Steve Trang Shares What Started the Real Estate Disruptors Movement

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Welcome for today's special episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we're doing a little bit differently. We got Chris Mayfield interviewing me. He thought it'd be a good idea.

We did a little poll, and, apparently, that's what people want. So that's what we're doing today. And then if this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, broker owner of Stunning Homes Realty, cofounder of the OfferFast app, the one app you need for wholesaling. And my goal is to help people become real estate entrepreneurs. I had some struggles when I first started.

You've helped a lot of people build their businesses.

Chris Mayfield: Yes, sir.

Steve: And our goal for this show is to help people become real estate leaders faster. And if you're excited for today's show, please give us some thumbs up, some waves. And this is a live episode. Chris is gonna be checking out the questions, so please don't hesitate to answer. And with that

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: Here we go.

Chris: Good to go. Yep. So I sat down with you a few months ago Mhmm. And, you're gracious to give me my time, which I always respect when an investor was willing to do that. And I asked you about wholesaling, but I thought first it would be cool to share about your journey that you shared with me.

You went from an electrical engineer to all of this.

Steve: Right.

Chris: Can you tell us a little bit about how you went from that to here?

Steve: So, I was an engineer by default. And that sounds kinda ridiculous, but, you know, when I went through high school and college, I was pretty good at math. And being good at math, you know, it it's really what you need, science and math to be good at engineering. And so for me, when I was trying to figure out what major I wanted to do, engineering was the was the easy option. So I did that, and I can't say I was ever really passionate about engineering.

I know there are really a handful of people that really are. But generally speaking, people aren't really excited about engineering. So and that was me. And I know that when I was working at Intel, I didn't really fit in as an engineer. For an engineer, I was extroverted.

Now, naturally, my persona is introvert. But amongst engineers, I was an extrovert. I just didn't fit in, which is ironic because now that I'm in sales, I'm the opposite. Now I'm now I'm the introvert again, and everyone else is the extrovert.

Chris: So so then how do you go from electrical engineer to real estate agent to broker to overall well rounded investor?

Steve: So the passion sometimes seep through or lack of passion. There were I would typically work twenty five, thirty hours a week, and that was what was I wouldn't say it was normal. A lot of people were working forty, fifty, sixty hours a week. And if you're working Intel, it was known for being a sweatshop. Right?

But I've had I had incredible managers along the way. So as long as I got my work done, it was acceptable. So I'd roll in 09:30, and I I was up by five and sometimes 04:30. 04:00 on Mondays because you wanna be on the good games at Lifetime Fitness. You gotta be on the gym by 04:30.

And I thought, you know, no one noticed. But one of these days, I I was actually there after five, and the manager was like, oh, you're still here. But that just goes to show, you know, like, I had great managers and that they they liked the quality work I did, so they didn't give me grief for not, you know, working forty, fifty, sixty hours. But going back to the the passion, just because I was good at it didn't mean I was excited about it. So I always knew that I was gonna quit after seven years.

That was the plan. I was gonna start a business. I didn't know what business, but I knew I was gonna start a business after seven years.

Chris: What was the significance of seven years? Years?

Steve: That's when all your stocks vest, the golden handcuffs. So after seven years This

Chris: show is brought to you by Intel.

Steve: So all all all your stocks vest, and you get a, as a it's a two month spadical. So so you get a two month vacation. Right? So I figured that'd be a good time, you know, to go explore my options. But along the way, my friends and I I have three friends that we bought investment properties together with.

And when we were buying investment properties, we met my, first broker. And I was talking to him. I said, hey. What you seem to do is very interesting, and you make how much money? Really?

I can do that. Wait. What do you do? I just talk to people. I can do that.

So I went from there meeting him, and I asked him, hey. If I wanna learn everything you do, what what would be involved? I said, just just go get your real estate license. So from that dinner to two and a half weeks later, I was licensed. Right?

Sign up for real estate school, got licensed two and a half weeks. As soon as I was licensed, submitted my two weeks notice at Intel, and I was in both feet, real estate, May 2007. Not a good time, but

Chris: All in.

Steve: All in.

Chris: So then you go from agent to broker. What Yeah. What was that? I mean, was that the goal?

Steve: No. The goal and I tell everyone, don't be a broker. It was not a good decision. But I did it. And the reason why I did it was as where I learned, I learned a lot.

The old broker, he was an incredible salesperson. I'm still appreciative of the effort and attention he gave to me. I still think he hates me, but that's a story for another day. But after three years, I felt like I learned everything I could learn from him. And you know this.

The leadership has to do part of being a leader is staying ahead so you can lead the pack. Mhmm. And there came a time where I just felt like I was no longer following, and I was leading. And for me, I just couldn't Right. I can't follow someone that's not ahead of me.

So I decided, you know what? I'm gonna go do my own thing. I'm learning all these things on my own. I'm investing in myself more than he was investing in himself. So at that point, I said, I'm just gonna do my own thing, my own ways.

And there was a little bit of, of greed. Right? I figured if I didn't have a broker, then I would have to pay split. And then I was doing a lot of interesting marketing. I did a lot of Craig Parker stuff, and I didn't wanna get broker approval anymore.

So between those two things, I thought I'd start a brokerage. But then I realized that you're much better off paying a split than paying a lease

Chris: Right.

Steve: And the managing broker.

Chris: Right.

Steve: But fortunately, along the way, I found my passion. So even though I got into real estate just to, you know, make more money, whatever, I found that what fulfills me the most is leading and developing people around me.

Chris: Right. Side note on that, on the on the leading and and always having a leader out front, you also don't wanna get too far out.

Steve: Mhmm.

Chris: I've learned a lot in my past that I can go to the next thing before I've brought my team along. Right. Right? And and what happens is if you get too far ahead Mhmm. You become hazy.

Yeah. And they can't tell if you're the enemy or that you're still their leader.

Steve: Interesting. So you

Chris: have to lead just far enough that you stay ahead and keep them hungry, but not too far away that you walk away from your team. Yeah.

