5 Tips for Powerful Relationships in Real Estate

Mike: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Investor Fuel Show. Today I am here with my buddy Todd. We’re gonna be talking about five relationship tips to kind of thrive in your real estate investing business.

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

And build more fulfilling lives for all of those around us on today’s show, we’re gonna continue our conversation of fueling our businesses and fueling our lives. I’m glad

you’re here.

Hey Todd, what’s going on [00:01:00] buddy? Hey, Mike, glad to be here. Yeah, glad to have you on the show. And so we were just talking ahead of time, uh, about some amazing things that you guys do. I’m, I’m a big relationship guy, you know that because of investor fuel, uh, we’re really big on grooming relationships and, and helping people out and stuff like that.

And you guys are doing some pretty amazing things on the investing. To build relationships, uh, with, you know, we’re gonna go into five different areas, I guess here of people that you kind of work with. So pretty, pretty cool stuff. And I think, you know, when the market shifts like this, it’s easy. When the market’s hot.

You know, we kind of talked a couple times last week about this, uh, quote from Warren Buffet about when the tide goes out, you see who’s swimming naked, right? Um, and you know, some of that is, Who didn’t have the right systems or processes in place, or people in place. Uh, but also, uh, and I saw this during the last downturn, like relationships are just key to providing more stability in your business when stuff starts to move around.

Cuz there’s, there’s just some lasting impact there, right. Yeah. [00:02:00]

Todd: Yeah. I mean it’s uh, you know, when you made that comment about, uh, that Warren Buffet said, you know, we were sitting there like, yeah, guilty is charged. I mean, I think everybody there is probably feeling a little bit as far as, uh, some bad habits that may have formed and things like that, but, You know, our approach from the, from day one has just been very relationship driven and we feel like mistakes are gonna happen, things are gonna go wrong, stuff’s gonna happen, and you need people to come along beside you that are willing to step up and, and help at times and, and maybe give up a few things at times.

And we do the same. Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. It’s, it’s, uh, it’s an important thing and I’ve, I’ve always been a big proponent of it. I know you guys are doing some unique things, and so we’re gonna dive into kind of five areas of your business where relationships are making a difference for you guys. Uh, right now.

Before we jump into that, tell us a little bit about your background.

Todd: Well, uh, so I got a degree in education, started teaching high school and so, uh, you know, naturally that led me into painting and remodeling . [00:03:00] That’s so natural. Yeah, it was, uh, it took me about two weeks, uh, in front of a classroom for me to realize I did not wanna do this the rest of my life and, I, I knew I kind of had that entrepreneurial thing going and didn’t really know, have an outlet for it.

Um, you know, didn’t have a real strong mentor growing up as far as that kind of a, of an approach to life. I was kind of brought up by the philosophy of go to college, you know, get a good job, get a retirement, that kind of thing. Um, not a bad way to go for some people, but it wasn’t, wasn’t my way. And I just, my brother-in-law called me one day and was like, Hey, I.

I got a house to paint, you wanna help me? I’m like, sure. Went along, was helping him in the summer and some people were asking me what I was doing. I said, oh, I paint houses. Just totally made it up. And next thing I knew I had like four jobs and so I literally just learned how to paint one summer and that just one thing led to another.

You can imagine the track to go from painting [00:04:00] to, you know, buying houses, but it was, you know, I remodeled and did high end remodel, commercial remodel. Sales, all that kind of stuff. And then, um, actually hooked up with a buddy. I think, you know, I’m a good friend of mine, uh, mark Dator and he hired me. I got on with him, got into real estate, and we learned a ton.

And, and actually that’s what kind of got me going down the, the, uh, the, the path towards relationship building. I got to go with him to another mastermind group and saw the power of that relationship form. Um, you know, at that time and he, he taught me a lot about the business and, um, you know, that’s how we got here.

So it’s just been a, a 20 year track from teaching to, to real

Mike: estate. Yeah. It’s funny cuz I, I obviously interviewed, you know, We’ve done 1500 podcasts and so hundreds and hundreds, if not a thousand plus, uh, entrepreneurs and real estate investors and, you know, there’s nobody that had a logical path to where they’re [00:05:00] at.

