Nick Perry Shares How He Went From Dead Broke to Multi Million Dollar Wholesaler

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we have Nick Perry with Want to Sell Now, and he flew in from Austin to share how he went from dead broke to multimillion dollar wholesaler. And a big part of it we're gonna talk about is how to hire the right people for the right seats. If this is your first time tuning in, I am Steve Trang, broker and owner of Stunning Homes Realty, founder of the OfferFast Homes app, the only MLS for off market wholesale properties, and I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires.

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If you could write what you like about the show, that would be even better. And this is a live show, so please ask your questions for Nick to answer. You ready? I'm ready. Alright.

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

Nick Perry: Oh, man. That's a that's a long question, but I'm gonna make it real quick for you. So I grew up in Northern Virginia. And, you know, when I was living there, I lived there till I was 24 years old. 2014, my job really started slowing down.

I was doing outside sales selling franchises, and that started to slow down. Franchises of? Frozen yogurt. So if you remember the frozen yogurt craze, like, 2011 to 2014. Oh, yeah.

I was the guy that would sell you a franchise. Yeah. So when that craze died off, yeah, my job was slowing down. My lease was coming up to an end in Virginia, and I had, you know, like, $5 saved in my name. And I said, well, I can get another job here, or I can, and sign another lease, or I can just, you know, take my things and move.

And so I put everything in the back of my car and drove down to Austin, Texas with no, with no job, no, no real money. I had $5. You know how fast $5 goes in this world.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Nick: And, you know, on the drive down, I said, well, what am I gonna do? I you know, it's kind of a fresh start. So, you know, I was like, well, where's the where's the money at? Right? It's gonna be in technology, or real estate or oil because I was moving to Texas.

I was like, well, I probably missed the boat on oil. I don't have any, like, stellar ideas for a great app. And so, real estate it was. So, when I landed in Austin, you know, got into got my Internet at my one bedroom apartment there in the hood and, started watching YouTube videos. So Are there

Steve: hoods in Austin?

Nick: Not really anymore. When I got there, it was still kinda sketchy Yeah. In the in the part of town I was living in.

Steve: Gotcha. So this was 2014. 2014. When you decided to take a leap. Yep.

Alright. So when well, talk about how you got to your first deal.

Nick: Yeah. You know, you know, after, you know, consuming a ton of content on YouTube, I started taking action, handwriting mailers, you know, handwriting bandit signs, going and putting them out, running out of money real quick. And so, you know, I would go on a seller appointments, you know, rejection after rejection after rejection. Basically, went, you know, flat broke. By the grace of God, I was able to get a job at indeed.com, which was able to tide me over Mhmm.

Through my first deal. So I didn't get my first deal. It took me eleven months Yeah. From the time I started. And this was not, like, a part time effort.

I mean, I was going going hard after eleven months. And I remember walking down the street one day. I was actually at my lunch break, you know, from my from my nine to five job. And one of the sellers I went on to an appointment with, like, eight months back said, hey. We'd like to move forward on your, you know, with your with your offer.

It was an inherited house. I said, alright. Great. So, it was, like, basically a tear down out in the country. Mhmm.

But, we got it at such a great price. I think we contracted it for $18,000 and sold it for $30,000.

Steve: So Nice.

Nick: Made made 12,000. And because I was doing really well at indeed.com, I had, you know, plenty of money coming in and took all that $12 and put it right back into marketing. Mhmm. And so that's that's really what helped snowball, you know, deal two, three, four, and and so on.

Steve: Gotcha. So you were doing franchise sales for frozen yogurt.

Nick: Correct.

Steve: I imagine you had some sales training I did. For that. That. How did that translate into meeting the sellers inside their houses?

Nick: Oh, it's huge. I mean, if you don't know how to talk to people Mhmm. And you don't know how to sell, you're good luck doing anything in this world. Right? You're gonna have to have some sort of social, you know, skills, especially when you're dealing with the public.

And in this business, you're dealing with a highly emotional sale. You know, with with the franchise sales, you know, we're dealing with people making large investments and opening up a franchise. In real estate, we're dealing with people making large decisions on selling, you know, a lot of times, the largest purchase of their life. So, you know, that translated huge into into real estate.

Steve: So when you were selling franchises, you were selling them I mean, what kind of like, typically what I hear from most franchises, 25,000 to like 150,000.

Nick: Right.

Steve: So someone trying to buy into frozen yogurt, what what are they paying out of pocket?

Nick: So, you know, the franchise cost all in. You're at minimum, like, 250,000. Wow. Yeah. It depends on the store location and where you want to be, but most likely, you're going to be in the threes.

Steve: So you're selling some already a product that's a couple $100.

Nick: Correct.

Steve: So that's pretty comparable then. Exactly. When you move into real estate.

Nick: Yeah. Where I really, really picked the best skills up, though Mhmm. Was when I started doing inside sales at Indeed. So

Steve: Gotcha.

Nick: Indeed runs a top, you know, world class top, like, sales organization. Yeah. And they do, you know, Carnegie Dale Carnegie training. Mhmm. It's like Wolf of Wall Street, inside sales, banging the bones all day.

And that's where I really cut my teeth and got the bulk of my sales experience.

Steve: Gotcha. Okay. So 2014, you left. About a year later, you got your first deal. So that's, like, 2015.

Correct. Right? So 2016 is probably your real year first year. Or when did you quit Indeed?

Nick: Late two thousand and six. I didn't know. Actually, I waited till, April 2017 because that's when I was getting my bonus. So but I was checked out long before that.

Steve: Okay. So 2016, what kind of volume were you doing?

Nick: 2016, you know, I was doing two or three deals a month. Okay. Still working full time.

Steve: As a side hustle?

Nick: Yeah. I mean, I didn't treat it as a side hustle. You know, I base I spent all my time outside of Indeed Mhmm. All my nights, all my weekends on real estate. I didn't really take a a break, you know, because my whole goal was to get out of there as fast as I could.

So I knew every second I can invest into my business, the faster I get out of, you know, the corporate world.

Steve: Gotcha. And there's a lot of people right now, right, that are kinda trying to transition from working a job into getting into wholesaling. So what were some of the things, like, that were you were looking at to help you make the transition? Were you looking for a certain amount of deals per month, certain amount of net per month? What were your or a certain amount in your bank account?

What were your goals to to to quit?

Nick: Yeah. I wanted 60,000 liquid in my bank account, which is not not a lot of money, but back then, that's where my living expenses were. I knew that could carry my, you know, marketing cost at the time and my living expenses for, like, ninety days. Yeah. And I said, if I give myself a ninety day runway, $60 will do it Mhmm.

Then I'm gonna be okay. You know, I'll bank on myself. I know I can make some stuff happen in ninety days.

Steve: Alright. Cool. So when you were making that transition, what were your best ways of getting deals at that time?

Nick: It's always been PPC for me. Mhmm. So, you know, 2014, I'd say one of the best investments I made was I I invested right into Dan Barrett. Like, he was if you guys know, you know, him, he's a, you know, big PPC guy, and he taught me everything he knows on PPC. I actually went and met him up in Connecticut Yeah.

When I was on a work trip for Indeed. I I skirted out of work early and drove up, you know, to Middletown, Connecticut where he lives. Yeah. And, he really helped me get going and learning how PPC works. And Indeed's a PPC company too.

So, you know, I really dug in deep on that early, and that's paid off for me, you know, even to this day.

