Starting Over

Mike: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. This is an exciting one that we’ve been through a weird market over the past year. So if you’re kind of starting over or you’re a born again version, let’s say in the business or whatever, uh, we’re going to be talking about that today with my buddy, Kenny Garza about if you have a chance to start over, what, what would you do differently?

Mike: Whether it’s systems, mindset stuff, uh, things around your goals, your marketing strategies. Financing is obviously people have had their cheeses kind of been moved there. We’re going to talk about all those things today. So if you’re at the cusp of starting over, this will be a great show for you.

Mike: Professional real estate investors know that it’s not really about the real estate. In fact, real estate is just a vehicle to freedom. A group of over a hundred of the nation’s leading real estate investors from across the country meet several times a year at the Investor Fuel real estate mastermind to share ideas on how to strengthen each other’s businesses, but also to come together as friends.

Mike: And build more fulfilling lives for all of those around us on today’s show. We’re going to continue our conversation of fueling our businesses and fueling our lives. I’m glad you’re here.

Mike: Hey, Kenny, welcome to the show.

Kenny: Hey, Mike. Thanks so much, man. Thanks for having me.

Mike: Glad to have you here. Yeah, glad to have you here. Uh, for those of you that don’t know Kenny, he’s here actually in the same market that I’m in, the Dallas Fort Worth market. Young guy, you probably hear some people say that, I think you’re 29?

Kenny: 29, yeah. I look like 18, but yeah.

Mike: Yeah, you do look younger. Yeah. People used to say that about me, that I look younger than I was, until my hair got gray, and then I looked older than I am. So, uh, anyway, it’s coming, my friend. You’ll be there someday, too. Yeah, believe it. But no, I, I just, I just told you this. I love having like younger people that are in the group, um, that are doing really well in their business. Cause I think, you know, I’ve been podcasting now for 10 years, interviewed thousands of people. And if there’s a theme that’s there, it’s always that people wish they had started earlier than they really did in the business. And so I think it’s always exciting to talk to younger folks that are doing well, because we all wish we had to do over to go back to that time. Right. So for sure. But hey, for those that don’t know you, tell us a little bit about, uh, you and your, and your background, how you got into real estate.

Kenny: Absolutely. Um, so I’ll, I’ll back it up and start from the beginning. So I was, uh, born in Houston and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, uh, since I was, you know, two months. So I basically was just born here and then they took me and I was raised over there until I was 16. Uh, my dad passed, unfortunately, when, when I was 16, which prompted our move to the States. Um, And kind of hopped around. So we first moved to Katy, Texas, then Houston and San Antonio. And now I’m in Dallas. And so, um, I started my real estate journey about. six years ago, really. Um, and, uh, it started like almost like everybody else reading Rich Dad Poor Dad and, uh, listening to, you know, some real estate podcasts kind of, uh, inundating with information about what it is to be a real estate investor. And it took me like four and a half years after I started education to, to start. So I, I definitely. Um, had some of that analysis paralysis, just, you know, a little scared to actually get started, but, um, I did start as a, as a mortgage loan officer. So I thought that that was going to be like a, like, Oh, you know, I want to learn about real estate investing. So I’m going to learn how to underwrite deals, which I didn’t learn how to do that as a mortgage lender. Uh, I learned about rates and P a payments, but not how to. You know, be an investor. So I did that for three years until 2021. Um, so February of 2022, I went full time real estate investing. So it’s been about a year and a half now, or full time investing.

Mike: That’s awesome. Yeah. And what some folks don’t know that are, might be listening to this is, uh, that is probably, I talked about, um, it’s common that people wish they had started earlier, but, uh, probably the most common like thing ever said on the show is that folks, uh, Used Rich Dad, Poor Dad as a catalyst to get started. And, and, uh, of course I hired Robert Kiyosaki to speak to our Investor Fuel group a few years back. So that was pretty cool, right? If you, if that was a catalyst for you and you got to see him speak now, it was. A different conversation than probably what anybody’s expected because we went down a different rabbit hole.And if you, those of you guys that follow Robert Kiyosaki, you probably know what I’m talking about. But anyway, that aside, it was kind of cool to see somebody that motivated or inspired you to get started in the business. I assume. Right?

