Subscribe via:
Show Summary
In this conversation, Aaron Bancroft shares his insights on the real estate industry, emphasizing the importance of trust and purpose in transactions. He discusses his journey from being a musician to becoming a serial entrepreneur, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in the housing market, particularly regarding tax deeds. Aaron reflects on the role of pain and destiny in his business endeavors and outlines his future projects aimed at community impact. He also touches on his personal experiences and the significance of building relationships in real estate.
Resources and Links from this show:
-
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Aaron Bancroft (00:00)
Destiny has no wasted moments. I had to write that down because that is literally the core structure of what I’m preaching, what I’m doing, executing.from a very…
early age, I’ve taken all those things, you know, if I’m and I thought about it, you know, I’m like, well, what does this mean? I just kind of put that little information back in my head for later on in life. Now that I’m later on in life, I’m starting to pull back on that, pull it out and use it
I take every single step, the hardships, especially, you know, the struggle is, is the innovation to change in order to make it not so struggle, not such a struggle and you make it a little easier.
You can’t go and do things in the real world if you don’t go to school to learn and get prepared for it. You got to get, you got to get hardened a lot of times. You got to be able to take a rejection, you know, gracefully.
Quentin Edmonds (02:24)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. And you know what I’m gonna say, I’m excited to be here. I have another guest who we’re gonna be able to peek through their lens. They’re gonna let us know a little bit about what they do in real estate and their niche and their unique advantage. And I’m excited. I’m excited for you to hear from them. And I just want us to dive in. So I want to introduce you all to Mr. Bancroft. Mr. Aaron, how you doing today, sir?Aaron Bancroft (02:52)
Doing great. Quentin, how are you?Quentin Edmonds (02:54)
man, doing great, doing great. ⁓ Again, thank you so much for being here and I’m going to dive in. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. You want to give us a little bit of an origin story of kind of how you got into real estate. We love origin stories. And then, if you don’t mind, tell us what part of the world you’re in, what markets you’re operating in. So Mr. Aaron, sir, you have the floor.Aaron Bancroft (03:14)
All right, well, thank you so much. And I’m located in Houston, Texas, which I believe is at the epicenter of a tremendous growth here in the future, near future, especially in the real estate. How I started was kind of, I became a capitalist by default really, because I’m at heart, you know, I was a professional musician for a lot of my times and I got married during that time, had kids.But being a musician, of course, they always say starving musicians and it just wasn’t cutting it. So I was forced into, let’s say, becoming a, which I am now a serial entrepreneur, but it started with real estate. ⁓ I have a construction background and degree in construction management and land development for Michigan State University. And I’m one of the few that actually use their degrees, probably to the fullest as I can. ⁓
So I take the tools that have been given to me throughout my life and I apply them to all the information that is received nowadays. And some magic is happening, I have to say. But it starts with purpose. ⁓ When I just got into real estate and started buying distressed homes, that’s specifically tax deed homes where people are not paying their taxes. And eventually, if you don’t pay your taxes long enough,
you might end up losing it to the government lot of people don’t know you know they think i can never lose my home at little shotgun come take it from the kind of thing in here in texas you know and and it’s one of those things where they will take it from you ⁓ through a really interesting process in the state miss an auction process you know and ⁓ they will physically removed from the home if you don’t you know respect the laws of the code of the texas code of ⁓ you know top property taxes
So the background, you know, it allowed me to be flexible because I was constantly traveling with the bands or band at the time. We ended up going worldwide tour and everything. was great. When I came back, you know, I just would have to buy a house and buying houses, trying to find a proper house to buy that makes sense is getting harder and harder.
And it has to do with trust issues, honestly.
That’s the core of it. We can get into that if you want. But really it’s about, I was trying to create the purpose that people were losing out by not paying their taxes. Some people have been there their entire lives in these houses and they lose it and they become homeless and they’re not compensated for it. A lot of times when you buy a house, you go get a mortgage, you got to have insurance, PMI, all that and taxes that they ask for, of course.
