Steve Valentine Shares What Wholesalers and Real Estate Agents are Missing Out On

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disrupters. Today, we have Steve Valentine with the Valentine Group, and he's here to share what we're all missing out on as wholesalers and real estate agents. If this is your first time tuning in, I am Steve Trank, broker and owner of Stunning Homes Realty, founder of the OfferFast Homes app, the only app you need for wholesaling. And I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires.

So if this is something you're interested in, let's connect on Instagram. That's where I I can, respond to any questions you have. If you're excited for today's show, please give me a wave, give me a thumbs up. And as a friendly reminder, I do not charge a dime for this show. There's no ads that run during the show, so I don't make any money doing this.

So all I ask, and this is what it costs for you to listen to this show, if you get value today, tell a friend. You can share this episode right now, tag a friend below, or tell them your best takeaway from the show later on. That way, we can all grow together. Don't forget, this is a live show. So please post your questions, receive the answer.

He has promised that he's an open book, and there's no question that he won't answer. Oh, man. Ready? Yep. Let's do it.

Alright. So your story, your journey into real estate is a little different than just about everyone else's on the show. So let's talk about your journey into real estate.

Steve Valentine: Kind of born and bred in it, to be honestly, or to be honest, third generation real estate agent.

Steve: Third generation.

Steve: Third generation. So my grandmother was one of the first real women real estate brokers in the state of Illinois, I think, back in, like, 1970. And, parents moved out here. They had gotten their real estate license in Illinois and moved out here. And then I did my short stint of I want nothing to do with this Mhmm.

When I was 18 to 20 and then went back into it and asked my dad for the opportunity. And my mom still owns a property management company here in Phoenix, and I'm still doing sales and buying houses and picking up where my dad left off.

Steve: Right. Cool. There was a I remember, you know, when I first got into real estate many years ago, you guys owned Moon Valley. Yep. Dominated Moon Valley.

Yep. And then market shifted. Things changed. What were the lessons you learned from that?

Steve: You know, the the biggest lesson is that whenever anytime the market changes, you need to go in deeper to maintain what you're doing rather than hiding when the market changes. And I think that's what a lot of the industry did was

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: Oh my god. I can't face these people because this is happening. And, you know, you start cutting costs rather than figuring out how to invest and and do things a little bit differently. So, you know, my learning from that was I should have stayed knee deep in Moon Valley and kept pushing it because, you know, the two biggest competitors in there ended up kinda dying off.

Steve: Right.

Steve: You know, it was my mom and dad and and Mary Hughes, and then it just kinda slowly diminished. And now you've got I think Long Realty kinda dominates most

Steve: of most

Steve: of Moon Valley at this point in time. I get a couple of jabs in every now and again.

Steve: Yeah. They're in that Dunkin' Donuts. Is that still there?

Steve: Yeah. They are. Yep. That's it's a good office.

Steve: It's a great office. So, you know, one of the things I wanted to, one of the reasons I really wanted you on the show, and it's something that I've talked about a couple of times, is we've got this weird thing where real estate agents hate wholesalers. Right? You know, if you were to describe what, like, the Hollywood version of what a wholesaler looks like, I think that's kind of the realtor perception is as well. Right.

So what would you I mean, how do you reconcile that? How will you how will you, you know, respond to that?

Steve: You know, I think that, I think people get the wrong perception of the wholesaler, and I think it's because of the way you know how you get a few bad apples in the bunch? Oh, yeah. You know, I wanna have relationships with wholesalers. Like, I can't talk to everybody. And if somebody wants to bring me a deal, the thing that always, you know, irritates me on wholesaling is we want $5,000 nonrefundable before you've ever looked at the house type.

Like, there's not a relationship thing. It's a how can I sucker you into this? Mhmm. And that's not what I do. If you've got the contract and I understand its timing and all that stuff.

So I think that's where the perception comes in Mhmm. Is that it's kinda like the slick trying to be slick here Yeah. Rather than, hey, Steve. I got this deal. You know, do you wanna take a look at it?

You know, I got some other people looking at it as well. So first come, first serve. Yeah. I think that's kinda where the perception comes in.

Steve: But there's also this other piece. Right? We're like because you and I, we we wear both hats. Yep. And I think 95% of the realtor community hates that we come in there and offer them both options.

Because they think that the seller, we should only bring in one tool. We should give them retail. Right. And that's it. So what would you say to those realtors?

Steve: Well, that's not the only solution. The the the issue with that is is that you're not thinking outside the box. Mhmm. You know, when you look at it, it, every seller has a different journey they're on, which means there's different things. People are in financial problems.

The house is in disrepair. And most agents I mean, it's it's about creativity. It's about how can I help the best and find the best solution? And it was one of the things that even you know, after my dad passed away and I started looking at some of the things he was doing, like, there there might be a little twist that I can do and maybe still help everybody accomplish it either way. But most people are scared of that other option because they've only been taught one way.

Right. You know, let's I mean, let's be honest. Wholesaling is kind of like wholesaling and flipping is a new thing over the last couple of years.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: You know, it wasn't a big deal back in 02/2003.

Steve: Yeah. I I only learned about it during 2008, 2009, 2010. Right? When people people buying some things at auction. It was just days.

Those are the best days. Right. I missed out on that opportunity. Right. So flippings gets all the glory, but wholesaling is where the where the grind's happening.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's and I think it's just an opportunity, you know. And I think it's, I think the other reason that maybe wholesalers get a bad rap is for the ones that tie things

Steve: up Mhmm.

Steve: Try to get a buyer for it even though it's a price that's not realistic. And then they just come back to the seller, and they can't do anything with it. So it's

Steve: So I know there's a bad rap for that. But I look at that as really 90 different than the listing agent. I was like, oh, true. Right? Let's try this price.

Yeah. Like, I know your house is worth $2.50. But, yeah, you know what? Let's go ahead and try $3.30 and see what the market says. You can't

Steve: list my house. Right. So, you know, they got

Steve: that bad rap of tying a property up, but I don't think they're that different than that agent that's willing to take a listing just for the sake of taking a listing.

Steve: Well, I mean, let's let's look at both sides of the industry. No matter what, you're gonna have some real estate agents that do the right thing at the right time every time. Yep. And you've got some wholesalers that are legitimately doing it to help people and go through it. Absolutely.

And in both industries, you've got people that are just shady. I don't care if you have a license or don't have a license. We've all dealt with them.

Steve: Yeah. So I have, people that, you know, bad mouth agents or wholesalers. Right. And I would ask them. I was like, so you tell them that your work, 80% of the people there aren't idiots?

Right. They're like, no. They're idiots. Like Right. It's every industry.

You can't judge all of us based off just a bad apple. Sure. So what was your first wholesale deal?

Steve: Oh, Oh, first wholesale deal. You know what? It wasn't even so let me kind of you know, on the wholesale side Yeah. I've only wholesaled a couple of properties.

Steve: Okay.

Steve: I I really ended up buying majority of the properties. Yeah. So we've acquired more than 400 homes over the last four years.

Steve: Wow. That's impressive.

Steve: So we constantly buy things, and then we'll close on them and figure out what to do with them because I think there's more opportunity owning the real estate. But I remember the first deal that, you know, we I'm trying to think back. The very first one that we actually wholesaled where we didn't close on. And to be honest with you, because we buy so much, I can't remember the first wholesale deal. No.

I don't know.

Steve: But I think that's an interesting point. So, again, you know, like my mission, I'm trying to help real estate agents learn that there's other avenues. Right. Like buying properties as a real estate agent, now you can acquire the property. Mhmm.

You make the profit on the flip side when you move it, but you get signed calls. Yep. So you're It's

Steve: lead generation.