Kenny: Oh, my gosh. It was, um. It was full circle. It was like, uh, you know, you get to meet one of your like heroes or whatever. Um, but, uh, yeah, it was, it was an unforgettable experience for sure.

Mike: Yep. Cool. So, so we’re going to talk about kind of starting over, um, whether it’s a change in your business, a change in the market. And I think there’s a lot of folks that moved to the sidelines over the past year and now they’re getting started again. What’s cool is there’s a lot of people in our group, in our mastermind group that are. Having the best year they’ve ever had right now, which is after, you know, maybe having a terrible Q4 last year, Q1 this year, right. But it’s a chance to kind of renew yourself, right. And just say, okay, if you’ve pulled back at all, and I, I, you know, there’s a lot of people that never.

Mike: You know, they just, uh, they never stopped. They just kind of pivoted if you’ve stopped, or even if you just kind of pull back, it’s an opportunity to kind of revisit everything. What do I need to do from a marketing standpoint, exit strategies. I have an opportunity to change my systems and processes before I start ramping things back up. And so those are some of the things we’re gonna talk about today. So let’s, but it all starts with goals, like what you want to accomplish, right? So what, what kind of guides can you give people on really getting clarity around your goals and what you’re trying to accomplish?

Kenny: Um, I think, um, what’s interesting about this is, um, I had a very interesting experience leaving my, my W2, uh, as a mortgage LO. Um, basically thought I was welcome and then the moment I decided to leave, I wasn’t so welcome after all as I thought. Um, and that was kind of more of a confirmation for me of what I did not want, right? And so I think a lot of the times when we’re goal setting, you think about, okay, what do I want? And there’s like this mental block, right? And you’re like, I don’t know, like, you know, I’ve never sat down and thought about this. But what I found is if we maybe start from the negative of what I don’t want, right, you start clearing the way for like, Oh, so if I don’t want this, then, you know, what’s the opposite of that? Right? So, um, defining that that’s helped me and my fiance, Camille a ton defining. What it is that we don’t want to leave away or pave the way for what we do. And then why are we doing this, right? For us, this is a lifestyle business where we get to meet amazing people like yourself, Mike. And, you know, um, that’s just ultimately, you know, we want to travel, we want to live this incredible life. Um, and that’s really what’s kept us going when, when times get tough, to be honest.

Mike: Yeah, I think, you know, one of the, you know, one of the other cool things about you’re an investor fuel member as well. The mastermind, you see people that have created a lifestyle business that are able to do a bunch of stuff with their families that they couldn’t do for probably any other area other than real estate investing, and there’s also people that are doing 6 or 800 deals a year that have 70 to 100 person teams, and they operate multiple markets. And that’s like, personally, that I’m inspired by that, but I don’t want that. Right? And so I’ve always been somewhere more in the middle, but it’s just cool to see lots of other people that are models for the type of business that you want to maybe build. Right. And I think if you’re starting over and you have the type of business that you didn’t want to have, this is an opportunity to pivot and change that. It could be adding a partner or losing a partner. It could be, um, that I hate texting and cold calling.

Mike: And there’s a lot of pressure on that anyway. So if I’m going to make it has to be through, um, Inbound lead generation, which a lot of people have pivoted more to inbound lead generation. It could be correct. I hate wholesaling or I hate rehabbing because I lost my button or whatever it might be like a chance to shift all those things. Right? But all those things have an impact on your life and your goals. Right? I mean, some of them are way harder on your life than others. Um, and so it’s a chance to basically just say, what do I want my life to look like? Right?

Kenny: Yeah. Well, and I mean, I, I can give you a pretty, pretty, uh, um, clear example of this. I mean, um, all the way up till May this year, I was in a business partnership. Uh, but we decided to amicably split. And since then, um, I, I had a moment to pause right into think, okay, how do I wanna rebuild my business? Right. And we were doing cold call and cold texting and it is still working and it does work, but that’s not, you know, it, it, it creates a different environment for your sales team and your operations that I personally did not want any longer. Right. So I was like, okay, I have a moment in time where I get to pause and now I have, you know, a year of experience under my belt. How do I want to reinvent this or myself? Right. How do I want to reinvent myself? Or how do, what do I want my new business to look like? And so. I’ve completely pivoted from all of the outbound channels. So I don’t do cold calling. I do not do cold texting. Um, I do, uh, paper lead sources primarily in direct mail, uh, through Investor Machine actually. So that’s,

Mike: yeah, I think a lot of people have realized the first off, you know, it’s, uh, not to take anything away from kind of the young hustler crowd, right.

Mike: But that tends to be who more is focused on outbound, unless you set up a huge. Um, sales floor and stuff like that, right? But it’s like a lot of people start that because it’s cheap and easy. Let’s be honest. But the reality is, is it’s, it doesn’t, it’s more of a job than a business, right? For a lot of people, even if you’re not doing the texting, cold calling yourself, you’re having people constantly quit.

Mike: So you’re. Forever hiring forever, interviewing forever. And it’s like that, that is almost a business in and of itself that might be a necessary evil to get you up over the hump to get started. Or it might be the type of thing that you’re like, if I have to do that, I don’t want to be in this business at all.

Mike: And there’s people that love it by the way. And maybe they’re like, I’m always going to do this forever because I love that part of the business, but it is a grind for people that don’t love it.

Kenny: Yep. Could not agree more. Absolutely.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, so, um, let’s talk a little bit more about what else should, what else do we miss on marketing strategies?

Mike: I think, you know, one of the things that I talk a lot about is marketing enough to hit your goals. So kind of playing off of the goal setting is the end of the day, if you know what it is you want to accomplish, if you’re like, Hey, I need to make, Let’s just make it up. I need to make 50, 000 a month, 100, 000 a month, whatever that number is.

Mike: Then it’s like, okay, well, what’s your average deal size based on your exit strategies, whether you’re wholesaling or rehabbing. So how many deals would you have to do in a month to make that happen? And then how many leads do you need to get that many deals? And you can just reverse engineer your business.

Mike: Now it’s not as, it’s not as an exact science as making pizzas or tacos, but if you set it up right properly, um, over time, you’re going to get pretty close to saying, Hey, to Get this many deals a month based on my exit strategies. I need to get this many leads to get this many leads. I need to do this much mark.

Mike: I need to spend this much on marketing and these channels. Right? So what else is there from a marketing standpoint that you want to discuss here? I

Kenny: think, um, I’d like to, you know, I’ve gotten approach. Uh by newer people or people that are going through kind of like this reinventing right new market new strategies Like how do I do this?

Kenny: And what I like to remind people is that it’s not a mike thing It’s not a Kenny thing. It’s not a Camille thing, right? Like the numbers are the numbers right like it i’m i’m not successful because i’m kenny You’re not successful because you’re mike it’s because of our systems of our processes because of we know if I put I don’t know 5, 000 into marketing the average ROI on a paper on a paper lead, you know, you’re shooting for six So that’s going to be a 30k revenue.

Kenny: Well, does that match right with the average wholesale in your market? Does it does are you kind of on track for that? Right? Like, okay Yeah, if the average wholesale in my market’s 25 Based on my expected ROI, if I can put five, I can probably get, you know, 25 minimum or 30k. Then you start really, really building something special because you get to back into those numbers and you remove that.

Kenny: I don’t know, like, um, like mysticism about like, Oh, if I put dollars here, what am I going to get back? It’s just like, you know, look at the data, rely on other peers, uh, or like in, in investor fuel, right? We all share our information and you get to see. Kind of trends, right? And then just understand that as long as you’re doing all the right things, you’re going to get the results, right?

Kenny: Like, um, and it has nothing to do with you being who you are, but with all the things that you actually do. Right. So I would say that that’s, that’s a big one for me.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. And I think with marketing too, I’m obviously partial because I own an agency, but a lot, but a lot of, I see a lot of folks that are like, they’re, they feel like they’re stuck and they can’t grow their business, but they haven’t spent more on marketing.

Mike: Like they’re like, I’m trying to squeeze more out of what I’m already doing. And it’s like, if you could get a return on that investment, why aren’t you willing to invest in yourself? Uh, because at the day, marketing is what drives this business. It’s the, it’s the lifeblood of this business. Um, and if you can get a four.

Mike: To 10 X return on something like put in a dollar and get back four or five, six, like how many times a day are you willing to do that? And that’s ultimately what it comes down to. Now, of course, that implies that you’re good at closing and you’re great at follow up. You have all those systems. Those things have to exist, but once you’re great at closing and you have a good follow up process and all that, it’s just a matter of, do you have the capacity to take on more leads?

Mike: Um, and if you do. Why not? As long as your goals are to grow, like, that’s what you have to do is spend more, right?

Kenny: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it’s and then I think the cool thing is you get to, um, as the months go by, you know, and I think it’s really important for you to have, you know, the right KPI sheets and the right systems.

Kenny: And, um, I think that’s something that we want to touch on as well is, you know, If you have the opportunity to reinvent your business or restart it in a certain way, um, assuming you have some experience, like, well, knowing what you know now, what would you do different, right? When you’re starting out and you’ll see that you can save so much time, right?

Kenny: Like, because you don’t. You’re not learning anymore right now. You just, you, you put in your time and now you just get to go and execute. Right.

Mike: Let’s talk about systems a little bit. Cause I think what happens again, on the theme of starting over renewal, like is, um, I, I kind of believe probably all entrepreneurs, but let’s, yeah, obviously we’re real estate investors here is that we pick up bad habits.

Mike: Yeah, all throughout the year, right? Or throughout the quarter, let’s say, and you almost need that whether you’re starting over or whether you just have this period of reflecting and saying, Hey, uh, I’m doing a bunch of stuff that I, we shouldn’t be doing, or we pick up these bad habits, or we have moved away from things that we thought were really good to do just because of some dumb reason, usually it’s like, Hey, we ran out of thank you cards.

Mike: So we stopped, we stopped sending thank you cards to sellers. And I see the impact of that now. Like, why don’t, why did we stop that? Oh, we ran out and we never ordered them again and we just didn’t do it. And so we all pick up bad habits. So yeah, whether you’re starting over or you’re just using this quarterly process of reflecting on what should we be doing differently?

Mike: Um, let’s talk about that in the context of systems. I think what other, what else happens is you stop using systems the way you were or You adopted some system that doesn’t really make sense, but that’s kind of what we’re using now, because our other might do all that. Why are we using this 3rd party system?

Mike: And they don’t even integrate or whatever. Um, or we, our system isn’t tracking our KPIs the way that we want to. So we’re supplemented with an Excel spreadsheet and, you know, it’s got a bunch of stuff stuck together with. Scotch tape and bubble gum. Let’s talk a little bit about kind of a renewal period of reflecting on what works and probably a general theme of trying to keep it as simple as possible.

Kenny: Absolutely. So I would say the first thing is, um, you know, at the moment, I’m kind of in the solopreneur face. I am still. I am actively building my team, but that is not an excuse to not have an operating system, right? So I think a bunch of us use traction, um, right. And so that’s a fantastic book. So if you haven’t read it, go pick up traction.

Kenny: Um, and basically the premise of traction, um, more so than the actual operating system in which. Your your business should function such as having daily huddles and quarterly goals or rocks, right? That’s what they call it. Um, I think something that really stood out to me was the idea that as a solopreneur You have to learn how to how to um, wear all three hats, right?

Kenny: You have the technician you have the manager and you have the entrepreneur and so I think a lot of the times We get caught in the technician the content what it means is just basically the constant doing right? So you’re just calling trying to get leads trying to get deals trying to get deals you get some money in the door But then the month goes by And you didn’t document anything.

Kenny: You don’t know how to replicate the same success you had the month prior because you didn’t keep up with your, with your CRM. You don’t know how many leads it took you to get an appointment. How many, how many appointments to a contract signed. And even then from a contract signed to contract closed, right?