And a lot of people, don’t do escrows because I like to use my money throughout the year instead of them taking it at the front and it just sit in an escrow account. Yeah. But you know, there’s a, little caveat there. If people don’t pay attention to when you pay your house off, everyone’s really happy about paying their houses off. You know, it’s like a goal for some people in their life, but it doesn’t mean you’re done paying for the house. still have to pay rent to the government and taxes and people tend to ignore that. it perpetuates because the government comes in.
and send you an angry note is all it is. You gotta pay your taxes, there’s gonna be delinquency. And it goes on and on. Some of these go for years, mostly months, but just years, and they get into this weird, what are gonna do to me kind of thing. And they’re not paying, they get used to it, and they fall into that trap, and it just accumulates and accumulates to the point where they can’t pay it off. And now you have strangers looking at your house saying, you know what, this government wants their money.
they’re going to do anything, including having used my money to do it, to pay your taxes, which gives me rights for your property. Yeah. And in Texas, are a, you can homestead and get a homestead exemption on your, on your taxes. And that does a number of things, but specifically for this topic, you know, all it does is give you rights on the backend. When you do lose your home, you can redeem your property. It has a penalty attached to it. When you have a homestead.
You can redeem your property up to two years. For investors, that’s a long time to wait to see if the previous owner comes back and buys it from you back. If you’re to do improvements, for example, they get to take the improvements with them. You know, so it’s a balancing act of trust and waiting and a lot of time. And yes, they’re great deals. You see those late night commercials saying you can get rich quick on real estate. It’s true. But it takes a long time to get there.
You know, ⁓ it’s just, and a lot of effort and a lot of trust.
Quentin Edmonds (08:33)
Yeah, yeah 11 man. Thank you for walking us through the journey a little bit and I was listening to you man You know you said capitalist by default, you know had a career as a as a musician I was about to say magician, but musician sometimes I can’t get the enunciation out but as a musician playing the keys And then you said man you use your degree to the fullest. So I absolutely love it. So I have a question That I asked people well, first I make a statement. I say destiny has no wasted momentRight meaning no matter what we’ve been through through life each stop of the way each journey It kind of make us who we are right now, right? And so man, I would love to know What has destiny taught you about yourself? Like what has it revealed to you about you particularly as a businessman particularly in real estate? What has it revealed to you,
Aaron Bancroft (09:24)
Wow, that’s a great question. You nailed it as far as the crux of what I’m all about here. Destiny has no wasted moments. I had to write that down because that is literally the core structure of what I’m preaching, what I’m doing, executing. I haven’t from a very…early age, I’ve taken all those things, you know, if I’m and I thought about it, you know, I’m like, well, what does this mean? I just kind of put that little information back in my head for later on in life. Now that I’m later on in life, I’m starting to pull back on that, pull it out and use it in ways that are saying exactly, you know, I was always destined to do what I think I’m doing now. And it’s been a revelation as of lately. So that’s a very ⁓ current question that honors a response that
is so cutting edge here for what’s going on with my business and life. So it is very intuitive of a question. So yeah, I take every single step, the hardships, especially, you know, the struggle is, is the innovation to change in order to make it not so struggle, not such a struggle and you make it a little easier.
And you mentioned pain earlier in a question and that’s really the question I ask people. What is your pain? And
You know, I find that that struggle in my life when it came to pain was always these little things, these little nuggets of information that I maybe that couldn’t use right there. know, God has had a really strong impact on my life when it comes to this. You know, it gives is for most of my life. I’ve been questioning where are you in all this and why are you doing this to me and why why the hardship and you know, without any of that, it’s like going to school, guys.
You can’t go and do things in the real world if you don’t go to school to learn and get prepared for it. You got to get, you got to get hardened a lot of times. You got to be able to take a rejection, you know, gracefully.
⁓ when you learn to do that, right. And you, and you put your first best foot forward with purpose first, hopefully it is God driven. No doubt. Good things are going to happen. You’re going to get opportunities.
because that is your destiny. especially when it comes to God, he tends to shove you back onto the path. You’re the one that takes you off the path. I had to learn to get out of God’s way for him to act in my life. Now he’s acting through me in ways I’ve never knew was possible. And it’s bringing deals that would never come around. ⁓ Let’s just say I’m doing a deal right now that is two years in the making where I’m a bit naive. I seem to tell people that not knowing is a strength of mine.
