From Burnout to Balance: Billy Morse’s Framework for Real Estate Success

Michael Stansbury (00:02.095)
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m Mike Stansbury and with me today is Billy Morse. Billy, how are you sir?

Billy Morse (00:14.894)
I’m doing wonderful. I hope you are.

Michael Stansbury (00:18.703)
I am too. Well, Billy, thanks for being here. We’re going to get into your story in just a second. But first, we got to talk about Investor Fuel. At Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, real estate service providers and entrepreneurs, 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. Billy, let me ask you this first. Before we get into what you’re doing now,

What was the pivot in real estate? When did you get into real estate? Have you always been? What were you doing beforehand? Tell me the origin story,

Billy Morse (00:53.037)
Okay, sure. So it’s probably like a lot of other people. Rich Dad Poor Dad, I had my first son, gosh, nine years ago, and I’m in the parking lot and I’m reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, and I grew up with a poor dad, and then I read that book and I bought a house the next day. Like that’s the thing that just changed my entire life, and then my mentality. So once I started understanding,

the difference between a poverty mindset and abundance mindset, it just led me on this track to real estate. And that was about 10 years ago. And so, yeah, and I have a W-2 job currently, yeah.

Michael Stansbury (01:30.711)
Okay so critical time right? Right Seth? You still currently have a W-2 job and you do this as well? Yeah so again go into that what are you what are you doing now from I guess from your W-2 job and then how are you able to handle all the the more than a side hustle of this real estate that you’re doing?

Billy Morse (01:39.725)
Yes, yeah, and we’ll probably talk about that. I’ve had, yeah.

Billy Morse (01:55.533)
Sure. Yeah. Just about balancing things and understanding what your priorities are. I kind of always say this when you know your why, the how is easy. So it’s just, you know, that gets you through the hard part. And then being extremely disciplined and then having a framework and then being able to compartmentalize and just stay focused.

And you know, because that’s what I see a lot with entrepreneurs, just so easy to kind of go off the rails. And, and I’ve done that before. And then it’s just like, all right, man, you what is our North Star? And let’s just keep following towards that.

Michael Stansbury (02:39.023)
So, know, of all the things that you mentioned there, the one thing that resonates that most people miss, most people have some, you have to have discipline to be an archmurray. But one of the things that I think helped me, and you mentioned it, was the framework. Can you kind of dive into the framework a little bit? How you define that?

Billy Morse (02:39.074)
So yeah.

Billy Morse (02:51.2)
Mm hmm. Yeah. So that’s how that’s actually how my company’s been really able to just take off. So I’m sure you’ve maybe read Traction by Gene Wickman, but we’ve put in the EOS framework and that’s just been so amazing for our company. And once I read that and I started implementing it, I basically restructured the company. I had to let a couple people go. It really

doesn’t leave any blind spots in your business and it really just boils it down into six key components and then how you focus on that. And so once I realized that, then I’m going from, you know, pivoting from like being, I guess a founder into moving more into a CEO role and really just focusing on growing the business. And yeah, that’s been where I’m going like the past.

you know, three months. And so my W2 job, I’m a cybersecurity sales executive for a cybersecurity firm. And then I’m at, I’m in sales. So I’ve just used that superpower in order to grow the business.

Michael Stansbury (04:03.183)
So I’ve just used that super power in order to grow the business. Okay, so tell me about the business that you’re in now. Like what are we doing? When did we start with the short-term rentals? And give me the story of maybe the first few deals that you’ve done and…

and are you, know, are these local or are they out of your state? How does all that work? Give us the, yeah, give us the 10,000 square foot view and then kind of dive into maybe a deal. I’ll let you choose your own adventure that you’re working on or worked on that was a creative fun deal.

Billy Morse (04:35.977)
Okay, yeah, those are always fun to talk about. But basically, the origin story, let’s see, because I’ve made a ton of mistakes and I’ve learned a lot and I’ve pivoted and that’s where I’ve found so much success. So I got into a partnership in 2019 and we bought 22 properties and we fixed up all these houses. This was in Augusta, Georgia.

