Work In Your Business 2 – 4 Hours a Week, Focus on Growth, not Grind, with Scaling & Virtual Training

Steve Trang: Everybody, thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today, we have Jerry Green who flew in from Dayton, Ohio to share how you can get your business down to two to four hours per week through scaling and virtual training. If If this is your first time tuning in, I am Steve Trang, sales trainer for some of the top wholesalers in the country, and I'm on a mission to create 100 millionaires. One question I get a lot is how do I become one of the 100 millionaires? And the information on this podcast alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years.

Take consistent action, and you will become one. When you hear a nugget, type it into the comment section. After the show, identify your single biggest takeaway and focus on only just that and for the next seven days. If you get value to, today out of the show, please tag your friend below. Share this episode right now.

That way we can all grow together. You ready?

Jerry Green: I'm ready, my friend.

Steve: Alright. So first question as always is what got you into real estate?

Jerry: Oh, wow. So let's take back I guess that's a journey back in time there, Steve, on things. So the reason I, really started looking at the whole real estate side of things, and this is back taking it back to '19 probably started really looking at probably 1993. I was actually, working with my father that time in the electrical contracting business back in, this is actually in Springfield, Ohio. So I was working with my father back then in the business, and I just was, really getting fed up with the whole contracting side.

It was just, a lot of stress getting paid from people and everything else. And I noticed, actual ad on TV. Of course, you take it back then, we didn't have the Internet. You know, I mean, it was nothing like that. Right.

So they basically had an ad on TV about a upcoming real estate seminar in Cincinnati, Ohio. And I remember it was, Charles Givens. Mhmm. Okay? I don't know if you remember him, but this is old, old days.

Yeah. Okay? So it was Charles Givens, and I thought, well, I'm gonna check this out. So I went to the seminar, and it was actually a three day event. And, I thought, well, cool, man.

I can really make this happen. But at the same time, I was working in the contracting business. So that's kinda where the journey started just going to that first seminar there. And, it so it was it was the the whole birth of things, I guess, for me.

Steve: When was this approximately?

Jerry: So this was in '93 when I went to the seminar. '93.

Steve: And how old were you?

Jerry: Let's see. Well, let's see. I was in my twenties at that time.

Steve: Okay. So about the same age, a lot of listeners that we have.

Jerry: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Alright. So So you got you go to a seminar, three day event, and you learn a bunch there. Yep. And then what? So I learned a lot.

Jerry: Of course, I walked out not knowing really what to do. Mhmm. And it was interesting. So what I just you know, I was in a position where I went back. Of course, I was still working in the contracting business.

And what was interesting, what happened was about the same time, we had a large general contractor that we worked for close his doors. Oh. And my father and I have a small business, just a few people working for us. Well, at that time, he owed our company about $60,000. We take back that in the nineties.

That that's a it's a that's a huge hit.

Steve: Yeah.

Jerry: And we were we're not able to recover from that at all, Steve. I mean, we got the point where we just, like, you know, we're really stressed trying to figure things out. So here I went to the seminar. I'm going through all the stress right after that. This contractor closing his doors, and I still remember this.

It was on a Sunday night. I remember the guy that owned the company called me at home because we didn't really have the cell phones much back then. We had little bit, maybe like a bag phone or something. Mhmm. And I remember him calling me and telling me that he was, he said, Jerry, I wanted to let you know, give you an advance notice.

K? Remember, he's called me on Sunday night. Someone to give me advance notice that we're closing our company as of tomorrow. Wow. We got big advance notice.

And then Right. So here was $60 that he owed me on things. Well, this it just started a whole snowball effect, and we weren't able to get out of that cycle and, end up filing bankruptcy out of that. So I was trying to figure out what to do. So and I kept going back to why I went to that real estate seminar.

Mhmm. Okay. Because I really didn't do anything afterwards right away. And I kept thinking, okay. What am I gonna do?

You know? Can I make this happen? So, you know, here I was being forced out of what I was doing in the contracting business. So, you know, I thought, well, the best thing to do is go talk with my family. Right?

Mhmm. Because your family's always gonna give you the best advice. So

Steve: Usually. I'm being sarcastic. Yeah. Yeah. So usually.

Not always.

Jerry: So I went and talked to my family on this, and what they told me was, Jerry, you need to get a job. Mhmm.

Steve: South the family.

Jerry: Yep. So I actually, actually started looking for a job instead of, you know, you know, but I still had this real estate thing going on back of my head. And I actually went to, applied at a local university in their engineering department. Because I, you know, prior to that, I was in the US Air Force and took it was in civil engineering. And so I applied there in several different places, and that university called me.

It was I remember this. It was on a Friday, and they offered me the position in their engineering department. And I thought kinda think about it. They go, you have till Monday because we have several other candidates. Mhmm.

So done a lot of soul searching that weekend and try to decide, you know, what am I gonna do? I thought about it and thought about it that weekend, and I thought, you know, I see other people doing this real estate business. And I thought, you know, why can't I do it? And at the same time, I thought to myself, you know, what where else could I mean, I was at the bottom of of things financially there. I thought, what I get to lose?

I already lost it

Steve: all. Right.

Jerry: So I called him up on Monday, and I turned him down. And then I started thinking, okay. This is this is real. Mhmm. So I had to really start focusing on things real quick.

And I remember meeting a gentleman there too at the, at the event I was at, and I contacted him about being a mentor for me. And I had no way of paying him, so I borrowed, my mom and dad's credit cards, paid him on things, and then I went out and really started applying some of the strategies. And what I really started doing is when I originally started, I just really started going into wholesaling. And I was going in, pretty well the rough areas. I was over in Springfield, Ohio.

I was just out there hitting the areas there, you know, just really never taking boards off of windows of properties, just crawling through the windows, whatever it took. Yeah.

Steve: And as

Jerry: that's what I started building on.

Steve: So it was a blessing. It was a blessing. Contractor folded on you.

Jerry: Yeah. It was and, of course, at that time, you know, you

Steve: know It didn't feel like a blessing. No.

Jerry: No. It was like yeah. I mean, literally, the banker came to our house that we had a line of credit on because of equipment. And I remember my wife and them hiding in the house because the banker comes to the door, knocking on the door. No joke.

And, I had to deal with all that and stuff, but, you you know, we got through it. So you were married? Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. With kids?

Jerry: We had one. Yep.

Steve: So it was devastating.

Jerry: Very much so.

Steve: Yeah. Alright. So then what was your first deal?

Jerry: So first deal that happened was actually this is I was working with my original mentor on a property, and it was actually in Kentucky. Okay. Even though I live in Ohio, it was actually in Kentucky because he could work work kinda in Cincinnati area, and we put it right in north together a a Northern Kentucky deal. And I still remember the street so well because the street was called Ohio Street, And it was an assignment put together. It wasn't a big one, but it made $2,500.

Steve: So let's talk about the the deal. How did you find it? Because the way things work today, a little bit different than the way they might work.

Jerry: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously, back then, we didn't, you know, we didn't have lists and things like that. But, basically, this just came through. We have basically been putting out flyers in areas.

Steve: Yeah. And there was a time where newspaper used to work.

Jerry: Oh, newspaper was big. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's a whole another I got some good stories on that too Yeah. The newspaper side.

Steve: Alright. So you did your first deal with a mentor, and what'd you buy it for? What'd you wholesale for?

