 300 to 500, and let's say that puts us at $4,000,000 in revenue.

Right? I'd much rather take 4,000,000 times seven versus 2,000,000 times seven.

Steve: Right.

Steven: Right?

Steve: Gotcha.

Steven: Especially if it's not that much harder.

Steve: Yeah. And that's kinda like, you know, we have our our sales community, and we're, like, we're just looking for this target. Right? We have a thousand people paying us $97 a month. Everything else after that is, like, pretty much is gravy.

Yeah. Right? We don't and it doesn't cost us more to go past that. Right. Right?

So you're you're you're doing the same exact thing. So 100 doors first year. That's the target.

Steven: That that's that's the target, and we're just about there. So our first year will be March 1.

Steve: So you're not even twelve months yet?

Steven: Not even twelve months yet. No. And we're we're just about there. And if we end up acquiring this book of business, it'll put us closer to about a 150 door not doors, properties total. If you wanna do it by unit count because this would also include, co living, that'd be 287 units total.

Steve: Yeah. So March '22

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: You start buying houses. Mhmm. March '23, while you're buying houses, you launch you launch a property management company.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: And then March 24, it'll be two full years in the house buying business

Steven: Yes.

Steve: And one full year in the property management business.

Steven: Yes. I need to start something new for March '24. Right? I think

Steve: so. I think that's the next thing. So how, so the target was a 100, and you're about to get there.

Steven: Just about there. Yeah. Yeah. We we have a full pipeline that would put us over a 100, but it's just a matter of when do those fully want to be onboarded.

Steve: So we were saying a moment ago, you're listening to some podcast and they're like, oh, yeah. You know, it's five years. I got 62 doors.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: You're gonna do almost a 100, or you're probably gonna hit a 100 or more after twelve months.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: How have you done that?

Steven: I think a huge missed opportunity is being tied into the investor network. Mhmm. So being somebody of influence to some extent now keep in mind, I'm not a social media famous person. I have 2,200 followers. Right?

I'm not a huge deal by any means. However, the people that do follow me know that I talk the talk and I walk the walk. Mhmm. Right? I'm out here.

I'm actually flipping properties. I'm actually closing on properties. I actually have rentals. Right? I know what I'm doing and people trust that my guidance Mhmm.

Be able to benefit them. It keeps me very tied into the investor world which should be your entire client base for property management. Mhmm. So a lot of property managers are relying solely on referrals and they're not doing a lot of outreach or anything like that, whereas I'm able to directly outreach to my friends and everybody that I know within the real estate industry and I can help them continue to grow because that's why I'm viewing property management is how can I help these people continue to grow? The more money they make, the more properties they're gonna buy.

The more properties they're gonna buy, the more opportunity for management that I have. Right. Right? And if we do a great job managing them, they're gonna tell their friends and their circles. And I've been able to make a lot of awesome cool new relationships within the investing space, people I didn't even know existed out in Arizona

Steve: Yeah. Because of

Steven: the property management space, because now we're getting referred so frequently. I I mean, I'll get on the Facebook and somebody will put in a random form somewhere, hey, looking for property manager. Anybody have recommendations? And I'll get seven people that tag me in it. And I'm like, dude, this is awesome.

Right. I'm like, I'm not even marketing myself. Other people are marketing me at this point.

Steve: Yeah. That's the best. Yeah. So that's almost two a week.

Steven: Yeah. We're averaging about 15 per month onboarding right now.

Steve: Okay. So is it kind of an exponential then the last few months?

Steven: Yeah. Yep. Started off just a little bit slower to begin with because we were getting the word out.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: As we continue to do a good job with those individuals, they would tell us about you know, tell their friends about us. Mhmm. And they would would just kinda continue to grow from there. So there's just a statistic in property management that 60% of your business should be referral based from your existing clients. Mhmm.

I didn't take that into consideration when I was doing this. It's my sales brain's just like, no. We're just gonna we're gonna find all of the new people. Right?

Steve: Right.

Steven: But now we're starting to see the effect of that because now they're telling all their friends and family that, hey. You should actually go buy a property because these guys can manage it, and you're gonna make money. Mhmm. Like, people are seeing us as that that opportunity.

Steve: A resource. Yeah. So, what, I mean, it's a sizable number in one year. Are you getting people that have chunks of properties, or are these, like, you're bringing them on mostly one or two at a time?

Steven: It's it's a give or take. A lot of them are one or two at a time. Mhmm. And then a lot of those individuals end up buying another one or two at that point in time.

Steve: Gotcha. So what kind of marketing? I know there's mostly referral and relationship, but, like,

Steven: Zero marketing.

Steve: You're not posting on Facebook.

Steven: You're not, Instagram and Facebook posts from my personal account. That is all I'm doing right now.

Steve: So it's all straight organic.

Steven: All organic. And I actually stopped posting about four months ago because we realized we had to get our fulfillment under control. Yeah. I was like, okay. They're coming in a little bit too fast.

We need to make sure that we have it buttoned up process. So that way, it's awesome that the sales side is producing so much. Right. However, we need to make sure that everybody's handled with the same level of care and nobody's dropping any vols.

Steve: So are you are you rejecting clients at the moment?

Steven: No. Okay. No. No. We got that fixed.

Steve: Alright. Yeah. So you were for a bit?

Steven: We we were for a bit. Just yeah. Talking about that. Just being just being very frank with people too. Like, listen, we'd love to be able to take on that property, but at this point in time, we are inundated.

We don't wanna lead you in the wrong direction. Mhmm. We wanna make sure that we're giving you our all on these properties. And so we were just very frank with people and, shockingly enough, when you set that expectation, people love expectations. That was one of the biggest things I would teach in sales too.

When I was at these corporate organizations, people were so scared to set an expectation and tell people the truth or or set a precedence of something. The people love that expectation because they know that when they do get onboarded with us that they're gonna get leveled, the five star service that we're saying we're gonna give them.

Steve: There's no fear of losing business?

