Building Wealth Through Real Estate: Sandy Nguyen’s Success Story

Sandy Nguyen (00:00)
So when I came to the US, I was struggle for a few years. ⁓ And ⁓ I came here as a foreign student. I came here to obtain my MBA in Stanford. Yeah, but it’s a very long story. We need to have a whole novel about it. But I never graduated. The program was dismissed before I could have started.

Scott Bursey (01:57)
I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And on today’s show, we’re focusing on effective frameworks and strategic growth from real estate entrepreneurs. Today, we’re proudly joined by Sandy Nguyen of Goal Realty, who brings deep expertise from years of successfully guiding and growing top producing agents and teams across various market segments. Sandy, thank you for being on the show today.

Sandy Nguyen (02:22)
My pleasure. Nice to meet you, Scott. Yes.

Scott Bursey (02:24)
It is just

a pleasure on our end as well Sandy and for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please tell us how did your career begin and what is your main focus now?

Sandy Nguyen (02:38)
Well, my career began…

⁓ When I was here with nothing, I came to this country,

the US. You can tell that I was not born here from my accent, right? I came here in 1999. But my passion to real estate, it was, I think it’s in my blood. When I was in my country in Vietnam, I was only 21 when I bought my first piece of land.

Yeah, so, you know, I ⁓ saved. I saved up from doing different part-time jobs and all while I was in college. And I saved up about 24, I know it’s $2,700. That’s how much I saved. And instead of buying me some fancy clothes or jewelry or maybe a scooter, which is a very popular thing back then, I bought me a piece of land. Yeah. So that is just a passion.

So when I came to the US, I was struggle for a few years. ⁓ And ⁓ I came here as a foreign student. I came here to obtain my MBA in Stanford. Yeah, but it’s a very long story. We need to have a whole novel about it. But I never graduated. The program was dismissed before I could have

So I came here and…

Stanford sent me a letter, a welcoming letter saying, you you are welcome to join us, but you’re to have to pay yourself the tuition. And I was not prepared for that. So I couldn’t, I couldn’t afford it. So I have to, ⁓ you know, find a way to survive here. So I moved to Alabama and, ⁓ you know, I bought my first house, my first primary house after two years. ⁓

of working in nail salon. And I saved up every tip dollars. I saved up like a piggy bank saving, right? Until I have enough money for the down payment to buy my first house after two years. And that first home that I bought became my first investment because I use it as my rental when I bought my second home three years later, all right?

And that’s, you know, that first home, first…

rental home teach me a lot. It taught me a lot. I we’re not having enough time here to talk about it, but after that, you know, I realized that, wow, this is very potential. I see that I can do, you I can rent the house out. And actually when I have my first house, I already share my house with other people and I didn’t even know what it called. Now I know what it called. It called house hack, right?

And now when I do my coaching, I told my students about the house hike and I told them that’s what I did back in the day, but I have no idea. I didn’t know what to call it. I just know that I have a whole basement that I didn’t use. So I just share it with other people and collect rent from them. So I think landlord is in my blood. Landlord is in my blood. ⁓ Any real estate that I own, it has to create some type of income somehow.

I own a piece of 20 acres of land in Birmingham and I ran it to a hunter. Just because, you know, he needs to pass through my land to go to the real woods, but he has to pass through it. So I told him, okay, just pay my tax. I’ll let you pass through it.

Scott Bursey (07:06)
Well, I can tell that you have a passion for real estate. And I understand that you have one book published and one in the works. Can you elaborate on that, Sandy?

Sandy Nguyen (07:17)
yes, ⁓ talk about books, right? ⁓ Now I do coaching. I do real estate coaching. I coach people just like me, know, want to learn about real estate, to get passive income and have more financial freedom. So I have my own coaching program and I have my ⁓ ebook. ⁓ It’s…

the name is from zero to 150 because you know that is how about how many doors I own right now. ⁓ So from zero nothing homeless right. I will tell you how I was living when I was in San Francisco and it’s another story. But that’s my first book and I should give it away for free and I have plenty of you know little e-book here and there how to do section eight how to obtain ⁓ FHA mortgage for your first home how to do this and that.

a lot of them. know, nowadays e-book is just a simple way to share. But I am working on my book, my real book right now. And it’s a project, it’s a long time project and I’m just starting. now it’s just, you in the oven, right? I’m baking it. Yeah, and I think the name, yeah, we are thinking about the name ⁓ and

Scott Bursey (08:35)
Okay, awesome.

