RJ Bates III Shares How He’s Flipping in 10 Markets in Just Under 5 Years

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of real estate disruptors. So what we have today, we have RJ Bates the third with Titanium Investments. And he flew in from Dallas to share how he and his partner are flipping in 10 different markets and getting to this in just under five years. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, and I help entrepreneurs create businesses that support their family, lifestyle, and goals through mentorship.

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You ready?

RJ Bates III: I'm ready.

Steve: Alright. So, guys, it's a live question, so be sure to ask, your questions for RJ to answer. So first question is, what got you into real estate?

RJ: So my partner, Cassie, and I, we were general contractors. And, you know, we we started our company, our first company in 2012, and it was just a constant struggle. I mean, we were, to be quite frank, not very good contractors. And that was because myself as a leader, you know, I it wasn't what I was meant to do. You know?

I it just it didn't resonate with me. And but we, you know, we were getting hired by different real estate investors to do their flips, and I kept asking questions. You know? I was like, how did you find this, you know, terribly ugly house in this beautiful neighborhood? You know?

And the constant theme was I kept hearing the word wholesaler. You know? I bought it from a wholesaler. You know, this guy, he emails me, you know, a deal a day. And as a general contractor, you're kind of the middle man.

You have your subcontractors and you have your client. And as a wholesaler, that's what you are. You're the middle man. And so for me, it immediately resonated. I'm like, we're not really changing a whole lot about our business except for the the industry that we're in.

You know, instead of trying to sell a bathroom remodel, we're we're gonna sell real estate. And there's a lot less work in the background, and so, we we took the leap of faith on 01/01/2015 after probably wholesaling four, five deals. I've shared the story about the the moment that I really knew that this is what we were supposed to do is we contracted a a property. And after in Texas, we have option periods that we have to pay for. We don't get free inspection periods like other states.

Right. So after a thousand dollars earnest money and a $100 option fee, that must push us down to $11 in all of our bank accounts. And that deal, you know, I had to go to Cassie and say, you're gonna have to trust me that I'm gonna be able to wholesale this. It's a really good deal. You know?

And in the the meantime, she's kinda looking at me like, are you crazy? Like, we need to save every dollar that we have to make sure we stay afloat. And we made $11,000 on that deal. Never really looked back. And and, you know, that first year of 2015, we did a little bit over $700,000

Steve: How much?

RJ: In assignment 700,000 in assignment fees. We didn't even know what we were doing, man.

Steve: Pretty good first year.

RJ: Yeah. But we literally, we were wholesaling off the MLS. Mhmm. We didn't know what direct mail, cold calling, you know, SMS and RBMs weren't even a thing back then. So Yeah.

You know, we were just taking massive imperfect action is what we did

Steve: at the beginning. So it's pretty cool to hear that you guys been partners from from the get go. Yep. Because I see you two work together, and I figured you just got screwed up a bunch of times. And it's like, please, someone help me.

You know, god send someone my way.

RJ: Right.

Steve: And then she you you know, he put her in your life. Right. So no. It's been from the get go.

RJ: Yeah. So Cassie and I have been really good friends for thirteen, fourteen years.

Steve: Mhmm.

RJ: So we were friends before we were ever business partners, and she was the one that one day said, hey. We should start a business together. And we had some awkward moments at the beginning because we didn't know the who was supposed to be the leader and, you know, we didn't know about visionary and integrator and all these things that these beautiful books like traction have nowadays that outline that.

Steve: So So much information available now.

RJ: Exactly. So it is a it's a it's a cool relationship that we have together for sure.

Steve: Very cool. So your first deal Yep. The one that kinda was a proof of concepts.

RJ: Yep. So that one was a deal we found out the MLS. They they had it listed for a 100,000. I offered them 92,000. This is what my guru told me to do.

Okay? You go on the MLS. You find deals, and then you put it on Craigslist. So I contracted it for 92. I put it on Craigslist for a 100,000.

Got a call from a buyer probably thirty minutes after, and he's like, hey. I'm at your house. I wanna take a look at it. And my guru didn't tell me what to do when someone called to say they wanted to see the house. But I knew, like, we can't just allow it I can't just go over there and let them in because there's a realtor involved.

Like, I had enough common sense to know this. I'm like, hold on. I have to call my realtor. And he's like, no. Don't worry about it.

The window's open. I'm I'm just crawling through. So he just crawled through, and I'm freaking out. Cassie's freaking out in the background, you know, and we're like, what is happening? And, he's like, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Alright. I I can do this. I'll take it.

So he climbed back out through the window, and we assigned it for well, actually, we double closed it Mhmm.

Steve: Because

RJ: I was that's what I was told to do. And, we made $7,000, and, you know, that proved even though there's never been a deal that went down like that again, it proved the concept that wholesaling could work, and it it literally spurred us to continue down this path.

Steve: Cool. So what were some of your early struggles?

RJ: I to be honest with you, man, looking back at it, there weren't a whole lot of struggles back in that 2015. I mean, we were just rocking and rolling. We were coming from struggling so much as contractors that I mean, for us picking up deals with with no marketing, and we were able to dispo them to local buyers. We got connected to different education programs, people in them that were helping us co wholesale and dispo them to people from all around the country. So we were able to wholesale deals to people living in California, Arizona, New York, Virginia, Boston.

Without ever talking to them, we would just go do videos, take pictures, and disbo them. So looking back at it, man, the the struggles for us came later on down the road once we actually figured out what we were doing. When we didn't know what we were doing, we we didn't know what a struggle was. You know? If we had a $50,000 a month, I mean, that was more than than Cassie and I had ever made in our entire lives.

So we were coming from literally nothing. So for us, there weren't very many struggles early on.

Steve: So you guys are flipping across the across the country now. Yep. But But at that time, you were focused strictly on wholesaling?

RJ: Just on wholesaling.

Steve: Alright. So, you know, we mentioned the book Traction a moment ago, and we were talking about partners.

RJ: Yep.

Steve: And one thing that I said on the show multiple times is I don't believe in partnerships. I'm also a hypocrite

RJ: because

Steve: I have multiple partners. Right. So talk about the struggle in having a partner.

RJ: Yeah. So I would say that would probably be one of our early struggles. I guess looking at it from that aspect, you know, not directly correlated to the business, but learning how to work together, going from friendship to I'm number one talking to Cassie who I view as my equal, but in the company

Steve: bigger number one.

RJ: Yeah. Some people are are gonna claim she's number two. Mhmm. Just in the hierarchy and also because of our sex. You know?

I mean, that's that's been since, you know, day one. That communication was a huge issue. And then also making sure that we were on the same page. You know? There there for a while, I would just make the goals and kinda say, hey.

This is our goal for 2016, or here's our goals. And Cassie didn't really

Steve: One way street. Here's our goals. Right.

