Wholesaling $1.2MM in Only 9 Months | Wholesale Real Estate 2022

Steve Trang: Everybody. Thanks for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we have Eric Klein and Tony Montalbano with TLC Homebuyers, and they flew in from Raleigh, North Carolina to talk about how they did 1,200,000.0 in wholesale fees in just nine months. If this is your first time tuning in, I'm Steve Trang, sales trainer, and every month, we help hundreds of people buy more houses at deeper margins. If you want more info on that, DM me the word sales on Instagram.

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Eric Klein: Let's go, buddy.

Steve: Alright. Cool. So first question is, what got you guys into real estate?

Tony Montalbano: Well, for me, it was Eric. But I'll let Eric answer this.

Eric: Honestly, the model was was brought to be by someone else that was in it. And, it was a very it's a very similar business model to what I did for a decade.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: I used to get people out of distressed timeshares. So it was lead generation phone sales fulfillment. Mhmm. And, I started that company from scratch, built it to we're doing over right around 34,000,000 in gross sales, at the peak. And, my arena was playing in the call center.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: That's what I oversaw. And when, that that journey came to an end, this this idea was brought to me. And

Steve: Why did that journey come to an end?

Eric: That's a great question, Steve. So, I was me and my two partners were getting ready to sell 51% of that business Mhmm. For 54,000,000. Wow. Yes.

Steve: Life changing.

Eric: Yeah. It was very life changing. It was it was literally the American dream. Yeah. Especially from where I come from.

It was it was crazy to even be sitting at the tables I was sitting at. And, the private equity firm that was acquiring us, they had done all their due diligence. We had a closing date, and two of the largest timeshare developers in the world, ended up suing our companies and us personally. The private equity firm, when the first lawsuit lawsuit came through said that they would still go through with the deal. And then I was flying home to Chicago for, for Christmas.

And when the plane got to the point where your phone can get service again, my phone was just blowing up. Emails, text messages, and, it was the broker that was doing the deal for us. He's like, you guys got another lawsuit. And, it was a carbon copy lawsuit. Frivolous.

There was no merit, but we still had to fight it.

Steve: Right.

Eric: And, they, our insurance for the company at the time was refusing to to cover the lawsuit. So long story short is at the end, we made the conscious decision. I remember that our attorney bill for the last thirty days was was, $500,000 for thirty days. And, my wife and I sat, taught, distressed. It was two and a half year battle.

And, my wife and I sat and talked, and we were like, we need we need to get our life back.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And, because it was eaten up. It was my my kids were. I have I have two kids, and it was, you know, it was it was destroying our family, and they that's what they were trying to do. It was a it was David versus Goliath. It was the big guys taking the little guys out.

Mhmm. So we ended up settling for millions of dollars and, took about a year off trying to figure out what I was gonna do.

Steve: Why were they suing you?

Eric: Tortious interference on their contracts because, we were really, really good at what we did. We were the largest timeshare exit company in The United States.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: So we were we got really good at getting people out of timeshares.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: So, 35% of our business model was getting people out of timeshares that were already paid off. So that was a simple just transferring of the the the ownership. And then 65% of our business model was getting people out of timeshares that still had pay debt attached to it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And with a timeshare, you can't go to a bank and get a loan. So it's all in in house finance paper. They hold the paper.

Steve: Seller carry.

Eric: Yes. And if you know anything about timeshares, the interest rates on those those notes are anywhere from 15 to 21.9%.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: So our model, a lot of those sellers or those time share owners, they made the conscious decision to default on that paper. So when we started disrupting that that industry and and we made a massive wave, that, you know, we were messing with Wall Street at that point.

Steve: Right.

Eric: Because they would securitize that paper on the back end.

Steve: Yeah.

Eric: And, we were signing up at the at the peak of what we were doing, we were we were signing up anywhere from 600 to 650 timeshare owners a month.

Steve: So you're bringing people in

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: And either buying their paid off whatever and or helping people exit an agreement they were already in?

Eric: Yeah. So we never bought a timeshare.

Steve: Okay.

Eric: What they did is they paid us for our services Mhmm. To get them out of their time share.

Steve: That they already paid off?

Eric: Whether it was paid off or they still owed that paper to the developer. But what we were doing is really getting them out of the perpetual contract

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: That the times the timeshare contract, I say it, is the worst contract on planet Earth. Yeah. So that's what I did in

Steve: So did you that business up and running? View shut bottles. Shut it down?

Eric: So the we ended up file filing a chapter 11. So so nobody no other developers. The the time share industry was on an attack to put companies like us out.

Steve: Well, understandably, because you're

Eric: on the street. Yes.

Steve: Well, not rightfully, but understandably.

Eric: Understandably. Yes. There you go. There you go. Yeah.

Not rightfully so.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. So that was how long ago?

Eric: We ended up settling everything, Steve, probably around two and a half, three years ago. Okay.

Steve: And then did you walk away with anything? Or

Eric: So, I mean, me and my wife's walked away financially okay.

Steve: Yeah.

Eric: We had to settle for millions of dollars. Right. But, I mean, we ran that business at the peak. We were doing somewhere in the neighborhood of, like, 30 to 34,000,000 in gross sales. And there was there was three partners, and we ran it at about a for the longest time, we ran it at a 50% margin for for net profit to us.

And then towards the end, unfortunately, the larger we scaled, the harder we were working to make less money.

Steve: Which is the classic story of scaling?

Eric: Yeah. Yeah. So towards the end, we were at about a 35 to almost 40% profit margin net profit for us.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So you walked away, shut it down, or settled, and put your

Eric: I'm injuncted from the industry. I'm not allowed back in it.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So then someone approaches and says, hey. There's another way to make money in real estate. Yeah.

This is a friend or

Eric: It's somebody that's been in the industry for they've been in the industry for probably seven, eight years at that time.

Steve: Got it.

Eric: And they're like, Eric, you'd be a they're like, Eric, you'd kill this industry.

Steve: Got it. And when did so they told you about it. How long from when they told you about it until, like, you were, like, taking action?

Eric: I probably sat on the idea for almost a year.

Steve: A year? Yeah. Okay. Why is that?

Eric: One, I don't know if I necessarily believed it. Mhmm. Full transparency.

Steve: Well, and that's not unusual. I think a lot of people when we first get into this, like because we watch it on infomercials when we're, like, 20 or 18, we're like Yeah. And trash.

Tony: Yeah. When Eric was you know, got into it on his own, he was he was making calls, and he was calling me every week telling me about the industry and telling me how he was locking up these deals at 50¢ on the dollar for a house over the phone. I was like, this doesn't sound right.

Steve: Totally illegal.

Tony: Yeah. Something's up. Yeah. You know, and he's trying to get me into it. I was like, I don't know.

I I need to learn more about it. Yeah.

Steve: So a year, you sat on the sidelines. Yeah. So what'd you do in that time frame? Were you doing research? Or, like, what were you doing?

Eric: I for it was actually fourteen months. I started another company. It was in the structured settlement space Mhmm. Where people, settle outside of court. They get a, settlement.

They structure it over a period of time where they get payments, whether it's the rest of their life or

Steve: Like an annuity?

Eric: Yes. There you go. Exactly. And so what, again, the model got brought to my attention. It was lead generation phone sales.

And so I did that for fourteen months. It was profitable, but I was miserable doing what I was doing.

Steve: Why is that?

Eric: It it was the the client base, the consumer that you had to deal with, was a handful. Mhmm. In order to get a deal to a finish line, there was a lot of moving parts.

Steve: Was it hand holding, or are they just difficult clientele?

Eric: Difficult clientele and, like, super, super duper hand holding

Steve: Got it.

Eric: To a point where it it wasn't anything I was willing to do. Yeah. Yeah. So I did that for fourteen months. Ended up wait literally waking up at, like, 03:00 in the morning dead from a dead sleep.

I nudged my wife, and I said, we're shutting this office down. And, she's like, are you sure? And I was like, no. I'm real sure. Yeah.

And, went and told, I think we had a team of, like, six, seven at the time. I said, hey. Sorry. This isn't for me. I appreciate everyone's hard work.

After today, the the office is closed. And when I shut that door, I had made the decision to do this.

Steve: So I imagine that was probably a difficult conversation. I mean, did you go into, like, here are the keys if you guys wanna run it, or, like, guys, this is done. I am out.

Eric: It was super easy for me to say

Steve: it, Steve. Okay.

Eric: I was so over it.

Steve: You were that burnt out.

Eric: I was that burnt out. I I had a I had a team of, like, six or seven. And walking into an office and knowing you're the one that didn't wanna be there Mhmm. And everyone else was enjoying it, I just wasn't in a good spot. Got it.

Yeah.

Steve: Okay. So you didn't do the Jerry Maguire thing, like, who's coming with me? It was

Eric: just okay. It's done.

Steve: Alright. So you shut that down.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: And now you're gonna start wholesaling.

Tony: Yep.

Steve: How did you start?

Eric: Hired five VAs from one company and, like, five from another. So right out the gates, I had 10. Had no clue what I was doing. Had way more leads coming in than I could ever handle

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And literally just I wrote a script out, and, I took the almost well, I took the script from the last company I had Mhmm. And I tweaked it to where it fit this model. Yeah. And, the the my buddies that were doing this, I was we were paying them 35% to dispo a deal for us because I just wanted to focus solely on locking them up. One, to understand the the sales process

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And make sure it was something that I could personally scale, from a sales point of view. And, they had me in a couple markets that, I mean, the first sixty days, I was locking deals up in Toledo. I think within the first, like, thirty thirty days, I locked, like, 13 deals up in Toledo, Ohio, and they couldn't get rid of one of them for me.

Steve: I've heard that sometimes about Ohio. Yeah. So I I got two questions for you here. Then, first question is when did you finally jump in with both feet? What year?

Eric: It would have been January 4.

Steve: January 4? Oh.

Eric: No. No. No. No. I take that back.

I did it for three months on my own, Steve. So it would have been January, February, March. I moved to Raleigh, got a lease on an office, and I was all in.

Steve: So COVID? Yeah. So COVID starts, let's get let's start wholesale. Yeah. Alright.

Second question. Why did you feel qualified to write your own script? Not to say that you're unqualified, but I wanna kinda dive into that. Yeah. Why did you feel like you were qualified to write a script?

Eric: Because I I understand a sales process. I I know what needs to be done from hello to goodbye in order to convert a lead.

Steve: But why do you feel that? You you understand it. What experience did you have beforehand?

Eric: It would have been running a company at a large scale. I had a 100 people on the phones that followed my sales process to scale a business to do an almost, you know, over $30,000,000 a year. So I was I you know, to have a 100 people on the phone to buy into something that that I created

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: I felt I was I was more than qualified

Steve: Got it.

Eric: To to write a script.

Steve: And then just a quick tangent here, because I'm bringing this up. You're talking about you got a chance to speak on stage. Right? Yeah. About sales.

Eric: Yes.

Steve: Do you wanna talk about that just real quick?

Eric: Of course. Yeah. So, Grant Cardone has had me, speak at two of his, 10 x growth conferences.

Tony: Mhmm.

Eric: The first one I had no clue he was gonna bring me up on stage. It was in Vegas. Crazy thing is I was smoking a cigar the night before by myself, and I texted my wife. I said at some point, Grant's gonna ask me on stage. The next day he did it.

