Buy & Hold to Replace Your Income: Brian Fox on Out-of-State Cash Flow | Real Estate Investing Pros

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Brian Fox, a seasoned real estate professional with a rich background in mortgage banking and real estate investment. Brian shares his journey from the mortgage crash to building a successful real estate investment group, emphasizing the importance of grit, motivation, and the power of proximity in networking. He discusses his goals for financial freedom through a buy-and-hold strategy and the significance of viewing oneself as an investor rather than just a real estate agent. The conversation highlights the value of teamwork and the lessons learned throughout Brian’s career.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Brian Fox’s Website
    • Brian Fox on Instagram
    • Brian Fox on Facebook
    • Brian Fox’s phone Number: (714) 348-1085

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Brian Fox (00:00)
  honestly, grit, it, I, I do not, well, okay, I’ll say this couple of things. ⁓ I kind of have some philosophies that I’ve, I’ve, ⁓ I’ve created or I’ve, found, I’m not sure which at this point, but one of those, I heard the statement, once I heard this quote, I was the best quote I’ve ever heard my entire life. And I heard it the moment I heard it, I, everything changed me that day. And it was this quote where the person said,

  ⁓ and I’m going say it exactly as I heard it. A man lives two lives, the one he lives and the one he lives when he realized he only has one. And it’s like you, the moment you understand you only have one, one of these, you start living very differently. And that started. You get stuck there. It’s like, there’s no way off this road, this, this, this merry-go-round you read this quote on. It’s like, you just keep coming back around. like, you know, you have to do it. Like whatever it is, you have to do it. And so that was one moment.

  Quentin (02:22)
  everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Super excited to be here today. Super excited about my guest. Listen, this guy is at his own words, a deep well of knowledge. And I’ve been talking to him and trust me, I think he has a lot to say and I’m looking forward to him sharing his perspective, sharing his knowledge, sharing his wisdom within this real estate game that we all play, this real estate space. Maybe I should say it like that.

  But I’m just so excited to introduce you guys to Mr. Brian Fox. Mr. Fox, how you doing today,

  Brian Fox (02:57)
  I’m good sir, how are you?

  Quentin (02:58)
  Oh man, man, I’m doing great. I’m excited to talk to you. I’m excited for you to talk to our listeners. I know they’re going to take a lot away from just your knowledge when it comes to the real estate space. And so I’ll be honest with you, man. I would love to dive in. I want you to take us into your world. Take us to what’s familiar with you. Tell us what you’re focused on and tell us what markets you’re operating in as well, if you don’t mind.

  Brian Fox (03:25)
  Sure. So Brian Fox, I have been in real estate in the industry since about 2001, a long time. So I was on the mortgage banking side first. And I have to tell this story completely to a lot of people who meet me because it kind of shows you the transition of the stuff we’ve done. So I was in the mortgage banking side first. about 2001 to, sorry, 2001, 2002, up until about 2008-ish.

  I was on the banking side and I pushed right into the mortgage crash that happened at that moment. And then if you remember the licensing switched and changed. so originally you had a DRE license, a real estate license for both. You could have on the lending side and the real estate side and you could do both. There was no complication. And so then the laws started changing and you had to get a different license to do the real estate side and different licenses to do the MLS or mortgage bank side.

  At that moment, I just wasn’t getting a lot of joy out of it anymore. I mean, did it. was good at it. I’ve always been really good at talking, always good at dealing. so at that moment, that’s what was kind of required. That’s the kind of individual and identity you had. You were kind of a Glen Gary, Glen Ross, fast talking kind of person. So I mean, everyone was, that was very much the place that I was put in the company I was at. And so when that fell apart and the market started shicking itself out, you were left kind of holding all kinds of odd jobs in real estate.

  You know, doing loan modifications, doing, uh, you know, doing loan refis, doing purchases, doing sales, doing short sales, trying to find REOs every once in a while. And so, uh, it was kind of this free for all. So you had to do a lot to stay alive. And I do mean stay alive. It was a very kind of figure out how you’re eating kind of the environment during those couple of years, not everybody, but I was still kind of fresh in the real estate game and only knew the lending side when I started. So, uh, from there.

