34 Years Dominating One Market

Mike Hambright (00:00.785)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. I’m excited to have my buddy, Beyond Wynn, on the show with me today. We haven’t talked in a while, but he’s been somebody that you should have your eye on too, by the way. He’s doing amazing things, really impacting a lot of people. By the way, he’s been a real estate investor for 34 years, a long time. And we’re gonna talk a lot about that today, kind of building the long game and all the things he’s doing from working with his family to dominating just one market. He’s not trying to go all over the country.

I get attracted by shiny objects of the next county over the next county over the next market over. But beyond super excited to have you here with me today.

Beyond Wynn (00:35.278)
Hey, thanks for having me. I’m excited as well.

Mike Hambright (00:37.167)
Yeah, yeah, it’s been too long, my friend. Yeah. Hey, so tell us a little bit about your background. You’ve got a rich background, a lot of experience for sure. And I think if you give us the context of who you are and kind of where you operate and all some of the things that have gotten you here, it’ll make more sense when we talk about some of these next things.

Beyond Wynn (00:57.325)
Well, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. My first exposure to real estate was as a kid when I was maybe about seven or eight years old. I used to work with my grandfather and my uncles. My grandfather used to build houses, so he had a construction company. So I used to work with them as a kid. I hated it because I hated getting dirty. And I didn’t feel like they paid me enough. But that was my first exposure to real estate in my

early teenage years as I experienced turbulence at home, I kind of got caught up in the streets and gangs and different things like that. Went to detention home, state prison. After that, I decided that I was going to divorce the streets and focus on the legitimate skill set that I had learned as a kid, but I didn’t want to do any work.

I just wanted to put the properties together. wanted to run crews and flip houses and do that whole thing. So had a friend that was in the real estate business. He introduced me to his mentor, which was a real estate broker. And he kind of took me under his wing and he didn’t talk a lot. He basically told me if I was serious, I need to have X amount of dollars so we can find a house. And he was going to teach me from buying a house, putting a crew together.

all the way to the closing table. And so that’s what we did for my first deal. I remember it like yesterday. once I closed the first deal, I had to check in my pocket for like a month. I didn’t believe that the real estate was real, that you can make, yeah, I wanted to show my friends that it was real so they can make better changes and decisions with their life.

Mike Hambright (02:38.757)
Yeah, you gotta cash that thing,

Mike Hambright (02:49.424)
Yeah.

Beyond Wynn (02:49.973)
That was my entry to real estate.

Mike Hambright (02:52.047)
And how old was that when you were 17 then?

Beyond Wynn (02:55.272)
Yeah, when I first, I was 17 when I first bought my first property and I moved into that property, my grandfather and uncle’s rehab, that property. And then shortly after that, I went on a state sabbatical. So after the state sabbatical, 17, 18, after the sabbatical, I came home, I did my first fix and flip when I was 20.

Mike Hambright (03:02.437)
Okay.

Mike Hambright (03:16.968)
Yeah, yeah, so 30, 34 years in business is a long time, man. I mean, it’s interesting, because I was just talking, I was, did a show with somebody else here recently and they kept referring to me as an old head, like, oh, you’re like the old wise one. I’m like, you’ve been doing it for twice as long as me almost. So good stuff, man. There’s so much, there’s so many lessons and I’m gonna try to pull some of this out of you today, but.

Let’s talk a little bit about kind of working with your family. So I know that that’s one of things that you focus a lot on is working with your kids. And my son, you wouldn’t know this because we haven’t talked about, my son is now 17. And let’s just say he needs to go work for somebody else for a little while before we can work together because he doesn’t do anything that mom and dad say. But that’ll change at some point. But just talk about the importance of that because I know that’s part of your legacy is being able to pass those skills on to a lot of people, including obviously your family members.

Beyond Wynn (04:09.181)
Yeah, so the first thing is when I think of legacy, I think I see it from a different standpoint than most people see. See legacy, I hear people saying that they’re going to build something special and then give it to their kids. Well, when I was growing up, I seen people build something special and give it to their kids, but their kids didn’t understand business. They didn’t like business. And so what happened was their parents built something special.

gave it to them and in five years or less, they had lost everything. And so remembering that, I was like, that’s not legacy to me. So I don’t wanna do that. I said, legacy to me is I build it with them. If I build it with them, if they go with me to look at properties, walk through properties, they go with me to the title company, to Home Depot, to the bank. If they do those things with me, they will never be able to unsee.