Yeah. He so that was a real quick one. And then, after he did that in Vegas, I went home, put it on my wall, my mirrors, saying 2000 and whatever. I was gonna be speaking at Grant Cardone's next, growth conference. And, like, three months prior to that growth conference, it was the one he did at the Marlins Stadium with 35,000 people.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: Ninety days before it, his, Grant called me up, and he's like, hey. I'm gonna send my whole film crew out to your office. I wanna do a five minute skit or success story on you. We're gonna play it on the big screen. And it was I mean, literally, it was a dream come true.

Steve: Sure.

Eric: It was a dream come true.

Steve: Is it because you were one of his elite? I mean, he's got some different tiered programs.

Eric: Yeah. So I, I was under Grant's wing for probably three to four years.

Steve: Yeah.

Eric: He would ask me to to to come down to his sales boot camps in Miami. I would speak to his audience there. So

Steve: Okay. And that was the same time that you had the call center for the time share thing?

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Got it. Yeah. Okay. So you guys are obviously partnered up. You were doing deals in Ohio that weren't closing.

Eric: Yeah. It was rough.

Steve: Was that before or after you guys partnered up?

Eric: Before. Okay. It was me trying to figure out whether or not I wanted to have my best friend leave San Diego, which he was living a a good life in San Diego and moving my wife and kids and say, hey. Let's go all in on this. It was me just saying, hey.

Give me a little bit of time to figure out whether or not this is something we can scale.

Steve: So you wanna test it first? Yeah. And what were you doing in San Diego?

Tony: Yeah. So I was, we grew up in Rockford, Illinois together. Me and Eric have known each other for, like, twenty years. I was a residential electrician in, in Illinois. And then when the housing market crashed, I got laid off.

Steve: They could lay you off if even if you're in a union?

Tony: I wasn't in the union. Oh. But you can get laid off in the union as well.

Eric: Laid off.

Tony: But yeah. So, I mean, the company basically shut down after the crash.

Steve: Got it.

Tony: So I I moved to San Diego on a whim. Just packed my truck and my dog and drove out to San Diego.

Steve: Yeah. Must have been miserable in San Diego.

Tony: Literally had nothing to lose at that point. I was I was I was ready for for a new start, so moved out to San Diego. This would have been 2009 and, couldn't get a job. I have a a kind of a a criminal background that wouldn't allow me to get hired anywhere. I had a lot of good interviews, but every time they would run a background check, I wouldn't hear back from anybody.

So I answered a a Craigslist ad, to build 10 beach cruisers every morning for a $100 cash at a bike shop that was just starting, right right by the beach in Pacific Beach.

Steve: I think I might know that one, actually.

Tony: Yeah. So I

Steve: used to live in La Jolla. So Did you?

Eric: Yeah.

Tony: Yeah. Really. So, so, I I applied for that job and got it. And I worked for a guy, Scott, my, my now business partner. Worked for him for about a a year, year and a half, and then, you know, realized, you know, this is this is a great business, and I need to kinda do it for myself.

Opened another shop over by San Diego State University and then kinda got lucky. And the restaurant that was right next door bought my lease out after a year. And then we had a chunk of like, a big check. You know? So me and Scott decided to go to China, get our own brand made.

It's called Freedom Cycle Company. And we started importing beach cruisers and accessories and stuff. And then, we warehoused them in San Diego. I was driving up and down the coast, you know, wholesaling beach cruisers. It was great.

Yeah. And then the original shop I worked at for Scott, the lease was up. And he's like, hey. Do you wanna open a retail shop with me? And I was like, this this distribution thing is kinda fun.

I kinda like being on the road and sales and all that. But, but we decided to jump in together and, and open a retail shop. And I think the first year we opened that shop, it was about 2,000 square feet, like, five blocks from the beach. I think we sold, like, 3,000 bikes that year that we opened that shop.

Eric: Slang in them.

Tony: We had slang in them. We were importing about five to 6,000 bikes a year and selling all of them. Like, just turning and burning them. And that's when, this would have been probably, you know, nine years ago. That's when the, like, kind of the money started rolling in.

Because instead of spending you know, these are cheap beach cruisers. You know? Instead of spending a $150 or, you know, at the time, a $135 on on these bikes from LA and trying to sell them at our shop for $2.50. You know? Now we're making better quality ones ourselves, spending $70 on them and selling them for, you know, 400.

Steve: Yeah.

Tony: So the spreads were a lot bigger. So so that was that's kinda where where I what I what I've been doing the last thirteen years. I own I own a bike shop out there, in import.

Steve: Still own it?

Tony: I still own it. And the last, you know, five years, it's kinda been on autopilot.

Steve: Got it. Since you didn't shut it down, you're still it's still running.

Tony: It's still running. Yeah. Still own it. Still doing well, especially during COVID. Crazy.

Steve: Oh, I think every everything went up during COVID.

Tony: Yeah. So I mean, I had a line around the block for three months Yeah. In May, 2020.

Steve: When I started biking with my family, like, my wife, James, is like, man. Like, why are these bikes so stupid expensive?

Eric: Yeah. You

Tony: and everybody

Steve: Everyone started biking. Yeah. So we sold over

Tony: a thousand bikes, in one month in May 2020.

Steve: So when Eric reached out to you then, you already had a good thing going.

Tony: Yeah. And I have had a good thing going. I I've been living kind of a nomadic life. Like, I've been down in Mexico a lot, traveling a lot.

Steve: So then what spoke to you when he asked you to to jump in with him?

Tony: Yeah. I mean, I've always believed in Eric. And, you know, we so I've had one downfall in the bike business, and it was about two or three years ago when Bird scooters and stuff all hit the street. Mhmm. And our rental fleet just went to zero.

Like, we were renting a 100 bikes a day, and then that went down to, like, one bike a day. Yeah. So it was like my first dip in owning a business. And I and I remember reaching out to Eric, and I was like, man, you know, this this kinda honeymoon, fantasy I've been living is is is not solid. Like, anything could happen in the market, and I could lose everything tomorrow.

Eric: I was

Tony: like, so if if if you ever come up with an idea and we'll pitch ideas to each other Yeah. If we can ever figure out something to do together, like, let's do it.

Steve: So Rockford, Illinois, I don't know much about it. Great area? No. No. Okay.

So two, what's the word I'm looking for?

Tony: Rubbled.

Steve: Two troubled youths. Both have successful businesses by your own right, and then you guys are pitching ideas to each other on, like, what are some other businesses we wanna do.

Tony: Yeah.

Steve: So I think what's fascinating here, you mentioned that you're somewhat unemployable. Right? So you wanna talk about that. What caused you to be unemployable?

Tony: Yeah. So in, 2005, me and Eric were best friends, back then as well. We were living a reckless lifestyle. A lot of drugs, a lot of drinking. I got in a bar fight one night in o '5.

I didn't start the bar fight, but I was in a fight. Knocked somebody out, went to jail. Two weeks later, that person died. They he was an off duty police officer, which I found out later.

Steve: Certainly not helpful.

Tony: Yeah. Yeah. So we, I mean, everybody was being reckless that night. I was trying to walk away from a situation, and, the other person wasn't. So, that happened.

They I originally was charged with a bat battery charge. Once he died, they I got charged with, manslaughter and then first degree murder. So for the next year and a half, I faced a trial, and I was found not guilty on all charges. So right after that is when I mean, during that time, I knew I had to change something. Mhmm.

Obviously, I was going down the wrong path. So, you know, the minute I got off of probation and all that, I just, that's kinda when, you know, the housing market crashed, and everything just kinda happened all at once. And I just needed a new beginning, so I packed up. And, I mean, it wasn't even a question. Like But

Steve: you weren't convicted of anything? No. So you're what's the word?

Tony: I was free and clear. Yeah. I was acquitted on all charges.

Steve: Acquitted on all charges, but it still came back to haunt you when they did a background search.

Tony: Sure. Yeah. Because you can still see people's arrest record.

Steve: Got it.

Tony: So it's it even hurts me to this day for, I mean, like, signing a commercial lease or, like, you know and back back then, it would hurt me for signing a lease just to rent an apartment. Right. Like, they would run a back a a criminal background check and see, you know, three felony arrests. You know? With you know, especially when it was that soon after.

Steve: And then you had your own situation with Rockford.

Eric: Well, yeah. Yeah. I was

Tony: We can blame Rockford

Eric: for all of us. It was Rockford, man. I I was addicted. I was a I was a heavy, heavy drug user.

Steve: Yeah.

Eric: Yeah. Crack crack cocaine brought me to my knees.

Steve: Yeah. So did that lead to any repercussions immediately that caused you to change yours your your mindset, or is this an intervention in the family?

Eric: No. It was, it was actually the what what helped me change Steve was it was it was life or death. It was that bad for me. And it was the first time in my life where I was like, Eric, you need to do this for you and nobody else.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: I wasn't doing it to keep a job because I would I didn't have one. I wasn't doing it to get my family to love me because they disowned me. Yeah. So it was the it it was just an eight day honestly, it was an eight day bender where I faced death right in the mirror. Mhmm.

And, it was it was Eric. Either you go this path or this path. And I I chose to

Steve: So you had your own wake up call. It was It was just you had to clear it. Wake up. Yeah. Okay.

Literally. So there's this meme that goes around. Right? And I don't wanna be insensitive to the situation. Yeah.

Right? But there's a meme that goes that says, basically, you know, like, every day a crack user wakes up, and they find a way to get more crack.

Eric: Of course.

Steve: I don't know anything about that.

Eric: No. I I hope you know.

Steve: Can you elaborate? Like, is that something that's a like, is there something that drives you? Obviously, there's an addiction. But is there, like, what is it that allows you to do it? Because I can't like, if I were to wake up tomorrow, like, say, hey.

You know, I need to go get this. Like, I don't know where to

Eric: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: What you have to hustle to do.

Eric: So it's not you are not physically addicted to it like some drugs. You are mentally.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: It's it's all mental. Like, you don't go through withdrawals trying to get off of the drugs I was doing. It's all mental. And, I mean, I I still feel today, I have some some, I don't know if I would call them side effects or whatever from, like, how paranoid I used to get and stuff like that. I mean, it was it was bad.

It was it was six plus years of heavy, heavy drug use.

Steve: So I

Eric: started using drugs at 13.

Steve: So there wasn't something that an, an event, like, Tony went through where you're not employable.

Eric: Oh, I would blackball. I was in the I was a union carpenter. I was blackballed from every company.

Steve: Okay. So there's a reputation. So there's a condition. So the got it. So and I bring this up because it's a mixed blessing.

Right?

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Like, because either you died or you became an entrepreneur, a successful business owners. Yeah. Right? So again, I like to bring this message across everyone who's listening because there are options out there.

Eric: They're a 100%.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. So you went through Toledo, locked a bunch of contracts. Next?

Eric: Went into a a different market. I was like, hey, guys. This this market, they've I feel like they were using me as a guinea pig. To get themselves into other markets. And,

Steve: because I looked at Toledo. It's a very fascinating market. But, anyway, continue.

