Family, Faith and Business

Mike Hambright (00:01.442)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. Today I’m here with my good friend Andy Cromer. We’ve been friends for a long time now. He’s local to the Dallas Fort Worth market, but has invested in other states as well. And really good guy. We’re going to talk today about kind of faith, family, and business. Like what is this all for ultimately? So Andy, good to have you on the show. Great to have, great to be here.

Yeah, we’ve been friends for a long time. And I just found out this is the first podcast you’ve ever done. So that’s right. Yeah, break you in a little bit. You know, you’re gonna be on the circuit. Yeah, take it easy on me. me a good footing here. Yeah. So when did we first meet? It’s been probably 2019. Maybe 2019 2020. Yeah, it’s been five or six years. Okay, yeah, at least it’s definitely pre COVID. I mean,

Yeah, maybe you sure I wasn’t further than that. Maybe 2018 I’d by the way you were you were one of the very first customers When we started investor machine that was 2018. Oh, so it had and and you you were Kind of did some coaching stuff before that even right so I bet you it was 2016 or 17 even it may have been winter of 2017 because I was looking to figure out wholesaling

And back then there was, I think you had like free 12 week course for wholesaling and I watched all those videos and fell in love with your teaching style. No, you were just, you were very genuine. I know how many people I’ve told that you were just very genuine. It wasn’t as salesy when I learned the flipping business. It was from a guru on TV, Armando Montalongo. It’s a very flashy.

had kind of a bad experience with that. So to see a different style, it was very refreshing. Yeah. That’s awesome. Yeah. And it worked well. Yeah. Yeah. So today we’re going to talk about, I mean, you wear a lot of hats. Like a lot of investors, you do multiple things. You’re an agent and do some new construction and some building and some fix and flipping and a little bit of everything.

Mike Hambright (01:58.402)
But I definitely know you as a man of faith. I know you’re very principled and care about those things a lot. Obviously, I know you care about your family, too. before we do every show, we always spend some time talking about what we’re going to talk about so that the show hopefully flows well. And that was one of the first things you said. And I was like, well, why don’t we just dig in on those things and talk about why you do this? Because I think a lot of real estate investors, and certainly we have a lot of podcasts where we talk about tactics or things like that.

At the end of the day, we don’t probably talk enough about why we do what we do. I mean, everybody has a reason behind it. I always say that, I said it yesterday on another show, for me, it’s not about real estate anymore. It’s about what it does for me or what it’s done for my family or how it impacts the lives of other people. And I kind of say this joke about if I could make this much money selling tacos, I’d.

I like tacos better than real estate. You kind of fall out of love with real estate. I don’t know if you do feel the same way. Have you fallen out of love with real estate? Like it’s not so much about the real estate anymore or what it does for you or you still, you still love the real estate? Real estate’s a vehicle. You know, I love helping people. I love building things. I mean, that was the goal initially. I just wanted to build something. My dad tried to build several businesses when I was younger. Didn’t go so well.

That’s what threw me into real estate. I don’t have a college degree. I had to work a lot to help the family because of some mistakes he made. So I’ve always been in that building mode. So yeah, that’s where it comes from. But faith is number one. And that’s service mentality. So we have a big responsibility, I feel, to help other people. So not just help.

people in business, because I like to collaborate with a lot of people that I work with, but I see it as a way to help homeowners and help revive neighborhoods and help employ people. I think there’s a lot of similarities there. So when I initially started, it was family oriented, if you will, thinking could I build a business that could help my family members. So I was living in San Diego when I started in real estate.

Mike Hambright (04:11.222)
My brother was in Jacksonville, Florida, and the goal was to get him involved. He was in between jobs at the time. So we worked together for five or six years. That’s where a lot of the new construction came from. But that initial idea was not building a business for me, but could I build a business that helped my family and then helped others. And I felt like flipping.

houses was a really good solution oriented business to build. Yeah. I’d been in the restaurant business for a ton of years, did not want to do that anymore. somewhat of a thankless job, tons of hours. I was successful at it, but it was just a burnout business. So where did that come from to try? Sometimes people have a business and then once they build something up, they’re like, well, yeah, I could bring, I start to employ some family members or, or something. We did that. Like we, you know, at some point, didn’t go particularly well, but we had a family member that worked for us and we

just thought we’ve got something like let’s pull you in because they had a need but where did it come from to start like before you even started your business to say I could build something to include my family was that because of your experience with your dad starting businesses before was that yeah because he he had tried to start a set of several businesses so he built houses when I was a kid and we were talking about interest rates earlier yeah he built houses in the early 70s okay when the interest rates spiked that kind of crushed his business so I mean I can remember four or five years old I was carrying bricks around projects

and trying to help him any way I could. I had that, I guess that construction background. Yeah, it was in your blood. Somewhat in my blood, yeah. Building a business and construction. So he left that business and went into the restaurant business. So they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. So I guess I’ve kind of followed both of those tracks with him. But then it was, could I help family by?

taking my brother and eventually it was going to be my sister involved in my business. It didn’t work out that way, but that was the goal. I help them? At the time, they both needed something to do, something new. And I thought if I could rocket this business up that I

Mike Hambright (06:20.418)
fold them in somehow, help them out. Is it just three of you? You have a brother and a sister? Yeah, so an older brother, one year older, and then a younger sister. She’s almost 10 years younger. the joke used to be that my mom and dad wanted boy, girl, and stop. And had two knuckleheads, and they waited 10 years, and finally had their dream child. Yeah. That’s interesting. So you’re the middle child. And Lindsay’s the middle child, too. So she’s like, you’re always the one that’s trying to please everybody. Maybe that’s part of it. Yeah. That could be some of it, huh? Yeah. Yeah, I was the only sane one for a while, too.

So when I was 19, my dad lost a business. Really threw our family into a loop. And my sister, she was too young at that point really to do anything. My brother, it kind of spun him off the other way. He didn’t want to be around, so I’ve kind of always been the same one. So when I started.

building the business that was that whole thing of, let me see if I can help them out again. Yeah. And now with your business, you think of, obviously you do it to support your, certainly your immediate family, but do you have any plans to include your immediate family in the business at some point? Do you see that as a way to ultimately be something that you get your daughter involved with, for example? Is that, do you ever think about that? We’ve joked about it. Yeah. Yeah. So my mom has been part of the business as lending.

My brother, I had him in business in Jacksonville, Florida for about five years. So we built 17 new homes. We flipped 50 or 60 homes in Jacksonville. Eventually it wasn’t what he wanted to do. So 2020 I started pulling back and coming back fully into Texas. Took about two years to do that. yeah, my daughter, I take her on projects.

She helps me out with marketing every once in a while, but she just, she’s about to turn 15. So we’ll see where she goes. She may want to do it. She may say, no dad, you’re crazy. I don’t want to do what you did. We’ll see. My son is 17 and he, we don’t even talk about it. Like he has no interest. He’s got to, you know, he’s one of those that, uh, which I was the same way. He’s got to touch a hot stove. So he needs to go out in the real world and uh,

Mike Hambright (08:30.894)
probably figure some things out before. If he comes back at some point that’s great and if not that’s fine too. Well he’s a rock star right now right? Yeah that’s what he’s going to be going to a music school after he’s graduating this year.

Yeah, and he kind of lives that rock star lifestyle stays up all night and sleeps all day already at 17. So we’ll see how that how that goes. Yeah. Well, my wife, tons of travels a lot for work. So I’m around my daughter probably more often. So whether she likes it or not, sometimes she just gets taken on appointments and has to sit in the truck or has to go visit a project. So organically, it’s in her blood a little bit like it was with my dad. So we’ll see where it goes. I’m not forcing the issue, but we’ll see. Yeah. Yeah. So we, we, you know, we,

don’t talk about kind of faith, not for any reason, it just doesn’t come up a lot. But I had Kevin Hamis on the show here recently, the name of his company is Servant Flooring. He’s pretty much retired. He’s like, just do this now to be able to fund missions and things he’s passionate about. And so a lot of entrepreneurs don’t necessarily talk about their faith a lot. And we don’t have to go too deep here. But it’s something I know you’re passionate about. And maybe talk about how the business side feeds that or vice versa, or how those things

fit together because a lot of people would say keep them separate yeah like what do you take what’s your take on that yeah I would say there’s probably a risk associated with that trying to keep them separate but I think you have to be authentic with people yeah

I think my faith guides every relationship, everything I do. I rely on the Holy Spirit in a lot of my decision making and planning to say, is this the road I’m supposed to go down or not? Doesn’t mean I’m not a knucklehead myself sometimes, but yeah, it’s not, my faith is something I do. It’s not what I do only on Sunday. It’s.

Mike Hambright (10:24.142)
it’s everything that I do. yeah, and I’m trying to live as authentically to Jesus as I can each day so that I will treat others the way he would want me to treat him. I want my family to see that as an example. I don’t want them to see me chasing after material things only. know, one of the things early on with real estate,

And think a lot of people would say this is just part of it. So you’re trying to buy back your time. You’re being your own boss. Right. And I did that so I could serve in my church so that I could do things for the church. So I volunteer a lot. We’re currently at a church in Colleyville, which is near where we live. And I’m part of a ministry called Freedom Ministry where we go to local prisons and halfway houses just to help preach the gospel there.

that’s been really fulfilling because there’s a lot of broken people in this world that need the good news of Jesus Christ and they’re not exposed to it enough. It’s not as welcomed as it used to be in this world.

especially the last four years, so the environment’s changing a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, but it has to be authentically everything I do. That’s where everything starts. Yeah, I think one of the things about real estate is it’s the thing that gets you the thing. It gets you your time back, or gets you the financial freedom, if done right, to do whatever you want to do. And I think sometimes if you look at social media, it’s buy material objects.

or fly private or whatever, just a lot of things that ultimately, in my experience with a lot of people that have done really well, you get to a point where if you do really well, I don’t care about those things. Or maybe they did it for a little bit, it’s like, that’s not important to me, I don’t really. So then you, the thing could be that it serves up your time to be more charitable, get more involved in your kid’s education, whatever it might be. I mean, that’s the beauty of it is we all get to choose what we wanna do with our time.

Mike Hambright (12:35.31)
Until you have that level of freedom, you might not have the option to do the things that you really care about. might just be, you gotta put your nose to the grindstone. when I was in the restaurant business and then later on in corporate America, that owned 80 or 90 hours a week of your life, easy. So it was hard to There’s nothing left over. Yeah, nothing left over. It was hard to set aside family time. So that was one of the drivers with the real estate.

and it plays into being able to do that servant role as well. I’ve kind of found, and one of the things I enjoy most is helping entrepreneurs. I always reference Kiyosaki’s cash flow quadrant. So there’s like, you’re an employee. The next step is you’re self-employed. Then you’re a business owner.

works for you. But a lot of people are stuck in that business owner, in that self-employed box. So they have a good job, they might make decent money, but they don’t have control of their time as much yet. They’re still just grinding it out because if they stop, the business stops a lot of times. So we talk a lot about that because I think a lot of people are right on the cusp of the next level, which is where it kind of gets good. If you’re

my life is I’m on the bottom floor and I want to get to the to the next floor up and there’s like ten steps in between a lot of people are stuck on step two or three and they’re higher than they were their life is a little bit better right but they’re just not up to that level yet where they are truly getting their time back and yep can you know have more resources to live that life of freedom yep yeah yeah yeah so

Let’s talk a little about business. OK. Let’s talk about business a little bit. So you wear a lot of hats, like a lot of investors and lot of entrepreneurs. And so you’re an investor and an agent. You’ve done a lot of new construction stuff. let’s talk about, maybe let’s talk about the agent stuff first. Because I know you’re probably like a lot of folks that you’re like, I’m not trying to go that business. I just use it to help people or monetize deals that I can’t otherwise do. So what’s your philosophy there? What do you do there? Yeah, I think it’s important for investors to be licensed.

Mike Hambright (14:48.972)
And it’s becoming more and more of a requirement. It is not here in Texas yet, but it’s probably a matter of time. Yeah, when I when I was first doing wholesaling, I remember, I mean, literally sitting in one of your classes to learn wholesaling and having four or five guys just I would never have my license. I would never do that. used to say that. Yeah. Maybe you’re one of them. Probably. So yeah, five or six years ago, it wasn’t as important. But with all the regulations that people are talking about, I think it’s critical for me.

We moved here about 10 years ago to Texas. So starting in a new market, I felt it was a way to build my network out quickly, but it would also give me access to the MLS. Then I quickly realized selling my own flips kept more money in the deal for a while as well. So yeah, I think it’s critical. I think there’s a lot of options out there on what kind of brokerage you can be with. I chose to be with a brokerage that was more…

investor friendly if you will and that freed up lot of time. First brokerage that I started with was more about production, more about agency. It wasn’t where I needed to be so I had to make a switch about two years into that but it’s helped me collaborate with a lot of people. Again like you said I don’t try to grow that part of the business. I’m not advertising that part of the business but organically there’s three, four, five times a year that a friend or a neighbor will need help.

So that’s been good for cash flow, but it’s definitely not what I’m trying to build. The two guys that work with me, I help them both get their license and go through that training because I wanted them to have MLS access. I wanted them to understand real estate and maybe even selfishly, I didn’t want them to put our company at risk by doing something they weren’t supposed to be doing.

it’s worked really, really well for us. Yeah. And it allows you to monetize deals you would otherwise just pass on, Yeah. Yeah. There’s been, I would say, maybe another four or five times a year where we go to interview a homeowner, and it’s better for them to list the house. So I’ve had that experience several times where someone was thinking that their bathroom or kitchen was outdated to the point where they couldn’t go on the market.

Mike Hambright (17:04.13)
but it’s better for them to be on the market. And that’s been a big win for the company. And again, back to that authentic integrity piece, we want what’s best for the homeowner. Right. And clearly, most of the leads we generate as investors are not going to sell at the price that we need. And so it’s like, well, what are the second chance sweepstakes here? What else can you do with those deals? And I think for a long time, I was probably one of those guys saying, I would never get my license. You don’t need it. You don’t need it. You didn’t need it for a long time. It’s getting more and more popular.

that you might need it, depending on what state you’re in. You might have to have it now. I think what I believe now, which is different, is that

If all you do, I think of it as a fishing analogy as a real estate investor. So if you ever gone out fishing and you’re using live bait, you think you got a bite, or you’re going to check, and you’re like, well, I don’t have a fish. And what you start thinking is, well, hopefully my bait’s not gone. Yeah, is the bait still there? Right? It’s like, hopefully there’s still some worm on this thing, or whatever. It’s the same thing as, can you use it to get some of your bait back, which is your marketing dollars? Yeah. Right? Obviously, you know.

an agency as well. So I’m biased on that. I’m like, if all you did was, and by the way, prices are up everywhere now. So now a listing could make you damn near as much as what a traditional assignment fee is, right? So it’s like, well, if all it does is it refills those marketing coffers so you can be out hunting big game, if you will, in terms of the big deals. So don’t look at it as necessarily a separate business. It’s like, well, it’s just a way to get some of your bait back and get it into the, get it just.

take that money and put it right back in the marketing coffers and go out and continue the big game hunting. Yeah, I think that’s a key point you just made is for our funnel, it’s going to lead to more listings. I’m not trying to get buyers. It’s a byproduct though, yeah. Yeah, so that byproduct of a listing is, I don’t want to say the least amount of work you could do as a real estate agent.

Mike Hambright (19:09.058)
but it’s not driving a couple around looking at houses for three weekends in a row, finding nothing. So, yeah, the listing, and a couple years ago, you put a yard sign out and it was sold, but yeah, mean, to make 10, 12, 15 grand is not unheard of with a good listing in this market. Yep, and it’s also really common these days to just, that’s why I got my license, so I could accept referrals and JV splits and stuff like that. I’ve never listed a single house, but I got it

just for the purpose of being able to make money. I bring a deal to somebody or I connect to people and they’re like, hey, we’re going to give you an X, right? It’s like, OK, well, I can legitimately kind of accept those fees now. So it’s pretty common for to say, I don’t want to do that, but I partner with another agent that gives me half of the commission or whatever, right? Yeah. Yeah, we saw it somewhat as credibility, but the collaboration factor is huge. Yeah. Really, really huge. So I’ve had other investors that I’ve helped list their properties that turned into those investors being lenders.

on other properties I have. So there’s all kind of…

partnerships or joint venture possibilities that could come out of that. Yeah, and if you’ve done a good job of helping a prospective seller, taking the time to build that relationship, like the rapport is there, the trust is there, not always, but sometimes the trust is there. And because the other problem is everybody knows a licensed agent, right? Exactly. So how do you navigate? How do you navigate that when somebody is like, you’re like, basically you say, well, I could list this for you. And they’re like, my nephew is an agent or something.

How do you navigate those waters? Yeah, you got to get into track record pretty quick. It helps if you’ve sold properties in that neighborhood or that city.

Mike Hambright (20:53.142)
and just start having a discussion with them about, well, what all is your relative gonna do to get this house sold? How many have they sold? So I would say it’s hard to overcome that if it’s a family connection, but if it’s just a friend, you start asking questions and you’ll find out real quick that person’s probably never sold a house before or they have very little experience. Yeah, because statistically, think I saw recently here that 75 % of licensed agents in America did not do one listing.

last year, one deal even, right? So the bar is low. Yeah, yeah, I was listening to something with very similar interview and I found out I was in the top 5 % of all agents last year. Just because if you sold more than like five properties or 10 properties, some low bar. You don’t even focus on it. No, that you were in the top 5 % of real estate agents. yeah, pretty easy bar to open. Feel good about yourself that day. I did, yeah. You’re a winner. Yeah. You know, I used to say,

One of my key business points used to be, the one thing I loved about flipping is we were creating inventory and that was a big goal. So I was creating inventory for my own agency, but also for neighborhoods. mean, you’re taking a home that maybe is vacant and run down and you’re creating inventory. So yeah, same thing for my agency side, if you will. I can sell 15, 20 properties a year easy just cause I’m the one creating the inventory for it. Yeah. Yeah. So talk about the building side. So I know you’ve dabbled in that and I think there’s a lot of,

of fix and flip rehabbers from years past, the past couple years have moved into new construction. Maybe it’s infill lots or maybe it’s small developments but there’s quite a few people that are in my mastermind that have kind of started to dabble in that space or move kind of all into that space but talk about like…

I think you said you’re not doing a whole lot of it anymore. But just the importance of that to your business and kind of pros and cons. I guess you had some of it in your family before that. So some of it’s in your blood, and you can’t get away from it. But just talk about your experience there. Yeah, I think it was born out of frustration with flipping at first. Flipping a house has so many surprises to it sometimes. It’s easy to go over budget. It’s easy to run into problems you didn’t foresee. And new construction felt like a clean slate.

Mike Hambright (23:05.878)
I felt like you were creating something more because we work with an architect to design a house. It was a shiny object, if you will, for a while there. when I was doing it, it was in Jacksonville, Florida, because there was a ton of infill lots available in some of the hottest neighborhoods. So some of the investors that I interacted with in Jacksonville had already gone into new construction. So we kind of followed suit. And we did 17 new builds, and we developed two neighborhoods.

the neighborhoods were I guess a byproduct of starting with infill and then starting to look for land.

And that was somewhat successful, but at the same time, every home builder in America seemed like they came to Jacksonville as well. So everybody saw the same opportunity that we did. And over about a two year period with tariffs on lumber and lumber prices going up, and then the competition for land going up, we kind of got squeezed out. So the two developments we did, we did all of the underground work, all utilities, all the roads, and then sold them off to bigger builders. Because we found in that

market that the large home builders didn’t want to develop land, they just wanted to go vertical. So if you could develop land and create a product, they would buy it all day long. Okay. And that worked well for the last year or so there. we, our last project was bought a house on one acre distressed house, took that house down, divided that land into four lots and built four town homes. Tried to sell it to a builder, but it wasn’t big enough for a builder at the time.

but we’re able to build four town homes. So there’s a lot of sexy work to be done with new construction. It feels a little more legitimate than flipping a house sometimes, but it’s a longer payout. And that was one of the difficulties with it is dealing with cities, permitting, drawing. You’re not getting a paycheck sometimes for 12 months, maybe 15 months. So you flip a house three or four months, you’ve got a paycheck. So new construction, have to have a longer term game plan in place.

Mike Hambright (25:13.123)
Doing new construction right now in Mansfield just a little south from here to new because two infill lots again Testing the waters with it Just to see if it’s something we want to get back into. Yep, but just that longer cycle is Maybe not as attractive right now with the market moving slow. Yeah, so flipping is still Quicker cash flow. We’re doing a lot more hotels right now

We’re taking properties down and selling them to other investors. Not really assignments, but closing on a property and then reselling it. Just to make sure that cash flow is coming in. Because the last two or three years have been real bumpy, real rocky with the rates going up. So I think one of the things that’s important in this business is when you said multiple hats, it’s somewhat of a necessity.

you have to be able to monetize every property you run across. So if it’s land, we look at it to flip that house, or can we get it low enough where we can scrape and build new? Can we take that land and subdivide it and build two houses instead of one? So I think keeping that mindset of how many opportunities, what opportunity can you make out this lot or this house is critical to keep your business thriving. Yeah, I think you have to look at

ways to reposition real. In Texas, I would say that hasn’t been as big of a deal as it has been in more mature areas where it’s like there’s no infill lots here. So sometimes they’re like, well, could we knock this one down and build two? Or you just have to look at what can you do to create the most, I guess, financial benefit for you sometimes. I think in.

That’s just a matter of time for every market where that happens. mean, certainly major markets, right? I think a lot of the infill, like during the last downturn, 2008, 9, 10 or so, there were a lot of infill lots because there were houses that I would buy in subdivisions that were just a couple of years old and the person just got foreclosed on or something happened, And there were lots all over the place. That builder was out of business or gone. But then the market shifts back and people start to absorb those. And that’ll happen again during the next down cycle in the area.

Mike Hambright (27:23.412)
that were hot like you know if you go to far north of Dallas now like up where Prosper and areas like that yeah where there’s a lot of development going on like there’s there’s some builders that have probably gotten beaten up or are going to at some point and they own some lots but they just didn’t get to build on them and that’ll create an opportunity for somebody else at some point right yeah yeah last year in Fort Worth we found a builder that had built four homes in the other 13 lots he couldn’t finish

So we didn’t get that one. We were close, but another buyer beat us on it. But those are the kind of projects we’re looking for sometimes, where the development’s already in place, but the builder can’t quite finish. So we still have that on our radar. We’re not putting marketing money behind it. Our marketing money’s going more toward the distressed properties. I think more distress is going to come on the market. I think the hangover of inflation.

unemployment, bad economic policies is eventually going to bring more those distressed properties to market. And I think we’re going to see that this year. I’m not sure, but the delinquency rates are up, credit card rates, credit card delinquencies are up.

that hangar effect has got to wear off and that inventory’s got to hit the market at some point. I think people are getting squeezed too on taxes and insurance right now. It’s like they may have a great rate locked in, but the affordability of that house just continues to go down because taxes are going up and insurance is going up. And at some point people are like, enough is enough. Yeah. Well, insurance has been an interesting one. We had a rental property that we added this last summer.

and I had to work with four different insurance brokers just to get a policy. We’ve seen where insurance companies are almost storm by storm suspending coverage or allowing coverage.

Mike Hambright (29:12.534)
And this was May of last year. And it was right around hurricane season, I guess. But it took four different companies where I could finally just get this property insured, this rental. So yeah, I think insurance, if you’re in California or Florida, seems like it’s gone through the roof. starting to impact Texas a little bit. So probably a good thing I’m not building in Florida anymore. Well, even today, as of the time we’re recording this, there’s supposedly like,

tornado threats and like threats of two inch hail this afternoon. I’m like, Jesus. We don’t need that. And also I have a truck that doesn’t fit in any garage. I’m like, I’m just like sitting out there like.

got a bull’s eye on it. We’ll see. You know how it is, the weather here is like, it’s almost never accurate. They never predict that accurately. So. Yes. Yeah. It can change any minute. For sure. That’s my hope is there’s no hail today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So let’s talk a little about collaborations. I know that’s important to you. And I know you’ve kind of leaned into that over the past, you know, a couple of years here during this shift in the market and, know, who are some types of folks, guess, avatars that you typically collaborate with? Yeah. So mean, it was…

First of all, agents, that seemed like an easy one if there was agents that had distressed properties. When I first got licensed, I was in a large brokerage, and I thought there would be a good pipeline from that. wasn’t, agents just don’t necessarily, not all agents understand the distressed property. But I’ve circled back to that several times, and I’ve gotten some traction with that in last couple years. In fact,

If I look just at the last two quarters, almost 80 % of the projects we’re working on, like nine out of 12 projects right now, are from agents. So it’s really picked up the last year or so, but to go back a little further, was agents. It was even contractors I was working with. Just keeping your mind open that I tell the guys that work for me, everybody loves talking about real estate. Just bring it up.

Mike Hambright (31:13.484)
just talk about real estate, you’ll be surprised how many people want to talk about real estate, want to talk about investing, and that just naturally brings up conversation. yeah, mean.

other private lenders from church, from where my daughter goes to school, agents and even contractors. Yeah. Give some tips for how people can collaborate with agents because like you said, you work for a large brokerage and I think a lot of agents are more like that where they just don’t have that same investor mentality. Of course, historically there’s some that are like, that’s an ugly house. I don’t want to list that. But what are the benefits? And there have been years past where there’s people that go really heavy on agents.

collaboration and they basically allow them to kind of double-end it like hey if you bring me a deal I’ll pay you commission on the front end I’ll let you listen on the back end there’s there’s kind of gimmicks and strategies and stuff but what’s worked for you we’ve done a little bit of that but it’s to me it’s it’s been response time how quickly can you show value how quickly can you respond to the agent and then teach them about the property as well

There’s a lot of agents that don’t know the investing side at all. They don’t understand what it takes to prepare a house for the market. They just see a house that’s outdated and throw their hands up. So if you can show them they can still help that family, they can still get a commission check out it.

it’s been a positive experience for us. it’s really just taking the time to understand the scenario and coaching them through that process. But if you take it just transactionally, it’s not going to work. If you take it as a true collaboration, let me see the house. Let me see what’s the family going through. How can we make this work together? So I just try to make them feel like they’re a part of our team immediately and just let them know that they’re going to be able to get… Because at the end of the day, they’re there for a paycheck.

Mike Hambright (33:10.476)
they walk in and they see a home that may not be something they can monetize, if we can help them see that, no, we can still make this deal work. The family can still get their goal, you can still make a paycheck, and that has really worked. But it has to be the right agent who’s open to learning something new.

which they all should be right now. I know. Yeah, they’re so distressed with where the market’s been. You think they’d all be open to it. Right. But there’s some agents that can’t get their head around it. I did a house not too far from where I live about six months ago. This agent, this probate house, she’d never seen the property. Kids were coming into town.

dad had unfortunately passed away. So I met her at the property to look at it. It just happened to be a good coincidence where we’re both in the same area. She opens the door.

gasp and grabs my hand to walk into the house. Cause you can see immediately it’s like a hoarder house. And it just needed the smell that hits you when you walk in the door of some of these houses. So it was, it was hilarious to me, but yeah, know, was the smell of money to you. Yeah. inside I was like, I got her. You know, I’ve got this one and I did. She, she was frightened to death. I she didn’t want to walk around the house, but at that point she was done.

If I was the solution, it was a one day close, done kind of deal. So it worked out well. But there’s a lot of agents that just, they don’t, I think there’s a lot of brokerages that do a disservice in how they train their agents to where you have to get the full 3%, you have to drive a Lexus, you have to wear a business suit kind of mentality. That’s not the real world. Sometimes you gotta hustle and do what you need to do to solve someone’s problem.

Mike Hambright (34:59.404)
You know, this family lived, son lived in Ohio, dad passed away here. A week later, I met the son at the property, he did the same thing. I was there to walk the house with him one last time. He met me outside, gave me the keys, said, I can’t go back in. It’s worse than I thought it was. Here’s the keys, I don’t want it. I just want to go back to my family. I don’t want to be here. So it was just amazing to me, the agent and the seller.

just the stress of dealing with dad stuff and dealing with a bad house. Some people just aren’t built for that, but brokerages don’t train that either.

So more room for us. So where do think the market’s headed from here? know none of us have a crystal ball, but what are your thoughts on it? So in general, think, so two main thoughts, think. One, I think the change in administration is a positive thing. I think President Trump is so business oriented that he’s going to do things to try to make housing affordability more realistic, hopefully through the rates.

But on the back end, the second point, there’s got to be distressed homes coming. I mean, all the forbearance stuff through COVID, all the inflation, all the credit card delinquencies, the cost of living being up, taxes being up, insurance, you mentioned a few moments ago, that’s a lot of stress in the market. So I’ve got to think that the environment for investors is going to get better. And then on the resale, if the rates do come down over the next year,

I don’t want say perfect storm, that’s used too much. But if there’s more inventory available for investors and the rates turn for better affordability for homeowners, man, that’s a perfect recipe for a good flipper. Yeah. Especially if you’re, you know, there’s other states too, but if you’re in Texas, you know, I mean, there’s some states where there’s a mass exodus and there’s some states where there’s nothing but upside, right? So I think even if housing doesn’t even necessarily need to get more affordable, it just needs to be more affordable than where they came from.

Mike Hambright (36:59.216)
Which we’ve seen a lot of that. Yeah, well, I the affordability is just on the mortgage level I don’t think the housing prices necessarily will retract as much right but just the mortgage What they can afford in a house will will come back if the rates go down So yeah, yeah that Texas is a beautiful place to be right now Yeah, yeah, especially if those two things happen if if more of that inventory does hit the market Which I think it has to eventually and the rates can start to trail down more and more

I think we’re planning great seats for an amazing 26. I mean, it doesn’t mean we’re not gonna work hard in 2025, but I really have.

high hopes for 26. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Andy, thanks for joining me today. Absolutely. was a pleasure, man. Yeah. So if folks want to connect with you in any way, like where can they go? Probably Instagram is probably where I’m most active most often. So starfish group properties, but yeah, a little bit of social media, but mostly Instagram. Okay. Awesome. Thanks again, buddy. Absolutely. Yeah. Everybody hope you got some good value from the, from the show today. I think a couple of themes that we talked about here are using real estate as a vehicle to kind of let you live the life you want, focus on your family, things that you

care about your faith. And also sometimes you just have to wear lot of hats. You got to be able to have a few tools in your tool chest as they say. So appreciate you guys for joining us on the show. We’ll see you next time. Take care.