Jerry: Oh, jeez. That was I think it was I'm just trying to recall on that number back then, but I know it was somewhere in it was like I don't know. I think, Steve, about 12 out. I think it was, like, $12.12 5, I think, was the the actual numbers on that. And then we just and I wholesale it for 15,000.

So it was a quick $2,500.

Steve: And then you had to split that with your mentor?

Jerry: No. Actually, he was pretty cool about that.

Steve: Okay.

Jerry: Awesome.

Steve: And then where'd you go from there? So you do your first deal, then what?

Jerry: So I got my first deal done, and I thought, wow. This works.

Steve: Yeah. Perfect concept.

Jerry: Yeah. And what's really cool on this, Steve, too is when I after I'd done that first deal, I thought, alright. You know, I guess what I started really thinking about was how long I used to work sometimes on a project to make that kind of money. You know? Mhmm.

So I thought, just compare the time. So I just thought, thought, okay. If I can do this once, I can do it again. So from there, what I did was I just really went out and started, you know, I pretty well hit the streets all the time. Because, you know, we we didn't have the ability to go on online, search things, and people don't realize the difference.

They just they have no idea what it was like. I mean, we it was it was a heavy grind mode. And so I basically went out and started, one, running ads in the newspaper. You know, the we buy houses ads, we started doing that. We started going out, constantly going around neighborhoods driving for dollars.

Mhmm. The thing is the driving for dollars took forever because we have we had get the list, write them down, and then I then I thought it was really cool when I got a tape recorder that I could record it on. And then I put them on there, and we go back and then put the list on paper. Mhmm. Then we had to go to the courthouse because we had to pull up all the records.

And we had to pull up the microfiche

Steve: Man.

Jerry: And look at everything. It wasn't in the no building to do anything else. So we pull up all that, get the tax mailing addresses, start sending out. So we we were doing that. And then I also built some really good relationships during that time too with some real estate agents that I worked with Mhmm.

That were heavy in the REO space.

Steve: Gotcha.

Jerry: And, and I used to get the and back then too, when I first started too, the MLS was a book. Mhmm. So every week, I would go drive to their office. I would get the old book from the prior week. So it was going like through a yellow page, you know, book.

So

Steve: It's just crazy to imagine that you had to go and take the address, transcribe it from a tape recorder, give it to the courthouse, and then microfilm to pull to find out Yeah. The owner's tax mailing address.

Jerry: Yep.

Steve: I mean, it's so freaking easy right now. There are really no excuses today.

Jerry: Oh, none excuse I mean, people tell me this. It's like, it was so hard. You have no freaking idea. I mean, let I mean, it got when they started they started working with us at one point, Steve, where they would let us get, like, four or five addresses at once on the phone. Mhmm.

And we thought that was amazing because we called down there and, like, okay. We'll give you five addresses. That's it. So so we thought we were doing good.

Steve: Yeah. So back then, what were some of your biggest sources when we talk about Direct for Dollars, dark mail, newspaper?

Jerry: Newspaper was actually, newspaper was really kind of our, if you look at it, you know, our Facebook, our pay per click today, you know, that was our our big thing. Mhmm. So we ran ads in the newspaper all the time. And what was funny was in the ads, we ran in the newspaper. There were several of us in there.

And what happened on it, we learned that typically if you were top of the list, you got called first. Mhmm. So what we did, we started all of us started fighting for that positioning. So what we would do is we would have, like, our we buy houses, we buy homes, and we would add an a in front of it.

Steve: Mhmm. Like the yellow pages.

Jerry: Yeah. And then what happens is somebody figured that out, so we added two a's. Mhmm. Then somebody added three a's, and then finally, the newspaper company got a hold of us and said, guys, we're not doing this anymore. Mhmm.

You know? It's like a whole line of a's or something. Right. So we the the newspaper was big. The driving for dollars, was probably one of our biggest producers too.

You know? It just but it was constant all the time. But but I would get kids and go out in neighborhoods. I would drive and then let them run down the streets, get the addresses, and then I would give them, like, candy or we go to, like, seven eleven and get them Slurpee. So

Steve: That's awesome. So at which point did you go from wholesaling to fixing and flipping?

Jerry: So I started off wholesaling, and when I, yeah, I got, you know, started building that up. And what happened was I kinda got to the point where I've seen a lot of people, you know, that was obviously wholesaling too. And I thought, wow. This is a much bigger profit spread on the other side. And I thought I thought too, well, I've got the knowledge to be able to do that Mhmm.

Because especially my background being in electrical, and I was around construction all the time. So it was just kind of a natural, you know, I guess, merger over to that. So I was probably within the first two years. I really started moving towards that and started getting the fix and flips. But the big thing, Steve, I ran into back then also was I didn't have any money.

You know what I mean? I I I had money that I was building up a little bit from wholesaling, but I didn't have the money to do the fix and flips. So I thought, okay. How can I do that? So I just I constantly was pushing myself to new limits.

So I remember going to, like, some, investor club meetings. I mean, these were the small little meetings, like, in the bottom of a a old bank building. Mhmm. And I remember going down in one of them, and, basically, I they had a flip chart up in there and you could do little presentations. So I went up in front.

I said, look, guys. Here's what I'm doing. I said, I wanna buy properties, fix it, and resell. I said, I don't have any capital. But what I wanna do is I wanna be in a position where, I definitely wanna do this because I'm already wholesaling.

Mhmm. I said, so here's what I'm, I like to do. Anybody would like to jump in with me on this here? I'll I'll I'll take care of all the leg work. I'll find it.

I'll fix it, manage all that there, market it, get it sold. All I need you to do is write a check and and shut up and wait for a bigger check. And there was a physician in that room that and that was my first, first, basically private lender partner, I should say. And we started doing joint venture deals.

Steve: That's awesome. Yeah.

Jerry: And that's how it all started.

Steve: Funny. It's, like, 5050?

Jerry: Yeah. It was 5050, but I I changed that as I went along with that. But, yeah, it was $50.50. And then

Steve: So you mentioned bottom of a bank. So in my mind, I kinda picture it

Jerry: like basement.

Steve: But, like, today, you just go Google Ria, and you just find a Ria.

Jerry: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Right. So back then, is there an element of, like, a good old voice network? Like, you couldn't even get invited in unless you knew somebody?

Jerry: Pretty well. Yeah. There wasn't it was pretty well somebody's, make a phone call to

Steve: you Mhmm.

Jerry: Send you a letter.

Steve: So it's like joining, like, a secret society?

Jerry: Yes. Yes. It was exactly it. It. Yeah.

They called me up. Hey, Jerry. You wanna come to this meeting? You know? Yeah.

Steve: So Yeah. So you did the fixing and flipping thing. How did that transition go for you?

Jerry: So it it went good at first. You know? And I I, my big problem, Steve, on that was that I was around construction so much that I immediately put myself in the midst of all that. So I was in a position where I was heavily involved in the projects. Mhmm.

You know, helping them oversee them and, you know, and, of course, the electrical side, well, nobody can do the electrical better than me. So I was out doing electrical and stuff like that. So Right. So I just worked a lot. I worked a tremendous amount of hours.

Steve: Which is not the reason why I got into real estate. No. So So when did you have the realization?

Jerry: So it took a while on things. Actually, you know, it was so we started, you know, and and I say we, it was my wife and I at that time were working in working the business together. We have a a home office over in Springfield, Ohio there. And we and I had some other people start helping me out a little bit too on some things. Mhmm.