The barrier to entry is very low. So we were buying properties that were maybe 150,000 and we were adding bedrooms and forcing equity. And then after about nine months, we had 10 short-term rentals, but they were lower end, but we were profiting about 15 to $20,000 a month. And so I had a business partner at the time. It was him and his wife and it was myself.

And they don’t want to hire anybody. They had a scarcity mindset. They want to do everything themselves, like from the bookkeeping to just like every single facet of the business. And I’m just, burnt out. You know, I’ve got four kids. I got my W-2 job and I’m like, man, there’s gotta be a better way. So I approached them and I’m like, hey, we gotta do something different. We’re making money now. And they were just, they wouldn’t do it. So I said, you know what?

I don’t need another job, right? You can have this job. I tried several times to let them see my side of things and say, man, there’s a better way of doing things. can outsource so we can grow and we can really build a company. But we weren’t aligned. And so I went from having like 25 houses and working my full-time job and then my full-time job with these 25 properties to having zero.

which was just like, it was a bit humbling and then also gave me a ton of free time. So this is what ChatGPT came out and I basically put myself in a hole for like a month in which it’s like, I gotta figure out a business plan, what I’m gonna do. Like I didn’t waste a day, right? Like I literally like when I’ve split with my partnership, I was like, all right, I gotta do my own thing. And so I really wanted to pivot from.

Billy Morse (07:01.364)
kind of lower income, that barrier entry into more higher end, over $500,000 properties, because finally got to the point where I figured that I found out that basically one really nice property will make me, if you do it right, can make me the same amount of money, if not more than 10 D &O properties. But I didn’t, my partner at the time, he had

maybe a portfolio of 20 million, but it was like lower income. So I was kind of looking up to him, but I quickly found out that I don’t want to do that. And I need to, you know, I guess forge my own path. So once I went out on my own, that’s what I did. And then we started buying higher end properties. And then I started this property management co-hosting space.

And then now we’ve got about 40 million in assets under management. We own personally about, yeah, go ahead. I feel like you’re about to say something.

Michael Stansbury (08:10.863)
No, I was so interested in the, you know, so I love the overview, you gave me a good overview, but maybe, so when you left the partnership, you got really focused for a month, and then, you know, what was the first deal that you did on your own? How did that come about? How did you finance it? What did that look like?

Billy Morse (08:21.768)
Yeah.

Billy Morse (08:27.785)
Sure.

Okay, yeah, so I call it my free house. I got a letter in the bank and it said, zero percent down for up to $500,000. And I’m like, are you serious? So I called, yeah, it was for a personal home. So I called the bank and I’m like, is this real? And I was like, well, how long do I have to live there? And they’re like, well, you only really need to live there for like three to six months.

And then, you know, if you decide to move, then move. So I was like, all right, well, game on, man. I need to find a house. So I got, I just networked and I talked to a lot of people and my neighbor said, Hey, did you know Donald is selling his property next to yours? I said, no, I didn’t know that. I said, yeah, it’s not on the market. So two seconds later, I knock on Donald’s door and I’m like, Hey, Donald.

I heard that you’re interested in selling your property. He’s like, yeah. And I was like, well, what are you asking for it? And he’s like, well, I’m asking 480, but if there’s no realtor fees, I guess 450. And I was like, okay, I’ll make, yeah, that’s good. Let’s make an offer. Let’s write it up. So I went back to my house, which is like four houses down, and I wrote them up an offer, because I had done enough deals where it’s like, okay, I can do this one without an agent.

So because I had purchased those 23 houses and I’m just like, all right, this is just feels comfortable. And so I wrote up that offer and this was in March of 2023. All right, sorry, it was June of 2023. The partnership split in March. And so that was like my first deal and it was 450,000. And then I lived there for three months and we converted it into a short-term rental. And then I moved out and it’s been an amazing property.

Billy Morse (10:26.715)
It’s a staple and it grosses about 80,000 and my mortgage is about 3,000 a month.

Michael Stansbury (10:35.277)
Okay, can’t beat that.

Billy Morse (10:36.37)
Yeah, it’s a great spot and it’s already appreciated and I got a good deal on it. So that was my first taste into a little bit of a step up of a house.