  I transitioned over into real estate. I had a friend of mine who was at the same bank as I was, really good friends, still work there now to this day. But I said, you know what? I don’t really want to do lending anymore. I kind of just want to focus on real estate. I’m much better in the living room as they speak, like talking, communicating, advocating. I’m much better here. I can’t do that as much in lending. can do it a hundred percent in real estate. I’m really good at strategy. I like finding opportunity and I like design. I’m really good at spatial awareness and interior design.

  And so I said, you know, I think I’m just going to kind of let the MLS lending license go. Uh, I just don’t want to do it anymore. And I said, do you, I was going to send you all my loan stuff. You keep being that person. You just send me all the real estate stuff. And she really didn’t want to see the same thing. She wanted to do the real estate stuff. So at that moment we kind of just split the business and we weren’t partners at the time. It just, were really good friends. And so I said, you take that. I’ll take this and I’ll do some more. So from then I moved into just real estate. I did real estate for the better part of, well, I mean, obviously since the entire time, but

  from that 0809 factor, I moved on into real estate. moved to just a normal, I didn’t know anything. I knew nothing. I would have done it so much differently had I had it, had I did, but I did not. I just did it for at a friend’s company and that friend’s company was like, I’ll just charge you 500 bucks, you know, a closed file, which was good. Honestly, I was good enough to have clients and short sales and stuff. So I didn’t pay a lot for the business, but I wasn’t really growing either. So I did that for a little bit. ⁓ And then

  I had some, got invited to another friend’s company was a remax company and they were doing a lot of flips. And like, really wanted to learn flips. And so, um, I did that. And again, still really way too green for the stuff I was doing, but I got into the flip real estate agent space. And so I went to their company, I gobbled up all the data I could and got it all in me for the seven, eight, nine months I was there. And then I transferred from there to, uh, Sotheby’s I went to a Sotheby’s office. And so I was kind of the low man on the totem pole, Sotheby’s office, but

  I went from flips and said, well, I really want to learn the luxury market. this was Sotheby’s Newport beach. And so I really wanted to get in there and learn as much as I could. had a friend there who was, you one of their, one of the biggest agents in the area. And I got invited to kind of go and just say, just, you know, sit, sit over here, sit next to us and just, just learn. And so I got there and I was there for about five, six years and just again, sucked up all the knowledge I could in the luxury space, grew a team.

  as big as I could for the time I was there. And then I kind of decided, you know what, I’ve got this and I think I want to do something a little bit different now. And so I moved over to another brokerage, which I kept majority of money as a cap model, but I kept it all. And for me, the reason I did that wasn’t because I felt there was anything wrong with the Sotheby’s office. I thought it was great. Still do. I even wrote a letter saying I’m not leaving for any other reason than I just want to keep all my money. I just try, I want to build the business differently. And so I want, I want to build a company.

  I want to do something else. And so for me, it’s always been a path of, what do I want to do next? Which I don’t know if that’s the thing I would recommend everybody doing by the way. but I never, I never worked under somebody. I never had tutelage. I never had mentorship. I never got on one those big teams that like really ran a brand a city and learn from them. That might’ve been a better way of doing it, but I never did it. And, truthfully, I probably would’ve, I would’ve done, I would’ve gotten on one of those teams now having gone back because like, why, I mean, why not? I just, I’ve always had this thing about I’ve got to be.

  I’ve got to be the innovator. I’ve got to be the guy making these things happen. And so that also came to mind with that means you’re not really trying to learn from other people, which was silly at the time, honestly. So, um, did that. And then when I went to this other brokerage, it was Keller Williams office. I had a bunch of friends who went over there actually from other places and compass had just come on the scene at that time. And, uh, but I went over there and happenstance, um, you know, it kind of like this divine thing, you know, kind of follow, you follow this, uh, know, the whisper inside you kind of thing. Cause I do that quite a bit. I’m like,

  What feels like there? I was like, feel like God’s leading me in this direction. And so I went there. there’s no real reason for it, but I went there. I could have gotten money for going to compass. A lot of people did. I didn’t. And so I went here and what happened is that company actually slowly started going down. And then the two other agents who were there, who are, who were the big ones other than me, turns out are the amount of income that the company was receiving on only us was running the whole company. And so.