But it was just kinda helping me out on some rehab stuff. In fact, my first employee that I had brought in was a gentleman that was delivering Chinese food to us. And I asked him if, he asked if he could come work for us. So I thought, sure. So and that was kind of the relationship we started there.

And but what happened was I started going out and, you know, constantly doing these rehabs, and we started really growing that. So it got to the point where I was doing that. I was doing a lot of joint venture deals, even started doing some more, like, private capital, just private lenders. And so that was and when I launched full time, but I was only 94. And by getting into towards the end of the '90, the nineties there, the business had grown quite a bit.

And I was actually written up in, like, in the Springfield newspaper and stuff like that. So it was kinda cool on that. So so I thought I was kicking butt, you know? And but I was working like crazy. Well, you know, the big thing that, that kinda happened to me, just sharing with you a little bit more of my story on things.

I, I got to the point right there in '99. Wife and I were like, okay. We really make this attraction. We decided to commit to building a brand new home, and so everything was, you know, really cool. And then we also were, having our first baby together because she had a son from prior.

So, so she was she was pregnant and, you know, and, we just rolled into, the year 2000. Of Of course, they were everybody thought the world was gonna end in 2000 there. So and then it was, she started having some complications, towards the latter part of her pregnancy. So we thought, well, what's going on on this? And then we ended up, in the emergency room over in Springfield, Ohio, couple different trips.

And then the second time we were or second and third time we were there, they ended up admitting her. And we were like, like, well, what's going on? They said, well, we've got a we got to induce labor on things, and it was a couple months early. We thought, well, okay. And he says, because something's going on with your wife, and we don't know what's going on.

So I ended up inducing labor and had the baby. And and I still you know, it's just memory on that stuff. It's just so ingrained into your, you know, your whole spirit and mind. And I remember them saying, okay. As soon as the old boy was born, it was like, we gotta take your wife to get a CT scan right now.

And the reason we gotta do that is she's bleeding somewhere internally. We don't know where. So they took her, and it was about hour and a half, two hours later. I'll never forget a doctor with two nurses walking down the hallway, and I was studying out in the hallway, a little bit talking to family, and I went back into the room. And then they, basically told us they said, based upon the CT scan, it looks like you have a massive tumor in your kidneys.

And we're like we were shocked. You know? And this our son was born a couple hours ago. Mhmm. So, you know, and and I share this because we have you know, what we're looking at is, you know, here was something we built up at how fast something can change.

Mhmm. I mean, in an instant like that. Yeah. And we went to the point where she ended up having to actually be transferred out of the hospital in Springfield to Ohio State University because they wanted to do some some deeper testing and stuff, and they've done that. At the same time, our child was left in the hospital there, and we had to leave because, he needed more care, but she needed media care.

And matter of days, we found out that it was malignant cancer, and it was something called Wilms tumor, which is very rare for an adult to have. It's a childhood cancer, that adults typically don't get, and it's in the kidneys. And at that time, they said that tumor was probably the size of a football. It was wow. Yeah.

And then, Steve, from there, man, it was, it it there was just everything changed so fast on things, and we ended up, this was in December 2000. She went in for a major surgery to remove the tumor, and I'll I'll never forget this. It was she was in surgery for, like, fourteen hours straight. And, the doctor came out and just let us know that, he had to remove, she had no kidneys. Had to remove the kidneys completely.

And, you know, and it was it was unbelievable. So she at that moment, she was completely dependent on dialysis. Mhmm. And, you know, and and then she ended up right after that. This is just a few days before Christmas, Christmas day of two thousand.

She had massive complications, and we ended up basically for the next four months never leaving the hospital. Now this is over in Columbus. Mhmm. She actually was treated at Children's Hospital in Columbus, and I never went home. We just built the brand new home and all this, you know, had built the business up.

And I ended up, you know, basically leaving our new home. We had built everything else, and I ended up living in a Ronald McDonald house for four months straight. Mhmm. And then, we finally came home that next following year, in in March 2001. And, she was bedridden, had to be transported to dialysis three times a week and, you know, and radiation treatments.

And, you know, we thought we were doing good. And then within about sixty days there, we found out that the cancer had returned. And, they told me at that time she would have to go on hospice care. And, then then my wife, at that time, ten months after her son was born, passed away in 2001. And, so, you know, you can see how much my life shifted Yeah.

In a in a very short period of time. So, you know, I know we're looking at the real estate side here today on things, but, also, I think it's a big thing too. People understand is, you know, you gotta really make sure you're doing this for the right reason.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: Okay? And understand, you know, how fast things can change. Right. And then and it shifted on me. And then, you know, of course, I was in a position where I had a newborn baby on my own.

And, you know, my so, you know, here she was. You know, obviously, my wife, also worked with me in the business and everything. So, for a period of, almost pretty well, almost two years, Steve, I was in a position where I was just pretty well nonfunctional.

Steve: Mhmm. Of course.

Jerry: You know, just trying to figure out things. The good thing that I had during that time was I had built up some properties. Also, I had, somebody that was working for me some, but they were still doing just the rehab stuff.

Steve: So that was gonna be my next question. I mean, did the whole business just die?

Jerry: Not not completely on things, but it died down tremendously.

Steve: Of course.

Jerry: There you

Steve: don't have anyone hell at the helm. Yeah.

Jerry: Because I was doing all the acquisitions and that that type of stuff.

Steve: So you came back. Your business is still alive.

Jerry: I was I came back.

Steve: Business is still alive. And I'm asking this because during the course of all this, you had nine eleven.

Jerry: Absolutely. See, a lot of people and I'm glad you brought that up because a lot of people don't even think about that. Mhmm. So here was in in June, 2001, then September, we had 09:11. Mhmm.

So when and that's why I hit a lot of people. When people give me excuses about not being able to make this business happen, you know, I'm like, BS. You know what I mean? You you don't tell me that. I went through some of the toughest times there is, you know, and and our country as well is personal wise, tragedy.

And then I, I got to the point where, you know, I start functioning again and I met a lady, too that I'm married to now, wonderful woman named Joyce. And, she she had two kids, and I had mine. And then we have one together now and got married, and she said, well, if you're gonna marry me, you gotta move to Germantown, Ohio. So that's why I ended up moving. Yeah.

And, you know, I I guess I just look at you know, like I say, I look at that time period, man, and I just I think about, you know, how I even got through that. You know? Unbelievable.

Steve: Well, because you dealt with personal adversity. You dealt with economic or, you know, national crisis. Because when you got back on your feet, we also had the .com bust.

Jerry: Everything was just hitting. Yeah. And so And interest rates, like crazy, Steve.

Steve: Well, there and I think that, you know, you look at right now, the market's interesting.

Jerry: Oh, yeah.

Steve: I wouldn't it's great if you're a flipper. Right? It's tough if you're a wholesaler. It's tough if you're flipping. Right?

If you got a property, you're making money on the deal. Maybe you buy a property, you're making money on the deal because appreciation is crazy. But at the moment, there's a little bit of uncertainty. Yes. And you survived two of them.

Jerry: Two of them.

Steve: So what lessons do you have for people listening as far as how to prepare yourself?

Jerry: Well, I can tell you one of the big things that well, first of all, even, like, nine '11 went down there. I mean, during that time, it just yeah. Everything is flat, you know, completely. And it was, you know, what I what I really learned on things during that time of course, I was going through so much personally during that time too. But during that time and then well, it was going into 02/1982 I mean, the September.

