Why Real Estate Auctions Are Your Best Bet for Incredible Deals!

Brett McCollum (00:01.15)
All right, guys, welcome back to the show. I am your host, Brett McCollum, and I’m here today with Amanda Borges. And today we’re going to be talking about auctions. Before we do, guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs to 2 to 5x their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Without further ado, Amanda, how are you?

Amanda Borges (00:27.279)
Hello! What’s up guys?

Brett McCollum (00:31.182)
I love it. I’m so excited to be here with you. This is great. We got to catch up, talk a little bit before the show, and this is gonna be a lot of fun.

Amanda Borges (00:40.107)
Yes, that’s the point is not just work, but you have fun doing what you like it

Brett McCollum (00:46.35)
I love it. Well guys, if you can’t tell, Amanda has a great story to tell and she’s gonna do me a favor. Let’s tell people a little bit about yourself, give us some history, some context, and catch us up to speed.

Amanda Borges (00:59.422)
So my name is Amanda I am almost 40 next year I’m gonna be 40 years and I am from Brazil you can see with my little accent I try my best for you guys understand because I Learned me how making money before I can talk English so but I working in my English and Yes, I live in in America six years from now

When I come in, I don’t come in like in pension, live here. I was surfer. So every December I went to Hawaii for take good waves and one time I met my ex-husband and I’m like, call my dad, pack my things, rent my house. I gonna merge and I gonna be here.

Brett McCollum (01:49.304)
Yeah, wow, so how long ago was that? You said six years ago?

Amanda Borges (01:54.506)
Six years ago. Yes.

Brett McCollum (01:57.166)
In Brazil, where are you from in Brazil?

Amanda Borges (02:00.465)
So in Brazil I’m from São Paulo. It’s like a big city and busy. It’s like a New York. I work Monday to Friday over there. And weekends I went surfing. I travel for surfing. It’s my hobby. And this makes me go all over the place just for taking the big waves like Australia and other places. Yes!

Brett McCollum (02:25.779)
no way.

Amanda Borges (02:29.248)
When I went to Hawaii, really looked like Brazil. Like the weather and people are super nice and I love it over there. So it’s a really, really cool place.

Brett McCollum (02:33.87)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (02:41.366)
Yeah, and that’s really cool. I’m in Florida, right? So a lot of surfing and things here. Unfortunately, I will tell you my quick story of my first and only surfing experience. went out with my, is back a long time ago, I was with my college roommate and he said, just paddle and I’ll tell you when to stand up. And so I’m paddling and I’m just waiting for him to tell me. And he didn’t say, he got distracted, wasn’t paying attention.

It was a pretty big wave, probably six foot wave. You know, for us, that’s pretty big. And it and I turn and it hits me and it rolls me over and I hit my face on the bottom of the and cuts my face all up. And I said, well, that’s the last time I’m ever surfing. So that was it. So no, that’s really cool. So you moved here about six years ago. What is it? Did you what did you start doing? Was it real estate right away or was it something else?

Amanda Borges (03:26.013)
Peace!

Amanda Borges (03:40.826)
No, I realized it when I went to Hawaii just for surfing I always stay one month, two months and I need to rent a car. So I’m not too much familiar with rental cars so I found this guy in Facebook group from Hawaii and he’s I rent cars and he’s a super nice guy. He went to the airport to pick me up.

Brett McCollum (03:51.406)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (04:09.938)
This time I come in with my son Giovanni. He was four years. And it’s funny too because Giovanni surfs since he was six months. So he surf a lot in Hawaii. We have a lot of fun. And it’s kind of scary, know? It’s a woman with your kids and the guy coming. So finally the guy is super nice.

Brett McCollum (04:23.054)
Okay.

Amanda Borges (04:35.687)
super cool guy rents the car for me and he introduced me and people so I can match in people in Hawaii and I start to ask him like hey, you are business owner How you do that and he explained for me I buy cars in the auction fix the cars and I can sell or I can rent And I’m like, hmm, this is interesting. This is nice, but it’s something you know, I’m not interesting. We are just

talking so that season don’t have good waves so I station my Visa and then I met my ex-husband and then I figured this out when I buy the ticket for come back to Brazil my ex-husband proposed to me married I’m like, my god, this is changing everything in Brazil. I have three bikinis in the shopping mall the place

Brett McCollum (05:21.326)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (05:30.904)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (05:32.014)
And then I like, I need shoes. I gonna focus in my family, in building a family or I gonna focus in my business in Brazil. In that time I am like, okay, I gonna focus in building a family. I like him. So I stay in Hawaii and I try to figure this out how make money with my horrible English because I start to learn English in that time.

and then I start to buy cars in auction and sell the cars.

