Skip to main content

Build Your Investor Village: Relationships That Save Deals, Careers & Communities

By October 10, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

Subscribe via:

Show Summary

In this conversation, Zach Thomas emphasizes the importance of the human element in real estate, highlighting that transactions involve real people with personal stories. He discusses the necessity of building trust and relationships with clients, regardless of experience level, and the continuous learning that comes from these interactions.

Resources and Links from this show:

  • Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Zach Thomas (00:00)
    there is no fine definition of what wholesaling is, right? They don’t usually understand. We’ve been fighting it since March. North Carolina House Bill 797, they’re trying to regulate and ban wholesaling, but in doing so, they claim that all non-primary home buyers are wholesalers. Therefore, including rehabbers, mom and dad wanting a vacation home, rental properties, and increasing the risk by

    being able to A, get them to lose their earnest money within 30 days,

    Quentin (02:01)
    Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Y’all know what I’m gonna say. I’m excited. I’m excited to be here. I am excited about our guest. I think once you see him get into his rhythm, talk about the things he’s passionate about, talking about who he is, I really think you’re gonna like the value you get out of this conversation. This gentleman, you know, he…

    One word I keep hearing him say is relationships. And one of the things his business does is build relationships. He wanna help people that’s helping people. And so I’m super excited to introduce you guys to Mr. Zach Thomas. Mr. Zach, how you doing today, sir?

    Zach Thomas (02:41)
    I am doing great. I appreciate you having us on today.

    Quentin (02:44)
    man, I appreciate you being here. And like I said, I’m echo again, I know our viewers and our listeners are going to be very, very excited about the value you’re going to give about your perspective and your insight. So man, listen, I’m going be honest. I’m going to dive right in. I want you to take us into your world. Tell us what you’re focused on these days. If you want to tell us a little bit of how you got started, I would love that too. But then also tell them what markets you’re operating in. So Zach, man, take it away. Bring us into your world, brother.

    Zach Thomas (03:09)
    Yeah, so what we do is or how I got started, I got started in helping and running other law firms for other attorneys in North Carolina. Took a little bit of time off and due to a non-compete, most recently started my own title company back up. We primarily focus on that business relationship. I don’t believe in a transactional firm. We’re a team in my business, right? ⁓

    Vestors realtors those people in real estate are on the foreground of doing what they’re doing. They’re a part of our team and So we treated as such right that communication You shouldn’t have to worry about getting in touch with us emailing us You should be able to reach out, know, most of my clients have my cell phone number after hours They reach out ask some questions. It prevents issues makes things go smoother, but also

    We work together as a team to help you get what you need done.

    Quentin (04:03)
    Absolutely love it man. Again, I love talking about a team. Some of the words you mentioned, as we were talking earlier, you talked about bridge, you talked about community, you talked about your village. So I understand man, and I love your perspective when it comes to building these relationships with your clients. And man, also, you are, you’re fighting a good fight man. There’s some things that’s coming up that’s really trying to change the landscape when it comes to real estate.

    And so don’t know if you want to talk about that as well, but what I want to know, honestly, within that is what keeps you passionate? What keeps that machine running smoothly? What keeps you going,

    Zach Thomas (04:41)
    my friends and family and the support that they give me and it always goes back to them and the fact that even our clients support us with especially what you mentioned investor real estate is pretty much under attack in United States. Regulations are coming and the major problem I see across the board in all the states is that

    Quentin (04:42)
    Hmm.

    Zach Thomas (05:48)
    there is no fine definition of what wholesaling is, right? They don’t usually understand. We’ve been fighting it since March. North Carolina House Bill 797, they’re trying to regulate and ban wholesaling, but in doing so, they claim that all non-primary home buyers are wholesalers. Therefore, including rehabbers, mom and dad wanting a vacation home, rental properties, and increasing the risk by

    being able to A, get them to lose their earnest money within 30 days,

    but also B, they’re making it where they can be sued and attacked as a non unfair trade and business act, which means that they can be liable up to three times worth of the property. It’s not, it’s they’re attacking a group of individuals instead of understanding what the real problem is.

    And that’s where we’ve been fighting against it, and I encourage everybody in their state to get involved and pay attention because it’s not just here. It’s across the state. The biggest change that we’ve been able to make is based on consumer rights, not necessarily on… … wholesaling is supposed to be legal or not legal, licensed or not licensed, we’re protecting and going after it as what is consumer rights.

    those restrictions and things like that and on the effects of the economy and they are they they’re listening and we are we’ve had the bill stalled out for four months and we’re on that verge now that I’m encouraging people to reach out to the state Senate and a voice your concerns because this could mean a matter of this bill going away or us getting more restrictions and wholesaling

    and real estate investing and rehabs and rentals being affected in North Carolina. And if we can make a change in one state, the other states take a look at it also.