RJ: Exactly. And so I had to to grow and mature and realize that, you know, she's just as much a part of this as I am. And and so now it's it's a lot easier for us to communicate, know where we're going as a company.

Steve: Gotcha. Very cool. So, obviously, you know, with the the being in 10 different markets, you wanna just rattle off the list real quick, all the different markets you're in?

RJ: Yeah. We'll we'll start from the Far West, East. That's how I remember it. So Hawaii, Anchorage, Alaska, Phoenix, Arizona, and then we've got DFW, San Antonio, Austin, Tulsa, Saint Louis, Missouri, and then we've dabbled a little bit in Ohio and Birmingham, Alabama.

Steve: Gotcha. Alright. So whose crazy idea was it to go in 10 different markets?

RJ: That was mine. That was mine for sure. And it started back with the the the ability to wholesale properties to virtual investors. So in 2015, I could pick up a property on the MLS, and if the numbers were right and accurate, then I could wholesale it to someone living anywhere in the country. Mhmm.

And this program taught them that you virtually flip. You do not flip in your own backyard. So, you know, as we were having traction doing that in DFW, I was like, well, there's only so many deals that we could pick up on the MLS and DFW. So why don't I go down to San Antonio and Austin and check out those markets? And then we were able to wholesale some there.

So then it was like, alright. Let's go to Seattle and Portland and Baltimore and Phoenix, and that's how we came to Phoenix. You know? I mean, we probably wholesale, like, four or five off the MLS to these investors, and the this is what spurred us to all these different locations and start creating relationships in different markets.

Steve: What are some of your challenges in trying to wholesale in so many or flip in so many markets?

RJ: Well, now, I mean, obviously, we we learn when we transition from just wholesaling to to flipping, I mean, we learned very quickly that there's a whole that's a whole another animal, and managing contractors virtually is is almost impossible. So the first ever virtual flip that we did in San Antonio, we lost our rears on it, but we learned a lot of lessons. And we made sure now that anytime we do a flip, we have boots on the ground that are trusted, that can report back to us, give us regular updates, and make sure the contractors are doing the right things because, otherwise, we were just bound for failure.

Steve: Alright. So started obviously in DFW. What was your second market?

RJ: We went down to San Antonio and Austin after that, but it's pretty close. It's Phoenix.

Steve: Okay. So, yeah, let's just start with Phoenix then. Right? Because now you're in another state. Yep.

So you start Phoenix. What's the first step to starting? Like, alright. I'm gonna start flipping in this other city. What's the first step?

RJ: Yeah. So we never go into a market and decide that we're just gonna flip unless it's a really unique situation like Alaska. So in Phoenix, we came here, wholesale, you know, four or five, ten properties. I don't know the exact number. And then when an opportunity came and we had the trusted boots on the ground here at Jeremy Dimmers, that's when we decided, okay.

We feel comfortable taking a flip down. Some other examples of that, like Hawaii, everybody wants to know, like, how'd you end up in Hawaii? It's not because I'm crazy and just said, let's go flip houses in the most remote location on the planet. It's because my childhood best friend, Elijah Delagarza. He was already an entrepreneur and a business owner.

He's a contractor. I mean, there was really no reason for us to not do this.

Steve: You know,

RJ: he's a contractor. We're investors, and he was like, man, you gotta check out this market. So that was one of those unique situations where we said, you know what? We're okay. Just immediately start flipping there.

Because wholesale sailing there is gonna be a little bit cumbersome to find I mean, honestly, they it's almost like they don't really kinda understand what's happening. Mhmm. You know? It's like, here, you can have a pretty large buyers list. Most everybody, if they wanna buy from wholesalers, they're gonna do it there.

It's kind of like everybody's individually sourcing their own deals. And so we just jump right into flipping and, you know, we started there one at a time.

Steve: And so you're saying everyone listening should feel comfortable going Hawaii. Exactly.

RJ: That's what you do. Well. II will say this. It is an amazing market, but if you do not have that local person that fully understands like how to speak Hawaiian respect the land live that aloha spirit like it, it sounded silly to me like when Elijah first started telling me he's like dude, you gotta have the aloha spirit like you you gotta sometimes it's boom. You gotta slow down, you know and and that's the case, man.

Like, really, we were talking about it earlier today. Sometimes you gotta slow down to go faster. Mhmm. Like, that is one of the best markets that we've learned that is in Hawaii.

Steve: Yeah. Because there's probably a lot of massive distrust.

RJ: Yes. Absolutely. We're trying to take their land. I'm a mainlander. I they don't want me to buy their land.

Elijah, he's embraced that culture.

Steve: Yep.

RJ: So they wanna do business with him.

Steve: That makes sense. And then we'll get to how you got to this position as far as, being, you know, access to a lot of capital. But I imagine having access to a lot of capital was probably part of this equation as well.

RJ: Yes. Yes.

Steve: So let's talk about that then. How did you come to get access to a lot of capital? Masterminds.

RJ: That is where almost two things. Podcasts starting a podcast.

Steve: Mhmm.

RJ: Right? Probably one of the best things you've ever done in your life. Right?

Steve: Best thing ever done.

RJ: Yeah. I mean, it's one of the best things I've ever done. And attending masterminds.

Steve: But there's enough real estate podcast, guys. So don't start anymore.

RJ: Yeah. Yeah. Right? So, the the podcast was, an amazing opportunity to to open up my voice to other people, to allow them to know our journey. And, honestly, I mean, most of the time, you're just asking questions as a host.

Right? But people immediately give you this sense of credibility because, you know, you're sitting there asking me questions and how you construct this interview and and, you know, kinda take the conversation from whatever jumbles coming out of my mouth. You know? And and they respect that, and then they wanna do business with you. And then from there, attending masterminds where people are like, oh, you're you're RJ Bates.

You're the titanium vault. I've listened to your podcast, and, hey, let's have dinner tonight. And then sure enough, that conversation goes to how can we do business together. And there's been plenty of times where I've literally been at a mastermind, and I've been like, hey. I need 300,000 for a flip.

And it's like, cool. Send me the send me the the documents right now, and I'll wire it during lunch break. You know? So those are the two best ways that we've been able to raise private capital.

Steve: Sounds like they go hand in hand, though. Yes. Absolutely. Authority you gained from being a podcaster Yep. And then being in front of people to leverage that credibility.

RJ: And and here's the thing. Podcast is mine and yours chosen platform. Right? But I'm very passionate about the fact that you need to choose whatever you're most comfortable with. If it's a blog, if it's if you're crazy like Pace Morby and you wanna walk around with your cell phone in your hand and do 800 IG stories a day, then that's what you do.

You know? But it builds that's your platform. It builds that credibility, and it's just like Gary v says, man, don't create. Just document. And and, you know, for you and I, we're literally just pulling out of people their stories.

And and at that point in time, you know, we we've been able to do other things like speak on stage and actually share our stories to other people. So, yeah, whatever you feel, whatever medium you wanna choose, just make sure you choose one and get your voice out there.