Eric: Yeah. You know, I was telling he was trying to dispo deals there too. But and then we ended up going into, I think, like, North Carolina and another market or two. And, I honestly just started crushing it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: Like, full transparency. It was, getting it was just having quality conversations, making offers. I was I was leveraging my buddy, which I can give mad props to, Anthony. He, he he was a big, big part of helping helping, like, me just out personally in the beginning. Anthony?

Quesada.

Steve: Quesada.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So was he, like, your mentor to help you get your first deal?

Eric: I would say, yeah, he was a mentor, man. He was anytime I called, he was there to pick the phone up. As experienced as I was at running a different business model, it was a reality check. I I forgot what it was like day one. Mhmm.

I forgot the grind. I forgot the hustle. I mean, I had a 100 I literally had a 100 people on the phone from nine in the morning till 02:00 in the morning closing deals for me. And when I had to get back in the seat and put a headset on and learn how to I didn't know anything about real estate. And I know we're not in real estate wholesaling or, you know, whatever people must say about it, but I didn't know how to run a comp.

I didn't know how to, do a rehab cost. Like, I was clueless. Mhmm. Every time I pick pick the phone up, called Anthony, he I mean, five, ten, 15 times a day, he answered. And, so I I owe a a ton to that guy and just started locking deals up.

We are sending them to to him to to dispo for 35%, and he showed up in Raleigh May.

Tony: May 5, I think, was my first, like, real day in route. That's when I moved into my apartment. A couple days before May 5.

Eric: Yeah. We were not profit when I say we, I was not profitable doing it by myself. Mhmm. Recklets, I was spending way too much money buying way too many leads. I had way too many cold callers.

Like, I

Steve: had Well, you had 10 on day one for one person.

Eric: It was just too many.

Steve: I don't think we have 10. I mean, we have 14 right now, but that 14 includes, like, multiple part time. So, like, less than 10.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah. It was I was honestly, I was overwhelmed in the beginning. Yeah. But he ended up getting to Raleigh.

And, a story we we we don't tell enough is we we didn't know what each other's roles was gonna be.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: Like, I knew I was gonna do acquisitions, but, like, we didn't have a clue what Tony was like. What role?

Tony: Yeah. I blindly moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. Just like, yeah. We'll try it out. And, actually, the the plan was, I think, like, six months.

I'm like, I'll come out here for six months and see if, you know, we can get something rolling. And, and, you know, I Eric was sending me recordings of him on the phone. And in my mind, I'm like, I'll get out there and pitch. You know? So I get out there, and the first two days in the office, I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.

And I'm listening to Eric pitch for two days. And then the third day, I was like, I wanna jump on the phones today, and made my first call, and closed my first call. Closed my first lead.

Eric: First call. First yeah. I swear to god.

Steve: Yeah. I believe you. That usually ruins people.

Tony: Yeah. Well, it ruined me because I didn't call back another call. Yeah. Like, this

Steve: is easy. I'm a champion.

Tony: Yeah. I'm

Steve: gonna make a million dollars tomorrow.

Tony: Yeah. It was basically a mic drop, and I was like, I need to figure out how to dispo these things because we're giving up way too much money dispoing. But I was glad I got that first deal done. It was my first call. It makes for a great story.

But Yeah. I think it was very apparent my role was gonna be in dispositions since So that's where I

Steve: think it's important here because I think one of the things that happens is a lot of people think, like, we gotta have to have a perfect plan.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Like, we gotta structure this out and everything else. And you guys just went and made a bloody mess.

Eric: Yes. It's a bloody mess.

Steve: And you just made it work.

Tony: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So you're acquiring. Now you're disbowing. Like, what were some other major challenges along the way?

Eric: So there's a third person that isn't here.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And that's my wife, which is our third business partner

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: Which is literally the backbone to our company.

Steve: Got it.

Eric: She handles all the her name is Shyla. She handles all the transactions. She, oversees pretty much the whole company. She makes sure him and I, stay on track. Yeah.

So she's not here today, but she's a major part of this business. Yeah. So some of the challenges, honestly, were all three of us just didn't know anything about real estate.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And we were, like, we were getting deals locked up, but then it was like, oh, man. We need a titling company. And then Tony's like, oh, we need to be able to find buyers, and it was just all new to us. And, like, when it we started to lock the deals up, I'm not talking I mean, it took us just a short period of time, and we were locking up, not funding, but, you know, right out of the gates, we were doing ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen deals a month. Mhmm.

And without knowing how to dispo or trend do any transactions, like, we were creating problems that we just had to figure out quick.

Tony: Yeah. I think that was I mean, looking back, it was such a blessing, though, because the amount of deals Eric was locking up, made me learn really fast how to dispo them. Yeah. Like, I just it like, the learning curve was like

Steve: You're creating problems you got to solve.

Tony: Super quick.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So one thing I wanna touch on real quick. You were talking about, how you did jump on the phone. You were brand new and, like, starting a new business. Was that exciting for you?

Eric: It was. So I'll I'll say this. This this industry, Steve, when when I went through what I went through, it was a major shot to I found out a lot about myself. I was, I I I came from absolutely nothing. And, between me and my wife, we were doing really, really well.

Mhmm. And when the, faucet got shut off overnight, one, me and like, my business is who I was.

Steve: Your identity.

Eric: I was very well known in an industry. I was following Grant Cardone's coattail. His audience started knowing who I was. And the the day the company shut down, I, like, I felt like I lost myself. Me and my wife were, in a place where we I don't wanna say we were recklessly spending, but when you're making $5.06, $78,000,000 a year and a few years prior to that, like, you didn't even couldn't pay your cell phone bill.

Yeah. You gotta be ready for that kind of money. And, I I I look at it. So I went through about a year of depression, and, I didn't know

Steve: Before the money or after the money?

Eric: When my when my business shut down.

Steve: Got it.

Eric: Because I didn't know what I was gonna do with my life. Like, I really didn't. Going from thinking you're gonna sell and get $54,000,000, my wife and I were literally planning. We're looking at lots out in Hawaii. We're gonna pull the kids out of school.

So I mean, we we were spending the money before we had it. Mhmm. Because we had a date. We it it was sixty days prior to our sale. It all happened.

Steve: It was really, really real.

Eric: It was really real. Yeah. I mean, we had a team around us. We had financial advisers setting up all the accounts. So I went through, like, a year and a half a year, year and a half of just not knowing where I fit in in the world.

Yeah. The phone stopped ringing. Right? When you're on top like that, there's a lot of fake people around you. And, I say that to to say, I feel like the first time in a long time this industry has has woken up that that fire that I had back in my old business.

Yeah. And I haven't felt this in a long time.

Steve: That was the ultimate gut punch.

Tony: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So and but the reason I'm asking about the, you know, the the excitement is I think that's the reason why, like, we as serial entrepreneurs, we wanna start new stuff. It's sad to say, but, like, when things are going well, we're bored. Yeah. It's terrible. Right?

Like, we should

Eric: I can relate.

Steve: We should be excited. We should be grateful. We're just like right? But, like, it's boring. Yeah.

When things are going well.

Tony: Yeah. 100%.

Steve: And so, like, either we screw things up, we self sabotage, or we go start a new business. So again again, like, you guys are talking shop. Right? Like, hey, you got a new business. Let me know.

You guys bounce ideas. This is the addiction we have.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Is that we wanna start a new business. So that's why I was asking, like Gotcha. When you're starting over again, like, how exciting was because we have that problem. Like, every time again, the opportunity's like, well, that's that's exciting.

Like, let's put this on pause. Yeah. Let's put this super profitable thing on pause so we can go chase some other shiny objects.

Eric: Super exciting. Yeah. So And I still feel that excitement today.

Steve: So we talked about 1,200,000.0 in fees in nine months. And then you I think you shared with me 2,000,000 now in eleven months.

Eric: Is that what We're over 2,000,000.

Steve: So for everyone listening. Right? We talked about the inspirational part.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Let's talk about the technical part.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: If someone listening right now, let's not call it 2,000,000. Let's just say half 1,000,000. Right? Like, if you wanna build a business, replicate your business right now

Eric: Yep.

Steve: What are the first three to five steps they need to take?

Eric: So because I live and die by closing deals and acquisitions. I one thing that I've seen coming into the industry Mhmm. That I believe the industry lacks as far as teaching the newcomer. And I know you have a solid sales training. So but I'm gonna say not everyone knows who Steve is

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: In this industry that's getting into it. So I think number one is you have to understand, one, how to sell in a sales process that you can duplicate. Yeah. Not just wing it. And, you need to learn how to have a quality conversation with somebody, to convert a lead to a a deal.

Like, that's that's one. Without being able to to convert a lead to a deal, there is no business model. Yeah. So for me, I focused all that's why I was okay paying you 35% to dispo a deal Mhmm. Because I wanted to focus solely on just sales.

So anybody that's getting ready to start out, whether you're cold calling yourself, you got a little bit of money, and you can hire a VA, have a sales process. It doesn't have to be perfect, but every time you get on the phone with somebody, you should every every consumer may be different, or their situation may be different, but your sales process should be the same.

Steve: Right.

Tony: Yeah. And I think what helped us out too I mean, obviously, we come from different you know, we're business owners. We're entrepreneurs. So we jumped into this having that knowledge. We had a little bit of capital to throw into it too, which, you know, catapulted us very quickly.

But having you know, Eric just handles acquisitions. So, like, having one person handling acquisitions, one person handling dispositions, and one per person handling, TC work has was really beneficial for us. Because once Eric's got a deal locked up, he can forget about it and move on to the next deal he needs to lock up. And then once I assign a deal, I can forget about it and figure out the next deal I have to assign. Like, a lot of you know?

Steve: I have an assembly line.

Tony: I have an assembly line. Yeah. And and and different roles because we talked to a lot of people who and and maybe this is just how you have to start too. You know? But there's a lot of people that, you know, jump into this.

They lock up a deal, and then they spend the next week trying to sell that deal. And then what happens to your pipeline? It just shuts off. Yeah. And now you're playing catch up with it.

Steve: So That's that roller coaster we see

Tony: for solopreneurs. Exactly. Exactly. And then if you know, when you do dispo that deal and you and it closes, throw as much money as you can back into marketing.

Steve: Yeah. You know? So get good at sales, have a process not process, but a kind of assembly line Structure. Something Yeah. For deals to move through so that you have to suffer in the roller coaster.

Yeah. What else?

Eric: Stay man, make sure your head's right. This is not easy. Mhmm. Going back to me jumping back on the phones and putting a headset on, especially for acquisitions. Like, I I hate to say very few are cut out for this, but very few are cut out for this for any for an extended period of time and doing it consistently.

Yeah. So I would say you need to work on what's up here. Mhmm. Because, ultimately, you where you're at in your head space is gonna be the results that you get.

Steve: Are you a bit of a sadomasochist and that you enjoy cold calling?

Eric: I hate cold calling.

Steve: You hate cold calling. And I wanna bring this up because, like, you're in a way looking forward to cold calling Yeah. But you hate it.

Eric: Yeah. So I like I still get a rush today.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: When I get to the close, I get butterflies. I get the the bubble guts. Like, I still get it today. Yeah. When that feeling goes away, I will ultimately have to put the phone down.

Steve: Yeah. But So

Eric: I love it.