Kenny: Because there’s some fallout there as well. And so, um, from, from a CRM perspective, I mean, there’s a ton out there that are very friendly to use. One of the most popular ones, obviously being Podio. Um, I was in Podio, I’ve transitioned now into Salesforce. Um, but you know, just having some somewhere where you can document how many leads are you getting, right?

Kenny: I actually go from gross leads, meaning any leads that you get. To net leads that are, yes, I’m the seller. Yes. I’m interested in selling. And I actually kind of, I, I go pretty deep into my KPIs, but,

Mike: um, Like that is one of the problems with real estate investing is like everybody defines a lead a little bit differently, but you’re saying you take a lead is just gross, like anything, any contact whatsoever.

Mike: And then you narrow it down to, uh, true opportunities.

Kenny: Exactly. Exactly. Um, because I, you know, I do want to know also like what is my, the percentage of time that I actually get to talk to, to a net lead, meaning if I get, and I typically get about 30 leads a month from there, it’s like between 10 to 15, I range our net leads.

Kenny: And that starts helping me understand, hey, there’s, there’s opportunity here, right? Like, Yeah. I’m not doing a good job with connecting with my leads because I should be I think at around 80 percent is like Industry standard from gross to net so I can also identify opportunities or things that I’m not doing so good, right?

Kenny: So I’m good at closing i’m gonna negotiate I’m good at dispo, but maybe I’m not so great at lead Follow up, right? And so now you start identifying, uh, gaps in your business, you know, where I’m like, okay, well my next hire has to be a lead manager, right? Because this is getting outta control. I’m just wasting money, right?

Kenny: Um, but having a C R M that allows you to, to document all this information and then a phone system that helps you, right? Also like a dialer, right? Uh, it can even be as simple as a two line dialer, but you know, if you have 200 leads in your system, you can go through them in half the time. So when you’re starting out as a solopreneur, um, you know, dollar producing actions, Trump, everything, but efficiencies also have to be very important.

Kenny: You don’t want to just doing a bunch of busy work because then you won’t be able to pay your bills. So, yeah. Yep.

Mike: Yeah. And I think using your systems to, to, um, assign accountability, like a lot of real estate, especially if you’re starting over, probably some of the bad habits you picked up is really important areas of the business that should be a KPI you’re tracking, but.

Mike: Either you’re accountable as the owner and therefore maybe you’re not being held accountable or you have assigned to somebody on your team that is, uh, you know, they’re generally accountable, but you’re not really measuring it properly to know whether they’re doing their job or not. And so absolutely. I think it’s an opportunity to kind of set up your KPIs in a way to where.

Mike: You, uh, your whole team is accountable regardless of how many people are on your team, but, uh, there’s just really critical KPIs you need to track in this business from leads lead to conversion, um, metrics and, uh, row as on your marketing, uh, things like that, right. That are just really critical in the business.

Mike: A lot of people get out of the habit of tracking them and then you’re just using gut feel to make really important decisions in your business.

Kenny: Absolutely. I mean, I, the way that I like to think about it is like my technician is the one that’s making the calls, documenting how many leads I called or how many, you know, how many appointments I got, how many contracts signed.

Kenny: That’s the technician. The manager is the one that’s making sure that all of my spreadsheets are working properly and that it’s spitting out. Percentages of conversion, right? Like we have some sort of management of our business and then the entrepreneurial side Referencing the traction, right? Uh, the entrepreneurial side is like, huh?

Kenny: Okay, if i’m getting a 10x on a return on this on this ad or return on ad spend And if I want to double my business Well, then I probably should double my marketing Right? Like, and you, like, basically the way that I like to internalize it is the entrepreneurial side of me is what is, what are the numbers telling me?

Kenny: What’s the story, right? And what story are these numbers telling me? And am I on track to hit my goals? Or if I’m not, and then I kind of back into it, reverse engineer.

Mike: Yep. Yep. Awesome. Let’s talk about a chance to, you know, uh, if you had, if you had to do over, um, what people should consider differently with exit strategies, uh, and to throw some context of what’s changed is, you know, there’s some people that are doing really well right now, but inventory is generally down.