  By the time we were done, we realized that there’s no one else here anymore. It’s just us. And we got it kind of approached by corporates saying, Hey, do you guys want to buy the, buy the branch? And so didn’t really want to buy the branch, but I was like, well, why not? I mean, we’re though it’s running on our income anyway. If I change nothing, we own the branch. So why not try? And so we did that. And then, uh, for a while, about two years, three years of that, and then we sold that to somebody else. And so, uh, because we wanted to move on to investing. And so the, the path of this is that we.

  We started working together on the brokerage side and that kind of solidified a unity, kind of solidified this partnership. You we’ve done this, we worked together now. Where even two days before that, we weren’t, we were our own stuff and saying, how I buy in the hallway. And that was it. But now we overlap. And so we are in business together now. And then now we do investing. And so we’ve created an investment group out of this process of highs and lows and pluses and minuses. And now we have this investment group. And this investment group has led to kind of the stuff that I’m doing now, which is.

  Um, you know, finding opportunities, we do flips, we do a lot of buy and hold now, um, and, growing more and more and more, trying to find more and more opportunities because what we slowly realized, well, sorry, I’m slowly rose. We realized it, but you have to, you, you really go much further as a team and you do you, you can go, you, you can go fast by yourself, but you go further with a group. so, um, you don’t even, and you don’t have to be married to each other, but it does help to have people with you. It really does help to have people with, um,

  Quentin (12:01)
  Yeah.

  Brian Fox (12:15)
  really good comment like abilities, like really good abilities, not to be your abilities, but they’re really good at their abilities and those abilities are complimentary. So like one of my partners, I mean, he is a hell of a CFO minded person. know, one of our partners is a hell of a CEO minded person. I’m, I’m, you know, I have very good projection ability. Like I can tell you the future from looking at sound, like here’s what’s going to happen next. Watch that’s happening. And then that will happen. So these, these things have become our, our talent pool. And so that’s the stuff that led us to here. And so today,

  We’re back to running our own individual real estate businesses and we’re combining and overlapping that as we do but then also looking for Investments and so we’re trying to do is grow a retirement based portfolio as fast as you can be possible But we want to be able to establish off-ramps and be able to say okay We don’t have to do anything. We have this now and we can do this and that’s gonna come with some mistakes along the way because you you learn no matter what you’re doing, but a lot of success and so

  We’ve already been able to purchase a large amount of real estate in other areas. We’re looking for more, but in doing so, we’re actually able to, when you start learning one subject, you start learning actually many subjects, whether you try to or not. And here’s auxiliary, when you’re for searching for cats on Google, you’re going to find cats and 45 other animals you don’t know about. mean, it’s just, you’re going to find stuff. so you learn. so in this process of what we’re doing, we’ve learned a lot of stuff, which we also now have been able to, um,

  Quentin (13:29)
  Yeah.

  Brian Fox (13:38)
  teach and other things with other people. And so as we’re working with our investors, and as we’re working with other people who want to learn how to invest, this stuff comes up. And so that’s what’s led us to here now, which is we work on a lot of, preferably buy and holds, but flips when they come up and opportunities when they come up. We’re concentrate on other areas. We’re not really concentrated on California for buy and holds. We want areas where cashflow is much easier.

  And so, you know, the areas like Ohio, Arizona, I mean, honestly, any state that side of California is a better candidate for buying old than California itself, unless you can go to an area where the prices are significantly less. And the reason why is the cost benefit to rent purchase is just so inverted in California. And I’m not saying anything negative about California. I live and work here. But when it comes to buying a house for $100,000 in cash flows, 500 bucks a month versus a house that’s a million dollars in cash flows, $1,000 a month.

  I mean, those are those two very different numbers. And so that’s what we’ve been working on.

  Quentin (14:40)
  Yeah. Now I love it, man. I love everything that you said. I love how you walked us through the history of how you got started. I love how you plant, let us see where you are, you’re planted at. And man, so many changes. And I know you bump up against things that are not necessarily easy, because it’s not especially always easy in this climate. So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

  Brian Fox (14:54)
  Yeah.

