Drive for Dollars: How to Find Off-Market Real Estate Deals in Any Market

Paul Allamby (00:00)

Take a different way home from work every single day, find the worst property in the neighborhood, focus on that, find out who they are, find out what their equity position is, and work the hell out of it. And they’ll either sell to you or lose the house. And more properties than not in this country are owned outright. It used to be almost fifty percent. It’s probably around forty. Most properties don’t have a mortgage.

And if you find a property where someone passed away, unfortunately, find out how many people were in the estate. The more people in the estate, the better it is for you to buy because they’re whacking up the money five ways instead of one.

Scott Bursey (02:12)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast, powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey, and today we’re sitting down with Paul Allamby, a true Titan who has spent over 35 years mastering the real estate game. Paul has a legendary track record of creating massive wealth for himself and his partners, driven by a relentless pursuit of financial freedom. You can expect a master class today on long term scaling and the mindset required to stay at the top for over three decades. Paul, welcome to the show.

Paul Allamby (02:47)

Thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:49)

It’s awesome having you here and to help our listeners get up to speed. Please give us the ninety second highlight reel of how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Paul Allamby (03:01)

Okay, so it actually started in nineteen eighty-eight while I was still in college. There was a guy named Val Nunnenkamp. Maybe it was like nineteen—it probably nineteen ninety. I read an article in *Philadelphia Magazine*, and this guy made a hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars in nineteen eighty eight and two hundred and seventy seven thousand dollars in nineteen eighty nine. I’m like, well, that’s the business I’m getting in. He was primarily a salesman.

So when I got out of college, I played sports in college, I was a baseball player. I went to a civil service job and I turned around and walked out. I was like, I’m not working in that dungeon for 35 years. Nobody in my family had gotten into business. And in nineteen ninety-one, the S&L scandal was still overhanging things.

And if you had a well listed property, it sat around for six months. And we’re talking sale prices of eighty-four nine and it should have been seventy-nine nine. That’s so far into the today’s world in my market, it’s unbelievable. So I nobody in my family had ever done it. I got into business. I was delivering pizza the first year and sticking my card on glue. I was gluing them to the pizza boxes. And about seven or eight months later I listed and sold a property, hung up my pizza shingle and off to the races.

Scott Bursey (04:31)

That’s an incredible journey, Paul. And what really caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to create a consistent, repeatable engine for wealth that isn’t just about the deal, but about the freedom it buys you every single day. And on that note, curious to know, when you look at your internal strengths, what is the one habit that kept you in the game for 35 years while others burned out?

Paul Allamby (05:47)

The love of doing it. I—people ask me all the time. I mean, I’ve had a lot of money. I’ve had no money. I’ve went through ’08. I went through another lousy period around COVID. I’m on the improve again. The love of doing it and the ability to bounce back from real adversity. You know, I’ve lived a life. I’ve had a divorce. I’ve, you know, had bad partnerships. I’ve made mistakes of my own that were costly that, you know, some I’m still paying for now. But just if I didn’t do I never did it for money. I did it for freedom. The ability to do what I want to do every day. It comes at a price. It—the discipline—it is the price and I’ve been disciplined.

Scott Bursey (06:46)

Wondering, looking at your own evolution, what is the biggest weakness you had to overcome in your early days to get to that level of freedom?

Paul Allamby (06:55)

Capital. All the up the line it’s capital, baby. You know, I bought my first two houses when I still live with my parents. And they’re like, well, why don’t you buy one and get the hell out of here? So, you know, it capital is always the Achilles heel. I’ve done a lot of no money down things, and of course with that comes higher risk.

Yeah, we’ve done all kinds of crazy higher interest loans. We know people in the field at the end of the deal are twenty five thousand light and they got a kitchen to put in and bathrooms and all. And, you know, you lend them the twenty five at a nice return. Is that risky? Well, I know they’re gonna get the house done.

So capital and the lack of capital’s actually been a strength because I’ve had to figure out other ways to do things. Can’t throw money at all of us.

Scott Bursey (07:56)

Interested to find out, where are the biggest opportunities hiding in the current market for investors who, like you, Paul, choose long-term wealth over quick wins?

Paul Allamby (08:07)

There’s gonna be a lot of fallout in the apartment building space because although I like and respect Grant Cardone, he’s done a lot of consortiums with people and the play was, hey, you don’t wanna fix toilets, get involved with us, you know, give us a hundred grand, we’ll give you a ten or eleven percent. And that’s all great. Problem with it is what I said at the outset.