Brett McCollum (06:05.25)
No way. how long, so you’ve moved to the States, you did not speak very much English at all, which by the way, incredible, because that’s only been six years and you’re on a national podcast, Amanda, that’s incredible, right? You’re doing great. So you start in the car auction business, how long were you doing that for?

Amanda Borges (06:19.919)
Yeah.

Amanda Borges (06:30.026)
I still do it now, but I do it just for fun. So yes, right now I have it here in my garage. I can see my F150. I buy it because we are thinking it’s summer is coming now in Seattle. So we’re gonna have fun in the summer. I have two kids now. I have an amazing husband.

Brett McCollum (06:33.475)
Yeah.

Amanda Borges (06:54.33)
And my daughter is super cute, two years old, child, talking Portuguese and English. And then we’re gonna have fun in the summer. After the summer, we’re gonna sell the car. But it’s more for fun, you know, you can buy cars in the auction 50 % off. And it’s not a bad car. It’s a good car. Somebody just don’t pay…

Brett McCollum (07:05.933)
Okay.

Amanda Borges (07:18.713)
don’t make the payments, the bank need to take the car and sell and I’m like I take it.

Brett McCollum (07:25.762)
Yeah, yeah, I love that. There’s a lot of similarity though, right? With the auction for, yeah.

Amanda Borges (07:27.235)
Thank

Amanda Borges (07:31.993)
It’s the best start for real estate in my opinion. It’s the best start. Because you need to figure this out the gamey, like buy one thing low price, fix and sell for the normal price. So, especially for me, I was working in my English. I still working in my English guys, I promise I gonna be better.

But I realized the power of buy for a low price and sell for the right price. I’m like, hmm. So in Brazil, most billionaires do real estate. And I started studying America too. Most millionaires, billionaires, they have real estate. Why? Because the benefits with taxes. Because it’s a good marketing.

Brett McCollum (08:15.928)
Hmm.

Amanda Borges (08:29.888)
And they agree, look at that. It’s a good, good, good marketing for you can grow fast. Especially like when you want to retirement fast too, like it’s a great marketing.

Brett McCollum (08:37.71)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (08:46.082)
Yeah, so when did you learn more about the real estate thing? so, because you were doing the cars, and you still are, but you were doing the car thing more, like just the car stuff, when did you transition into also doing real estate?

Amanda Borges (09:04.407)
So my goal is always work low and making more money so I can take care of my kids too and don’t lose the fun. Brazilians are pretty fun people. And then we have a couple like 10 or 12 cars in the rental. And then I’m like, I realize my goal wasn’t to bring the car in the airport and back, I wanted work low.

So we sell the business car and then I start to study about real estate and when you start to search about so many things pop up, you know, the algorithm can help you. So this training pop up for me about real estate and I’m like, oh, I want to see what is that. They don’t tell direct it’s an auction school. They tell it’s like it’s a wholesale school.

Brett McCollum (10:02.359)
Okay.

Amanda Borges (10:03.237)
And then I started learning about the wholesale and I put myself in a horrible situation. I doesn’t encourage you guys do that because I really want start in the real estate. Do you know that book, Rich Dad Poor Dad? So it’s my favorite book. I remember I read this book. I was 15 years in Brazil.

And then I remember that book, something show up and I’m like this book. And then when you read after 15 years, I was 15 and I read again, I’m like, this is the code. I need to go to the real estate. So we went to this event about real estate. I and my husband, this time I invite my husband. Maybe he can help me with the English and…

They show up with one training, it’s $30,000.

Brett McCollum (11:02.702)
Wow.

Amanda Borges (11:04.34)
And the promise was you can use your credit card and the class is gonna pay for that. Because the money you’re gonna make in real estate, it’s gonna pay for 30,000. And I really knew and I believe the power of real estate is that. It’s.

Brett McCollum (11:12.974)
Mmm.

Amanda Borges (11:27.027)
When you start going the game, 30,000 is nothing but that time I was not that comfortable like wow, you know, but anyway, I put myself in the situation. I really tell you guys, you guys don’t need to put yourself in the situation. So we pay 30,000 dollars and we like it. Now we need to make money with that. So I start searching for land in Florida. I’m glad.

