Don’t Buy Just to Buy: Real Estate Deal Analysis, Hard Money, and Investor Confidence with Shea Smith

Shea Smith (00:00)
Just find in the right deal. Don’t buy just to buy, just to do it. Make sure the money’s correct. Make sure you are getting it for that right price. Make sure that you’re gonna make money at the end because that’s why you’re in the business. That’s why you wanna do business, to make money. Make that money that you could be happy on for six months to a year.

Scott Bursey (01:56)
I’m your host, Scott Bursey Today we have an absolute powerhouse guest who is bringing the high octane fuel we all need to smash through self-imposed limits and realize our biggest potential. Our guest, Shea Smith of SheaCando is here to help us understand you are capable of so much more than you think. Get ready to crank up your capability to an 11. Shea.

Welcome to the show.

Shea Smith (02:22)
Thank you. I’m very advantaged to be here.

feel great to be on your show today and share my experience and my coaching and my past and investment properties.

Scott Bursey (02:40)
It’s an honor to have you here. And for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please give us the front row seat, if you will, on where your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Shea Smith (02:53)
Yes, it started back in Colorado in 2017 where I had bought a log home and went through a divorce and ended up making that house into a Airbnb and bought myself a camper, lived in it on the property, rented that Airbnb out.

And back in 2017, you know, they were just starting to get popular. And so I’m like, man, I’m making some good money here. And that kind of got me on to the real estate investing side of it. And so I kept that going for a couple of years and then I ended up selling it and reinvesting.

that money into some townhouses back in Kansas where I was originally born and raised and took that money, was able to pay cash for those three townhouses and fixed those up and held on to those for about two years and turned around and sold those.

Now granted, did pay cash for two of them and then I got the neighbor to sell me his other. So I ended up financing that as a through a hard money lender. And then I moved on to purchasing another Airbnb in Medicine Park, Oklahoma. If anybody’s aware of that place, Fun Little Town, Mount Scott’s up there.

But that Airbnb did really well. I had a cash buyer come in and offer me money and it was probably the worst thing to do because it’s doing extremely well now. But oh well, we got to count our losses. Everything happens for a reason. And from that point, brought me to Texas and

I kind of going through this in the fast motion, but it brought me to Texas where in Fort Worth, I bought a house from a gal that was having money problems. And, you know, it’s like, you don’t want to see anybody going to foreclosure or anything. And she inherited it from her dad. So I stepped in and just paid her what they owed on it and gave her.

some extra money to put in the account to take care of her dad’s services and stuff because he was in a home and they were happiest ever. So they made some money on it and paid that off with the bank. I actually did not fix and flip that house. I actually sold it to another investor within two weeks of taking that house over and

So that was a quick turnaround on the money, which made me happy and my partner as a hard money lender. And then I bought another house in Granbury, Texas. And man, that sucker is just, it had a lot of work to do. It was probably one of my biggest projects.

So yeah, that’s just a quick story of how I got started and where I’m at now. I mean, this house is here in Granbury is gonna be mine because I was unable to sell it because there’s so much on the market right now. So, but I’m happy to make it mine for a couple years till.

everything kind of stabilizes and we can get out of here.

Scott Bursey (07:39)
That’s just incredible, Shea. You know, what really caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to help countless people realize their own untapped potential and ignite massive confidence in their abilities. That ability to empower is the ultimate fuel.

Shea Smith (07:56)
Yeah.

Yes, I have a big heart and if I was in any situation, I’d want somebody to help me out. So I’m very caring and I try to put that out there to everybody to step out of their box or don’t be scared to ask for help.

many of us around here that are willing to provide assistance.

Scott Bursey (08:30)
Shea, you help people unlock their inner greatness. Let’s talk about some of your concepts. What’s one natural strength that I probably should lean into and apply today?

Shea Smith (08:42)
Taking care of you and being yourself. That’s what’s most important because you can’t take care of anything else until you take care of yourself. I’ve had to, you know, empower myself to like even just get to the gym, but man, you feel so much better after that.

You know, instead of just being lazy, that’s no fun. You know, I encourage you to learn new things, do new things.

Yeah, mean, just like we all can be amazing creators, like within whatever you decide to do. mean, we all things are so different these days, you know, with all these different tools and, know, AI is not going to take your job.

Now it’s going to replace some things that we do, but it’s going to make it better.

Scott Bursey (10:15)
And, you know, let’s shift gears just a little bit. What is the most common self limiting belief you see people wrestle with?

Shea Smith (10:16)
Thank you.

self-limiting.

is to step out of the box. just get your inner strength and be able to move forward. Take that first step towards whatever your goals are, you know, even if it’s small. If it takes 30 minutes, you know, learn something new.

get out and go for a walk or whatever it takes, just that first movement to get going will pull you through the rest of the day or the rest of week.

Scott Bursey (11:03)
Take initiative is what I’m hearing from you.

Shea Smith (11:05)
Yeah. Yeah, I do agree with.

Scott Bursey (11:09)
What ⁓

Yes. Was there something that happened in your life where you decided, I want to help people and uplift them?

Shea Smith (11:19)
Yeah, I struggled myself in several different areas. You know, I had a problem with even alcohol at one point where I depended on it because it numbed me, you know, and then I didn’t get out and do the work. It’s just like,

next week. How about that? Next week. Well, you don’t accomplish anything when you just sit around all day and drink beer, you know. That was a big struggle for me to snap out of. And I think just staying busy ⁓ helps with any kind of addiction.

you know, rather it be drinking, eating, drugs, whatever. I think just staying busy, doing something for yourself. And that’s why I’m always like, do you, that’s my motive. Do you like take care of yourself first and then do the work, you know? If it’s going to the gym or taking your dog for a walk or…

You know, go get a manicure, your hair done, you know? I mean, who doesn’t like to have their hair done? It makes you feel so much better, right? So, taking care of yourself first so you can be a better person for other people.

Scott Bursey (12:45)
Sometimes a negative shape turns out to be the biggest positive.

Shea Smith (12:49)
Yep. Just like, you know, we all go through struggles in life, but it’s to teach us through that mistake or that pattern that you were stuck in, it teaches you, you just like, I don’t want to do that again. So you learn from those mistakes and then you become a better, you know, a better version of yourself.

Scott Bursey (13:18)
Yes, and where is the clearest opportunity for real estate pros to step outside of their comfort zone right now in your view?

Shea Smith (14:07)
Well, I mean, as far as like where I’m at right now, ⁓ you’re never too old to become a real estate investor. And I have talked to so many people just out in the community that, you know, I tell them what I do. ⁓ I kind of want to get into fixing flips or it’d be nice to have some rental property and, and, you know, I’m just like, you should do it.

And there’s many, many ways to get into that. And I could go over that with anybody that wants to reach out to me as far as you have equity in your house or maybe you don’t have your house. Maybe you’ve got a retirement. mean, there’s private money lending. Hard money lending is what I do and help people with the financial part of it.

as well as pushing you along and helping you with finding that property, figuring out what it’s gonna cost to repair that property. And the after repair value, what does that look like? Are you gonna be taking 20 to 30 % after it sells? Is it a doer?

You know, so that’s where I am is just to be able to help people through what, whatever they want to get into airbnbs or, long-term rentals. or if you’ve got a little bit of money and you wanted to get into hard money lending, that’s a good way to make some money. usually the loans are for.

six to 12 months and so the houses are actually you know protected under the real estate. Your money is protected under the actual real estate so you would actually be on that lien to protect you if it went into foreclosure or something like that but I could go on for days on stuff like that.

I won’t be stuck on that question.

Scott Bursey (16:25)
You answered that nicely. Thank you for your transparency. What’s the biggest external noise distracting people from realizing their true goals?

Shea Smith (16:35)
That’s where I am saying you are in your own way. Ourselves are what’s in our own way. We hold ourselves back because you don’t be scared what other people think of you. ⁓ you can’t do that. Don’t let somebody tell you what you can and what you can’t do because you can do it. ⁓

You know, maybe you just need a little push, a little encouragement. Get around good people, investor groups. You know, there’s so many real estate groups out there that, and they’re so helpful. You know, people have been in this game for a long time and they’re always there to help. have a group, the Flip Sisters group, they’re…

You know, some of them are scared to even reach out to a hard money lender and it’s like why? You’re giving them business. Don’t, you know, think of you’re hiring them. They’re not hiring you. So if they can’t answer your questions, move on to the next. There’s thousands of them out there.

Scott Bursey (17:49)
You know, if I’m hearing you correctly, Shea, we’ve got to protect our mental bandwidth fiercely from that outside distraction.

Shea Smith (17:57)
Absolutely. Yep. There’s so much out there where, you know, you worry about your friends or your family or neighbors or whatever. It’s like, don’t, you know, step out of the box. Go, go get around other people. You know, that pull you to be yourself, you know, get around inspiring people. They’ll give you that energy you need to get moving.

Scott Bursey (18:21)
100%. And Shea, when you look at high performing pros who scale far beyond their initial expectations, what is the specific high octane fuel mindset they adopted that others haven’t?

Shea Smith (18:34)
I think it is just finding yourself, finding what you are, you know, what you can create or what’s your, you know, it’s like you are your own blueprint. So what you design in your life is what it’s gonna look like. So like if you’re building a house and you want it to look, you know, brick on the outside or, you know, this certain way.

that’s, that’s the same way that you build yourself. Like, how do you want to be presented? You know, how do you want to What you put in is what comes out, right?

Scott Bursey (19:17)
You just moved the needle for a lot of people, And Shea, you’ve given us so much great advice here today, but is there any golden nuggets or additional advice that you could leave with our pros?

Shea Smith (19:27)
Just reach out there are several people myself I started I’m new at this coaching as real estate investor So, mean you can check out my site sheacando.com and also I Mean there’s so many other mentors out there

Start following people, even if you just get on YouTube or something. those people. There’s lots of classes, lots of information. I’ve got a couple free tools, a DIL advisor, if you want to just go on there and play with them and with some figures and stuff like that. And I’m also here as far as like if you want to message me, DM me and I’ll…

get back to you if you have any questions as far as business or investing.

Scott Bursey (20:26)
What investment advice could you leave with our listeners?

Shea Smith (20:29)
Just find in the right deal. Don’t buy just to buy, just to do it. Make sure the money’s correct. Make sure you are getting it for that right price. Make sure that you’re gonna make money at the end because that’s why you’re in the business. That’s why you wanna do business, to make money. Make that money that you could be happy on for six months to a year.

you know, instead of your nine to five job.

investing in its

Scott Bursey (20:57)
Shea, you have absolutely

poured the pure fuel into our tanks and please elaborate. Go ahead.

Shea Smith (21:04)
I love it. I’m glad I did. I mean, this is inspiring to me just to be able to get on here and put a message out to people that, know, be strong, be strong within yourself and find that motivation and your own strengths within. You know, you’re the one who’s taking care of you.

Scott Bursey (21:27)
Shea, those are some excellent words of wisdom. And thank you for joining us here today on the Real Estate Pros Podcast.

Shea Smith (21:34)
Thank you, Scott.

Scott Bursey (21:35)
And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with a lineup of exceptional guests, just like Shea Smith, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.