Mike: So a lot of real estate investors are doing maybe less units, not everybody, but less units. Yeah. And maybe higher profits because they might have switched into retailing more whole tailing more because of inventory. A lot of people used to sell the hedge funds and a lot of that subsided and some people are still doing well with that.

Mike: But the hedge fund buying activity is definitely down. So let’s just kind of wrap that on the context of what how to revisit that. Also, keeping in mind your what we talked about up front was your goals, like what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Yeah. I

Kenny: mean, what are you trying to accomplish? What do you mean?

Kenny: You’re trying to build right? Some people hate flipping, right? Because it’s a whole beast on its own. Um, but yeah, so the way that we define our exit strategies was we were going to fix and flip. Wholesale. And then in wholesale, I’m going to also add innovation. Um, because, you know, in a sense, when you’re doing innovation, you’re flipping without necessarily needing the financing in place and reaping some of the rewards of the market that we’re in.

Kenny: You have short inventory. Sure, rates are, are, are up, but price has already come down, right? So when you look at all these, all these metrics, and I actually, I’m of the belief that it’s a great time to flip and some people might totally disagree with me on that, but I’m like, listen, if there’s five homes that are on the market and they’re all.

Kenny: In a as is condition, right? Like there’s no granite in the kitchen, the carpets are disgusting. Right. And then a brand new flip comes to the market for the same price. I mean, you’re going to fly off the market. I mean, we saw it with one of our flips a month and a half ago, we set a record in the neighborhood for days on market.

Kenny: And then also for, uh, price sold even in this market now, granted, we only got like. One wearable offer, one written offer, but we, you know, we sold, it only takes one, it only takes one, but you know, it’s, it’s just interesting, right? Like maybe less buyers, but there’s still people just kind of waiting on the sidelines for, for the right product or the right home.

Mike: Yeah, I, I give this, I’ve given this story many times when I, when I started in 2008, when. Most real estate investors were fleeing the market and we came in and we just can’t even imagine why we didn’t know. We didn’t know what we didn’t know, but there’s the truth is we were heavy flippers and we would, we would, we would basically rehab houses in a way to where we went all out like.

Mike: This is going back 15 years, but granted it wasn’t, not everybody was putting granted, but granted and everything, stainless appliances, like redid everything to where we were super proud of the rehabs who kind of went all out. And it was very uncommon for us, even in 2008, 2009, to have a house on the market for more than seven days before it was under contract and people don’t really believe that, or they didn’t really believe it at the time, but it was like, we just.

Mike: Built a better mousetrap, I’m going to put out the best product at the best price at the time. And we just, there could have been, you know, 10 houses for sale in the neighborhood, but we just inserted ourselves to next in line just by better a better product at a better price and didn’t have the emotional ties to.

Mike: You know, some of the houses that were listed of like the one across the street might’ve been for sale. When we even wrote our contract, we came in, rehabbed it, put ours on the market, had it under contract to sell before that one was ever. So they were emotional about what they paid for it since the market’s gone down, they didn’t fix it up.

Mike: And so it just, we just, you know, inserted ourselves next in line, as I say, uh, with a better, better product and a better price.

Kenny: Well, that’s interesting. I did not know that. So now you’ve kind of confirmed my, my feelings about the situation.

Mike: So, but you have to, you know, you have to buy it, right. To be able to do that, right.

Mike: You can’t like overpay and over rehab like that. That doesn’t work.

Kenny: Yep. Yep. 100%. Yeah. Um, so that’s, yeah. I mean, as far as wholesaling goes, um, yes, hedge fund activity has been down, but to be honest, what we found is that they are still the most reliable buyers. Right. Um, because they, they have now readjusted their metrics.

Kenny: And if you meet their metrics, they’re like, Oh my gosh, this is a deal for us. Right. And it’s interesting. Now, I actually feel like there’s more of a buy in from them, right? Like they’re like, they’re following up with me. They send me letters in the mail. Hey, thank you so much for that deal. Let’s get the second one, which is interesting because now I’m like, Oh, now they see me as an asset.