Brett McCollum (11:49.399)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (11:56.723)
I really believe in that because when you start, you decide, start a new thing, things happen. You have that curve when you are learning, for you start making money, right? And we buy a couple lands in Florida, a couple, it’s like lands with a lot of trouble. Is that why I really tell you guys?

Brett McCollum (12:03.448)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Amanda Borges (12:21.554)
Encourage you have somebody walk with you. We have a practice here and he can help you guys and and So it’s a hard time when you decide start she something new and Something’s going wrong, but she we figured this out the game me and that is my curve It the point is not the 30,000 I pay because but to me in a lot of difficult situations

But what I learned, like buy land is an auction. And when I figured this out, like, okay, I feel safe. I can buy more land than I can sell and I can sell right. I went to the houses.

Brett McCollum (13:04.141)
Right.

Okay, so you did land first.

Amanda Borges (13:08.273)
and then I did land first. It’s kind of scary because I buy land in Florida and I wasn’t over there. So I started building my my team, my boots on the ground like my real estate guy try to help me figure this out.

Brett McCollum (13:13.057)
Okay, how many?

Brett McCollum (13:20.259)
Right.

Amanda Borges (13:30.512)
the land and we found a couple investors who want to buy the land, construction, new constructions and I started to figure this out the game like wow this is fun now in the first time it’s hurt

Brett McCollum (13:45.664)
It is, you do, you figure it out as you go. How many deals do you think you may have done before you started doing houses? How many land deals?

Amanda Borges (13:57.263)
I did about 30 lengths.

Brett McCollum (14:00.512)
Yeah, yeah, I was thinking like you probably had to get enough reps and play like enough opportunities to figure out like how to transact the sale, how to go into a contract, how to then sell that, how to, yeah, very good.

Amanda Borges (14:13.424)
and this helps you to understand the areas and who you’re gonna sell what is areas is the best you don’t want to be in the richest area ever but you don’t want to be in the poor poor areas too like it’s a kind of middle so you understand the location staying far from florida i did

Brett McCollum (14:37.324)
Yeah. And now you’re doing more with the actual homes and flipping houses. Is that correct?

Amanda Borges (14:43.924)
Yes, we went to the wholesale like he buy houses and wholesale it’s a kind of scare trial fix the house But he we we in this process we start to make a network. This is really important and build in Connection with the construction guys so we found somebody can can fix the house and we can sell the house too

Brett McCollum (15:12.27)
Mm hmm. How long have you been doing houses that you’re flipping? How long have you guys been doing that? Three years. Yeah, good for you. That’s incredible. Great job. I guess the right I’m trying to figure out is, all right. So you started with the whole saw the idea of wholesaling, you get to the flipping thing, you know, you’re doing this. Where is the auction? Because like your experience with auctions with cars, and then your experience with

Amanda Borges (15:19.064)
Three years.

Amanda Borges (15:38.221)
I love it.

Brett McCollum (15:40.458)
auctions and homes. Tell me more about that.

Amanda Borges (15:43.918)
So auctioning the card, it’s… I think it’s really more easy but give me the basics so I can do the diligence. So I always play. The auction, I wish Tinder. Do you know the Tinder app for single people? You look at the app and you think, this is pretty, but when you go date somebody, boy, they have some issues, right?

Brett McCollum (16:02.806)
Okay, yeah.

Amanda Borges (16:12.235)
It’s the same with cars and houses. Sometimes you look at the car in an auction and you’re like, this car is pretty, but they have a lot of issues. So this is a really cool thing because I start to understand the process of diligence with the cars. So I went to this transition slowly for land. So I try to understand what kind of issues land can have or some things

Brett McCollum (16:27.608)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (16:42.006)
cannot make the land good for sale. And I don’t wanna sell bad cars. I don’t wanna sell bad lands. You know, that is not nice. And don’t make me happy. I’m happy when everybody win. Because some people have that mindset. If somebody win a lot, I’m not winning. No, I can win. The auction can win. And who gonna buy can win too. So this is…

Brett McCollum (16:45.656)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (16:49.88)
Right.

Brett McCollum (16:56.238)
Mmm.

Amanda Borges (17:08.374)
This is a happy business. It’s not supposed to be heavy or bad or I make all the money and nobody, no, it’s good for everybody. So the car helped me a lot with start to understand the diligence. And then I went to the land. I study more about diligence. When I went to the houses, it’s a really specific diligence. I need to the foundation of the house.

