Building a Resort That Heals: The Holland House Project & Real Estate with Purpose

welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I am your host, Quentin Edmonds, you know, known as Q. And today I am joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. He’s been making some serious moves in the real estate.

investment space. He has some good, good instructions and tips for you. So I am so happy to have my friend here. He said I can call him Pete. He ain’t say you can call him Pete, but he said I can call him Pete, Pete Gustis. And I’m glad to have you here, man. How you feeling, sir?

Very good, very good. Thanks for having me, Quint.

Absolutely, man. Absolutely. think matter of fact, I know our listeners are really going to take something away from your approach when it comes to inspiring here. Go. I told you I’m gonna get the tagline in there. Every agent to be an investor, right? I think I’m going to get that. I think you’re going to educate people and tell them, listen, how you need to be in place to make moves when it counts. So listen, I’m excited, man. Let’s dive in.

Speaker 2 (18:28.546)
And so first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, please give us like a short version of what it is you are focused on these days. And also tell them Pete, tell them what market you’re operating out of as well.

Okay, yeah, I’ve had a southeastern Pennsylvania. Berks County is the main county I’m in, but the office I’m affiliated with, we have nine different offices in southeastern PA and the Lehigh Valley. When it comes to real estate, one of the big things that I’ve always been focused on is investors. Investors are reoccurring business, and as well as

As an agent, personally feel that most agents should be investors themselves. You’re helping people buy and sell real estate every day. You’re evaluating properties based on people’s wants and needs. And that gives you an advantage to invest in yourself, to do flips or even have rental properties. And that’s one of the things I’ve always been looking at. As far as myself, I’ve invested in land. I’ve invested in multi units. I’ve helped people.

Flip properties one of the things that I feel an agent can do if you do have funding or you partner with other companies is if you have a property that needs to Have work because it’s dated you could sell it as is you could buy it or you can help invest money into the property Bring up that standard make money off of the repair and then sell the listing So there’s a lot of things you can do as far as being an investor an agent that

can increase the money and increase your business.

Speaker 2 (20:07.314)
Absolutely, absolutely. Love it, man. Love it, man. What caught my attention, especially when you and I was talking behind the scenes, is that one of your strengths, is educating people. Yes. Now, I’m going try to tear it up right. I think you have a tool that could help people get more educated when it comes to real estate investment. You have any kind of tools, anything handy over your end to tell people about?

Actually, actually a couple things. One of the things I didn’t mention on the backstage, but pre stage, I have a book called How to Sell Real Estate. And the reason why I designed this book is so a novice real estate agent could just it’s available on Amazon audio book too. And Kindle. But when you’re looking at it, an agent with no experience or somebody interested in the real estate business can read this book from start to finish. If you had nothing but the book, it would educate you on

how to help people to buy, how to help people to sell, and how to have a real estate business, because this is a business. Other tools I have online, if you go to phillymetrocre.com, I actually have a property evaluator. I have a coaching program that’s going to relaunch, but the property evaluator tool is online that you can just put information about the property and it calculates the value. Some people pay a lot of money for this.

relaunch the coaching program, there’ll be a property evaluator tool because you have to know if an investment makes sense. Some people are paying a lot of money for different software. The property evaluator tool is free online or the Excel allows you to save the information so you can know if your investment makes sense.

Absolutely. That’s beautiful, man. Thank you, sir. Yes. Yes. You are the educated man. So thank you for filling people in and giving them some of that resource knowledge that you have. Now, listen, you know, I love it. You know, in this climate, everything’s not easy all the time. Right. And so I would love to know what’s been the key to keeping your machine, your business, what you’re doing, running smoothly. What’s been the key to that?

Speaker 1 (22:24.568)
Communication and education. But as far as communication, most of the times, most newer agents or a lot of people are dealing with buyers. And one of the keys that I found when you’re submitting an offer is to have communication. The average agent just submits an offer and then nothing happens. They don’t even say anything. But the really important thing is to have a summary of your offer. Try to explain to the agent what your

offer is, make sure they have confidence in the loan if you have a loan and then follow up with that agent because sometimes you might get a little tip from that agent that the offer is not good enough and you can communicate that with your client. Other times when you have an offer summary, it makes sure that the other agent understands what you’re doing easily and nothing’s missed and there’s no miscommunication because an offer, an agent could be getting multiple offers. Sometimes your offer might be in spam.

or sometimes they didn’t understand it, so they’re not confident in it. But if you communicate with them and you have an offer summary, you have a much higher chance of getting your offer accepted.

There you go again. You’ve been educated and and communication is key in every relationship business relationship, personal relationships. Communication is everything for thank you so much for highlighting that and helping people understand you gotta communicate through the process. You have to open up your mouth. You have to. I mean we have too many tools out here that we can use to stay on top of communication so. You know so yeah, so no absolutely I appreciate that now listen.

