Real Estate Coaching: Discover the Secrets to Thriving Investments

John Harcar (00:01.647)
Okay. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host John Harcar and I’m here today with Tony Saccaro and We’re gonna talk with Tony for a little bit about his journey in business his journey in real estate How he developed his business from, know, one to five deals to you know, offering a coaching program So we’re gonna cover a lot of cool stuff Remember guys that investor fuel we help real estate investors service providers

I mean, really all real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their business. We’re providing the tools, the resources and the community to scale the business, which helps in turn scale your life. So Tony, man, welcome to the show.

Tony Saccaro (00:41.518)
Hey, John, thanks very much having me. I appreciate it.

John Harcar (00:44.185)
Yeah, man. I appreciate you coming on here. I know we had some reschedules, but I’m glad we got you on. I’m excited to hear about your journey. you why don’t we start off by telling our audience a little bit about you and how you kind of got into real estate, your journey in business, and what brought you up to today.

Tony Saccaro (01:02.029)
Yeah. Um, so, you know, I’ve always, uh, had a dream of real estate, right? Um, watching the TV shows, people out and about on, uh, with the, the signs. So I decided to take a leap of faith one time and, joined a, uh, a group, you know, through, a certain, uh, guru, right. And I spent a lot of money doing that. Right. And realized that, uh, although it was helpful now, I think it didn’t help me then. Right. I thought it was, I was gung ho going to do it and realize, shoot, you know what?

I can’t, it’s harder than I thought. So I spent all that money joining that. And then I decided, okay, you know what? Let me go ahead and just, you know, I read some signs, read some things, put out some bandit signs, see what happens. So I just, I bought 500 bandit signs, put, we buy houses on there and just stick them out in the road, right? Let alone I got a couple of calls and met my future partner who to this day we still work together, which is pretty cool. So he actually said, hey, you have any houses? I said, no.

John Harcar (01:49.391)
Yeah.

John Harcar (01:57.444)
Nice.

Tony Saccaro (02:01.919)
He’s like well when you get a house man, let me know I’ll help you out. So, you know fast forward, know, just been hitting it hard learned a lot about the business got myself another mentor, you know, and just kind of focused and did my you know, Have a have about how many deals maybe 50 deals under my belt since 2008 Did did maybe five or six flips? Not a big fan of them right now, but trying to get more into them in the future like the wholesale it’s

John Harcar (02:20.206)
Nice.

Tony Saccaro (02:31.405)
It’s a quick in and quick out. Right. So, um, you know, I always had that dream being a top real estate investor and, um, making it happen, man.

John Harcar (02:40.91)
Sweet. If you’ve watched any of my podcasts, I like to go. I like the backstory. I like the journey. I think there’s so much just to learn in there. And it’s interesting. So, you know, I asked this question to everybody. You said there you’ve always had a dream of real estate. Was there some type of influence, some type of exposure, something you had growing up that had maybe, you know, maybe subconsciously planted a seed of real estate?

Tony Saccaro (03:06.477)
Yeah, you you grow up and you see your parents working hard you see two two three jobs and they’re just like Struggling and they’re not home and so you know and then you and then you kind of see you have people outside

driving these nice cars, having these nice houses, and you’re kind of like, what do they do for a living? And you’re like, what are you doing? So I’ve always watched these shows, Millionaire Listing, then Flip This House, Flip That House, all this kind of stuff. And it’s like, it can’t be that easy, right? And it’s not, we all know that, but they make it look so easy, right? So it’s just growing up wanting something better for myself and my family that has really tailored me into this business.

John Harcar (03:31.63)
Great.

Tony Saccaro (03:47.436)
And just the more people I meet the more my my my self-esteem and my spiritual grows and and more towards God and kind of praying and you know more and more is happening I give more I get more that’s what has happened in my lifetime, so really really Love the fact that you know real estate is the key to to having a good successful career

John Harcar (04:09.88)
Yeah, for sure. And I love that you give more to get more. Have you ever read the book, Go Giver? Yeah, look up, get the book, The Go Giver. It’s by Bob Berg and John David Mann. it just kind of the premise of it is give more value than you receive. Right. And I truly believe that. So were you, what were you doing before real estate, before you decided to jump in?