Steve: That makes sense.

Chris: Yeah. So how so then the story to wholesaling. How do you get to there?

Steve: So when we're talking about creative marketing, there was this thing that's called the House Buyer Network back in the day, and there's a lot of pay per click marketing for finding motivated sellers. And it was part of the Craig Proctor systems, and I tried to sign up for it. Bill's locked out. I actually talked to the owner of the House Buyer Network program who eventually became the owner of Commissions Inc. Made a lot of money selling that, to Fidelity title.

But at that time, he said, you know what, Steve? I have a agreement with one agent in town, and I can't, violate that agreement. I said, hey. No problem, Dwayne. Let me do it my own way.

So I created my own pay per click website, did my own thing to find sellers. And I was able to that sourced my business for quite some time. And what we were doing was the guaranteed sale program. And so our guaranteed sale program, I say, Chris, if I can't sell your house, I'll buy it myself. Now I don't buy it at a 100%.

Right. But I'll buy it at 90. Mhmm. Right? So I go to these homeowners.

I say, okay. Here's how the guaranteed sale program works going for these cash appointments, And we offer them 80%. And they said, well, we want cash today. I said, well, it's 83%. You understand?

Right? After ninety days, it says, do we want cash today? It's like, if you want cash today, we can buy at 80. Because I thought no one would take that. Right.

Boy, we were wrong. So the first time I say, hey, Chris. So you understand that if we list it

Chris: Right.

Steve: You'll get this. But if I buy it today, you get This. This instead. You understand? We're talking, like, $10,000 here.

Mhmm. No big deal. So the first two times we bought a house for 80%, we realized, boy, we're doing this wrong. So we backed that number up. But I just fell into wholesaling accidentally because I was trying to find motivated sellers to get more listings.

Chris: Yeah. Hey. A little shout out here to, Andrew. What's up, Andrew? Andrew LeBaron saying what's up.

Steve: What's up, Andrew?

Chris: Steve is usually looking at the computer. But today, I am the interviewer. So tell us a little bit about the struggle. Right? I think a lot of times we hear success stories.

Mhmm. But I think people wanna hear the infancy. Right? What was it like to to grind and try to get this wholesaling thing

Steve: going? Well, I would say there's a lot of struggles all the way throughout, and I would say there's still struggles today. But I remember some of the stuff in the beginning for just traditional real estate. When I started in o seven and and through o eight and o nine, there were not a lot of good opportunities, and we were happy to sell $30,000 condos. And I still remember installing a mailbox on a $30,000 condo so that we can close.

It's probably $900. You know? That's less. The commission I made on that one, which I paid a $50.50 for on the brokers, like, $450. The the struggles that you had to face back then, I felt sharpened me to be where I am today.

Like, there was a lot of pain along the way. But because of all the pain and all the struggles, I appreciate more than what we have. And I think the the a lot of the people that are trying to be successful today, the we're in such a good time right now. The unfortunate thing is they don't have any pain and struggle. Well, they do, but not the same amount of pain and struggle that everyone that had to hustle and cut their teeth on back then.

Right.

Chris: Right. Well, so it where you're at today, obviously, you're you're you're moving. I really sense a lot of momentum with you and your team. What would you do differently if you you know, I I I've learned in this business if you can't pivot Mhmm. You will you'll go down quickly.

Alright. So what would you do differently in the process of getting from here to there?

Steve: I would focus more on on the wholesaling sooner. The it's it's a lot less or it tends to be a lot more transactional. I wish it weren't that way, but that's what I found to be the most successful part of our business. And it's funny, though. If you look at I was actually talking to Brent Daniels about about this the other day.

We have homeowners, like, you know, I list your house, Chris, and let's just say Clemente Ranch because that's where I live. And we set the record. You know, the highest in that neighborhood has been two fifty a square square foot. Right. And I saw your house for $2.80 a square foot.

At the end of the day, you're still dissatisfied. Like, I either I didn't get the bins right or I didn't get you the right update on the appraisal or this or that. And we try to do everything perfectly, but we're still humans. Right? Or the the the lender took too long or the title didn't schedule the signing right.

But there is always something that can go wrong, and I can make you an extra 30 k, and you'll be disappointed.

Chris: Yep.

Steve: But on the flip side, and these are sellers. These are not buyers. Buyers love you. If you do a good job for buyers, they love you. Exactly.

But a motivated homeowner where you're buying their home for 75% of market value is so grateful because they help you. And so as much, again, going back to that fulfillment and doing a good job for people and being happy Mhmm. Like, it's so much more fulfilling to help someone go through that situation.

Chris: Me and Sherry were on a walk this morning, and she said, I I feel like the reason why you do well is because you approach it as a as a help process. Mhmm. They're in a difficult situation. They've they've they've run the gamut on what they could do traditionally, and they're just looking for a way out with the with the least amount of pain. Yeah.

And we come in and try to offer something and honor them through the whole Right. Through the whole process. So so people that are out there looking, they're an electrical engineer and they're thinking about jumping ship and they hear about real estate. I mean, you get on Facebook, you get online. People are constantly selling systems and programs.

Where would you tell people to go look? Where do I go find a mentor?

Steve: So, fortunately, we have shows like this. And if it's not this one, you know, we got some other ones that you can find in the iTunes store. There's some great free content out there or go on to YouTube. And then we have our meetup. We do every first Thursday of every month, where we have a guest speaker speak that is, supported and sponsored by us in the real estate disruptors, movement.

But if none of those worked, then there's also the Facebook groups. Now you do have to sift through, you know, who's real, who's not real. Pay attention. Do your due diligence. But just like you've done and just like I do still today is I go and meet people that are moving, making things happen

Chris: Right.

Steve: And learning from them. I can say the parallel for me in traditional real estate estate before I opened my own brokerage, before I got into coaching with Craig Proctor, I met with the Callaways. I met with Russell Shaw, and I reached out to a bunch of other people too that didn't return my calls. Sometimes that's the way it is.

Chris: It's that way a lot.