During that time there, I just one of the thing I really learned is not overleveraging things. I just let me just say this. Back in when 2008 came and then through that to about 2010, I would say up to ninety some percent of the people that I work with that knew that I knew that were in the real estate business went out of business.

Steve: Ninety percent?

Jerry: About 90%. It was it was a big number. Mhmm. Okay? And I can tell you a couple big things on that.

One, they were way over leveraged on their properties. They were doing way too many if they were, a lot of the rehabs they were involved with, they were trying to do way too many rehabs at one time. So, you know, I see a lot of people doing rehabs and stuff like that. When the market's good, it makes everybody look like an amazing person.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: Okay? But, I watched that. And and then another thing that I saw too was and then and I really didn't learn this until later in my career, is that the people that really work on building out a true business are the ones that will pull through on the other side. Yeah. Okay?

Versus just being in it where you're just a deal chaser and you never know what's gonna happen next.

Steve: Yeah. Well, because, Don Costa and I have talked about this. Right? Because we both only survived one recession. He lost a bunch of houses that he was flipping.

I just went through some tumultuous times because I was real I was a realtor. But I saw, you know, if you were highly leveraged

Jerry: Oh. You didn't

Steve: have a lot of exit strategies. You have one exit strategy or you have two years, foreclosure or short sale. Those are your exit strategies.

Jerry: Those aren't the best.

Steve: They're not the best. So when you're talking about highly leveraged, what how would you describe highly leveraged? Like, what what is the number that you felt is comfortable or is just too extreme?

Jerry: Well, I think anybody that's really now is getting above. I I to me, I'm I'm my comfort level is about 70 Mhmm. Value wise.

Steve: Yeah. And So 70% loan to value.

Jerry: Yeah. That's what I'm looking at, somewhere in that realm. Now people I see a lot of people pushing it up a lot higher than that. And this I just know when from prior experience, and that's and I've seen this happen two times now, Steve. Mhmm.

Okay? And every time somebody starts getting a pushing that up, especially, like, 80% or above, that's usually a a big problem with things.

Steve: So there's a reason why the banks are asking for 30% now.

Jerry: Exactly. 100% in it, man.

Steve: So yeah. Because that's that's for us. You know, like, my wife and I, we we have only a couple rental properties, but they're paid off free and clear. Mhmm. And I know that's not the smartest way to handle it.

But, again, we survived one.

Jerry: Oh, yeah.

Steve: And we got to witness like, I got to see every realtor, that was successful and married become not successful and not married. So a lot of contractors that are married

Jerry: Yep.

Steve: And then lost everything including their marriage.

Jerry: I saw you know, it's it's crazy. I think about it. It it just and especially, you know look. I I know a lot of people are really big, and the sexy thing is multifamily thing right now. Okay?

But and I there's nothing wrong with that. You know, I had some multifamily. I sold them all in the last couple years. But I've watched a lot of people being in that side of things, so leveraged on that. And, you know, where maybe the bank loan was very low, but they have a lot of investor capital involved Mhmm.

You know, on the down payment side of things. And just when as soon as the pressure came, it just collapsed. Yeah. And so that was crazy. But, you know, I like I said, I went through that whole cycle.

And then after I got married, you know, second time here, my wife now, and and then I moved to Germantown. I was like, man, I'm gonna fire this rehab thing right back up full blast. And that's what I did. And I build it up to the point where I had four full time project managers do multiple rehabs. And, within a few short years after that, I hated it.

Steve: So I wanna I wanna talk on that. But before we talk on that, so when you you you were away, dealing with personal crisis

Jerry: Mhmm.

Steve: And someone running your operation. And one of the things we talk about here is working two to four hours a week, which you can't do without good people.

Jerry: Oh my gosh. Yes.

Steve: Right. So 100%. Talk on how important it is to have somebody. Because, I mean, my personal tragedy is tearing my Achilles tendon so I can't work, right, like, for a couple of months. You obviously went through something far worse.

Talk about the importance of having the right people around you, surrounding yourself with the right people.

Jerry: Well, I mean, during that time, of course, I didn't have, you know I had no idea really how to build a proper team then. Mhmm. But I did have some support. Okay? And I had somebody that allowed me to spend time with my family during that time and still, you know, do things on a daily basis.

So, you know, I think with a lot of times we get involved in this, Steve, in in this, real estate side, and we forget about it being a real business. In fact, this was years ago when I really had a major transformation in my thinking on this. And what was what I realized was that I kinda almost, like, draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. One side is real estate. The other side is business.

And what I see is so many people getting caught up in the real estate side Mhmm. And never looking at it as a business. And I think real estate, more than other areas, is even more volatile on this side of things. And the big reason on that is, I think, is because the, real estate can be such a personal business. Mhmm.

And they get so involved in that on the emotional side. And I've done that for years. And I see a lot of people I work with, you know, students I work with and everything that I see them all the time. They're so involved in that. Well, the problem is once something shifts in your life or in the marketplace, you're not able to plan for that because you're so ingrained into just being in the real estate side, what I call kind of being a deal chaser that you never take time to really build it as a business.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: And when I really started realizing that, that was a big change for me and how I started to look at things differently. And, you know, and I really built from there, and it wasn't easy to change.

Steve: So let's talk about the you're doing a ton of flips. Four project managers?

Jerry: Four project managers.

Steve: And not in love with that model. What's that? And you were not in love with that model.

Jerry: Steve, I was like

Steve: Because put in perspective, you're probably making a lot of money.

Jerry: Yeah. We were generating a lot of cash Yeah. But I was spending a lot of cash too.

Steve: Alright. So let's talk about that.

Jerry: So it was a lot of money coming in, a lot of money going out. And

Steve: So it just went right from the front door to the back door? Yeah.

Jerry: Pretty well. Yeah. And then here's what I realized too, man. It was like and when I kinda I was just sharing with you when I wrote damn like that, I was like, okay. Wait a minute.

Everybody's just riding the Jerry wave here. Mhmm. Because the thing, I had the project managers, but I'm still involved in all this stuff. So I was, like, involved in all the decisions. Like, hey, Jerry.

What color are you wanna use here? What? And I was just, you know, constantly making decisions on this stuff here. And the problem is, even though I had all these project managers and stuff, somebody's gotta manage the project managers. And it was a constant thing too of why why I need more money here.

I need this. And it just it drove me nuts. And I think, let me know. A big thing I learned from that too, man, was, that, you know, you can't I was hiring people strictly based upon their skills, and that was a big mistake.

Steve: Why was that a mistake?

Jerry: That was a big mistake because I was not hiring first based upon core values or culture. And it heck. I didn't know what it was. Right. Okay?

Yeah. So how can I didn't know what to look at on that? So I was just bringing people, yeah. You have some experience. Yeah.

Well, that doesn't mean that you're the fit. You're not the a team player that we need on our team. Right. So like I said, it was, extremely stressful time. So, you know, I built that whole thing up.

Mhmm. You know? So it's crazy. And then I think about all these cycles I went through and stuff, but I've seen a lot of people do this. And they think, well, I'm gonna build this big master, you know, big monster of a a business out.

But you really gotta ask yourself, is that something you really want?

Steve: Right. And that's a question I always hear these guys tell me how big they wanna get. It's like, are you sure that's what you want? Yeah. Do you know what your profitability was back then approximately?