It. It was always some weird story of like, this happened and then everything changed cuz this happened. And, you know, that’s, that’s what makes things interesting, I guess. No, I like to say that I’ve met very few, um, professional real estate investors that kind of grew up around it. Like there’s a few that.

Their, their parents flipped houses or owned rentals or whatever. But usually it was some non-traditional path. So you can be, uh, you’re weird, just like the rest of us. No problem. .

Todd: Yeah, and I’m hoping that I can get one of my kids to get interested in it, but we’ll see. Yeah.

Mike: Yeah, I only have one and I don’t think he’s gonna be interested in it, but maybe, maybe that’ll change.

We’ll see. Yeah. Um, well let’s talk about these kind of fi five areas that we’ve talked about up front of, um, like you’ve used relationships to kind of take, to kind of make those areas stronger. And the first one I wanna talk about is just relationships with your contractors. You guys do a lot of. Fix and flipping a lot of contract work.

Probably some of that’s because that’s some of your background, right? You feel comfortable with it. But, um, talk a little bit about like what you’re doing that’s [00:06:00] unique and maybe some takeaways that people can do a little bit differently than what they do now.

Todd: Well, I, for me it’s, uh, I did, I spent a lot of time in the field as, you know, as someone on their hands, knees, working and doing the job.

And, uh, you know, I, I took it pretty seriously and wanted to be really good at it. And sometimes that was appreciated and sometimes it wasn’t. And I just always kind of took from that, you know, just remember that when you get in a position when you’re hiring people that one, you don’t know what they’re going through, two, you don’t know what they’re trying to become.

And you know, so like trying to find that out and figure out, you know, who really wants to be a part of this. I mean, I, I understood early that I wanted to treat contractors. Like they were part of our business and not like they were, uh, you know, something that we could just throw away. Um, we, we actually use that phrase here.

We don’t throw people away and you know, that applies to them too. Our contractors too, they’re out there working hard, they’ve got families. Um, sometimes things go wrong and sometimes, uh, we have to coach ’em through stuff. And [00:07:00] what we’ve just found is that usually if you can just sit down and have a conversation with somebody that you know well like that, even if something’s gone wrong, you’re gonna probably come to some common ground.

And you know, a lot of times we do hold a little bit more of the leverage in that relationship and so we try not to lean on that too much. Um, but we want them to feel like they’re part of the solution as well. And so we’ve, we’ve grown a team, I think now where we’ve gone through some things with some guys and it’s been tough and there’ve been some conversations that were not fun.

And, um, but at the end of it, we shook hands and move forward and are still doing business. And so we think that’s kind of a, a critical thing cuz hiring is. And testing contractors is painful and management heavy. And so we would rather have guys that know what to do that can show up. We don’t have to babysit ’em and we can talk through things and they work in our system.

Mike: Yep. Yeah. I, I, that’s awesome. I think, uh, I have, um, you know, a guy that’s industrial, [00:08:00] Kevin, his rehab, hundreds of houses for me, and he’s become, it went from early on. I need to squeeze everything I can out of this guy cuz that’s, that’s what what you do, right? To like one of my very best friends, uh, in the world and.

You know, implicit trust with like, everything in our lives, like, I would trust him with anything. Mm-hmm. and it, and it took a long time to get there, right? Yeah. It took really, it took for me probably some, some just personal and business maturity of like, you know, if you, if you’re fighting through every single issue, like what does that say about you?

If you have to do that Right. . Right. And, um, I think ultimately when you have good relationships like that with your contractors, If they’re coming in high on something, you can have those conversations and be like, look man, this is about, it’s not you. It’s like, what can we do differently? And, and they’ll start to tell you like, Hey, well if you, you know, I don’t think you even need to replace this thing.

Or Why are you tearing down that half wall? Like, you could just do this instead, or whatever it is. And, and they, cuz they wanna make it work too. And at the end of the day, what they want is a consistent, long term relationship just like you do. Right?

Todd: Right. Yeah. [00:09:00] Yeah. I think that, you know, getting their input early, I.