Steve: Lead gen. So, like, this is the the the side of the business that I think a lot of realtors are looking right past. So, you know, you were talking about some of the great opportunities that wholesalers and and realtors are missing out on. So what are those opportunities that realtors and wholesalers are missing out on?

Steve: Well, I think it's the opportunity. Two things. Number one is we go through in real estate, and this is, again, this is something that I took away after watching my dad work his rear end off for investors for so many years. How many years was he in it? So he was in the business forty years.

Steve: Okay.

Steve: And he passed away about four years ago.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: But that nine months that that he went through his cancer treatment, all that stuff, what I realized was that the five years previous, you talk about the o eight market. My my dad made a stance in the trustee sale. So my dad was building this investor network from all over the place, and I think my dad bought about 700 and some odd homes at trustee sale over that time. Mhmm. And he worked with all these investors building his portfolios, but he never did it for himself.

So he worked that entire time and worked himself into the grave and never acquired one property for himself. It was always chasing the dollar. So when you look at real estate agents, it's a business that we know. We know values. We know how to help people.

We know how to get the end result. And there's usually some built in equity in the deal when you look at a cost of sale of that seven to 10%. Well, it's already gonna get paid somewhere. Can you utilize that to acquire a property in in a certain way?

Steve: Right.

Steve: Same thing with wholesalers. So rather than just getting rid of everything for a dollar, nobody's looking at, well, can I keep something every now and again? Like, what's my long term benefit of keeping stuff? Mhmm. And I started realizing that earlier.

I'm like, my dad's been in the business forty years. Like, he's done all the work and put in all the knowledge, and all he's doing is selling that knowledge for pennies on the dollar to people, and he's not utilizing it to his advantage. So that was when the switch flipped for me. And I said, okay. That's gotta stop.

Mhmm. And Wendy and I went to town, and we we do this thing in the limitless project where we draw buy box, which is getting people to understand, like, what makes a good rental property, like the ideal rental property. What's your geographic? What size does it look like? What's gonna cost you?

And so we've done all the studies and stats on it. And when those properties come up, whether it's a Zillow lead or something in nature, I'm walking in going, this is one ideal property that I wanna keep for cash flow reasons, for all these pieces. And that's the thing that we're missing out on. Like, hey, we all need to make income. That's why I do real estate.

Steve: Yeah. But at

Steve: some point in time, you've gotta look at the opportunity. Do you need that money right now, or do you need money later?

Steve: Yeah. And real estate is just a vehicle. Right?

Steve: Absolutely.

Steve: Like, you don't sell real you don't sell houses for fun.

Steve: No. Well, sometimes.

Steve: So you said there were multiple opportunities? So there was, rental properties? Is there there something else?

Steve: Well, I think the the other thing that that people miss is because of misconception of how funding is available. Mhmm. You know, a wholesaler might make 5 or $10 on something. But if they had relationships and money, they're not, you know, hey, you don't have to have 20 projects going, but you could do one every now and again. That's a home run where you got hard money on, you closed on it, you flipped it, whatever the case may be.

Mhmm. Because every like, in real estate, my dad used to always say, which is still true, you know, listings control the market. So signs control the leads, you know. And when we're real estate agents, I can buy half my inventory. Still make a profit, but better yet is I'm still, producing leads through those properties.

And because I'm the seller, it's easier for me to manipulate what I'm doing. I don't have to spend a lot of time servicing, going through things, trying to go through the day to day stuff that we normally do with the listing, which is fine. But buying it, you get to try it as is. Mhmm. You know, hey, let's see if I can I can put a sign in the yard and go as is, or do I need to renovate it?

And those are those are the opportunities that we miss out on.

Steve: So one fun experiment I did a while back was I listed a house for a dollar. Because our friend Carly Carly Goulet

Steve: said gotta love Carly.

Steve: She's like, yeah. There's this guy in Texas or whatever. Like, he lists all his properties for a dollar, and his and he gets more than market. I was like, alright. Let me try it.

So I did it. So I could never advise a seller, hey. We should list your house for a dollar. But I got to do it. And we did get over market, but which is an interesting experiment to try.

But after that experiment, I was like, I don't know if I could actually How many offers did you get? Like, real written signed offers? I think maybe eight or nine. But, like, verbal?

Steve: Yeah. How many how many phone calls?

Steve: Forty, fifty, 60.

Steve: You set up a a Google number just for that listing?

Steve: No. We really wanted to learn. It was an experiment. So that was a lot of fun.

Steve: I'm not sure I wanna try that.

Steve: But, you know, you you mentioned something earlier because when I first met you, right, it was around that time where your dad was sick. Yep. And you were dealing with his illness, keeping the company company going, and dealing with the investors. And what you found was those investors didn't give a crap about your debt. Nope.

So you're trying to salvage, salvage this whole thing, and then you kinda learn the brutal truth as well Right. Where your relationship with your investors aren't really

Steve: Well, there was one investor that which was his biggest that didn't.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: You know, and I really found that because that was one of the ones that my dad devoted a lot of his time to. But there's a lot of investors that I still have great relationships to these day because they they trust the process, and that's part of what we do at the Valentine Group is that I want the general public to understand the benefits of owning real estate. And there's a number of ways to do it, and there's a number of ways to invest in it even if you don't own it. You know? That's what we call our our deed of trust program.

Right. And so you want people to guide, but the investors that come in that think they know more than you do and they go through the process and they beat you down, those are people I really don't wanna work with because it's it doesn't give me any satisfaction. Amazing job for him, and I just refuse to go down that road when it comes down. Either we're gonna work together

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Or we're not gonna work at all because I'm not working for you.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And that was one of the things that I looked at as my dad was working for this guy. And I'm like, I don't want anything to do with that.

Steve: Right. So it's a valuable lesson. Learned not the best way, but it was a valuable lesson. So you this limitless project, what drove you to launch this this limitless project?

Steve: So it was it was out of passion for the things that I saw. You know, my my dad dies, and I look around and go, well, why didn't he? I mean, back in the day, you could buy a $50,000 house on 20% hard money and sell cash flow.

Steve: I miss those days. Right. If I knew then, what I know now?

Steve: We all

Steve: say that. Goodness.

Steve: Okay. So so let's take that same same theory. What is it any different other than the prices? What's any different than now? You still like, I know the prices are different.

Right. And I get that. It's a

Steve: little harder to cash flow at 12% hard money.

Steve: Oh, yeah. You're not getting you're not getting that. But can you absorb some things and look at the time because there's so many benefits, especially for real estate agents to own because of tax advantages and, you know, tenants paying the properties off over time, and it's things that sit and spin. And Yeah. And I'll be honest, you know, the large portfolio that we have, we probably put a little money into it every month.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: It doesn't necessarily cash flow, but I don't have a bunch of money in it either. Mhmm. And that's where the difference is is that, you know, we kind of walked down that road, and the limitless project was out of sheer pain and desire to show agents all the things that they limit themselves in Mhmm. And show them that there's limitless opportunities every time you come across the house. If you stop looking at it from the front door and you start hovering above it from 30,000 feet and going, okay, what can we do with this house?

Yeah. You know, every seller we talk to, it's, you know, what are the options? You know, when you when you go into it a couple years ago, my dad so I learned this from my dad, and this is where, you know, a lot of the limitless project came from is the creative financing days. You know, my dad lived through 18% interest. You know, people are griping about 5% right now.

Try 18.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And my dad figured out how to do assumptions and carrybacks and all those different things. These are not things that are taught these days. No. Like, they are not widely talked about in the real estate community, the wholesale community. And if you know your options, then you know how to, like, have the conversation and show somebody.

So I've taken some investors and, you know or some realtors and shown them, hey. Rather than listing the house, what if you can provide the solution to make it easy for them and you can either wholesale it or make a profit on it? Mhmm.