I need to the electric part, the water, the housing and everything. So it’s a really cool and nice thing when you learn that. And one thing I think it’s really important is the exit strategy.

Brett McCollum (17:56.077)
Yes.

Amanda Borges (17:57.372)
When you start in the auction business, you don’t sell after you buy. You sell. This is a really important thing, guys. This is gold. You sell before you buy. So you study who’s gonna buy, how they’re gonna buy, why they’re gonna buy.

Brett McCollum (18:14.508)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (18:23.346)
Because if you just think it’s a good deal, I’m gonna buy and try to sell later, maybe it’s not a good deal because the things is good for me, sometimes it’s not good for another investors. So I always study the marketing before I buy. And I did this with the car too. So before I buy the car in the auction,

Brett McCollum (18:34.871)
Right.

Brett McCollum (18:46.2)
like that. Yeah.

Amanda Borges (18:48.419)
I put the car, the similar car for sale and I see people have interest in buy that kind of cars. And it’s the same like when I start with land, I start to ask people in the Facebook groups, say, hey, I have a land in this county, somebody’s interested?

Brett McCollum (18:56.418)
Right.

Amanda Borges (19:14.419)
So far I understand. So I start the conversation and learning what they need in this county, what they want in this county. And when I see, I sell before I buy because I tell, finishing the day I’m like, I don’t have a lender right now for you, but I promise in two weeks you’re gonna have a lender.

Brett McCollum (19:39.542)
Yeah, I mean, I love that, but then you’ve proven it out. I like how the similarities that you have with cars and houses, some of the principles in your business are the same. And you’ve been able to translate that from cars, and I love that so much. What about like right now or the future? What is your focus at? What are you working on now?

Amanda Borges (20:02.121)
my gosh, right now, like I said, it’s kind of silly, but it’s true. I wanna work low and make more money. So I have that curve for learning and I wanna figure this out the game so we can have the rental houses and just to manage the houses and I can hang out with my kids and some point my grandkids and…

Brett McCollum (20:12.856)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (20:31.899)
Yes, one good tip I have and I like to work it. Some people love it, some people hate it. It’s the Section 8. If you guys are new with Section 8, Section 8 is a voucher the government gives for people who need money to pay their rent. They have difficulties, the government doesn’t want people living in the streets.

Brett McCollum (20:42.04)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (21:00.71)
you can buy in the auction in specific states and you can make a good cash flow.

have different marketings the equity marketing and the cash flow marketing so for you buy houses in in the auction you need to figure this out the cash flow marketing so you can rent the house and you have a cash flow but it’s a it’s a little bit tricky

Brett McCollum (21:31.886)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (21:36.747)
Everybody said like money making money and sometimes we don’t have the money. What do you do? And I want to share with you guys hope because like, this is amazing what Amanda is doing. It’s amazing. But I don’t come in for America with a million dollars. One dollar is six reals. So my money go down in America. Is that why I need to figure this out? How make money? And I want to everybody

Brett McCollum (21:54.488)
Right.

Amanda Borges (22:06.324)
Listen this this podcast make money because they in the auction have so many properties So many properties if I can have all the money in the world. I’m not able to buy But what is the strategy for you have your cash flow for building your business in real estate? You buy the house in the auction you fix the housing

Brett McCollum (22:20.237)
Right.

Amanda Borges (22:36.194)
When you fix the house, you tell for the bank coming and you put a mortgage in the house so the bank give you double money then you invest because this house, gonna just share one example. You pay 50,000 in the house, you fix the house and the value of the house can go for 100,000. Just one example.

Brett McCollum (22:46.807)
Mm-hmm.

Brett McCollum (23:03.181)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Borges (23:04.931)
You put 50, the bank give you 100, you rent this house and the person is leaving the house, gonna pay the mortgage and you have your cash flow. So now you have more money so you come back in the auction, buy the house, fix the house, put your mortgage and do again and again and again and study a lot about taxes.

Brett McCollum (23:31.296)
Right. There’s a lot of benefits to doing that with taxes too. Yeah, for sure. And this has been great though. And I love, so that’s more of what you’re looking at doing now and in the future. Is that correct?

Amanda Borges (23:42.366)
Yes, I want to my rental houses and retirement and living the good life. I really believe in my life, in some point I thought time is money. And I’m going to tell you time is not money. Time is life. If you are working so hard and

Lost in your life. That is not working. Is that why the real estate? It’s a really good business for you can come back have your time your control your freedom and your money

Brett McCollum (24:20.802)
that. I have a mentor that always would say there is no such thing as time management because we cannot control time but there is such thing as priority management.