There’s a lot of commercial paper due. The rents aren’t going any higher. They’re starting to drop. And refi-ing at a lack of leverage is gonna be tough. Real estate’ll get you one way or the other. It’s never easy. It may be easy for a time, but if I—whatever, what did Warren Buffett say, you know, when the tide’s out, you see who’s not wearing her skivvies. Same thing.

Scott Bursey (09:05)

I love that perspective on where the smart money is really flowing right now. And keen to hear your thoughts on the biggest threat. The one risk factor most investors are completely ignoring until it’s too late.

Paul Allamby (09:55)

Gas prices. That may sound crazy. The Strait of the—I almost said the Strait of Magellan. What’s the one near Egypt? It was clogged up for six days, created a worldwide problem. We’re past five months, I guess, and we used the strategic reserve, so prices have stayed stable. But I live in Wildwood Crest and the Wildwood market is like most markets. It’s new money. People have overbuilt and the merchants around here are nervous because day trippers were the big draw and a lot of people aren’t coming. And if you’re ever on the boardwalk, which I ride my bike on it, nobody’s buying anything. So that’s scary and the higher gas prices go, the more nervous people are gonna get. And unfortunately in wholesaling real estate, great markets are bad for the business.

Scott Bursey (10:58)

Understood. Paul, where would you like to see LB Buys Homes in let’s say the next twelve to twenty-four months?

Paul Allamby (11:07)

Great question. We’re hiking up old-school advertising. You know, it—I would like to get some billboard advertising. I had it in the past. Actually a funny story. One of the contractors saw my face on a billboard, spilled hot coffee all over himself riding down the road, almost caused an accident. So like this type of media, and you know, old-school stuff we do a lot. I do personally.

I’m on Facebook every day. A guy down here who I’ve gotten knows great age and did like a hundred and eighty deals here in two years. He’s been on Facebook every single day since November first of twenty sixteen. So another big guy I know, Sam DeMaio, he’s doing something every day. And that’s where we’re going to do a lot more. But at the same time, that’s not the answer.

It’s an answer. It’s just not the total answer.

Scott Bursey (12:11)

Paul, digging into your philosophy, what is the freedom standard you set for your business that separates a job from a true asset?

Paul Allamby (12:22)

If you ever heard of the book *The E-Myth*, that’s a famous book. And the beginning of the story is a lady, I think she made cookies or cakes. Everybody loved her cakes. So she started making them from home and then she expanded to a store and she couldn’t keep help. Next thing you know, she hates making cakes. So working on the business, not in it. However, years ago, I was taught to delegate everything. And I can tell you this, there’s a lot of catharsis in a 20-pound sledge.

I started doing some demo myself, working on stuff myself, and I was like, wow, I don’t know what I’m missing here. So I hope that answers that question.

Scott Bursey (13:03)

Most certainly does, Paul. And if somebody’s listening and they’re thinking to themselves, hey, this is somebody that I really like, perhaps would like to do some business with. What would you like them to know first about LB Buys Homes?

Paul Allamby (13:17)

That’s a good question. If you invest money with us, in almost every scenario, you’re in first positions. Unless you see the equity in the job. If you want to work for us, we actually are looking for one candidate to come into the organization right now. We don’t need to be the biggest player. You know, I would rather do twenty, twenty-five good deals instead of seventy-five sloppy ones.

And if you have the gumption and the will to do what it takes, because you don’t know what that is, some days it’s the easiest thing in the world. Other days it’s the hardest thing in the world. And what’s inside you? Do you want to just drive around in a nice car and act like a big shot? You’re not for us.

Scott Bursey (14:10)

Paul, if you could take us down the path, what does your professional network look like right now?

Paul Allamby (14:16)

Well, I think I said before we got on the air, I have thirty seven hundred and six contacts in my phone. I got guys that could do everything from make a garage disappear in two hours before a final inspection, to somebody that could build a house. Mm, you know, I have probably twenty five wholesalers in my phone, fifteen or twenty electricians, plumbers. Some of what I know when I get a good project to wholesale, I just call up a guy who that’s his preference. Like I have a couple guys that would buy a Mount Ephraim rancher in five seconds—in a minute. And that’s the deal. There’s no who shot John. There’s no inspections or financing guidelines. It’s done. There’s a problem in that though. You have thirty nine hours and fifty eight minutes to kill for the rest of the week. You can only play so much cop. I played way too much in my former life. Way too much.