I, this is why I’m in a serial entrepreneur, for example, a little stray from the real estate, but you know, I have a tequila brand called Blue Barrel Tequila, and I’ve never been in the beverage industry and here’s a standard I know is out there, but I don’t know that standard because I don’t, I’m a little bit naive. So when I do what I do, it typically rises above whatever that is. I don’t want to cat myself to some standard that is expected. And so far that has been a good formula for me. ⁓
I’ll go the extra mile in real estate to try to save someone from losing their home. ⁓ But you know, it’s counterintuitive to know that you got to trust me first because if you don’t do that, there’s no coming back later. And there is, I mean, we could go into it, but I, you know, we got excess proceeds, we got redemption rights. I mean, all of those kinds of things, which we, we don’t have long enough time to talk about those things, but, but it becomes.
more complex and just harder after a while. So counterintuitive thing is to trust. But let’s add to that, you know, if you know Michael Barry and you’re from Houston, Michael Barry is a talk show host says trust, but verify I hear that from him all the time. And I just kind of said, wrote that down like this with destiny has no wasted moments. Well, every moment is not wasted. Okay, take notes during your life people. And if you’re looking, the answers will be there. If you can
Combine them enough, at some point they should make sense to you like a puzzle.
Quentin Edmonds (13:52)
Hmm. Now you are absolutely right. And I wrote down what you said struggle is the innovation and change. mean, man, that’s a quote in itself right there. And you know, God tell us man in his book, he said trials come to make you strong. Like that’s the reason why the trial comes. It comes to make you strong because once that thing gets finished, once you didn’t push through, had a point and a level that you never thought you could get to, but the trial actually navigates you to get to the best version of yourself. And so I like there’sThere’s a term called a ex a exodus and an exodus is when a snake sheds its old skin But in order for that to happen, it has to rub up against something hard So most time is rubbing up against a rock or a stone So in order for us to shed the old person, we got to go through some tough times because we would never shed that old skin if We never go through the hard rock of the time. So everything you saying is absolutely spot-on. I love how you talking about trust
because trust is, is, is gained in drops and loss and buckets, you know? So I love the fact how you talk about it. Sometimes it is counterintuitive to trust, but sometimes you have to do it. You know, you just have to do it to move forward. And so Mr. Aaron, man, I love what you’re saying. I know you want to help people. So I want to ask you, what is the main focus? I’m sorry. The main goal that you’re trying to achieve now, like, ⁓ what did you try to solve a scale now? What is the main goal for you?
Aaron Bancroft (15:56)
So I’m heading to bigger projects, just adding zeros to the end of these things. Commercial and multifamily seems to be next to specifically in Greens Point area. That’s a resurgence there in my opinion that that’s happening. It’s been on its way for a while. There’s a Greens Point mall there that has been a thorn in Houston’s ass for a long time. And that there’s only a matter time before that releases. And when that happens, you’re looking at a piece of dirt in a metropolis.next to the airport and downtown where it is on 45 and the Beltway. I travel enough to know that that’s very rare to have that kind of opportunity for the price point. It’s poised, it’s teed up, it’s ready to be driven. And you know, I would have to say that the portion of that is what I’m looking forward to, but I’m taking a pause from it to what I would call is pulling back the rubber band. It’s taking time.
And then I’m gonna release a rubber band it’s just gonna take off like an airplane. And it starts with getting the mindset going. And that’s a big on me and number of my colleagues minds right now is trying to change the mindset of the people in the area. Gentrification doesn’t, hey, it works, it’s wrong though. So we’re changing the people from the inside out, the kids starting with generations, the ones that they call aging out and coming from kids to adulthood and so that they don’t go back to a.
outside on the street back to gangs, drugs and violence and all kinds of stuff. You know, you got to change the area. And so because of that, I’ve started a couple of podcasts. There’s actually two. ⁓ One is called M3 podcast, which we call it’s a marketplace ministry with movement. It’s talking exactly what you are on this podcast where
destiny has no wasted moments. Greens point has been struggling for so long. There’s a ton of moments to utilize.