Steve: So for guys that are listening, they don't know what PPC is. You wanna elaborate what that is?

Nick: Yeah. Pay per click advertising. So all the major search engines out there, you can pay to be at the top of the search results.

Steve: Mhmm.

Nick: So anytime somebody, you know, searches for a term, say, we buy houses, sell my house fast, whatever, you can bid to be in those top spots for that premium visibility. So you have a much higher chance at getting a click on that, on that on your link rather than it being, like, you know, however many pages back in the organic search results.

Steve: Right. Okay. And you're still leveraging pay per click today?

Nick: Oh, yeah. It's our that's my biggest biggest way we get deals.

Steve: Man, that's tough. Like, so I was doing pay per click from 2012 until last year until it became, like, $45 a click. Then I was like, I cannot afford to do this anymore. So props to you for still doing that. So one of the things I I I find really interesting when you, I watch you speak at in Houston at Whole Scaling Life.

Incredible presentation.

Nick: Thank you. One of

Steve: the things you talked about was hiring on autopilot. Can you talk about how your experience at Indeed helped you basically get two or three, four interviews a day?

Nick: Yeah. Well, my whole job at Indeed was talking to, you know, large eight large companies that had, you know, large eight large companies that had, you know, HR departments. So I'm talking to BPs of HR, you know, large large HR, corporations and studying their hiring funnel and how they actually get people into these Fortune 500 companies. And so, really, they treat it just like we treat seller leads. Mhmm.

It's how many leads can we get into the top of the funnel? How can how quickly can we qualify those leads? Then, you know, once they're qualified, get them in through the interview process and get them to the hire. Yeah. So I really resonated with that and took a lot of not only the knowledge that I got from talking to these companies, but also the knowledge on the back end from learning how Indeed actually works.

Mhmm. So with those two skill sets, it's, you know, parlayed well into being able to hire very effectively for for my business.

Steve: So, you know, I remember in the presentation, one of the things that, people don't realize because you said how much this translates to our world too. Right? So we know our KPIs. And we know when we talk to this many homeowners, we're gonna get this many appointments. We're gonna get this many contracts.

We're gonna get this many closings.

Nick: Correct.

Steve: And it's the same exact thing in recruiting. You wanna talk about that?

Nick: Yeah. I mean, use a candidate that applies for one of your jobs like a lead. Right? Yeah. How many candidates does it take to get a qualified interview?

Right? So you have leads to interviews or candidates to interviews. And then from those interviews, how many interviews does it take to get a hire? Right? Right.

So it's the same exact KPIs as we use on, you know, the acquisition side of our business.

Steve: And then from the hire, how many actually stay?

Nick: Ours, we very fortunate. We've actually never had anybody quit. Really? We've only fired people. So, yeah, when they come in, they they tend to stay.

So we've been blessed with, you know, hiring good people.

Steve: That's cool. How do you get people to stay? Because I know that's one of the big fears for a lot of wholesale. Like, man, this guy's gonna come in. He's gonna learn everything about my business.

He's gonna compete against me. Right. How do you allay that fear?

Nick: Yeah. Your, your vision and your dream has to be big enough for everybody else's to fit with inside of it. Yeah. That's the number one thing. So if they come into your business and then they wanna offshoot and do their own thing, obviously, you're not providing them enough opportunity to come into your organization and make a nice living for themselves.

Yeah. So they didn't come in and apply for the business to to go and do their own thing necessarily. And, also, we make them sign non competes, non disclosures. So they're locked in for two years or they're you know, we're gonna like, I will enforce a noncompete if I had to. Yeah.

Yeah.

Steve: Okay. And now you're based in Austin. Mhmm. But you were saying off camera, you do, like, four deals a year in Austin.

Nick: Correct.

Steve: Yeah. So what does your business look like?

Nick: So we are nationwide. Mhmm. So when I mean nationwide, anything that's in a major metropolitan area or suburb or basically anywhere there's a sustainable population where we can find buyers, we're doing deals there. Yeah. So we we target nationally.

So The United States Of America is our is our market.

Steve: It's a target market.

Nick: Yeah. That's our that's our market. And it's essentially an inside sales organization. So we have leads come into the business. Our acquisition reps are speaking with those leads all over the nation.

You know, with the data that we have now, we're so blessed because, you know, with, you know, PropStream and Zillow sold. It's like, we can comps anything anywhere. So the fact that there's no real reason that I can see in my mind why we need to be geographically limited Mhmm. To one area. Yeah.

And, you know, we've built out processes and systems on the back end to get those deals sold, to get pictures, to deal with showings, all of that. So, you know, my guys that are you know, that work with us, you know, they've never seen a house, house, and they've done deals all over the country.

Steve: So target market is United States. But how many, like, metropolitan areas are you guys in?

Nick: So, you know, there's 3,300 counties in The United States. I didn't know that. Yeah.

Steve: That's good to know.

Nick: Yeah. 3,300 counties in The United States. And, really, two fifty, maybe two seventy five of them are the only ones that have, like, a sustainable population. Like, the rest of them are, like, rural or, like, super tertiary markets that we won't touch. So it's really, you know, the top 250 to 300 counties in The US.

Right.

Steve: And you're marketing in all those counties? Yes. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Okay. So then your ad spend's gotta be pretty crazy to compete in that many markets. I would

Nick: imagine. Yeah. I mean, we spend quite a bit, you know, on pay pay per click. Spend, like, 30,000 a month on, PPC. Yeah.

You know, you gotta remember my campaigns. I've been running them since 2014, so they were fine. And, you know, I put a lot of work into them, so they run really well now, to be very competitive. Mhmm. And then, you know, we do a lot of direct mail.

We do a ton of SMS, like, a lot of SMS.

Steve: So for context for these guys, how much is a lot in SMS?

Nick: I mean, we'll drop, like, 40,000 SMS a week. Yeah. And then we're we're actually ramping that up right now. So Yeah. It's just that we're trying to bring more VAs on it as quickly as we can at this point to

Steve: do more. Same thing nationwide?

Nick: Nationwide. Yep. So I'll pull list of counties, you know, load them up, into we're using Lead Sherpa right now Mhmm. And just button new blast through them. We got really good BAs that, you know, filter down those leads and and get us over quality Gotcha.

Steve: So I know you talked about you built out systems in places. And just right now, for me, just first question comes to mind is, you know, let's just say, hypothetically, I go to a city where I don't have a lot of contacts. We'll just say some somewhere in the middle of Arkansas, hypothetically. Right? I don't know anybody there.

But if I'm doing pay per click there and I'm doing SMS there, how am I moving the property?

Nick: Call the realtors. Yeah. Simple as that. Like, that was because what ended up happening is I never really wanted to be nationwide. Mhmm.

I was trying to do deals in Austin and San Antonio, but, like, I was having a really hard time with my cost per lead and things like that. And I was getting leads organically from all over The United States. And so, you know, after a little while, I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna take a crack at one of these, like, weird leads. I think it was in, like, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Mhmm. I called this lady. I get it under contract, and I'm like, what am I gonna do with it now? So the only thing I knew how to do at this time, this was, like, 2015, 2016, was, like, I'm just gonna start calling all the realtors Mhmm. And see if they got, you know, if they know any investors that are looking for off market investment deals.

Mhmm. And so that's what we do to this this very day.

Steve: Yeah. Simple.

Nick: Simple. Don't over complicate it. Don't over complicate it. I mean, you know, we we have other ways too that are more sophisticated. You know, different Facebook strategies and, you know, going and buying everybody's cash buyers list that has a cash buyers list available.