Steve: Yeah. But the most successful people are happy to meet with you. Mhmm. They're givers. Right?

So, that's what I would do is I would seek out other people that are doing well and ask them how I can add value to you.

Chris: Mhmm. Right.

Steve: Right? And I think someone made the example. It's like, if I need to go take your car to get washed, that's what it takes to get time with you. I will take your car to get washed. Right?

I mean, if I can learn from someone who's making a $103,105 100,000 a year, I will wash their car if that's not where I'm at today.

Chris: Yeah. I confess. I came out of another profession. I was highly successful. And when I first started doing this, I had one guy who who came out of my same profession and and just built into me and said, there's plenty of stuff you can find without having to pay.

But this last year, I really have tried to make myself vulnerable and get out here and and meet people. I think there's a competitiveness slash a pride issue in wanting to go talk to someone. You know? And I just said, look. This is where I wanna go.

This is where they're at. Go meet them. The ones that'll give me the time of day, just ask questions. Yeah. And it's tough because they think you're there for an agenda.

And I'm like, no. I just wanna learn. Right. Whatever you'll share with me, you know, I'll learn.

Steve: And, it was funny. There was a guy that came into our office yesterday who wants to, get his wholesale business going. And he kinda joked, yeah. We're gonna be competitors. Like, no.

We're not. Like, you're gonna find opportunities you don't know what to do with that we can help you. Yeah. Or someone that's not something that's not a deal for us, it's probably gonna be a deal for you. I mean, the I'm proud to you know, for the people that have been guests on the show to call them friends.

And these guys have been givers, not takers. Right. Right? These are guys that are generally available and happy to help.

Chris: That's cool. So on that, you know, that realm of help, what are some steps? If you were to give somebody, a newbie, five steps on how to get started, what what would you do?

Steve: You know?

Chris: It doesn't have to be five, but Mhmm. One, two, three. Like, here's what I would do to start this, process.

Steve: So the first thing I would do is is find a mentor. Right? Find someone to copy, someone that's got systems in place, and ask them questions. The other things I would do is there's free

Chris: real quick. On the mentor, how would you do that? You don't wanna pay them because you don't have any money. Mhmm. But you do wanna learn from them.

Right. How would you tell that person? I come to you and say, Steve, I really wanna learn from you. I from your standpoint, I really bring nothing.

Steve: Yeah.

Chris: But I'm coming. I I want help. What how can I offer myself so that you would take the time, which is valuable, to invest in me?

Steve: So if I know that you want to learn this business and you're committed and serious about learning this business, then I would teach you how to do this business with our systems existing today. Right? We would give you the people to call. We would give you the scripts, the training. Right?

That's one way to do it. For someone that doesn't have an ego and is okay, you know, learning that I was was given this lesson a long, long time ago from one of the guys I used to poker with. And he sold a window cleaning business for lots and lots of money, back in Singapore, and he started as a cleaner. He started day one cleaning the windows. Yeah.

Worked his way up to management, worked his way up, worked his way up. Eventually, he was in a position to buy the company, built it up some more, and then sold the company.

Chris: That's awesome.

Steve: Right? So I think that one of the best ways to learn is be, to put knee deep in it. And, you know, you can look as an internship. You can look as an opportunity. Look as a job.

But whatever, you're in a position to work the system with leads given to you and coaching and mentoring from

Chris: I did that over a year ago. I stopped what I was doing, and I went and and worked for someone else. And I just said, I need to know more.

Steve: I need

Chris: to be putting more fires, because that's my education. Every deal I've done, I've been educated. Mhmm. Right? I mean, the last there was a deal I did recently, and and the gentleman was living in the house, and his parents had died, but her the mom was less than a year had died, had been removed.

And and so I'm trying to figure out how to do this, and I called my title company, which, god bless them, they said, hey. Just run over to the courthouse and ask a few questions. And I did. Yeah. And I got the deal.

And but yet everybody else told me, no. You're gonna have to let it go. Let it sit probate. I was like, I'm not letting this sit. Yeah.

We're gonna figure out a way to do it. And I chased six other family members down, and we got the we got the job done. Right. And and we helped the guy.

Steve: He was

Chris: in a difficult position, and I love that part.

Steve: It is. When they

Chris: have a smile on their face and say, thank you so much for helping, then I know, hey. I've done the job I was supposed to do. Right. So along those lines, what are you passionate about in this business? So be passionate about every little step, but what are

Steve: the

Chris: parts in this process that really get you the most excited?

Steve: So there's two things I get excited about. One is doing good work, is having people say thank you. You changed my life. Right? Like, that's always awesome.

So whether that's sellers that we've saved, buyers and traditional sellers that we've helped, or the agents in my office. Like, these are all people that I love having that ability to support. The other part, and this is the nerdy part, is just building new systems. I took a Colby test a few weeks a few a couple of months ago, and the the my rating is quick start, meaning I just love making things. I just don't love finishing them.

Chris: Hey. Jeremy just said that to me today.

Steve: Awesome with starting. Not so much putting the finishing touches on you. Yeah. Yeah. So those are things that I'm I'm

Chris: passionate about. Keep going. Yeah. So in your business today, if we looked at your organization Mhmm. And we're talking just about wholesaling right here.

Yeah. What does that look like?

Steve: So right now, it's, Max and myself. That's the partners. And then we got, we got Ruben, George, Ben, Daniel, and these guys are affiliates. They're either door knocking or cold calling. And then we have other people that send us deals.

People are saying, hey. I got this tied up. Are you a buyer? Yes. I mean, from the numbers.

For the ones when they call you, it tends to be a yes. Right. Right? The ones where you're getting email is is like, where'd that ever come from? But when they call you, typically, it's it's a yes.

So

Chris: Now how have you structured that with these guys? Right? How do they come in, and how do they perform, and how do they get paid?

Steve: Oh, well, they get paid on the assignment. So when they bring me a number so, I'll give you a perfect example. We didn't go down this road, but I don't care how much you make on a deal. If you made 50,000, 100,000 on a deal, good for you. Right?