Michael Stansbury (10:48.067)
Now when the bank gave you, when that bank gave you, I’m always interested in a little bit of details. you have to refinance or did you, when you, okay, perfect.

Billy Morse (10:52.954)
Yeah.

No. Yeah. Yeah, just let them know, hey, I’m going to be moving. And then I just changed my insurance from a primary to a short-term rental.

Michael Stansbury (11:07.727)
And you still do you still did you go back to your other house or what did you do there?

Billy Morse (11:08.464)
Yeah.

Billy Morse (11:12.977)
So I ended up, I rented a house. So I got remarried and I have two kids and my wife has two kids. like it was a three bedroom, two bathroom. I end up, I like renting right now. It’s kind of the Grant Cardone principle. And yeah, I’d rather just throw my money into creating a business and buy more real estate.

Michael Stansbury (11:31.789)
Method? Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (11:40.671)
I like it. Okay. One of the things you mentioned is you now use some out of state investing. Tell us about maybe the bigger projects, the more fun, those details and how did those birth?

Billy Morse (11:46.777)
yeah.

Billy Morse (11:53.606)
It’s all about, yeah, building a team. You know, so I live in Davidson, North Carolina. A lot of our properties are in Augusta, Georgia. It’s just been a, it’s been a cool market. I’ve got a great partner there now. We’ve got an amazing relationship. We’ve got, we’ve built really good systems and processes and teams and, and we’re hustlers, you know, we’re, so we got, I’ll tell you about a cool deal.

We got wind from a real estate attorney that he wanted to sell his property. And he’s got this estate in Augusta. It was seven acres. It was just beautiful. It’s just this old farmhouse. It’s not old, but it’s this farmhouse. It’s 4,500 square feet. The property’s got another house adjacent to it across the pond. And it’s all fenced in with pine trees.

It’s stunning.

we, he was kind of floating offers out there and I was talking to my business partner who’s a real estate agent or he’s a broker. And I was like, let’s float him owner finance deal. Like this guy is, he’s a real estate attorney. He knows, you know, it’s not like he’s, this is his first time into real estate. we were like, would you consider a 10 % down payment with a 3 % interest?

Michael Stansbury (13:13.391)
Bye.

Billy Morse (13:27.879)
with a two-year balloon. He’s like, sure. So we’re currently at about 16 months into the project. And it’s been amazing because we’re forcing appreciation. We’re basically adding, I think, 400 square feet, right? We’re going to force at least 150,000 appreciation into one of the properties. And then the other property, once we finish updating the bathrooms, we’ll be able to force more appreciation.

Michael Stansbury (13:31.833)
So.

Billy Morse (13:57.774)
And then we’re to get with one of the lenders that you’re talking about, right? And we can show them basically two years of P &L statements, and then they can lend off of that. And then now they do these 40-year loans. So it just cash flows like a monster. And if you can force that appreciation and then operate it at a very high level, right? It makes that those like…

you’re basically pushing all the levers.

Michael Stansbury (14:29.391)
I I love creative deals and I love what you’re doing. sounds like super, super awesome. And so now you also are managing STRs. You’re managing yours and others or tell us kind of what that looks like.

Billy Morse (14:33.317)
me too.

Billy Morse (14:36.71)
Thank you.

Billy Morse (14:44.378)
Yeah, so it’s kind of a funny story. that first house I told you about, my neighbor was like, man, I see like you’re doing really good there. I’m moving to Florida for a year. Like, can you help me out with my house? I was like, all right, I’ll consider that. And then, so I got her going and then the neighbor across the street from her was like, hey, I see what you’re doing at Becky’s house. Like I go to Europe for the summer. Like, could you rent my place out?

And she’s, she’s 75. was like, sure. You know, it’s, I’ll do it. So she can, it’s, was such a win-win cause I’m like, I’m helping you basically pay for you to go to Europe and spend time with your family. And then it’s just a win-win. then business insider reached out to me on Facebook and was like, Hey, would you do an article on cohosting? It’s like, of course. yeah. So I wrote an article and then I.

had this idea, was like, all right, well, you’ve got these three properties, let me see what I can do. like I mentioned before, I’m a hustler and I’m in sales and I don’t mind cold calling. So I saw this property in Augusta, Georgia and it was this mansion. was 6,500 square foot, private pool on a private lake. It was stunning. So I called this guy up and I say, hey, I see that you’re renting your property for $4,000 a month.