Tony Saccaro (04:14.845)
No, I haven’t.

Tony Saccaro (04:33.553)
Yeah, so, you know, I always did real estate part-time. was I was worked for a corporate 500 company, right 25 years I was a collector I sold phones, you know became a supervisor got into leadership and was like This can’t be it and you know, I was miserable in corporate America and it just wasn’t something I did I missed my 25 years doing that and again, I did the

John Harcar (04:53.347)
Yeah.

Tony Saccaro (04:58.828)
the whole selling part-time and I became a realtor and did all that kind of stuff but there was just not it wasn’t fulfilling my heart it wasn’t fulfilling me totally so so I kind of you know just went job the job that well actually worked that coming 25 years left and said see you later I got to get out of here and and jumped in for real estate full-time and and it’s been pretty good you know so far so I decided to you know

take what I’ve learned and put it into a coaching program and try to help others do the same thing or have the same dreams I

John Harcar (05:33.934)
That’s awesome. Okay. And I like how you started part-time, right? I think a lot of people maybe sometimes jump in too early, but it helped you probably grow a little slower, but having that comfort. So when you first went full-time, what were the struggles?

Tony Saccaro (05:46.283)
Struggles many many struggles time right that was used to corporate America then telling me what to do when to do it how to do it and what time to do it right so finding the time to actually not being scattered and using my tools and kind of like just like I was all over the place I was making phone calls I was out and about looking at properties I was putting out signs I was doing ads

couldn’t figure out how to manage my time. That was the biggest struggle because I’m doing five different jobs with five different things, right? Or more jobs, right? So trying to figure out the process and the daily duties.

John Harcar (06:37.006)
Okay. And you mentioned that you had an experience with some guru and you spent a lot of money and you mentioned it was hard, something was harder than you thought. What was kind of harder than you thought? What was, why was that experience like not a good experience for

Tony Saccaro (06:53.394)
because, you know, you go to these seminars and they, they, they teach everything, right? They go, you could do this. You could do that. You could do that. But you’re really don’t know where to start. There’s no one to guide you. So you’re blindly going into this thing and you’re like, I can do this. It makes all sense when you’re in this room with these people. But when it comes down to it,

You don’t know the first step. So you’re trying all these different things and it’s not working. You’re like, why isn’t this working? I put out hundred band signs. Why isn’t it working? I put out 50 postcards, thousands of postcards. Why isn’t it working? Or when you get a call, why aren’t they saying yes to my offer? you you’re really, missed that one piece, which was what? A mentor to actually guide you through it and have those questions to be answered.

So I missed that one piece. went so long without having a mentor actually guide me in it. And it just was like a big, huge circle, hamster wheel, trying this, trying that, trying that. And it really did not work.

John Harcar (07:56.527)
So then you got this mentor and he kind of straightened things out, showed you how to really do it and you kind of start taking off.

Tony Saccaro (08:02.603)
Yeah, yeah. So once I got that mentor, I was able to ask them, hey, okay, how do you find a comp for this property? What do you do? What do you look? What are investors buying it at? How much is a roof? How much is an AC? What do you got to do to get this flooring in there? How much is a contractor? Do you do it yourself or do you hire someone? So you’re really getting all these answers. Answer for you. So you check out the box. Boom. Okay, good. I got that. I got this. I got that. And meanwhile, put a contract together.

John Harcar (08:24.013)
Hmm.

Tony Saccaro (08:32.682)
And then now you’re more educated, you have the knowledge in your head to talk to these sellers on, you sound like an expert. Oh, you need a new roof. You need this, you need this. It’s going to cost like $50,000 to fix up. This is my offer for you. And this is the reason why. Instead of going blindly and saying, oh, I’ll offer you $100,000 for your property, right?

John Harcar (08:48.653)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (08:52.27)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. And we talked offline, you had mentioned you got a coaching program and that’s kind of where you’re kind of guiding towards. Did you feel the need to create the coaching program due to the fact that maybe some of your struggles in learning and that, like you said, they tell you what to do, but they don’t tell you the first step. Is that kind of why you went to, guided towards a coaching program?