Sandy Nguyen (08:42)
I like the name $300 to a Dream. ⁓ It is about an immigrant like me. How an immigrant like me came from a country that when you come here, you thought you was going to heaven. You thought that your life would be just cannot be any better. But it was a shock. It was a cultural shock, big shock when somebody like me came to the US. ⁓

and you have to identify yourself again. And then you have to overcome so many obstacles. I told my children, I’ve been telling my children that you do not have any trust from your great grandparents. I am the first generation. I have you here and I work very hard to be where I am. And if your friend try one, you need to try three times harder. Because we have to hurry up to build that.

Scott Bursey (09:38)
great advice.

Sandy Nguyen (09:43)
that background. You know, we do not have it. We have to build it.

Scott Bursey (09:47)
That is

excellent, excellent words of wisdom.

Sandy Nguyen (09:50)
So yeah,

my book, hopefully I will finish it by the end of the year. Now we’re going to April, so it is a year project for me. I already have the timeline. So

yeah, when it’s close to that time, I do hope I can share more with you.

Scott Bursey (10:43)
Yes, ⁓ please do and let’s talk about your coaching a little bit Sandy if you could take us down that trail please.

Sandy Nguyen (10:53)
Yeah, so for the coaching program, ⁓ actually at first, as a real estate broker, and also I have my knowledge about financial services. I’m partner with ⁓ World Financial Group. So I have producers in my team that can help you with. ⁓

Financial planning like you know life insurance and newties college planning Retirement planning such things. Yeah, so so, you know Initially it is to to to help my business, you know, I started to have webinar, know free webinar to share and then I See that, you know people when they when they pay a little fee, they’d be more serious. They more committed, right?

So I started to charge a little fee here. It’s not a lot, but just to boost their commitment. And I see the result. Yeah, so over time, I was not, I graduated from a college to be a teacher. What they call it? Back in the day, back in my country, I went to college to be a teacher, but I never taught in my country.

But when I come here, you and now I have a chance to share with ⁓ others, I feel like, you know, that is my, ⁓ you know, it’s a fulfillment inside me because that’s what I, you know, that’s one thing I went to college for. And ⁓ right now my student is majority are Vietnamese. The one that, you know, lived here, came here or either born here or most of them came here from, you know, from Vietnam. So they are all immigrant, right? ⁓

Scott Bursey (12:25)
Yes.

Sandy Nguyen (12:45)
I really, really, my passion now is I want to be able to coach more to more people. know, English coaching in English, because right now my coaching is still in Vietnamese only. But I would love to explore to English level where I can just tell anyone in this country, in the US, how to survive, how to thrive, what it takes and what not to do.

you know, things like that.

Scott Bursey (13:15)
Absolutely,

absolutely well said. If someone’s listening to this and they’re thinking, this is someone I really want to partner with or learn from. What do you want them to know about your business first?

Sandy Nguyen (13:30)
Yo, so what I want them to know is this is no fancy business. You know, I’m not somebody huge. I’m not a giant. ⁓ I, I, I am financially independent and free. ⁓ I’m not like multiple millionaire yet, but I’m comfortable just because I don’t have a luxury lifestyle. You know, I don’t spend on a jot or a jet, private jet, things like that.

but… ⁓

I am somebody that they can rely on to learn about or to partner with because I have very deep knowledge about real estate. And also I’ve been here for 27 years, all my adult life, right? And I went from, my first job was a nail tech. Being a Vietnamese person and when you came to the US and the first thing you can do is going to do nails.

Because you know Vietnamese people do nails, right? All the nail shops, most of the nail shops are Vietnamese owned. So, and I used to own a nail salon and I was very successful with that nail salon. my, in my real estate, in our portfolio right now, it comes from nail business. If I don’t make the type of money that I make when I was doing nails, I would not be able to build it like the way it is now. Right? ⁓ So.

Scott Bursey (14:34)
Yeah.

Sandy Nguyen (14:59)
Yeah, I’m very confident and I’m proud of what I learned.

I learned it and I pay for it. I pay lessons, right? Some of my lessons are very expensive, like million dollar lesson. Can you believe that? Yes. So I learned it and now I want to share and I want to, know, when you work with me, I, and I have to say that I have tried and I have done most, like all type of real estate investment from,

Scott Bursey (15:45)
Yes.

Sandy Nguyen (16:09)
The most simple one, know, house hacking, buy and hold, buy and flip. I know about residential. I know about commercial, right? ⁓ REITS, you know, I start having some. ⁓ So yeah, I have ⁓ a very intensive knowledge of it. But what I’m looking for now is I don’t want to, you know, I…

Scott Bursey (16:31)
absolutely.