Steve: Right. The one you feel most comfortable doing consistently. Yes. Very cool. And then so talk about the podcast.

Like, how how do you structure you know, you got I'm I'm I'm reading this right here, this list. Right? I mean, you wholesale across the country. You flip across the country. Landlord, lender, podcast host, charity, director, and and you also run a mastermind.

So, you know, being a podcast host, what does that entail? What does your work, you know, week look like?

RJ: Yeah. So podcast. So podcast host, I chose a much different path than you did. Like, you wanted video to be a part of your podcast from upfront. I didn't know if I was gonna be good at it.

Mhmm. Like, this was something that I really want to push myself. I had never listened to a podcast before I started my own except for two, the one that I was a guest on the Joe Fairless podcast that I did in a laundry room and couldn't breathe for the first fifteen minutes.

Steve: Why couldn't you breathe?

RJ: I was so nervous.

Steve: Oh, okay.

RJ: I was I was I did it on a cell phone Yeah. Through Skype, and I was just I was so nervous. I mean, I I probably turned red at the beginning of this. Like, it it just it's one of those things. Like, I care so much about getting my my voice out there Mhmm.

That it it can almost overwhelm me at times. And then the second one was with Don Costa. And that was the one that I got fired up during. Like, I was like, I enjoyed that. Like, I want to share what I'm going through.

And real estate investing changed my life, changed my family's life. If it only reaches 10 people, I'm okay with it. So I just did audio only. I went to Best Buy. I bought a Yeti mic, and I said, alright.

I'm just gonna start interviewing people. And so to this day, I mean, the interview itself, thirty, forty minutes. And outside of that, maybe another twenty, twenty five minutes in editing and getting it posted. I do it all myself. I enjoy it.

It's not work. I don't wanna outsource it. I know I can hire VA. Everybody always have me like I'm crazy, but I like doing

Steve: it. Right.

RJ: So it's all me and maybe, you know, hour, hour and fifteen minutes per interview.

Steve: Yeah. So guys that are listening, you know, I'm not trying to integrate what you've done or, you know, what what I've done. But if you guys are trying to establish authority

RJ: Yep.

Steve: Right, it takes just less than two hours a week Right. To get a podcast out there. So, you know, if you guys are thinking about it, definitely, you know, if you're trying to raise capital or whatever, look at podcasting as an option in addition to Instagram and so on.

RJ: Yep.

Steve: Now do you think there's any irony that, you know, you said that you were not a good, GC, but you're flipping across the country.

RJ: Well, the reason why I wasn't a good GC is because it wasn't something that gave me energy.

Steve: Mhmm.

RJ: I I didn't I didn't purposely wanna fail, but I wasn't taking the steps to succeed either. You know, I I there was no vision. Yeah. The vision was I wanna make shit look cool.

Steve: Mhmm.

RJ: Like, I wanna make a really awesome bathroom so I can get 35 likes on Facebook and feel good about myself for making a thousand dollars on bathroom remodel. Like Yeah. It just it wasn't there wasn't a plan there. And when it became real estate investing and then when we transitioned to flipping and Cassie was always good at the GC business. The reason why that business failed is because of RJ Mhmm.

Not because of Cassie. And so she's always been able to manage contractors. I love it when we meet a new contractor and we show up at the house, and they talk to me for the first fifteen minutes. And I don't say a word, and then all of a sudden, Cassie comes in and says, alright. This is what you're gonna do.

This is what we need. Blah blah blah. And then they're like, what? Why are we why are we talking to her? I thought we were gonna no.

That's that's not that's not what I'm in charge of. So the the it is a little bit ironic. You're the first person that's kinda pointed it out. And and I've always been waiting for someone to be like, why are you flipping houses if you weren't good at fixing up houses before? But and Elijah is a contractor.

And so we do a lot of volume in Alaska and Hawaii that he's in charge of as well.

Steve: So the GC I use for my flips is also a woman. Yep. And she's like, yeah. They just look right past me. And then, you know, they they don't listen.

And then they realize that I am in charge, and they're gonna figure that out.

RJ: Detail oriented. Yeah.

Steve: You know? So And then you're also lend as well.

RJ: So when I say lend, I'm I'm more referring to owner financing. Yeah. So, you know, it's not like I am not a hard money lender, so for don't hit me up for that. But, you know, we own our finance. And that's one of our you know, I I wanna create passive income, and immediately, I took that to, like, rentals.

Mhmm. And then I realized, realized, hey. That's gonna take us some time to build up those processes and those systems. And, there's a lot more manpower that has to go into that. So owner financing, removing that maintenance, the vacancy, the capital expenditures, all of those items, that allowed us to create that that passive income that we really weren't receiving with rentals.

So that's what I mean by that.

Steve: Gotcha. And then I saw you did a big, golf tournament not too long ago. What was that about?

RJ: Yeah. So that was our our third annual Titanium Golf Classic presented by EasyStreet Capital. All of those proceeds go to our, local nonprofit in Texas, Bee Kids Cancer. So this is not real estate related, but please give me four or five minutes to to share this story. So in 2012, when when we started our company, 2012 started with my niece being diagnosed with leukemia, followed by that was June, July 2012.

August started the first company. September, my dad passed away. October, my son was born. That was my 2,012. That's when I became an adult and then grew up real quick.

Steve: Yeah.

RJ: We learned that childhood cancer is severely underfunded. If you and I were diagnosed with leukemia, we would receive the same treatment that Riley received when when she was three years old. Significant side effects. You know, it's the the side effects are almost as crippling to to the child as the the disease itself. We also learned about the financial burden that families undertake when their child's going through treatment.

You know, most of the time, at least one of the parents is not allowed to leave the hospital for, you know, a month, two months, if not longer. So what we do at Beat Kids Cancer is we take all 100% of the funds that are received, and we help families that are undergoing treatment, pay their mortgage bills, their car payments, keep their lights and water on, and things along those lines. As well as during the Christmas season, we also make sure every kid in the family, not just the one undergoing treatment, has Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas presents on Christmas morning. So the Titanium Golf Classic was my vision of real estate investors making a lot of money. Right?

Steve: Yes, they do.

RJ: And and we do this for freedom of time. Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

RJ: So surely, real estate investors play a lot of golf. Right? No. Real estate investors are the worst golfers of all time. Okay?

But they rallied around the cause, and and it's been amazing. I think this year, we were just short of $30,000 raised at the golf tournament. Tournament. All of those proceeds go to B Kids Cancer. And we have other people locally in the DFW market that have just rallied around it so much.

Ryan Jackson has a local meetup in in Texas called Texas Tuesdays in Fort Worth and man he donates he literally auctions off his speakers at his local Rhea. And just this past Tuesday raised over $11,000 for B kids Cancer. So it's just been amazing to see the the real estate investing community rally around our our cause there.