Steve: So you don't look forward to picking up with a phone calling, but you really enjoy the feeling of the the close, the victory.

Eric: I I like the whole I like so I I I preach the one, five step my five step sales process. It's intro, fact find, pitch, quote, close. Mhmm. I love all of it.

Steve: Alright. So for everyone that's listening, let's dive a little deeper into each of the five steps.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: For the intro. Yep. Let's talk about the intro.

Eric: Quick and simple. Mhmm. You wanna know who they are, who you are, the point of the phone call, and you wanna set expectations. Mhmm. Right?

And what I, on the intro, am trying to get people to do because as we all know, these are not one call closes.

Steve: Right.

Eric: So we put a time on it. And less time is on it. Right? So in the beginning, what I like to do every single time is I like to get the seller to grab a pen and a paper and start jotting information down.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: Because nobody else in the industry, from what I'm seeing, is even doing that, where I want them to know the name of my company. I want them to know my name. I want them to have my phone number. So I, in our intro, and everyone in our office that's that's that's, pitching a lead, good lead or badly because we don't know until we qualify it. The very beginning of the phone call, they're getting them engaged saying, can you grab a pen and paper real quick and jot all my information down?

The one, that's the intro. Mhmm. That can

Steve: you role play or or say it?

Eric: Yeah. Hey, Steve. Yeah. Hey, Steve. This is Eric with TLC Home Buyers.

How are you doing today?

Steve: Doing alright.

Eric: Awesome. Ray, I catch you at a good time?

Steve: I got a minute.

Eric: Awesome. So, again, my name is Eric with TLC Homebuyers. Looks like your property was referred to us by one of our referral companies. They thought we'd be a good fit for one another. So So what I'm gonna do today, it's just real simple.

Gonna ask you a few questions about the property, see whether or not it qualifies to be put into our portfolio.

Steve: Okay.

Eric: Sound good?

Steve: Sure.

Eric: By the end of this phone call, Steve, I promise you one or two things. We're either gonna say, yes. It's approved, and I'll have an offer. Mhmm. Or I'm gonna say it was, disqualified, and I'm gonna have a reason.

Steve: Okay. Okay?

Eric: We can't buy every property, Steve. We come across a lot of them. So we are a little picky, and we pick and choose what we're gonna bring into our portfolio. You, you grab a pen and paper real quick? I'm just gonna have you jot jot some information down.

Steve: Yeah. I can grab one.

Eric: Cool. I go ahead, give them my first name, last name, name of the company. And then when we give them the our phone number, we say at the end of the phone number, we say, just so I know you have that. Right? Can you repeat the phone number?

Why do we do that? It's because you can remember my name. You can remember the name of the company. But when I give you the phone number, I know you didn't memorize that.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: So what I'm the reason I'm asking them to repeat that is to see if they're actually doing what I'm saying Yeah. Or asking them to do. Are they really engaged with the conversation?

Steve: Right. Yeah. Now you can test to see if they're really serious. Yep. Yep.

Got it. Okay. So that's the intro. Intro? What's step two?

Eric: Fact fine. Alright. Reason they're on the phone. So we I we have a a rule in our office. It's the ten minute rule.

You can't terminate a lead unless you've been on the phone with them for ten minutes. We get a lot of leads, but we don't get enough to where we can't spend ten minutes with somebody. Right. So the the fact find is I see that you were looking to sell because you're done being a landlord, Steve.

Steve: How did you come across that information?

Eric: According to the referral company that you chatted with Mhmm. That's what you told them. All of our leads come from their, a cold call company. So we have, I'd say, 60% of the time, a motivation for it.

Steve: Got it.

Eric: So that's the reason I'm saying this. Yeah. So the the reason I even bring up looks like you're not wanting to be a landlord. So what we do is we bring up the fact, looks like you don't wanna be a landlord anymore because it was in the reason. Right?

Mhmm. So we bring that up. We parlay that into a third party story. Like, listen. The last two people that I helped out of their time share, very similar story.

They had a granddaughter that had been living in the property. It's just showing that, hey. We've dealt with this

Steve: deal.

Eric: We've dealt with this before, and then we we come back to them to hopefully, they'll open up of it's not just I don't wanna be a landlord. What's behind that?

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: So what's what's the real pain? Why don't you wanna be a landlord?

Steve: And I like the fact that you paused and you just waited. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's fact finding.

Eric: Fact finding.

Steve: And then?

Eric: And then from fact find, once they know who we are, we know who they are. We've gotten on common ground. Right? We understand their situation a little bit more. Then from, fact find to pitch, which pitches where we talk about the house.

Mhmm. I will ask, if there's not a, asking if there's an asking price on our lead, I try not to bring it up. I wanna hear what they say. And the reason I say that is, I'm a firm believer that the hardest part about our job is the phone calls they got prior to them picking the phone up for me.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Eric: And I know if I can put them through an experience they have not went through yet, a structured phone call. I I already got a leg up on most of my competition. So we go from, intro fact find, and then before we go into pitch, we try to get a price out of them. By this time, we've been on the phone with them for, like, ten minutes or so. And and say, hey, mister Seller, in the event we can get to a number that makes sense for both of us, where do you think you would have to be?

And then, nah. It's none of your business. Completely understand. Usually, I like to see where you're at for a price point. Ultimately, I'm gonna go back and they're gonna give me a number.

This isn't like a traditional real estate transaction. I'm actually working with you. Mhmm. Right? It's me and you against them in the back.

So if you have a number, we can at least jot it down. I can kinda see where they're at. Nah. It's none of your business. I want you to give me an offer.

Cool. I just let it go. Then we go into the house. What what we do again, we're trying to do what our competition isn't willing to do. And what do I mean by that?

The questions they have answered a 100 times over is what's the age of your roof, what's the age of the AC, and what upgrades have you done?

Steve: Yeah.

Eric: They've answered it a 100 times. So we what we do is we start outside. Tell us a little bit about the neighborhood. Kid friendly, house to the, left of you, to the right of you, across the street. Are these rentals?

Are they owner occupied? How do you feel about your neighbors? You got the electrical lines hanging up in the, you on a double yellow line. So we're trying to get them to talk about the neighborhood. Is it kid friendly?

Any vacant homes. Obviously, we slide in the roof AC, but we try to, like, do that at the end. Mhmm. Because for us, it's if they say it's heavy rental, let me put that into my system. I'm not sure that we're taking any more properties that are heavy rental markets.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: This is for a fix and flip. Because at the beginning, I said we're gonna qualify your property. So we go into the whole pitch, and then we go inside the house. We use the line. If you get it with, a $20.30, $40,000 check, what would you spend it on?

And then at the end of the pit or at the end of the the the pitch for the house, we always put every seller on two holds. So it's, hey. Appreciate giving me all the information. What I'm gonna do real quick is I'm just gonna run back to the underwriters and see if where they're at. You know?

They're gonna tell me one or two things. Yes. We'll take it, or no. We won't take it. Mhmm.

Steve: So

Eric: I'm either gonna have a number for you or a reason. Mhmm. And so we put them on hold. Why do we put them on hold? We mute our phone, and they're gonna have a conversation they wouldn't have with you on the phone.

Yeah. Was your wife there? No. She's at work. Soon as you put them on hold.

Honey, get out of here. They're getting ready to quote us. The wife's there. How much do you want for your house? I wanna hear you first.

You put them on hold. If they can give us a 150, are we gonna do the deal? Yeah. You got a number out of them.

Steve: Right.

Eric: So we go back. We start running our numbers. Right? Do whatever you gotta do for that. We do, two, three minute holds.

So we're on they're on hold for a total of six minutes. Someone's sitting on hold for six minutes. They're interested.

Steve: They're committed.

Eric: They're committed. Yeah. If they've grabbed a pen and paper, they wrote all your information down, they can repeat a phone number. They sit on hold for six minutes. I have a motivated seller on the phone.

Right. So we put them on hold. We come back. They're enter the we don't say they're in or stay. I don't have good news or bad news.

They actually have more questions about the property. Mhmm. So we always ask the same three questions. You save save three questions in your in your pocket. Right?

So you can pull them out. What are they? Foundation AC windows. S three. They say, let's say the house is 1985, and you ask about the windows.

Are they original? And you come up this is on your, coming back from your first hold, and they say, windows are original. I don't know. Let me put that in the system. Mhmm.

Steve: So

Eric: you start typing. Right? They can hear your fingers type. I'm just letting them know in the back office. So then, we say, is there anything else that you think they should know?

No. Alright. Boom. Put them on another hold. You sit there for three minutes and listen.

And the the holds are because you're gonna be a fly on the wall they don't know is there. Mhmm. The holds have been so powerful for us where and and this is just one one instance, right, where I had them on hold. What I was going to offer them on the second hold, the wife and husband were praying for a number that was $30,000 less than I was gonna quote. Yeah.

So the second hold, I made $30.30 additional thousand dollars. So we get back on. Congratulations. It's the first property they've approved for me all week or all month or whatever.

Steve: You

Eric: know, we I've we sell the sizzle, not the steak.

Steve: Alright.

Eric: So it's, it's Hollywood every time. It's action. So and then what we do, and I'm giving a lot of free game out here right now, so I usually charge for this stuff, is every property that we get approved, we say, hey. I want you to grab your pen and paper real quick because they have they've given me a virtual withdrawal number.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: Eric, what's the virtual withdrawal number? They've already moved the funds to another account for you, so it's attached to this number. What we do is we we can use that for urgency in the end of, hey. If they say no, let me think about it, whatever. It because then now we we're into the close.

Mhmm. It's, well, listen. I'm one of 15 acquisition managers on the phone. When they approve an offer, these funds are sitting here, and it is attached to this this virtual withdrawal number. So if you gotta think about it, should I just tell the the underwriters to push that money back?

That way the company can have access to it again. And it it you get to gauge their level of interest. Yeah. So, and then listen. It's either yes or no and then follow-up and all that.

So and I will tell you, Steve, that is the script that I came up with.

Steve: Yeah. No. That's fantastic. It's it's an amazing script. So you talk about sales Yeah.

Having a an assembly line Yeah. And then a mindset. Yeah. And I think you definitely demolish it on sales. So and the reason why, you know, I'm I'm with you.

Like, sales is the most important thing. Obviously, where I teach sales.

Eric: Of course.

Steve: I think what people so you've been in business for two years now.

Eric: Right? On this model, no. Only one year.

Steve: One year. So for us, right, like, I've been doing this for some time.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Like, ten years ago, you didn't need to be good at sales.

Eric: Right.

Steve: You just needed a pulse. Right? You're an

Eric: order taker.

Steve: Yeah. If you can find the guy that's got pain

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: You hit the jackpot every single time. Right? But now everyone has is pulling on the same list, same data, skip tracing predominantly with the same three companies. Yep. Right?

Like, we're all going after the same people. And the only thing that separates us today is sales.

Eric: I agree.

Steve: It's obvious. You're passionate about it. Yeah. Right? So you're crushing sales.

So Yeah. I think we're able to answer that question. Right? How are you able to do a million, 2,000,000 Yeah. If you want.

So everyone that's listening, I think if you just do that, you're closing more sales.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Closing more deals. For sure.

Eric: Have a have a process that's duplicatable, and you do the same thing every call.

Steve: Yeah.