Sandy Nguyen (16:38)
Okay, so when we talk, Scott, you know I was not born here. So my English is not to the level where it’s very ⁓ polished, right? So I just want to say that when they understand me, then they understand me. But a lot of time, ⁓ my office, the American staff, they told me, why you are so…

So straight up, why are you so blunt? I’m like, I don’t know. I just tried to explain what I tried to say. And if it does not sound so sweet, I’m sorry because I didn’t mean it. And I really like to say I don’t hear.

Scott Bursey (17:17)
It sounds great.

Your communication is superb. And I was wondering how big is your staff, Sandy?

Sandy Nguyen (17:25)
thank you.

How big is my staff?

Scott Bursey (17:32)
Yes, your team.

Sandy Nguyen (17:34)
Well, ⁓ what I can say, I have 12 agents in my office, right? And I have assistant, I have office manager, I have my CPA, I have a virtual assistant in Philippine, I have a few assistant in Vietnam, and I pay them. ⁓ So yeah, but I don’t go for a ⁓ big, like I don’t want to have.

I never, I try not to have a big administration ⁓ load. I don’t want that. And maybe one big reason because I’m an OCD. So I don’t want to have somebody do it and I still have to check on it. know, so yeah, I mean, my agents, my 12 agents, they all helping me and they, you know, we all do something together. They help me with my ⁓ property management, know, like leasing and…

managing and things like that. So it’s going well. And also, when you do a property management part, ⁓ when you have your own rentals, then over time you accumulate a system of contractors, like from roofers to electrical, electrician, plumbing, all that people that now you have a long list of them, that when you need them, you know exactly who you need to call.

So that is also something that I’m very confident of. ⁓ But my ⁓ goal right now is not to grow locally or make it short. I make it the other way. I really want to still invest in real estate, but I want to be hands-off. want to just, you know, that’s why I’m looking for opportunity to partner with who I can trust.

And so I can grow in the bigger scale, but at the same time, will have more time for myself. Yeah. So work smarter, not harder.

Scott Bursey (19:38)
Awesome, awesome and nope.

And that’s

the key right there, working efficiently. Absolutely, Sandy. Now, no business is perfect. What’s one thing you’re still figuring out or something you’ve had to work around lately?

Sandy Nguyen (19:57)
Yeah, I think, ⁓

You know, life has just changed so quickly now. Every day is already, like it changed every day, right? And with the technology, know, like AI and ⁓ all the, you know, all the technology changing, I try to keep up with it. So I will not be getting old, you know, we say that. And also, you know, I think nowadays social media, it’s just, you know, it’s just something that we…

We cannot do business without. ⁓ We cannot do business without social media. And so that is something that I’m working on too. And my coaching program is also a way to put my name out there. I want people to know me, but I want people to know me as I am. I don’t want to make me become somebody that, not me. I mean, some people, they really try to make themselves bigger than they are. And ⁓ I think…

Scott Bursey (20:36)
Okay.

Sandy Nguyen (20:59)
in the long run it will hurt more than help. know, just have to, know, social media, it’s just so big now, but at the same time, if you’re not honest, or if you’re not, if you not let people have the right expectation on you, then, you know, it will not go a long way, because it’s still, you know, at the end it’s still gonna be, you know, the, what they call it.

the try to think of the word in English and then it’s like the faith really I try to think of it what is it the sincereness the sincereness and the you know the honesty right then the transparent is still is still gonna bring up the good result

Scott Bursey (21:53)
That is some excellent words of wisdom, Sandy. And what do you feel your biggest opportunity is right now? This could be like a market shift or a new offering or just a part of your business that you would like to double down on.

Sandy Nguyen (21:58)
Thank you.

Yeah, so market right now is challenging. It’s challenging. feel that with my long time in real estate, I feel like I can build a lot of trust to my loyal client. So now I have a lot referral. For my real estate business, I have referral. And from my coaching program, have my student who also can become my client.

But ⁓ I think for, ⁓ I’m sorry, I think for the future, you know.

I want to be able to not doing the transactions all myself. I want to be able to have a better team, a bigger team that I can just, but they have to, I think my struggle right now is I want to know how to train my agent so they will work more sufficiently and they will have more knowledge that they can, you know, they can grow their business.

That way, you know, I can just step back and, you know, probably give them leads or give them, you know, the resource that they need.

Scott Bursey (23:27)
That’s huge. It really is. And what’s your business strategy for the next 12 to 18 months, would you say, Sandy?

Sandy Nguyen (23:43)
When I go to on a cruise tomorrow, I am going to Florida and I want to look at some real estate down there. I already own a few there, but I want to look at some more because in the next eight, 12 months, I want to be able to be remotely work from Florida, but I still want to work in the Alabama market. I want to be in Florida.