Amanda Borges (24:33.46)
Yes.

Brett McCollum (24:34.584)
So that kind of speaks to a lot. I mean, you can’t control your time. Nobody can, right? But we can control what we prioritize. And I love that you’re doing that. You’re making moves to, you’re not thinking about today. You’re thinking about your children, your children’s children. And then you’re thinking about legacy and what am I doing today that allows for that time later? Or I like to call it, we call it return on investment a lot. You hear that in real estate. What’s your return on investment? But I think what you’re saying is what’s…

What better is ROT or return on time?

Amanda Borges (25:07.277)
Yes, yes, and we need the money and we need the time. Especially, I want to talk with the women because sometimes we think like it’s impossible. You have two kids, right now I have two kids, one 11, one two. And I know the way I talk is pretty, but the journey sometimes wasn’t pretty. Sometimes our…

Brett McCollum (25:30.136)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda Borges (25:32.508)
Alone you feel alone you feel you cannot do anything you feel that things never gonna change but the secret is The things change when you don’t give up Doesn’t matter what happened I have a situation and I gonna share with you guys It’s a really hard situation the first land I buy I buy this land and

I don’t knew because I was learning about due diligence. This land have 150,000 in bills to pay.

Brett McCollum (26:13.277)
wow.

Amanda Borges (26:14.687)
So I’m just like, I pay 10,000 for, I just buy 150,000 bill for I pay, you know? In that point, I can sleep and I’m like, oh my gosh, what I gonna do, you know? And then I remember my why, why I’m doing that. I can just go work for somebody and make a little money and it’s gonna be okay.

Brett McCollum (26:25.176)
Yeah.

Amanda Borges (26:43.974)
And then I look at my kids sleeping and I thought like they deserve it better. It’s not just about me, it’s about my family, it’s about my kids and they deserve this. So I realized that you being an investor, you got some rocks, know? And the secret is everybody have it. The social media maybe don’t show you.

Brett McCollum (26:50.638)
Yeah.

Amanda Borges (27:10.386)
but everybody have their challenges. But if you don’t give up, I promise it’s gonna have the gold bucket for pay you for the solution you have. You just don’t know you have the solution, but you gonna have.

Brett McCollum (27:20.236)
Right.

Brett McCollum (27:27.244)
It will, you just gotta stick with it the entire time, I love that. Well Amanda, if people wanna reach out to connect with you at some point and get to know you little better, what’s the best way for that to happen?

Amanda Borges (27:37.916)
So I am social media, I have my YouTube channel but my favorite is Instagram. It’s Amanda Borges official. So you can go over there and we can talk and you can see my videos. I always talk about the auctions. I show my day by day…

Brett McCollum (27:45.026)
Okay?

Amanda Borges (28:00.752)
doing the fix and flipping houses. I showed the auction special when I win the bid. my God, I got so excited and I show everything. love it. I love what I do now.

Brett McCollum (28:13.41)
that you guys and for really like go out to to Instagram follow along with Amanda I I’ll be honest with you before this show I went to your Instagram to like try to get to know you better like you know and great content on there guys like so so valuable so you’re not gonna be sorry you did but we’ll make sure that’s in the show notes okay so you guys definitely give her a like and a follow but Amanda this has been such a great episode I really enjoyed talking with you getting to know you and you sharing your story with us

Amanda Borges (28:41.988)
Yes, me too! It’s such a blessing. We can talk about what we’re doing and we can tell everybody. If somebody with no good English, with two kids can do that, guys, you guys can do for sure. And I hope they do better than me with better English and everything.

Brett McCollum (28:59.928)
No, it excuses. Yeah.

Brett McCollum (29:05.794)
Yeah, absolutely, I love it. I think it comes down to just, you have a made up mind that I’m going to do this. yeah, it’s incredible what you’ve done, Amanda. Again, thanks for being with us. I really appreciate you hanging out with us. This has been really fun.

Amanda Borges (29:13.082)
Yes.

Amanda Borges (29:23.255)
I appreciate it! Thank you so much!

Brett McCollum (29:26.188)
Yeah, you got it. Well guys, thanks for coming on and hanging out with us. Catch us on the next one. We’ll see you there. Take care everybody.

Amanda Borges (29:33.168)
See you.