Jerry: We were probably that was years ago, but I bet, Steve, we were probably no more than about 15%.

Steve: Yeah.

Jerry: I mean, net, I'm talking.

Steve: Well and that was kind of the realization I had right as a realtor. You know, I was like, you know, I'm getting all this recognition. You know, you're being chased by brokerages. You're getting chased by title companies. You're getting chased chased by loan officers.

It feels good.

Jerry: Oh, it feels good. It's everybody is, like, wants a a piece of you because you're bringing all this business to the table.

Steve: But then you look at, okay. I am spending this much, and I'm bringing in this much. I'm only a slight economic shift from being out of business.

Jerry: That's it.

Steve: And that Yeah. And that terrified me.

Jerry: And you think about so I had a lot. When the second crash happened, at that time, I think I had about 15 properties. Mhmm. I was on renovation. Scared me to death because I end up holding most of those for a year.

Steve: Yeah.

Jerry: Okay. Take holding cost for a year. Mhmm. You you know, you see what kind of margins, they dwindle very fast.

Steve: Oh, if there's any margin.

Jerry: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. Alright. So, you survived multiple cycles. Oh, it's in my laptop crash. That's unfortunate.

Alright. So you survived multiple cycles. You've you're careful not to over lever. What else are you careful about?

Jerry: Also, another thing that I've really become careful about now is just more of, involving me involving myself in parts of the business that I suck at.

Steve: Involving yourself or removing yourself?

Jerry: Well, careful about involving myself. Be careful

Steve: about got it. Okay.

Jerry: Yeah. In areas that I suck at. Yeah. K. Which is a lot.

Steve: Yeah. So this is a fun exercise for some people. How do you figure out what things you suck at?

Jerry: That's that's an interesting question. Yeah. So I learned through over time on things was, I think a big thing for me, Steve, was understanding how my mind worked. Okay? And that's something I think a lot of people never take the time to do.

Right. K? And and really how the mind works. And I had to realize that I was never the person that was, going to you know, I I looked at something, and I saw starting point, and I saw the end. And I'm like, how come we don't have it done?

Okay? And so now the thing is, I'm very good about understanding that and sharing that with others. Others. But doing it is a whole different ballgame.

Steve: Right. Execution is different than just knowing.

Jerry: Yeah. And that was my big thing. And I and I come to a realization that that was one of my big problems.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: So that was a big, big component for me. And then something else that I I recommend and then is this something maybe we could, share to all your listeners and stuff too? It's something called, drivers and drainers. Mhmm. Any of you familiar with that, are you?

Steve: Not in that terms. You can elaborate on it.

Jerry: Yeah. So it's basically and this is something I recommend, and I'll share this with you, and you can share but it's just real simple, for people to basically take a five day period of time, especially if, you know, like workdays, and then document all the things that drive them and all the things that drain them. Okay? Now I have some, things I can share with you that more often share with people. But doing that really helps start getting some clarity on where they need to be focusing their time and their energy.

Because, obviously, I was in a position where I think back about, okay, dealing with contractors. That's an area I hated. Okay? Mhmm. I mean, literally, Steve, I could go from being calm to being extremely pissed off in a matter of about ten seconds.

Yeah. Okay? Just with dealing with that. So I learned that, okay, I need to start removing myself for that. That's one of the things that reason about project managers.

But then then I realized that I was not good at managing a whole team that because, you know, my mind worked so different. Now I now talk about that. I think another perfect example, and this is something we see all the time. So, you know, we look at myself or your listeners here or your you know, even you. We we go to an event somewhere.

We learn some new ideas. And then what I used to do is come back and bring it to the team. So I come back to the team. I say, hey, guys. We're gonna do all this and this and this.

So here's something I learned, for the last two, three days. Then I bring it back and dump it on them in a matter of thirty minutes. And say, here you guys go. And I expect them to get it. And then they walk away saying, well, Jerry, we're still trying to figure out what you gave us last time.

Mhmm. And it was constant like that. So that that was something big for me that I I think I realized then when it comes to the mind side of things, you really have to understand how your brain works because just because your mind works that way doesn't mean everybody else's mind works that way.

Steve: Oh, for sure. And there's one way to really frustrate your team is to go to a seminar, come back with a bunch of ideas, and dump it on your team. So when people come to our workshops, we just tell them, like, take all the ideas, pick three, and throw the rest away.

Jerry: 100%.

Steve: And just of the three, pick the one that's gonna either gonna be the easiest or most impactful, and you can't even start the other two

Jerry: Yeah. If the

Steve: first one's done.

Jerry: Stevie and my, COO, Ashley and I worked together. And our standing rule is this, everything now now I'm not allowed to talk to the team on this list. So I take them to her Mhmm. And she runs basically and this is a great suggestion. Just basically, we have, like, a, what we call our green book.

And in that green book, she puts down all my ideas, but there's only two allowed to be implemented at one time. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. That's what you gotta do. You gotta be singularly focused. Alright. So you're in Ohio.

Mhmm. There's a lot of people there. Yep.

Jerry: There's a lot of people. A lot

Steve: of big names over there.

Jerry: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

Steve: How's your different business? How's your business different than everybody else's?

Jerry: I think a big thing that we've set up is, you know well, like I said, I was doing the rehabs. Mhmm. Okay? And so you understand on that. I built that up pretty good.

And then I got to the point where I told you I really hated that. So it was the point where I just basically pulled the plug on things

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: And got rid of probably 70% of the people. And it was tough. In fact, one of the people I had to let go, been with me for fifteen years and then was the best man in my wedding. So that was not easy. No.

So it was a big transformation. And then what happened on that was from that whole thing, Steve, what I really learned was I wanted to be in a position that I really wanted to focus on a business that was scalable without me being involved in every moving part. And that was not the rehab business.

Steve: Right?

Jerry: Okay? And that was you know, some people do it. That's fine. I'm not knocking that. But I learned that, you know, just from doing it for many years that I was going to work on something that was a lot more scalable.

And I just looked at it that, you know, look, even if I was in the business of this, you know, doing waters and, like, waters, like, bottled water, I just said, okay. If I'm gonna do this, this is a business. All this is is a product. So how do I turn this into business and and just move as much product as possible? Mhmm.

And that's what I decided to do. And I said, I just wanna scale this product. And also, I wanted to remove myself from this. So now what's really set us apart on things is we've set it up now where we're really our focus now is we do 90 per 97% of our deals are done through wholesaling, where we used to be mainly fix and flip. So what I think what sets us apart, is one is we're pretty well focused just on wholesaling.

Second thing is we are completely virtual Mhmm. On things. In fact, I was doing virtual deals well before COVID was even around.

Steve: Right.

Jerry: So and I think that's really what sets us apart on that. And then another thing too is this our our overall production line process that we've created. What does that mean? So I a lot of people don't again, let's go back to the business, side of things. What I realized is that if if, like I said, I was in the business of this, I would have some type of production line process.

So why couldn't I do the same thing with real estate? Mhmm. So I just set it up where I'm very focused on creating, you know, the boxes, like an accountability chart, and then setting those people in those boxes, have an overall operating system And then that's really what we build everything on. So what it allowed us to do is in a position we we are constantly, you know, boom boom doing deals. I I'll never forget.