  ⁓

  honestly, grit, it, I, I do not, well, okay, I’ll say this couple of things. ⁓ I kind of have some philosophies that I’ve, I’ve, ⁓ I’ve created or I’ve, found, I’m not sure which at this point, but one of those, I heard the statement, once I heard this quote, I was the best quote I’ve ever heard my entire life. And I heard it the moment I heard it, I, everything changed me that day. And it was this quote where the person said,

  ⁓ and I’m going say it exactly as I heard it. A man lives two lives, the one he lives and the one he lives when he realized he only has one. And it’s like you, the moment you understand you only have one, one of these, you start living very differently. And that started. You get stuck there. It’s like, there’s no way off this road, this, this, this merry-go-round you read this quote on. It’s like, you just keep coming back around. like, you know, you have to do it. Like whatever it is, you have to do it. And so that was one moment.

  Um, another moment was kind of this, uh, I’ve heard this before, but I think Ed Mylett said it, uh, which was really poignant when I heard it. Uh, he said, you know, when you go to heaven, you meet the person you could have been. And it’s like, you know, when you meet that person, they’re going to look at you and they’re going to, and, they’re as far as that, they’re as far as the version of you could have gotten. And as are you going to, are they going to look at you be like, why did you stop? Like you stopped here? Like this was how far we could have gone. It’s like, or did you keep pace with me? It’s like, I don’t allow myself to quit.

  No matter what, I just don’t. And so I do have family as a sizable motivator. I, man, there’s nothing that means more to me than making sure that I know that I have my family taken care of. But that is its own level of, man, it’s a lot. ⁓ But to do that, I mean, you really have to plan way out there. I mean, you’ve got to plan far out. So for me, the thing that keeps me going is that I refuse not to.

  Quentin (17:21)
  Yeah.

  Brian Fox (17:31)
  I just will not, I will not stop. I want to get to these places, I want to get to these goals. And so that’s just an inner desire to not stop, not let down. But the second is, I mean, there’s motivators there for family and other people. Like I want to make sure, like if I have it, if somebody’s going to do it, I can do it. And also this idea that like, the fact that anybody in this world could have ever been a millionaire, billionaire, or whatever that thing is, matter. It could be race car driver, president, astronaut, doesn’t matter. The fact that it’s possible.

  to and it aligns with me, you’ve got to prove to yourself that you can’t. you, if you, if you, if it aligns with you in any way, if you said, I really love that. I want that for myself. If that even comes up for you, it’s like, you really should prove to yourself that you can’t do it. Like how, how like accepting it as fact that you can’t do it. I mean, you got to really prove it to me. Like you got it. You got to show me it’s not possible. And so that

  that idea, that living space, because I really truly do believe in God’s power in my life as far as being able to drive and be a bigger person. But I believe in the idea that these things are put in you when you’re a kid. Like these ever put, I there’s stuff, I guarantee I could ask you right now, the two or three things that you love in life that you did not find as a teenager. So let’s say you felt like you, okay, let’s say you,

  like brewing beer. Well, obviously you didn’t find that as you were five years old, right? You didn’t find brewing beer, if that’s your thing. But there’s stuff, like if you had this huge affinity for animals, I’m pretty sure that was there when you were two, right? If you had this huge affinity for like cars and just, don’t know, I just always loved my little cars and my Hot Wheels and now you do racing. It’s like, that was there. Like it was already there early. It was always programming that was already embedded. And so I’m under this belief system that is like everything that was already kind of structured right in, it’s still there. It was always there.

  Quentin (18:55)
  Right, right, right.

  Brian Fox (19:19)
  And so it’s kind of hard to shake that loose. Like that is hard wiring, but trying not to do it is much more difficult than doing it. And so if you try not to do the things that were passionate, if you try not to do, you know, racing, if that’s your thing, I mean, I don’t know what it is, but I mean, if you were to tell me like, what are the things that you had as a kid that are like hardwired? Like, do you still love them? I’m guessing you do. Like whatever those are, like they’re hardwired. And so for me, like if that’s there,

  I don’t see it as there on just because I decided. It’s like, no, that is there for me. Like I’m, to go towards that. And so my desire to lead, my desire to grow, my desire to make a difference, my desire to, to make something very large of myself, my desire to look back and say, I did it. I made it. I became the one person, you know, a statement I heard was I, how does the house say go?