Again, it goes into just making them feel like they’re part of the process and that they can speak up and, you know, rather than, uh, from our end, rather than feeling like they’re challenging us, it’s like, no, that’s real feedback. That’s something that we need to hear. And now I’m okay being challenged.

It’s not a problem. But, um, you know, over time they, they, they do grow into that role and they learn, you know, what to expect. They can anticipate what we’re gonna do and just makes everything a lot smoother.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s so much easier cuz the, inevitably there’s a time where you really need somebody that you can trust.

And if you’ve done a good job of beating everybody over the head with everything, like they’re, they’re not gonna go out of their way to help you when you need it. And those are invaluable, you know, relationships ultimately right. Yeah, exactly. So talk a little about, uh, the next one is, um, just deal sourcing.

I know you guys get a lot of deals through relationships that you’ve developed over a long period of time, and I think everybody has deals, [00:10:00] kind of so-called fall in their lap here and there, right? Mm-hmm. . But um, there’s some that have way more of that, and it’s clearly not luck. It’s something that you guys have built over a long period of time.

So talk about kinda relationships with folks that bring you. Yeah,

Todd: I, we, in 22 months, we’ve signed about 80 contracts and I would, I think it’s about 65 of those, 60 to 65 of those. Came directly through one of our partners who was just a relationship builder, and he goes out and finds seals. I think maybe 10, 15, maybe 18 of those deals were sort of those organic or came in from some, uh, marketing source where we were paying to get leads.

The rest of those literally came from, uh, our relationship with a small group of wholesalers locally, that they’ve been working together independently, but working together for. Decades now. Hmm. And so whenever their deal flow starts to tick up, we we’re in that circle of people that [00:11:00] gets the first call to take a look at stuff.

And that’s reciprocated whenever we get something that we wanna wholesaler move fast. You know, our guy, Josh, Josh Kuo, he’s our partner, he reaches out to, um, to this group and. You know, it gives them opportunities first. So we’ve got this kind of consistent relationship thing where if we need a house, we can just go out and get one because we know that we’ve got those relationships in place.

Yeah.

Mike: And again, perfect timing for that, right? Like in a market right now, there’s wholesalers that can’t move deals. There’s, uh, just a lot of confusion in the marketplace, and what a great time to kind of have those relationships. Uh, where honestly, for those, for the average wholesaler, a lot of their buyers have dried up.

You guys aren’t, you guys are like, you know, pedal to the metal, like, let’s move forward here, right? And, uh, but this is a time more than ever, Um, you might have to go talk about the deals a little bit more. It’s like, ah, you know, can you go back to the seller and ask for this or that, or whatever. Just because that’s where we’re at in the marketplace and that’s a lot [00:12:00] harder to do if you don’t have a relationship with somebody.

Todd: Yeah, and every time, you know, anytime we meet a wholesaler at a property, especially if it’s somebody that’s kind of new or we haven’t really done much with them, we try to spend a little bit of time there instead of just getting in and out and going on shaking hands, even if we’re gonna buy the deal.

Um, like we try to stick around and, and kind of educate ’em on who we are, educate ’em on what we think the market’s doing, give them some thoughts behind what they’re doing out, out there in getting the deals and trying to make sure that they’re pushing for everything. Letting ’em know that if they need help getting something, to have something that’s confusing, call us.

We’ll help you if you’ve got a deal. Even if we can’t buy it. Let’s see if Josh can move it. You know, we’ve got pretty extensive network, so let’s see if we can help. And, and we don’t even always have to make money. I mean, we’d like to on, on those deals, but sometimes it’s just, I can help you. No problem.

Send me a deal next time. You know? And it works.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, back to everything we’ve said so far, I think a lot of investors. Wanna [00:13:00] reciprocate if somebody’s helped them. I, that’s, that’s kinda human, that’s human nature is to, like, somebody helped me, I wanna help them back, or they’ll certainly have a leg up next time around or whatever.

And so those things are awesome. Yeah. Um, so we’re gonna jump into kind of, uh, lending a little bit. So talk a little bit about, I know you have a, a relationship with private lender. A private lender that we’ve talked about up front that. Has kind of shown you guys a lot of grace during the market shift here, where a lot of lenders have either gone away or they just, you know, raise up their prices and it just is what it is.