Kenny: Right. Like, like I’m an asset to their business and I’m bringing in, bringing them deals. And, um, you know, we’re still doing pretty good. Could we do, could we do better if we take it down and put it on the market? Sure. Maybe, but we’re trying to minimize how many, how many flips we have ongoing at one given time, just because of the way that things are, but we’re not shying away from flipping either.

Kenny: Right. So it’s just, we’re just being selective with what we’re actually flipping.

Mike: Yeah. Just, even if you like shift. From wholesaling to doing more fix and flip. Now, it doesn’t mean you should fix flip everything. Like stay out of the hood, stay out of the high dollar neighborhoods. Like, you know, that’s the other thing is, um, in an uncertain market, you want to stay in the widest part of the market for fix and flips because you know that the, uh, hold period is going to be.

Mike: The shortest versus going into a high end area or a low end area where people are going to have a harder time getting financing on it.

Kenny: Exactly. Exactly.

Mike: So speaking of financing, let’s talk about that a little bit so that everybody’s been moved there over the past year. And so this is probably really only an issue for.

Mike: I mean, you could say it’s an issue for those that are taking properties down and fix and flipping, but even if you’re wholesaling, this is an issue now because your end buyer has their cheeses in terms of financing. So what’s different now? What do people need to consider?

Kenny: Um, no, we know who your lenders are.

Kenny: I mean, I think we actually do due diligence on our lenders. If we decide to work with a hard money company, I want to know how long have they been around, right? Like, are they one of these guys that just made a ton of money in the last three, four years? And now they have this big hard money lending operation because that tells me that they probably haven’t seen the ugly of the market in a way, right?

Kenny: So I, we like to work with harmony lenders that have that history and they’ve made it through. And so we know, okay, these guys know what they’re doing. Um, they’ve been through it once they survived. So we feel a little bit more comfort there, but. A big one that has honestly just revolutionized our business and shout out to our private lenders.

Kenny: Um, you know who you are, if you’re seeing this, um, which funny enough, um, all every single one of them is in our group and investor fuel. So, um, that’s, that’s, I mean, it’s really just been a lot, a game changer for our business because it’s, it’s private money, right? It’s, it’s there. It’s not. Any sort of, Oh, we have a massive warehouse line of credit.

Kenny: That’s just going to get pulled away. As we saw from a ton of mortgage companies recently, um, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s actual cash than an individual has that is, is way more reliable and it’s a lot easier to do business with them. And it feels really good also to, to, you know, work with peers and our friends.

Kenny: Right. It’s just

Mike: awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if they’re, if they’re fellow real estate investors, they’re more patient, they understand the business. Um, yeah, that’s

Kenny: great. I mean, they help you even underwrite your deals, right? Like, hey, dude, be aware of this one. Like, this is not a good one. Like, don’t do this.

Kenny: Um, you know, and then, uh, or, hey, this is a great deal. Like, luck it up. And it, and it reinforces some of your beliefs. It just sure is helps. Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. Well, that’s cool to kind of keep it in the family. So keeping it in the family, you’ve been an investor fuel for how long? A little bit over a year at least, right?

Mike: Maybe a year and a half.

Kenny: Um, so we joined last million dollar meeting. So, Oh yeah. So,

Mike: so right at probably a year.

Kenny: Yeah, probably right. Right. Yeah.

Mike: Year. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, would you mind just sharing a little testimonial of your experience in the group so far? Oh,

Kenny: absolutely. So, um, when we joined, uh, we were part of other groups, right?

Kenny: Other masterminds, um, that, you know, show you how to do certain things. But I think there was a big, a big gap into, okay. I know how to wholesale, right? I don’t need to learn how to host it. I already know that, right? Like I need to be part of a group where I have friends, peers that now are pulling me to the next level.

Kenny: They’re that somewhere where I can get exposed to some of the best investors in the nation, such as investor fuel. I mean, all the people you bring, Mike are absolutely phenomenal. I mean, we just had brand Daniels, right. Come into, you know, to invest if you live in, it was amazing. Like it was phenomenal. Um, just to give an example.