Michael Stansbury (15:52.793)
Yeah.

Billy Morse (16:11.064)
If you turn this into a short-term rental, it would generate about 16,000. Is that something that you’re interested in? And I closed him. Like, I got his keys basically over the phone that day and he was our first like real big client. So yeah. Okay.

Michael Stansbury (16:27.695)
Well, and let me stop you by saying this. You did a cold call, but you did your research beforehand. You knew exactly what this thing would do. You didn’t come in cold. You came in hot.

Billy Morse (16:35.04)
for sure. yeah.

Yeah, I came in hot, but I also didn’t know this guy from, you know, I’ve never, never talked to him before. And he actually lived in Germany.

Michael Stansbury (16:43.799)
Right? Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (16:48.589)
Well, you knew, so what you did know is that he had a problem, right? His problem was that he needed to rent that house out and the $4,000 a month was, mean, that is what it is, but you came up with a solution of $16,000 a month. tell me about the execution of that after you’ve got the keys and what did that look like with furnishing and how did that plan come together?

Billy Morse (16:51.982)
Right.

Billy Morse (17:15.077)
That was the worst deal I’ve done. It was awesome though, because I learned so much, right? And that guy, I get chills if I hear his name, but I learned so much, man. yeah, I I learned a lot about not saying yes to everybody and then doing my due diligence too and just understanding, hey, who are the types of people that I wanna…

Michael Stansbury (17:22.307)
There it is, yeah.

Billy Morse (17:43.918)
build my company around and who do I want to serve and how can I best serve these people and our clients. And he was just extremely hard to deal with. I didn’t realize there was an HOA. There was a neighbor that was just so mad because the first people, there was parties and it was just like everything that could go wrong went wrong. And the guy’s texting me nonstop.

And he’s in Germany, so it’s like six hours. So I’m getting text messages at one in the morning. So we just, we, we assess a lot, but what that showed me was like, you need to start making some more calls. And I just like, and that’s what I did and just started getting more clients and then figuring out through, um, I guess unfortunate way, like what kind of clients we want to work with and how to like,

Michael Stansbury (18:27.821)
Right.

Billy Morse (18:38.637)
find these problem customers and who’s going to be in our tribe. And now, we turn away clients and we’re like, you’re just going to be an energy vampire. So we don’t want energy vampires. We get rid of them. I cut them right away, man.

Michael Stansbury (18:45.455)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (18:53.123)
Yes. Yeah, yeah. so one. You are right Billy. So the one thing that you have to find out early is with especially with partnerships because I mean when you’re managing a short-term rental that your partners with these people in some aspect and so the more you can define who your avatar is you know what their core values are and are they going

Billy Morse (19:11.938)
sure.

Billy Morse (19:17.635)
Mm-hmm.

Michael Stansbury (19:20.695)
to be, are they going to be an energy vampire? they going to drain you? Are they going to work well with you? Are they going to defer to you as the expert? You know, the whole Stephen Covey line began with the end in mind. Most people, what’s great about entrepreneurship and also terrible is, and you said it yourself, you’re a hustler. Most entrepreneurs have that mentality of like, grind, you got to grind for a little bit. And then what happens is we leave a wake in the back of like, I got to go back.

Billy Morse (19:32.354)
Mm-hmm.

Michael Stansbury (19:50.809)
to this point and fix this. And so knowing who your core audience is or who you core work for, now that you know that, kind of sets you up to do this more effectively, more profitable, more efficiently.

Billy Morse (20:07.022)
You’re crystal clear. I mean, you’re hyper-focused. You know exactly who you’re targeting. You know who you’re not targeting. You can quickly qualify, disqualify, and you can go after business and get it just much more quicker. And your team is happier.