And, um, and so those, those kind of personal relationships where folks really value the relationship they have with you and, and can kind of show you a little bit of grace there makes a difference sometimes. So talk about your relationship with, uh, private lenders.

Todd: We have, uh, we have one in particular. We, we do deals with others, but one guy primarily that does most of our, our lending and, you know, we’ve become good friends.

We, we meet almost once a week for lunch. We talk about the market. We do those kinds of, uh, activities together. [00:14:00] And he’s basically bought into our business in the same way that our contractors have. I mean, he understands one, the belong that, that we’re bringing to him. He does see us as a, as. You know, a customer.

Um, and, but we also, we kind of see him as, as a, you know, a partner. And so it’s a good relationship. He’s raised rates on, you know, newbies and, and beginners and, and small operations. And, um, he’s held rates for us just because he knows that we’re a solid business. We understand what we’re doing, you know, uh, at the end of the day, if we end up with the deal that loses five grand, he knows he’s still gonna get paid and everything’s gonna work out.

Cause he’s got investors. Right. And, and we recognize that it’s, um, you know, our first priority is to pay off that, that whole note. And so he’s comfortable with the fact that even if something goes wrong, he’s gonna be made whole. And I know that if there was something that really came up that was a problem, I could go to him and say, Hey, we need some help.

And he [00:15:00] would offer up what he could. Yeah. And um, you know, so far we haven’t had to do that. But, uh, that knowing that that’s there and that he’s that type of guy, um, you know, we continue to send deals that way. Even when there is, uh, possibility for maybe cheaper money somewhere else, we just know that that’s somebody we wanna work.

Yeah,

Mike: that’s awesome. And you know, I dunno if you remember, uh, last week at Investor Fuel, Tim Heritage was talking about the last downturn. And I remember 2000, you know, eight, nine ish. Like there was a lot of lenders that just went away and just money wasn’t. Even available. Like it was, it was very rare.

Um, and, and, and lenders today have just adjusted and changed their rates, but most of the, certainly most of the major lenders are still lending and most private lenders still have money to lend. Um, and so I think those relationships, the people that are willing to look out for you for one and two, just the confidence of.

Being able to, you know, evaluate deals, make an offer, and know that you’ve got somebody behind you to back those is, is, is more critical than ever. Right now, I don’t, again, I think it’s a different [00:16:00] market than it was back then. Um, but um, you know, I think those relationships are key. And even from the lender standpoint, like, if folks that aren’t lenders should know that it’s a very transactional business, or it can be, and I’m sure that from his point of view, he, he, Eva, he, uh, respects that relationship.

Because he’d rather do 10 loans with you than go find 10 new people to do one loan through that are kind of unknown quantities.

Todd: Right. Yeah. I’m sure that there’s some value that we’re bringing to him too. But yeah, it’s um, Especially with the way the market moved here recently. I mean, it, you know, having a bunch of loans out with a bunch of new people that didn’t know what they were doing with some of the, uh, reductions in prices.

I mean, there might have been some people who defaulted. I, we would, that’s something that doesn’t happen as easily for a bigger operation where we’ve got, you know, our cash flows. Okay. And, and we’re doing, doing good across the board.

Mike: Any tips on like how to build those relationships if folks like. Don’t have private lenders right now, or [00:17:00] they have some, but they still feel very transactional.

Like what are some things that people can do to, uh, build up a more trusting relationship that really is a relationship and not, not just like a seen as a vendor client type

thing?

Todd: Well, I do think spending time with the, with them and, and like letting them see, you know, our guy, he’ll come into our office, so he gets to come and see.

The people on our team, he gets to see the operation. He understands that we’re not fly by night. I mean, I know that’s not easy for like a small, um, uh, beginner or somebody who’s working outta their home or whatever, but. You know, don’t be afraid to set meetings every couple weeks and just talk about market conditions, talk about upcoming opportunities, talk about potential closing dates.