Steve: But

Steve: they didn't see those options before. And so that's really what it was passionate about is teaching agents, like, these are all the things you're missing, and I'm doing it because I saw my dad do it, and I refuse to not be that way at the end of the day. Right.

Steve: So with everything you got going on, why spend your time coaching, speaking, training other agents that don't work for you?

Steve: Same thing. It's, you know, I I feel like the industry has done a better job nowadays of having a mindset of abundance. Mhmm. You know, I believe that I'm pouring back into people and making their lives better, making their families' lives better. And it it's a chance for me to carry on my dad's legacy.

My dad used to teach classes down at ASRIA and things like that, thinking that he would do those things that people would bring in a deal for him. And sometimes it worked out, but a lot of times he had people that were just warming seats that never did anything. Mhmm.

Steve: And

Steve: so in the real estate business, there's so much talk about the negative side of it. Like, the Zillow's, the OfferPads, the open doors, the wholesalers, like, all these people are taking from my business. And if you can't beat them, join them and just do it different. And so when I started down that road, it was, hey. How do I go through my process, go through my story?

I mean, I I've been to absolutely having nothing, having my house foreclosed on, being stuck with a bunch of debt. You know, I've been to the bottom. I've been I've been to the top and back to the onto the bottom and then back up to the top again.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And there's ways to do it differently so that you're not freaking out when the market shifts.

Steve: Right. And I think that's a really good point. Right? Like, if you can't beat them, join them. Because then that's one of the messages on our show is that, you know, the disruptors is you got Opendoor, Offerpad, all these other iBuyers, Redfin, Zillow, whatever.

Our buddy George is partnering up with them. Right. So we, as an industry, have to find ways to adjust and shift with it. And I think there's a lot of lessons on the hotel, on on the wholesaling side that realtors can learn Yeah. And vice versa.

Steve: And they don't have to. Look. I I don't consider myself a wholesaler. Yeah. I'm in fact, I I kinda find it funny in one of my presentations.

I I don't even necessarily like the word realtor anymore because it's such a broad term, and everybody's supposed to fit in that box. Yeah. You know, I consider myself a real estate professional or a real estate entrepreneur Mhmm. Because I lived through all these things. And, you know, how do you how do you sell somebody an investment property if you yourself aren't invested in real estate?

What what knowledge do you have? Yeah. You know, if you've never bought an investment property or fixed one, how do you guide somebody else through it? And I I think that's where sometimes as real estate agents, we can benefit our clients through our experiences and guiding them through that process. Yeah.

Steve: Well, I think even just on the, the business aspect itself. Itself. I mean, looking at some of these other guys' businesses, like, oh, why don't we do that? Sure. Why don't we take that piece out into our business?

Matthew Haban wants to know, would you recommend someone try building a wholesaling business? Someone that has a wholesaling business become a licensed realtor?

Steve: I think it depends on what direction you wanna go. I think in wholesaling, you know, if you don't have a license, you have less liability.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And I think you really need to know how to have those conversations if you're gonna get a real estate license. I think you have more opportunity with a real estate license Mhmm. Because if you're advertising for certain things, you have more reach to be in front of people and have that conversation. Do you wanna put it on the market? It's not that you have to practice real estate.

Steve: Right.

Steve: You can always refer it to somebody. I mean, the nice thing is if you have a real estate license, every wholesale deal that doesn't work out, you can always list it, or you can refer them if you don't wanna get into the business and get a referral fee off.

Steve: Right. Absolutely. I think that makes a lot of sense. So Valentine Group claims to handcraft real estate solutions. What does that entail?

Steve: So when we handcraft something, it's simple. Every every client has a different journey. You know, they they have three things. When somebody comes to us to sell a house or buy a house, they have one of three things happening. They have a, they've got a problem or they've got a dilemma and now I'm trying to think of the third thing.

I just wrote this down the other day. You know, the problem is they're financial. Property's in bad shape. It was inherited, something of that nature where it doesn't make sense to go to the open market with it. So we go in and we handcraft a solution.

I can buy it. You know, we can fix it up. We can do something to get them to the fastest solution possible. You know, the, the desire that was the third one. The desire is is that they wanna move up, move down, relocate.

So how do we do that? Well, you know, if I need to sell something and I wanna buy something, what are the creative solutions? Well, we can always buy it if it makes sense if you don't wanna go through the process. And we go through all the numbers. We go through repairs and we, you know, we really spell it all out, but we wanna help people get to their ultimate goal.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And if their ultimate goal is to ditch it in twenty four hours, I can help you with that if the number makes sense. If it doesn't, then I'm either gonna try to find a buyer for it. I'm gonna put it on the market, and I'm gonna help you accomplish the best thing for you. Yeah. And the dilemma is, what do I do?

Well, if I'm talking to the consumer and they wanna move and buy something else, well, is the property that they own, is it valid or worthy of keeping it as rental property? Have you considered being an investor? Have you looked at all of these options so that we can hand craft the perfect solution that meets your needs, not mine. Mhmm. I'm not there to sell you anything.

I will tell you right now when I walk in the door, I'm not selling you a thing. I can give you guidance on how to get there, and you can pick which journey you want.

Steve: Right. And I think that's the key. Right? Is going in there without a preconceived expectation

Steve: Yes.

Steve: Or solution.

Steve: Yes.

Steve: And I think that's where, you know, you and I are talking about, like, real estate agents go in there with one solution.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And whereas we go in there as, like, well, what do you want? What do you need? What's your goals? What's your expectations? Okay.

Given all that, it seems like this is the best way to go. Or it seems like that's the best way to go. Right. And it's up to them to say, no, that's wrong or you got that right. Right.

Yeah. So Max wants to know, Max Jimenez, why do you think it's difficult for some agents to grasp the concepts of wholesaling or buying a house themselves to pass the value to their clients. So, I guess, why do they grasp, why do they have a hard time buying the house from the from the seller? Why are they so opposed to it?

Steve: Because I think they're afraid of having the conversation and the numbers. Mhmm. I think they're afraid of, well, the house is valued here, and I wanna buy it down here, and not understanding how to have the conversation and go through the numbers. You know, one of the things that people don't factor in there when you put on the market is, okay, you you have a mortgage, you have utilities, you have repairs, you have all the what ifs. Part of buying the house is taking the stress and the what ifs out of the equation.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And sometimes that holds a price tag to a seller. But unless we ask the questions, we're never gonna get the answer. And I here's the question I would ask the agents. How many times have you put a house on the market that you're shocked that the seller is willing to accept the offer that they took on it, and you're going, I wished I would've. Yeah.

That's I mean, that's the thing. I mean, you don't know unless you ask.

Steve: So not recently, but I wanna say a couple years ago, two, three, maybe four years ago, circle prospecting was huge. Mhmm. Alright. Everyone's like, you know, if you call everyone in the community, you're gonna find a homeowner. Right.

And they were really excited because they can give us many listings. Right? Circle prospecting. I think they missed how many homeowners wholesalers are doing now. That's all they're doing.

They're circle prospecting the whole freaking county.

Steve: Right. Right.

Steve: So I think it's just, it's a really interesting, mindset. So creative financing, you kinda talked about this earlier with your dad. So what are all the different ways for creative financing?

Steve: Oh, my gosh. This is where it gets fun. Yeah. I mean, it's it's certainly you have to really know what you're doing, and you have to understand rates of returns and cap rates and showing people, especially when you start talking the investment community. You know, we recently just, acquired three properties from an investor, bought the houses back in, I think, 2010.

Mhmm. And he did really well on them. But he's at a point now where he's tired of the tenant thing. There's not consistent income for retirement Mhmm. Because ACs go out this, that, and the other.