Steven: No. No. I have an abundance mindset in that. Mhmm. There's so there are so many property managers in the state of Arizona.

There's so much business to be earned out there.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Right? It's just a matter of time. So those people will eventually come back. We have the opportunity to pivot when others don't, which is great.

Steve: What does that

Steven: mean? Meaning that, okay, if your short term rental is not doing well, what can we do instead of doing a short term rental? Maybe we can try doing a co living model instead. We'll guide that entire situation for you. Maybe we wanna go with the midterm route.

Maybe we wanna go long term. We have the ability to not just look at one exit strategy. If something's not working for somebody, we can shift over and do something else. The other benefit there too is that if somebody bought furniture for a house, we've done this several times, we're able to then sell that furniture over to another landlord that might wanna try doing a short term rental in a different area. Mhmm.

And that way, that person does is not out all the money that they put into the property as well.

Steve: So kinda like I was asking why you for buying people's houses as assisted living facilities.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Why should I not go to the rent renter's warehouse or or I don't know. I don't even know who's relevant these anywhere anywhere these are.

Steven: Well, it's because they're giving you one exit strategy.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Right? You have one way of doing things, and that's not a way to get you the highest and best use for your property. Yeah. If you wanna go with renter's warehouse because they're a big name, that's great. That's awesome.

Good for you. Do what you gotta do. Mhmm. I would encourage you to look at their fees as well. We keep our fees low.

We only have two fees. We have our leasing fee to get the property filled. Mhmm. That's only gonna be for long term rentals and mid term rentals. And then we have our monthly management fee.

We do not upcharge when it comes to our maintenance. We don't upcharge on anything else. We believe that that is part of being a property manager. Why else are we making a fee? Right?

We're making a monthly amount on this. We shouldn't be making more money on top of, you know, things breaking at your house.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: That's our job to take care of that.

Steve: How would a landlord know that there is a servicing fee? Because there's normally a kickback that's not on the invoice. Right? Like, if I Mhmm. My disposal goes out.

Right? You might charge $180. They might charge $300.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: But on the invoice, it looks the same. How do I know that one property manager is is outcharging me and another is not?

Steven: Because they're getting directly the invoices from our vendors as well. So a lot of the other property managers that are doing this will have their own maintenance Mhmm. Company that's tied to it as well. Mhmm. And it's a huge revenue generator.

Right? It's a

Steve: white label.

Steven: Yeah. So they're basically just taking all of their vendors Mhmm. At that point in time. And at some point, you know, maybe they're even hiring their own vendors Right. When they get to a certain level of scale, but they're typically then taking those invoices through their actual maintenance company LLC, and then they're charging the landlords from there.

Steve: Yeah. So you're obviously a sales nerd. Right? We we cover that quite a bit. What are some of the best books?

Your favorite sales books.

Steven: Man, you know one that I thought I was gonna absolutely hate, but I ended up loving. I was like, this is totally it when I was doing phone sales. I loved, Jordan Belfort's book.

Steve: Straight Line Selling.

Steven: Straight Line Selling. Mhmm. I was like, all this is is just taking a normal sales, you know, sales process and calling it straight line selling, but, you know, he explained it well. I thought that that was done very well. I like a lot of the classic books too, how to master the art of selling.

Mhmm. I there's no one particular sales book. Love Sandler sales books as well, by the way, but I don't think there's one particular sales book that stands out to me that I go, oh, that was it. Mhmm. I look at it as each one had a little nugget for me Mhmm.

That I was able to really compile and find a way that worked best for me. I think that understanding the sales process, which is why I love Sandler Submarine Mhmm. And the Sandler process is because that is a guide. Mhmm. And I think people get too worked up in how to say the perfect thing, how to have a script, how to do all that.

Right. Whereas I say you need to have a guide. I'm not gonna sell like Steve Trang. Steve Trang is not gonna sell like Stephen Hunt. Mhmm.

Stephen Hunt is not gonna sell like Drew. I don't want Drew to sell like me, and you shouldn't wanna sell like me either.

Steve: Right. Right?

Steven: You need to do something that's comfortable for you so you have the ability to pivot in that conversation and be as as much of yourself as you possibly can and authentic.

Steve: Yeah. As possible.

Steven: Exactly. So it's it's the authenticity that I'm trying to get through to people. And so I always pulled a little bit from every single sales book. Mhmm. You can learn little new phrases here and there, but do something that works for you, but just know where you're going in the conversation.

Steve: Yeah. So having a path, I mean, Sandler called it a submarine. Belfort called it straight line selling.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: The way we kinda, describe it inside our, our our training is that you have to know exactly where you are in the process. Mhmm. And so there's a there there's a mental map you have to have. If you don't know where you're on the mental map, like, forget it. Yeah.

Right? Because when they take you off that map and you don't know where you are, like, now you're really in trouble.

Steven: Yeah. Well, and you it's easy to put keywords down, and I don't ever see people do that. So that's one of the first things I implemented when I started a sales training for the software company was I would put like the okay. Who, what, when, where, why. Basically, I'd just put these one word things.

I'm like, I don't care how you ask the question, but you need to answer these five questions before you move on to the next step.

Steve: Yeah. I

Steven: don't care how long it takes you. This is your discovery process Mhmm. Right here. Have fun with this. Make them feel comfortable.

Build rapport, but you're gonna build rapport by getting this information first before you go to the next step.

Steve: Right.

Steven: Otherwise, you're gonna find yourself at the close Mhmm. If you will, and nobody's gonna move forward. If you follow all of these things and guide conversation correctly and you are the expert in this guiding them

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: You're not gonna have to close anything. They're gonna close themselves. Right. They've made the decision in their mind already that, wow, this is I'm totally doing this.

Steve: Yep. You helped them discover it.

Steven: Exactly.

Steve: So straight line selling, I'm with you. I expect to hit that book as well.

Steven: Really?

Steve: Well, I mean, watch the movie. Right?

Steven: Exactly. So I was like, here we go. But I'm like, I might as well, though. I'm on the sales.