You're able to hustle, get that deal done. For me, our goal is to make 10 to 20, maybe 30 on a deal. Right? So I make that very clear to people that are sending us opportunities. I am not interested or it's not a concern to me how much you make.

What's a concern to me is that there's an opportunity available for me, and I can make money on this deal.

Chris: That's it.

Steve: Right? So and I tell people, call me first.

Chris: Yeah. It's for me, it's not about how big the check is.

Steve: Mhmm.

Chris: For me, what I do in Memphis and other places, it's about volume. Yeah. I'll take less. I'm trying to create a system where we're doing more volume as opposed to gouging somebody on one deal that I never get to work with them ever again.

Steve: Well, it's it's funny. Right? Like, you see these other guys. I I've had friends, I won't mention their names, talk about they're upset that the the person they moved it to beat them up on the assignment phase. Like, hey.

You know what? It's kinda tight. I can't this is too much for me. And then you find out they took all the margin that they beat you up on. So, you know, it's too much for you to make 10, but then they make 30.

So they beat you down from 10 to three, and now they even said making 30, they made 37. Right. That's such a shortsighted way to do business. I can't It

Chris: really is. My my first deal my first deal, I made I made 10 and and not mentioning names. Someone said, hey, man. You don't have any buyers. We'll just put a little bit on top of it.

Steve: And Mhmm. Well, they

Chris: put another 10 on top.

Steve: Yeah. Well, it

Chris: sat there because I knew it wasn't a good deal at that price.

Steve: Right.

Chris: So I said, man, thanks so much. I appreciate it. I'm just gonna go do this on my own. I'm totally green, but I'll figure out a way. Mhmm.

Sold it the next day. Yeah. Guess that you bring me this kinda deal about every time.

Steve: Right.

Chris: So yeah. I I get that. So how many acquisitions? Did you say was that five?

Steve: So we got four guys working.

Chris: Four guys. But what would they their their associates so is Max your acquisitions or is Max the overall

Steve: Max is overlooking the operation. He's the one that's going to the appointments. Okay. He's not, he's not setting the appointments. We have, one person in Mexico booking the appointments.

Chris: Gotcha. Now if they're booking appointments, then what are these people doing? They're just calling

Steve: They're also calling. Okay. So we've got

Chris: They can book appointments as well. Yeah. Okay. So what would the person in Mexico be doing different than what your callers are doing as far as point booking appointments? I

Steve: will say they're doing a little more scrubbing.

Chris: Okay.

Steve: Right? So the leads that come in, we're gonna have a lot of bad numbers. Right. It's the way it goes.

Chris: Yep.

Steve: So they get to do more of those numbers.

Chris: Gotcha.

Steve: Whereas our guys, are gonna have either prescreened or higher quality, just hotter leads.

Chris: So So are you and Max both doing dispositions as far as selling the deal, or how's that working?

Steve: We're both we're both involved in it. I would say we're Max is in charge of making sure MCO is constantly running. We're both doing acquisitions. We're both networking. And, disbowing right now, I wouldn't say we really have a strong disbowing because we're acquiring more than we're wholesaling Sure.

At this exact moment.

Chris: Okay. That's cool. Any interest, any, war stories? Any you know? I think people learn from failure.

Yeah. I think when they when they see people are willing to be vulnerable and say, hey, man, this this man, this tore me up. Yeah. Have any of that?

Steve: I don't have any interesting war stories where we were impacted, but I do have a story that I thought was just the strangest thing and that this is a property we acquired at foreclosure. And so we met the guy. So we're door knocking. Ben door knocked, met the homeowner, and said, hey. We saw your your house is going foreclosure next month.

We're willing to pay x amount. I think we offered on one I think we started at $1.35, $1.40. We ended up at $1.50, which is what his payoff was.

Chris: Right.

Steve: Or yeah. What his payoff was. And he kept dilly dallying, dilly dallying, shopping it. And it was funny. Like, he reached out to another wholesaler who then reached out to Max.

Like, hey. I've got this deal at $1.60, $1.65. Max, like, get out of here. We're already looking at

Chris: that one.

Steve: You know? And so the guy came back and said, hey. $1.55 is yours. And we said, at 01:55, you pay all the closing costs. We're good to go.

Shopped it some more. Right? He went back to the other people and said what what we were willing to pay.

Chris: Yeah. He was he was working it.

Steve: He was working it. Took too long. Got foreclosed on. We bought it at the courthouse. That's for $1.35.

So it was just an interesting situation, but this is also a reminder. You can't help everybody. Right? You can do your best. You can convey the information.

You can present opportunities, but they still have to walk through that door.

Chris: Yeah. I was on the phone with a with a lady, a sweet older lady, and, she wasn't living at the house and and was kinda shopping it. And I kinda gave her an offer on what I felt like I would normally do in my business, and she said, oh, you're at least $20,000 short. And I said I just stopped. I said, look.

This is how this business works. Mhmm. And I said, if that person is willing to pay you $20,000 more than my offer, I said, can I tell you something? Take the money and run. Yeah.

She said, well, I think I might be able to get more. I said, no. That is the offer. Alright. That's almost full market.

Take it and run with the work that you said Mhmm. That's needed in that place. And I just you know what I did? I stopped, and I took fifteen minutes of my time, and I said, if those people can really pay a 100 Mhmm. Ask them to do it in the next three to four days.

Steve: Right.

Chris: If they won't, they're shopping your deal. You know? I just wanted her to be educated. I wanted her to nurse because for me, if I if don't lie Mhmm. And deceive, I don't have to look over my shoulder.

Steve: Right.

Chris: I just tell people the truth. And if I can't get the deal, then obviously, I can't help you. So I say, hey. But look out. Go get your deal.

And I hope you get that 100.

Steve: Go for it. Yeah. We've had multiple conversations like

Chris: people but you you know how many times people call you back? A lot. That wasn't a right. You know, I would like to work with you. I got a deal the other day in Memphis for that one reason.