Eric: And you don't steer away from it. Even on the bad days, bad weeks, you still stick to it.

Steve: Yeah. Absolutely. So, one thing I wanna talk about before we hit everyone else on the the questions is we were talking about a challenge that you guys were experiencing, an unexpected challenge.

Tony: Yeah.

Steve: So you guys packed your bags. You're ready to come out here, and you got some unpleasant news.

Tony: Yeah. I flew out here yesterday. And then, yeah, right when I landed Eric was already out here. Right when I landed, he texted me, one of our acquisitions managers quit. And I'm like, okay.

Eric: One of them.

Tony: Well, that

Eric: was that was one.

Tony: And I said, okay. Alright. That makes sense. You know, they were kinda miserable, you know, whatever. That that's no surprise.

Steve: Weren't the right culture fit or or or Yeah.

Tony: Just didn't

Steve: wasn't the right person for the job. I don't

Tony: wanna yeah. Exactly. I don't wanna say bad attitude. We just kinda, you know, just a, yeah, bad energy in the office.

Steve: It wasn't a surprise.

Tony: Wasn't a surprise. No.

Steve: Okay.

Tony: About half an hour later, now I'm, like, you know, walking out the airport, ready to, you know, Eric's ready to pick me up. I get another text from him. Another acquisitions manager quit. Then I'm like, what's going on with your department, bro?

Steve: Because we

Tony: had this both team strong right now.

Eric: We need deals. Well, yeah,

Tony: we had two two closers quit, yesterday. Yeah.

Steve: And what do you attribute that to?

Tony: Leadership. Just kidding.

Steve: That's a 100% Eric.

Eric: Yeah. Just just Well, we we were talking about it before we we got on the show, Steve. And, you you know, you had brought something to my attention that I didn't even think about. And so one of them came from making 30 something thousand a year. Mhmm.

And last month made a significant amount of money. And, I I think it was I I don't know. It's the first time that someone goes from making a a little bit amount of money to making life changing money in a single month. Yeah. And I forgot what you said, so I I can't Well,

Tony: I think, yeah, it was super interesting what Steve said because, you know, Steve asked, you know, what's she gonna do now? And, she's going to, you know, start her own social media type company. And Steve said, you know, well, maybe she was waiting for the funds to to start

Steve: a fund that.

Tony: Yeah. Which made a lot of sense. And we, you know, we were talking to Carlos Reyes yesterday about this, and we're all kinda racking our brain. Like, why do people, when they make a big hefty check it's this happens a lot, being business owners. We see it where right when that employee make that team member makes that big check, they quit.

Steve: Mhmm.

Tony: You know? And we we were talking about it last night with Carlos. Yeah. And, and then you came came up with that great point, earlier Yeah. About yeah.

What are there may be waiting on that check to start something else.

Steve: Well, and you and, you know, offline, we're talking about this. Like, there was a moment there's she was fretting. Like, is this gonna close? Is it gonna close? Right?

So, like, this is not, like, okay. It's no big deal. Like, she had plans.

Eric: This is a massive deal.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Another thing too we were talking about was that we talk about the thermometer, you know. And, like, there's this thing where our self image right? We're we're only allowed to make certain amount of money.

Right? Like, we have we all have different thermometers. Of course. Obviously, for you. Right?

Like, you went from zero to 8,000,000 or whatever a year. Your thermometer was no limit.

Eric: Right.

Steve: Right?

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: But there are a lot of people out there that, like, I made 40,000 a year every single year. And I've seen this as, you know, running sales teams. Like, once a guy hits 40,000 by the month of April, and they made 40,000 in the other careers, this is actually bad news for me as a business owner.

Eric: They checked out.

Steve: They checked out. They're no longer hustling. They're no longer doing the activities required

Tony: To hit their goal.

Steve: To hit the next figure. Right? So they might make 60,000 this year. Right? They might fall into 20,000 the other remaining eight months.

Yeah. And next year, they're a 60,000 a year person.

Tony: And then

Steve: if they hit 60,000 by April, man, like, whatever they make

Eric: the rest of the

Tony: year. It's it's so funny. While you're saying that, Steve, I have a couple buddies that are in, like, outside sales for different type of industries. And two of my buddies, that hit their quota, last year, they hit it really early. And both of them were exactly like that.

Like, man, I could just chill the last six months.

Steve: It sucks.

Tony: It's like the way you could.

Steve: Or or

Tony: you could double your income.

Eric: Double your income. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. So there's two different mindsets. There's one is, like, I can't make more because my whole life is who I am, is my identity. Right? You were saying, like, this is your identity with that business.

40,000 a year is my identity. Like, this is my circle. This is why we talk about who you choose as friends is important. Everyone else makes 40,000 a year. I made 40,000 a year my whole life.

I can't make more. Like, it'll screw up my identity. Yeah. And you got weirdos like us because we're the weirdos. Mhmm.

Like, okay. Well, I made 40,000 this month. What can I make next

Eric: month? Yeah. Right?

Steve: I'm gonna make a million dollars this year.

Eric: Yeah. Let's do it.

Steve: Right? Like, let's go for it. And but we're we're the crazy ones.

Eric: We're crazy.

Steve: Yeah. So I just wanna touch on that real quick. And then before, again, we go into questions, you mentioned that you did a 125 k deal?

Tony: Yeah. Yeah. I would love to shout out, Robert Wensley on this podcast because he told me to.

Steve: Smart man.

Tony: But yeah. So, kinda when I was coming up with a a disposition process, you know, I started in May. I disowned my first deal, like, June 9 or something. And that was, like, a $45,000 assignment fee. That was my first deal.

Steve: So that guy locks up his first phone deal. Yeah. His first disposition is 45K. You found the right guy.

Tony: Yeah. I'm telling

Eric: you, man.

Tony: I'm telling you. But,

Eric: His numbers are out of control without knowing a thing about dispo. And he'll tell you, but his numbers are out of control.

Tony: So, so I I started coming up with the process, and, and then, we went to an all in event of car Carlos Reyes' all in event. Met a couple guys on, the cartel level of investor lift there, and they were kinda pitching me on investor lift. And, we pulled the trigger on that in, August. So just got the the base level, started implementing that in our in our process, in our dispo process of pulling GodMode data and mass texting. And anybody who texts back, we would get on the phones, vet them, and put them on our buyers list.

So that was part of our process. We love the platform because, it's just easy to make a really nice listing and send it out on there as well, email, text. So we started using that, and, I put together a really nice listing in, Goodlettsville, Tennessee. And this was a really unique property, countryside barn home from, like, 1890 or something. Huge rehab, but just such a cool property.

We hired, a photographer to go out there, do aerial footage, all this stuff. It was a badass list. Yeah. It was a cool listing.

Steve: They're treating it like an MLS deal.

Tony: Yeah. Exactly. So we did a, Matterport walk through, aerial, everything, video walk through. And, I I put I sent that out. Couple cartel guys got it, and then they started posting it on the investor list Facebook.

And they're like, man, this this listing is awesome. Who put this together? And then Robert gave me a a call. He called me on my cell phone after that, and he's like, man. He's like, what what kind of number?

You guys are doing pretty decent numbers. How long have you been doing this? I was like, just since May.

Eric: And

Tony: he's like he's like, you guys are probably gonna do a $100 this month. And I was like, yeah. And he's like, alright. He's like, you wanna do, like, 1,000,000 a month? And I was like, yeah.

He's like, I can help you do that. And I was like, okay. And he's like, let's jump on a Zoom. So we jumped on a Zoom call, and he pitched us. And, he's like, let me give you a cartel level for thirty days and see how you do with it.

By October, we just owed, 485,000 that month. Yeah. But in one of the reasons was we locked up a deal. It was a PPC lead, which we don't even market to Washington. But a lady in Ohio got this, filled out a form on Google, and Eric called.

She had a brother in, Algona, Washington, who was kind of a hoarder and not functional.

Eric: He was out of his mind.

Tony: Out of his mind. He was living like there's, like, raccoons living in his house. And, so, Eric, you know, made that pitch, and we locked this deal up. And, we started looking at this deal, me and Eric, that night after we locked it up. We're like, man, this is a cool little area.

Like, these houses are all the same in this little valley, and they're selling for, you know, $485,100 grand. This is like the last house in that neighborhood that hasn't been flipped. And because we had car sale level, you know, we we threw it out there. I had no buyers in Washington. I'd never even been there.

Eric: And no clue where it was at. We didn't even know where

Tony: it was. Yeah. And, we get the pictures back a couple days later. I send the deal out. We locked it up for $1.65, sent it out for $2.90 or something like that.

Yeah. I should get the numbers, but it was

Steve: But,

Tony: but send it out, and I had, like, four full price offers, like, within twenty four hours. So And got to assign it. We made a $125 on that assignment.

Steve: A buck and a quarter. Yeah. Telling to a list. People you didn't even know.

Tony: People I didn't know.

Steve: Oh, investor lift.

Tony: Investor lift has been incredible. And and Robert's been great. He always reaches out, super supportive. He gave me a ton of confidence in the beginning. Like, you guys can do this.

Always available for a phone call, jumping on a Zoom. Yeah. Super solid, guy.

Steve: Yeah. So real quick, disruptors for 10% off.

Eric: Alright. So

Steve: before we jump into the questions, if you guys need help in sales, we do have our sales training. This month actually is gonna be in two weeks. So if you guys are interested, go disruptors.com/saleswithdisruptors. Our sales process is not like Eric's. It's different.

Not that it's anything, like not comparing. I'm just saying it's just completely different.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: If you guys wanna have a consistent sales process, love to have you guys, in our office. We spend a day and a half going over our sales process. Alright. So let's jump into questions. First question.

This is from YouTube. Nice experiment. How do you, Tony, and Shyla ensure a happy, fair partnership? Sounds like he knows you because he knew your wife's name before you guys even started.

Tony: Yeah. I mean, I look at Shyla as my stepwife. So, I'll just say, like, me and Eric can be and we have similar personalities. We're, you know, gunslingers, closers. It's Shiloh that kinda keeps our our our our team together for sure.

Eric: Listen. We all respect one another. And that's that's really what it comes down to is, I respect Tony. I feel Tony respects me. We both respect our, our wife.

We both respect our wife. So, it comes down to respect, man. And and we all work really, really hard. Mhmm. Like, there's not one of us that, doesn't put in, the effort.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah.

Tony: It feels like a family. We've known each other forever too.

Steve: Is there anything else to actively? Because I I think there are a lot of people that go in there. Like, it's a family, and they treat each other with, you know, respect or so on. Like, I think that's kinda like the bare minimum for most people in a partnership. Is there anything you guys do actively to ensure that the partnership is healthy?

Eric: As far as, like, masterminds, stuff like that? I mean, we got an operating agreement. We got, like, all that.

Steve: But is there, like, you know, intentional meetings? Is there any

Tony: Yes. Yeah. So we have meetings every week, the three of us, and meetings with our teams and and a whole and a meeting every morning with the entire team. But we truly are best friends and family, so we do a lot of stuff together. Yeah.