Steve: Yeah. And I actually got a chance to be on his podcast, which was

Steven: I saw that.

Steve: Incredible, incredible experience.

Steven: I listened to that one. Yeah. That was a great one.

Steve: And he's that guy. Leonardo did a great job. But the one thing it was a good book. I like I like the way more than I thought it would. The thing that was the best part for me in that book that I haven't really heard in other books, and you have to do this, guys, on audio because you can't do this out of a book

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Is the tonality. That's the only book I've audiobook.

Steven: I I listen to it on audio too, way better than reading it.

Steve: Yeah. Right. Because it goes over the tonality. Right? What's a reasonable man?

What's the where are the other tones? I care. Yeah. Right? Like, he emphasizes or he he demonstrates

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: How to do each one of these tones that no other book does. Right?

Steven: Yep. So And he assumes the sale. He yeah. Sound fair enough? And I'm like, yeah.

There you go, Jordan.

Steve: That's Yeah.

Steven: Great job.

Steve: Right? Like, that's, like, one of the things we took, from his, like, this is Steve? Why would you ever say your name confused? Like, well, because that gets them to be confused and then they'll wanna talk to you.

Steven: Oh, yeah. One of my first one of my favorite things to do when I was doing cold calling too was, hey, Steve. It's Steven. How have you been? That's how I'd always do and they're like, they would sit there trying to figure out for the first twenty seconds Yeah.

Oh, shoot. Who's and so they're so caught off guard and you kind of continue that conversation. Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought you had already spoken with my associate, blah blah blah. My apologies.

Let let give you a reminder of what we do. Yeah. And then they're already in the conversation.

Steve: Yeah. Well, their brain's fried. And the thing that we talk about in our sales training is if you can't make it past the first twenty, thirty seconds

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: You can have a conversation. If you can't make it past the first twenty, thirty seconds, you're not having a conversation.

Steven: Exactly. Right?

Steve: So we just we gotta confuse them enough to have a conversation.

Steven: For the flare.

Steve: Yeah. So was there anything else, that you, you're saying they're still using that training at your old place? Is there anything else that has a Steven Hunter flair that, like, you're still, like, really proud of as part of your sales process?

Steven: No. I mean, for me, it was always just discovering that the discovery process was so, so crucial, that everything happened in the discovery process, and I think too many people are trying to get to the close. Too many people want to have this big win Mhmm. And they want the solution, especially when you come down to the real estate side of things. Right?

Yeah. They want their number to work so badly, and they're trying to push this number on them versus figuring out the right solution, having more tools in your tool belt to be able to have those solutions for individuals Mhmm. But but making it a collaborative effort between you and the seller. Yeah. So that's one of the big things I see in real estate is just not spending enough time in discovery and understanding what they're going through Mhmm.

And working out solutions around that.

Steve: Yeah. And this is where, you know, I I converted to the dark side. Right? From the realtor world to the cash buying and then creative and this and that. But before, I was just wearing the realtor hat.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? And, man, the realtors don't care for the creative or the cash buyer people.

Steven: Right? But they

Steve: only have one tool. Yeah. And there's a tool belt. So you've developed multiple tools in your tool belt. Yes.

How have you developed all the tools in your tool belt?

Steven: So when I was originally getting the real estate, and this is when I kind of went through that shift of realizing I don't need 20% down anymore, it was a funny story. So my sister-in-law who's in Jacksonville, Florida, she's a big buyer out there. If anybody needs a buyer in Jacksonville, Florida, hit up April Giuliano. She's fantastic. She'll close on all the deals.

Anyway, she comes to Arizona, doesn't tell me or my wife that she's coming to Arizona. She hits us up at 8PM this one night, and she's like, hey, I'm grabbing oysters, in Gilbert, Arizona. Just wanna let you know I'm here. What? What do you mean?

What it's right down the street from her house. We live in Gilbert, Arizona.

Steve: That's her sister.

Steven: This is sister-in-law. Yeah.

Steve: Sister-in-law. Got it.

Steven: So she's like, what the hell are you doing? She's like, come on over. Come on over. She's like, okay. We're like, why are you here?

She's like, I'm going to this mastermind with this guy Pace Morby and basically I'm learning how to buy houses with no money and yada yada. So she breaks it down for us and I'm like that's black magic. No. Mhmm. That doesn't work.

Steve: Yeah. Mhmm.

Steven: Was that total naysayer to begin with. So she does the whole thing for a full year watched her crush it Mhmm. In real estate. Just absolutely crush it. And finally, at that point in time, I'm like, okay.

I'll give it a shot. Yeah. Let's do this. So joined a mentorship and that was the big thing. I don't think it matters whose mentorship in particular you do Mhmm.

Get into, but getting yourself involved in the community Mhmm. In that sense was a huge huge thing for us. Yeah. And that's that's that changed the game completely for us and that's what gave us more tools in our tool belt because we were learning about different exit strategies that weren't talked about widely on BiggerPockets or some of these other sources. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: You weren't hearing as much about creative finance at that point in time too, especially in BiggerPockets because that was the only source that I had at the time. Mhmm. It was just doing the BRRRR, which made no sense to me at the time because I had no idea how hard money worked or anything. It was so convoluted.

Steve: Yeah. Right?

Steven: But this helped make sense of everything. And then I had a community of people to where if I had to ask questions, I now had the ability to get feedback. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. And that that's just, you know it makes me think right now. It's like, how do I get this information in front of the audience alongside, you know, bigger pockets? Yeah. Right?

Because, like, bigger pockets mostly correct me if I'm wrong because I don't really pay attention to it.

Steven: I don't need there anymore.

Steve: That's, like, one message. Yeah. Right? And it's a great message. Right?

It's a great door opener or eye opener, for the people that are living on the w two life. Totally. Right? But there's another way. Like, how do we compete

Steven: Right.

Steve: With bigger pockets? I don't know if there is another way.