Steve: We like you.

Chris: Right. We know you're gonna offer us less, but we like you.

Steve: We like you. We know you're gonna

Chris: perform.

Steve: Yep. And one of the questions we started asking is, you know, so what happened or what did they say when, you asked them to deposit the nonrefundable earnest? Oh, they didn't Hem haul.

Chris: Backtrack.

Steve: Yeah.

Chris: You know? Come up with a story.

Steve: Right.

Chris: So I just tell people the truth and it seems to work. Tell me this. You guys seem, again, to have positive, momentum. What do you think, what do you think are some of the, like, the critical things that you're doing well right now that's leading to the momentum that you guys are creating?

Steve: Well, I think we have the right people. Max, I hired him, I wanna say, over a year ago as an ISA. And he told me beginning before I even hired him, hey. I tried this whole selling thing. It hasn't worked for me.

Right? I was like, okay. Hey. You know what? You we you we can do it together because I'm already doing it with the pay per click.

But then after that, he said, hey. You know what? This wholesaling thing is finally working. I'm gonna go do it on my own. I said, hey.

You know what? Go do what go do what's best for you. I'm not upset about that. And we stayed in touch, and we reconnected, to do max cash offers. But I think we got the right people.

And then I think that it's just the personal development. One of the things I tell people getting the real estate, the greatest benefit for me getting the real estate isn't selling houses. It isn't, you know, income or any of those things. It's the opportunity to develop and grow myself. Mhmm.

I'm a much better person today than I was ten years ago because I'm in this business. Mhmm. As an engineer, I was, believe it or not, a little arrogant, a little overconfident.

Chris: Thirty hour a week.

Steve: I was I still remember one of my managers saying, hey. We've got Stephen Covey's seven habits of highly effective people. We're doing a workshop and expecting, you know, does that entail? It's on this day, from this time to this time. You should go check it out.

I was like, what do I need that for?

Chris: I remember when I first met you, you said that they came to you and said, hey. We've got a special project. It's gonna be a little bit more, you know, after hours. And you said, nope. And you said the only reason was I wanted to go home, lay on the couch, and watch a basketball game.

Yeah. You had no desire to do anything else.

Steve: Right. So, so back then, that was my mindset. But, man, you get into where you dictate your future and your income, boy, you gotta improve. And so I I've invested a lot in personal development. I still invest in a lot of personal development.

I'm going through sales training, entrepreneurial training, just traditional real estate training. And I'm also connecting with all these other people that are successful in the wholesaling industry and learning from them. But, the reason why I'm bringing this all back is that Traction was one of the books that I read. Mhmm. And that's helped me run, tighter meetings and more focus.

So on my traditional brokerage, our traditional real estate team, and our wholesale, all three are different traction, meetings that we run every single every single week consistently.

Chris: Right.

Steve: And that allows us to focus on the rocks, focus on our our, our metrics, our KPIs. I mean, for example, this is something that Max and I were looking at on Monday and say, hey. You know what? We can see the metrics for the last two months, the trends, and say, well, we've been cold calling for two months. And literally, we've had no assignments from cold calling for the last two months.

This is a problem. Right? Likewise, door knocking. You know? For the last two months, we've had no second meetings from door knocking.

This is a problem. Right? Since that one that we bought at trustee sale, we haven't had second meetings. So now we see opportunities to look at issues and say, where are we falling short? So So then we changed, made some adjustments on the fly.

Chris: Tell tell tell me one little thing that you noticed in two months of cold calling not getting a deal. What's one little pivot that you made?

Steve: Well, so we made an adjustment on the, warm transfers now. So we had the cold caller in Mexico booking appointments. Now we're saying, hey. You know what? You got a live one.

You send it to Max. Max is the one that's gonna book the appointment. Mhmm. And that's one tweak we made this week.

Chris: I think you hit on something personal development. You know, this year, I started putting myself out there because I'm doing all this by myself. Right. And I started realizing I would rather make less money and surround myself with people that are gonna challenge me Mhmm. Than to keep going in the direction that I'm going in.

Steve: That was

Chris: one of the reasons why I reached out to you just to meet who you were. I didn't know who I was gonna find, and each appointment, I haven't figured out. You know? But but I'm putting myself out there because there's something about accountability, and there's something about good, healthy competition

Steve: Yeah.

Chris: That causes you to grow.

Steve: And, you

Chris: know, you start reading books together. You start doing life together. I was just recently with with Jamil, and and it was my first time to ever meet him. I was so impressed. But what I was impressed was when I walked in and saw their whole thing, you could tell they do life together.

Mhmm. Right? They they don't just work together. They do life together. And that's in my former career why I always built great things was I made it a family thing.

And and, it's very important because what it does is then you get this kinda holy fear inside of you of I better do a good job of leading Right.

Steve: If

Chris: I'm gonna attach myself to already a a a good team. Yeah. I better, you know, develop. And I think there's something, beautiful about that. So And

Steve: I don't know if Jamil wants us to put this out there, but if you guys haven't had a chance, you guys need to tour Keeley in Tempe. I mean, I walked in there. I told Jamil I was blown away Yeah. When I walked that office. You know?

I was tempted to do Facebook Live. I was ah, he's out of town. I don't know if I can get permission in time. Like, he's doing whatever. But it's an incredible environment.

Chris: So It really is. There there was music playing and stuff, but we went in his office and shut the door. But I was just impressed at his transparency and his willingness to to give me an hour. In the midst of all their craziness.

Steve: Right.

Chris: He didn't check his phone 16 times. He didn't look out the door 38 times. He just sat and asked questions and and listened, and Yeah. I was very impressed. So, with that, you know, obviously, he's got some some pretty unique superpowers.

Mhmm. What would you say is a a superpower with you?

Steve: So it's gotta be either learning or or, caring. I'm not sure which one it is.

Chris: That I was hoping you were gonna say that word. Yeah. First time I met you, I said, how'd you go from one real estate agent to a broker with some odd 50 agents?