Mike Hambright (04:49.787)
Yeah.

Beyond Wynn (05:08.508)
those things. And if something happens to me, they will always remember the plays that we ran together. And when they have kids, they’re going to do the exact same thing. So to me, that’s legacy. So when my kids were, you know, five, six, seven years old, I would take them with me to look at houses. They hated it all except one kid. My oldest son, he would always go in the house with me. The rest of the kids was in the car.

whining and complaining. But Brian, my oldest son, he would walk through the houses with me. So when I seen he took an interest, I got excited. And so I was like, I’m gonna start teaching them. So what I would do is, we pull up to a house, we get out and I would teach them how to take inventory, AKA just identify everything that’s wrong. No numbers, just identify everything that’s wrong. So we pull up to a property, we’re looking at the landscape, rough gutters, windows, side and porch.

driveway, garage, going inside of the property, looking at the foundation, electrical plumbing, heating, kitchen, bath, living room, dining room, bedroom. So we did that a bunch of times. And so then I would pull up to a house and I would tell him, give him a pen and pad. I said, no, go take inventory. Tell me everything that’s wrong with the house. So after we did that a few times, he got great at identifying everything that needed to be done from exterior, interior, room by room. After he got that down pack,

I showed him how to put the numbers to it. After I went through with him a couple of times, I let him go in. I said, now tell me how much it’s going to cost to rehab this property. Then after he got that, like he had it. And so fast forward, he started to work with me for free when he was around 18. He started to work with me for free because he had to show me that it was serious. And so he worked with me for free and I seen he was showing up.

Mike Hambright (06:55.684)
Right.

Beyond Wynn (07:00.713)
And he was excited. And so then I started to pay him to project manage. He started to allocate his finances and take great care of his money. So as he continued to do that, as I started to get more opportunities, I would let him go in with me 50 50 on opportunities. And so that’s how he got his start. And so the other kids, they wasn’t really attracted to me doing it. Once Brian started to get checks, the other kids started to follow Brian.

Mike Hambright (07:28.049)
Yeah, that’s amazing. So how do you with your kids now, like I’m just curious, do you are they actually in are they they’re kind of I mean, they don’t have role. I mean, I don’t know how do I say this? Are they doing specific things in your business like a marketing manager and operations manager? Are they’re all kind of doing the same thing and they’re doing everything but you’re helping support them and and you know, kind of get them off the ground.

Beyond Wynn (07:30.019)
So that’s how it happened.

Beyond Wynn (07:54.819)
So right now, I do my own thing, they do their own thing. We still do some deals together, but for the most part, my oldest son, Brian, my youngest son, Aaron, and my oldest daughter, Brittany, they partner together. So they do fix and flips, they do auction properties. Brittany is great at finding auction deals. And so they partner together, whether buying properties and holding for their rental portfolio or doing fix and flips.

Mike Hambright (07:59.717)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (08:23.087)
Yeah. Yeah. And do they get along better as adults now running this business? I’m not saying that they didn’t get along as kids, but I know a lot of kids are not necessarily, you know, great friends. might like fight sibling rivalry, stuff like that. But did they get along better as adults now or? Yeah. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, that’s cool. That’s cool. So where does it go from here? At some point, you’re to just completely pass the torch you think or?

Beyond Wynn (08:37.652)
They get along They get along great. They get along great. Yes, they get along great Yeah

Beyond Wynn (08:50.562)
No, I never think about retiring or like, so that’s why it was so important for me to build with them hands on so they can have it, so they can create something special. Cause I don’t see retiring, hanging my jersey up in the Raptors. Like I’m a ball until it’s over with. I’m staying on the field until it’s over with.

Mike Hambright (08:53.947)
Yeah.

Mike Hambright (09:10.395)
Yeah. Yeah. I talk about it all the time. Like as long as you love what you’re doing, man, there’s no reason to ever stop. mean, so yeah.

Beyond Wynn (09:18.85)
Yeah, I don’t see it stopping.

Mike Hambright (09:21.945)
Yeah, yeah. So let’s talk about, I mean, you’ve been in your market for a long time and I think that a lot of folks, it’s easy for them to think the grass is greener somewhere else.

they start, move from houses into land or multifamily or something else, right? They just, you know, I do say we’re in the opportunity business, but entrepreneurs often get shiny object syndrome. And you’ve been doing a lot of the same things for over 30 years, right? And so talk about, you know, not only have you taught your kids how to do it, I you’ve had a big impact on your community, but you also coach and teach other people how to do this as well. And I mean, can you share approximately how many deals you think you’ve been a part of? I mean, I know it’s a lot.