Scott Bursey (15:15)

Paul, if you had to condense thirty five years of wealth building into one specific high leverage strategy to unlock immediate freedom, what would you tell our listeners to double down on?

Paul Allamby (16:09)

Take a different way home from work every single day, find the worst property in the neighborhood, focus on that, find out who they are, find out what their equity position is, and work the hell out of it. And they’ll either sell to you or lose the house. And more properties than not in this country are owned outright. It used to be almost fifty percent. It’s probably around forty. Most properties don’t have a mortgage.

And if you find a property where someone passed away, unfortunately, find out how many people were in the estate. The more people in the estate, the better it is for you to buy because they’re whacking up the money five ways instead of one.

And have the ability to close, have empathy. Don’t walk in there and act like, you know, this was someone’s home who lived there for 40 years, 50 years, raised a family. Conversely, I’ve been in—I’ve bought houses where the people didn’t even want to go inside.

Because maybe the father was beating on the kids or somebody died there. I bought houses where people got killed in the CSI, the white stuff’s all around, blood, all nine. So, but if you want to get in this business, you got to get on the ground. It’s called Boots on the Ground and drive for dollars. And the slower you go when you drive around and go a different way. Robert Allen’s the best real estate author I ever heard of. And I read his book in the late 80s. They’re called *Acres of Diamonds*. Go a different way.

And stop talk to people, tell what you do, and nothing’s gonna happen overnight.

Scott Bursey (17:44)

That is the kind of advice that changes the game entirely. And Paul, you have given us a tremendous amount of advice here today. But is there any additional advice you could leave with our listeners?

Paul Allamby (17:59)

Get yourself in really good physical shape and mental shape. It’s like dead calm followed by sheer terror and then dead calm again. Like if you’re selling a house, I’ll give you the truth quickest way to treat a good story. I had an investor who was in Florida, it was right before New Year’s, between Christmas and New Year’s. Just so happens my dog died. I had to dig a grave, he’s at the airport, I gotta pick him up to bring him to a settlement, and the guy brought one check with him.

One. If he screws that check up, you go, yeah, the house you’re buying, the house you sell it’s about—it’s totally screwed up. I’m like, you know, and he’s like almost eighty years old and he’s a good friend. And I’m like, my god, I can’t believe I can’t even, you know. I did a deal the other day where I got this guy alone. I’m not even really getting anything out of it. And I like the guy, but I’m like, listen, comb your hair, clean your house up. They’re buying you. I don’t care if your house, like, is owned outright and is worth seven or eight hundred thousand dollars. If you look like, you know, you’re gonna end up in an asylum in two days, they’re not gonna be interested. And, you know, it’s kind of funny, but I shouldn’t have to tell a seventy two year old man that. But, you know, he obviously will go unnamed and he’s a good guy. And, you know, hopefully he doesn’t see this.

Scott Bursey (19:25)

Paul, for those of our listeners who want to keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you on future deals, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Paul Allamby (19:34)

Good question. And we do have a website. We don’t do much for that. Just call me. 69616-CASH. And you’ll sometimes get right to me. And one of the things that I’ve been around so long, I get called up with the quirkiest problems. I could write—I had a rough draft of a book and I just kinda got busy doing deals, but people call me another quirky problems when you’re two thousand deals plus deep.

You’ve seen a lot. Yeah, just call that. You can email me at [email protected]. My name, no dashes or spaces. But I got news for you. I’m probably not gonna see the email. If you have the gumption to call me, you’re a third of way there. And then if you want to invest money with us, but you know, we’ll talk about a deal. If there’s nothing, you know, when we get a deal, I bring it to the people that I think are gonna say yes fastest.

And since I moved down the shore, a lot of the lenders that I dealt with, A, they want to do rehab loans, and B, they’re far away. And C, they’re getting older. And we haven’t done a ton of rehabs lately. So yeah, just pick up the phone, call. You know, and we didn’t, you know, talk about freedom. I like to keep my hours. I work earlier, that’s when all the contractors work. I start working six, six thirty in the morning and usually by two, three o’clock, the day’s done. And then people jump in their truck and call me. But, you know, if you’re interested in talking about real estate, I’m usually interested in talking to you.

Scott Bursey (21:12)

Paul, thank you for joining us on the Real Estate Pro Podcast. This has been just phenomenal. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with the lineup of elite guests, just like Paul, 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.