Tony Saccaro (09:17.992)
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, two reasons, right? One, because I wanted to help others felt like, like what I felt the missing piece, the link, so many people, you know, they, they put money into this, into this career and they get lost, right? And they go to the invested meetings and they talk to people and they, and they kind of figure it out, but they’re there. They can’t quite grasp it. So I want to give back to the community, right? And also kind of, you know,

kind of see, I can help you answer the questions. I’m here for you. Whatever. But two is really, you know, helping me out as well. I want to get them, you know, I’m going to make, I want to help them make money. So I’m going to get not really paying me upfront, but splitting deals with them. So I could be on the journey with them and showing them what to do, how to do it so that we both can, cause they can see the deal happen live. Right. So it’s kind of too bold.

John Harcar (10:06.21)
Yeah.

John Harcar (10:15.064)
Yep. Yeah, I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s an incredible way for someone who doesn’t have the resources to be able to learn, right? And then for you, yeah, I mean, it’s a way to bring deal flow and share your expertise and show them, you know, in person how it’s going. So what is your coaching program focus on? Is it focused on wholesaling? Is it focused on, do you touch on flipping? I mean, what type of exit strategies do you teach?

Tony Saccaro (10:43.377)
Yeah, great question. So right now we are strictly on wholesaling with a dabble of, you know, flipping if they have the funds, right? Or I teach them how to find the funds, but mainly it’s, you know, I have, it’s in school and we have classroom and I kind of strategically teach them how to do certain things. Like for example, you know, driving for dollars, right? What to look for, how to look for, when to go buy, what to say to the homeowner if they are home, you know, or

You know, mailing letters, I have templates for letters, what to use. I have sources on what, what, what’s a lead generations to use, how to do an ad in Facebook, how to, you know, what’s saying on a postcard. kind of giving them step-by-step to actually go through the trainings, but also then have me as a resource in school to ask those questions and Hey, how do do this? How do you do that? What can I do there? So we’re really touching base, both answer question on.

wholesaling mainly because that’s what mainly I say you get started once you start building that funnel or that the cash flow then you can start looking into okay let’s rehab the house

John Harcar (11:52.871)
Mm-hmm. What is for you that you teach? What’s your main lead gen strategy? Or maybe even your favorite lead gen strategy?

Tony Saccaro (12:01.914)
So depends, right? Do I have money or am I poor or do I have some money?

John Harcar (12:06.498)
Well, let’s talk, let’s say, let’s give an example of both.

Tony Saccaro (12:09.736)
Okay, yeah, so like I said, mentioned before, those who are poor, who have no money, they say they’re broke. I don’t have a dollar, Tony, to my name. All right, then you can do some guerrilla marketing, buddy. Let’s go ahead and do this. I sent a video. Here’s what you do. You’re to go this neighborhood, and you’re going to go down the street, and you’re going to drive $4. You’re to write down the address. You’re going to go on the county website. You’re going to look up the name. You’re going to mail a letter. You’re to put a stamp on that letter, right? And you’re going to wait for the phone call, right?

Now if you have a little bit of money, right, now you do the same thing and then you actually buy a list of inherited homes, probate, right, and you actually do the same thing mailing, but then you can skip trace, put some money toward your skip tracing system or mail postcards. If you have a lot of money, right, then you would mail out thousands of postcards at a time. So just depending upon where they’re at in their journey and how much money they have, right?

John Harcar (13:06.766)
Okay very cool. So how many students do you currently have in your in your coaching program or is it just brand new starting?

Tony Saccaro (13:13.671)
Yeah, so we launched about a month ago and have roughly 20 members in and out. Now, some of them are working, some of them you don’t hear from, right? And that’s the issue with coaching, right? So I highly encourage anybody that wants to join a coaching program, put 110 % into it because you only need to get that much out of it. If you’re just like blindly

lily-dacking and kind of like not really interested, you’re not going to get anything out of it. No one’s going to give you the answers if you don’t have the questions, right? So we have about 18 to 20 members. We have weekly calls. We talk about deals and I help them on every single deal that they want.

John Harcar (14:00.196)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (14:05.102)
And is it strictly for people located in the St. Pete or Clearwater area of Florida? Or I mean, do you have people from other states?

Tony Saccaro (14:16.641)
Yeah, right now we started in the state of Florida right now. If we do have anybody interested in other states, we definitely can open it up. But I’ve only had interest in the state of Florida right now.