You know, keep that person, um, in the loop on everything that you’re thinking, everything that you’re working on. Talk about your concerns, uh, things you’re afraid about, in the afraid of in the market, whatever’s happening. Um, I think. That person, just knowing [00:18:00] that you’re thinking of them and help using them to help get through tough times or whatever.

I think that’ll put some, uh, some comfort in their mind as far as who they’re working with. Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. And it came up last week at the event of, of just the power of. You know, larger hard money lenders can’t release their client info if somebody’s in default, typically, and probably, I don’t know the laws, but I’m sure they’re different by state as well, but local lenders, private lenders especially, are a little more loose with that, and they might be able to, if they have a loan that’s in default or they know that they’ve lent money to somebody that’s gonna struggle to be able to pull guys like you in and.

Hey, like this, like I’m nervous about this. Can you get involved with this deal? And so you might find some opportunities like that to help them clean up messes.

Todd: Yeah, actually that’s a great call. And I had lunch with our guy, um, Tuesday, and he did mention there was a couple things that he wanted us to take a possibly take a look at.

So that absolutely is

Mike: true. Yeah. Yeah. So let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about, [00:19:00] uh, more traditional banks, like local banks and the relationships. I know you guys have some solid relationships up there with local banks. Talk about what you’ve done there and, and what folks can learn from that.

Todd: Well, in my experience, I would say that you cannot start soon enough to try to establish some kind of a relationship with a local bank. And, and for me, that started with my, some of my personal, you know, just my personal, uh, mortgage and I think a car loan, just some real basic stuff. Um, six or seven years ago I started working with this one bank and, um, just kind of kept things going.

Opened up some small accounts in there. Um, had one little operating account in there just on the little businesses that I was. And, um, so when we formed this company two years ago, You know, rather than, than requiring us to have to go through some long seasoning process or, or whatever, they were already comfortable enough with me that they were willing to lend our company money to do deals because they, they knew my background in the [00:20:00] business.

They knew where I worked before they were familiar with that company. And so having that relationship in place has allowed us to get some, uh, much cheaper bank money. On about 10% of our deals, um, just because of who we are, not because of the strength of the company, cuz we were brand new and still able to get, you know, 75 to uh, percent of ARB financing from a bank at, you know, at the time it was like 5%.

Now I think it’s a little bit higher, but, um, you know, the points were cheap. Everything was much, much cheaper. We just had to have a little bit more time on the closing, uh, cycle on the front end. But you know, having that relationship build up over four or five years leading up to the formation of our company was a huge deal.

Yeah.

Mike: Yeah. Those banking relationships are key. I, I’ve personally used them for. Rentals. Right. More, more so than, uh, than anything else. And, and it, it took, it took a while for me to understand like the value of those relationships. And, and you know, when [00:21:00] you build ’em up, sometimes they’ll bring you, uh, well, I’ve had them bring me opportunities like, Hey, we, we either.

Um, took something back and they needed to get rid of it or get in the middle of a deal, just like we talked about with private lenders, but also like some creative solutions of like, Hey, we can use your equity in your loan, in your current, uh, deals as collateral to give you a line of credit that has like checkbook access.

I mean, they’ve brought some things to me where at the time I was like, I didn’t even know you could do that. Right. And yeah, sometimes, and it really takes. Having a relationship where you’re asking them like, what are some things that I haven’t thought about that might, that we might be able to do together, or that services you could provide that I might not even know about?

And just being willing to sit down and have those conversations. Like, there’s more out there than you even know about if you just talk to people.

Todd: Yeah. Then, and actually the rental thing is a, uh, a good thought. We’ve got one deal where, Um, it’s a pre-K foreclosure that people are gonna lose their home and they don’t have anywhere to go.

And they, but they do have equity and they cannot obtain it. They don’t have the credit to get it. So we’re [00:22:00] basically buying the house really cheap. Uh, Taking some cash at closing as prepayment of their rent, and then we’ll be able to go and refinance that house. We’re gonna allow them to stay in the house for a period of time, and then the bank will, our local bank will come in and, and give us a refinance on that as a long term rental because we’ve got that lease in place with the current tenant.