No.

Speaker 2 (24:01.824)
Every operator I know they have a moment kind of when things get real. Maybe a deal that goes sideways or a time that they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing any moments or any stories like that?

Definitely, definitely. Last year, I have a charity called Harmony Senior Housing, and I focus on trying to get three grants approved. When you separate your time from work and making money to, I’m not making money, but I’m trying to do something good, my income actually went down drastically. Believe it or not, at the end of last year, I only had $5,000 in my bank account. And for some people, that’s great. For me,

That’s a nightmare. If you read my book, it says you have to have at least six months income saved in your bank account just in case business is bad. And I can assure you, 5,000 is not even one month income needed for me because of the charity I’m running and everything. So the real funny thing is I was actually contacted by a real estate coach and said, hey, I noticed you have a coaching business. It’s not doing good. I want to help you. And I said, you know,

If I follow the principles in my book, I can actually fix my problem. And I am more confident fixing my problem and telling people how I did that rather than just selling them a coaching program. And they don’t know I actually only have $5,000 in the bank. So what I actually did is used many of the principles in my book, which I already knew. So it’s not like I had to read the book. And I actually focused on sales and

I have well over $50,000 in the bank and all my bills are paid and I didn’t miss any payments. So as far as that’s concerned, if I can do it, I’m sure anybody could do it just by reading the book. But I will have a coaching program available, realtorsellingsecrets.com and that’ll be launching soon.

Speaker 2 (26:00.623)
So you mean to tell me you believed in your own product?

Yes, for sure, for sure.

Absolutely, Let me say that I’m just not the writer. also I can’t even while that slogan goes. It says I’m losing it.

Thank you, Doug!

Right. Thank you. Thank you. I’m trying to remember the quote exactly

Speaker 1 (26:22.656)
know I’m to quote exactly too, but I knew exactly what you’re talking about.

You got me, right? Absolutely. No, that’s good, man. And thank you so much, man. That’s really, that’s the kind of stuff people really don’t talk about enough. also, I thank you for your vulnerability. I mean, people don’t go there that much. And so thank you for that. And, know, I really think honesty, vulnerability, stuff like that, that separate folks from ones that kind of like dabble from the ones who kind of stay in it long-term. Yeah.

Again, you being the educator that you are I’m glad that you bring those points up so that people you know can see that this this is real like the things that we’re going through the things that you’re going to face They’re going to be real. Yeah, you know and and we’re gonna have real emotions around them And we and we gonna be gonna power through in and guy you keep holding up the book I think if y’all get it you’ll find some real good tools to be able to navigate the waters when they come, know, so Listen, so let me ask you this

What are you most focused on solving right now? Like what’s the next scale up for you? Like what’s your next goal?

Yeah, it’s the coaching program. did mention when I started at Keller Williams, actually after the first year, I was doing very well. And what happened is the leadership at KW, they encourage us to coach people. And I’ve always helped people. I was actually a real estate internet sales manager before I got into, or an internet sales manager at Honda before I got into coaching. And then they said, hey, look, you got a

Speaker 1 (27:57.132)
they actually walked people by my office, excuse me, and new hires. And they said, if you need to know anything, ask him. He knows how to do it all. And at first I was flattered and I thought it was great. I didn’t mind helping people. But then I had one instance where a new hire came. They didn’t know absolutely anything. And I spent the whole morning helping them and I missed an appointment. The client called me. They were upset because I was not there. And normally I’m

about 15 minutes early. I try to be 15 minutes early in case they are. And I explained to them that I was coaching a new person and they said, well, this is unprofessional. I’m trying to buy a house here and you aren’t even paying attention to what time it is and don’t ever call me again. And I was like, wow, I just lost probably $9,000 because I’m helping somebody for free. And after that, I said, I got to cut down on the coaching time or we have to limit this. It’s bad to have to say that, but that’s why I

wrote the book so people can understand this. And that’s why I’m launching a coaching program based on that information. Things that I know people can use to be successful.

Absolutely. Please don’t take me looking down as a sign of me being disinterested. I’m actually taking notes. appreciate the things that you’re saying. mean, what you just said, like really, that’s big, like especially when you already have the book in place to educate, but you’re like, nah, the next thing I’m going to do, I’m going to build this coaching program to help coach people.

into pretty much into their success, look out for the pitfalls to make the connections that they need. And so that’s great, man. That’s really, really awesome. Now I know like you’re making moves and the next move it can either compound things or it can create chaos. And that’s really kind of like depending on how you play it. And so, know, I know people that are listening, they’re early on their journey and they’re looking to level up, they’re taking in the information. And I think it would benefit

Speaker 2 (30:01.922)
them to hear when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s been the biggest difference for you?