Just kind of a quick thing is I, learned this, years ago from a gentleman who took a business to up to over 300,000,000 a year. It wasn't real estate on things. But one of the things he said really sticks with me was, you know, how does a business sound that is functioning well, you know, on the production process or, you know and he said most businesses, since you hear them going like this, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You know, it's just a fluctuation. He says a a well oiled machine should be going boom boom boom over and over again.

And you can just that is a scalable model. Mhmm. And so I really started applying it into the business And, you know, that's really set us apart a lot in our marketplace where we can constantly produce big results over and over again. And we've also, this is something really big that I think listeners need to listen to is something what you call putting constraints on your business.

Steve: What kind of constraints?

Jerry: So I look at it if I if I can't see let me share with you just kind of it's kind of going through different phases of your business. Mhmm. When you first start off, you're typically in your launch phase. Right? Mhmm.

So you're launching into your business, just getting things rolling. Very short period of time, if you're lucky on things, you work your ass off, you'll get to the point where you'll get into the growth phase. Mhmm. And you'll start growing. And that's where you start adding some people, you add some processes on things, your revenue starting to increase a little bit.

But then you get to the point where it starts capping out. And I see this with a lot of people, a lot of students I work with and my, you know, my coaching and everything else. And I see that where people cap out. You know, a lot of times in this business, it might be 300 to 500,000 a year depending on your market.

Steve: Yeah.

Jerry: And they'll cap out on things. And then what happens is is they're they're not positioned. And then all of a sudden, they they go, man, I'm ready to scale. And then they scale it, and they try to scale, and it just all collapses.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: Well, they forgot one of the most important phases because you got launch, then you go into growth phase, and then they're trying to go to scale phase. But one of the phases they forgot about was constraints. And that's one of the most important ones. Because what happens in the constraint phase, you're going through and you start thinking about all the things that you need to start putting constraints on on you and your business like you shouldn't be doing anymore. Like, if you're gonna grow, you can't be doing all these things yourself and as well as another thing too that I found out was think about this.

This is where I see a lot of people struggle. Is they go in and they're trying to create this production line process, but imagine running a production line. Just think about it for automobiles. And let's say you're running, one style of car down it. And then in the midst of the production line, you decide you wanna do trucks.

Is that gonna throw off a production line?

Steve: It's gonna throw off a production line? It's gonna piss off your team.

Jerry: Yeah. So but we do it all the time.

Steve: We do.

Jerry: Okay? So I started seeing this all the time. I thought, if you really wanna scale this thing out, create a production line for wholesaling, create a production line for retail flips. But you gotta make sure that all those processes are laid out. So that's what happened, and you start putting these constraints on.

It's like and and I think about it for my COO, Ashley. I empower her to basically set things up where she knows that the deals here's the deals. Here's the numbers. She always has she already has that preset, Steve. Well, She knows all that.

All these parameters, I can step out. And now those constraints are in place, and she can do it over and over again as fast as possible. Right. Because most of us in this business, what happens, the deals come in, and then we're trying to make a decision on every single one. Mhmm.

And what happens there

Steve: is we get stuck.

Jerry: Yeah. And we get decision fatigue.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: And then nothing gets done and the team gets pissed off.

Steve: Alright. So let's talk about your business. Alright? You're you're statewide. What kind of volume are you guys doing right now?

Jerry: So we're typically we'll have somewhere in the you remember about 40 some to 50 deals in the pipeline at once.

Steve: Got it.

Jerry: So we're typically and that's, in fact, I just talked to Ashley this morning. I think we're up in the mid forties or something like that. That's very common. So our goal is to close out close to 18 to 20 a month.

Steve: Got it. And Ashley is COO? Yeah.

Jerry: Ashley is COO. Yes.

Steve: And she's running all that.

Jerry: And she's running it out another thing too, Steve, on that. She actually runs my company virtually.

Steve: She's not in Ohio?

Jerry: No. She was in Ohio, but her she was transferred, or I should should say her husband was transferred. He's in the air force, and he went to, Albuquerque. So but they weren't dating. But, you know, and then she started off just as an assistant.

In fact, this last week, she just had her eight year anniversary with me. Wow. So yeah.

Steve: And then you guys are doing, you know, 40 in a pipeline at a time. So what is your best marketing source right now? So

Jerry: one of our ones that really still produces probably the best for us is direct mail.

Steve: Yeah.

Jerry: You know, it's funny. You you I see so many flashes in the pan, and you know how that goes.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Jerry: Texting or Shiny object syndrome. Yeah. And but I've been doing direct mail now for twenty years. Mhmm. And and there's some other things we do, you know, pay per click and Facebook and, you know, you know, different components that we we do as well, but that's by far our most dominant one.

Steve: And how many markets are you in in Ohio?

Jerry: So pretty well all of, like, the Dayton Metropolitan Area, Cincinnati, and we even go into Northern Kentucky and stuff like that too.

Steve: Okay. And then in Columbus or Cleveland?

Jerry: Mm-mm. No. Gotcha. We're very focused on those areas. And then, we're, you know, we're adding some new markets on things that, you know, we were just talking about that earlier

Steve: Right.

Jerry: And growing a little bit more on that side of things. But, you gotta make sure that foundation's in place before you do anything like that.

Steve: Yeah. And then you're you mentioned earlier, you were doing virtual before it became a thing. Yeah. So talk about it. What's different in your sales process than what you commonly see out there?

Jerry: I think a big thing that is, on our sales process is, I'm I'm very, I guess, very focused on being clear about what the client's going to expect. Okay? Mhmm. So, like, when I train my sales team on this and, you know, other people I work with, it's so important for them to understand what the outcome, what the objective is of this call. So so many people would set it up where they would say, okay.

Hey. You know, everything sounds good. I'd love to set up a time to take a look at your property. Well, you just have to change that. So what we do is we focus more on, let's start the process.

Okay? Another thing we're really big at well, too, Steve, is, I'm extremely focused, and I hit this so hard as one, never making offers. It's all about creating solutions.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: And you I mean, you know too, my friend. You I mean, you're very skilled at that and your teachings too. But it's all about creating solutions, solve people, you know, problems. Mhmm. Okay?

Another thing too that we, kind of my little niche thing is we never make an offer. We qualify properties. And that's and that's worked really well. Can you

Steve: explain what that means?

Jerry: Yeah. So I've seen over the year and this is something I just started on my own years and years ago. I I noticed when I used to and I I used, for years, I went out there on all the appointments myself. Okay? Thousands of them.

And I used to go out there, and then I started doing some things over the phone. And I realized that I said, here's something interesting. So I decided to try it. And I said, what if I didn't mention the word offer and never even made them an offer? So what I did was I changed it to kind of the thinking, like, if I was working with someone, like, those qualifying for a mortgage.

Mhmm. So what I did was I would say, mister and missus Soller, I said, I just wanna share with you. You know, we let's say we talk numbers. And I said, you know, looks like I can get your property qualified for this. And what was funny, Steve, when I started doing that, it's pretty cool.

I started noticing it wasn't all the time, but I started noticing people wouldn't counter offer because I never made them an offer.

Steve: Right.

Jerry: I changed the terminology of it. And it was an interesting concept, and I've used that and trained my own team as a lot of my students have used that. And it's funny how that works, but just you know, it'll throw people off totally.

Steve: Mhmm. Yeah. Because with a mortgage, you don't counter or qualify. Exactly. For a $300,000 purchase.

Yeah. Okay. That's why I called.