Steven: There is. I think wholesale is a huge thing, obviously, which you're you're huge on with wholesale, because I didn't fully understand that side of it either. I it's it's hard to conceptualize that you can make big money. And even then flipping, you don't understand how much money you can make flipping a house even

Steve: Right.

Steven: Until you start doing it, until you actually learn about it. So where do you go to get that information? Because, yeah, you know, people flip. You watch the TV shows. You do all the things, and you're like, oh, wait.

That person made a $125,000 on that?

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: That's a salary for, like, a high income earner. What? Or multiple or or

Steve: or two or three year salary for some families.

Steven: So Exactly.

Steve: So we got bigger pockets. They've covered, you know, w two.

Steven: Mhmm. And you

Steve: got HGTV. They've covered flipping. So we gotta figure out how to get this

Steven: Get wholesaling Get this into the mainstream. Yeah. Exactly.

Steve: So having this property management company, Haboo

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Working with investors

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: How is that helping you with your own real estate business?

Steven: It's nice because I was taking all the risks to begin with.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: A. So it like, Padsplit's new. We partnered up with Padsplit. That's one of our partnerships within Haboo Property Management.

Steve: Awesome.

Steven: Is that we're managing Padsplits, and I have not done a Padsplit yet myself. But we're managing pad splits, which is awesome. Mhmm. But I get to see how that's going for everybody else first. There's a lot of fake numbers being thrown around by a lot of people out there as I'm sure you're aware of.

I'm making $9,000 a month doing this from one house and it's net and yada yada. I get to see, like, the legit numbers. I know exactly what you're bringing in. I know exactly what your expenses were, and I know exactly what your PITI is because we've had that discussion already. Right.

So I get to see what the true risks are, what the actual occupancy rates are. So from my own knowledge, that's huge. But also, when these people are ready to sell, we get to guide them on that too and say, hey. You know what? You've had this property for five, seven years.

You've depreciated it all. Why don't we sell this ten thirty one it? I have the opportunity to be at that table too Mhmm. And say, I'd love to buy that property, actually.

Steve: Mhmm. Right. So you're gonna get first look. Mhmm. So for one some of the landlords wanna sell.

Mhmm. Any other advantages of having a property management company?

Steven: The network that it helps you build as well. I mentioned earlier in the podcast too that I've been introduced to people that I didn't even know existed Mhmm. In the Arizona real estate space. Right? There's still so many people I know I still don't know and that I haven't been able to build that relationship with.

Mhmm. But a lot of the big players all need property managers, and they need somebody that can do all the things for them. So if we can be this five star white glove service for them, it opens up that relationship and it opens up a dialogue for us to have that conversation now to where now I can get closer into their circles as well. So it builds a lot of proximity with bigger investors too.

Steve: What types of people are we talking about?

Steven: We're talking about people that do high volume when it comes to wholesaling, but they're also building their own rep, rental portfolios. Mhmm. People that are big into commercial, they're also still building their own rental portfolios. At the end of the day, we're all looking to make active income so we can put it into passive assets.

Steve: Right.

Steven: That's that's ultimately the goal. Right? We wanna be able to live free on a beach and do nothing and have it spend out a $100,000 a month.

Steve: Do we want that really?

Steven: Maybe.

Steve: Do you want that?

Steven: Maybe.

Steve: I mean, let's just say you sold your company. Right? Let's say 2,000,000 revenue, seven x multiple.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: $14,000,000 split two ways. Right? Mhmm. Seven h.

Steven: Let's say we both net seven.

Steve: What are you doing?

Steven: Buying more real estate.

Steve: So you're still doing real estate?

Steven: I would still do real estate. Yeah. I'm I'm looking for how can I do as little as possible at the end of the day and be able to live a lifestyle that I want? And that's gonna be me and my wife and our kids traveling the world, having experiences, making an impact in the world as well, but knowing that the money is still gonna keep printing.

Steve: Right. Okay. So then, if someone wants to work with Haboo so I guess first question is, you guys Arizona only right now?

Steven: Right now, Arizona only. We'll probably be expanding to Texas as our next market. We're looking to do that more so around the summer time frame. So Texas will be the next market, and then shortly after that, we'll pop into Nevada. That's gonna be the first market because one of our, team members is actually gonna be moving to Texas.

Gotcha. And she's gonna be doing great remotely. She's we're teaching her everything about how to run the business and we're kind of gearing her up to be the next property manager. Mhmm. Right?

So everything that Drew's doing right now, she's gonna be able to know how to do so that way she can launch our Texas market. That's gonna be us giving trust. Right? That's gonna be us figuring out how to launch a new market. And with that knowledge base, we wanna document everything there.

So now we can just go copy and paste it into the different markets.

Steve: Where in Texas?

Steven: Houston.

Steve: Houston? Yeah. Gotcha. And then after Houston, Nevada?

Steven: Yeah. Nevada because it's close proximity, and I know a lot of people in Nevada as well. Big investor state, obviously, there as well. Right. So that that that would be the next ideal market too.

Steve: Okay. But it would be in Nevada. It wouldn't be hopping from Houston to Dallas.

Steven: Oh, we'll expand all throughout Texas. Yeah. I look at it as on a state basis.

Steve: Gotcha. Yeah. So then in order of operation, would it be Dallas or Nevada first?

Steven: Oh, Dallas. Dallas. Yeah.

Steve: Now we kinda made the joke. Right? Like, in March, it'll be two years for the house buying, one year for property management. What do we start next?

Steven: Right.

Steve: How are you staying focused?

Steven: I keep myself removed from things. And what I mean by that is Drew handles our day to day and I have so much respect for him and he deserves all the awards in the entire world because he's the one that is every single day putting in the consistent work working with everybody. And anytime I start to get a little bit too involved or he wants me to get a little bit more involved on certain aspects of the business, I have to take a step back and say, if I get just as involved as you, I'm not gonna be able to see the big picture. Mhmm. I'm gonna be just as deep in the weeds as you are, and then we're both gonna be in this situation.

Yeah. So for me to stay focused, I need to keep myself relatively removed. It's the same thing for our fix and flips now. Mhmm. Anna Martinez, my project manager, runs the flips.