Kenny: I mean, that’s like every time, but you know. Our business has grown exponentially. I mean, when I was with my previous business partner and we joined investor fuel, Q4 was terrible for us. Q1, we did pretty good and I left in May and since May and here I can, I have my numbers here so I can tell you exactly since May.

Kenny: So from May. Through August of actual realized revenue for our company. We’re at 152, 000. So, you know, that an average of 38 K per month, essentially since May. Um, and do I think that I could have done that with our investor feel? No, for sure. No. Because it, you know, relationships, private money, um, but also having people push you and show you what’s possible, right?

Kenny: We talked about a little bit about this, you know, right before that You see younger guys, right that are doing things at even a higher level You’re like, oh my gosh, if he can do it, I can do it, right? Um, and you see people that are in chapter 15. You’re like, oh my gosh, it is possible, right? I knew it I wasn’t crazy, you know, my family and friends told me I was crazy, but i’m not You know, so, uh, like it is possible all right in It’s just, it’s, it’s awesome.

Kenny: You get to help some people that are maybe a chapter or two behind you, but then you, you’re also pulled ahead by people that are further ahead than you. And the camaraderie that you’ve built, Mike, the, the culture it’s, it’s, man, it honestly does feel like a family and, and that’s what I love

Mike: about it.

Mike: Awesome. Well, glad, glad you’re a part of it. So, Hey, thanks for sharing all your story with us today and starting this conversation with me about, uh, starting over or kind of, uh, you know. Breaking some bad habits and doing things a little bit of a different way going forward.

Kenny: Yeah, absolutely. Um, and you know, I’m happy to share.

Kenny: I’m always looking to add value to anybody that, that I cross paths with. So, um, yeah,

Mike: if folks want to connect with you or learn more about you, you’re in the DFW market. If they’re looking for, you know, to lend money or to buy from a wholesaler or whatever, any way that you might want to connect with you, what’s the best way to do that?

Kenny: So that would be through social media. So my, my, uh, tag is Kenny J. Garza. So that’s through my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Um, primarily I use Instagram. Uh, don’t use Facebook that much. We use Facebook to, you know, connect with other wholesalers and deals primarily. But I do check my Instagram to chat with people and hang out. But, um, yeah, I mean, you reach out and happy to get on a quick call 15 minutes and see how we can collaborate. Yeah.

Mike: Awesome. Well, Kenny, Hey, thanks again for spending some time with us today.

Kenny: Yeah, for sure, Mike. Thanks for having me, man.

Mike: This is fantastic. Excited to see where you take your business from here.

Kenny: Yeah. Yeah. Me too. I’m excited.

Mike: It’s funny talking, from my perspective, you’re a young guy, you’re 29. And we were just talking about somebody in the group that’s, uh, 20, uh, and doing, you know, 20 plus deals a quarter right now. Pretty, pretty amazing.

Kenny: He’s not the only one, right? Like you have, uh, you have, you have a couple more also that are just killers that are in their young twenties and it’s just insane. Yeah, I was not. Yeah, I was not doing that in my young 20s I wish I was.

Mike: No no, no, no I can’t even publicly talk about what I was doing in my early 20s.

Kenny:Yeah Let’s end it now

Mike: Uh, everybody. Hey, thanks. Hope you got some good value from today. Uh, Investor Fuel really is an amazing community. We’ve got a lot of amazing investors like Kenny and a couple hundred of members actually. And so our next event is actually coming up pretty fast. If you’re interested at all, you should go to investor fuel dot com and there’s a button where you can learn more about us a little bit of a video and tell you more about what the group is like and the opportunity to schedule a call if it makes sense. So hope you got some value from today. We’ll see on the next show.

Mike: Are you an active real estate investor? If so, and you want to latch onto the power of surrounding yourself with over a hundred of the nation’s leading real estate investors, all committed to building stronger businesses and living richer, fuller lives, you should jump on a call with us to learn more about Investor Fuel. Simply visit investorfuel.com to get started.