  My family did not come from millionaires, but a millionaire, but millionaires will come from me. Like to be able to be that person that was the pivot point for everybody. Like to be like, this is the moment that it all shifted to be able to do that. I think that is just, I think it’s just so powerful. And so to be able to be that person for everyone in my family, like, I just, refuse to be a reason why we still couldn’t get there. Like if someone can do it, I can do it.

  Quentin (20:16)
  Yeah.

  Brian Fox (20:36)
  And so to be that for me means a lot. that, that, that solemn space for me, I stay there and every day I want to not do something. think of four or five things that are kind of those hook points. And I just, think about it and then I just kind of keep going. Now I won’t say it’s the healthiest thing all the time because it’s, I it’s a lot, but, but it’s enough to keep me moving.

  Quentin (20:58)
  Absolutely. No, man, I love it. You know, one of the things I think about when I really started to understand kind of what responsibility is, really, really drives us and motivates us. And responsibility is the ability to respond. That’s what responsibility is, the ability to respond. And so when we look at our lives, we will understand that there are things that we feel like we have to respond to. And it’s because like you were talking about, the inner drive that’s in us, those abilities that’s in us that’s been

  pretty much hardwired in this. Like I gotta respond this way. I gotta drive this way. I’m motivated this way because of my ability to respond to the crisis that’s in front of me or the situation that’s in front of me. So I hear you man, loud and clear, loud and clear. Let me ask you this, what are you most focused on solving? Like what’s the next real goal for you?

  Brian Fox (21:48)
  Honestly, the next real goal is to be able to replace the necessity of work for income. The buy and hold strategy is where it’s at for us. We want to make sure that we take the stress off the table. Like my partners and I, one of my partners has four kids, wife stays home. I have two kids, wife stays home. It’s not that I’m capable, it’s just that that’s…

  you get so much time with your kids, want to be able to maximize it. And so, you know, being able to do that to gift, but at the same time, it’s an expensive gift. And so you want to be able to support the family. want to make sure that we can do the things you want to do. And so right now the biggest driver at all is to be able to replace those needs of income, you know, not make a market driven, have enough real estate to where we’re able to be paid residually so we can do other things. can.

  I’m never going to retire, but to be able to not have to work for the income as opposed to you have to hustle. And I think that for me is my driving force for anyone getting into business. try every agent that ever comes and works at our company. I tell them from the day they start, day they get their license, that you want to from this day, you want to think of yourself as an investor who’s doing real estate, not as a real estate agent who’s learning investing. Because that mindset shift is difficult for most.

  They can’t get past investor, which is why investors are always like this holy grail of clients. Like once I have an investor, someone who will consistently buy off me all the time kind of a thing, like that’s like finally I have to work as hard as opposed to being this person who understands I’m the investor who does real estate and understands that piece. You start getting your money moving right away. It’s hard to go the other round because as an agent, if you are an agent,

  you tend to spend that money on yourself, on your life, and on your marketing. As an investor, you tend to spend that money back on real estate. And that’s where you really want to start when you don’t have the bills. That’s the stuff I do. So for me, same thing. I want to focus on creating an income source that supports myself, supports my partners, that we can start doing other bigger, better things. Because if I suddenly said, your bills are gone, it’s all paid, do what you’re going to do, life is different. And so

  you before that you gotta you gotta work and I just mean it never gonna work but you have to hustle you got to make things happen to try and bring in the revenue to make sure that you know rents paid bills are paid kids are taken care of like there’s a lot of fear and or at least there can’t be anyway I would say there’s fear for everybody that could be be true but because of that I want to make sure that that fear is eliminated for myself for my family we know it’s covered for whatever it is and now the rest of it is on top and we can invest and do other things with it

  Quentin (24:09)
  Yeah.