Beyond Wynn (10:02.948)
It’s hundreds. It’s funny, I thought about that earlier. Like this may be one of the questions. I just know it’s hundreds. It’s hundreds of deals. Yeah, it’s hundreds. Yeah, hundreds of retail flips, hundreds of turnkey flips, and hundreds of wholesale deals. Hundreds.

Mike Hambright (10:14.833)
Yeah, I’m sure over 34 years. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (10:21.273)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So talk about just kind of like how to dominate your market over a long period of time and how to kind of, you know, proverbially play the long game. Like you’re just all in for a long period of time.

Beyond Wynn (10:34.589)
The first thing is you being a product of the product, whatever it is that you’re talking about, people need to be able to look at you, your journey, how you operate, how you talk online, offline. They need to be able to see everything that you talk about. You need to be impeccable with your work. You need to be known for the person that does what they say they’re going to do. And so that’s…

That’s the foundation, like being intentional about building and maintaining great relationships. I think that’s been my key to success. My business was built off relationships. When people talk real estate in Cleveland, Ohio, my name come up like anywhere in the world because I’m known for keeping my word. I’m known for like, if I can’t do something, I’m gonna tell you I can’t do it. Like that’s the key because when you think about, when I think about

Mike Hambright (11:19.473)
Yeah.

Beyond Wynn (11:32.646)
Real estate strategies, marketing strategies, they change all the time. Companies are always looking for different strategies. But when you think about relationships, you never have to switch that strategy when you’re intentional about building and maintaining great relationships. Being a man or woman or your word, you never have to change that strategy because

As you continue to do that, the same person that will invest in you or with you on a single family home, and you do what you say you’re going to do, the same people will invest with you and in you, a strip mall, an island, hotel, and it would just multiply. You become known as that person. it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a shortage of individuals that do business like that. And so I’ve always, stood on my word and that’s like,

So it’s nothing else that has really been the key to my success. Everything else, it play a part, but being a man of my word, being known for doing what I say I’m gonna do, that’s been everything. That’s how I get most of my deals. That’s why people wanna partner with me on deals because they know he said he was gonna do this and he did it. He said he was gonna split it 50-50 and he did it. So.

Mike Hambright (12:42.438)
Yeah.

Beyond Wynn (12:53.521)
That’s the best piece of advice that I can give anybody that’s interested in the real estate game or in the real estate game. Keep your word, no matter what. It ain’t gonna always be cute all the time. It’s gonna be turbulence. It’s gonna be obstacles, but keep your word.

Mike Hambright (13:10.715)
Yeah, that’s great.

I think there’s something that I hope you can share with us is just like your fortitude to stick with it because there’s a lot of people that, know, in 34 years you’ve been, you’ve seen several market cycles and plenty of opportunities to say, you know what, I’m done or whatever. There’s a lot of people that start in real estate investing or anything by the way, and they do it for a few years and then they kind of hit this point where it gets hard. It could be a market cycle change. It could be that just they got to a point to where it’s hard to kind of bust through that ceiling, but you have to become,

Sometimes you just have to become a better leader. You’ve got to figure out how to break through that barrier. It’s been easy for a lot of people to say, well, I’m going to jump into crypto now, or I’m going to jump into some other asset class, or I’m going to go jump into something else, because that seems easier. By the way, that will be easier for a couple of years. Then you’re going to hit that ceiling again, and it’s going to get hard. You and I both know the people that stick with someone for a long period of time, especially like you have, is you know that, yeah, this is hard, but I need to break through to the next level, the next level.

Beyond Wynn (13:55.135)
Right.

Mike Hambright (14:12.051)
I need to ride out this storm in a bad, you know, cycle or whatever it is. So share some lessons with kind of how to dominate over a long period of time when you’ve probably seen more people come and go than you even know that are in the business right now. You’ve seen a ton of people come and go, I’m sure, because I have too. just tell us how your mind works to kind of keep that, just keep going forward during adverse times because you know the best times are always ahead.

Beyond Wynn (14:27.761)
Absolutely.