And, you know, we try to not bombard each other with with work stuff outside of work, but we do meet up sometimes, like, at Eric and Shiloh's house, and we'll just three of us will mastermind for an hour and a half and cook dinner and watch the UFC fights or whatever. So, I mean, you know, a lot of people say they're family, they're friends, you know, all that, but we truly are. And we do a lot of stuff together. And we're all very open and honest, and we've been like that forever. We can tell each other literally everything.

Steve: I can tell there's no filters.

Tony: There's zero filters. Yeah. And it's and that really helps because you're you know, if there's ever anything you don't want anything to eat away at you either because that can just cause, it can disrupt the the team. So if anybody's feeling one way or the other, they'll bring it up, you know, and we'll squash it right there. Come up with a solution.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I understand why you feel that way. Let me fix it or let you fix it or whatever. We we're very open about everything.

Steve: Yeah. That's huge. So Chad on Instagram, you asked a question about why getting out of a paid note. I don't understand the question. So if you can please ask it another way.

YouTube, again, Ncal, some feedback on what deciding what the best market to target and what tools, filters to pull this. So you guys are obviously in Raleigh. You moved straight to Raleigh to do Raleigh.

Eric: No. We didn't move there. My wife picked for Raleigh.

Steve: Oh, okay. But how did you guys decide what market to target?

Tony: That's a that's a Shylock question for sure, but

Eric: we keep it this really simple, Steve. We say, hey. We're gonna go to, we're gonna pull data in Atlanta. Shiloh, we tell her, hey. Let's go to Atlanta.

She pulls data. We, like, we do not overthink this model.

Tony: Mhmm.

Eric: Yeah. We keep this super the whole kiss, keep it simple stupid. We we kiss this model to a t.

Steve: Where are you guys pulling lists?

Tony: List source. Yeah. That's all we've ever used. You know, people

Steve: That's shocking to me.

Eric: Yeah. We've just never used another like,

Steve: Dave's That's awesome, by the way. I'm just saying that's shocking.

Eric: Okay. Why How about why feedback?

Steve: Well, it's just most people are using, you know, other lists. So I was like, list source has been around forever. Right? Like, I mean, Sean Terry, I think, has been talking about it forever, like, over ten years. So, you know, the people are talking about, like, PropStream or, you know, we use, Audantic, Investor Machine.

Like, there's all sorts of different lists. Yeah. You know? So it's shocking to me that you guys are using list source, but it's awesome. Alright.

It's a testament, actually, I would say, to your sales skills.

Tony: Okay. That Why is

Eric: there a better list out? Say something, Steve. Are you hiding something?

Steve: No. I was saying, like, we use different we use different list source. Right? So Yeah. So I think it's great that you're making list source, which is more commonly available and making it work.

I think it's admirable.

Eric: Understood. We've never pulled a lead from anywhere else.

Steve: Yeah. That's fantastic.

Eric: And and for eleven, months, Steve, we only pulled absentee owner data. When we would pull all of other absentee owner data in Atlanta, boom, we jump into another market.

Steve: Yeah. And then so are most of your deals in North Carolina? This is from Jewel.

Tony: No. Well, I would say or so just full transparency. Our two biggest markets are Atlanta and Charlotte. I mean, we would, you know, like, there's banger markets like, you know, Raleigh's a great market. We just don't get a ton of deals in Raleigh.

It's a smaller market. But when you do get a deal there, it's a good deal.

Eric: Juicy deal.

Tony: Juicy deal. Same with, like, we would love to get more deals in Nashville, you know, but we just don't for one reason or the other. But when we do get a deal in Nashville, it's a good deal. But

Steve: Of course.

Tony: Our biggest flow is gonna be Atlanta and Charlotte. Those have been, you know, neck and neck. You know, we'll we'll close, you know, five deals in Atlanta, six deals in Charlotte, like, almost every month.

Steve: And, follow-up question from Joel is, how do you guys feel about Florida?

Tony: Great. Love Florida. Yeah. Jacksonville, Tampa. Yeah.

Yep. Yep. Great market.

Steve: On YouTube as well, Luis. Do you set yourself in a special mindset scenario when negotiating with other? Because you kinda mentioned how important mindset is. Mhmm. Is there anything you do to get in the right mindset?

Eric: To I mean, at at this we're negotiating on every single phone call. We try not to let them go without negotiating the deal. So as far as a mindset, I mean, one, just being confident in in in who you are and your numbers. And if you've done step one, two, three, and four right, the close should should honestly be the easiest part. Yeah.

Because at this point, they're negotiating with someone they like, trust, and wanna do business with. And, it's all a matter of you moving the needle, then moving the needle, and hoping to get to a number that works for you.

Steve: Right.

Tony: Is it Yeah. Sorry. I don't know. So I'll add to just because it reminded me, when I did close that first deal that I called, like, that's why mindset's so important. The night before, that happened, I just was, like, meditating and thinking.

And I went to bed that night and slept a full eight hours knowing I was gonna close a deal that next day. And then I woke up as calm as could be. I was like, I'm just gonna go to the office and close the deal. Like, my mind I there was just no way I wasn't going to close a deal. Yeah.

So, I mean, mindset is so important every single day. Yeah. You know, phone call to phone call or every day. You know, I have I think Eric does too. Like, I write goals and and mindset stuff on my bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker, and I read it out loud every single morning.

Steve: Yeah. So talking about mindset, you know, there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Yes. Right? So you're saying, like, I'm gonna go and close a deal tomorrow.

But people that are listening, how do they get in that right right mindset with with confidence and that boastfulness or so on?

Eric: Quick wins. Right? I mean, have have little goals, and it it's crazy and as stupid as this may sound. Something I started doing years ago was I get up every single morning and I make my bed. Mhmm.

Like, that's a quick win for me. I get to leave my bedroom. I see a nicely made bed. Whether you're jot down, like, you're gonna do something throughout that day, like quick wins, confidence boosters, I call them. But as Tony said, one of the best investments I've ever made, and I'm sure he can and say the same thing, is you go to Walmart, Target, wherever, buy a black dry eraser marker, and you start putting that stuff on your mirror, you wake every morning up every morning, you're brushing your teeth, you gotta look at it.

You're doing your hair, you gotta look at it. You go to bed, you brush your teeth before you go to bed, you gotta look at all your goals. At some it it's that what is that? Subconscious Mhmm.

Steve: You're programming your subconscious.

Eric: It's gonna happen. Like, I I tell this all the time. There's not one thing I've put on my mirror that has not come true. And that when I say it one of them may have been up there for six months, two years, three years, but everything has come true.

Steve: Yeah. That's powerful.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Dana Pareto wants to know, what numbers do you hold your acquisitions to? Calls, contacts, offers made, 10 like, which of those numbers do you

Eric: Great question. Yeah. I like that question a lot. So this is what we live and die by in our office. 50 to 70 dials a day.

They have to have three to four hours of talk time a day, and they gotta make, three to five offers a day. If they hit those every single day, I'm happy with the performance.

Steve: And these are guys that are in your office?

Eric: Yeah. In in house.

Steve: In house.

Eric: Yep. Got it. And with those KPIs that we track, each one of so each seat in our acquisitions department is good for seven to 10 locked up contracts per month, with the projected profit of anywhere between $2.50 to almost 300,000.

Tony: Yeah.

Eric: Because we we had three up until yesterday. And every single month for the last five, six months, we've broke over 1,000,000 in projected profit.

Steve: That's incredible.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Facebook, demon call. What is a big enough number to check that results gal. She did 18 k in a month. Yeah. What other scenarios have you guys ran into where you're seeing big checks and people leaving?

Eric: It I'm gonna that's the first time

Tony: I've ever dealt

Eric: with it.

Tony: Time. Yeah. So our answer is 18.

Eric: Yeah. I've never dealt with that before.

Steve: Yeah. So for you guys, it's it's new. But for the rest of us, I mean, I I've seen it consistently. Right? If it's more than eighteen, twenty thousand and we're not saying that every time someone makes his money, they leave you.

Right? It's that it could be the kind of the beginning. Right? Either they're gonna like, there's too much money, and I wanna do something different. Or, you know, Eric, thanks for everything.

I'm gonna compete against you now.

Eric: Right. Yeah.

Tony: Right? Yeah.

Steve: That that those are the two different things that happen when people cash big checks. I wish it was more common to cash big checks. I'm like, thank you, Eric, for helping me get to this level. I'm gonna support and work with you forever. I wish that was the case.

Tony: That is credit card got

Eric: paid for. My car just got paid for. Peace.

Steve: Yeah. That and that happens a lot. It's unfortunate, but it's the reality. Right?

Eric: It is.

Steve: And I think another thing too is, like, the people that we attract in sales are also the kind of people that are business owners. Like, personality profiles Right. Your person's willing to do sales. They were willing to hit the phones. You get punched in the mouth all day.

Yeah. Also had a person that likes to start a business. So there's a reason why people we train become our competitors.

Eric: Yep.

Steve: And then do you have an onboarding process, from Daniel Pareto Yeah. For acquisitions? Yep.

Eric: Yep. So first company they obviously fill out all the paperwork, NDAs, and, honestly, whatever the my wife has them signed. And then, we go over company culture, mindset, tips for success. And this is for being on the phones and trying to pound phones all day. After that, I put them through my five step sales process training.

We deep dive into it. Script training. We do recording training. And then I'll either let them listen to me pitch, or I let them listen to one of our other acquisition managers pitch, our only acquisition manager not pitch. So, and then after that, they I I literally give them our script.

So our script, someone can sit at a desk with a headset call lead, and our script is so detailed from hello to goodbye. They can lock a deal up. Mhmm. It's a four page script. As long as they read it, they can get a deal.

Yeah. So I'll I'll put them at a desk and give them the script. I'll put them in some older leads, and I don't pay attention to them for the rest of the day. I act like they're not even there. One, it's letting them get the marbles out of their mouth.

I don't want them to feel pressure. I let them know I'm not paying attention to you today. And then the following day, we'll pull recordings of that previous day. And it's really just letting them know, hey. This is what the script says.

Here you were off. Here you were off. Get back to the script, and then I'll correct them, cheer them on, throw them back on the phones. Again, I don't pay attention to them for the rest of the day, and, we'll just repeat that cycle. And then, after, like, two, three days of doing that, I'll throw them on the the fresh leads.

Steve: So this is completely off topic. Right? But I watched this movie on Netflix. Sorry to Bother You. Have you seen it?

Eric: I have not. Mhmm.

Steve: So it's a movie about cold calling and telemarketing.

Eric: Really? I

Steve: think you would enjoy it. Alright.

Eric: I'm gonna watch it.

Steve: But the the the the the motto everywhere in the building. Right? Because it's it's a cheesy take on cold calling was stick to the script.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Right? That's it. That's the mantra. Like, they end every meeting with stick to the script. Yeah.

So are you guys interested in geeking out in sales? That's a movie for you. Dark Comedy. So on YouTube, Daniel, books that have changed your life. So for each of you guys.

I'll start with Tony.

Tony: Yeah. This one might be a surprise, but, Untethered Soul is a really good book, kind of a mindset book that I read kinda at a dark time in my life.

Steve: Mhmm.

Tony: And I'll still reread that book, you know, every two years or something. But that kind of got the negativity out of my head of just, like, treating the voice in your head. Like, if that was a person in real life that's given you all this bad advice and all this negativity, you wouldn't be friends with that person. So treating that voice in your head that's always negative or always, you know, telling you can't do something or this is gonna be a problem if you do this, if you treat that like it's a person in real life and have a conversation with it and, you know, kinda disown that that friendship with it and and listen to yourself, that's what that book taught me.