And I have to be okay with the fact that things aren't gonna be done the way that maybe I would be doing them every single time. Right? It's probably gonna be 80% of the way. Mhmm. Those are conversations that we get to have and then we get to build on.

The reality is I only have to go to the house four times now. Mhmm. I'm not going there once a week or twice a week like I used to. I get to remove that off my plate. So I'm only thinking about the big picture.

Okay. How do I get more deals? How do I have more deal flow coming in? Who else can I partner with? How can I have more ideas around this so that way I can feed Anna more and I can feed myself more?

Same thing when it comes to property management. Mhmm. How can I make sure that I'm taking us towards this big vision that we have, this big goal that we have versus all of us getting stuck in the mud and the weeds together?

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Right?

Steve: Who's the point of contact for the assisted living properties?

Steven: Me. Probably assisted living stuff, all comes to me.

Steve: So Doris comes in. She needs help. They call Steven.

Steven: They call Steven.

Steve: So you're still the house buyer? Yeah. You're still running the appointments?

Steven: I love that. Yeah. So for me on that side of it, my least favorite part of that is actually going to communities now because it's just so much I'm not a I'm a very transactional sales kind of person. Mhmm. Right?

I love guiding people to the right solution, making it happen, calling it a day. Everybody's happy. We all won. It's the continued follow-up of building that relationship, the ongoingness of it Nurturing. Nurturing of it.

Exactly.

Steve: You're a hunter. Yes. Me too. Yeah. I'm terrible.

Steven: My wife is phenomenal at nurturing.

Steve: I'm a terrible farmer. Right? Like, where we're gonna go hunt and kill, put me out there. I don't really need a lot of instruction. Just tell me what we're killing.

I'm I'm there with you.

Steven: That's it. Right? I I get joy from that, and I get that by working with the families. Hey. There's an emotional tie to it.

There's a pull there. You're watching you're changing somebody's life Mhmm. Right there in the moment, which is fantastic. But, also, like, we're done after that.

Steve: It's over.

Steven: It's over. We got the contract signed. Yeah. It's good to go.

Steve: Yeah. There's a what's the one I'm looking for? There's no right or wrong. It's just knowing what you know. Just, as long as you're aware of it and you stay

Steven: Yes.

Steve: Doing what you're good at and then not try to do the things you're not wired for. Yes. Yeah. When did you figure that out?

Steven: What particularly?

Steve: That you're not a good farmer.

Steven: When I got into medical sales. So every job that I had prior to that, leading up to that, was hunting. Mhmm. And I really enjoyed that, and I got really good at that. So when I moved into medical sales, that is a

Steve: It's a different beast.

Steven: It's a different beast. Yeah. So medical device can be a little bit different, but it's so much nurturing, and it's so much follow-up Yeah. That I was getting distracted. I was like, man, this is a The sales cycle.

Gonna use it or not? Like, come on. What are we doing here?

Steve: Yeah. The sales cycle on on those, bigger bigger sales.

Steven: Totally.

Steve: Alright. Like, what was the biggest sale?

Steven: Well, think about pharmaceutical sales. In that sense, that's what my wife does. She's in pharmaceutical sales. She never ever officially closes anything. Mhmm.

You're just having these guiding conversations where it's like suggestive selling essentially the entire time Mhmm. Hoping that the data in two months is gonna reflect that you were doing a good job.

Steve: Alright.

Steven: Right? I hate that. Like, give me my result now. I wanna see it hit the leaderboard. Awesome.

Cool. Close the big deal. Awesome. We all know.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. We all know that Steven's number one in this office. Exactly. That's what's the most important.

Steven: Right.

Steve: Yeah. I mean so, again, I was talking about Jimmy earlier. Like, for him, he just wanted to be the number one sales guy. Yeah. That was it.

He would he would go talk to the doctors. He would have the conversations about whatever device he was selling. Right? But he didn't really care about the device. He just wanted the to be on stage to get his award at every annual, event.

Steven: That's it for the most part.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: You know? And then also I knew that it would advocate for me. I thought it would advocate for me to make bigger changes in the company and I'm like, oh, man, you know, then they can start taking my ideas and they'll implement them. I'll be this entrepreneur within the organization. They're gonna skyrocket me to the top.

No. They'd fire you. You just don't give them your ideas.

Steve: Oh, man. Who was I talking to, very recently? We're talking about all the ideas that they've helped the company foster. And, yeah. I mean, I know you talked you know, I talked about this podcast, but there was someone else too.

They were like, yeah. Like, I helped build this. I helped build this. I helped build this. And, like, what was the reward?

Like, a nice email.

Steven: Exactly.

Steve: Yeah. Like, hey. Good job building it out. And that was it.

Steven: Oh, man. I I came up with an entire plan and they took it from one manager to the then to the next, you know, a manager above them, then to the VP, then to the COO of this of this, software sales company. And the CEO is like, we gotta show this to somebody. I'm like, who who are we showing this to? Like, you're the COO.

What do you mean? Who else do we have to show this to? Are you talking about you say yes or no? And they just played these games. And then eventually, one day, they ended up taking the whole idea, you know, and implemented the entire thing and put somebody else in that role of training all the salespeople and all that kind of stuff.

Corporate. That's corporate.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. It's the reason why you and I didn't didn't last there.

Steven: No.

Steve: What is your why?

Steven: My family. Mhmm. We we want to live a very big lifestyle. We always have wanted to. My wife and I have always been big about writing down our goals and what kind of things we want to experience in life and what we want to be able to do with our lives and the impact we want to make on other people's lives as well.

And the only way that we see to do that is to have money. If we want to be able to take care of our family. Right? Mhmm. That goes for our parents, that goes for our kids, that goes for our future generations, is to make a lot of money.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: So for us, that's that's a big driver for us. It also helps when you fall in love with that process, though. Yeah. I love the process of starting a business and getting something up and going and seeing it go from just an idea concept to, oh my gosh. We're generating 50,000 a month.

