Funding Bigger Real Estate Deals Made Easier? Corey Mays on Capital, STRs & Co-Living

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pro Show, host Erika interviews Corey Mays, a rising star in the real estate investing and capital space. Corey shares his journey into real estate, starting from wholesaling to multifamily acquisitions, and discusses the importance of networking and building relationships in the industry. He also reflects on valuable lessons learned from early deals and outlines his current business ventures and future plans.

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
    • Corey Mays on Facebook
    • Corey Mays’s Email: [email protected]
    • Corey Mays’s Phone no: 843-254-3460

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Corey Mays (00:00)
  Long story short, I couldn’t sell that deal. I couldn’t sell the deal. And I spent so much time and energy

  getting this seller talked into it, letting him know things, teaching him, getting them beat down, blah, blah, all this stuff, right? Just to not be able to move that deal. And that hurt my feelings. We lost EMD money, right? Because we put, think it was a $1500 earnest money deposit. We had to honor the contract because we didn’t fulfill our obligation. And it taught me a lesson. Hey, Corey, how about you don’t do this again?

  And how about you go to your end buyer and form a relationship with them and you understand what it is that they want and what it is that they will buy. then, you know, it takes that whole problem out of the equation. So that’s probably the best story I got that that changed up my approach a lot. Right.

  Erika (02:35)
  Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m thrilled to be joined by Corey Mays. He’s been making serious moves in the real estate investing and capital space. Corey, I’m so glad to have you here.

  Corey Mays (02:51)
  Thank you, Erika. I’m more than happy to be here as well. It’s my first podcast or interview type thing. And so I’m really thrilled to be on Investor Fuel and to give your listeners something to think about, something to learn from.

  Erika (03:05)
  Yeah, so let’s jump on in, Corey, for our listeners who may not be familiar with your world. Give us the rundown. How did you get started in real estate?

  Corey Mays (03:15)
  Wow, real estate. Okay. Well, so I started my entrepreneurial world in real estate this year on February the 22nd, 2025. It was the first time I had stepped into this space and actually started even just retaining information, right? So that started my journey right there. So kind of new, but I’ve been able to excel and I’ve been able to grow.

  at speeds that most people take decades to do. And it’s only a direct blessing from God, right? I don’t take any credit, but that’s the truth of it. I started off pretty soon. yeah, does that, yeah.

  Erika (04:02)
  Yeah, yeah, I love it. And ⁓ for you, Corey, what would you say is like your your main focus these days? Like what ⁓ markets are are you in? And you know, how do you decide if something’s a good fit?

  Corey Mays (04:15)
  Well, real estate, as we all know, right, or maybe they don’t know, there is a lot of different subcategories and different markets all wrapped in that little pretty banner called real estate. have, goodness, you have a wholesaling, you got single family, multi-family, commercial, industrial, the list keeps growing, right?

  What I really, what I started off doing in real estate is I took my sales experience that I had. So I give you a little bit of background. I’ve coached, trained and led sales professionals in different industries like hospitality and tourism, the timeshare industry and solar, right? And so I just took my skills and my abilities from the sales industry and started applying them to a real estate. And it was a good fit.

  It really was a good fit. Now I started off in wholesaling. All right, and because I kind of thought to myself as a new entrepreneur, right? Well, I know how to sail there’s wholesaling. Let’s give it a whirl, right? And it’s it’s it’s pretty competitive, right? And also there’s a little bit of disdain on that subcategory that industry right now. And there’s a little bit of litigation and that industry is going to

  evolve and I hate to say it, but it might very much so slow down. And as where is normal people that aren’t accredited and things like that can get in wholesaling because of such. However, that’s where I started and I would encourage people to get in the ball with with bird dogging. It’s an acronym for essentially finding deals for buyers and things. Long story short, the things that most excites me now.

  because I’ve moved from wholesaling into ⁓ acquisitions, right? And I am more than thrilled about things like short-term rentals and co-living maximization. So whenever you’re talking about your return on your investment or what dollar amount serves you well, what will make you more money if you’re just looking at cash flow and opportunities like that?