Steve: That's amazing. And, we had Joe Dillon on the show a couple years ago, and he said the same thing. Like, that book, like

Tony: Yeah. It was a total mind, game changing for his mindset Yes.

Steve: And the for his mindset.

Tony: Yes.

Steve: And the willing to forgive himself Yes. Was the big thing Yes. In that book.

Tony: Yeah. For sure. Great book.

Steve: How about yourself?

Eric: I'm I'm gonna say 10 x, man. As cheesy as that may sound, some and and and this is the reason why. I'm I'm I'm still not on the well, I'm not gonna say I'm not on the Cardone bandwagon. It allowed I was never a goal setter

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: Ever. And finally setting goals has has literally changed my life. I put something out there, and now I have to go get it.

Steve: Yeah.

Eric: So, and I will you know, they say he he grandma say, set goals so big, other people think you're crazy, or they it it makes you nervous. And, I I truly do those kind of things. So is is is g I'm gonna go with the 10 x, man. My boy Grant.

Steve: Shyla Yeah. Wants to know, what do you do to recharge and stay motivated?

Eric: Go ahead. She must be talking to you, Tony.

Tony: Yeah. Man, I'm just, like, a very structured morning, and I run the stairs. I take an ice cold shower. That recharges me for the day. Even going to the gym, going mountain biking, go.

Go I have a, off road race truck out in San Diego. Like, going off roading and doing something extreme where it you can't help but think of anything but what you're doing. Like, you're not thinking of work or problems or anything. Like, when I'm mountain biking and I'm I'm doing downhill or I'm in the middle of Mexico, you know, going 70 through the desert, it's just such a recharge because you're not thinking of anything but exactly what you're doing in that moment. And I do you know, I can't do that every day, but, you know, running stairs in the morning, it's the same type of thing.

And taking an ice cold shower every morning is the same type of thing because the only thing you're thinking about in that ice cold shower is this sucks, and I wanna get out of this. So, that's what I do.

Steve: So you can't avoid this question.

Eric: I'm not gonna avoid it. I was messing with her. Yeah. It's it's it's my wife. It's our wife asking this.

So, one is me and my wife love going to the mountains. We, go to Banner Elk, North Carolina. There's a private community up there, Eagle's Nest. When I go up there, I literally feel like the world's left behind me. And then, with us moving to North Carolina, I was in South Florida for twelve years.

And one thing I did a lot of as a little kid was I was I was big into snowboarding. And when I got into drugs and all that, I left all I I left passions behind me, right, or things that I really enjoyed. So we just moved to, Raleigh, and the mountains are three hours away. And this year, I was able to Tony and I went, but I was able to jump on a snowboard again. And, just the last time we went, it was like, he he says your your mind's on nothing but that.

Like, when I'm going down a a a slope on a snowboard, the literally, I can't think of anything else. I'm I'm at peace, and I'm doing what I absolutely love.

Steve: Yeah.

Eric: Yeah. So for me, it's the mountains. And, obviously, honey, you're you're in the mountains with me.

Steve: So I definitely do love snowboarding. I I'm totally with you on that. Yeah. Mountain biking, I'll never do that. Mhmm.

I think there's a plug here. Milton Flores, does Eric have any trainings coming up?

Eric: Yes.

Steve: Alright. And you can talk about it.

Eric: I'm I'm gonna respect your show, man.

Steve: So on, Facebook, Alexis, how often do you market to the same list?

Tony: Oh, man.

Eric: Do you I don't know. You'd have to ask our cold call in a company.

Steve: Literally, don't know.

Eric: So I guess

Steve: then a follow-up question then would be, who are you using for cold calling?

Eric: Yeah. C CRI. My boy, Kareem. Cool. Yeah.

We've been been with him since day one.

Steve: Since day one. Yeah. Alright. And then same question you might be able to answer is how often do you pull this?

Eric: God. Almost every month, month and a half.

Tony: Much every month. Yeah.

Eric: Yeah. We pull 10,000 records per cold caller every month.

Tony: So, yeah, we're pulling, you know, 200,000 records a month.

Eric: And that but that's a problem that we had because for the first, eleven months, we did nothing but absentee owner data. Mhmm. And now we're at a point where we've had to step out of our comfort zone and buy word for the first time buying other lists.

Steve: Right.

Eric: Which for us, it's like, man, is the data still gonna be this good? So

Steve: May maybe. May not be. Or you can just kinda tweak a script.

Tony: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Right. But, yeah, I think I mean, for us, we don't really change our script very much depending on the lead source. We like

Eric: to know what you mean by that.

Steve: I mean, it doesn't matter who we're calling. Right? We're just, like, you know, just saw that property. Probably not interested in selling it.

Eric: Gotcha. Yeah.

Steve: Like, it doesn't matter what what the lead source is now. You know, they're, fighting us and, like, no. There's no reason I would ever saw it. Okay. I just I was just kinda confused.

Tony: You know,

Steve: I saw this on the list.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: You know, I saw that might be coming in foreclosure, but that's probably a mistake. Like, we'll allude to it afterwards, but we don't jump. And I was like, hey. I saw your house in foreclosure. What are you doing with it?

Yeah. So, I

Eric: need to join that training, Steve.

Steve: So Abe on YouTube wants to know, how do you pay your acquisition people?

Eric: Good question. $26,000 base salary. If they get $50,000 funded in thirty days, they get 8%. Anything over 50,000 in that month, we retroactive it to 9%. Nice.

Each month is a new month.

Steve: Cool. So 500 a week. Simple.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: And then Jasmine, well, same question. What's your next sales training? And I'm really not opposed to this. I I'm abundance. Right?

I think that there's like, I learned literally from everybody I can learn from. Well, except for one person. But, just about everywhere I can learn from.

Eric: I I'm that way too.

Tony: Yeah.

Steve: So, I mean, I've I'm not a Grant Cardone guy. I'm the opposite, but I recognize he's had a lot of success.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Right? So I I'm not opposed to to I I'm I'm the abundance mindset. Yeah.

Eric: So It's April 19.

Steve: There you go.

Eric: April 19.

Steve: Alright. So that is the challenge. So you gotta go jump. You gotta fly in between. Alright.

And then, Harvey, do you guys have a disposition process that you guys teach?

Tony: Yes. That training will be April 27, I believe. We do one hour a week for three weeks.

Eric: But Hour

Steve: a week for three weeks.

Tony: Yeah. Definitely do that. Yep.

Steve: Ricky

Eric: Tony's got it dialed in.

Tony: Yeah.

Steve: Oh, I believe that. Yeah. Ricky Miller. Is there a rule of thumb for how many VAs per acquisition person that you guys follow?

Eric: Five cold callers per closer.

Steve: And then, Agatha, what is your criteria? Or maybe we said absentee. Right?

Eric: Yeah. That's all it has been. Now we're buying owner occupied. So

Steve: same thing. What are the qualities you're looking for when hiring a closer?

Eric: Well, from here on out, someone that is money motivated so we actually have three starting April 18.

Steve: Got it.

Eric: And so I'll tell you what I was looking for in all of these. They are leaving a job that they've been at for more than three years. So I I think someone that's committed to a company for three years says something.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And then if they're willing to leave that company to come to us, that's commitment.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And then so I'm we're looking for somebody that is, been employed with somebody for an extended period of time. Someone that can sit and have a quality conversation with me during an interview where I don't have to do all the talking, because I pay attention to that during the interview. And I am absolutely looking for somebody that's money motivated.

Steve: How do you test for that? How do you test for that?

Eric: Hi. I've I mean, it's hard stupid as it may sound. I'll be like, hey. Are you money motivated? Well, another

Tony: thing too is asking about their goals. Yeah. Like, what's your goal for, you know, this year, next year, five years from now? Do you have a family? Do you have kids?

You know, like, is somebody with a a family with three kids, like, gonna risk going out on their own, or do they just wanna steady paycheck? You know?

Eric: The the one guy that start is starting with this, his name is Thomas. And he goes, can I pull my phone out and show you something real quick? He, right now, for four and a half years, he's been door knocking, selling, like, pest control stuff. And, he's he's been with him four and a half years, and he's like, there's just no more growth for me. He's making, like, 65,000 a year, I think.

And he goes, can I pull my phone out and show you something? And I was like, yeah. I'd love to see what you have to show me. And it was his audiobook library, and it was sales sales minds. And I was like, dude, I'm so glad you showed me this.

Yeah. Like, breath of fresh air.

Steve: Right.

Eric: I pulled mine out. I'm showing him mine, and it was, so it was it was cool. I'm excited for this guy to start.

Steve: Yeah. So, there's two things. Right? Like, there's the there's an OMG test that they call it OMG. Right?

Where you they take the test beforehand, and it tells you whether in, inherently or extra what's the word I'm looking for? Internally motivated or externally motivated. Right? There's a better term for it, but more or less, internally externally motivated. Another thing I I would look at is, like, there's there's social media or their cars.

Yeah. Like, if they drove up and,

Eric: I couldn't find one of them on social media, which I thought was weird.

Steve: That is weird.

Tony: It's getting harder too. Yeah.

Steve: We have it on our job application. You have to put in your social media.

Tony: That's a good Do

Eric: you really?

Steve: Yeah. I mean, if if I'm gonna take out a if I'm gonna stock you, I wanna make it as easy as possible. Sure. Alright.

Tony: Yeah. That's smart. That's smart.

Steve: And then let's see. Moving on. Joshua Ortiz. So what is a high level your disposition process?

Tony: Disposition process? It's, I mean, I could talk for four hours about it. But, I'll just I'll kinda give a breakdown on, like, our pipe like, our process pipeline. So, you know, we'll get pictures done, of a property. We put together a really nice listing.

Title has to have something about the like, finances in it, like something about, you know, equity or spread in the deal. So when an investor is getting this deal, it shows, like, what they might make or what the spread is on the deal. So we always do that in the title. We'll send the deal out Monday through Thursday in the morning because it gets more clicks than the weekend. We send it out to our VIP buyers first.

If they don't want it, we send it out on cartel level. During that process, we're going on prop stream and god mode and manually skipping the LLCs in the neighborhood that have purchased for cash. We're sending out mass text to the god mode and prop stream cash buyer data. If it doesn't sell within a week or two, we'll throw it on the MLS.

Steve: Awesome. And then, Kelly, the movie was Sorry to Bother You on Netflix. Gotcha. And then last question from Daniel Pareto. How are you, sourcing acquisition guys?

Eric: How are we sourcing them? First round, we got, Shaila, my wife, would have did, like, your LinkedIn, my job monsters, whatever it is. Indeed. Indeed. Yep.

Which got us our first hire. And then the other two came from referrals. He referred one girl, and then she referred another. So we hired one. The the other two were referred to us.

And this go around, I actually met a guy that is a, he owns a staffing company.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: I met him at an event, actually, and he wanted to get into wholesaling. And, he owns a staffing company, and, he was like him and I chopped it up for a little bit at this event, and he was like, dude, I'd I'd love to I told him this. I'm like, man, we wanna get more closers in there. And he goes, well, I actually focus solely on filling up call centers. And I was like, Yahtzee.