    Quentin (07:33)
    Yeah. No, man, I appreciate you bringing up this HB 797 because you’re right. It’s affecting people. And if we, if people don’t feel the strong effects now, which I’m talking to people, they’re absolutely feeling it. More people are going to start to feel it. And so I love that you’re raising awareness, telling people to get involved, whatever state locally where they are. And so I love it, man. And you know, there’s always some kind of

    opposition that we have to face within this, you know, this real estate space, within business, within life, really. And so, you know, I’m glad that we’re talking about this because we have people that’s listening and we don’t know where they are in their journey. But one thing for sure, if they haven’t faced opposition yet, they will face opposition. Right. And so I know you’ve been around, you got your boots, you connected with people with boots on the ground. You’re making these connections. You just came out of a non-compete. So that lets me know, you know,

    Zach Thomas (08:17)
    Yep.

    Quentin (08:27)
    You’ve been fighting and been doing things for a long time and you’re getting yourself, you know, back out there, repping up. And so I would love for you to dig into your past a little bit. because there are moments when things get real, right? There are moments when things go sideways or we have to pivot fast. And I like to talk about these moments and ask our guests these moments because again, we can focus on a success, but what’s more important sometimes is the journey.

    Zach Thomas (08:30)
    you

    Quentin (08:54)
    of how we got to the success. So man, I’m not sure if you have any stories like that where, know, things kind of didn’t go the way you wanted, where you had to do the best, but if you have a story like that, I would love for you to share it with our audience,

    Zach Thomas (09:06)
    So I actually do.

    And it so Coming in going into a non-compete right not best necessarily the best situation But Argument over how businesses should be ran We ended up separating ways right now. You’re talking to somebody that just did solely title not being able to do that and You you kind of at that point are like What am I going to do

    Like, I don’t have any direction. And I realized at that time that there is a big thing that helps you get through those hard times. Those times that you’re just sitting there and you’re like, I have no clue where to go from here. And what got me through there is what I call my village, right?

    And it doesn’t even have to be like a fellow investor or whatever, but my village is people in the real estate world, contractors, electricians, surveyors, investors, realtors, just in general, all of those groups of people. And they’ve, they kind of gave me a purpose because when one of us goes down,

    That person in your village can reach out a hand and say, come on, we got you. Let’s do this. can… We’ll figure out a way forward. And it really did. So, yeah, in that year, I was doing… And I still do. I run closings in North Carolina, but we do title resolution and curative throughout the whole southeast. All the way out to Utah. Recently, earlier last year…

    got involved with one that ended up in the FBI’s hands because of how somebody was running something and he ended up stealing 27 million. And so that village is pivotal, right? And that’s the thing is when you’re looking at that and it doesn’t matter if you’re new or if you’re experienced, network.

    Find one person a day and say, what do do in real estate? How can I best support you? This is what I do. Let’s work together. That’s all it takes. Build your group and your support system because they’re the ones that are going to get you through when it becomes hard.

    Quentin (11:48)
    Yeah. No, Zach, man. Thank you so much, man. Thank you for the gift of your vulnerability, man. Thank you for sharing. I absolutely, again, love when you talk about your village, your community, those of common unity, man. I appreciate your story. I appreciate your push through, man. know, a lot of people, sometimes they stall and don’t move forward. And that’s not to condemn them. You know, we all got our different processes. But again, I thank you for pushing through. I thank you for sharing, man.

    That’s big and I appreciate it, man. I really do. And I think that’s something all of us can kind of, you know, can rally around because all of us have things that we got to go through that we have to overcome. So again, man, I thank you for sharing. Let me ask you this, man. What are you most focused on scaling next or solving next? Like, what’s the next real goal for you, Zach?

    Zach Thomas (12:33)
    My real goal right now is to be able to open up another brick and mortar location in North Carolina. Right now I’m on the coast. I do have a sister firm in Davidson, but I am really wanting to get into the mountain area. They’ve recently seen a lot of devastation in the last year.

    when there’s, it sounds bad, but when there’s that type of stuff, real estate booms. The growth and everything, the rebuilding’s coming. Also with the AI systems that are coming, they need a big power draw, which means that a lot of these banks, the servers, and those facilities are going to end up in the mountain area. I always try and look ahead to what…

    is coming in the state that you’re working in. Your 20-year plan from the counties and what those specific cities are working in on as far as tax cuts and businesses because when businesses come in so people come to work well they’re going to need the house to live in and I’ve got family up in the mountains so that’s what I want to try and do next is a place up in the mountains.