You know, if you guys got a cash buyers list, call me because I'll probably buy it. But, no. It's super simple. Yeah. I mean, those those realtors are gonna have the, you know, doctors and lawyers that are gonna pay higher a lot of times too that are buying one or two deals a year.

You'd be surprised. Alright. Yeah. Deals I wouldn't think will move will move because we'll go through a realtor who who has somebody like a pocket buyer.

Steve: Gotcha. Mhmm. What were some of your early challenges? You know? Like, you you you quit.

You got your savings. Right? 2017, you quit. Mhmm. You're all in.

What were some of your challenges when you first started?

Nick: Yeah. I mean, when I first started, like, full time Mhmm. It's very scary, like, when you quit a full time job. I was making $220,000 a year at Indeed.

Steve: Really? Yeah. And That's a tough job to quit. No. It wasn't.

No. Because I

Nick: couldn't have a boss. It was killing me. It's just, you know, you the the money didn't make up for, you know, the freedom. So, you know, it was like you're a 100% betting on yourself, which I was confident in my ability, but, you know, I knew that failure wasn't an option at this point. Mhmm.

Steve: You know,

Nick: I already had, like you know, built my way up in Austin a little bit, kinda, like, out of the primordial ooze of being, like, broke, and I did not wanna go back there. Yeah. So, you know, that, that fear probably lasted for, like, you know, six months. Like, if anybody, you know, that's listening right now has a corporate job and they're about to quit, know that you're gonna be scared shitless probably for, like, six months. Mhmm.

But you'll be alright. Yeah. Yeah. Just get up every morning, show up to work, and do the best you can, and and that will go away after a while. That fear subsides.

Steve: So one of the things that I I wanted to, you know, emphasize on for the show was putting the right people in the right seats. Right? So we talked about Indeed's pay per click. One trick that, I remember you you saying, like, you know, just bet 15¢ Mhmm. A click to maximize your budget.

So you've set up the campaigns in Indeed. What was, you wanna go over, like, some of the things you did for the titles to to to make sure that you got you hit everybody?

Nick: Absolutely. So the one thing that you need to understand about Indeed is a couple major key points is that it's a search engine just like Google is. So if you don't have a keyword rich, title or keyword rich job description, it's not gonna know where to put you. So it's trying to pair up whatever the job seeker is typing into the search bar. Mhmm.

So, if somebody types in brain surgeon, your acquisitions job should not appear in front of them. Yeah. Right? But, if somebody types sales, as long as you put, you know, sales professional or, you know, any all these sales buzzwords in your job description and your job title, you're gonna show up in front of them. So whenever you post a job on Indeed, it ages out based on time.

So, you know, as new employers keep pushing sales jobs, your job is going to get pushed further and further in the back of the search results.

Steve: Almost kind of like Craigslist.

Nick: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Just like Craigslist. But there's a couple of ways to get around that.

You know, one is by sponsoring your jobs. So when you sponsor your jobs, you know, Indeed, they're gonna wanna have you you sponsor your jobs at a you know, on a simple budget. Don't do that. So you can rewind this if you need to because I'm gonna go through this real quick, is you're gonna, you know, sponsor your job on an advanced budget, and you're gonna set the CPCs at 15¢. So that's the lowest that the, that Indeed will let you put your CPCs down to.

Yeah. So what that's gonna allow you to do is two things. You're gonna get a spot in the, in the sponsored section at the top of the search results. Also a spot in the organic section. But then it's it's gonna do that.

But it's all which gets you more traffic. But then it's also gonna allow you to fly under the radar, of kind of the Indeed, you know, search quality police. Mhmm. So you can do some cool stuff with that. Now if anybody from Indeed's listening to this right now, it's probably not gonna be good.

They're gonna shut this trick down. But, you know, I'll just tell you because it it's it's good as of right now. So sponsor your jobs that way. And then what you're gonna need to do is you're gonna wanna create five other variations of that same exact job push. So if you're, you know, hiring for an acquisition manager, you're gonna want five different job titles and five different job descriptions and you're gonna wanna post all of them into your into your account.

Right. So, by doing that, you're gonna be dominating the, the search result page and everybody that's looking for a sales job is gonna be, you know, clicking on your ad. So, you'll get way more traffic by doing that. So, remember, this is a like a leads business. Right?

Trying to generate as much traffic as you can to your your position so you get as many qualified candidates to start interviewing right away. Yeah.

Steve: And I was so excited when you were talking about this in Houston because, you know, I'm a total nerd. I did all my own pay per click campaigns. Right? I did all my Google, pay per click optimization on my own. So I'm familiar with, like, how to, you know, create it so that if they search for we buy houses, then only we buy houses shows up.

Nick: Mhmm. And when

Steve: you said, like, I can do this for you in d two, I was like, why have I not been doing that? It's like it was super, super, obvious once explained, but I would never come up with that. Like, even though I know it works really well over here for Google, for Bing Mhmm. Never thought I was like, oh, just do the same thing in Indeed. Why wouldn't you?

Nick: Right. Right. That's all it does is it tries to pair up what they're what they're searching for to whatever's in your job.

Steve: Right. Yeah. It's crazy how effective it it is, and I I've had great luck with it. So now that you got the Indeed ad going, you know, we talked about the, the funnel. Right?

This many, candidates leads to this many interviews leads to this many hires. The hiring process you know, one thing I was really impressed by was, and I kinda give you a hard time about this in Houston, but you basically outsource your presentation. Right.

Nick: Leverage wherever

Steve: you can. Right? Yeah. So, like, you know, like, here's Nick Conan speaking about the presentation. Nah.

Just kidding. We're gonna have Aaron and,

Nick: Brandon.

Steve: And Brandon. Now Aaron and Brandon can get this presentation.

Nick: Right.

Steve: So you you're you've been able to, replace yourself effectively with good people. But how are you interviewing in such a way that you can replace yourself with quality people versus just another guy that doesn't quite fit in the culture?

Nick: Yeah. I mean, I'll take you quickly through our hiring process. So, yeah, you'll get all these resumes that come in. And who likes going through resumes? Nobody.

Right? Absolutely nobody. So you need to get that as a business owner, get that off your plate immediately. We, you know, we've had, you know, multiple people that'll that have worked for us that go in on a part time basis, and we'll call these candidates, you know, do a brief, you know, phone screen with them before sending them in for an interview. Super important to do that because, that calling and scheduling and all that is a huge time and energy suck.

Yeah. So anybody with some common sense, you can have them do that. You know, you you can do it with a VA, but I'd advise not to because this is the first impression of your company. Mhmm. You know, I had my sister Alexa doing it when she was in college, and, she did a great job at it.

You know, Brandon, his mom's doing it for us right now. So, you know, you could have a spouse, anybody that's got, you know, some part time hours that wants to screen through these resumes can do it.

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: And so once they found, you know, what you're looking for, they're gonna schedule them for an interview and just pop a calendar invite in your calendar and attach their resume, couple quick words why they thought they were a good candidate, and then people are just gonna start showing up. Yeah. Right? And so, you know, when they show up, we've got a three part interview process. So the first first interview is just a preliminary interview in our office.

We're, you know, asking all the basic interview questions. You know, main question I ask is, why are you here? Yeah. That's the first thing I ask. And then we go through it.

We have a ton of, you know that interview lasts about

Steve: Straight to the chase.