That's fantastic. Woah. Can't believe I did that.

Steve: Yeah. There's definitely the idea in your head and then it happening. Yeah. So Ian and I, we we we run the or he he runs the sales community. And we talk about, like, there's this thing that happens for entrepreneurs.

And I think, and salespeople is, like, we're so excited about the possibilities. We're not even living in the it it hasn't happened yet.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: But we're so excited about it, and then we alternate between states of, like, being excited about it and frustration that hasn't happened yet. Yeah. Yeah. Right? I feel that.

Yeah. So then to get to that point where you actually hit it. Right? I mean, did you celebrate it? Because most people that are wired like us don't celebrate.

We're like, what's next? Right. Did you celebrate it?

Steven: For for Haboo, we celebrated it. Okay.

Steve: How did you celebrate it?

Steven: We went to Mastro's and had a nice dinner as the team, and we go, man, this is fantastic. Congratulations, everybody. Mhmm. We're doing the thing we said we were gonna do. Awesome.

Now let's get back to it.

Steve: Yeah. Right? Exactly. Right. That's like, I I the joke I make is Bill Belichick will smile for, like, thirty seconds after winning the Super Bowl.

They were going back to watching game film.

Steven: Yeah. What is it Kobe there's a there's an interview of Kobe. They're like, you've won the first three games in a row. Like, aren't you pumped about that? He's like, job's not done.

Yeah. We're not done here. Nope.

Steve: No. It's not

Steven: seven more games.

Steve: It's not why you started the the season. Exactly. Three games. Like, one of my biggest and this might sound terrible, but, like, I've always thought that when they won the final four, not the championship, but their bracket, and they would cut the nest, like, why are we cutting nets? Right.

You didn't start the season to win a to win a bracket. Right. You started the season to win a championship.

Steven: Yes.

Steve: I don't get celebrating winning the bracket.

Steven: Yes. Yeah. I never count the chickens before they hatch. Yeah. You know what I mean?

It's a great idea. Maybe I fantasize it in my head a little bit once I'm driving around. Mhmm. You know? Oh, it's gonna be so cool when I do this.

Oh my gosh. We already got this far, and then this is gonna happen. And you played out in your head, but at the end of the day, the reality is you're not there yet. So Yeah. Still still a lot of work to be done.

Steve: And then, Gary Harper. Right? He's a a a coach of mine, and he talks about the reason why most business owners don't celebrate when when they get there is because it already happened in their head. It's just now a reality. They celebrated it when they came up with the idea.

Steven: Yes. Not that. Is it to a t, though. Yeah. You've thought about it so much and fantasized about it in your head so much that once it becomes reality, you're like, well, I already knew.

Steve: Yeah. Like, why is everyone else celebrating?

Steven: Like, you

Steve: already knew this is

Steven: gonna happen. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. I saw this coming.

Yeah. That's totally it.

Steve: What's your biggest struggle today?

Steven: Biggest struggle today? That's a really good question. I would say right now, it is learning how to develop teams because I thought I knew what I was doing Mhmm. When I came from corporate America because I was doing a lot of trainings, and I was I saw all the things wrong that they were doing Mhmm. Which is great experience, and it's awesome.

But but at the end of the day, when it comes to all of that and building out your company and putting all these processes and building out the teams to go along with it, there were way more resources from corporate America. You're talking about a billion dollar company that's dumping money into anything they possibly can to provide resources to make this thing grow.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: And when you're bootstrapping a business from the start and you're trying to, you know, you bring your first employee in, the first employee we brought in, I think we gave him at least 200 tasks. Mhmm.

Steve: And he

Steven: had a hard time doing just one of them. And we're like, what's going on? What what do you what's you know? So not having the resources, was a big wake up call and understanding that, okay, we have to literally develop everything from scratch. There's no can't assume that anybody knows anything about anything, and everybody has to be trained like you're teaching a two year old.

And then at that point in time, we can start to look at also what our strengths and weaknesses are with those individuals. Do they have longevity with their organization? There's just been a lot of learning lessons that go along with it. Mhmm. But trying to learn as quickly as possible in that too.

Steve: Yeah. Well, I think resourcefulness, especially for small organization, is such an underappreciated or under

Steven: Oh my gosh.

Steve: Valued skill. Dude. Right? Like, I don't need you to be the smartest person. I just need you to figure it out.

Steven: Yes. Go for it.

Steve: Yeah. Try it.

Steven: We we tell people all the time now too. We're like, screw it up. Mhmm. It's okay.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: Like, who get oh, you paid $50 more than you should have. Whatever. Like, let's just not do it again. But Yeah. Thank you for going for it without us having to be involved.

That's awesome.

Steve: Without having to call me three times.

Steven: Exactly.

Steve: Yeah. How will you know when you're successful?

Steven: I already feel like I'm successful. I I don't think that I'm waiting for this, like, oh, man. I did it. I made it. I'm here.

Awesome. No. I just I'm continually striving forward because it brings me joy. Yeah. I love the hustle.

I love the grind. I love building. I love everything that has to do with the process. I've fallen in love with the process really early on, so I already feel like I'm successful. I don't think anybody could take that joy away from me.

Yeah.

Steve: And

Steven: if it was all taken away from me tomorrow, I'm like, dude, I'm in a better spot than I was when I started. That's awesome. Look at all the knowledge I have. I could do it all over again. Like, there's to me, I think we've already reached that level of success.

Right? Monetarily, absolutely. Like, we became multimillionaires in our twenties, my wife and I Mhmm. Which is awesome. Super cool.

But once you tap that bell, you're like, cool. Yeah. You're like, now what? Did this change anything? Nothing changes.

Steve: Nothing changes. Right? It's just what's next. You know, a moment ago you're saying struggling with, with with building a team. So what are you doing then to get better at building a team?

Steven: Well, one of the things that you and I talked about too was personality assessments, understanding who we're bringing in on the front end Mhmm. A lot better and allocating specific roles to people now versus trying to get a Swiss army knife into the business. Right? We want somebody that's resourceful, but we also want somebody that's good at the things that we need to have done. Right?