  Whenever you step into multifamily and many hotels and things like that where you have several units right to operate It’s it’s just a lot better, right? And it’s actually easier to get funding contrary to popular belief It’s kind because I operate in that business as well under quantum solace equities group my third business that were forming me and my partners and Believe it or not. Believe it or not. It is easier

  to get somebody the capital for let’s just say a 60 unit property, right? And a nice desired market, maybe a 10, $15 million capital needed raising, I mean, capital needed for that asset, as opposed to somebody needing a duplex or a triplex and it’s their first deal and going into there, right? It’s actually easier.

  to get funding for larger scale projects because, you know what mean? The asset can actually sustain itself. And when you understand that is that my mission as an entrepreneur or a business man or woman, right? And I want to make the most soundest investments I can, right? And I want it to be easiest that I can too. You know what I mean? I don’t want to go fight with somebody and have to convince them that I’m going to do what I’m saying I’m going to do.

  When you bridge that gap and you see the bigger opportunity in the multifamilies and see that hey, it really matters about the deal not so much as as you or the other individual right if the deal makes sense It can get funded. You know what I mean? And so I love multifamily acquisitions now. I love many hotel models I’m one of our strengths my business partner Deval Jane. He is a rental arbitrage genius and

  long story short because it’s a fancy word of essentially saying ⁓ You are essentially just rent re renting right on different units out, right? So think of Airbnb like that that kind of model right? in VRBO things like that It’s in a different structure to where they’re not individual homes. So we go to hotels and multifamily units and we essentially ⁓

  You know, we operate our short-term rental backing pay, you know what mean? I love the, yeah, I got a little side check, but to answer your question, what excites me the most right now and what I’m focusing on is the multifamily acquisitions and also business acquisitions.

  Erika (10:33)
  Yeah, that’s really exciting. for that space, how are you finding those properties? What is that process like?

  Corey Mays (10:43)
  Well, so fortunately, whenever I built up my wholesaling pipeline, I started tapping into a multifamilies across different states like Texas and Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, you know, just just different markets. It allowed me to because also in wholesaling, have to you have to have the financials. All right. You know, so it’s very common for me and within my pipeline to have the deal.

  have the financials to everything to where I can make a ⁓ financial analysis of it. And so essentially how it looks for me is I’m able to cherry pick off my own pipeline, right? You know, I have a source of deals. I connect with different disposition teams in different wholesaling groups and things like that. And they have an endless supply of great deals and they know what I like to say. Send me my creative finance, my

  ⁓ sub 2s and things like that so it’s kind of tailored to where I kind of have that luxury just to I kind of like this let’s check this one out you know

  Erika (11:50)
  Yeah, absolutely. And since you’ve been in the real estate world, Corey, has there been a deal that, you know, maybe went sideways or something that taught you a really valuable lesson? You got any moments like that that you can share?

  Corey Mays (12:05)
  Oh, yes, I do. Yes,

  I do. And I’ll tell you my first fundamental one in wholesaling. All right. All right. So there were my first nails in Ormond Beach, Florida. All right. It’s a it’s fine. It called Daytona. Right. It’s the same thing. Ormond Beach in Daytona. It was a multi. No, I’m sorry. It was a single family. I’m pretty sure it was three hundred and sixty nine thousand dollars. If memory serves me.

  ⁓ And long story short, this seller had never the owner of property had never heard about seller finance never heard about anything other than hey, you give me cash for my Property and then we exchanged the deed like you know, I mean so I I literally took on and mind you remember I’m new to this I’m new to this and I took on the challenge myself and I started explaining him and teaching him, you know seller finance and how

  I was able to even make him an offer like I was. So the first initial offer was, you know, I think I offered him a 10 year balloon. I was going to come in and was going to do a morby method. All right. If you don’t know what a morby method is, it’s essentially meaning that we are getting a loan lent to us, right? From a lender, right? From bank, wherever we’re getting a loan, lent to us for a certain percentage, right? To give the seller down. And then the seller

  since we are giving him such a large amount down payment for the property, he is willing to go into second lien position or the seller carry back. Right. And so that in itself is not an easy task. Most sellers don’t like the idea of sub boarding, you know, that firstly in position. Right. So the caveat is, is I got in there.

  I offered him a Morbid Method, was going to come in at 60 % down. He was going to sell or carry 40 % second link position. He wanted, I think it was like 8 % interest or something like that over 10 year balloon. I got him wiggled down to where I’m like, hey, Mr. Seller, I will give you, you know, we ended up wiggling it down to where he gave me a three year balloon. He gave me three and a half percent interest. All right.