Nick: Straight to the chase. That lasts about fifteen minutes, the first interview. We can tell within ten to fifteen minutes if they're gonna be viable for a second interview. And so, if they are invited back for a second interview, that's actually a practical interview. So, what we found is, you know, before we'd have people that would interview, awesome, and then we'd get them on the phones, and then, people that would interview, awesome.

And then we get them on the phones, and then there there were duds.

Steve: And then

Nick: we'd have to fire them real quick. So that was super frustrating. So we said, okay. Well, the second interview is gonna be a practical interview where they're gonna need to get on the phones, talk with sellers, and let's just see how they conversate with people in the pit, you know, with the guys in the office and, see if they choke. Right?

Yeah. So that's what we do. We bring them in. We'll have them call some trash leads and, you know, see how they see how they do. Yeah.

And it's also a good opportunity for them to meet the team, see how they buy with the team. And, you know, we also use that as an opportunity to have them sit down and do all their personality assessments when they're in the office. Yeah. So it's kind of a a that second interview is a big interview for whoever, you know, when they're coming back. That's really their make or break

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: Right there. They're gonna have to go and do the phone screen. They're gonna have to do the personality assessments. They're gonna have to vibe with the team. And then we usually make them play a game of ping pong too.

So just to see how they, you know, interact. Just something social.

Steve: Well and I I I love this part about the practical interview because I I'm an I'm an entrepreneur. I'm the eternal optimist. Everything is gonna work. Right? Like, everything is a a perfect case scenario.

And so I've hired so many people. Like, man, this person is gonna change my life. They're gonna be incredible. And you see them, you're like, this guy is gonna be a rock star, and they're total duds.

Nick: You you know, and there's no rhyme or reason to it either. Like, I mean, if I was betting on horse, I'd put, you know, all my money on this one, and then they, you know, they disappoint. So, you know, that's why I was like, well, we have to, you know, start doing this practical interview. And we know with a pretty high degree of confidence after that how they're gonna be be as an employee for the company.

Steve: And we've also had people that we thought, like, this pride doesn't have this person doesn't have a shot, but seems like he really wants a job. Let's give him a shot, and they'll crush it. Right. It's just you just can't predict it. So it's a good thing we don't bet on this.

Correct.

Nick: Yep. Yeah. We lose some money. But you don't know until you until you know. Right?

Right.

Steve: Exactly.

Nick: It's better to do that on the second interview and know right away before you make a hiring decision, and then you have to fire them, you know, a couple weeks in and you're frustrated. You know, it's never fun to get somebody started and have to pull the plug on them.

Steve: No. It's terrible. Especially, it puts a lot of, strain on the administrators too. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. So, right now, with you being nationwide, what does your company look like?

Nick: So right now, we're, you know, I'm the CEO of the company, and then, we have our COO, Brandon. So he oversees acquisitions and dispositions. Mhmm. So everybody's reporting reporting to Brandon. On acquisitions, we have four full time acquisitions over there.

And then on dispositions, we've got a full time dispositions and a full time transaction coordinator. Yep. So, yeah, we're we're growing slow right now. We've I fired a bunch of people. So right now, we're lean, we're mean, and we've got, you know, really, really good people that are, that are doing a great job.

Steve: You're really lean to do 30 deals, 30 plus a month Yes. With just four acquisition guys.

Nick: Yep. Brandon's on the phones too.

Steve: Okay.

Nick: So he he'll pick up, you know, two or three contracts a week himself and Yeah.

Steve: Same with everybody else. Man, that's really impressive. Alright. So, one person had a question here. Dan Prieto, what are you looking for in a sales candidate?

Nick: So I like to see that they've got commissioned sales experience. Mhmm. What I've noticed is, like, when you're hiring for these people, like, yeah, you'll see a lot of people that come in and they look like the rock stars. They got a lot of great sales experience in, like, SaaS. If you don't know what SaaS is, that's, like, you know, online based, you know, tech companies.

Mhmm. We get a lot of those candidates in Austin. They fail miserably.

Steve: Really?

Nick: Yeah. Don't hire for SaaS. You're looking for people, that have commission sales experience. We want, you know, self starters that are hungry. Obviously, we want I mean, that's really it.

I mean, it comes down to personality after that point. You know? So, you know, we need folks that have that internal drive Mhmm. And have had sales experience before in the past. This is not an entry level job.

Steve: No. It's it's it's a tough job. And for you guys that don't know, SaaS is basically software as a as a subscription, and you're looking like these are kind of people that sell, like, comparable in our business, like property managers, life insurance, or or or, you know, property insurance. Mhmm. People that are happy selling things that cost 30 to $40 a month.

Nick: Yeah. I mean, the best way to answer this question, I'll tell you the background on some of our top performers. So, you know, like Aaron, he came from timeshare sales before that. You have a brutal job. Right?

Tyler,

Steve: he came from, car sales.

Nick: Then, car sales. Then, Chris, he was in high ticket sales. So he was actually working for, like, a high ticket sales company selling, like, courses and things like that. So suit like, super commission heavy jobs. Mhmm.

That it's like eat what you kill.

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: You know, you have to be seasoned to be working in that environment. That's why I say SaaS doesn't work because a lot of times these people from Oracle are coming from, like, a, you know, high base job, super cushy with all kinds of benefits. And this is more of, like, a start up environment.

Steve: Oh, yeah. This is eat what you kill. I mean, you can't describe it any better.

Nick: Yeah.

Steve: Alright. So, we we kind of hinted on it, but, like, you know, how much volume are you doing right now?

Nick: Right now, I mean, thirty, thirty five a month Mhmm. Is where we're at right now, like, actual actual deals.

Steve: And I know that you're, you know, you're you're all these different places, but, like, what what are where are you doing really well right now?

Nick: In terms of g geography or in terms of, like

Steve: Geography. Yeah.

Nick: Well, we do really well, like, in the Southeast. So, you know, the Louisiana, the Alabamas, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, all that Southeast stuff is is all really hot right now. But, yeah, we do a lot up in the Northeast too. I don't like the Northeast very much, like New York. You have Illinois.

We still do a lot of transactions up there, but they're attorney states. Yeah. And they're paying the butt. You got transfer taxes, attorneys. So we that's still a lot of our bread and butter is up there in the Northeast, but my favorite and what I like the best is down in the down in the Southeast.

Steve: I've heard they're a lot nicer down there too.

Nick: Yes. You know, I I

Steve: heard, someone was saying I was in a mastermind, like, you know, we're we're in Phoenix, and we're exclusively in Phoenix. And these people are tired of us.

Nick: They are

Steve: tired of us. And it's funny. They they were talking about they were calling someone in Alabama. It's like, no. That's not this person, but I hope you

Nick: find them. Right. Much different seller down there. They're not gonna put up with that in in New York.

Steve: No. In New York. Man, they're probably threatening you

Nick: Right.

Steve: Over the phone. Absolutely. Alright. So we talked about you get four acquisitions, one full time disposition, transaction coordinator. How about virtual assistants?

You have virtual assistants?

Nick: We do. So, you know, we have virtual assistants on this, Dispo, and they help out with, you know, pulling lists, finding buyers on Facebook, you know, doing s m different SMS blast.

Steve: Mhmm.

Nick: Basically, any kind of data mining, which is super important for buyers. Mhmm. They're doing all that. So we have a full time, dispo VA. And then on marketing, we have all of our Sherpa VAs.

So they're, you know, on all day just typing back and forth with people, texting them until they're a qualified lead and then passing them over to us.

Steve: So let's talk about finding buyers on Facebook. What's that about?

Nick: So, you know, you've got all the major Facebook groups. That's where everybody's hanging out. Right? So it's it's like how can we go in and find out who the players are and get them to buy our deals. Mhmm.

So if we being national, you know, we've got a deal in, let's say, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I'm gonna go to a local, you know, Baton Rouge REI group Mhmm. And go to the search bar on the left. So on all the Facebook groups, there's a search bar Mhmm. And just type in, you know, Baton Rouge or whatever that, you know, city is and find everybody that's posted a deal in there.

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: And who do you think those people commenting on those deals are? Buyers. Mhmm. You know, you're gonna look at intent on those messages. We this is what the VA does.

Yeah. They're gonna look at intent on what those messages are, like, hey. PM me the details. Or, like, they leave their email address Mhmm. Because they're interested in purchasing that deal.

Yeah. So what's our VA do? He's gonna go ahead and copy their profile, send a friend request to them Mhmm. And then go back through and send them a message. Hey.

Yeah. This is Nick. I just got a deal in Baton Rouge. I'm in Austin. Are you still buying there?

Question mark. And they'll do that to, you know, a 100 people overnight while we're sleeping. And then we come, you know, come in in the morning, and we got a inbox full of, you know, buyer leads that we can come through.

Steve: So then you got you got this list of buyers. What CRM are you using to manage all of them?

Nick: So we use Podio exclusively. So in terms of the buyers list, like, because we have over 2,900,000 buyers in our database.

Steve: Wow.

Nick: So there's no real viable storage solution for that. If anybody knows, reach out to me. I've talked to some pretty smart minds on trying to get a database to house it and be able to sort it and, you know, filter it effectively. But right now, we're using good old fashioned Google Sheets

Steve: Okay.

Nick: For, for buyers. And it it's effective. I mean, it doesn't take us that much longer. You know, we can pull our list pretty quickly, so it's not killing us. But I know there's a better tool out there.

Just haven't found it yet.

Steve: Right. And then once you've got, like, let's say we'll go back to that Baton Rouge example. Right? You got this property locked up. How are you blasting it?

How are you communicating with this large number of buyers?

Nick: SMS.

Steve: Okay.

Nick: So SMS is gonna be the most effective. You know, email. We all know about, you know, email deliverability, email, how it how that goes. I know a lot of people do email. We still do email.

But if you want the eighty twenty, it's SMS. So SMS them out. And then, if they're interested, they're gonna call us back. And then we take that conversation and and go from there.

Steve: Gotcha. And then you're not the only person that's nationwide. Right? I mean, there's lots of guys that are are going virtually nationwide.

Nick: Right.

Steve: So what would you say sets you apart, from from your fellow nationwide virtual wholesalers?

Nick: I mean, I don't I don't really know any other people that are doing doing the nationwide as much. I'd like to network and connect with them. Yeah. I don't know any of them personally. Gotcha.

So, I don't know, man. I've just been showing up to work every day and trying to trying to get better every day. I don't know if there's anything that I'm doing differently or better than anybody else. Yeah. You know, we're just we're just showing up every day and working.

Steve: Very cool. Very cool. And Chris Jackson says that sellers in South would just give you the damn house.

Nick: Yeah. That's true.

Steve: Mhmm. Alright. So, so Prieto had a follow-up. So how many phone calls, contacts, talk time is each of your salespeople required for each day?

Nick: So 50 calls a day is the minimum on the call requirements. And then hour and a half of talk time Mhmm. Is also minimum on there too for acquisitions. On, Dispo, we don't really metric them like that because it's there's a lot of communication that goes back and forth on email. And, we're not giving them call metrics, but we are monitoring their activity pretty heavily on dispositions as well.

Steve: Gotcha. Now your KPIs, what are they like, you know, for for your business? What are some that are different than everyone else, would you say?

Nick: KPIs that are different than us? Yeah.

Steve: That I'm doing for the virtual.

Nick: Yeah. I mean, when you're doing virtual, you gotta know, like, there's gonna be fallout. Right? So if you're doing deals here in Phoenix, which you are, like, you got a huge conversion. Once it's under contract, it's probably Pretty much not.

Yeah. You you can start spending the money. Right? That's not how it is nationwide. So, you know, I know Rafael, you know, Vargas, he's taught me this.

It's one out of every two contracts is gonna turn into a deal.

Steve: Yeah. He said that when we're in in in, in Houston, and it blew my mind.

Nick: It's true. It's a 100% true. Yep. So whenever you're doing this over the phone, and you're dealing with virtual

Steve: Mhmm.

Nick: There's so many variables that go into the back end of the transaction Yeah. That it's 50%. And it's translated for us. You know, we've we've looked at it, and we keep it we actually track this on Plecto. And we look at this on a, you know, daily, weekly basis, and it's it's one out of two.

Yeah. Is that actually closes on contracts.

Steve: So for these guys that are listening to the show, that that may not be familiar with Plecto. You wanna talk about what

Nick: that is? Yeah. Plecto is just a data visualization tool that you can use to, visualize your KPI. So, you know, you guys were asking about, like, talk time and dials. You could actually connect Plecto to your CallRail and see up on the screen, you know, how many dials does this rep have, how much talk time do they have, etcetera.

Who's the leader on the team? So we do it on acquisitions and dispositions. We've got a bunch of other cool boards built out too, but, you know, like, my favorite one I know that's the most common is the acquisitions board. Mhmm. So it shows, you know, each acquisition rep, how much money they've got in assigned revenue, how much money they have in unassigned revenue, where they're at for the month, and then at leaderboards in, too.

Yeah. So they're all super competitive. You know, these are all, like, awesome sales guys. Right. They're all talking, you know, shit to each other, trying to get to the top of the leaderboard, and it helps keep everybody accountable and moving in the same direction.

And we have goals on there for the month. So, definitely check it out if you guys haven't seen Plecto before. It helps out if you got an office.

Steve: One thing that we talked about offline as well is you're competitive, you were competing in a physique competition. What is that?

Nick: Yeah. So, you know, back when I was in Virginia, I did, I was nationally qualified, you know, in MPC men's physique. So, yeah, I was in the gym all the time. I started my career off as a personal trainer.

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: Yeah. I couldn't didn't have the grades to make it into college. My mom told me not to go. Mhmm. Yeah.

She was like, she was like, what do you wanna do? I'd love to start. For you. Yeah. You're not going to college.

So I was a personal trainer. I played sports in high school. So, you know, after high school, I just started you know, I was working out all the time being a personal trainer in the gym twelve hours a day. And then I had a buddy who was like, hey. You should compete.

And so I was like, alright. So, you know, started doing the diet and, you know, I competed in my first show probably, like, seven or eight years ago. Yeah. And first show, I got, like, second place, so they, you know, qualified me nationally. Yep.

And then I kind of kept going from there. And then it became too much of a commitment. Like, once I moved to Austin, I was hustling, trying to get this business going. I let that go by the wayside. But, yeah, that discipline and, you know, know, focus into that has definitely translated into to business.

Steve: Well, that's what I wanted to talk about. You know, like, being some someone that's competing at a high level in one field can definitely translate trying to move into another industry. So what were some of the biggest things that have helped you go from competitive, I don't know. Body builder is the right word?

Nick: Yeah.

Steve: That's right. To, you know, wholesaling?