I really, really look for the opportunity that I can work nationwide.

you know, and have more opportunities otherwise, other than just Alabama. You know, real estate, can be very localized if you don’t know how to expand it. Because, you know, that’s all you know, that’s all you see, Alabama, right? And my rule used to be like, I will own something that it would not take me more than 30 minutes to drive to. That was my goal. That was my rule back in the day. Until about five years ago, then I start to…

I start to look more further and now I own ⁓ some in Florida, I own some in one, only one, in Tennessee and one in Georgia. But still just surrounding states, But I always wonder what is in New York or like Virginia, Kentucky, things like that. And I really want to learn more and get the opportunity to… ⁓

properly partner with someone or learn from someone so I can go further.

Scott Bursey (25:23)
That is awesome.

And what would you like our listeners to take away from Goal Realty today? What’s one piece of advice or golden nugget that you could give our listeners,

Sandy Nguyen (25:36)
Yeah, my golden nugget here is be patient.

Be patient, you know, from my coaching, you know, program and from all my students, I always tell them real estate investing is not overnight game. If you want to get rich, you know, next year, don’t do a real estate. You’re not going to be there, you know, or even if, you know, you have one transaction and you make profit from it, like just one quick flip and you make profit from it. And you’re so proud because you think that you are a successful investor. You are wrong. I mean,

Even that, even with, you know, when you invest, right? Even you do flip. If you don’t repeat it, and if you don’t have a strategy for it, you just do one deal and then you’re done, then that is not investing. That is just, you know, it’s just a ⁓ one transaction and you you just be lucky. So yeah, I always try to tell and you know, tell people from my own story. There’s so many times I wanted to quit.

So many times I went to court and at that time I didn’t even have ⁓ an attorney to represent me. So I went to court by myself and the judge looked at my paperwork and he told me, you did it all wrong. You had to do it over. And I was crying. I cried. I cried at the court and the judge looked at me. ⁓ Yeah, that judge, passed away already, but I still remember him. He was very nice. He looked at me and he’s like, sorry, but I think you need an attorney.

Right? There were so many stories, you know, you, somebody woke you up at night telling you that your property was on fire or, you know, all that stuff. I’ve been through it. So ⁓ just have to be patient. And when you know that that, you know, that’s why I want, I want my student, I want the people that, you know, I talked to, they understand that when you know that’s the right way, don’t look around, you know, why they have to

Scott Bursey (27:22)
patients.

Sandy Nguyen (27:36)
you don’t blindfold the horses when they want it to run, right? Because when you don’t see, then you just focus on that direction that you’re going. But if you can see around, then you will look around and you will change your mind or you will get distracted. So yeah, just be patient with the… And also, when you want to go far, you have to go together. When you want to go fast, then you can just run by yourself. But if you want to go far,

and get a big goal, you know, get it to a big scale, then you have to go together. So you have to team up.

Scott Bursey (28:11)
Be patient and play the long game is the golden nugget I’m taking away from that. Sandy, this has been just outstanding. And if somebody wants to reach out to you and collaborate or follow your journey, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Sandy Nguyen (28:30)
Well, I have my LinkedIn right? You look at that. And also I have my Facebook fan page. And you know, I have a physical office. We are in Homewood, Birmingham, Alabama. And the building name nguyens nguyens, which is my last name. We are at 120 Vulcan Road in Homewood, Alabama. It’s right across the street from Homewood Police Station. So very noticeable. It’s a very cute building.

Scott Bursey (28:57)
Yeah

Sandy Nguyen (28:59)
And yeah, or you can, you know, do you think it’s a right way to give out just a phone number?

Scott Bursey (29:07)
Sandy Nguyen everybody. Sandy, thank you so much for being here.

Sandy Nguyen (29:13)
Yeah, my best pleasure and it’s been a nice talk to you, Scott. And I do hope to get the final products and see how we can present it. Very nice.

Scott Bursey (29:25)
Absolutely,

absolutely. Yes, I can’t wait and I’m excited for to learn more about your book as well. And for our listeners, we appreciate each and every one of you. If you got value out of today’s episode, please subscribe. We have more conversations coming up with exceptional operators, just like Sandy down the road. Until next time.

Sandy Nguyen (29:49)
Thank you Scott. Yeah, until next time. I hope to see you again soon. Bye bye now.

Scott Bursey (29:53)
Absolutely.

Everybody keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode everybody. Thank you so much Sandy. This has been just a pleasure.

Sandy Nguyen (29:59)
Exactly. All right. See you.