Yeah. And we’ll be able to actually, um, kind of use that, that capital. At, you know, six, 7%, whatever, um, to do some more flexible funding on some other things if we want to.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. So last but not least, let’s talk about just the importance of having a good relationship with your team, um, and the role that that’s played in, in you guys’ success.

I

Todd: actually think we’re seeing that, um, at work most right now. I mean, it’s been for everybody. It’s been rough the last few months and we’re, everybody’s kind of scrambling. Uh, Nothing’s quite as fun when you feel like you’re losing at times [00:23:00] and everybody’s going through it right now. So we’re, you know, we’re adapting, we’re adjusting, we’re making changes.

It’s not as, as fun as it was nine months ago. Um, but we’re all, we’re all buddies. Um, you know, Everybody in here gets along. We’re all good friends. And, um, you know, even now as things are getting tougher, we’re kind of putting that, those relationships to the test a little bit. And, but at the end of the day, we come together like, Hey, it’s, it’s fine.

We’re working together. We all have the same goals, and we wanna do the same, the same thing. Um, so, you know, I, I always kind of tell people, yeah, I work with my best friends.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. That’s awesome. I know, uh, the power of that in one of our companies, we had a town hall today, and we’re like, Hey, things are, things have been a little tight.

Things have been a little rough, but, you know, we’re doubling down on, on growth and we’re doubling down on, you know, improving our culture and some stuff like that that really makes people feel like. They’re not just a number. Um, and honestly, back to the contractor thing, I think that takes some business [00:24:00] maturity too, cuz for a long time, you know, I’ve been, I definitely have in the past had people that work for me or that I work with that, uh, it was, it was a very transactional relationship.

It’s like, I just need you to do your, do your job, you know, and right. Instead of making people feel like this is a home and there’s ups and downs, but we’re in this for the long haul together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, um, uh, well, I guess speaking of relationships, would you mind sharing a little thought?

You guys have been in investor fuel for what, about nine months or so now? Probably the last, uh, three meetings or so. Yep. We’ve been to three meetings. Okay. Okay, great. We just had our last one last week. Would, would you mind just giving a brief kind of testimony of your experience as being a part of investor fuel?

No problem.

Todd: You know, I, like I mentioned, I’d kind of been to some other mastermind groups and they’re all good. I mean, um, You get something out of all of them. Um, but when we got the call to, uh, for, to talk with Luke and possibly be a part of investor Fuel, um, we had already known, [00:25:00] we already knew who you guys were and we were really excited about hearing about it.

And so, um, in just looking at some background stuff on how you guys formed and talking to Luke about that, it, we realized that this was a group we really wanted to be a part of. We felt like it was, um, a very similar mindset to the, to how we handle our. Hmm. And you know, sure enough, we showed up to the first one and, and it was exactly what we had hoped.

And, um, you know, you guys do a really great job of, of making that culture about, um, about giving. And, you know, we came in not sure what we were gonna be able to offer. Um, and also not sure how the group was gonna sort of take to have a new people and that kind of thing, but it was so smooth. Tons of people reached out that first meeting and wanted to talk about business and talk about personal stuff and, and offer up tips and help, um, that, you know, we just kind of slid right in it and feel like we’re, we’re

Mike: part of the group.

Yeah. That’s awesome. We’re glad to have you guys as a part of it. Would, would you mind sharing, we just [00:26:00] had our last meeting last week. Would you mind just sharing, like, I, I get the sense, I wanna put words in your mouth that our average member is a little weary of what’s going on in the marketplace.

Might came to the meeting a little bit. Uh, weird. But just to give a little, hopefully, um, comfort to folks that are out there, that are professional investors that are, have been pretty active. Like, what were your takeaways from just getting around a group of people that you knew cared about you that were open and sharing everything last week?

Like, did you guys find any comfort in, in, in surrounding yourself with a group like ours last week? Yeah,

Todd: absolutely. We, we came into it a little apprehensive because we felt, you know, we’re feeling some of that failure on, on our end just cuz we’re kind of cleaning up the messes of the first quarter really.