  And based on the numbers and what’s the market was saying that we could make a rent and stuff like that. We were going to be cash flowing or the seller because I wasn’t buying them at that point. I was wholesale. Right. And so the buyer, the end buyer would have been able to cash flow. I think it was like 700 or 800 bucks a month. You know, nothing crazy, but it still a win. Right.

  Long story short, I couldn’t sell that deal. I couldn’t sell the deal. And I spent so much time and energy

  getting this seller talked into it, letting him know things, teaching him, getting them beat down, blah, blah, all this stuff, right? Just to not be able to move that deal. And that hurt my feelings. We lost EMD money, right? Because we put, think it was a $1500 earnest money deposit. We had to honor the contract because we didn’t fulfill our obligation. And it taught me a lesson. Hey, Corey, how about you don’t do this again?

  And how about you go to your end buyer and form a relationship with them and you understand what it is that they want and what it is that they will buy.

  then, you know, it takes that whole problem out of the equation. So that’s probably the best story I got that that changed up my approach a lot. Right.

  Erika (16:29)
  Yeah, absolutely. When ⁓ we started the podcast, or I should say before we hit record and when we were chatting, Corey, you were really passionate just talking about like community and networking and building relationships in real estate. Can you share more about how that’s made a difference for you and what kind of advice would you give our listeners when it comes to growing their network?

  Corey Mays (16:55)
  I will tell you so there’s a we talked on this too and I should have looked it up the actual verse but there there’s a I’m a Christian entrepreneur right and so I use the Bible as a fundamental source of how to live life or I’m not going to preach at you but there’s this major verse that sticks out to me and it says that as iron sharpens iron so does one man sharpen another and what that means to me is that hey

  You can learn and you are going to grow whenever you are around people that know more than you, that are better than you at certain things, right? That can teach you what and where you want to be, where you need to be, things like that. You were only going to grow. You were only going to grow. And the amount of how valuable your network and your resources and your circle is.

  All right, like they’re I’ve only been able to grow. I’ve only been able to do the things in the short amount of time that I’ve been given right on this because of the collective ⁓ resources and the collective strength of my partnerships. Period. Bar none. It would have been impossible. Right. And that is what I would tell to the listeners is that, guys, you might be smart. You might be intelligent. You might have all of these great things. So does other people.

  And when you combine the resources and the talents of other individuals that align with your vision and that want to see you grow, guys, it’s going to change your world. Partnerships are the most important thing you can have in business. Varno.

  Erika (18:40)
  Yeah, absolutely. And I know that you have some now and that you’ve got some exciting things on the horizon. So can you share more about what you’re growing, scaling?

  Corey Mays (18:51)
  For sure. So I’ve got so I’ve got three businesses Well, so technically two that are formed in operation The third one is in operation but we’re actually forming the LLC the entity this week as a matter of fact because we You know, we figured out hey, this is the approach we want to do This is our operating agreements all that fun stuff And so all three of those businesses are focused around real estate, right? So my first one

  ⁓ and the first one that I built and grown was, ⁓ big blessed investments, LLC. ⁓ and long story short, we are a wholesaling and acquisitions company. ⁓ we, ⁓ I have a very unique approach to where I, ⁓ I call it bird dogging 4.0. And what that does is that allows me and my team and my people, you know, that I coach and, know, like we all have roles, responsibilities, right. And.

  That allows us to avoid the problem that I just explained to you in another story. We go directly from the buyer first, right? And so in my buyer’s list, if it’s not just a buyer’s list, there are actually connections and there are relationships with these individuals to where when I call them, they answer. And the same thing for me, when they call me, I’m picking up that phone, right? Because that is where you grow.

  right is when is when you have a direct source of communication to decision makers, right? And so whenever I understand what that individual’s buy box is, what excites him and what he will actually give me money for to bring him. You know what mean? It’s how I structure my business. I so we reverse engineer to where we go to the buyers first and they let us know, hey, Corey, this is what I’m wanting to acquire.

  This is the type of real estate that excites me, right? And it’s my job to go find it for them and deliver it to them, right? So that’s that. And we’re also stepping into business acquisitions, which I love and I work, you know, but it’s going to be around real estate too, because I want to own the stuff along with it. anyway, my second business that I’ve formed is Rockstars Holdings LLC. And

  That is a partnership LLC with four, well three other partners inside of the sub two community. For your viewers, if anyone’s familiar with sub two with pace morbing, it is a great community and I’ve been able to learn grow and I’ve met a lot of my partnerships through that community. Not that I’m endorsing it, but it works for me guys.

