From Aspirations to Achievements: A Real Estate Journey Unveiled

Michael Stansbury (00:00.554)
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Mike Stansbury. Today I’ve got Richard “Real Estate Rich” Walker from California. How are you, sir?

Richard Walker (00:13.351)
I’m doing well, I’m doing well. Thank you for the introduction. A lot of energy.

Michael Stansbury (00:15.95)
Yes, sir, man. We’re live now. We’re having fun. Well, hey, let’s pay the bills first. And Invest Your Fuel, folks, that’s the sponsor of our podcast. We help people, real estate investors. Those are people that we help. Service providers and real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. So Rich, let me ask you this. You’re 25 years into this real estate career. When did you begin?

Richard Walker (00:19.064)
Yeah, let’s do it.

Michael Stansbury (00:44.622)
to walk on this yellow brick road, what were you doing beforehand and how did you get steered in this direction?

Richard Walker (00:50.726)
So I started out my early life thinking that I was going to be a brain surgeon. So that’s literally what I thought I would do for the rest of my life. I got into college, did pretty well in school, but then my dad was a real estate broker, so I’m second generation. And he calls me and to make ends meet, I started selling alarms door to door. That was my first real job, right?

Michael Stansbury (00:57.516)
All right.

Richard Walker (01:15.024)
So I did really well as a marketing manager. I’m out in the middle of nowhere at 10 o’clock at night waiting for my crew to come in. My dad calls me says, hey, I need you to take over the business. I’m going to Belize for a month. I was like, OK, everything OK? He was like, yeah, I made $100,000 this month. I was like, you did what? And at that time, I’m thinking, maybe I made $200,000 as a, you know, I’m very money driven at that time. And so I was like, OK.

Michael Stansbury (01:38.678)
Right? A year!

Richard Walker (01:40.869)
Yeah, in a year, And so then I was like, hmm, I go to school for another 10 years.

to make 200,000 or do I try to do what my dad’s doing, right? And so like his background is a little different. It commercial. He was in the savings and loan. He went through the crash. But, you know, I started out as his agent and did really well straight off the top, you know, just really started getting after it. We could do loans back then. So I’m double dipping, you know, I’m making money with loans. I’m property management. And then the market crash hit.

And then I didn’t adjust. didn’t pivot because I’m looking at my dad who’s in a way different financial position than me and I’m taking cues from him. So I had to totally revamp myself. Someone came to my house to buy my house in foreclosure. And then I ended up working for him as what we call a gopher. And I did that for about a year, made him a bunch of money and he didn’t want to pay me more money. So I said, forget it. I’ll go get my own investors. And then I started flipping and buying at the auction.

and the rest is history.

Michael Stansbury (02:44.287)
So that’s how it all starts. So you got hit everybody So this is a funny thread because I ask everybody both their origin stories and everybody’s got that pivot point 2008 was like a slap in the face and what I what I love about it is this is like most people That’s where their story ends, right? That’s where their story ends They’re like one I’m gonna go back to being a brain surgeon or whatever or slinging packages at FedEx or whatever they were doing because this real estate game just wiped me out

Richard Walker (02:55.673)
Yeah was.

Richard Walker (03:02.734)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (03:14.157)
And you said, all right, well, how do I? You said you didn’t pivot, but it sounds like you just maybe got to rock bottom and then figured out how to move up from there. So tell me from doing the foreclosures deal, when did you get your first investors and when did you do your kind of first deal on your own? What did that look like?

Richard Walker (03:35.429)
Okay, so yeah, when that person decided to not bring me into the fold, I went and took one client, basically helped him buy a property and I realized that that property, I could have saved him about a hundred grand if we bought it at auction. I approached him with the auction buy because he used to buy cash and we ended up doing one, but he was limited on how much money he could put out.

So then we started talking because we had some traction and we spoke to an investor who managed a hedge fund. And this guy, we show up in suits. We’re all decked up. He comes out in like Hawaiian shirt and sandals. We’re like, this guy’s not serious. He ends up living up in, like, you know, over in San Francisco. And he says, you know what? Come by my house. I got a check for two million dollars for you.

And so we were just real, you know, we were very real, very raw, just like, hey, we work harder than we over deliver under promise. We’re not, you know, we’re not those kinds of people. And so once he kicked out that money, we turned that 2 million to 6 million and turned over a hundred flips in about a year and a half, two years. Yeah. And then we got straight to it.

Michael Stansbury (04:48.907)
got straight to it so that’s a pretty good record like that is that’s something that you can obviously build on so you know so you showed up in suits this guy’s wearing Hawaiian shirts and so yeah I mean he obviously saw something in you guys did you how did you pitch him I mean what did what did what did the what did that look like when you knew he was somebody that had money in the resources

Richard Walker (04:56.707)
Mm-mm.