To make this destiny happen if you want to put it that way and the the m3 podcast is more ⁓ Bring guests in and you know challenging the people to bring Christianity and capitalism together but in a real way every single day all Right, and that’s that’s one the second podcast is run with a guy a friend of my name Hey Sue sorties out of vibe. Really? It’s heavy. See right again it really heavy topics it’s
It’s actually a sponsored by my Blue Barrel tequila brand and, and we sit there and talk about, it’s called H town unplugged and it’s about Houston based local businesses and bringing them up to a platform where people know about them. You know, since the tequila is a Houston based product made in Huliesco, real tequila, but it’s made by people here in Houston who live in Houston and we’re starting here in Houston. So they should be proud of a product from their area. And so to speak, you know, we’re,
small business owners here in Houston too. and, ⁓ you know, I have something called majestic stone where we do finish work and, and I tend to, I’m officeing right now where you see behind me, all this is, is greens points and office in greens point. I can look outside my window here of the office and actually see a place called God’s point, which is a ministry and a mentorship program for kids in the area.
And I’m linking in co-aligning with them and a number of churches and people and, and property owners in the area. And this is going international. It’s a lot going on. There’s talk about, but my Lord, ⁓ God has used me in ways I never, never anticipated. And I grew up in a preacher’s household my entire life. So there’s the part of that kind of thing, you know, where I noticed hypocrisy inside the church my entire life. got the.
I hope this is okay to say, but I got to watch the preacher come home and scratch his balls, you know, so it’s, he sees both sides. So I talk real by the way, if you haven’t noticed, you know, I don’t, don’t, I don’t polish it up to make it sound professional and no, no, I gotta be real all the way through. So that’s, that’s pretty much it.
Quentin Edmonds (19:39)
man.Yeah, yeah. Now, man, I love it. You’re definitely speaking my language. My dad has been a pastor for over 40 years. So like you said, grew up in a preacher’s home. And I am thankful for my dad for just being an authentic guy, for sharing the positives and the negatives, the failures, coming back saying, I’m sorry, really just showing me. I tell people all the time when I have a chance to speak at his anniversary or stuff like that.
I say listen if I could out my dad I’m the one that would be able to do it But I just thank him just for being just a genuine person because he right all of us have our ups and downs None of us are perfect and so I hear you man when you say marketplace for marketplace ministry that just immediately resonated with me. So mr. Aram I am truly ⁓ Thankful man for what you’re doing Thankful for you know, how God is using you and listen man if someone wanted to reach out to you
connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing. How can they reach out to you,
Aaron Bancroft (20:59)
You probably just want to look up my name or better yet come to Greens Point and meet me. Yeah, we’re in. We have lots of buildings here commercial. I don’t, you know, I’ll send this information out. I mean, this is all backwards. Blue barrel tequila. I got majestic stone. We have the mentorship, uh, real estate companies and we’re building a chamber of commerce here in, Greens Point as well so that we can better serve the community. Uh, I guess, uh, you want me to put the link, maybe I could put the link, uh, here on thechat of things and information.
Quentin Edmonds (21:28)
No, so it’syeah, no if you tell us and you may have already I don’t know if you may have already sent it over But we’ll see you an email you’ll send that stuff to email man, and we’ll make sure to get put in the show So yeah, we got you so the things that you mentioned will drop in the show notes We’ll make sure we get all the links from you and drop this stuff in the show notes. We got you,
Aaron Bancroft (21:47)
Great, great. I’m just mainly pushing majestic stone and blue barrel tequila right now. ⁓ But the real estate drives all of this.Quentin Edmonds (21:56)
Yeah,yeah. Yeah. No, I love it man. I listen I want to say three things to you first, you know, thank you so much for coming on man and Giving us your time because of course time is valuable You just name all the things you involved in sir. You’re entrepreneur. You got different ministries and three-part cash Your time is valuable. You know that right? So definitely thank you for your time Secondly, man, thank you for the transparency of your story
Because the way you talk and I could say this because I believe in stories Jesus taught in parables, right? So parables are so powerful our narrative our testimonies is so powerful So I thank you so much for your story and lastly man. I thank you for your mindset I thank you for your perspective and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming to the end
Aaron Bancroft (22:44)
Thank you so much for having me, you’re a great host. Bless you, Yes.Quentin Edmonds (22:47)
Man, I appreciate that Listeny’all here and like Aaron.
Please check him out. Check out I’m looking to show notes get connected with him help push his movement forward connect with him collaborate with him But definitely please make sure you are subscribed here because I keep telling you we’re gonna keep bringing up amazing people Just like mr. Aaron. So sir, I want to say thank you again
And to everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.