Steve: That's really cool. Alright. So, guys, we're at 74 live views right now. And, RJ said he's gonna do something special. We can get to a 100 live viewers.

So you wanna talk about that?

RJ: Yeah. Yeah. So what I wanna do is is, if you don't if you haven't heard yet, we have started a online mastermind group called Next Level Flipping. Cassie and I, along with Ryan Robson, are in charge of the Rising Stars program, which is for people doing 25 or less deals a year. Online mastermind, really cool things.

Check it up. Nextlevelflipping.com. It's only a $100 a month or a thousand dollars annually, but what I wanna do today is is if you share this interview and you tag me, k, RJ Bates the third, what's your what's your hashtag for this? Real estate disruptors?

Steve: Real estate disruptors. Yeah.

RJ: Alright. Hashtag real estate disruptors. Millionaires. Millionaires. Okay.

And 100 millionaires. K? You gotta do those two hashtags that tag me. Share this interview. I'm going to pull out random on IG live.

One, two, three. I don't know. It depends on how many shares we get, but I'm gonna allow people to join Next Level Flipping for a year for free. Okay? But you gotta share the post, tag me, drop, hashtag real estate disruptors, hashtag 100 millionaires.

Steve: Yep.

RJ: And then I will do an IG live, later this week to pull out the winner for a year of next level flipping. So there you go.

Steve: Awesome. Alright. So, guys, share this episode. Okay. So as far as your whole entire operation, right, I mean, tens densities is impressive.

RJ: Right.

Steve: And we're looking at actual deal flow. You know, how much wholesale? How much flipping? What are you guys looking like per month? So

RJ: the highest amount of volume is gonna be DFW always. And and part of that's intentional because it's it's RJ and Cassie, and we have a little bit of control there. But it's also because it's the market that we understand the best, and it's also the largest team that we have. A lot of our other teams are much smaller and getting smaller by the day intentionally. So in in DFW, we can do anywhere from 15 to 20 deals a month.

Mhmm. Majority of that being wholesale. You know, say, average month, three to five flips, if we're really flowing good. Full transparency, like, we've had some some problem child properties when it comes to flipping, in in each market. And and a lot of that was the learning curve of trying to grow too fast.

Yeah. You know, RJ decided he wanted to be the cookie monster and buy the entire United States, and we didn't have the systems and processes set up for that, you know, and I have not been shy talking about that. You know? I I I want everybody to fully understand because, look, it's easy to sit back here and be like, you know, I could throw out impressive numbers. Mhmm.

But I want people to fully understand that along with that comes a lot of heartache with the ones that aren't going so well. So 15 to 20 deals a month in DFW market. Hawaii and Alaska, we're only flipping. So those are you know, our goal moving forward in 2020 is to sell one and buy one a month. We wanna do 12 flips in Hawaii and 12 flips in Alaska.

Yeah. That's our goal. And and the reason why is because we feel like that those two branches could be two a $2,000,000 company right there just by doing 24 deals. And it's it's very obtainable, with very little overhead. That organization will be solely run by myself, Cassie, and Elijah.

We might have some other employees, like executive assistants and stuff to pay bills and do do things along those lines, but that is our goal in those markets. Arizona, we're we're gonna try to get to just wholesaling here. I don't wanna compete with the big dogs like you guys. But here's the thing. I mean, I've I've fallen in love with the city of Phoenix, the people here.

Y'all's atmosphere is amazing. I wanna be more involved in the Arizona market, and I think the best way that we can support you guys and help the Phoenix market is by wholesaling. Mhmm. I I think we do a disservice by trying to come in here and be a flipper, because that's not our strong suit here yet. We don't have the resources yet, but I have a ton of connections with people like you guys.

So I wanna just kinda sit back and watch and and learn from you guys and and just wholesale. There's, there's there's no ego within Titanium anymore because we have we've seen the the rise and the the people that try to blow up our ego with, you know, oh, you're you're so popular on Facebook or the podcast and things like that. And what they don't see behind the doors are the daily struggles and what goes into building what we have. And so, here in Arizona, we wanna just go strictly wholesaling and probably the same things in the markets like Saint Louis, Tulsa, Ohio, and Alabama. Just strictly wholesaling.

And and keep that deal flow three to five deals a month per market.

Steve: One of the things that we talked about, if I remember correctly, is one of the reasons why RJ became the Cookie Monster is because RJ had a lot of capital. Yep. And because he had a lot of capital, well, now you gotta start making that money work for you. Yep. So some people are saying, man, I just need more money.

If I can get more money, I'd be in good shape. But you raised so much capital, it puts you in a different bind. You wanna talk about that?

RJ: Yeah. I I would love to talk about that because, a lot of times people don't wanna talk about those problems. Right? It's easy to talk about, I don't have money. But what about when you do have money and these didn't go all the way you planned?

Right? That's hard to swallow that pill and say, hey. I screwed up. You know? I I've had to have some very humbling phone calls with my private money lenders and say, I probably shouldn't have bought 10 houses in one month in Alaska.

That that was probably a bad idea. You know? RJ thought he was Superman Mhmm. And and he is he's he's not he's he's not even Clark Kent. So, so, yeah, those are those are humbling conversations to have.

And I think, yeah, it's a lesson for everybody to learn, like, don't don't go out and try to outgrow yourself aggressively did that is because, we lost access to selling to that education group that we could sell to. Could sell to. So as wholesaling went, we lost access to a lot of our buyers. I mean, that education group basically kind of faded away, and we didn't have that resource anymore. Mhmm.

And when that went away, it was now we have to pivot and adjust our wholesaling business. We have access to capital. So instead of wholesale on that one, we'll just take it down. And then it just kinda became the habit of we're just taking everything down. And what what was funny about it is we didn't realize the issues for quite a while because we were so able to turn and burn and and purchase properties, sell them, make money.

But what nobody saw was this one that wasn't performing or wasn't going well. And then one became two, two became three because so many different markets. So think about it. I mean, we could literally have one bad property in each market, and that's 10 bad deals.

Steve: Yeah.

RJ: 10 bad deals is enough to probably shut somebody down. I mean,

Steve: that could be a quarter million dollars.

RJ: Yeah. Or more. Yeah. I mean, think about it. Some of these markets we're talking about, I mean, you know, Hawaii and I mean, we we could purchase for $5.06, $7,800,000.

I mean, one deal goes bad there. I mean, you're talking about dude, that could be a million dollar loss. You know? So a lot of those issues, kind of compounded themselves because we just kept buying. And so, really, 2019, I mean, we had to lean down, really kinda look ourselves in the mirror and say, hey.

We're gonna fix this. We're gonna dig ourselves out of this. We had to have humbling conversations with our lenders and say, hey. We're we're gonna fix this because, see, here's the track record. Here's things that we're doing the right way.

And these are the common reasons why these failed, and it was because we just tried to move too fast.