Michael Stansbury (05:16.705)
you know, how did it turn? When did you know, okay, this guy’s wearing this shirt because he can, and he’s relaxed, or what did that look like,

Richard Walker (05:25.316)
didn’t realize that until he actually told us come get the money because literally we came with the numbers. mean, my dad, like I said, he was a commercial loan mortgage broker. You know, I’m I’m pre-med. So, you know, I’m kind of an analytical at this time. So we can with all the numbers, we come all the statistics, we show what we’ve done. We’re in Stockton at the time, which some people believe was, you know, ground zero for.

Michael Stansbury (05:34.849)
Yep.

Michael Stansbury (05:41.452)
Yeah.

Richard Walker (05:52.164)
the market collapse, right? So we happen to be right place, right time. And he had his feelers out in multiple counties near us, but ours looked to be, you know, to be able to produce the most. So anyway, you know, he manages like a half billion dollar hedge fund. And so this was kind of small, but this was just like feeler money for him, you know? And so then we, yeah, it was a flyer. So I call Wells Fargo. I think I might have like 10 grand in the bank.

Michael Stansbury (06:12.981)
Right? This was just a flyer, right?

Richard Walker (06:21.931)
I go to Wells Fargo, I’m like, hey, want to open up an account. And they’re like, OK, cool. OK, what do you want to start with? I have this check. And they’re like, for how much? I said, $2 million. OK, come to this room. But I knew he was serious when he stopped kind of looking at his phone and looking around and started asking some questions and making eye contact. And we weren’t trying to sell him because we knew what we had.

Michael Stansbury (06:32.155)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Richard Walker (06:48.547)
We just spoke we spoke from the heart. We didn’t over promise and And then once we got the opportunity we got straight to it, you know, and so

Michael Stansbury (06:57.325)
So one of the things, again, I just see this in you, so because you have an analytical kind of engineering type brain, I mean you did, you were kind of focused on being a brain surgeon, going to medical school, that is a heavy lift. You know, that’s not easy. So.

I imagine when it comes to numbers in real estate, you’re very dialed in specific and you don’t want to fluff it up. If you’ve a guy and he’s like, he may or may not have $2 million, you’re still going to do the same thing. You’re still going to go over the numbers and see where, hey, here’s where the win is at if we had the resources. And that’s probably when he just put down his phone and kind of was like, OK, know, this guy’s not, he’s not trying to pitch me this. He’s showing me what is realville. that’s an awesome story.

So you do that, you flip this two million into six million by using hard assets and a down market. So where does real estate rich go from there? What happens after that? Do you still have a relationship with them? What’s that look like?

Richard Walker (07:59.478)
Oh, yeah, no, I still have a relationship with him. He’s a good guy. He kind of ran into a little bit of trouble because we’re making, you know, we’re making big moves. You know, matter of fact, I would say 80 percent of the people that were doing what I was doing ended up in federal prison. We didn’t. We were able to, you know, avoid the FBI and the IRS. But, you know, you have to be very careful in this business when you’re making money. You have to be

careful of dotting your I’s and crossing your T’s because it starts happening quick. You can’t cut corners, right? And so we were very good about that. I’m working with my father too. So he’s not just going to let me, you know, cut corners. But so then what happened with us was we did all this all this activity and then Blackstone came in and basically like just destroyed our business model. And so what they did was they they were coming in and buying for above market because their goal was to keep the property

Michael Stansbury (08:37.078)
Right.

Richard Walker (08:56.244)
rent it out or not, and then sell it. And they were right. They were right. The market tripled, you know, within that time frame. But what I ended up doing was going back to school. So I ended up switching from pre-med, went to general business, and then went to law school because I wanted to become a real estate attorney. And so I’m coming from these different aspects and I know how to deal with investors. I’m really good with numbers. I love numbers. And so when I’m negotiating and talking to someone,

I’m trying to find their number. Like that’s all I’m trying to find. Like literally, what’s your number? Cause I feel like any deal can work. You know, it’s just when people let their ego get into it or they’re greedy, right? But if you know how to kind of navigate that, empathize with people, put yourself in their position and you can find their number, there’s no reason for them not to work with you, right? As long as your number works, their number works for you, you know.

Michael Stansbury (09:50.125)
Yeah. And so you end up going to law school. Did you end up getting the law degree and becoming a real estate attorney or what did that look like?

Richard Walker (09:57.287)
No, because it’s kind of boring. That’s a boring life. I need a little more excitement.

Michael Stansbury (10:00.397)
It’s a boring life. Listen, I owned a part of a clothing company. It was the worst thing I ever did. It didn’t work out. It worked out, but it’s not a fun business to be in. You gotta have a more juice than clothing.