And when you're looking at, well, the average property is bringing in 12 to $15 and you have have $5 worth of repairs and expenses every year, it's not doing it. So by showing them, hey. You own the SpringClear. If you carry the note and we take the cost of sale and those types of things out, you know, we probably paid, you know, $80.85 cents on dollar, maybe a little bit less, just kind of depending. And now based on the interest rate I'm paying you, you're getting a straight rate of return with no issues.

You just get a check every month. Yeah. There's no more problems. So

Steve: This is mailbox money.

Steve: It is mailbox money. Yeah. And you still are invested in real estate without owning the problem. Right? Tenant moving out, all those other pieces.

So we've gone through and shown people, hey, if you're 60, you're probably better off doing deed of trust investment than you are owning rental properties. Yeah. If you're in your forties, you can deal with the tenants, the problems, the income, the other things. If you're over 60, you're really the only thing you're missing out on is potential appreciation. Mhmm.

You know, that's, you know, 60 to 80, probably not, you know, something especially in today's market, not something you're gonna be dependent on. You're more dependent on. I want something safe, secure, and it's gonna produce a result. And I know what the end result is gonna be.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And the best case scenario is you're secured in a property you owned before anyway.

Steve: Alright.

Steve: So if I ever have to give it back, which I won't, you know, I'll sell it before that happens, you know you've got money coming in. Right. There's there's no issues, and it's a set amount.

Steve: Yeah. It's first lien.

Steve: Yeah. And then you've got you know, you can get into the assumptions and wraps, and those are fun, super complicated, and you have to know the person you're actually dealing with and be able to have the conversation with them is exactly what it entails. But those are conversations that I think if, you know, if a wholesaler were to talk to somebody about, okay, so they own it free and clear. They know that. Well, would you be accept this price?

Well, what are you gonna be doing with the money when you get out of it? Well, I don't know yet. Well, would you carry the note? Would you be the bank? What would interest you?

So those are conversations we don't have with people, and it's always a conversation. Anytime that, you know, somebody wants to sell their house and they own it free and clear, my first question is, well, what are you doing with the money? Mhmm.

Steve: Can

Steve: I help you invest it? Do you wanna carry the note? Do you wanna make some money on this? And it's a great alternative. I mean, again, go back to, the luxury market.

Go back to harder homes to to sell. Have you thought about a seller carryback? Well, no. What does it entail? Well, here's what it looks like.

Well, as real as real estate industry, we're not widely taught on it how how to do it. But because we've done so much hard money and relationship lending and things like that, it's the first thing I ask. Do you wanna turn it into and then it opens up the conversation. Well, is this a house I wanna buy? Is this like, there's so many ways there, but you have to really know it so you don't get somebody in trouble.

Steve: Mhmm. You know,

Steve: last thing I wanna do is put somebody in a seller carry back, which I've had happen. One of my good friends that probably would see this and comment, we did a wrap on it. And, we did a wrap on the first mortgage, you know, again, learning from experience. Mhmm. Thank God it was with a good friend, and I'm still friends with him.

And, he did the seller carry on the second. The The couple put $200,000 down. Six months into it, I get a news clip from the house being raided from MCSO, like, blew out all the windows, like and Matt's freaking out about it. Like, hey. Did you see the news this morning?

I'm like, oh, shit. And it just got worse from there. I mean, it took multiple trips over there. We had to pay them out of it. It took multiple times.

I mean, there was one night I had to go in firearms, MCSO, like, it just got real crazy, real stupid, real quick. We finally got the house back, and I think he made out okay. It wasn't exactly what he wanted, but there's some things I would do differently.

Steve: So what would you do differently then?

Steve: Whenever you wrap a first mortgage like that, the foreclosure process, if you're the second, you have to be willing to pay off the first.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Steve: And but the foreclosure process is totally different when you're that second position.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Steve: It's it's totally different. It's a nightmare. And, you have there's some different things that you can secure in doing it through title Mhmm. That you just have to go through that process and make sure that it was done, and it wasn't done the way we should have.

Steve: So so the other thing you're talking about was raising funds. So I think that's really cool, you know, asking the homeowner, what are you doing with this money? Will you be interested in investing? Mhmm. That's brilliant.

What are some other ways you raise some funds?

Steve: So all of our funds I mean, you know, for those of you out there, I mean, it's we built our rental portfolio without having any down payments or regular financing or any of that stuff, and it was done through relationships. The people that you know may have more money than you think.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Especially the ones that have deep deep pockets, you have no idea how deep their pockets are. Because they dress very humbly. Yes. And what I found was the more relationships I had, the more people were willing to invest in me.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Not necessarily invest in the property. The property is security. But they'll invest in me. And they'll invest in my family, and they'll invest in our future, and they trust us. And we get you know, we now have a list of investors now that probably email us on a weekly basis as the deals have gone down.

Hey. I've got a million bucks. Where can you put this? What are we doing? What's, you know, what's the next deal?

And so it's all been done through relationships. So our hard money costs are between 810%, no fees, those types of things, and it's all relationship. And it's all driven on how I can help them build their wealth, which in turn is helping me provide for, you know, my staff, my family, you know, impact the community. So the relationship is is that they're seeing an impact in their own backyard. It's not just a stock that's happening.

Mhmm. But a lot of times, they do it because, again, because they trust you and where you're going. And when I first started out, you know, for you wholesalers out there or even agents, when I first started doing this, everything was a partnership. So the investor would buy the house, put all the money up for repairs. We managed it, sold it for for no commissions other than the buyer's commission that was paid out, and we split the profit.

Mhmm.

Steve: And

Steve: the investors were making a good rate of return. And then as we got deeper into it and the numbers got tighter, I swapped them into hard money lending because they were then getting a straight rate of return because we had a couple that we lost some money on or didn't happen and the rates returned didn't come in. I said, let's let's change it up, and let's make this better. So I think that relationships really drive where your potential money can come from.

Steve: So what's the conversation? Right? I mean, are are are people coming in unsolicited to you, or are you having conversations like, hey. You know, this is something I'm doing. Would you be interested in in in partnering up?

Like, how do you talk to your your sphere about raising

Steve: funds? My sphere is, you know, when we talk to our clients, when we talk to, different people that come in more through referrals and wealth building Mhmm. We have the conversation about again, it goes back to their goals and their journey. What do you wanna accomplish? Do you have an IRA?

Are you familiar with self directed IRA? You know, what kind of rates are returned? It's it's kind of funny. The more people I ask about their IRAs, the less they know what kind of return they're getting. And so when we show them, well, we know we're gonna build retirement this way.

It's guaranteed money. It's secured by property. And you're you're getting through the process. And, hey, by the way, wherever your money's floating out in the stock market, you can't go knock on anybody's door. But you can come knock on my door and we can have coffee and we can talk about whatever is going on.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And so they really enjoy that process that it's not just something that's floating out there. They can still get the same rate of return with me that they can typical in the stock market stock market depending on the ups and downs. Yeah. But mine's straight. Here it is.

You know upfront what you're gonna get. There's no variable in it.

Steve: Yeah. And the other thing too is it's it is this key to sales. You kinda, you know, just kinda glossed over it, but they're investing in you. They believe in you. Correct.

They're not buying the property. They're not buying they're not buying interest rate Yeah. Buying you. So

Steve: And and trust in the process. I mean, that's that's where it comes to. I mean Yeah. How many people I mean, for years, one of my mentors that I played with, I didn't realize, you know, the money that he did have. And then he started investing in me and investing in different deals.

And to this day, he still has helped me acquire, I don't know how many rental properties. Mhmm. Given me the chance, work through some stuff with me. But it's a lot of fun when you have that relationship piece and you can work through those processes.

Steve: Right.

Steve: And a lot of those investors too were carryover from my dad. They were the good relationships. I know one of our investors I remember one of the houses we took over. I don't know what the contractor was doing. We called it the Stripper Pole House because we had this house at 32nd Street and Shea that you walked in and there was seriously, there was a stripper pole right in the entryway holding holding a duct up.