And, he was like, I'm really good at what I do. I'll get your door swinging. And I'm like, alright. Cool. I'll give you a shot.

And, he didn't charge us like, he's didn't charge us anything. Cool cat out of California. And, he was like, get ready because when I say I'm gonna line interviews up, you like, people are gonna start walking through your door. Low and behold, he was like, it's gonna start on this day. And he just had a spreadsheet.

Steve: Mhmm.

Eric: And people were walking through the door left and right. Yeah. It it was exhausting. And, so we went, long story short, this time through a staffing company, but we didn't have to pay for it.

Steve: Right. That's incredible. So what is your biggest struggle today?

Tony: I don't know if it's a well, the biggest thing that we're trying to do that we haven't figured out yet is, like, I think it's just our personality or background. Like, we're gunslinger, closers, turn and burn, want the quick money. We haven't figured out kind of, acquiring properties yet. So that's something that we need to do, and I think a part of that is hiring, you know, real managers in each of our departments to kinda run the day to day stuff so we can step out and look at the bigger picture. I know, like, for I just wanna give Michelle and, on my team a shout out, our disposition manager.

She's been absolutely phenomenal. You know, so somebody you know, a manager in each, department. So me, Eric, and Shaila can, can kinda step out and look at the bigger picture and start acquiring homes or doing flips or, you know, see what the real endgame of this is instead of just wholesaling.

Steve: Yeah. Is there a reason why you can't do that now before you put managers in place?

Tony: No. I think it just is we were you know, we're 11. Anyway, I try not to beat ourselves up about this at all, but we're eleven months into this thing, and it's just something we haven't learned and tried yet.

Steve: Yeah. Eleven months in. I mean

Tony: It's it's definitely on the horizon.

Steve: You're the exception.

Eric: You're figuring this out, Steve. So we'll, like, we'll get it.

Tony: Yeah. But, yeah, that's just one thing that's top of mind.

Eric: It's it's for us to acquire deals.

Steve: Yeah. What is your biggest struggle?

Eric: Right now, spreading myself too thin. Had the acquisitions and started doing some sales training and popping up on other people's podcasts or webinars. And, you know, my my wife had said it, not watering my own grass enough and worrying about all this other stuff. So, just staying more laser focused on things that matter and not being all over the place.

Steve: So how are you fixing that?

Eric: Well, one, we hired, Jasmine to help structure the and get me more organized and and Tony, more organized when it comes to, like, sales training, dispo training. We were, just shooting it off at the hip and trying to make some stuff happen. And we were helping people, but there's a more structured way of doing it. Mhmm. And then, another struggle, Steve, I would say is or for me is the way our office is set up.

I don't think it's set up the the way I think just by having me closer to our acquisition department, because I'm at they're on one side of the building, I'm on the other. Even though it's 2,000 square feet, I believe if I'm with the team Mhmm. We're gonna operate at a higher level.

Steve: Yeah. I believe in the same thing. I think culture is is so important. They see these guys, like, trying to have multiple offices, multiple locations, and it's hard to get culture right in one building.

Eric: It's very hard.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So then in the other order, what is your superpower?

Eric: Good question. I told Tony on the way. I said, what's your superpower, Tony? He was only think about it when Steve asked. So, I thought about it.

Mhmm.

Steve: And I appreciate you being more respectful than Tony.

Eric: Mine is the ability to allow the underdog to know second chances are real. Yeah. And I think when I speak, I speak very openly about my past. I'm not ashamed of my past. It's who I am.

And, the more I talk about it, I truly believe the more lives that I can change. And, my you know, one of my goals is to be able to cast my message as far as I can.

Steve: Mhmm. And

Eric: it it's not about making a million dollars. It's about having a second chance and taking full advantage of it.

Steve: Yeah. And I think that's a powerful message. I mean, you know, we haven't really had these conversations a lot, but, you know, we have back to back. Right? Between Shane and you guys.

Yeah. And I believe that message wholeheartedly.

Tony: Yep. Yeah. So, I have thought about my superpower, and I really think just discipline and consistency go hand in hand, and that's been, kind of the formula for my success. In my past, I was very consistent about being a dirtbag, and that's exactly where my life led. I was hanging out with the wrong people.

But, but, yeah, I think, you know, I'm I'm a very disciplined person, and with discipline comes consistency. And for me, it's doing you know, waking up doing the same thing every morning and just getting into my routine, going to work, doing you know, trusting the process and just, and just being consistent about it. And, you know, people have this false sense of people who are super disciplined. Like, I always bring it back to, like, the gym and and working out, and it's like, man, I wish I I wanted to work out every day. And it's like, you think I wanna work out every day?

I wake up. I don't wanna run the stairs. I don't wanna take a cold shower. I don't wanna go to work every single day. You know?

And it's discipline that makes you do those things. And if you're disciplined, you you're consistent, and the results will come.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I think, I learned somewhere. Right? Discipline is

Tony: Equals freedom.

Eric: Well,

Steve: it's getting yourself to do something that you committed to when you're excited that you're no longer excited about, but you're still doing it.

Tony: Great point.

Steve: Yeah. And, like, I hate working out. True. Like, every time I was my my personal trainer things renews, like, do I wanna renew this? I don't know if I wanna renew this.

Eric: This dude is super disciplined. He's been eating the same breakfast for thirty years.

Steve: I mean, he radiates this one. I can see this guy. He just radiates discipline. What is the greatest lesson you learned, Tony?

Tony: Greatest lesson I learned, man, it's hard not to say people deserve a second chance after Eric just said it. But, you know, I really do think that's a that's an important lesson is, you know, we you know, as humans, we just judge people naturally. People say, oh, don't judge that person. It's like I mean, that's just human nature. We judge everybody.

It's okay to judge people. But do

Steve: we judge them? We judge them in, like, less than a second.

Tony: Yeah. But that's just human nature. That's just who we are. Like I

Steve: was so glad that the species.

Tony: Exactly. So, judging is okay. But, giving people a second chance is is super important. Everybody's got a a crazy story. You know?

Everybody's got a crazy family. Everybody's got a crazy story. You know? It's it's you know? And especially with, you know, this day and age with social media, you just see all the wins, everybody, all this, you know, highlight.

But everybody's got got problems. You know? We you know? And just to give give people another chance is is super important to me.

Steve: How about yourself? What was the question? Greatest lesson you've learned.

Eric: Greatest lesson I've learned. Some of some of maybe what you think are your biggest failures or losses could be your biggest wins.

Steve: Yeah. You wanna elaborate on that?

Eric: Yeah. I'm gonna go back to, you you know, almost losing my life and, going through that experience and and the way I look at life today. And then with, like, my last business, I thought it was you know, we we we touched on this yesterday, which I haven't talked about here today, is when I was making all that money, Steve, and getting ready to sell for all that money, I I I was not in a good place in my life. I I truly believe if I would have sold the company, one, there's a good chance my marriage, I wouldn't be married today. Two, I could have very easily went back to being a full blown drug addict.

So, I believe everything happened for a reason, and I was I was playing the victim for so long. But I look at it today, and it was an absolute blessing that what happened happened to me.

Steve: Why do you why do you think that?

Eric: I went from I was a an ego driven maniac at the peak of, the success at my house.

Steve: Some humility in your life.

Eric: I needed I needed to be knocked off the the the top Yeah. Of what I thought I was at the top, and I was so far from it.

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

Eric: Tell her to be sold her to the next. I I used to buy tons of them and give them out at my office nonstop.

Steve: Hey. I mean, you were drinking the Kool Aid, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Eric: Not, man.

Steve: Right? But that's that's what you were doing.

Eric: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Right? And I think the more you committed to something, I think you absolutely should go all in. I'm the kind of person that's I'm either all in or I'm all out.

Eric: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: So I I I think that's respectable.

Tony: Yeah. So, I mean, same with my favorite book, Untethered Soul. I've I've gifted that to many people. I think Shyla, actually. Eric's wife, our wife.

And, yeah, a ton of friends. You know? Anytime somebody's going through something, I send them that book.

Steve: Yeah. So I don't normally ask additional questions, but we keep getting questions here in the check. Where did you guys get your shoes?

Tony: Oh, I bought the stock x.

Eric: I know they're looking at those bad boys. I don't know. I think my wife bought them for me.

Steve: So reach out to Charlotte. Everyone just reach out to Charlotte is the is the answer here. Alright. I want you to think about something I wanna leave the listeners with while I make a couple of quick announcements. Guys, if you got value today, please like, subscribe, share, comment.

I mean, I generally in in line with their message, right, second chances. So please share this because we we do want more people to hear this message. I think it's an absolutely critical message. We do have our live sales training in a couple of weeks. If you guys are interested, disruptors.com/salesdisruptors.

And then we just started our social media starter pack. I had no idea how many people wanted to do what we're doing here. So if you guys are interested in that, I mean, we announced it a couple weeks ago, and it's just

Eric: Is it really?

Steve: Popped off like crazy.

Eric: Okay.

Steve: And then next week, we got Nathan Payne and Corey Rosen. I'm probably butchering their name. I apologize. So before we end, last thoughts. Let's start with you.

Eric: Yeah. We all have it in us. And, yeah, I'm gonna go back to where your feet are today. They don't have to be there tomorrow. If nobody's told you that they believe in you, like this guy right here, and I'm sure the two that I'm sitting with, we believe in you until you can believe in yourself.

Not every day is gonna be easy, but I tell you every day will be worth it. Coming from somebody that was full of anxiety, scared of the world, hopeless, helpless, damn near homeless, As long as you, continue to press forward, put the blinders on, keep pressing forward. When they say go left, go right, I can promise you that, in time, you ultimately can have a life beyond your wildest dreams. I'm a testament to it. Tony is.

And, I'll just go back to man. Like, I I believe in you until you can believe in yourself.

Steve: It's powerful. Tony?

Tony: Yeah. And I'll just add on to to that because Eric beautifully puts puts it that way. You know, the the best thing about the the past is like, the most beautiful thing about the past is you you can't change it. It is what it is. You learn from it.

You should be, you know, proud of where you are today because of your past, because you learned from it, and live for today. Tomorrow is not promised, so do what you have to do today to be successful. You know, when when we talked about discipline earlier and, you know, when people start thinking about you know, say you're thinking about jumping into wholesaling or jumping into a new business and you have all this fear, it's you know, everybody's scared, but it takes discipline to to conquer those fears and, you know, commit to thirty days. Like, you know, a lot of people think so far in the future. Like, I always, like, I always say live in the present because you start thinking you start analyzing.

Way in the future, you just get paralysis. So think about what you're gonna do today to make tomorrow better. Commit to thirty days on something. Don't think past that, and and hopefully that helps.

Steve: Awesome. Awesome. Tony, if someone wants to get a hold of you, how would they do that?

Tony: Yeah. My Instagram, tony underscore mont, m o n t, is how you get a hold of me. You can DM me on there. Follow me.

Steve: Eric?

Eric: V Eric Klein.

Steve: Awesome. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Eric: Appreciate it, Steve.

Steve: My pleasure. I shake your hand with you all the way over there. Thank you guys for watching. See you all next week.