Beyond Wynn (14:38.262)
So the first thing when you think about dominating anything you have to first commit to being a student of the game

I’m going to repeat when you think about dominating anything, if you want to dominate anything, you first have to commit to becoming a student of the game. When I first got in the game in the real estate game, I didn’t commit to becoming a student to the game. I was committed to getting paid by all means necessary. So the person that you, you see and hear talking today, it wasn’t the person, the same person that started when he was 17. When I started when I was 17.

I wasn’t thinking about relationships. was greedy. I was wanting to get paid by all means necessary. I was half doing rehabs. My rental properties, they just had band-aids on them. I was the property manager because I didn’t want to pay anybody. And what happened was I wasn’t trying to be a student at a game. wasn’t trying to learn the game. I wasn’t committed to the game. I just wanted to get paid. So what happened was when the market changed, I didn’t know that the real estate had cycles.

Because again, I wasn’t trying to be a student of the guys who want to get paid. So at the time, you can do 110 % refinancing. That sounds great to me. So I’ll half do the properties, max the properties out. And so just imagine, OK, you got 20 plus properties. You max them all out. You have done all of the work. You the property manager, tenants moving in and out, and then the real estate market crash. I mean, AKA, correct itself.

Mike Hambright (16:09.201)
All right.

Beyond Wynn (16:10.368)
Now the property’s not worth what I paid for them. The money coming in, don’t pay the mortgage. I started to look sad, feel sad, started to feel depressed. I wanted to quit. I was blaming everybody except the man in the mirror. Once I got done whining and complaining and blaming everybody else except the person that was responsible, it helped me get clear once I decided to accept responsibility for being greedy.

for being a horrible landlord, for half doing work. I got tears in my eyes because the truth hurt, but it can set you free. But the truth hurts. When I looked in the mirror, it’s like, you’re the problem. It’s not the tenants, it’s not the contractors. You’re the problem, and you’re greedy. And so once I had the conversation with myself, and I was like, listen, you can’t expect to get paid from your rental properties if you half doing the work and you let anybody move in. You can’t depend on that income.

Mike Hambright (17:08.826)
Right.

Beyond Wynn (17:09.078)
Are you crazy to think that you could depend on that? And so after I had that conversation, I committed to putting properties together the way I would if I was gonna move in it.

I also committed to having a team. Individuals play the game, but teams win championships. I was committed to cutting up the money and paying the team. I was committed to keeping my word and only doing good business. I did that, everything changed for me. Everything changed for me. Once I looked in the mirror and accepted responsibility for where my life was at, where my real estate business was at, where my bank account was at.

And then I came up with solution. And it was real simple. Put the properties together the way you would if you had to live in it. Hire a team. Like you focus on what you’re great at and pay the experts to be experts at what they experts at.

And that’s the long term recipe.

Mike Hambright (18:09.541)
Yeah.

I think a lot of people that get started are very transactional, right? They just go from one deal to the next deal to the next deal. And those relationships, it’s kind of funny because you and I are about the same age. And I haven’t been doing it quite as long as you, but I value relationships now more than anything. There’s nothing in life that I do that’s alone anymore. It’s all some sort of collaboration with people, and it’s been relationships built over a long period of time that allows you to kind of realize how much

Beyond Wynn (18:32.597)
Right. Right. It is.

Mike Hambright (18:40.497)
It’s kind of crazy, especially when you’re just operating in Cleveland, like how much relationships can come back around that you haven’t seen this person, even like you and I, haven’t talked in several years, but I’m grateful for the opportunity and it feels like it’s like two old friends getting together, right? And so you never know where those relationships are gonna come back in your business, especially for people that are operating in one market. Yep, yep.

Beyond Wynn (19:01.8)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Hambright (19:04.697)
So talk about what do you do to nurture those relationships? mean, I know you say you always do the right thing, what are you? Can you share any tips on what you do to nurture those relationships to make them more impactful over time?

Beyond Wynn (19:17.256)
I like…

think it still boils down to who don’t want to pick up the phone when the person on the other end has done everything that they said they was going to do. It’s always refreshing to catch up, like how we catch up. We catching up. We ain’t talking five years. So I have a bunch of relationships that’s the same way. Great people are always excited to…

reconnect with great people, whether we talk every day, whether we talk once a month or once a year. I think just keeping your word, that keeps relationships great. Where people ain’t got to try to figure out like an angle, knowing that it’s no angle, knowing that it’s genuine, knowing that we good whether we do business or not. I think a lot of people go wrong because it’s just focused on the business. That means the money, what somebody can do for them or offer.