And so there were some things that happened with the contractor. My wife went in and and fixed things, and we got it sold. And, you know, John has been, you know, an investor ever since, but we've done all deed of trust money over the years. And it's been a very, very healthy relationship. You know, we have coffee.

We go through things. But, again, it goes back to relationship, and the amount of time you put into relationships is gonna build the trust that you get out of people.

Steve: Yeah. Makes sense. Anthony wants to know, can you do owner financing if the owner still owes a small amount on the property, or do they have to be free and clear?

Steve: No. You can still do owner financing, but it's considered a wrap. Mhmm. So you're wrapping the existing mortgage or assuming the exist existing mortgage.

Steve: Yep. So yeah. Obviously, we've got a lot of friends in the community. Yep. How is your operation different than our our local friends and competitors?

Steve: Mine's different because we have all the options in house. Mhmm. You know, I can sit at the table and figure out what direction you wanna go, and either we can buy it. And one of the differences is I'm actually gonna buy it. Yeah.

Like, I'm gonna pay cash for it, and I'm gonna close on it, and I'm not looking for somebody else. This isn't a shot in the dark. This is something I'm gonna close on. And we've come to the agreement on that number, and there's not gonna be any surprises at the end of the day. I've already been there, walked it.

This is where we're good. One of the other things is a big difference that a lot of people don't do is that, you know, I buy houses with tenants in them. Doesn't scare me. You know, tenants month to month, tenants with long term lease. Again, it all depends on the goal and how the numbers work out.

And then as far as, like, with our regular clients or traditional real estate, which, you know, we still have a big following and we still do, is that, you know, we have a lot of options to offer them with my wife being in the, you know, design space and doing our renovations. You know, we can go in there and help them with a redesign. And maybe they wanna keep their house and do a renovation rather than selling it. So it's an option. Mhmm.

Yeah. We talk ourselves out of a sale, but if there's a way to help them guide them through that process, then that's what we do. Or, you know, we'll talk to them about keeping something as rental. Do they wanna invest? And that's all the things that I like to do is show people how they can invest and the advantages of investing in real estate.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And the rental market, I don't know if you've seen it, but we've seen probably in the last two years, you know, we've seen the rental market climb almost 22%.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: So, you know, the houses that we rented for $1,200 two years ago are now renting for $14.50. And I'm shocked that some of the rents we're actually getting on some stuff and it's you know, our cash flow is very positive and you can actually cash flow on something in that $200,000 price range with 20% down now.

Steve: Yeah. It's crazy. I feel bad for the renters.

Steve: What are their choices, though? Buy. Yeah.

Steve: So how much of your business is traditional real estate? How much of your business is wholesaling flipping?

Steve: So it's probably about fifty fifty right now. Yeah. So on the traditional side, it's also a big piece of that. I was working with investors to invest in real estate and buy long term. And then on the flipping side, it's, you know, we'll probably have, on average, 10 projects going at a time.

Mhmm. Last year at this time, we had 30, and we decided that was a little too much. Really? So we've kinda dial we've kinda dialed it back because it's a lot of money outgo when you're sitting on that many renovations at $50 a pop. Yeah.

So we decided to dial it back. And, you know, we're constantly evolving in our systems and how we wanna do it and what it looks like. And the flipping, to be honest with you, I don't know that I would advise a whole lot of people, especially in today's market, unless you are really, really good on your numbers and your money is super cheap, I think flipping is a huge risk.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And I think that, you know, we've got certain systems in place and we've learned a lot along the way. Mhmm. You know, we understand our costs and we dive into our numbers before we start. You know, there's nothing worse than getting into a flip and finding out that you've got, you know, 12 worth of sewer lines that are broken and some of the other things that we don't think about. And, it's it's really important to understand that flipping to me is gambling.

I mean, unless you're really sure on your numbers and you're not gonna get your caught with your pants down. But the other thing too that a lot of people don't talk about

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: They don't talk about the risk after the sale. And if you've been sued after a flip, which I have once, most of the time it comes from you know, we've all seen the the flipping spuds. They don't know anything. Waive the spuds. Waive the clue report.

All these things.

Steve: Which doesn't hold out to court.

Steve: No. And I think that it's it's imperative that we go through and disclose everything that we do. Mhmm. You know, it's it's ideal. It keeps you out of hot water.

You know? So, I mean, we've done all those things. We even gotten to the point where we have home inspections before we start the construction and a home inspection afterwards just to say here. Wow. You know, we have, you know, anything that we buy that's pre 1970, we have all the plumbing sewer lines camera ed.

Mhmm. Because we've had one where we got done. And And when you're not flushing solid waste for six months, you don't know that the sewer line's broken until the first flush was solid waste. And then it backs up in the house, and now the seller's calling you that just closed. So we had to go in and tear up a kitchen to redo a sewer line, you know, to make good on what was there, but

Steve: And redo the kitchen again.

Steve: Yeah. Redo the kitchen again. So those are things that you don't know and realize.

Steve: Right. It's not necessarily built into the price when you're flipping?

Steve: No. So great. You made $20, and then you just spent $25 keeping yourself from being sued again.

Steve: Right. So, John, Josh Hanks wants to know, how is your team set up?

Steve: My team is set up a little bit different. We have, my agents are actually salary based plus bonus.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: We work together as a group, so everybody's got different responsibilities. My position is really on the acquisition side and and talking to the sellers and figuring out what direction we're gonna go. Always looking for great agents to to join, when it comes down to it. And it's it's really a you know, like I said, our business is so driven off a relationship and sphere and the properties that we have. That's where our leads come from is from the properties that we own.

So we've got, we've got a, my listing partner takes care of all of our listing stuff. You know, she's not a TC. She's TC on steroids, but she's my partner in that stuff. Mhmm. We've got a buyer representative that also, you know, can purchase homes, and then I have an operations manager, and an in house, marketing coordinator, and social media person.

And then we have our CFO that manages all of our investment sides.

Steve: So no cold callers?

Steve: No cold callers. Not there yet.

Steve: Alright. So Matthew Haban wants to know, do you implement the the BRRRR strategy? Buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat.

Steve: Yep. Only a little more creative.

Steve: How so?

Steve: So, you know, it's it's a strategy that I came across. And and if it's done right from the time you close on the property, depending on, obviously, your spread that you're getting on it, there's a way to actually buy a house, do the renovations, and refinance it and not have any money into it. Mhmm. And so that process goes through from, buying it with the first money, with hard money. Even if you're gonna pay cash, you need to have a lien against it, and I'll explain why in a second.

We record everything with the first and second mortgage. So the first mortgage comes from whatever hard money lender we use. The second mortgage comes from our construction entity, which my wife owns. So we have first and second. The second's to cover repairs.

The money doesn't have to go to escrow. It's just the lien has to be there. You do the repairs and then you do the refinance. So as long as you're doing non cash out refinance, you can go to 75% loan to value up to 10 properties per person including your own. What happens is is that let's say I bought something for $1.50 or $1.40 and I put $20 into it, I need to have somewhere in that that 40 to $50,000 in equity.

Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Well, if the appraisal comes in at that 200 or $2.10, it's paying off the second mortgage, which covered all my cash and repairs, and it's covering the first, and I have no money into the asset. And that's how we've built our portfolio as we bought stuff at that $65.70 cents on the dollar and, you know, unrepaired, and then we've renovated it to get to top of market. You know, the only thing you have to be careful with is when we refinance, the appraisals are never as favorable as a resale, which is always frustrating. Right?

Steve: Oh, yeah. They're realistic.

Steve: But here's the thing. I'd rather have I'd rather have to pay $5,000 into my down payment than $45,000.

Steve: Right.

Steve: Because you can do that a lot more. So you're taking the chance of, hey. I'm gonna have to put some money into this deal one way or another. But $45,000, if you can do four properties putting $10 down a piece, you can't do that even owner occupied at this point Mhmm. Unless you're doing FHA.

So that's the way that that we have gone through. So, yes, the the buy The BRRRR model.

Steve: Yep. I I and I do like that part about the second mortgage. I never even thought about that. The second lien, that's brilliant, to get reimbursed for your contract Yep. Your your repairs.

Steve: Because, although otherwise, it's considered cash out. You can't take anything out of it. But as long as you record that second lien, that second lien at closing is considered purchase.

Steve: Right. It's not a second, it's not

Steve: a cash out. Not a cash out.

Steve: Nope. Awesome. Edward Trigos wants to know how you know, now that he's he's 22, so he can't find, I guess, financial partners. What will you advise a 22 year old that's getting in trying to build your business model?

Steve: So financial partners as far as wholesaling?

Steve: Or just, you know, buying and acquiring properties with other people's money, other investor relationships.

Steve: I think you've gotta you've gotta start talking to people having relationships with people. Mhmm. It's getting out and being in front of people, and I think it's also, you know, at 22, who are you surrounding yourself with? Where are you where are you spending your time? Are you going to, you know, like your real estate disruptors meeting once a month?

You know, who are you finding in there? You know, and I think it's one of those pieces where, you know, hey, if you're 22 and you find a really good deal, you should have three or four people you can take that deal to that are going to help you do something with it. Whether they partner with you, whether they show you, whether they mentor you, those types of things. So, you know, if you're 22 and you come across something that's a great deal or you wanna talk about, hey. How do I do this?

That's that's where my brain goes. It's like, hey. There's a number of things we can do with this. What does it look like? Mhmm.

Steve: You know,

Steve: you gotta look at it from 30,000 feet. But I do think at 22, and I think that you'd agree with this, your relationships are gonna mean anything everything. You know, whether it's, hey. What can I do for you to learn and it's free? You're getting the the best knowledge you can possibly get by hanging out with somebody like you or myself.

I mean, that's the way I learned. I mean, you know, you try to do something on your own, nobody's self made. Sorry. Right. Like, everybody's had somebody pour into them.

Steve: Except for Trump.

Steve: Except for Trump. Right. But, like, for me, when when I was well, I was 20. I was 21 when I got my license. Yeah.

My dad had been in the business thirty years at the time, so my dad gives me an $8 an hour salary.

Steve: That's awfully nice of him.

Steve: Yeah. And I sat at a two foot by two foot desk at the end of his desk for eight hours a day filing papers, printing flyers. This was back when it was 56 k modem to load six photos of realtor.com. It took me an hour to do that. I got paid $8.

I was doing anything and everything that I could to learn. I just listened to my dad on the phone, like, oh, that's how that goes. That's what that is. So now you've gotta find people and you have to be that person that's willing you know, that's that's the thing about our business. You go spend ninety hours in real estate school and poof, you're a licensee, and you don't know squat.

Yeah. And no matter how many classes you go to, there's nothing that's gonna teach you more than experience

Steve: Right.

Steve: Even if it's through other people's experiences.

Steve: Yeah. And, Edgar, I'd ask I'd add to that. Like, you know, there's plenty of teams you can join on, whether they're wholesaling or traditional. Being 22, I don't think, is really a limitation. I think you can be 22, 32, 42.

It's still experience is what matters the most.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: So get in there, either joining an operation or just taking massive action doing the Grant Cardone thing and just be obsessive with it. Right. You I

Steve: mean, you've got great training and all that stuff when it comes down to the wholesale and the agents and all that other stuff. You know, I think I think part of the business I mean, how many agents do you come across when you interview them, and and what's their goal? I wanna make a $100.

Steve: Yeah. Seems seems to be

Steve: the magic. That's the magic number,

Steve: six figures.

Steve: Right? But they wanna make a $100,000, but they don't wanna go through the grind to make a $100. Mhmm. I mean, because it's not that easy. Like and especially if you're doing it on your own, if you really look at cost of business and advertising and you're trying to get started, I don't think I made 6 figures until I was almost five years into the business.

And by then, I mean, jeez, I was just getting

Steve: getting ready to lose everything. Right. Yeah. And I think, just how many people or I I talked to my coach about this. You know, like, I've we have plenty of people to apply, and we're getting turnover.

And I hate turnover. Yep. Like, I wanna, like and I wanna pour into people. I wanna invest in them. Yep.

It's like, you just gotta qualify a little harder. Just tell them upfront, hey. It's gonna suck. Yeah. It's gonna suck for six months, nine months.

But all you know that going in, you're willing to work hard, we can make it happen. But you have to know before we even start working together.

Steve: You have to be willing to do the work, period. Like, if it's picking up the phone, getting somebody coffee, it goes back to that intern. How many jobs out there? I mean, when you go work for a financial firm, how many years or what is it that you have to do to be an intern to get to be in financial management?

Steve: Right. I mean,

Steve: it doesn't happen overnight. Same thing with a doctor.

Steve: One of my, buddies, best friend's, little brother is partner of some sort at CBRE. Mhmm. And he's like, yeah. Like, out of college, he had to, like, cold call for, like, three years.

Steve: Yeah. Like, oh, it's awful.

Steve: But it's doing pretty well now. Right.

Steve: But you gotta you gotta put in the time. So

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: Real estate, I think, is a lot like if somebody looked at it. I I have a good friend that's a doctor in, Texas. You know, they moved out here to go through her internship in Maricopa Medical. Mhmm. She'd gone through school.

She didn't start making good money fifteen years into it. She's finally running a hospital in Texas. But But before then and she's still paying student loans back. Right. So they paid all this money.

And to be honest with you, if people got into the business and said, okay. Well, I don't have to pay student loans. I'm gonna pay somebody $20 this year to learn the business. They would be smarter to do that. Right.

Then I mean, even though we have a ton of free resources when it comes down to it, but you gotta learn it.

Steve: We got a lot of free resources. What people don't know is that there's a lot of missing pieces that you don't know unless you're in it. Experience. Yeah. Experience is where it comes down to.

Because you don't even know what questions to ask.

Steve: It comes back to that State Farm. We've been around. We've seen a few things. You know?

Steve: Exactly. So, do you have any marketing techniques? Is there anything you're doing for marketing, or are you predominantly relationships?

Steve: Shake somebody's hands, look them in the eyes, be truthful, be honest

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And go through the process. I mean, marketing wise, I'll be honest with you. We're we're not great at it. You know, I try to do, you know, a lot of the stuff that I do and that we've had referrals has been through social.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: People are are following that and, you know, I've had clients' kids call me and go, hey. My mom is a hoarder. Will you go buy your house? Because it's been sitting there for two years, and she's not doing anything with it, and she needs a push. So a lot of that's come from that.

And with real estate agents, if your clients or your social doesn't know that you're that opportunity or you're able to do that, guess what? They're gonna meet a wholesaler or get a yellow letter or get a, god, the next robocall I get from, hi. I'm so and so, and I buy cash house.

Steve: I hope one of those is from my team.

Steve: They usually are, and I usually mess with them for at least thirty minutes.

Steve: So with your operation not being very marketing heavy, how much is your monthly overhead?

Steve: On Valentine Group's side, we're probably about 50 k in overhead.

Steve: A month?

Steve: A month. That includes salaries

Steve: Okay.

Steve: Including me.

Steve: Okay.

Steve: Including paying me.

Steve: So it's pretty admin heavy.

Steve: Yeah. It's admin heavy.

Steve: Okay. Is there any CRM tools or systems? I'm probably just not I'm probably just not asking the right guy. But are there any CRMs, tools, or systems that you could not live without?