Nick: Yeah. I mean, you you know, you go in the gym every you have to go there every single day. It's just like work. Right? Like, you gotta go every single day.

Even if you're On the couchable. Yeah. Even if you're jacked and you look great, you still gotta show up every single day

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: And keep putting the work in and keep getting better. Like, perfection is you're never gonna get to perfection. So you can always continue to get better. Mhmm. But that consistency and daily focus, is necessary in business.

Like, you look at Arnold Schwarzenegger, who started off as a bodybuilder, then went, you know, was the highest paid actor of all time, and then was the governator. Right? Like and he directly attributes, like, you know, bodybuilding and the principles of bodybuilding to being, you know, successful in those other fields. And it's absolutely true. You've gotta, you know, be, not only consistent, you have to work work your butt off.

And, you know, you can't you can't slack. So there's just, fundamentals you learn from going to the gym every day and competing. And yeah.

Steve: So one of the things I love to see on a resume is debt collection. If you're a debt collector, you're gonna do great in this business. Should I add bodybuilder?

Nick: Yeah. You know, sports. You know, you asked me earlier what were some things that I look for. Mhmm. I kinda, you know, air headed out on it, but sports is is huge.

Sports, bodybuilding, any kind of, like, competitive nature or sport or field, will bode well. You want people with that competitive edge.

Steve: You know, it's funny. I've I've hired multiple

Nick: Athletes.

Steve: That were d one athletes I have to. That have not translated well. I thought for sure, like, if you're a d one athlete, you should have what it takes.

Nick: Were they a good d one athlete, though?

Steve: Yeah. I guess I should attract that too. Yeah. Alright. So, guys, please ask your questions.

Solution services wants to know, what is your SMS message saying?

Nick: For buyers, it just says, hey. Just got a off market property in whatever city. Yeah. Need to move it ASAP. Give me a call when you get a sec.

Pretty simple.

Steve: What about for sellers?

Nick: For sellers? I don't know. There's so many different variations of openings. You gotta continually switch it up. And I don't even really get in there, so I don't I don't know.

You'd have to have to reach out to to Brandon or somebody else to let you know.

Steve: Right. And then Lynn wants to know, how are you doing comps in nondisclosure states?

Nick: I mean, you look at Zillow sold, it still got all the sold data on it. We're in Texas, nondisclosure state. Propellio, Zillow sold, PropStream. Those are the three main tools that we use.

Steve: Gotcha. And Jasmine Green wants to know, are you getting pictures of properties that you get under contract?

Nick: Yeah. So we'll have the seller take pictures for us on on, like, the wrap up script. Mhmm. You know, once they do the DocuSign, hey. So next step in the process, our transaction coordinator is gonna be reaching out to you.

She's gonna go ahead and request some pictures. So if you can go ahead and take those now and then get them over to her, that'll help speed the process up on the back end. You know, she'll be reaching out to introduce herself in in the next twenty four hours. But, if you're at the house now, go ahead and take those pictures and then I'm gonna give you the email address to email them over to. Awesome.

Yep.

Steve: And then this could be, I could just be naive here. Do you know what BOTG is?

Nick: Boots on the Ground.

Steve: There you go.

Nick: Yes. Who

Steve: are you boots on the ground?

Nick: Nobody. We don't use boots on the ground.

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: No. That's that'll slow you down. Like, that whole boots on the ground, philosophy, I don't really subscribe

Steve: Okay. To it

Nick: because we're wholesaling.

Steve: So So let's what is your philosophy? Is Like, you need just no boots on the ground. So, like, how are you, how are you different then? Or what are you doing differently if you don't have boots on the ground?

Nick: Yeah. We're just getting them under contract. Mhmm. Getting pictures from the sellers, reaching out to the buyers. We tell the we tell the sellers like, hey, our local partners are going to come out there to verify that, you know, property condition matches the pictures.

You know, after they verify the asset, then we'll go ahead and get a closing at that point. So we're sending the buyers in as our partners, which smooths over that whole issue with the sellers. Gotcha.

Steve: And Stratton Brown wants to know how's the telephony system worked out for the amount of leads your people can handle? Do you do you have any telephony?

Nick: Yeah. So we're using smartphone IO now. It's a it's a dialer that integrates with Podio. So I know a lot of people use ZendCall, and they're integrating that with their Podio now. Great.

But the API is just, like, super complex. There's a lot of back end stuff that doesn't play nice, and I didn't wanna go through the hassle of Mhmm. Setting up ZenCall because there wasn't any inherent benefits. So we decided to use smartphone IO, and it's been excellent. Like, the amount of leads they're able to churn through is crazy, and it can pull custom lists from your podium.

So, you know, but, like, right now, you know, let's say, I know Aaron. He's got, like, 61 no contacts, which means people that he hasn't been able to get in touch with in his book. Mhmm. He can go to smartphone, create a campaign for no contacts. It's gonna pull all those leads in, and then he can hit play.

And it's just gonna crank through all those people that he hasn't been able to get in touch with us in in his book. You have, like, 61 people in, like, ten minutes. Yeah. And if somebody picks up, it'll pause the campaign. It's pretty high speed.

So Yeah. It's pretty cool.

Steve: Yeah. We just switched we just added a smartphone to our portfolio. Alexa wants to know what are the best words of advice to those just starting out, just starting this business?

Nick: Best words of advice is don't under do not underestimate the amount of sacrifice that you're gonna have to go through and the amount of pain you're gonna have to go through. I'm just gonna tell you straight up Yeah. Like, you better have some dick skin and, you know that you're gonna fail. Like I said, it took me eleven months to get my first deal. And, like, yeah, the amount of heartbreak and pain and everything is is real.

This is this is business. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: I don't care what business you get into, whether it's real estate or or selling iPhones, you know, for yourself, you're gonna have to go through a lot of, your trials and tribulations. So, you know, if you know that going in, you can, you know, mitigate the the failure rate because you're never, you know, you're always getting better as long as you learn. Right? So

Steve: And I love that because you don't know what you don't know. Mhmm. And, like, you'll so many times feel like, I finally got that first deal. And then something will blow up that you've never heard of, and that's just the way it is.

Nick: It still happens to me to happens to me to this day.

Steve: Yeah. We're still running today. Yeah. Yeah. We're dealing with a situation right now that we didn't know that's how it works.

And so, actually, our buddy, Jared Vidalas, is kinda coaching us through that that situation right now. Alright. So let's see what else is there. Simon Nguyen wants to know title do you know what title company to use in other states?

Nick: So there's a couple of nationwide title companies that I recommend. Clothesline Settlements, they're good in the majority of the states. Also, there's another company called CLI. Those Those are our two title companies. Reason CLI, a little bit heavier now Mhmm.

Just because Clothesline, we inundated them with business, and I've referred a lot of people over to them. So don't expect communication to be very prompt Mhmm. All the time, but they're they're good as well. They're investor friendly, and, they're called closed line settlements. They're at Rockville, Texas or CLI.

They're also I think they're in or not Rock Rockville, Maryland. Mhmm. And then, CLI is in Bethesda, Maryland, but they they're a nationwide

Steve: title. Gotcha. And Arnold wants to know, where did you get your customized shirt?

Nick: This is from, this is from Ryan at TRG Homes. Mhmm. He hooked it up. I know if he, if you, hit him up on Instagram, he might he might send you one. So Yep.

Yeah.