  Anyhow, so within there, I got three other business partners, two of them are in Canada and the other one is here in the United States with me. And we formed a Wyoming based holdings company for the sole purpose of parking our assets that we are wanting to own into the holding company. And we are we’re a good couple of deals are markets that were primarily focused on or Texas, Florida, Georgia.

  And we’re also my partner Deval. He actually flew out to Rome because he’s wanting to expand on his rental arbitrage model. So our whole point of what we’re wanting to do and what we like to acquire are assets that we can maximize the income as in short term rentals, as in co-living models, things that, you know, you can get more from just long term rentals. And so we’re wanting to own ⁓ assets that can be ⁓

  Maximized and operated under a short-term rental strategy high destination areas people are traveling We make our units very nice luxurious import furniture stuff like that And so yeah, that’s what we’re wanting to do We’re wanting to own the assets now to apply the rental arbitrage model to them So and then the third one that is being formed this week is quantum solace equity and The partners that I have in there are me Nancy done

  and Jessica Gettle. We are a capital connecting business for real estate investors and other investors, even for business acquisitions, because they’re all tying together. What people do is they come to us and OK, like one deal we’re closing in particular ⁓ is in Oklahoma. They’re wanting to buy the land and build a liquor store. So they’re going to flatten off the land, ⁓ build and rehab.

  the pre-existing structure on there, have a liquor store, everything makes sense, da da da da. Long story short, they needed a couple million, 1.1 million for their project. Now, mind you, that’s on the smaller spectrum of what we do, because we do have a $1 million cap limit, right? So we really, I’ll get into that in minute, but regardless, ⁓ so yeah, they came to us, they say, hey, we need 1.1 million.

  to acquire this property and to make our dream come true. Can you help me? And we analyzed the deal, gave them a consultation and we are closing on that deal this week. And so that’s literally how it works. know, people come to us for, don’t care if it’s multifamilies. We have this one gentleman in Africa, in Liberia, as a matter of fact, is, it’s so exciting. He’s wanting to do sustainable ⁓ horticulture, agriculture.

  He’s investing in jet biofuel turning Palm right into a new fuel source for jet engines and stuff. It’s amazing type of stuff that we’re able to do and just meet with people, right? And capital connecting, you know? And so that’s the third business where we’re doing.

  Erika (24:42)
  Yeah, there’s lots of great things going on in your world, Corey. And if our listeners want to connect, reach out, or collaborate, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

  Corey Mays (24:55)
  Well, the best way right now is, ⁓ you, I told everybody we’re kind of new. Well, I’m new into the industry and my business. And so we’re actually, when we formed Quantum Solace this week, we’re actually going to go ahead and make our official business Facebook page. We’re going to make our company website. Our flyers are going to have links that will provide you all to where,

  Here’s the services that we offer, because we’re connected with large family offices, private sovereign hedge funds, things like that. when I say we like bigger deals, don’t be afraid to send us your big ones, guys. You know, 50 million, 100 million, send them. We can get you funded. Right. So anyway, the best means right now would be either my direct line. ⁓ And that is 843-254-3460. ⁓

  And that’s my direct line there. My company email is big blessed investments LLC at gmail.com. And I also have my own Facebook page that I’m I also, you know, maximize some things. And you can search me up under Corey Mays ⁓ and I’m in Columbus, Ohio on there so I can put a link in there so we can.

  Erika (26:12)
  Alright, fantastic. Well, Corey, I appreciate your time, your story, your perspective, and all the insights that you got to share. It’s really inspiring.

  Corey Mays (26:22)
  Thank you so much, Erika. It was a pleasure. And I’d like to come back again that we, you know, there’s all kinds of different topics we can discuss and talk to. I’m all about helping people and elevating people’s mindset, right? If I can teach somebody or help somebody avoid a problem I have, I’d love to do it. So if anyone else who wants to reach out to me, just networking and building up strengths and figuring out, Hey, how can we work together? Don’t, don’t be shy. I love to meet new people and I love them. So. Absolutely.

  Erika (26:52)
  Yeah,

  absolutely. And for our listeners, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators like