Beginner Real Estate Investing Advice:Partnerships,Wholesaling,Staging & Multiple Income Streams

Micah & Christine Hughes (00:00)
Don’t move too fast. Don’t move out of pain and emotion. Be patient, but also do something. It’s okay to fail. Try to fail small if you’re going to fail. Learn from the failure. I always say it’s truly okay to fail, but please fail small. If you fail huge, you’re done. You don’t really have the capacity to even go back at it.

Dylan Silver (01:49)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Micah and Christine Hughes, real estate professionals focused on building wealth through relationships, strategy and long-term thinking. Micah is the founder of Mundial Consulting and an out of the box financial advisor bringing a unique kingdom based approach to business and investing. Together Micah and Christine emphasize that real estate is a team sport and that true success comes from alignment with the right people and a shared vision for growth. Micah and Christine, welcome to the show.

Micah & Christine Hughes (02:18)
Hello. Hello. How are you?

Dylan Silver (02:19)
Thanks for

great, great. Thanks for joining us ⁓ guys. And I was mentioning to you in the green room, you’re involved in so much. We were talking about title, we were talking about investing, ⁓ realtor, financial advisor. Let’s start off at the top. How did you get started investing in real estate?

Micah & Christine Hughes (02:35)
Well, I moved down here from Pennsylvania back in 1999 and about 2002 or 2003 I knew I was an entrepreneur or I just knew I was an entrepreneur. There’s no other shot. There’s nothing else I was gonna do in life. But I didn’t know how to go about it. So I went into landing which was 100 % commission. So it felt like a hybrid between employment and self-employment. And it was very nerve wracking to get used to that.

But eventually about four years later, I started my own little business catering to the Latino community because God gave me Spanish, I use it. ⁓ And the American professional, because I realized in the market there was a gap between their understanding and someone else’s ability to get that lead. And so I just sort of played that middle role there and you know, filming.

Dylan Silver (03:23)
When we talk

about being bilingual, I mentioned to you before hopping on here, I’m in Santo Domingo, right? So having to speak Spanish and you got excellent Spanish, by the way. We were talking in the green room, I think much better than mine. And one of the things that I think sticks out is, in many parts of the world, people just have to be speaking a couple of languages. In the US, for the most part, people speak English, right? And so a lot of times, think realtors, investors, ⁓

lenders, all different types of folks may be missing out on a lot of business that they could otherwise have just by speaking even a little bit of another language.

Micah & Christine Hughes (04:01)
I mean, I can tell you from experience, because I do design for multiple investors. when I walk onto sites and I see an investor that has the ability to communicate maybe like with his contractors that do speak Latino, like it’s there. It’s just so much better. Like there’s just more of like a clear clarity creates more of like a community, a community environment. You’re noticing now with AI and chat, GPT and things like that, people are able to communicate better.

with the quick translation tools. So it does help. At the end of the day, it’s all about relationships. So how fast we can communicate and understand each other is how efficient we’ll be in the marketplace.

Dylan Silver (04:39)
And you know, what’s interesting, you mentioned AI. I was actually using AI to understand like a local dialect of Spanish and you can talk to it. So it’ll talk back to you in that local dialect. It’s pretty remarkable, right? So if someone wanted to even translate with people, as long as both sides are open to it, you could kind of use one of these AI models as a translator, right? You actually mentioned to me, you were briefly, ⁓ or I don’t know briefly, but you were a translator in baseball of all things.

Micah & Christine Hughes (04:49)
Thank

Yeah, when I was a sophomore in college, I got the opportunity to be a translator to the Little League World Series because I’m from that town. I think that’s what actually gave me the initial interest in Spanish on top of the fact that I have relatives who are missionaries in Mexico. So the hybrid of those two things. And I just think I just always felt alive when I was able to be the middleman between two people who didn’t understand. If I could connect that, that made me very much feel alive. I feel it right now, actually. It’s like one of those.

God given things that you don’t really choose to have, but I was able to monetize, not monetize, but capitalize on that with opportunity. And later on I was able to also be involved with an organization called Baseball Chapel. We’d go into the clubhouse at the bottom of Orioles because they couldn’t get out and go to church on the side. They would come in and give them a little chapel.

Dylan Silver (06:36)
Yeah, I think a lot of people need that, right? If you’re working, right? We gotta get baseball chaplains or of this sort in a lot of different businesses. ⁓ Christine, question for you here. Beautiful Instagram page that I saw, lots of wonderful staging. As a realtor myself, that’s immediately what jumped out to me. said, wow, look at the staging here. How did you get into that space? And then what’s it like building a business and staging?

Micah & Christine Hughes (06:39)
Yeah.

Yeah, so I would say about like seven years ago, long story short, we were married, we got divorced, we got back together. So when I came back,

we were kind of like putting our life back together. And so I came along and kind of helped him get his properties like together and organize. And I was like looking at the staging that was being done. was like, I can do so much better than this. Like I, I just have a better vision of what I can put together. And so little by little, as we started building this business that we have, it just came naturally. And then I naturally went into layout and design, but I’ve always been in construction.

And my father did property management for commercial and residential. So I’ve been on it ever since I was a little girl and very interested into it. And it just was cool how the Lord brought in Micah and I, and then we’ve been able to take our two talents and kind of, you know, feed our businesses. And it really started by cleaning up a mess because the divorce custody battles, our businesses were really put to the back burner because we were fighting for our kids and fighting for life.

just surviving. And I said, I have an ambition and that what happened, I’m not going to let it me down. So I went out and grew way too fast. I got five flips at all at one time. I put all that weight on one contractor. He wasn’t ready. I didn’t know. I didn’t have the discernment. So then I’m left with a mess and thank God she came back right at the right time because it was, it was, it was right. ⁓

And so when I heard coming back and us working together was powerful and it got us a little step by step, project by project, flip by flip, everything closed out, get the money back. Like I think we made like 30 grand and nine flips that year. was crazy, but we didn’t go bankrupt. We stayed afloat. We got better, we got stronger. And now I feel like we’re flourishing because in guys design family works better, you know, and business.

Dylan Silver (08:54)
Yeah, it’s definitely

easier to do things with a partner in life than it is to do things by yourself, certainly. And, know, one of the things that I’ve noticed just from effective real estate teams is the strength of that partnership is so pivotal. You know, people oftentimes will say things like real estate is not ⁓ what you know, but who you know. And there’s some truth in that. Of course, you have to be able to do the logistical components and underwrite deals and so forth. But also to

in a partnership of any kind in real estate specifically, I’ve seen those, you know, become very challenging and make business super challenging for folks. What’s your approach to, you know, healthy partnerships in real estate? And if folks are looking for a good business partner, or if they’re looking to get their spouse or their significant other involved in the business with them, how should they breach that conversation?

Micah & Christine Hughes (10:23)
I can answer that pretty quickly.

Look for like mindedness of people who care about things bigger than just money because money will follow if you have the right partnerships and you do things right the way they’re created to be done right. And I would say also someone that’s not defensive, right? You’re going to have a partner that’s super defensive. It’s going to be really hard to work through problems. You’re going to have a lot of problems in business. So we need to have someone that’s like solutions based. So it’s taken time, but we have

learned where our strengths are and where our weaknesses are. like when I’m feeling weak, I can call him and be like, hey, I’m having this problem. And he can see what this is because of A, B and C. And then we can learn together rather than being, ⁓ this is your fault. you know, it’s really having that health. It’s like a beautiful dance, you know, of constantly carrying each other’s weight and knowing that sometimes we’re going to fall and we just have to get back up.

we have to get back up is the key because this business is riddled with problems. And those who can solve the problems together win. And those who are going to take a selfish approach, it just, it really doesn’t have a sustainability possible. Well, and then you create a

an environment for your clients where they’re starting to feel safe because they see you working together and that you’re handling it and they don’t have to worry, right? okay. Yes, this is a problem, but we’re going to sit here. We’re going to figure this out for you. And I think that there’s strength in numbers. So when you’re sitting down with someone and you have these team of people ready to serve you, you feel a little bit more comfortable. Yeah. I would say that real estate is definitely a team sport.

Dylan Silver (12:08)
Now, we talk about, pivoting a bit here, guys, when we talk about advising folks in real estate and out of the box financial advising, what does that entail in practice specifically?

Micah & Christine Hughes (12:21)
You gotta find out what a person wants and if they’re capable of doing it. And if they’re not, I try to get them not to do it or join someone who actually has the other.

components that they don’t have so that they can be successful. Because trying to do this alone is very, it’s very hard. It’s almost impossible. So I really, I really like to save people years of hell. If they could just follow a little bit of advice and find out whether or not they actually have the aptitude. The fact they have the interest is probably a sign that they have some aptitude, but they have to know that they cannot go it alone and how to find those people. really would say the people that partner and come together

with them. I don’t know exactly how to answer that textbook wise but I can tell you that for us it’s always been patience and faith and knowing that this is bigger than us and that this is all something that we’re just managing for the creator to put it together. Right. If that makes any sense. So it’s just really be patient. Right. Wait.

Don’t move too fast. Don’t move out of pain and emotion. Be patient, but also do something. It’s okay to fail. Try to fail small if you’re going to fail. Learn from the failure. I always say it’s truly okay to fail, but please fail small. If you fail huge, you’re done. You don’t really have the capacity to even go back at it.

But move.

Dylan Silver (13:35)
Yeah, I mean, you mentioned pain and emotion,

right? Don’t don’t move out of pain and emotion, right? I think sometimes in many cases, people are so focused on avoiding pain, that’s what’s going to be them making the decision, right? Whether it’s making a large purchase, or, you know, figuring out what they’re going to do for a tax obligation or which is a huge motivation for investors, right, especially in larger deals, or, you know, something as small as you know, which

realtor or lender am I gonna go with when they’re just starting out their process, they might just kick this can down the curb until they like have to move or they have to buy something new, right? So we want to avoid that, right? We don’t wanna be so dependent on urgency and pain to make our decisions for us.

Micah & Christine Hughes (14:59)
Right. right. Yeah, there’s other ways to make money. This should not, I’ve seen people go out and try to leave their job and go into this full time.

without really having the foundation. Go about it slowly. For the beginner, go about it slowly. Don’t leave your job. Cut back hours, but keep your needs met with your current job. As you aptitude and as you build confidence, you’ll know when the time is right to cut even more hours out of your job to move over to your full-time career. Because if you’re being real estate, because our heart is financial freedom, our hardest real estate, our hardest finance.

multiple revenues, right? So going into real estate full time, I believe unless you have a clientele book that is so consistent and that it’s true.

But in this day and age, I think you need multiple streams of revenue in real estate in order to stay relevant and afloat, right? So like, there might be times where our Airbnb’s are flying off the shelf, or it’s like, our flips are flying off the shelf, or maybe it’s just a little bit slower with our flips. So like, we…

Fortunately been able to manage multiple streams of revenue, which has opened other opportunities not just staying in one part of the little real estate of selling and flipping houses so much bigger than that We have a sober living house So like we have multiple streams of revenue and what that does it allows other opportunities to be presented to us Which means more relationships more networking. It just it makes it more fun and doesn’t get boring in real states a marketplace. It does have

cycles, it goes up and down. So when it goes down, we have to be wise to always keep our, I hate this word, budget, but have a little bit of a spending plan and not get some success and then go out and live like that as your full-time income. COVID style. Sometimes it’s just a temporary blip. Stay humble, stay lean and mean and move at a pace that ⁓ doesn’t take you out with a market cycle drop. It does happen.

Dylan Silver (17:03)
I’d like to ask you, Micah a specific question about folks financing ⁓ projects. You know, there’s so many ways right now for especially newer investors to get started in the business, whether it’s wholesaling, whether it’s finding partners, whether, you know, they might say, Hey, I’m to go get a real estate license or hey, I’m going to go become a lender and learn about that segment of the business, right? If you were to get started,

in real estate with the intent of one day being an investor, where would you start if you had to start all over again today?

Micah & Christine Hughes (17:36)
Well, wholesaling is the answer that a lot of people say to start with, because it takes less money, it takes less capital, it takes more grit. And you’ll find out whether or not you’ve got the work ethic in the emotional sustainability. If just getting leads and getting them under contract and getting them assigned and closed. If you don’t have the emotional bandwidth to withstand a little bit of that discomfort while you still have your job. ⁓

Maybe it’s not right for you. I let’s face it, it’s not right for everybody. This isn’t.

So I think it’s really important to be honest about that. But also, you’ll know if it’s right for you whether or not you’re willing to take a step, a first step. But to answer your question, they say wholesaling. Also, just bird dogging, helping connect people. There’s a big value in connecting people who need a hard money lender to a hard money lender. There’s a value there. When you can connect two parties, there’s a value. Now, how to monetize that is a different topic.

Dylan Silver (18:26)
Yeah.

Micah & Christine Hughes (18:35)
I have one tomorrow, for example, I brought a deal to a buyer and I brought the hard money lender in. I’m making five grand, not a ton, but I’m providing a lot of value to the lender, to the investor, and to the seller. But I’m not making much, but you know what? On the back end, I’ll probably make eight or 10 grand. She’ll come in, we do free staging. For my listings, I pay for her services for staging. So it supports her business. She has a ton of our own clients, but she’s my number one go-to. And I feel like by me,

Offering free staging what they’re getting is just a value add and I don’t charge more than the average than the mark than the average Agent would charge out there. So it’s just bring just bring value bring value wherever you go bring value as a person bring value

Dylan Silver (19:11)
It’s huge. It’s huge.

We were talking in the green room about the importance of staging. I mean, certainly if you’re trying to sell a property and it’s vacant, that’s different than selling what I would call a home, right? I mean, if you walk in and it’s perfectly staged and you’re like, this is the pinnacle of what this house is gonna look like, you have it in the best setting, right? I think that that can do volumes of work for moving a listing faster. We are coming up on time here though, guys.

any new projects that y’all are working on and then as well what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you.

Micah & Christine Hughes (19:52)
Well, there’s a lot of little projects right now we’re dealing with the jurisdiction to get fire inspections passed for another level of sober living because we just believe in redemption, restoration, and another shot at life and helping people get there. That’s the main thing that I’m working on right now. really have my, we have listings and we have helping buyers and

One of our Airbnbs just went live last week. And we were doing renovations. But right now, my heart is to get something to where we can take in more people to a home to get them financially sound and ready for the next steps, get them the job, to get them back on their feet, to create value to the economy and the marketplace versus just being a taker, if that makes sense. Does that answer your question?

Dylan Silver (20:37)
Absolutely. ⁓ Micah, Christine, thank you so, so much for joining us today. Thanks for your time.

Micah & Christine Hughes (20:43)
Thank you for having us. it.