Richard Walker (10:19.329)
They’re going through and they’re discussing variances and you know, they’re petitioning the Planning Commission and you know, it just wasn’t the life. Actually the top guy in my city, I was getting recruited by the district attorney to work in the real estate fraud division. I served on the civil grand jury, you know, but it just wasn’t the life for me. I just wasn’t excited about it. And then I ended up getting into commercial development.

Michael Stansbury (10:37.878)
Mm-hmm.

Richard Walker (10:47.935)
So after that was commercial development. And then that led me to Airbnb’s and furnished spaces. So from there, it led to assisted assisted living facilities, which I’m inside of our flagship property right now over in Galt. So we have a 10 bedroom licensed care facility. And then from there, it turned into developing care facilities. So that’s where I’m at.

Michael Stansbury (11:12.589)
Okay, so that’s where you’re at now. So you’re in the assisted living facility and so is yours are your 10 are these 10 room houses or they 10 room facilities? What is that? Are they because I’ve seen guys they go in and they reconfigure maybe an older mansion kind of house or 5000 6000 square foot house and then I see people doing the build from ground up assisted living facilities. Yeah, tell me more about that rich.

Richard Walker (11:33.225)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so this one we actually at the point where I was, you know, a few years ago when I started this, I had owned so many properties and then, you know, I’ve gone through so much with it. So let me try this, you know, arbitrage or lease lease strategy. Right. So we went and leased this lease this 10 bedroom place, really good rent, you know, worked out the terms. Like I said, I like to negotiate. And so it’s a 10 bedroom, six bath over in Galt.

But because of the way it’s set up, we can only have six bedrooms, right? And so, you know, that’s a moneymaker, but it’s not retirement money, right? So then in my mind, it became, okay, how do I expand? And so then I started putting my fillers out. That’s how things work with me. I start putting my fillers out, end up running into this 80 bed facility in Montana that needed work, right? So, okay, well, how do I do that? Because

who has $6 million to invest in this property, right? It can generate half a million dollars a month, right? So, but where do I find that? Luckily, I have all these developer contacts and then just, like I said, I’m good at connecting dots. not really, like I’m not good at swinging the hammer. I definitely wouldn’t have been a good surgeon, but I’m great at connecting dots.

Michael Stansbury (12:46.017)
Right? Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (12:54.261)
Yeah, that’s right. So that would be your superpower is connecting people. Because what I know about people with money, people that have money and that want to keep their money, they’re always looking to places to park their money and things that work and do well. And they want people with a track record and that know how to operate. so people who connect people.

Richard Walker (13:07.314)
Exactly.

Richard Walker (13:17.92)
Okay.

Michael Stansbury (13:19.469)
and get to know people and help them. One of the things you just did earlier is, especially when you talked to the first person that helped you out, is you just showed them, this is how we can all win together. You didn’t pitch them. You just said, hey, here’s what’s going on. Here’s how you can win in the marketplace. And it’s the same thing with people with money. People are always afraid to go out there and generate maybe their own sources for deals and sources for money.

People with money want to hear about how you can help them, not how you can make a bunch of money. They don’t want to hear that. They want to hear how you can help them keep their principle and make a better return than stock market, Bitcoin, and all the other stuff. And that sounds like what you do.

Richard Walker (13:52.11)
Yeah. Right. Yeah, what I found is that besides the numbers, besides the building that you’re in or the car you drive,

It’s building that trust, right? So confidence leads to trust. Trust leads to action, right? So these guys, like you said, if their money’s not making money, they’re losing money, right? And we’re talking about people with huge amounts of money that are really hard for the average person to kind of fathom. And they need something. They need somewhere to park that. They’re so used to people coming up with the snake oil that when someone has the real stuff, it’s almost like unbelievable, you know?

Michael Stansbury (14:16.684)
Right.

Michael Stansbury (14:27.447)
They’re losing money, yeah.

Michael Stansbury (14:39.757)
Mm-hmm

Richard Walker (14:44.447)
The only way to build that is to, hey, look, man, I’m not trying to sell you on anything. Literally, if you don’t decide to work with me, somebody’s going to work with me. I’m someone that perseveres and pushes through. You’re not my retirement plan, right? My retirement plan is helping other people get to the point where I’ve been and then hopefully reach a new plateau that I couldn’t even see. That’s my goal.

Michael Stansbury (14:44.535)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (14:49.355)
Right.

Michael Stansbury (14:54.071)
Right.

Michael Stansbury (15:00.076)
Right.

Michael Stansbury (15:08.449)
Yeah, I like it. Yeah, so Richard, tell me a little bit more about you and your local market. Do you still do fix and flips? Are you coaching or mentoring people? What does that look like?