We made, we pivoted actually because of our meeting with investor fuel and hearing sort of the, uh, the group consensus on what was coming. We started pivoting and changing the way that we bought, but we’re not, Seeing the results of that, the fruit of that yet, and so it just feels like we’re kind of [00:27:00] paying for some bad habits and some things that we had, uh, maybe gotten too aggressive on in first quarter.

And we showed up to the meeting and like everybody was saying the same thing, which was kind of reassuring, like, okay, we’re not really failing at this. This is just a painful adjustment to a new market and everybody’s going through it and we’ve made the, we’ve adjusted to move forward and we just need to plow ahead and put our head down and keep going and come back next quarter with a report of some things that are going better.

And I think everybody left there feeling the same.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. I think there’s a lot of power in just being around people like you that can talk openly about things, and I think we all feel like there’s a huge opportunity on the other side of this little shift for going on. It’s just a matter of, like you said, some bad habits, some skeletons in the closet, which is generally some, you know, inventory you paid a little bit too much for that’s moving kind of slow.

Maybe some apprehension. Apprehension to take like price cuts quickly to just rip the bandaid off and, and do what you gotta do to move on with your life. And this [00:28:00] industry’s not going away for sure. I think it’s just a matter of people getting comfortable, buying deeper, some educating education with sellers like the, your House isn’t worth what it was when we made our first offer five months ago.

It’s just, yeah, it’s changed now. Right. And just kind of getting through, um, really that, that transition that’s going.

Todd: Yeah. Yeah. Getting people to accept bad news right now is sort of the name of the game. Um, you know, we, we go to our appointments hoping that we can get, uh, get a hug on the way out as we tell ’em

Yeah. Things have changed so. Yeah.

Mike: And the good thing is, is, uh, the good thing in terms of our business, right, is that a lot of these folks, um, if they’ve owned the house for, for more than a few years, which is typical, they probably have a lot of equity right now. And so it’s, yeah, in the last market that wasn’t necessarily the case.

Um, and I think in this market, There’s folks with a lot of equity that’s just run up over the last few years, so it seemed unusual, which it was. Mm-hmm. . And even though there’s a pullback [00:29:00] now, the house is still worth way more than what they financed it for initially. Probably,

Todd: yeah. We’re seeing that almost every time that even the people who are struggling with payments, they have equity.

So there are options and we can help ’em. You. Fix the situation a little bit. At least the best, as best we

Mike: can. Yep. Yep. So, Todd, if folks wanna connect with you, you guys operate up in Kansas City. If they want to connect with you in any way, uh, where can they go?

Todd: Uh, we have our, our main website is, uh, crown city home buyers.com.

Uh, and then feel free to email me directly. I’m Todd tdd. Crown City home buyers.com. Uh, you know, we’re always looking for people who need help selling. Uh, we have our own real estate team as well, so we can assist on, on the, uh, sort of the retail side too, if people need help with that. And we’re always looking for more investors.

We, you know, as you know, there’s a lot of opportunity for, for, uh, returns for investors in, in the, the deals that we do. And they’re pretty quick, you know, four [00:30:00] to six month kind of deals. So, uh, private money is welcome to reach out to us. We’re happy to, to, to show ’em what we do.

Mike: Yeah. Awesome. Good stuff.

We’ll add some links down below for how folks can contact you. So everybody hope hopefully you got some great insights from today. Hopefully you feel a little more comfortable if you’re a professional investor. Uh, knowing that you’re not alone with the, with the stuff you’re feeling right now, you just have to adjust and get through this kind of funk as the market shifts.

But there’s a huge opportunity on the other side of this thing. If you’re looking for a community to be a part of. We’d love to have you. We’d love to talk to you about investor fuel. You can go to investor fuel.com to learn more about us and you can schedule a call there and we’re happy to talk to you about, uh, what we’ve got going on and see if we’re a fit.

So, uh, go to investor fuel.com to learn more, and otherwise, we’ll see you on the next.

Todd: Are you an active

Mike: real estate investor? If so, and you want to latch onto the power of surrounding yourself With over a hundred of the nations leading real estate investors, all committed to [00:31:00] building stronger businesses and living richer, fuller lives, you should jump on a call with us. To learn more about investor fuel, simply visit investor.

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