Steve: Alright. So Dylan wants to know, current trying to get a virtual deal. He's made 21,000 calls so far and contacted 9028. Also, doing RBM and SMS without a deal. Any tips?

Nick: He's doing RBM and SMS without a deal? He's doing RBM and SMS without a deal? Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, it comes down to volume because, like, it takes a lot of RBM and a lot of SMS.

So I'll just be I'll give you some of our KPIs on RBM. It's, like, 23 to $2,400 a deal Mhmm. On RBM. And then on SMS Pretty

Steve: low for RVM.

Nick: Pretty low?

Steve: Pretty low from what numbers I'm hearing. Like, I'm hearing most people saying RVM doesn't work for them anymore. So that's really good.

Nick: Yeah. I mean, we've, you know, we've had to experiment around. And what we're doing right now, it's about 23 to $2,400 a deal.

Steve: That's really good.

Nick: Yep. And then SMS, you know, it's you're gonna have to go through a lot of, a lot of sellers to get get to it because, you know, these leads are not like PPC where you're gonna get on the phone and, like, you know, shut these people down and get them to sell their house to you. They take more nurture. It's kinda like a direct mail lead. Right?

RVM and SMS are like direct mail. You're like, even though they're reaching back out to you and showing intent, your sales cycle on them isn't gonna be overnight. So those leads that you've already talked to need to be followed up.

Steve: Right.

Nick: You know? So don't throw those leads away. You need to continue to follow-up. Some of them will pop. It's a ninety day cycle.

Same thing with cold calling. Right? Like, yeah, the amount of people that are gonna gonna close on the first call on cold calling, very low. No. So you're looking at ninety days.

So don't get discouraged on it. Just keep following up with those leads.

Steve: Evander Livingston wants to know, who should be your first hire after going from a one man show?

Nick: Acquisitions. So, you need to get somebody to, you know, get on the phones, start working right beside you Mhmm. And taking those inbound seller calls, you know, making outbound seller calls, whatever, talking to sellers all day long. Yeah. What that's gonna do is allow you to talk to more sellers if you're gonna continue to do acquisitions, which I think you should in the beginning.

Mhmm. But it'll also give you some bandwidth to work on dispositions, you know, setting up marketing, and, you know, doing other things, you know, bringing on additional hires and and things like that. So Gotcha. Acquisitions.

Steve: Matt Smith's got a question. So you get your buyers from realtors. How much commission are you paying them or is it a set fee?

Nick: We just tell them to tack your fee on top.

Steve: Makes total sense. And then Iris wants to know, is there anything you would have done differently in the beginning to cut down on the time to get your first deal?

Nick: Yeah. I would've got a coach a lot faster. I try to put myself through YouTube University and piece mail everything together

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: You know, watching everybody's videos. And I was like, man, I'm smart enough. Like, I could figure this out. I could put it all together. But I've seen I like, I punish myself by doing it that way.

Like, if if I had to go back to day one, like, I would've just took that $5 I had, probably given it to Sean Terry. You know? Because this was back in 2014. He's yeah. He was one of my major mentors.

He was the one that got

Steve: me out

Nick: of my nine to five. Mhmm. Yeah. I should've used a mentor right away rather than, you know, trying to piece mail everything to myself off YouTube and free content from Facebook.

Steve: Right. 100%. And, man, who knows how many people Sean Terry has helped. Can't even imagine what that number is.

Nick: He's the godfather, man. Godfather for sure.

Steve: Alright. So, you know, we talked about multimillion. Right? So, like, $2.02 and a half million coming in. And there's a question I hope you don't mind me asking, but, like, you know, what do you get to keep out of that?

Because you hear a lot of these guys talking about doing massive numbers of deals and Mhmm. You know, this much revenue. But no one really talks about what you bring home, which is, I would argue, the most important number. No.

Nick: I mean, yeah. A 100% is you know, Brad Chandler came in my office last week and gave me a good butt kicking on Yeah. You know, that's great. You're doing a lot of top line, but what's your bottom line at? So we're running at 21% profitability margin as of last quarter, which we should be in this business, 30 to 40%.

Mhmm. You know? It's okay right now because I'm redlining my business to scale it up. So I'm dumping more money into systems and people and payroll and marketing and, you know, a lot of one time expenses that come along with that stuff. So that's going up.

Mhmm. But right now, like, last quarter, q three, it was 21%. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: You know, it's funny. That's who I was gonna suggest, Brad Chandler. When you're saying, like, I don't know a lot of other guys that are doing well nationwide. He's one of them.

Nick: Yep. He was he came in he came down to Austin and hung out with us last week. That's great. We had a lot of fun. Yeah.

Steve: Awesome. Awesome. Alright. So, are there any, you know, tool systems that he's

Nick: like, man, you guys are listening right now. You guys need to use these tools. Any recommendations? In terms of tools, you know, call rail, podia. Those are gonna be, you know, your fundamental tools.

On top of that, you're gonna wanna be, having a solid way to comp deals. So, you know, PropStream is really powerful right now if you're not using that. Mhmm. That's worth the subscription cost. Obviously, DocuSign, you know, basic tools to run your business.

I think, you know, outside of that, you start to get it it gets convoluted. It depends on what path you really wanna take Right. In your business and why. But those are the fundamental tools that I would suggest if you're getting started.

Steve: Gotcha. And what is your why?

Nick: My why is Forbes 400. So yeah.

Steve: Forbes four hundred?

Nick: Yep. Not 100? We got 100, but right now, Forbes four now, I'm just now, my why is, you know, I wanna have enough time and options to do whatever I want, when I want, with the people I wanna do it with.

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: So, you know, I was always kind of a rebel growing up. I didn't like authority. So I'm still kind of the same way. I wanna do what I want when I wanna do it Yeah. With the people I wanna do it with, and I don't want anybody to tell me otherwise.

Steve: Oh, I love it. Right? I mean, that's the reason why we all got into this business. And I think a lot of us forget that's why we got his business because we eventually become a slave to the business.

Nick: Right.

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: Right. And I don't mind working a lot, especially to get there. Mhmm. But yeah. And and goal and why is to have that ultimate freedom.

Steve: Yeah. But you could do that today. Couldn't you?

Nick: I mean, they're back in Austin crushing it right now. They're already bringing in contracts. So I could. I've I've talked about, you know, like, just getting a robot that can, you know, drive around in the office, and I probably wouldn't even have to be there. Yeah.

But, no, I've got really good people. So, you know, if you are scaling up a business and you pick really good people, that's the nice thing is it it gets you freedom.

Steve: Yep. 100%. What is your biggest struggle right now?

Nick: Biggest struggle right now is being able to increase my, head count without decreasing my profitability. Because there's a learning curve to when you bring people on. There's, like, a ninety day cycle. And I wanna grow. I wanna grow.

And we've got leads coming in, and I don't want to scale back marketing. Mhmm. So I'm hiring people, but I'm trying to be very strategic in my hiring. You know, you have five year vision. I don't see why this can't be, you know, 200 person organization if if we do it smart.

Steve: Mhmm.

Nick: So, you know, it's just kinda keeping my, self in check and not doing anything dumb like going out and hiring 20 people at one time. Right. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. There's something that's funny that happens in real estate where, you know, we go into this mode of scaling, and we start bringing all these people. And all that does is just makes your profitability goes down Yeah.

Nick: And it

Steve: adds more stress.