Michael Stansbury (20:21.069)
Yeah, so let me ask you this. you still work full time and I’m assuming you enjoy that? Are you trying to get the business up to a certain level to you where you can back off that or what does that look like?

Billy Morse (20:25.474)
I

I love it.

Billy Morse (20:34.311)
don’t know because my, my day job, so I’m a cybersecurity sales executive and I sell to the government and I then, and specifically I sell to Homeland security and energy folks that are protecting our national infrastructure. And that’s super motivating. So that’s really, really hard to leave something like that, where it’s like a really mission focused. and then I’m also trying to, you know, build my

Michael Stansbury (20:59.887)
Sure.

Billy Morse (21:04.171)
short-term rental to 20 million in revenue in the next five years. And then I think once I do that, that’s probably when I make a change.

Michael Stansbury (21:17.815)
Yeah that’s when you’re thinking you have lots of different choices. Well the question I have for you is with regard to you’re in Augusta Georgia, you’re in your hometown, you anywhere else in the country? What does that look like?

Billy Morse (21:35.212)
yeah, we’re California, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Nantucket, several beaches. Yeah. Where else are we? Richmond, Virginia.

Michael Stansbury (21:42.639)
Okay.

Michael Stansbury (21:46.605)
And these are properties that you are managing and some that you own in different locations.

Billy Morse (21:50.443)
Yeah, yeah, the ones I own are mainly in the Southeast. Just yeah, closer to me. But like our business model allows us to go wherever if we can serve the right customer and do it remotely. And that’s what I love about technology. And you can cut through the noise, but you can also just, what’s the word? Like you could just.

Michael Stansbury (21:53.967)
Okay, yeah.

Awesome.

Billy Morse (22:18.998)
Beat your competition if you’re laser focused and you provide a really good service. Like, Vacasa and some of those other agencies, like, their business model.

can bottleneck, I feel like ours is extremely scalable. And that’s the point where I’m at now. so I thought I was scalable a year ago, and then I started scaling, and then I realized I wasn’t. My operations wasn’t there. The sales engine is starting to get there. And we don’t even have a website yet. So next month is, yeah, is when we’re getting our first website.

Michael Stansbury (22:58.735)
You talk about organic, this is as running as it gets, that’s great.

Billy Morse (23:02.133)
This is hammering cold calls. And I’ve got a team in the Philippines. I’ve got a whole system set up, man. I’ve got like an inside sales rep. I’ve got a sales engine going.

Michael Stansbury (23:10.009)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (23:15.885)
Yeah, well Billy, let’s do this. Where can people find you on the internet? Where is the best place to reach out and say, hey, know, I have a property that may fit his box and or I may want to get him to manage some property for me. Tell us what that looks like, Billy.

Billy Morse (23:31.968)
Right, yeah, so I just got on LinkedIn under Billy Morse, Salt and Cedar is the name of the company. Our website is coming July 15th. And yeah, or you can email me at Billy at Morse, M-O-R-S-E-ventures.com. Yeah, or call me 704-910-7829.

Michael Stansbury (23:58.991)
Well folks, will have all that information in the show notes below if you want to reach out to Billy. Here’s his number, here’s his information, his website. We’ll try to put that on there when it goes live. But we’ll also put his Facebook and LinkedIn profile on there. Billy, thank you for being a part of the Real Estate Pros podcast. Very interesting business and I love what you’re doing. Love the creativity and love the fact that you’re crushing it and doing it kind of on a nationwide basis. Not a lot of people…

Billy Morse (24:09.547)
Thank you.

Billy Morse (24:14.537)
yeah, that’d be great.

Michael Stansbury (24:28.973)
can stomach that or have the systems and processes for that. So kudos to you for basically getting in, I guess, what we would call a solitary confinement until you had the right business plan for this thing. It’s pretty awesome. Thank you. Yes, sir. Well, guys, thanks for watching the Real Estate Pros podcast. We’ll see you next time. Do all the things. Like, subscribe, comment below. And if you want to get in touch with Billy, this information is below. See you. See you, everybody.

Billy Morse (24:42.667)
Yeah. Thank you.

Billy Morse (24:56.673)
Take care.