Jerry: And it was like, you know, it's like, you know, we really work hard here. It looks like we can get your property qualified for this. And what's funny is I had so many people say, that's the best you can get it done for. Yep. That's all it qualifies for.

Mhmm. And they're like, okay. You know? And it it doesn't happen all the time. Mhmm.

But it's amazing by just changing that because if you think about it, like, you and I are conversational. Hey, Steve. You know, here's my offer, man. What's your initial first thought?

Steve: Well, counter offer. Counter.

Jerry: Yeah. So what if we don't bring that up? Mhmm. Okay. It's

Steve: fascinating. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that's behavior that's we respond just given the the the stimulus. So, like, you know, I said, here's my here's some documents I need you to sign as a contract. Woah.

Hang on. Like, so

Jerry: now Exactly.

Steve: Exactly. You just change the word. Like some papers to review.

Jerry: Yeah. That's what we do. We all times say, look.

Steve: I just need you

Jerry: to okay the paperwork.

Steve: Yeah. So So it's just fascinating. You just change the it means the same exact thing. Just present it differently.

Jerry: Yeah. So and that's how we started to really merge into the virtual process. And then, another big thing too on this, Steve, was, and I got this from an insurance agent years ago when I thought, you know, people are out there if they're doing this virtual. One of the big mistakes I see people make is they send contracts. We don't send contracts.

What we do is we start the process, and the contract doesn't exist until the moment we're ready to walk through it together. Mhmm. And that that has been a big factor in us improving our conversion rate.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: Because it's like, I I just try to recreate the same moment like I used to do in person when I was meeting at their vacant home, looking over, you know, their kitchen countertop or at their kitchen table or whatever.

Steve: Oh, you can't see it. You're buying a new home. They have to generate the contract while you're there.

Jerry: Exactly.

Steve: Yeah. It's like, hey. Why don't you go home? I'm gonna stay in the contract. Like, the contract will hang on.

And it's like a painful experience. It's like ten minutes of them, like, going back and forth and, like, typing things in, but they're generating the contract

Jerry: Yeah.

Steve: Right there. And then, I wanna ask you some other questions. So I I wanna but before we do that, your your focus is on growth and not grind. So for someone that's listening right now, can you give them the single biggest takeaway or single biggest nugget to help them focus on growth and that grind?

Jerry: I think the biggest thing that you can do to really get to that point of not focusing on the grind all the time, and and this, really, Steve, this comes down to a big component of this is just awareness of all that you're really doing. Okay? One of the best exercises that I have a lot of people do is make up a simple chart of boxes. And I say take each section, marketing, acquisitions, lead intake, dispo, rental management, project management, bookkeeping, all these components. And I said, write all this down, and then put your name in all all the boxes that apply.

Mhmm. And what happens on that, man, is when they do that, they're like, holy cow. I didn't realize I was doing all this. Mhmm. And it's a light bulb moment.

Steve: Yeah.

Jerry: And I think that is one of the biggest things you can do. When you do that, you'll get you'll be, the awareness is the step first before you can go anywhere else that you have to realize and you have to accept that, and you gotta stop the craziness. You know? Look. I understand when you're first starting, you're doing some things here.

But I can tell you right now, that's something I would've changed when I first started. If if I knew about it, then I would've turned around and put that stuff in place and build it a lot sooner.

Steve: You would've slapped 27 year old Jerry when he was doing electrical work.

Jerry: Yeah. Yeah. 100%, my man.

Steve: Alright. So I wanna change the subject a little bit. So you never talked about this before with the recording was traveling. Right. You got five kids, a little older.

And then someone asked me, like, hey. Am I gonna see you at the end of the month? I was like, no. Like, I have to be very intentional and strategic Sure. With what what I travel to.

It's like, you know, I got three young girls, and I'm trying my best, and I'd be a divorced dad. Right? But we we have this challenge because there's all these great masterminds across the country. And if you wanna scale up, we wanna level up, the best players aren't in your market. That's right.

Players across the country.

Jerry: Yeah. They're, you know, they're they're everywhere.

Steve: Right. So what bits of wisdom would you give to someone? Because we're talking about focusing on growth, not grinding, and, you know, traveling, I think, is part of it.

Jerry: Yeah. It is. I agree with you on that, Steve. I think one of the big things is you can't be involved in every single group. Mhmm.

Okay? That's one thing you have to accept on that side of things. And another thing too is, I think the the biggest thing is just getting in a position where a group that is very focused towards growth and but not just in the business, but on the mental side. Okay?

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: And then, then it just comes down, Steve, to being, just in a position where you're really focused on, what is really going to move the needle in your business. Okay? Mhmm. And I see this a lot with people where they don't understand what are the, you know, what's the things that are really gonna move the needle in their business. Whether a lot of them are out there just they're chasing this, they're chasing this.

Well, I'm gonna do add this to the business. And it's like, be very focused and, you know, get very niched.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jerry: Okay? And that means that if you're gonna become very niched on the in a certain area, you don't need to be, out every single real estate workshop. Alright. Okay?

Steve: Actually, it's funny because I was just thinking about it right now. It's the same mastermind we're in. It's family mastermind. Exactly. That's the end of this month.

So, yeah, I won't be able to go to that one. But, yeah, someone asked me, like, hey. I was like, I can't. Alright. So Alex wants to know, how often are you sending mail to the same list?

Jerry: So that's a good question. We do something different with mail that most people, never do. Okay? Mhmm. And, Steve, this is something that, this is actually a area that kind of bothers me some.

Okay? Now this is coming from, you know, looking at the guru side of things. There's a lot of teaching out there too where they say, okay, you get a list, and you just mail that list over and over and over again. Well, here's the thing, man. A lot of people just starting up in this don't have the money to take it and put into a list that's you know, if they mail mail it over and over again and it doesn't work at all, nothing comes from it, and they keep doing that, I mean, they could spend all their marketing money there.

Yeah. So what I we've done is we set it up where we create basically a farm area. We create zones within there, and then we do a rotation around those zones. Mhmm. So the kinda answer question on things on that is we rotate around the zones, and then based upon the performance of each zone dictates when we do a second round of mailers or a third round of mailers.

Steve: Got it.

Jerry: Okay? And I I've seen a lot of people do that and then the results we've been using that that type of system for about twenty years. Okay? And it works well.

Steve: Yeah. That's awesome. And then doing, you know, as much as many deals as you're doing, what is your monthly marketing spend to accomplish that?

Jerry: So, you know, it's funny. We we, we're fortunately, we're in the market that's not overly, you know, in regards to, It's

Steve: not gurus lying.

Jerry: It it's not real expensive on things. But our average is about $20 a month.

Steve: Mhmm. Wow. That's really good.

Jerry: Yeah.

Steve: And then what is your average fee in your market?

Jerry: On wholesales wise? Well, that's funny. We've actually improved that. We used to be around 7,500. Mhmm.

Then we moved it up to 10. Now our average is about 12.

Steve: Yeah.

Jerry: But this year, we've been, just where the market's been, and I don't like to say that's our complete average yet, that we've been moving closer to 16.

Steve: Wow. It's really good. So And what is the overhead to run the operation?

Jerry: We run with my whole team, we run right around 45,000 a month.

Steve: So overhead, 45, and that's on top of the 20 or including the 20?

Jerry: That's 20 included in there.

Steve: Okay. Perfect. And then is there any tool, any system, anything out there that, you know, you could not live without for your business?