Steve: Yeah. We're over 60 now. It's crazy.

Chris: You said one word, and I'd went home and told my wife immediately.

Steve: Yeah. So we're deeply passionate and care about our agents. And it's so easy to just say, oh, I care about you. Right?

Chris: Well, yeah.

Steve: It's easy to say it, but to live it and for them to feel it. And it goes back to, you know, John Maxwell's Good Leaders Ask Great Questions. One of my favorite books. I feel like a lot of his books kinda blend together. But of all his books, that one's my favorite.

Chris: He's a great dude.

Steve: But there's three questions that you need that your people need to be able to answer, and I'm hoping hopefully I'm not butchering them. But do you care about me? Can I trust you to do what's best for me when I'm when I, you know, I'm not looking?

Chris: Mhmm.

Steve: And are you capable

Chris: of

Steve: leading me? Mhmm. And those three questions are something I always have the back of my mind. Oh, absolutely. When I'm working with my people, that's always on my on my on my mind.

And I think I'm fortunate also that I'm naturally that way. I think that probably being the oldest of six boys has a little bit of that effect

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: You know, being the first born. But

Chris: Well, that last question is always in the back of my mind. That's why I'm out seeking and and and asking questions of different leaders in Arizona is who could lead me?

Steve: Because,

Chris: I remember serving at a church. I was a pastor, and I remember one of my leaders said, you're difficult to lead. And I said, is that a compliment, or is it and he said, it is. You're just you got a bandwidth. Mhmm.

You know? And most people kinda just wanna slowly go through on their conveyor belt. Mhmm. And you think, and you wanna challenge, and you wanna go where no one's ever gone before. And that makes people nervous.

Steve: Have you read The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chad Holmes? No. So you should read that one. But that's what he said. He was like he realized like, everyone kept complaining that he was awful to lead.

But every time he worked somewhere, he doubled their production, fit or 50% year over year consistently. Right. Right. And what he found was that by finding the difficult people is how you're able to make massive changes and improvements. Mhmm.

Right? Without the difficult people like, you want someone that just kinda comes in and and it's a job, then you're not gonna get make massive pivots or switches or or growing.

Chris: Not at all.

Steve: But you get the troublemakers in there, which I feel like we're pretty good surrounded by troublemakers. That's how you make things happen.

Chris: It really is. You know? Yeah. You kinda I was talking to another guy. He's like, I go out and create all the messes.

Yeah. And the rest of my team kinda cleans it up. Mhmm. We we make money. Yeah.

So, what lesson would you wanna teach somebody young in the real estate? They're they're a young entrepreneur. Mhmm. What's a lesson you wanna pass on to them today?

Steve: I think I think you gotta learn. I think you gotta grow. And I one of the books I give to all our new people is the miracle morning, whether you're miracle morning for real estate agents or just miracle morning. And that one does a pretty good job of of capturing what you need, the mindset, but you gotta keep growing because the world's gonna pass you if you stay still. The minute you feel like you've gotta figure it out is the moment you get past.

And, one, one thing Darren Hardy always says, right, you know, you wanna make God laugh, tell him your plan. And that's exactly it. If you're not growing to stay ahead of everybody else, you will get passed, especially how fast things are changing today. Mhmm. I'm always hearing these new things that, like, man, now we gotta have that in our system.

Because if we don't have that, we're we're so behind.

Chris: But then let me let me challenge that a little bit and say, but how do you not kinda chase the new thing so much that you don't kinda keep treading towards the success? You know, you've got a system that's working. Right. Yes. I understand we gotta tweak and we gotta but sometimes we get so focused on what somebody else is doing Mhmm.

That we get off track in what we're supposed to do. And what how do you kinda coach that?

Steve: So we don't tear everything down. Right? We add to it. So I would say that's definitely something that for the longest time, people are always afraid of me going to conferences. The the particularly, there's two conferences going back to Darren Hardy.

I went to two consecutive Darren Hardy conferences, and both times, I fired two people. Because he says he's standing in front of you, and he says, you know there's people that are don't belong on your team. And right now, you're thinking about it. And those people that you're thinking about, you gotta go back, get a fire.

Chris: Were they there at the conference with

Steve: you? No. So but there's a lot of you wanna go back as a visionary and, like, implement wholesale changes, but we don't. We make tweaks. And so when I come back from a conference, what I try to do is just write down, okay.

If I accomplish three things out of these two pages I wrote down, that's massive. And so we don't wanna tear everything down. It's just subtle tweaks here and there.

Chris: Matthew, Potter said, true story. First book he handed me was Miracle Morning, and our production went through the roof. He is a good guy.

Steve: He's an awesome guy.

Chris: You know what's cool? I mean, that's what I love about networking. I was I was on a house with short sale and hadn't dealt with that much, and I watched an interview. Yeah. And you were interviewing him, and Mhmm.

He was the short sale guy. Yeah. So I literally just reached out to him. And the next thing you know, he I got a three way phone call, and we're working a deal together with another wholesaler. And he's putting in all the work and giving me the all the advice and, you know, props to him.

So

Steve: He's an amazing guy. I'm very very lucky to have him.

Chris: Yeah. We're we're trying to have lunch, hopefully, So what's the greatest lesson that you have learned? And I'm gonna I'm gonna in the last five years

Steve: Mhmm.

Chris: What's the greatest lesson that you've learned in wholesaling?

Steve: The greatest lesson I've learned in wholesaling? Boy. I'm gonna tie this back to a comment I made earlier, and I I feel like it's the same theme over and over again. But if you just network with other people and develop relationships, it really can help your business quite a bit. So and intentional relationships, intentional networking, not just networking for the fun of it.

I learned a lot about wholesale from Jamil. You know? I consider him to be one of my mentors. But finding people that can help you grow, I think that's that's the greatest lesson. It's we you something more, you know, insightful, but No.

No. That's just that's the way my mind works.

Chris: Sure. What are you learning right now?