Yep. So the one thing that I feel is very, very important, and I’m not saying don’t go to networking events because I do, but when you go to a networking event, there’s always 20 real estate agents and they’re all handing out their card, but you have to separate yourself from all the other real estate agents. And basically it comes to communication. One thing I do is I try to network with a lot of lenders because there’s a lot of different lending programs.

There’s lending programs for investors, there’s lending programs for businesses, and different banks have different specialty programs. Most agents seem to partner with the office lender, but the problem is the office lender is not going to tell you about other programs, and that’s the challenge. I try to make sure I understand a lot of different lenders’ programs, and then when I consult a buyer, I find the best program for them.

because there’s Jumbo Loan programs that are better with some banks. There’s first time home buyer programs that are better with some banks. There’s specialty grants in certain areas. There are specialty grants for certain buyers. But if you don’t know multiple banks and multiple lenders, you will not know about these programs. Plus, if you do good selling, lenders are going to take you out for free meals to tell you about these lending programs. It’s kind of funny because a lot of times I’ve talked to

friends and they’re like, you’re always going out for lunch. And I’m like, well, probably about 12 to 20 times a year, I have lenders buying me lunch. I’m not going to say no, I’ll listen to their story. Sometimes they have very good information. Sometimes it’s okay, you just have standard programs, I’ll put you on the list of people I have, but it’s not going to help the clients that I but that I have.

Speaker 2 (32:00.014)
Just a nice little network lunch. We found some mutual interests and some mutual common ground. Cool. If not, I’m gonna go ahead and use this toothpick and get that delicious food out my teeth. yeah. No, absolutely, man. And you really can’t think that like, trying to build the right relationships for everything based, know, it’s everything.

Communications too. It’s good to follow up with your past clients and even current clients, you know, because when it comes down to it, you can get referrals. And I’ve had some clients that I’ve communicated with just a little bit. They just like the service so much that they’ve referred people to me. And I have other people who I’ve talked to once and just, hey, you know, this is great. And as soon as I’m ready, I’m going to let you know. Then two or three years later, I get a phone call.

So it’s good to make sure that you tell people the value that you provide to them. That’ll resonate with a lot of people.

Absolutely, No, man, I appreciate all of that. So listen, you know, before we wrap it up, I just want to take some time and give you some time. Is there any final thoughts, anything that maybe you’ve been musing, that you’ve been thinking about, any kind of thing that you feel like could benefit the audience that you want to share?

Yeah. Well, real estate is a self-employment. the challenge and the main reason why I wrote my book is it seems like when most people get hired by most real estate companies, they’re given a story. That story is all you got to do is get your license and you’re going to be driving a Mercedes like all of us. And then when they get their license, they’re like, okay, now what? Nothing happens. But most people know one or two people who want to either buy or sell.

Speaker 1 (33:51.884)
And I feel the brokerages don’t really want to train people because they know it’s a lot of work. So they let people join, let them make those one or two sales. And then after that, if they just wash out, they leave. That’s why the real estate industry has such a high turnover rate. And that’s why I said, well, if I wrote this book here and people can quickly learn about what they need to do, they can actually get into production quickly because as a business, you have to understand how much money you need to pay your bills.

And my philosophy is a little bit different. I personally think that most people should get into real estate part time when they start out. And then if they’re comfortable, go full time. Because you might do something part time and then say, you know what, this is not for me. I don’t really like this. Would you want to quit your job to find out now you’re going broke 30 days, 60 days, 90 days later? Or would you rather start part time, work, learn, maybe make some money?

and then make a decision. Am I ready to go full time or do I need more time, education, and more consistent income before I decide to go full time? So my big takeaway is try it part time, educate yourself, then decide if you like it. If you like it and you feel you can succeed, then go full time.

Absolutely. That’s my friend Pete. He always educating man. And I think that is shining through how you really want people to succeed. They just need the information. They just need the right information. So thank you for sharing, man. So listen, if someone wants to reach out and connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

well, peak gustis.com is my main website. The coaching website that I’ll be making will be called realtor selling secrets.com. That should hopefully be out in about 30 days. It’s the 17th of July right now. So I’m going to be working on that. My book is how to sell real estate book.com. So that’s where they can see the book and purchase it.

Speaker 2 (35:55.582)
Absolutely. Well, listen, man, I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. I appreciate your perspective. You know, we need more people in this space that’s doing it the right way. That’s educating people, talking about communication. And honestly, like I said, man, willing to be vulnerable. So, man, I really, really appreciate your time. Thank you. But those who are tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you subscribe.

Sounds good. Thanks.

Speaker 2 (36:23.246)
We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like my friend, Mr. Gustis, who are out here building businesses the right way. Listen, we’ll see you next time. Thank you for tuning in.