Jerry: Well, one thing I couldn't live without it right now is having a good leader to run, like, operation my CEO. Yeah. But, if I look at just a system on things, I look at really KPI tracking. Our we've, you know, we set up daily. We've got basically just our daily KPI tracking spreadsheets we set up.

Mhmm. That is our big thing, man.

Steve: What are you using to track all that?

Jerry: We just we basically just created Google Sheets on that side of things. Yeah.

Steve: Fascinating.

Jerry: Yeah. We we built that. I mean, obviously, we have Podio, things like that. We had done a custom build out on Podio and stuff. But, you know, Steve, we we we look at that, and that's what, and that's all I look at on a daily basis.

Steve: And what is your biggest struggle right now?

Jerry: No. I think the always the biggest struggle that I find once you get into this point is constantly, more people, the right people. You know,

Steve: I was actually talking to a neighbor about this. Right? We're trying to get a space. And he's been a possibility to get ahold of us. I'm just sending some weird text messages, like, you know, I'm sorry I offended you and whatever.

You know? To get to bring him back. And, yeah, when I finally finally got him the phone, he's like, I apologize. Like, our people it's just a headache, and I have to keep solving all the problems. Like, I've been there.

That's not totally understand.

Jerry: I mean, I think our big thing is just we we are looking at we constantly are, in a growth mode. Mhmm. We're always looking for new people, new, you know, people new a players to come on and build the team more.

Steve: Yep. What is your superpower?

Jerry: Wow. Superpower. I think my superpower is the ability to really help people, see what they're doing wrong in this business in a very quick, period of time Mhmm. Because I've had so many years of doing it wrong, Steve.

Steve: Yeah.

Jerry: And be able to get them on the right track very fast.

Steve: You know, I wanna ask that. I meant to ask it ask it earlier. So you mentioned earlier that you know what to do for executing is a pain in the butt, and you learned that by yourself.

Jerry: Oh, yes.

Steve: And I learned that a lot by myself. Like, we get it done, but it's not beautiful. It's not graceful. No. Right?

It's like limping across the finish line. Yeah. And I learned

Jerry: too, man. It's just that, you know, like you said, I suck at so many things. So I just focus on what I'm really good at, and I'm good at the ideas, and I'm good at helping people, you know, navigate through these things. But the execution, I bring in other people that are really good at that.

Steve: So a theory I've had is that you see these gurus, and they've got a bad name for a reason. But I theorize that the reason or that the the the gurus are really just one good COO away from being somebody. What are your thoughts on that?

Jerry: I I agree. It's I can tell you this. Okay? One of absolutely the best decision I made in my business was taken Ashley that works for me, you know, and that runs my company now was putting her in that position. That was Steve, that would it was a game changer for me.

Mhmm. And we have seen, on average, about 50% growth each year since she's done that. Yeah. Okay? And that's it is that has been huge on that side of things.

And then here's what and one thing I'll just tie into this is I think what happens is when we're in control of the complete operation, we say we wanna go go go, but, actually, we're pulling back on the throttle. Mhmm. And when you get somebody in there that you allow to really run the operation and really wants to push things, they'll push the throttle all the way, and the team will go along with them.

Steve: Mhmm. Yeah. It's amazing to witness.

Jerry: It is. Yeah. It's truly amazing on things.

Steve: Yeah. And we see it even in our organizations. Like, we wanna push. We wanna do all these things, but we're not necessarily applying the energy necessary

Jerry: Exactly, man.

Steve: To make all those things happen.

Jerry: And we get so scattered.

Steve: Yeah. You know? By having the right integrator in place.

Jerry: It's huge.

Steve: They're pushing everyone, including us.

Jerry: Yeah. They that's dude, that is really important because they keep us accountable.

Steve: Mhmm. Right. Yeah. Alright. So I want you to think about a thought that you wanna leave the listeners with while I make just a couple announcements.

Guys, please like, subscribe, share, comment. If you got value today, it helps me, helps the algorithm. And if we can do that, we help more people. And then join us next week. Won't be live on Wednesday.

It'll be Thursday. It'll be our only Thursday ever. We got Jason Medley coming in from Collective Genius. He's gonna talk about how he transitioned from being a hard money lender to to running, I think, the biggest mastermind, in our space. And then we'd have a workshop in a couple days.

If you guys are still interested, please send me a message if you guys are interested in that. So, Jerry, what are some last thoughts? Gonna I'll leave the listeners with?

Jerry: Well, well, I know we got people from probably beginning stage to people that are already more advanced. Mhmm. But I I'm just telling you from twenty this is going on twenty seven years in the business this year. Okay? Is, number one, guys, is don't don't think it's ever too soon to build this into a real business.

Let me just tell you that right there because I get so many people's So I'm gonna wait. Why wait? Okay? Yeah. I mean, I I think about that all the time.

Steve: Are you wearing that right now? The same as now?

Jerry: Yeah. Time is now. And I see people all the time as, like, you know, I think about I always describe this if I'm in the cell phone business. Okay? I'm not gonna be stagnant.

I'm gonna wanna build that out. But why do we, get stagnant in real estate? I just think we get so personal on that. So that's a big thing here, guys. Don't wait on that.

And another thing too, I think it's extremely important too, man, is to find out how your mind functions very soon because that's a big thing that held me back for years. I'm talking years Mhmm. And cost me a lot of money. In fact, I've done a video not too long ago. I think I figured up just a rough estimate about 1 and a half million dollars.

Steve: That's it. I think I lost more than that.

Jerry: No. Just that that's just on being stubborn Mhmm. And not being in the position where I I never took the time to see how how I function and that I'm not the best at everything. Yeah. You gotta accept that.

Steve: Yeah. I think it's powerful because I learned that from coaching, from being coached. Yeah. My first coach. Yeah.

And that was the thing. There's two things. Like, it was exactly what you said. The two biggest takeaways for me were those two takeaways. It was that, your business, not, this high paid employee that works for yourself, your business.

When we start acting like a business, you'll have a business.

Jerry: Yep. If you treat it as a business, it will treat you as a business owner.

Steve: Exactly. Yep. And the other thing was, you should spend as much time as you can being as late figure out how to be as lazy as possible.

Jerry: 100%, man. You gotta learn how to fire yourself quickly.

Steve: Yeah. And so, like, those those are my two biggest takeaways.

Jerry: And I think we're so it sound like we're right in sync, my man.

Steve: But that took me four years of coaching to get that. Yeah. And you just dropped those three right here at the end of the

Jerry: Yeah.

Steve: Like, the this, interview. If someone wants to get ahold of you, how do how do they get ahold of you?

Jerry: So a couple different ways. One, connect with me, through Facebook. Okay? My personal page is pretty full on things with friends. But you can go to my, business page, this Jerry Green.

You'll see it in there on the real estate side of things. So make sure you like it there. You can can, hook up with me on Instagram. It's the Jerry Green. Mhmm.

And then also my website is the jerrygreen.com.

Steve: So Awesome. Thank you. This is

Jerry: the last Yeah. Thanks, Steve. I really appreciate it, man.

Steve: You guys for watching.

Jerry: Yep. Appreciate it, guys. Glad, thank you, Steve, for everything.

Steve: Yeah. That was awesome. What a great episode.

Jerry: So cool?

Steve: Yeah. Good job.

Jerry: Thanks, buddy.