Steve: How to how to get our brand out there. So right now, you know, this is one of the things we're doing, and it's so fascinating to me that I'm I feel like I'm still the same person that I've been for the last few years. But because of what we're doing here with the podcast, with the meetups, and intentional networking, you know, we're getting our brand out there and becoming an authority in the space. So that's the that's what I'm learning right now.

Chris: Now don't you have an app? I do. So what is that?

Steve: So I created an app with my cousin Wayne, OfferFast. And what we felt was a need a little over a year ago, for one place to consolidate all the wholesale properties because how many emails are you getting a day? And for a lot of those, they just you kinda get email blindness from them. And we know statistically, email's about 17% open rate

Chris: Mhmm.

Steve: Or less. And text messages used to be the thing, but that's kinda going away. I know I was guilty over a year ago of starting to treat text messages like emails. We're kinda going through that pace or that that direction. Right.

So we created an app so that you get push notifications. So, you know, we don't know we're there yet, but if all the wholesalers all put their properties there, then for a buyer, it's a lot easier for them and creates a better experience for them. And from there, they can they can view the properties kinda like you have, you know, for Zillow. You can view all the wholesale properties from all the different wholesalers. You can make offers on it.

You can do messaging on it. And we're not there yet, but we're gonna have push notifications for your area. So that's the focus for, the rest of the year is being able to say, you know what? I only wanna buy properties in a five zero one six. So you create a filter for a 5016.

Right. And you get push notifications anytime an 85016 property comes up. So we're trying to create a better experience for wholesalers, because right now, it's still a little bit of a free for all. I always tell people before that real estate was the most capitalistic industry of every of everything in America. Now that we we do more wholesaling, boy, that's capitalism.

That's way more capitalistic than traditional real estate.

Chris: So what about, so you got an app. Mhmm. You got real estate, disruptors. I mean, what are you doing in regards to coaching? Is that on the forefront?

Is that something that interests you? Or

Steve: That's something that we would love to do. When we about six about three months ago, I said, you know, in six months, I would like to start investigating coaching. But we already have people reaching out now and say, hey. You know what? I'm stuck here, or I don't know what to do about this.

So we're finding that this opportunity has presented itself sooner rather than later. But, yeah, definitely a passion for that because that goes right in line with my my passion of of helping develop people. Right. So if I can help transforms people's lives, boy, that's that'd be the ultimate.

Chris: That for for what I've come out of and and my philosophy is there's always somebody ahead of me, but there's also always somebody behind me. Mhmm. And so it's kind of an image of I'm holding their hand in their hand because I feel like once I've been empowered, once I've been educated, I've gotta figure out a way to pass that on to someone else. Mhmm. So that's that's huge.

I mean, if I could get where I want to be in my passive income, I'd probably this sounds crazy, and I probably won't, but I'd stop just so I could focus on that. Yeah. If I could wake up and make other people's day better Yeah. That, truly would excite me. That's the part of wholesaling that I do like Yeah.

Is is the getting in that conversation with somebody who's hurting Mhmm. And they don't feel like they have a way out. So what's your favorite, best or maybe even most interesting failure?

Steve: So when I first started real estate, I signed up for everything. So when people were asking or some of the agents, you know, I'm thinking about signing up for this, signing up for that. I was like, talk to me first because there's an opportunity to spend it. I've probably spent it. So racked up a lot of credit card debt when I first started.

And I would say that's probably the most interesting failure because it got to the point and this is back in two thousand eight, two thousand nine Right. Where the credit card company said, Steve, you have so much credit card debt with us. We don't think you can pay it off. Right? To which I had every intent of paying it off.

But when they said that, I said, you know what? You're right. Let's settle this. So, and that took a while. Right?

Hurt your credit for a little bit.

Chris: Sure.

Steve: But, hey, if you're willing to take less you told me you wanna take less. I'll give you less.

Chris: Sure.

Steve: But I would say that was the the shiny object syndrome. And I still battle it today. Shiny object syndrome hasn't gone away. But now there's a voice in back of my head that says, hey. You know what?

This just makes sense. And I'm also incredibly blessed that I've got a wife who not only supports me, but also keeps me out of trouble. Like, the, I I joke sometimes, you know, it's a husband's job to go out and find trouble, and it's a wife's job to keep us out of it.

Chris: Yeah. My wife would disagree, but I get us into a lot of trouble. So let me I wanna circle back on something because it did make an impression on Jeremy and I. You say and you said this, and that's actually what attracted me and Jeremy to your tribe is you care. Yeah.

What do you think it is in your life deep seated that causes you to care? Not I care for people so my business can be successful. Mhmm. But maybe I'm being a psychologist here. But Yeah.

Why do you care? Like, what do you think it is that started at a young, early age for you to care about people as opposed to looking at them as profit?

Steve: I think it has to do with my upbringing, culture. You know? I think, I had two parents who, always told me that if anything happened to them, I was personally responsible for the five younger brothers. Now, fortunately, they're all successful, but that was what I was raised with was that you have this responsibility. We're investing in you.

Right? They helped me, you know, obviously, live with them through high school. I they paid for my car when I went to college. Now I had a scholarship. So they said, you know, if you get a scholarship, we'll buy we'll buy you a car.

Chris: Right. So

Steve: I got a scholarship. They bought me a car. But they supported me through college, and then I went to grad school. So So I moved to California, fortunately, for grad school. I also got a fellowship where they paid me to go there.

Mhmm. But they were still supporting me remotely. But, again, it was an investment where if anything happens to them, like, I am responsible for everybody else. And then there's also and it they did this since I was, like, three or four, probably earlier since I can't remember any earlier. And I do the same thing to my kids.

It's that, hey. We're taking care of you now, but you just know when we're old, you're responsible for us. So there was always that lesson responsibility. Mhmm. I don't I'm not saying they didn't do it with my other brothers, but I don't think it was the same extent.

In fact, I've I've given my parents some grief because if I didn't get straight a's, boy, I don't go home with not straight a's. And then they were a little bit lax with my younger brothers. Say, oh, so either you're unhappy with how I grew how you raised me or you've decided you want the younger ones to be failures. Right. Which is it?