  I love it, man. I love it. This is last question I want to ask you, because you mentioned pointing to the next generation, pointing to how people will switch their mindset from that they are an investor, right? That they are investors. So I think when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, I would love to know what’s made the biggest difference for you when it came to building relationships and expanding your network.

  Brian Fox (24:51)
  goodness. God, biggest difference for me. Well, all right. It’s, a hard question to answer on its own only because I’ve been doing so a long time. mean, you, do something long enough. People are going to know what you do if you, if you’ve done it well and you’ve made a good, you’ve been a good person to, you know, the business and to other people. But if you’re asking me kind of a singularity, like what, what is the thing that’s helped, showing up, honestly, ⁓ there was a proximity is a really big deal.

  Proximity is power. Tony Robbins says that and it’s true and true in business. Like the more people you’re around, like I’ll give you an example. People who sell, let’s say $5 million houses. There’s not a of people who grow up in houses that sell five and 10 million houses agents. But for the ones who do, if you grew up in a household where the house was like a $10 million house, you’re around people who live in that space. So.

  Quentin (25:20)
  Yeah.

  Brian Fox (25:40)
  as if you’re trying to work with them, it’s easier for you because you’ve been around them your whole life. The proximity is like, this is Tom, this is Jimmy, that’s just Bob’s family. you’re in that space, working with those people is easier. So the proximity of who you spend your time with and who you’re around, that has been the biggest thing. Being around my partners as a peer group versus being around, let’s say other peer groups I’ve had in the past, I’m with people who are moving, I’m people who demonstrated they’re very good with.

  how they put in place their money, how they keep track of it. Like you pick up habits, you hold yourself to a higher standard. So I would say your peer group and your proximity, wherever that is, and could start home with your family, could be the guys you went to school with, it could be the people you choose to hang out with at work, all those things. I’ll be honest with there’s some people in my life that are not around who have been best friends of mine. For whatever reason, God removed them from my life.

  And since their removal, that whole, that whole vacuum got filled up and it got filled up with honestly, things that even though I might not vote for it on a personal basis, like I love those people, they left. I couldn’t do anything about it. It’s nothing to do, but they got filled with things that are better. It’s like, if you had this plate full of food, it’s like, I love the, you know, the cupcakes, but the cupcakes are no longer on the menu. What’s in the menu now? Well, we have these kinds of avocado toasts. Like, well, that’s all there is. I can’t do anything about it. That’s what’s in the place of that. It’s gone. This is here. That’s the only thing I could eat.

  Like it’s it. It’s like, because of that change, whether you like it or not, the entire plate improved. And so for me, proximity and the people I’ve been around, whether by choice or by choice or accident has been the biggest, biggest impact on things going on in my life, no matter what.

  Quentin (27:19)
  Yeah. Well, man, that’s good. I’m going leave with two quotes that you said. You said one, is powerful. And then you also said you go further with the team. You go further with the group. So relationships is everything, man. And you seem to know it and it’s powering you to put you in a better position and a better state. And I absolutely love it. So listen, before we wrap, man, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate with you or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way to reach you?

  Brian Fox (27:47)
  Best way is, honestly, the best way is to text, if you want to text, the number is 714-348-1085. Text or email is gonna be best. You can call, absolutely call, anyway, text, email, call, honestly. But if email, it’s gonna go from here and go mew and drop into page four by the end of the day. So emails will come up, but text or phone call is real, real fast if you want to do it. But I’m sure you guys will provide the contact info, right, at the end? Yeah, perfect.

  Quentin (28:13)
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah,

  absolutely. Well, listen, man, I thank you so much, Mr. Brian. Thank you for your time, for your story, for your perspective. We definitely need more people in this space that’s doing it the right way and building businesses just like you are, man. So thank you so much for being here today.

  Brian Fox (28:28)
  Alright, thank you man, appreciate it.

  Quentin (28:30)
  Absolutely. And to everyone else, thank you for tuning in. And I need you to make sure you are subscribed. This was a valuable conversation. And we do not want you to miss out on next conversations that’s coming up, just like we had today with Mr. Fox. So thank you so much, Mr. Brian. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next episode.