Steve: Yeah. My phone. My phone and social media.

Steve: Yeah. I'm not asking the right guy. I got it. Get with a page? Do I get a page in here?

Who do I gotta get in here? Let's see. So Can I

Steve: just tell you, like, my history with CRMs has been awful? You know? I came from my dad's day of using Top Producer. That was okay for a little while. Uh-huh.

And then we tried to switch to sync. It was too complicated

Steve: for me. To switch to sync? Yeah. Oh, that was a terrible idea. I could have told you that.

Steve: Yeah. It was too complicated for me. I'm like, I'm never gonna use all this crap. Yeah. And then we switched to Lion's Desk, which is like a dumbed down version and it's just kinda like It's a handicap version.

You're like, okay. So it doesn't do everything I want it to do. And so, yeah, it's just

Steve: Yeah. We should talk offline because I think I think Podio would work really well for your for your operations.

Steve: Okay.

Steve: And Anthony Raven wants to know. So on the cold callers, so Valentine doesn't cold call. My guys cold call. And our most productive days, we've been doing cold blitzes. And so Thursday nights, we've had tremendous connection rates.

So and that's always true whether it's traditional or wholesale. I think calling after 05:00 is best Sure. Time to call. Sure. I don't think there's any particular day, but I think calling after five is the best way to go.

Although, probably, don't call on Sundays or during the Super Bowl. What will you do if the market dips?

Steve: Look for more money. Yeah. I mean I mean, that's that's what it comes down to. I mean, everybody needs a place to live. Mhmm.

And you start looking at opportunities. So if it dips, you know, or it changes, then you start looking at, okay. Well, what did I learn from the last time it happened? Mhmm. You know, you're certainly not going to be in a position of, well, these are gonna make great flips because if it's dipping, you're trying to price it in the down market.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: It's really about, hey. What what solutions can I create and what deals can then cash flow as far as rentals go, those types of things? And so that's that's really where I'm at with it. It's like, okay. So I just wanna be ready for if that happens.

Because I do think you know, I talked to a guy guy yesterday. He's like, you know, I really think the market's going down. I'm like, well, what leads you to that? Right. And he's like, well, you know, just, you know, all the stuff and the government.

Like, there's no real reason

Steve: But fear.

Steve: But fear and the reality is I mean, you look at the economy, you look at all the reports, you look at other things, there's nothing driving, especially our Phoenix economy. We're in a great place right now.

Steve: We're at 200, 300 plus every single day moving people moving into Phoenix. It's crazy.

Steve: The job creation, the economy, everything here points to a great time to still buy a house. Mhmm. You know, it's it kinda goes back. You know what? If you bought a house now and you can afford it, what are you worried about if it goes up and down?

It's gonna go up and down anyway. Yeah. You know, I always wish that I kept my first house. You know, I tell that story religiously and go, I was a moron. Mhmm.

You know, but I was 23 when I sold it. When the height of the market went up, I'm like, sweet. I got $80 out of it. I'm not sure where that $80 went, but you look back and you're like, oh, I was thankful I got out of that market dipped. And then I look at it now and I'm like, well, the house is worth $50 more than what it was when I sold it.

Now it would have been twenty one years paid off. And, like, I look at those opportunities that I missed out on. And I don't want people to miss out on those opportunities in that thought process because it takes a while. It's no different than people tell you, like, your mutual fund and everything else. Stop looking at the value of it on daily basis.

Don't look

Steve: at it in the mornings. Don't start your day looking at the stocks.

Steve: Because it's just gonna irritate you. As long as it's cash flowing or close to breaking even or whatever the case may be, leave it alone.

Steve: Right.

Steve: It's the best thing about it.

Steve: It's not real until you execute it. Right. So this may be a redundant question. What is your why? Oh, my why.

Steve: You know, it's it's about impacting people through the experience and the creativity that we have in order to guide them through the process, whether that be a client, a real estate agent. You know, there's a lot of times that, you know, our why is that look. I I want our industry to be better.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Period. Because I think there's a lot of there's a lot of people out there that get up in the morning and put a Superman cape on and think that they are gonna save their clients and they wanna clash. And the reality is, you know what? If If you and I get on the other side of of a cross transaction, it's about you and I working out the differences in order to make the end goal for the buyer to buy a house and a seller to sell Mhmm. And figuring out how to make that happen.

And sometimes you have to be creative. Sometimes you have to go out of the box. And a lot of times you have to put your ego aside. And, you know, I love the calls that con and conversations start out with people like, do you know who I am? Like, do you think I care?

I don't care how many transactions you've done or what how long you've been in the business. It doesn't make any difference to me. The difference is sometimes, you know, we have to eat our humble pie and go through the process because my seller is more important than my ego. And so my why is really to have a reputation of, hey. I can have a real estate agent.

You know, I had one two weeks ago, which was pretty cool for me. I done a cross sale with a guy. He's got a client that is trying to figure out whether to take, like, an Offerpad offer or he should keep the house. And the agent called me and said, hey. Would you come over and meet with the seller and I?

Because I'm not sure how to advise him. That agent wasn't fearful of me stepping in and trying to take his client. He was trying to do the best thing for his client. Mhmm. And so when that happens for me, that's bonus for me because that's my ability to help that agent and that agent giving the advice to somebody that needed it that he didn't have

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: Versus some people would just be like, they're just gonna wing it versus doing the thing that actually benefits their client the most.

Steve: So this is something that, you and I have discussed and another buddy, Tim Cusick. Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: I was talking about how to lift the market. Right? How to improve the market. Right. So one of the things I have and this is, you know, unrelated to what we're talking about here.

But, you know, as a broker owner, a lot of agents hate it when their brokers make money. But they also expect the brokers to improve the industry.

Steve: Right.

Steve: How does that reconcile?

Steve: You wanna hear my honest opinion?

Steve: Well, yeah. It's a open book.

Steve: You know, I think my

Steve: honest Let's put people on blast.

Steve: Well, I think my honest opinion when it comes down to the brokers is is that you you have great agents Mhmm. And you're trying to make those agents rise to the occasion and have a better reputation than the average. Yeah. Nobody starts out in this business to be average or mediocre. We want them to be great.

We wanna be great when we start out. We didn't start out to go, hey. Great. I closed on 11 houses this year. No.

That that's not the goal because that certainly isn't gonna get you to 6 figures. Yeah. You know, but I think it's more of the duty on the brokers to really make sure that the agents that are there are providing great value for the public when it comes down

Steve: to it. And the

Steve: ones that need to have their hands smacked should be watched over a little bit more closely.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: And if they're not providing value, they shouldn't be there.

Steve: Yeah. That's, when I started studying homes, I wanna say, been it's been six years now. I I mentioned to a few people, I'm trying to build the Realty Execs from the nineteen eighties.

Steve: Right.

Steve: Right? Where, like, it didn't matter which agent you had. You had a badass in your corner. It was real estate.

Steve: They were the elite.

Steve: They were the elite. So that's what we're trying to build now. So that was it was a tangent. Sorry.

Steve: But I think but I think it goes back to it goes back to, like, what you talked about earlier with the agents that are applying.

Steve: Mhmm. You

Steve: know, you have big brokers. You have smaller brokers. So it depends on what you want. So the question is if you want the elite, is how stringent are your guidelines on the people that you let in if you're gonna create the elite? Mhmm.

You know, when I was at Realty Executives, like I was telling you before we started this, you couldn't join Realty Executives in the nineties unless you had five five years in the business and you had a certain amount of transactions. And if you joined as an assistant, you had to be under somebody that had been in that time, and you were going to be an assistant for, I think, a year before you could actually be a full licensee and do a transaction on your own. Yeah. So there was guidelines that you absolutely had to follow because these were the elite. I mean, back in the seventies, it was the Gold Jacket crew.

Right.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's the same people there still. What's your biggest struggle right now? Time.

Yeah. What does that mean?

Steve: Well, I think it's just, you know, you try to you try to juggle all the things that you wanna do. Mhmm. And there's so many ideas and so many things, so many squirrels you can chase.

Steve: Especially between you and me.

Steve: And you try to make sure that you're doing the things that matter the most that you're good at and that you have strength in. You know, we talk about cold calling and stuff like that. That is not my strength. Mhmm. It is not.

Like, I'm better off calling my database, going to have coffee with people. Right. But I'm not gonna focus on something that I'm not good at. You know, it's a weakness. Now if somebody would pick up the phone and tee me up to be in front of somebody, that's a different story.

Steve: Right.

Steve: But having the cold call is just not my deal Mhmm. You know, at at the end of the day. So I think time is the biggest struggle because there's so many things that I wanna do and wanna accomplish. I just wish there were some more time to do it. Yeah.

What's your superpower? Negotiations.

Steve: What does that mean?

Steve: I like the conversation. I I like to figure out how to ask the questions to get people to open up to find the real why in what they're doing. Because some people are embarrassed about are they behind in payments, you know, they can't afford to hold on to it, or, hey. I need to sell my house for this amount because I need to pay my medical bills off.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: So asking the questions and having empathy to their situation and figuring out, like, hey. This is how we get here. Are you willing to do this? Mhmm. And that's really where my superpower comes in is having that genuine conversation with somebody and knowing that I'm not there to sell anything.

Steve: Right.

Steve: Like, I mean, that's that's as far from it. You know? It's funny. My parents grew up in the the Mike Ferry days when they were doing Sweathogs. And I don't know if he still teaches this, but that dude used to teach, like, you could do two listings a day by dropping off the paperwork and telling people to sign here, here, here, and I'll come back and pick it up.

Right. Like, that was, like, their sales pitch and their go through. And I just I like people. I like hanging out with people. I like going through the process.

And, you know, I've never put somebody in the last four years when we changed the way we did things, we put people in contracts for a short term because I want them to work with me not because they have to, but because they want to, because they appreciate the experience, the guidance, and what I bring to the table, not that they're under contract.

Steve: Alright. Thirty day listings. Yep. What's been your favorite, best, or most interesting failure?

Steve: Oh. The best the best thing that ever happened to Wendy and I was losing everything. You know, back in back in 2006, you know and this is where you you stay with your strengths, you know, wholesaling, real estate, whatever it is, or you have certain people that do it. We took our eye off the ball. You talked about the Moon Valley thing Mhmm.

Earlier. In 02/2005, we started chasing shiny objects. And I remember the table at the Moon Valley Country Club when my dad said to me when I was 25. We had a bunch of investors. We had a big property management account.

And he says, you know what? We need to start building residual income. So what's what all these properties have in common? They need maintenance. They need paint.

He's like, all we need is two guys and a truck to paint houses. I was 25. I'm like, sure. Whatever. Cool.

Makes sense to me. So 2007, when everything went to hell in a hand basket, we were 75 employees, $60,000 a week in payroll, 25 fleet vehicles, and nobody was really paying attention to real estate. And real estate was still happening, but all this other stuff was utilizing all the funds. It was dragging us down, and it caused us to lose everything. So So in 2007, I had two toddlers.

I had been foreclosed on. I had a million dollars worth of cash and assets that was now gone because I put it into the companies to keep things afloat and make sure payroll is paid. And when I walked away from my parents saying, hey. You know what? I got a wife and two kids to take care of, and I no longer have a home.

I'm out. I'm gonna figure this thing out, whatever. And we walked away with a million dollars in debt. And it was time to sit down and figure out, okay. What do we do now?

Like, how do we start over? And, you know, we my wife and I agreed that integrity wise, because there were some personal loans in that million dollars in debt that wouldn't claim bankruptcy.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: So we didn't know how long it was gonna take. And so the biggest failure there was, you know what? If you really wanna work hard to get out of something, you can. So you have the choice, take the easy road or the hard road. The easy road road to file bankruptcy.

We made a ton of money in the REO days. We could have bought a bunch of properties. We didn't. Everything that we were working on in REO was like, hey. We we had a spreadsheet that was three pages long of debtors that we were paying every month.

And so that prepared us for what we're doing now. It prepared us for what we were doing in the REO days on managing things, managing people and structure. And so I always look back at that as that it was my greatest failure, but it was also my greatest lesson. And losing everything is not as bad as it sounds like because now been there, done that. So it's not as scary.

Steve: Right. And they're not toddlers anymore.

Steve: Right. And, you know, the other thing too with that that lesson was, you know, the only reason we had an REO account was because of my relationship with the realty executives broker

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: For all those years. Like because she was the one that called me and said, hey. I have this opportunity. Do you want it?

Steve: Wow. Really?

Steve: Yeah. And she also asked if I had $10,000 which I said, yes. I can do that. I had no idea where I was gonna get $10.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steve: Good friend of mine, Dave Carrick, we were partners on some stuff at the time. He loaned me the money, but I was like, I'm gonna figure this out. That's the Grant Cardone thing. Say yes and figure it out. Right?

Steve: Right.

Steve: So that's what we did. And that was a very long road for us. I mean, it was we just Fannie Mae put us on hold last year, December. So, you know, from 2008 to 2018, we had a good run. I think it was more than $35,500 REO properties in that time.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: And it was a good run. So

Steve: What's the lesson that you wanna leave someone with that's listening to the show?

Steve: The lesson I would leave Or message. Or message. The road that you're on is going to be impacted by the relationship that you have and the people that you surround yourself with. And your success is going to be determined by those people. Because if you're hanging out with the right people, you're talking to the right people, and again you've put your ego aside.

You know, my dad came from the days of, you know, like a second grader, you put your folders up around your desk and you don't want to share with anything you're doing. And what I found is that all the people that helped me along the way, that we've been partners with, we've been friends with, it's now, you know, my turn to give back to them or they're still giving back to me and it continues to create. Mhmm. And so you have to determine, you know, those relationships and what's really important to you, and I think that life is a game of relationships.

Steve: Yeah.

Steve: So everything that we do has to do with relationships, and those relationships are the things that pay off. I mean, more so than any amount of money. And I think that even right now, you look at the reason why people look at Zillow Offerpad Open Door. Even if they've had a relationship with our client in the past, they haven't had a strong enough relationship for that person to call them and say, hey. I'm considering this.

What do you think? Yeah. That means that your relationship wasn't strong enough. So relationships with past clients, all those things. And I'm not talking about, like, here's postcard every month.

I'm talking about genuine relationships. Genuine relationships like, what can I give, give, give? And eventually, you get something out of it, but you have to be able to give ahead of time.

Steve: That's awesome. Awesome. That's a great message. So, guys, this is the end of it. Don't forget, guys, I am a buyer, and, we should connect on Instagram.

If you guys have any need any help at all with your business, please do not hesitate to reach out. And then we got next week, we got Jack Bosch, the I think he's the king of of Southern Carry with Lance. That's gonna be a lot of fun. And then the week after that, we got Ryan Harper and Daniel Chadmore coming out from Texas. So if someone wants to get a hold of you, how do they do that?

Steve: So Instagram is Steve d Valentine. Do a lot of storing there. Facebook is Steve Valentine, and then, my website is stevedvalentine.com. So, encourage you to follow me on Instagram and Facebook, both. There's a lot of different content in each one.

I've had a lot of challenges in my life, so I try to really speak influence, into other people so that they can get through the things that they're going through.

Steve: Awesome. Alright. Thank you guys for watching, and thank you.

Steve: Thanks, man. Appreciate it. It was fun.