We need somebody with strong admin skills. That doesn't mean that they should be a runner and an admin and talking to people on the phone for sales and doing this. Like, just be an admin. Just be the best darn admin that there ever once was. Right.

And let me be as much, you know, give you as much help as I possibly can in that lane only.

Steve: One of the biggest mistakes I see from, newer business owners is like, alright. Well, I have a VA, and she's not doing anything right now. How about I just have her pick up the phone and call people? I could just that's not how it works, but I've seen it happen so many times.

Steven: Oh, all the time. Yeah. People don't know what to do with people until they get them in. It's it's and we ran into that Right. Several times.

Steve: What's your superpower?

Steven: I would say my superpower is definitely initiating, in terms of initiating business relationships, initiating new ideas, carrying out a vision is a big thing for me and getting people to get behind the visions that I put into place. So on the senior gap side of it, I'm actually gonna be expanding that out with Ingrid Mhmm. Who works out of our office too, because she sees that vision and I was able to show her that vision and she's like, dude, I'm all for this. Mhmm. It's a matter of I'm a great initiator.

It's now I need people that can help me follow through.

Steve: Right.

Steven: That's all it comes down to. If you can help me follow this through, like, why did it work out so well with me, Andrew? I had this big vision that I was like, we're gonna manage all the different types of properties. We're gonna do something that no other property managers do, which in his mind, property manager mine goes, why the hell would we ever do that? Right?

And eventually he got on board with all of it. Mhmm. And he ended up falling in love with it and he's like, I totally see that this separates us apart from everybody else now. Yeah. This makes so much sense And his consistency and his dedication to the landlords that we're serving is what drives the business forward because I can continue to build the vision on that.

Steve: Yeah. I don't think there's a person better, I think, suited than Ingrid in that role.

Steven: Oh, entirely.

Steve: Yeah. Like, she is someone that's super trustworthy from the moment you talk to

Steven: She has assisted living experience too. She actually used to be a caretaker. So her being able to go in there and have these conversations and this dialogue and and doesn't look like a 14 year old boy She's a relevant like I did. Right?

Steve: Relevant experience.

Steven: Oh, it's beautiful. So she's gonna be able to go in there and maintain those relationships. She's so good at maintaining relationships and networking.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: Like, the senior living world is much like the, real estate world. They have their own meetups. You have to have a full time job going to senior living meetups Mhmm. Because they all network and do their own thing.

Steve: Right.

Steven: Ingrid will kill it at that stuff.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: They will all love her.

Steve: She's gonna have an unfair advantage there. Totally. What's your biggest regret?

Steven: Not starting sooner. And I I say that kind of because I look back and after I look back at all the experience, I'm like, okay. But all this corporate experience led to something. Right? It gave me such a leg up.

Why was I able to run as fast as I did when I, you know, hit the ground and I got straight into real estate? Well, it's because a lot of the prior experience that I had. But I wish I had less of those fears because truly, I didn't develop much more from the medical sales side of it. So it could have stopped right at software sales. Mhmm.

Right? I could have stopped when I was 24, 25 Yeah. With the sales side of it and then somewhere else at this point in time.

Steve: Right. So yeah, I mean, a lot of people do say, you know, the the that's their biggest regret not starting sooner. And then, you know, the corporate world, wholesaling, particularly, is an interesting niche. Yeah. There's a lot of people that get into it that do not have a corporate background.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: And I think probably more have more of them don't have a corporate background than do. It's kinda like the realtor world.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Like, no one grows up says I wanna be a realtor. It's like Right. Nothing else worked. I'm gonna be a realtor.

Steven: Right.

Steve: And I think wholesaler has some similar, has some similarities as well. So then what would you recommend to somebody then? Would you recommend someone get into the corporate world before getting into real estate, or would you say just stay where you're at and do real estate?

Steven: I think it depends. I mean, if you like my wife, I would say go to the corporate world. Like, she needs the structure of a corporate world and she kills it in corporate. I mean, she is like she's like I think the next youngest person on her team is 50 years old. Like, she she climbed up that ladder so freaking fast.

She's just so on top of everything. She's fantastic, but she needs that structure. Mhmm. Like, if I throw entrepreneurial things at her, she's like, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, like in a daze almost. Like, what what do you mean I have to just make that up on the spot?

Like, I have to come up with some sort of theory or idea? And I'm like, yeah. It's the fun part of it. That's, like, it's entrepreneurship.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: So for some people, yes. For other people, no. If you have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and you're a go getter and you don't care if you fail or putting your back up against the wall or anything, I'd say go straight for wholesaling.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: Go straight for it. So my sister-in-law in Jacksonville, that was her advice was put your back up against the wall. Just go for it. I'm like, dude, that would stress me out. Like, that is not the exit that I was looking for.

Like, I need some sort of security. Mhmm. And that was just my wife and I. That's how it worked for us. So the corporate experience aided us a lot in that transition.

Steve: So Brian Madley, someone who's been in the show as well and has also been a part in the disruption, and, he's doing really well. I think he flips in, like, 17 markets. Right? And he talks about, like he sees some of these people, like, man, I've got this group process, this and that, and, like, he'll look at it. He's like, I haven't done that since day one.

Mhmm. Because he has a background in medical and pharmaceutical sales. Yeah. He's done the compliance, the checks and balances, the make sure that everyone's on the same page, all the different processes. Like, even though he's a crazy person.

Right? Yeah. Like like you and me, he has had years of, like, systems. Yes. Right?

And so when he just went off his own, it was like he just replicated all the corporate systems into his wholesaling business.

Steven: Mhmm. I I see this is what I don't see enough with people that are in corporate right now though too because there's a ton of corporate people that that reach out to me and friends that I have that came from corporate as well that haven't been able to make that transition into doing real estate full time or entrepreneurship full time because they have that fear as well as they they question themselves all the time. Do I just need to put my back up against the wall and just quit the job and just go for it full force? I'm like, no. And I'm like, because you are skating by in your job as much as you possibly can.