Richard Walker (15:24.605)
Yeah. So I have a real estate company called Real Estate Rich Academy. And so what I found is a real estate professional. I was always consulting people anyway, right? Hoping for that commission down the road. Sometimes I consult people so well that they would go and take that information to another agent to help them to get a commission. I was really good at it, right? And so what I found was, OK, well, if I’m doing that anyway, let me find a model that I can help you.

Michael Stansbury (15:34.924)
Right?

Richard Walker (15:54.098)
make it reasonable and then show proof of concept, make enough money to where they’re like, yeah, this guy knows what he’s talking about and I don’t have to sell myself so much. I can actually go out there and do what I love, which is talking to people and help them get to their next level. So, but one thing that kind of flipped for me in my consulting company is when I realized that the hard money lending market is very wide open right now. And so, you know, a lot of these investors that,

would have never been able to get into the projects that I’m working on now because they would have had 30 or 40 % down, right? Plus, where’s their construction costs coming from? The hard money lenders make it very easy now. So they do like a credit-based blended type of lending environment, right? So then what I do is I go out and find investors who are like my seed capital. So I don’t have to use gap lending. If I do use gap lending, it’s very expensive, but it may be less expensive than

you know, private money, right? So just kind of weighing that on the various projects. And then the goal for me now is just to go find as many projects as possible and then, you know, put the funding behind it.

Michael Stansbury (16:54.572)
Right.

Michael Stansbury (17:05.771)
Okay, so are we talking about, because I just heard this described and I’ve seen it, I’ve seen the model done before is somebody creates a debt fund where, you know, maybe they have somebody that say, have a couple million dollars, like your friend has a couple of million dollars and I, here, I can offer you 9%. You know, once you park it with me, I’m going to give you 9%, but what I’ve got to do really quickly is go out there and find those, find those flicks and flippers or developments that, you know, you can put that money into.

and then you make the arbitrage. You charge two or three points, and then you charge them 12 % or 13 % interest, and you’re making 4 % interest or something like that. Is that the model, or is it? Yeah, OK.

Richard Walker (17:44.443)
Yeah. Yeah. So basically in real estate investing, right? You’re either you don’t have enough projects or you don’t have enough capital, right? And you’re always you find a project. Now you’re looking for the capital and you lose the project. You have the capital and you don’t have the project. You have to go find another one. Right. So so what I what I did was I basically, you know, for me, the chicken or the egg, the chicken is first. The chicken is

the project. So once I started developing the project, then the funding was fine. I was finding the funding because I have projects to talk about, right?

Michael Stansbury (18:20.309)
Yes, right. That’s always the interesting thing is like you always, if you find a good deal, the money will come to you. You can just go out there and market for it. Yeah, I like it.

Richard Walker (18:29.469)
Yeah, and that’s what ended up happening. And then the crazy part is once I found the smaller projects and then found the funding, now the larger projects are starting to open themselves up. now we’re looking at a 40,000 square foot. I mean, this place has been abandoned for 15 years. These people spent $15 million on it 15 years ago and it never produced anything for them. was a church. And we might be able to get into it for a fifth of that.

and then turn it into real moneymaker, right? So because of my legal background, I’m able to go in there and do this creative acquisitions where, hey, we might do a seller carry, we might do some kind of a profit share in the future, and I know how to create those documents, right? I know how to actually write those things. But if not, if you don’t have that, you just find someone who does, because there’s people out there, you just have to know the words to speak to them and have the plan.

Michael Stansbury (19:00.78)
like it.

Richard Walker (19:27.279)
that’s big enough to kind of fit, incorporate them and make sure they get their piece, you know.

Michael Stansbury (19:32.629)
I like it. Well Richard, where can people find out more about you on the internet, on the web? Where can, if they wanted to reach out to you, if they’re in your market and they wanted to help from Real Estate Rich and get on the academy, where can they find you at?

Richard Walker (19:46.948)
Right, so we’re planting seeds in Montana, Missouri, Texas, but my home base is in California. If they want to reach me, they go to realestaterichacademy.com or realestaterichacademy on Facebook or realestaterichacademy on Instagram or realestaterich on LinkedIn.

Michael Stansbury (20:08.19)
All right, we’ll have it all in the show notes below. Hey, Rich, man, it was a pleasure getting to know you. I love the story. I always love the origin story and the hero’s journey. It looks like you’re doing well there and helping a lot of people. Folks, thanks for watching the Real Estate Pros podcast. If you want to get in touch with Rich, his information will be below. Have a great week and we’ll see you next time.

Richard Walker (20:13.925)
Yeah.

Richard Walker (20:29.051)
Thanks Michael.