Steve: How I mean, obviously, I know the answer to how the conversation was, but can you tell us about that conversation?

RJ: With the lenders? Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, a a lot of times, there was it it was actually it was met with with open arms and gratitude and the fact that we were willing to humble ourselves and have the conversation. They already knew it.

They're in it. It. You know what I mean? And and, you know, if if you tell somebody that it's gonna take six weeks to flip a house and here you are four months later and still not on the market, like, they know something's going wrong. And some of it was for legitimate reasons.

I mean, we had some craziness happen. I mean, there was, like, the largest earthquake since the nineteen fifties in Alaska that pretty much set back all of our rehabs.

Steve: Oh, yeah. You

RJ: know, I mean, that that hurt, you know, but but that excuse can only be used for so long, you know, before the lender's like, yeah. Got it. Earthquake. But what are we doing now?

Steve: Yeah. Worth my money.

RJ: Right. And so a lot of times, the the conversation went well where it was like, hey. Thank you for being open and honest. Thank you for coming with a plan on how we're gonna get out from this. And, also, just reassuring them, like, no matter what happens, you will be made whole, and and you're gonna get taken care of.

And so, full transparency and and just being open and honest with your lenders is the best way to go, you know, because they don't only wanna hear about the victories. They wanna hear about the bad things that are happening in your company too.

Steve: Well, that's the character. Right? Like, it's the it's easy to accept all the, you know, the accolades

RJ: Right.

Steve: When things are good. Yep. But will you still be there when things go south? Yeah. And a lot of people hide.

And you don't find out about this until it's too late.

RJ: Yeah. I mean and look. Sometimes it's hard. You know? I mean, we're all so busy.

And a lot of times, it's really hard when you have a lot of good things going on. I mean, there's the like, October sold 20 houses. Mhmm. You feel good. But I gotta call this one guy on this one deal and explain, hey.

This contractor messed up. We had to go back out, fix it. There's gonna be a delay, and it's an uncomfortable for my personality type, like, if we have one thing go wrong like that, it ruins the 20 victories.

Steve: Yeah.

RJ: And that I can't go I cannot overcome that. So it's just something that, I'm working on with myself. I share that trait with Daniel Moore from Propellio.

Steve: Yeah.

RJ: I found that out. We've had conversations, and and it's just something that it's, it's part of who you know, we we've done the predictive index

Steve: Mhmm.

RJ: With Gary Harper, and and we're both the same, super high visionaries, ventures, and it's just a personality trait that we have. And so a lot of times, those small losses can kinda consume me around the the victories that we're having.

Steve: I don't think it's a terrible quality. I have other friends that also have that same Yeah. Trait. And, yeah, you can look at it as, like, it kinda holds you back.

RJ: Right.

Steve: But it also is the reason why you can do so many great things.

RJ: Right.

Steve: Right? Everything's at high quality. You won't settle for mediocrity. So, you know, it's a yin and yang. Yeah.

And it sucks, right, that you can't celebrate the wins. Right. But that's the reason why you have so many wins.

RJ: Right. It I you know, sometimes my partners give me a hard time about it, though. They're like, RJ, can we at least, like, high five? Like, celebrate? Like, you know, that was a big win.

You know? So

Steve: Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm kinda like I think we're talking about earlier. You know, you're like the patriots. Yep. Now I personally don't like the patriots.

However, I admire the hell out of them. Right. Right? And Bill Belichick, he might smile after winning the Super Bowl.

RJ: Right. Might. Right. He started smiling a lot more of these later ones.

Steve: These later ones for sure. Yeah.

RJ: Yeah. I think I think that huge gap in between three and four, like, made him appreciate four, five, and six a lot more.

Steve: Yeah. So I think that's probably a good point to ask a question. Elizabeth Navarrete has had, you know, had asked, like, importance of pivoting if you get to ever reinvent yourself.

RJ: Yeah. 2019, we've we've been reinventing, you know, Titanium Investments from across the board. And, really, that comes directly from me. I'm still working on this, like, fully casting the vision to Elijah and Cassie and make sure that they fully understand what where we're going. And they have instilled in me that that's what they want from me.

They need that from me. And so, yeah, reinventing ourselves, absolutely. And I know this is a a real estate investing podcast, and I I don't wanna get, like, super religious, but us also making sure that we are listening to our calling. We're all heavy believers and making sure that we are paying attention to what is being told of us and asked of us to do has made a world of difference for us here in the past couple of months. And, reinventing ourselves from from what we were, a lot of that comes from, difficult conversations with each other and, like you said, just striving for that greatness and not settling for the mediocrity.

And, also, just having the ability another benefit of the podcast. Right? I always get to interview people, get inspired, see what they're doing, and have amazing opportunities like coming out here to Phoenix and seeing what you guys are doing. I was talking to you about that earlier. Yeah.

You know, there's just so much amazing people that have multiple companies and are able I asked you earlier, why are you doing all this? Mhmm. And you literally said because it's it's it's fun. I want to. Like, I I can.

Yeah. You know? And and there for a while, I had that joy in doing that, but then there was also kind of this weird, like, because I have to Mhmm. Is why I'm gonna do it. So being inspired by other people like you guys and and this city here, definitely is is one of the ways that we're reinventing ourselves currently.

Steve: Awesome. Love it. And then Casey Della wants to know, when's the time that you felt most fearful, and what did what did you do about it?

RJ: Man, Casey always has some of the best questions. I mean, her and Jason are some of our really good friends up in DFW. You know, a lot of the times that I was most fearful are probably in 2017, 2018. And part of the reason why is because we had tasted success. We had had those rock star consistent months where we were doing 6 figures over 6 figures and growing, and and then there was times where we would have dips or what I call the roller coaster, where maybe you weren't as consistent with your marketing as you should have been or lack of focus or whatever the follow-up game, wherever you have to make those adjustments and pivot, we didn't.

And the fear was that what we thought we had built wasn't, and I call it the glass castle. Like, did I build this glass castle, and it's actually made out of glass? And that's where creating that passive income comes from. That's why we want that goal. We we have a huge audacious goal, that we all share, which is I wanna own 1% of The United States.

And everybody always looks at me and, like, that's the most asinine goal of all time. Like, you're never gonna get it. And I'm I'm like right, but if I try really hard and I still fail, I'm going to be way far ahead, you know well

Steve: as long as RJ is around to fly me wherever.

RJ: It's all

Steve: I really need

RJ: right right so so be going back to that and and why why I was fearful of that is because I thought that we could lose everything because we hadn't set up the foundation correctly. And reinventing ourselves in 2019, what I realized is is that we do have a solid foundation with the people. I know I'm surrounding myself with the right people. I know that the vision is there, and I know that we can succeed. But, also, more than anything, just making sure that, like I said, you know, we we are listening to to what we're being told to do and what we're called to do on this planet.