And I I know that. You know that. You know you're trying to do as little work as possible to make as much money as possible in your corporate job. Why don't you actually start trying to make an impact at the company you're working for first and become an entrepreneur within the organization? That's what I did.

If I look back at it, right, I started the sales training programs. I was doing everything I could to make an impact at this organization. You're getting paid to develop a skill set. You're getting paid to take some of these risks. If you get fired, you get fired.

Oh, well. It's a job. You can always get another job.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: But at the end of the day, you're getting paid to go through these experiences. So why not maximize those as much as possible? So that way, when you do make that shift entrepreneurship, your confidence is gonna be through the roof because you were able to do it on somebody else's dime Mhmm. Essentially at that point in time.

Steve: That's great advice. I didn't do that at all. I did the minimum. But it's great advice for everyone else that's listening.

Steven: Yes. If you're in corporate, maximize it.

Steve: Yeah. What book have you gifted more than any other?

Steven: Oh, man. It it's such a cliche, but Rich Dad Poor Dad. Mhmm. It's it was such a game changing book for me, and it in the sense of I feel like I'd already gone through that mindset shift when I read it. I was like, oh, man.

This totally validates everything that I've been thinking, like, yes, yes, yes, yes. I've gone to my wife and I was like, we gotta buy real estate. Mhmm. We have to buy real estate, and she's like, it's kind of scary, like, how are we ever gonna forward it? Like, I don't know about that.

Like, do you know what you're talking about? Mhmm. I was like, read this book. Read this book, and she read it in one day, like, obsessed. Mhmm.

Right? Read the whole thing in one day, and she's like, we gotta buy real estate. Mhmm.

Steve: And I

Steven: was like, totally. So she had this huge mindset shift from that book. So anybody that I see that's getting started in business in general or anything, I'm like, you have to read this book. If you haven't read this book, you have to read this book. Absolutely.

Steve: Yeah. I wanna go back and reread it. We have to figure out what is it about that book that changed so many people's mindset.

Steven: It's the storytelling, I think, that goes along with it. It's very simple. It's easy to understand and comprehend. It's nothing too crazy. Nothing complex.

I mean, it's bare bones.

Steve: It's a story

Steven: and

Steve: that's it.

Steven: That's it. And and I think that's what gets people so bought in is because it's so easy to read. It's so easy to relate to almost and put yourself in those shoes of, like, oh my gosh. Assets over liabilities. Wait a minute.

Yeah. This this makes sense. I that's how rich people do it. Oh, wow. Okay.

Mhmm. I could be rich if I wanted to. Wow. Like, this book just kinda changed my mind on how I view things. So I think that's the biggest thing is is that's why it impacts so many people is because it's so easy to comprehend what the impact looks like in your life.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, it's changed so many people. Like, if it's not 90%, it's at least 80% of the people that have been on the show read that book and it reframed

Steven: Entirely.

Steve: Everything.

Steven: Yeah. One one of the big quotes in that book that I absolutely love and that's the way that I view everything in life is is I can't buy that versus how can I buy that? Mhmm. Right? And I look at that with every decision we make.

Anytime somebody says no, anytime something's not going the way that I want it to go is, okay, that can't happen. Wait, how can it happen instead? So reframing your mind into some of those things, it's a big mindset book truly. At the end of the day, it's not teaching you how to buy real estate. No.

It's not teaching you any of the tactical what to do. Mhmm. Right? But at the end of the day, like, you leave that book feeling empowered and like, dude, I Yeah.

Steve: I'm gonna do it. It's, it's the red pill in the matrix.

Steven: Yeah. Exactly.

Steve: Yeah. Open your eyes. Now you can make your decisions. You know this now that you know this, what are you gonna do? Guys, if this was valuable, please subscribe.

Do not keep us a secret. Let as many people know. That way we can help more people and create more millionaires. So what are some last thoughts I'd like to leave all the listeners with?

Steven: Oh, man. Last thoughts. I would say if you are interested in doing real estate, if you are interested in starting your own business, start taking the time to educate yourself. Right? Read Rich Dad Poor Dad if you haven't read it already.

If you're listening to this podcast, I'm assuming you've probably already read Rich Dad Poor Dad. Yeah. However, put yourself in the right rooms, get involved in the right communities of people, and start networking as much as possible because once you realize other people are doing it, you're gonna have those moments of, wait, I can do this too. Mhmm. Right?

Just start getting involved in the thing that you wanna do. Don't just have these ideas and put them on paper and go, oh, man, one day I'm gonna start a business doing this thing. Like, just start taking the steps to doing it. Just start taking those actions and if it fails, it fails. It's okay.

Steve: Yep. Absolutely. How can somebody get a hold of you?

Steven: You can reach out to me on Instagram at stevenhunt, s t e v e n h u n t. Such a common name. I'm so lucky that I got that one, that Instagram handle.

Steve: Yeah. I was gonna say you got that. I didn't I didn't get Steve Trang. Like, you got Oh, yeah. Steven Hunt.

Steven: That's Like, I was in high school, and it's right when Instagram came out. It was the big trend, and I was like, oh, dude. I'm getting this.

Steve: Yeah. That's awesome. I actually know someone that had the opportunity to register at Ryan, and he didn't pull the trigger.

Steven: Oh, really?

Steve: Like, man. Right. And I tried buying at Steve, that guy. That that one's not working. Perfect.

So, guys, again, if you guys have value, subscribe, share. A rising tide lifts all boats, and definitely connect with Steven Habu. Right? I get to see their operation, so it's pretty fun. Right?

So Yeah. Definitely highly recommend them. You guys have properties in Arizona. And, again, if you guys can do business with Steve in one way or another, definitely check it out. Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Steven: You, Steve.

Steve: It was absolutely What

Steven: a pleasure. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Steve: Oh, you're very you're very, very welcome. And I'll see you guys next time.