Nick: I had to go fire a bunch of people for that reason. Yeah. So, you know, that's the balance, right, is you have to you have to keep a balanced approach to scaling your business. You can't just go, you know, inorganically start adding bodies to your business and think if you just dump a bunch of money in a dump of a bunch of people into your your office, it's gonna translate into money in your bank account. It doesn't work out that way.

It

Steve: would be great if it was.

Nick: That'd be awesome. Yeah. Go get a big line of credit and just say, let's go.

Steve: And then Alex wants to know what SMS platform are you using?

Nick: So on dispositions, we're using TextMagic right now. I know Steve, he's got a really good recommendation with Slingshot. We may try that. You know, we've used a ton of other platforms. Right now, TextMagic is doing the job.

Deliverability is good on TextMagic.

Steve: And then Dylan wants to know what are the main lists that you are targeting?

Nick: The main list that we're targeting is just high equity. You know, same thing really everybody else is targeting. Because when you're doing so much volumes, like, on SMS and RVM, it's hard to get data. Right? There's not enough

Steve: data out there.

Nick: Like, I've already pulled all the niche list and run through them. So Yeah. You know, now we're just blanketing high equity.

Steve: Stratton Brown wants to know, what's the best advice for building a great company culture?

Nick: Give them alcohol. It's no. Not in all all reality, it's giving them the the vision and the, you know, core values upfront, showing them, you know, where we want to go painting a picture Mhmm. And how, you know, we're all gonna grow together

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: Is extremely important. So everybody is rowing in the same direction all the time. Yeah. We've got really, really good people in the office. They're cool.

Like, whenever you're hiring somebody, remember you're hiring a family member. So you got to make sure you want to hang out with this person forty hours a week, too. Yeah. So everybody gets along really good. Make sure you hire people that, are not only going to be do a great job, but are also going to be a good culture fit.

Yeah. For you, like, as an operator, and you're gonna wanna be around them. Couple other quick tips is, music. You know, music is very important, especially in sales. Like, you gotta stay energetic all day long.

So, you know, we're in there, you know, with the music up every single day. We keep the AC down, stay away, drink a lot of caffeine during the day. You know, it's a high energy sales environment, ping pong table. You know, we do happy hours and, team outings and things like that. So all that, you know, helps promote the company culture and moves us keeps us going in the right direction.

Steve: I love it. What is your superpower?

Nick: Superpower is, you know, I just don't give up. Yeah. I think that's the the main thing is

Steve: Just relentless.

Nick: I'm just relentless. Like, if I want something, like, you're gonna have to kill me to not get it. That's really my I think my only superpower is I'm not smart. I barely made it through high school. You know, I've not, like, super good on, like, SATs or test taking.

It just comes down to, like, if I set a target for myself, I'm just gonna relentlessly chase it down. And I know how to take a punch in the mouth. I know how to fall down seven times and get back up eight. Mhmm. And that's really it.

Like, I'm not scared of failure. I'm gonna you know, I'll run into a brick wall ever and ever again until I get through it. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Oh, that's fantastic. Francisco wants to know, how would you go about finding a mentor? And maybe not for you in your in your stage right now, but in your beginning stages. How would you find a mentor?

Nick: You don't wanna find somebody that already has the things that you wanna have Mhmm. For yourself. So not all mentors are created equal. Right? So you have to find somebody that, has your same core values.

You know, they have the life that you wanna have, and make sure that they're actually doing deals.

Steve: Yeah. So You don't sad that we have to add that, doesn't it?

Nick: Unfortunately. So there's a lot of good ones out there, but there's a lot of ones that, you know, you're gonna wanna do your research on before spending your money.

Steve: Right. Yeah. And it's funny. Like, there's things you can you can find out just by googling googling their name. If you just Google their name, there will be things that you will read that will surprise you.

Nick: Exactly.

Steve: What is the greatest lesson that you have learned?

Nick: Greatest lesson that I've ever learned, I think, is probably from from my mom. She said half the battle is just showing up. Right? So super simple advice, but show up every single day. Mhmm.

You know, I still go to work every single day. I probably go to work every single day until, you know, till I'm 80 years old. Yeah. You know, my grandfather's multi multimillionaire. He still shows up to work every single day.

Yeah. You know? So, you know, half the battle is just showing up and being consistent. Even if you don't know what to do, go to work and show up and figure it out.

Steve: Right.

Nick: Yeah.

Steve: So, you know, like I said earlier, you know, the reason why I wanted you on the show is that you're talking about scaling, hiring, and so on. And this is the last I think one of the last steps, right, to growing a business and scaling. You know, we talk about how to find your first seller, how to how to market, how to get in the living room, how to close. There's lots of things. But I think, you know, having the culture and building people up, like, that's, like, the last I think one of, like, the last stages, at least what I found so far.

You know, like, that's the last piece of the puzzle where life just starts getting a little easier.

Nick: Mhmm.

Steve: How did you build out what you have? How did you learn those things? What resources could someone go find to become a better leader, better business owner, better entrepreneur?

Nick: Yeah. I never really took, like, a leadership Mhmm. Class. I've just modeled people that have already, you know, had successful businesses before and watched how they, you know, conducted themselves in front of their employees. And, you know, really, I just treat people the way I wanna be treated.

So, you know, my employees, they don't work for me. They work with me. And we're all moving in the same direction. And I just try to, you know, be the best I possibly can for them, make sure they're getting paid, you know, ask them how they're doing, pour into them. And, you know, if you do that, you've got the right people, they're gonna they're gonna take good care of you.

Oh, I

Steve: love it. So I wanna leave you with a I want you to leave the listeners with one last thought. I'm gonna make a few quick announcements. So think about what you wanna leave the listeners with. Guys, we're only two, three weeks away three weeks away, from New Orleans with Chris Ruth's skillathon, December.

If you guys wanna check that out, go to bit.ly/2019skill. And then Max and I, we're doing our workshop January. That's two and a half days. We're gonna go over everything in our business, how we're doing four to seven deals a month in Phoenix. I argue one of the toughest markets in the country.

So if you wanna make 2020 your year, go to disruptors.com to see if the workshop makes sense for you. That's d I s r u p t o r s. And then this coming Friday, we got Kyle Wylog, another guy in Phoenix that's doing a lot of deals quietly. And then in two weeks, we got Ryan Shalaba coming in from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He's gonna talk about how he built his, flipping operation.

I had got a chance to meet him in a mastermind, and what he's doing in Pittsburgh is just crazy. So with that, last thoughts.

Nick: Last thoughts is, you don't be afraid to fail and scare money don't make any money. And remember, success is not like a like a stock chart. It goes up. You're gonna fail. Whatever you decide to do, you're gonna fail horribly probably the first time.

You're gonna go through a minute of self loathing, and you get out of that real quick, and you figure out what you did wrong. Then you make another plan, and you'll probably gonna fail again. And it's just this perpetual loop. But remember, success is a perpetual series of loops going upwards. Yeah.

Yep. So you're gonna fail forward, and you're gonna learn, and then you're gonna try again, and you're probably gonna fail again. Mhmm. And it's just gonna keep going like that,

Steve: Yeah.

Nick: You know, forever and ever. But as long as you use use it, learn from it, get back on the horse, and try again, you're gonna be alright.

Steve: I love it. So if someone wants to get a hold of you, how do they do that?

Nick: Just find me on Instagram at Nick Perry, r e I. It's probably the best way to get in touch with me. You know, happy to help. Happy to, you know, talk to you guys if you need any help with your business.

Steve: Awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you guys for watching, and thank you. This is a lot of fun. Awesome.