    Quentin (14:22)
    Absolutely. That’s big, man. And again, man, I got to say, man, I hear your, I call it the through line, like the connector between you, just people, man, building community, being the bridge. I hear it, man. And this kind of transition, this is me to the next question, because I can tell relationships are big to you, man. And so, you know, we have people, they listening, they’re coming from different directions, but I want to hear your perspective on relationships. When it comes to building relationships.

    and growing your network. What’s made the biggest difference for you?

    Zach Thomas (14:54)
    understanding that everybody starts somewhere. Right? And that’s the thing is you can… I encourage everybody, anybody that wants to do better, I want to learn, I want to do stronger, get bigger, get better. That’s great. You always need to give them a chance. Right? You look down on the people that have less experience than you.

    that relationship’s gonna matter because you’re gonna help teach them, you’re gonna help them learn what to do and get better, but that’s always gonna feed back into you. Whether you believe in karma or God, it’s gonna feed back into you. They’re gonna work in the same area. Those rehabs, that business that they do is going to help keep your comps, your real estate investment portfolio healthy, but also they’re gonna help other people.

    I’m a big teacher in real estate, whether it’s innovations, estates, foreclosures. I am a big proponent of getting people to understand that when you deal in real estate, you’re not dealing in just house, you’re dealing with people. That’s someone’s mom, grandmother, sister, and a lot of people forget that. It’s that Mad Men 1950s style of, is my offer, let’s get this done.

    You can’t forget that, right? And you have to build that trust and that relationship with your client too. So whether you’re starting off or you’re experienced, you always have something to learn. And that’s the thing is no matter if they’re starting off, they’re going to have a different experience. You’re going to have something to learn from them. And so that relationship factor is important.

    Don’t judge by how much experience they have just reach your hand out and sit down and have a conversation. That’s that’s all it takes

    Quentin (16:36)
    Nah, man, I love it. It sounds like to me, you just don’t see it as a transaction. You see these things as people. This isn’t just not a transaction. It’s people that’s connected to the transactions that you’re doing. And I think that’s why, you know, for me, it’s so glowing why you’re in the business that you’re in. You love supporting people. I think the thing you say, you say, we are a real estate closing firm. Like we want to help the closers that are closing. We want to support them. And so, man, I love it, man. I love your mission. I love you.

    passion comes through very clearly to me. ⁓ And you’re right, man, in this space, relationships are everything. And so, man, I thank you for what you’re doing. I thank you for how you’re building what you build. And this is, I’m excited about what you’re doing, man. I really,

    So listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, Zach, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you,

    Zach Thomas (17:29)
    So they can email me at [email protected] or text me (704)698-7660. I keep an open door policy, It goes back to support, so you can email, shoot me a text, or call me. I’m pretty lax. Don’t call me at 2 o’clock in the morning. I am a married man. My wife does not like that.

    Quentin (17:53)
    Dag,

    I was scheduling that call for two in the morning, man. You had to say that. Dag, I was going to put you to the test, but no, I hear you, man. No, no, I hear you. Please do.

    Zach Thomas (17:58)
    ⁓ Look, I’ve had to put that clause in there recently, man. I’ve had a couple

    of those 2 a.m. calls and I’m like, why are you calling me at 2 in the morning?

    Quentin (18:10)
    Please do man, put that clause in there. Y’all heard it. He’s open by two o’clock in the morning. I’m gonna throw up there. He didn’t say this. One o’clock in the morning. That’s a wrap too. Three o’clock in the morning. We’re not doing that either. But listen Zach, man, thank you sir, man. Thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing your story, your perspective, your time. We definitely need more people like you in this space. so thanks Zach. Thanks for showing up today,

    Zach Thomas (18:19)
    Thank

    You’re welcome. I appreciate being on here.

    Quentin (18:37)
    Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard him. Y’all heard Mr. Zach. You got the value from this conversation. He put you up on awareness of what’s going on. And so you do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations that we’re going to have with these amazing people, just like Mrs. Zach. So make sure you’re subscribed. That way you get the alert when we’re live and you can just jump right on in and enjoy the conversation. So thank you, Zach. Again, sir, and everyone else, will see you on

    next time.

     

Tags:

Share via
Facebook
X (Twitter)
LinkedIn
Mix
Pinterest
Tumblr
Skype
Buffer
Pocket
VKontakte
Parler
Xing
Reddit
Line
Flipboard
MySpace
Delicious
Amazon
Digg
Evernote
Blogger
LiveJournal
Baidu
MeWe
NewsVine
Yummly
Yahoo
WhatsApp
Viber
SMS
Telegram
Facebook Messenger
Like
Email
Print
Copy Link
Copy link
CopyCopied