And they didn't like that conversation.

Chris: Yeah. You know, with grades, it's I have five kids, and four of them are still in high school. And and grades are important to me, probably not for the same reason

Steve: Mhmm.

Chris: For a lot of people. But I've always taught my kids, I want you to get the a because it's a process. Mhmm. I don't care about the letter grade a. Mhmm.

But it's the process in getting the a. You're gonna use that for the rest of your life. Yeah. You gotta go sit at a job or build a team, and you might not like everybody. But you still want an a plus outcome.

So what are you willing to do? How flexible are you willing to to get what it is that you want even if you don't? Because I got tired of hearing, I don't like the teacher. I don't care. That's who God put in front of you.

Yeah. Find out what makes them tick.

Steve: Right.

Chris: Really, which goes back to whole selling.

Steve: Mhmm.

Chris: If you really do a good job of listening and find out what makes someone tick Mhmm. You'll be able to help.

Steve: Right.

Chris: So I I do commend you on that. You, I continue to watch you just to see if he fake cares or cares, but it does seem that you really do care. So I appreciate that. So two questions real quick. What are you reading right now?

Steve: I'm not reading anything at this particular moment.

Chris: Honest people.

Steve: Because right now, I am I am knee deep. I'm doing some Sandler training right now. I am knee deep in that, and I am all in on that. I mean, I am going to classes three times a week. I am listening to audio in my car.

That is what Where are

Chris: you going to classes?

Steve: So there's a Sandler facility up in, Scottsdale. 90th. Okay. So Brad Ferguson's a super awesome dude. But like I talked I was saying earlier, like, sales training, I this is remapping everything I know about sales.

So that's all my energy

Chris: That's good.

Steve: Is in that.

Chris: Favorite book or or or what's a book that everybody should read if they're thinking about wholesaling and real estate investing?

Steve: So this goes back to Traction, and it's universal. But I think Traction is a great book, and then for the visionaries, Rocket Fuel Mhmm.

Chris: To

Steve: learn how to deal with people that are reading traction, that that need traction. And then one of the books I gave I gave two books to everyone at our organization. One was Delivering Happiness, which is Tony Hsieh, the guy that found his Zappos and sold it to Amazon. Mhmm. And that's something that it's all about service.

Everything starts with service, and that's one of our five core values, but the most important of our five core values, and then, Miracle Morning. And Think and Grow Rich is still one of my all time favorites, but so many people say they can't get through it.

Chris: Why do you think, last question for me, why do you think people you you've you've done a great job of putting people, on the show and asking great questions, and they're doing well. But why do you think people fail in this industry?

Steve: I think it comes down to grit. I think it comes down to the willingness to do what other people won't. There's someone there's someone who wrote a great, article or or or journal, but, you know, if you want to, succeed, do what other people are not willing to do. But I think that right now, we've got some amazing young people in wholesaling today. And, you know, thank goodness that we have those those young hustlers.

But we've trained a lot of people to to to not expect greatness, or expect greatness within yourself. This is something that's, you know, preposterous. But when I was in first grade this is the beginning of give everyone a first place trophy. Right? When I was in first grade, I was we were in a contest.

It's not a turkey trap, but it was one of those things. Right? And one of the events was who can get the fastest from here to point point point a to point b, right, the finish line with an egg on the spoon. This is one of, like, the four or five events. And I totally cheated.

I put my thumb on the egg and ran. Totally cheated. Totally got busted. Right? You think you're smart at six years old.

You're not.

Chris: You're not.

Steve: Right? So I got busted cheating. And after the event was over, I got a blue ribbon. I said, what's this blue ribbon for? And he said, oh, everyone gets a first place ribbon.

Yeah. I looked at her, took that blue ribbon, and just threw in the trash can. And I'm a little competitive. Right? Yeah.

So I think that right now, a lot of people are allowed. I'm not saying not allowed or allowed to fail because I want everyone to embrace failure. Like, you have to fail to be successful, but I think they're failing without getting any of the benefits of failing in that.

Chris: And that's where I'm saying fail with accountability.

Steve: Yeah.

Chris: If there's some type of accountability built in

Steve: Right.

Chris: You're held to a standard of, hey. You failed. Let's learn. Let's move from that.

Steve: Right.

Chris: But with no accountability.

Steve: Yeah. So you tried hard.

Chris: And I tell people, I don't wanna be a swamp. I wanna be a river. I need those two sides. Right? Because that causes me to flow.

It causes me to move and even move with purpose and power. Yeah. But you remove those boundaries, and I'm just a nasty, stinky, smelly swamp. And no one wants to be there. Right?

Steve: Yeah. And yeah. So I don't I don't think people know how to learn or grow from failure.

Chris: Good word. Well, hey, man. I I've enjoyed it. I appreciate you letting me, throw this idea at you and, and, do this. I think people did wanna hear from you.

I think you are building something Yeah. That, is is desirable to be around. I think people would benefit from the app. I think people do benefit from, this show every week, and I think there's more to come. So I just wanted to say thanks for letting me do this.

Steve: And Oh, thank you. Yeah. Thank you for for suggesting this. You know? You told me.

I said, no. No one wants to hear this.

Chris: I like doing stuff different. Yeah. If someone's zigging, then I say we should zag. Yeah. You know?

So I just thought, hey. It would be just something different. So I'm gonna turn it back over to you here for the end.

Steve: Alright. Thank you. And, guys, thank you. And do please tune in. Next week, we got Chris Iman.

He is one of the, the godfathers on the wholesale for the hard money side. He's been doing it for a very long time, so he's gonna give us perspective on how he survived the last two, turnarounds. And then we do have our event next Thursday. I think it's the sixth, 04:30 at McPhate Brewery, so be ready to attend that. And then download the app.

You know? We we we love for you guys to give us some feedback on the app and what we can do to make it better for you guys. So with that, thank you guys for watching, and thank you for this. This is awesome.

Chris: Yeah. Appreciate it.