Steve: Gotcha. And then Charles Nguyen wants to know, how

RJ: are you attracting top talent to work with you in these multiple markets? And, also, how are you retaining them? So we've actually this is another way we've reinvented ourselves. Right? We we used to have massive organization with 70 plus employees, and now we've shifted it to where in order to have that top talent, we're going out and we're talking to other people, collaborating a little bit with them as much as we can, like, not not Phoenix style.

Right? But going out and asking, like, hey. Who's the best realtor? Who's the best contractor? Who are you using for lending?

Who's the best title company? And building a team that way, especially in markets like Hawaii and Alaska, like, now at this point in time, in those markets, we feel like we have the best realtors in town. Instead of us go going and saying, hey. We wanna open up our own brokerage in Hawaii, which is what crazy ass 2017, 2018 RJ said, like, Titanium Realty in Hawaii and of Alaska. Like, we were gonna own all of it.

Right? Mhmm. Now it's like, hey. There's already people there. Like, now we're we're making sure we have the best realtors in Hawaii and Alaska.

We have great contractors that have multiple crews. We have the greatest title companies. Like, we're so that's our team now, and it's managed by Titanium Investments.

Steve: Israel Torres wants to know, starting all over, would you do rentals again first, or would you go the, the right way in your real estate career? Or how would you go the right way?

RJ: So that's gonna be dependent on whether or not I I guess he's talking about just specifically passive income. Passive income. Mhmm. I mean, if you are able to go out and get loans where you can refinance and wrap the mortgages like I am doing for owner finance, then I would say do that over rentals. Mhmm.

Especially first getting started because once the transaction is done, you no longer have to worry about if the AC is going to go out or if the foundation slips or if the roof needs to be replaced and so you're creating that passive income. Yeah. You're gonna lose the the equity. You're gonna lose the ability for appreciation over the course of time, but the passive income is gonna be consistent, less headache. And eventually down the road, once you're a little bit more established and you have a better team in place for property management, then you can start moving into rentals.

Steve: And Dan McCutcheon wants to know what tips you have for vetting project managers slash boots on the ground in the other markets.

RJ: So yeah. I mean, on some of that, I think we have failed a little bit when we've assumed because they've had successful careers in certain aspects of real estate that that would mean they understood construction. I think that they need to have some sort of background when it comes to construction. For example, we've worked with other wholesalers that we needed them to be the boots on ground. Well, they were a wholesaler.

They didn't have experience in the construction or a realtor or things along those lines where just because they understood real estate didn't mean that they were gonna be a good project manager or know what to look for. So for me, first and foremost, I wanna make sure that they have that background when it comes to construction, not just real estate. And then, you know, I there's a lot of different hiring processes out there. You know, Gary Harper is a great one that kind of handholds. He helps people for free all the time with that.

You know? I'm not gonna say I'm a a hiring expert by any means because we've made a lot of bad decisions when it comes to that, but those would be the best tips I could get as far as a project manager.

Steve: Awesome. Let's see what else was there. Sorry. There's a lot of, anyone says get up and hug, and that's just not gonna happen.

RJ: Are you sure?

Steve: Yes.

RJ: Be a record breaking ninety sixth episode of Real Estate Disrupters. First hug on the podcast.

Steve: Yeah. That's not gonna happen. So, Sam Velasquez wants to know, how are you handling dispositions in markets that you do wholesale? Do you know as retail buyers as well as cash buyers?

RJ: So, I mean, obviously, the the podcast helps with that. A lot of people know who RJ Bates is just because of the podcast. So sometimes I get, like, people that they think it's pretty cool when I reach out to them and try to dispo them a property. You know? That that alone kinda helps.

Another benefit of the podcast. But, I'm I'm just gonna take a moment to say I mean, we do a lot of what, Jamil from Keeley talks about, co wholesaling. Like, finding somebody in the market that's gonna be more experience. If I can't move it within a couple of days, I have no problem reaching out to the big player market. I'm not gonna be the big player in St.

Louis, Missouri. Mhmm. I have no desire to do that. But I do have a desire to to move properties there because we have done a lot of there. We've owned many rentals there, and we get deals on a regular basis.

So I'm gonna move them. But if it's easier for me to just reach out to someone and co wholesale it and split it fifty fifty, then we're gonna do that. So Right. I am always looking to JV either have people send me deals or I send deals to them to dismount.

Steve: Gotcha. Raheem Owens wants to know if you were starting all over again, what would you do?

RJ: I wouldn't change anything that I did from the first two years, which was just strictly wholesale. Learn this industry. Make connections. I would say I would have gotten out there a lot more a lot quicker than I did. I would have been attending every RIA, every meetup.

Whereas I we didn't do that because I was so busy just hustling and finding deals and selling them that I I didn't think that was important. Right? Mhmm. Now I understand the community aspect of this and how much that can help. The things that I would have changed is just gone a lot slower when it came to changing the adding strategies.

If I wanna flip a house, don't go flip three or four at a time. Even though when we first started doing that, that was successful. The problem was it was successful not because we were a great company. It was because RJ and Cassie were really good at functioning within the chaos. And so when other people had to function within the chaos and they weren't good at handling it because we didn't have the right systems and processes, that's where I would have slowed down and said, even though RJ and Cassie can handle the chaos, we need to make sure there is no chaos.

So doing those things and slowing down, which is pretty much what we've done this year, slowed way down and just tried to make sure we tighten things up.

Steve: Michael Sargent wants to know where do you see yourself in ten years?

RJ: Well, I I think that we have a pretty clear path on the markets that we wanna be in. I think that we are gonna continue to grow the passive income route and and try to own more real estate. Like, that is a passion of ours, and we know that's something we wanna do. I think within the next ten years, we're definitely gonna see that long awaited correction that we all wanna see where we can scoop up as much as we can. So I think I see us buying a lot over the next ten years.

But as far as a a company in and of itself, I think that, you know, we wanna continue to reach as many people as possible, work with as many people as possible, and just continue to grow this to the pace that makes us happy on the inside. I I I wanna look at myself the same way I look at people like you where it's like, I I do it because I want to, not because I feel like I have to.

Steve: Yeah.

RJ: And if in ten years, that I mean, I hope it's a lot quicker in ten years. Like, but definitely in ten years, I wanna be at the place where it's like, hey. This is exactly where I wanna be. Right. And I wanna own a Longhorn.

Longhorn. The cow? Yeah. Longhorns?

Steve: That's He just it's just That that

RJ: yeah. That's where I that if I have I own a Longhorn in ten years, I'll be a lot happy.

Steve: Yeah. Would you do lease options over wholesales? Herman Soares wants to know.

RJ: So in Texas, lease up Texans messed up lease options a long time ago. They're severely frowned upon, so we don't get to do them like the rest of you guys. We can, but it's very heavily scrutinized. That's why a lot of Texans talk about owner financing. That is our version of the the lease option.

So Gotcha.

Steve: No TRAC came down, cracked down, you guys?

RJ: Yeah. Yeah. And and I would say, no. You need to wholesale over doing lease options to start with. Like, lease options is a little bit of an advanced strategy from wholesaling.

Do wholesaling first so you understand the game.

Steve: Alright. So let's see what else are out there. Rick Sol wants to know which rental markets are you most interested

RJ: in. What's up, Rick? That's that's, one of Elijah's buddies. So he he used to live out in Hawaii for a while. So two of the markets that I'm most excited about are Hawaii and Alaska.

Strangely enough, they're higher price points, but they they cash flow great. We can go find a rental, on the the West Side Of Oahu, hundred and fifty, hundred and sixty thousand, get anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 a month.

Steve: You have my properties in Hawaii for under 200,000?

RJ: Yeah. Yep. Wow. Yep. So in the right locations, you you could find really good deals there.

And and that's why, you know, a lot of people compare it to California. Right? And it's not. I mean, it's it's its own little it's got its areas. You know?

I mean, it's got the high price point areas, but it's got the low price point. It's got Section 8 is basically the whole island. Like, you can Section 8 anything. It's based off the bedrooms. So, that's one of the markets.

Alaska is another one. That's a great area where, you know, we we bought a couple of fiveplexes there, two fifty, and we're able to get 5,000 a month in rent. So, those are two of the the markets that I'm most interested in. But if you wanna stay in a lower price bracket, you know, I love St. Louis, and and, obviously, Ohio is a great cash flow market as well.

Steve: Yeah. I thought about Max and I are talking about it. Not now, but maybe some point in 2020, looking at Ohio or Saint Louis or somewhere because the properties you can buy there.

RJ: Well, yeah, it's such a low barrier of entry. You know? I mean, you you can go to Saint Louis or Ohio and buy $5.10, $15,000 and and be renting out for 7 to $850 a month.

Steve: Yeah. That mask just doesn't add up, but that's great.

RJ: Yeah. It's it's pretty crazy.

Steve: Matt Smith wants to know if Titanium Tuesdays is ever coming back.

RJ: So Titanium Tuesdays was our show on Propelio TV. Stay tuned. Yeah. Something's in the works there.

Steve: Very cool. And Ricky Morgan wants to know what's your buy and hold criteria?

RJ: So it depends on the market. I mean, I I can't sit here and say, you know, it's gonna be x y z. I just gave some examples there of, like, what we would do in Hawaii and Alaska. But, like, you just brought up St. Louis and Ohio.

Like, I'm not gonna go buy a property for 40,000 and rent it out for 800 a month in St. Louis because I know I can go buy it for 5 myself and fix it up for probably 10 and be all in at 15 and rent it for 800 a month. Yeah. So each market's gonna have its own set of criteria there. The other thing that most people don't ever wanna talk about if you're if you like to leverage your rentals is that some of those crazy markets are also really hard to refinance and get loans from banks.

So that's another each market's gonna have its own little Mhmm. Barrier of entry, and and that's probably the one in Saint Louis and Ohio. But then again, it's like, maybe I don't have a problem parking $25,000 in that property and just owning it free and clear.

Steve: So So this is the first time I've heard this challenge. So what is the challenge with having the bank refi it?

RJ: They don't wanna give you a loan for less than $50,000.

Steve: Because they're not making money. I got it.

RJ: Well, yeah, because they will actually get in trouble if their fees like exceed a certain amount. Like if it's such a large percent, they're like, woah, what's going on here? So, yeah, you have to look at blanket loans or portfolio loans, private money that might wanna park in for five or ten years and look at amortizing it a lot quicker. So Yeah. There's different ways to get around that.

But sometimes getting bank loans is harder in those those high cash flow markets.

Steve: Gotcha. And Elizabeth Navarazzi wants to know what's next for you.

RJ: So we've we've got a lot in the works as far as, you know, Hawaii and Alaska are gonna be a huge part. Arizona and Texas are gonna be a huge part of us. I I want to change a couple of things, about the Titanium Vault podcast. I've literally had meetings with Dutch Jackson. Dutch, what's up, buddy?

Where I've said, how can we disrupt the real estate investing podcast game the same way Steve Trane did? Like, this is what Steve did.

Steve: Yeah. I

RJ: wanna do something now to change it. So I've got a couple of things in the works there so I can take all of your listeners. No. I'm just playing. That works.

Steve: There's no competition. Right.

RJ: Right. So, there's a couple of things there. We've also started, our media company with Dutch Mhmm. Where, you know, that was not in the plans, anytime soon. But, you know, like I said, we're just listening to what's coming our way.

Dutch fell in our laps. If you haven't listened to Dutch

Steve: They have by default by listening to the show.

RJ: There you go. There you go. So his album d four d, Spotify, iTunes, amazing. It's about real estate investing. You know, I asked him who does his videography.

He said, I do. And I was like, that's impossible, bro. Like, you're in the video. And he's like, I just tell someone to hold the camera, and then I edit it. Yeah.

And so I was like, okay. Come do some videography for us. Created some amazing YouTube out, videos for us. And, you know, one thing led to another, and he was kind of like, look, man. I'm the artist.

I wanna stay the artist. I wanna have to run this business and do all the videography and the music and everything. So we partnered together. The new company, Titanium Vision, is is what we're naming it. And, we're gonna be doing videography songs.

I mean, pretty much anything you think of within the media world, we're gonna be doing that together. And I I love it because it's working with the right people. Like Yeah. Dutch has been such a blessing to to mine and Cassie's life. And, so that's something new.

And then just continuing to grow Beat Kids' Cancer. We're at the point now where we're actually having to add executive directors to the board because we've raised so much money. We're in a new tax bracket. So, IRS says we need two more executive directors. So we're gonna be doing that and continuing to grow the the charity there and eventually start having, events outside the state of Texas.

Steve: So one thing that you and I were talking about earlier, we, you, me, and Cassie had lunch, and you were asking that question. You know, why do I do what I do? Yep. Right? And I wanna talk about what one of the things you you mentioned with me over lunch was that your boy's playing at what is it?

RJ: American Airlines Center.

Steve: Right? Yep. And you got our and you got Dutch coming to film it. Yep. Right?

So, like, why do we do what we do? Why do we subject ourselves to the torture? Why do we work these long hours? Yep. You know, like, for a while, you're working eighty hours a week to make less money than you did.

Yep. And you're working forty hours a week. Like, why do we subject ourselves to this? Yep. But then your boy's playing, and you got Dutch coming to film it.

Yep. Yep. And you can record that. It's a memory. Yep.

You can share that with the other kids' parents. Like, we have things we get to do fun things. Yep. We get to dictate what we do, when we do it, how we wanna do it, with whoever we wanna do it with.

RJ: Yep. You

Steve: know? So

RJ: Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up because, one of the things Elijah has been I I mean, I'm not even gonna say preach. Yeah. I mean, he has been demanding that this is something that we do from now on is, we literally demand the things that come into our lives. And and it's funny that he's been he's been saying this because, like, I didn't know if the the Dallas Stars would allow Dutch to come film.

Mhmm. And, you know, Elijah's been chirping my ear like from now on, we demand this is what we want and it's gonna come into our lives. Okay. Okay. Whatever.

You know, II gotta blow them off like crazy Elijah And then I thought about it. Clearly, I thought about this last Saturday right before Trinity's hockey game, and I was like, you know what? I'm not gonna ask. I'm just gonna tell him this is what's happening. Mhmm.

So I went up, and I was like, hey. My videographer is gonna come, and he's gonna film all the kids, and we're gonna make it cool, super slow mo with the kids coming out. And then, each parent, y'all wanna chip in, like, $15.20 bucks to Dutch's way to help him out for his time. And they were like, yeah. You know what I'm like?

This is that was awesome. You know? Like, nobody was like it wasn't me asking, like, timidly, like, can we please come in and film in America? It was like, hey. This is what we this is what we're gonna do.

And you're absolutely right, man. It is amazing that we we have that opportunity because of real estate investing is a platform. Right? Mhmm. And then it's opened up all these other things that we can do.

I would have never thought that I would have thought three months ago, I'd have a videographer But here it is.

Steve: Well, here it is. And you get to bless Dutch.

RJ: Yep. And you get

Steve: to bless all those other parents and give them something their kids to have

RJ: Yep.

Steve: You know, when they look at this down the road.

RJ: Absolutely.

Steve: Michael Sargent wants to know, do you deal with commercial real estate?

RJ: Yes. Yes. We do. You know, not as much. We've done small multifamily.

We've we've had a couple of deals, you know, smaller commercial. But, yeah, I mean, we we there's very little when it comes to real estate and at this point in time that we haven't done done a little bit of.

Steve: Alright. So let's see what else is there. Alright. So let's see. Some of these other questions, what is what would you say is your biggest struggle at this exact moment?

RJ: You know, my biggest struggle right now would be getting rid of some of the mistakes as far as deals that we probably shouldn't have done, overcoming some of those challenges. But, man, I we're we're so blessed to be in the position that we're in. I I mean, I can't even say it's it's a struggle in comparison to where we were five, six, seven years ago. These are these are struggles that I asked for, that I I begged and pleaded god to put in my life. You know?

And and now sometimes does it suck to have to deal with them? Yeah. But these are things that we've been working on through the whole year to make sure we alleviate ourselves from some of those issues. And and, honestly, if there was just one thing in my life that I could say, hey. Make it go away.

Let the end result be what the end result is. It's just some of those those deals that we've had in in process for too long and some of them sitting on the market for a little bit longer. Outside that, man, everything is beautiful.

Steve: Gotcha. And what is your superpower?

RJ: So I I really I thought about this two ways. I thought I could go, like, the the sappy route, but I'm gonna go the route that, you know, I I've actually I do feel this way. I think it's magnetism. Mhmm. And the first time I ever said this, it was a joke.

Okay? Because I think the most powerful superhero ever created is Magneto from X Men. Like, he controls metal. Yeah. Like, screw everybody else.

He can literally, like, pull all the metal and just wrap it around them.

Steve: You know?

RJ: I'm like so I I said it as a joke, and then I started to think about it. And I truly believe that I mean, a lot of what we've been able to do as a company has come from the relationships that I have been able to establish with people. I mean, really, all of Titanium Investments is based around relationships. Without that, we're not in other markets. We're we're probably not talking about flipping houses.

Steve: Mhmm.

RJ: We're we're probably talking about me wholesaling a lot. Yeah. So magnetism is my, you know, given superpower where I just feel like I'm able to connect with people and make it a reciprocal relationship. And I think that's one of the key things in building relationship is I don't go to you and ask you for something. Like, for example, I am not going to come to you and ask you multiple times if I come on your podcast.

Steve: Yeah.

RJ: Because that's gonna be the first way to know that I'm not gonna be on your podcast.

Steve: Yeah. Right? Right.

RJ: Instead, I make you fly to Houston and wear a suit and stand in line and ask me.

Steve: Yeah. Right? They give two presentations.

RJ: And give two presentations.

Steve: To ask RJ to come on the show.

RJ: So that's why magnetism is my superpower. No. But I I will say that that is relationships have been so vital to us. You know? And and going back to what I was saying, you know, it making sure it's a reciprocal relationship, all jokes aside.

Steve: Awesome. Very cool. So, got two quick announcements, and I'll let you think about the last thoughts that you wanna leave the listeners with. Okay. Alright.

So, next week, we're gonna finish the year with Matt Strong. He's coming down from Salt Lake City. I met him as strategic coach. And the things that they're doing in Salt Lake City as far as lending goes, I mean, they're charging a lot, and it's working. And he's doing really well.

So if you wanna find out how he's, you know, able to build his, hard money business in Salt Lake City, tune in next Wednesday at 2PM. And then in just a few minutes after this, show ends, my business partner, Max, and I are gonna be doing a q and a about our upcoming workshop, in on January. So if you guys are interested, we're gonna be again, we're gonna be launching a live, live, shortly after this episode to talk about our upcoming workshop. And so with that said, last thoughts.

RJ: So, you know, we we talked about a lot of different aspects of my business, so I just wanna recap a couple of things. As far as raising private capital goes, best ways to do that, find a medium that you can be consistent with Mhmm. And join masterminds. Get get your face and your voice out there. Slow down to go faster.

That is the best advice I could give to anyone that has this huge vision for what they want. You you can kill yourself and your company. And then last, but definitely not least, every relationship give more than you take. Yep. So and that being said, buddy, I just wanna say the platform that you have created is unbelievable for all of us to come on here.

Thank you so much for what you've given to this community. I know that it means a lot to you to to do this and what you've created. You and I spoke right before you started, and, it's it's just an honor to be able to to come on the show, but also to see what you've been able to create.

Steve: I appreciate it very much. And, you know, we're following, you know, other footsteps. Right? Someone's already, set the pathway for us.

RJ: So I

Steve: appreciate it. Yep. Someone wants to get ahold of you. How do they do that?

RJ: So Facebook, Facebook Messenger, rj Base the third. Instagram, rjbasethethird. Nextlevelflipping.com if you wanna join the mastermind. And I have a running tradition that I get my cell phone number out.

Steve: Alright. Good luck. I I know.

RJ: (817) 915-6860. Call me if you wanna sell me a property or do business. Don't call me if you wanna prank call me at 03:00 in the morning.

Steve: Yep. Sounds good. Great. Great episode.

RJ: You want a hug?

Steve: Thank you. No. Thank you.

RJ: No hug.

Steve: No. Thank you. Thank you guys for watching. Appreciate it.