But when it’s just genuine and the business is a byproduct, like that’s the win-win. And so always approach relationships like that. Like when I meet somebody that has great energy, I don’t care whether we do business or not. The business is the bonus. But it’s just always refreshing to just be connected with great people. And money and opportunities are the byproduct of great people, great relationships, great energy. Everything else follows that.

I think most of the world got it backwards. They think I’m gonna get the money and then I’m gonna start keeping my work. No, you never gonna get the money. You just gonna have the money for the weekend.

Mike Hambright (20:59.501)
Yeah, it’s also great to be I know I know you do this and this is something I focus a lot on too is being a connector of just like connecting people that should know each other right especially in your market like When I you know, I never wanted to share my GC with anybody But if I share like my window guy or a roofer or somebody that’s that I’m not keeping busy full-time anyway with other people like Anytime I needed anything from those people they would like drop everything and come help me, right?

Beyond Wynn (21:07.78)
Right.

Beyond Wynn (21:25.264)
Right, right.

Mike Hambright (21:27.715)
So what are some tips that you would share with, know, whether it’s, I guess, brand new investors, we have a lot of more experienced people listening to this show too, or just people that have been in the business for a while. Like what are some tips that you can share with people for how to, you know, have a bigger impact in your market? I mean, I know we’ve talked about a bunch of it, just kind of doing the right thing here, but what are some other tips you can share with people on how to, I mean, gosh, how to have a 34 year legacy you’re building here? A lot of people are, you know, have not been in the game for nearly that long.

some tips you could share.

Beyond Wynn (21:58.0)
Again, back to work. Keeping your word, being known for the person to keep their word because everybody is looking to connect with good people. Keep your word. And then when you talk about connecting, being a connector. If you see a good fit for somebody, just connect them and get out the way.

A lot of people feel like they got to be in the way. Most of the time you don’t have to be in the way and whatever is supposed to come back to you, it will come back to you. It may not be from that situation, but be a connector. Look to add value first before you’re trying to get something from somebody. Look to add value. Always look to add value. Always. What else?

Beyond Wynn (22:57.634)
Let’s just do good, I mean do good business. I don’t think it’s no secrets like to be in a good person and treating people how you want to be treated. And if you don’t know something, say that you don’t know. Tell the whole story, even if it may not benefit you. When I’m talking to people as it pertains to buying properties and I hear their story, I tell people this may not be a good fit for you.

Mike Hambright (23:01.681)
Yeah.

Beyond Wynn (23:26.53)
where most people are going to sell, sell, sell. Like, no, this may not be a good fit for you. Like, if you don’t have the time to dedicate to this, this may not be a good fit for you. And so I practice doing that. And it’s like, as a byproduct, like I continue to get great referrals and do a lot of business. Again, like I said, when most people is trying to sell them, I tell them, this is not a good fit for you. Like, I’m not in the convincing business.

Mike Hambright (23:52.593)
Yeah.

Beyond Wynn (23:55.947)
Like you tell me your story, your situation, and I’m gonna give you the best advice that I could possibly give you.

Mike Hambright (24:02.319)
Yeah, yeah, good stuff. Well, Beyond, if folks want to connect with you, by the way, if you’re not following Beyond on social media, you need to be. He’s been doing a lot of amazing things for years, honestly. And I know it’s a big commitment, but if you’re not following Beyond, you should be. But if folks want to connect with you or follow you, where do they go?

Beyond Wynn (24:24.464)
On Instagram and Facebook, my full name beyond B E Y O N D. When W Y N N on Facebook and Instagram.

Mike Hambright (24:35.729)
We’ll put the links down below there. So thanks for sharing some insights with us today. Always great to see you buddy. It’s been way too long Yeah, everybody I think at the end of the day like you you got into this business most likely

Beyond Wynn (24:40.204)
You’re very welcome. You’re very welcome.

Mike Hambright (24:48.549)
to build something special and you know, it’s just always do the right thing. Always kind of have the, don’t be transactional. I think about the long term of that relationship or where that could go and just generally do the right thing and you’re gonna have an amazing career as well. with plenty of opportunities. So awesome, well, Beyond, thanks again, buddy. Great to see you. Everybody have a great day. We’ll see you on the next show.

Beyond Wynn (25:02.859)
Absolutely.

Beyond Wynn (25:07.766)
Thank you, peace.

Mike Hambright (25:12.923)
Cool, buddy, thank you. Your recipe is very simple.

Beyond Wynn (25:14.837)
You’re welcome.