John Harcar (14:30.604)
Okay, very cool. are there any kind of trends you’re starting to see in real estate or you’re kind of keeping an eye on things that might be coming down the pipeline or, you know, happening in the market?

Tony Saccaro (14:42.287)
Yeah, we’re seeing houses, the retail wise, sitting forever and ever and ever and ever. And no one’s buying them. Why? Because what happened a couple of years ago, everybody was just buying properties because they just saw the color of the house. The houses were going so fast because interest rates were so low. Now the interest rates are higher. mean, everybody knows this and you don’t know this. Get out of that rock. But they are just sitting forever and people

Sellers think their homes are worth what they were two three four or five years ago, right? and it’s not it’s really coming down to knowing the market and whether or not hey saying and Being honest with them and truthful saying your house is only worth this and it needs fifty thousand dollars of work No one wants to buy your house. I’m sorry in a nicer way, but you know stricter, but yeah, so I thought those are trending I’m seeing a lot of homes, but

John Harcar (15:32.908)
Yeah.

Tony Saccaro (15:40.678)
I love it because now they’re open to negotiation. So we’re seeing more and more people saying yes to our lower offers than they were five years ago. So I like this market, to be honest with you. Now, if you’re a realtor, you’re not going like this market forever.

John Harcar (15:44.152)
Yes.

John Harcar (16:00.495)
Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Well, no, that just means that if you’re a realtor, you need to start adapting and start working with investors so you can keep your business going, man. I mean, that’s what it means. What if I…

Tony Saccaro (16:09.229)
Exactly. Yeah. So that trend is really hitting hard and we’re starting to see it. So more more deals are opening up and more and more people are saying, yes, I love it.

John Harcar (16:18.158)
Yeah, buyer’s market, man, is starting to switch that way. What advice, man, if someone wants to get into, I mean, besides call you and train with you, what other advice would you give to someone that is getting into the business?

Tony Saccaro (16:32.55)
Find out as much as you need to know. There are resources out there everywhere, YouTube. There are investor meetings in your state, Korea, real estate investment meetings. Call those bandit signs out there if you’re really interested in talking to someone. Someone out there will know more than you and you just call them and you’re a real estate investor? That’s how I found my partner, man. It was crazy how it just happened.

There are so many research out there, so do as much research as you possibly can, but actually don’t get caught up in the research. If you find one thing, do it. Just do it. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, because you got, you know, as the saying they say, fake it till you make it. All right. I did that for a long, long time and you have to fake it till you make it to really know what you’re doing out there. And without trial and tribulations, you’re not going to learn.

John Harcar (17:15.203)
Move.

Tony Saccaro (17:31.768)
You can read all the books you want, watch all the videos, and until you implement, you’ll get nowhere.

John Harcar (17:38.925)
You gotta risk it to get the biscuit.

Tony Saccaro (17:41.316)
I like that one, yes.

John Harcar (17:42.946)
You gotta risk it to get the biscuit. Hey man, I appreciate all the stuff you dropped today, man. Guys, I hope you all took some good notes at home. If there’s folks that wanna get in touch with you, Tony, that wanna connect, learn from you, maybe just something you talked about resonated, how do they get in touch with you the best way?

Tony Saccaro (17:58.789)
Yeah, could have a couple of ways. you can actually find me on Instagram at, what is my Instagram? I’ll click it down here, everywhere. You can go to Tony Sicaro Buys Houses or Big Dog Buys Houses. I’ll put a link in here and I’ll share it with you. You can share it with the rest. Or I’ll let you know you also check out my free school program. Again, no money. It is free. can check me out.

John Harcar (18:05.752)
Hahaha!

Tony Saccaro (18:26.532)
I’ll also put that link in however you want to share it with the folks. Or you can just email me at tonysacaro.re.gmail.com. That’s tonysacaro.re.gmail.com if you really want to reach out to me.

John Harcar (18:40.194)
Got it. And then we’ll take all that stuff, we’ll put it in the show notes so that way they can get in touch with you guys. Once again, I hope you took some good notes, man. I hope you enjoyed this show. Tony, thank you again so much for sharing all that info. And you know, guys, we’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.

Tony Saccaro (18:55.972)
Thank you so much for your time, guys. Appreciate you.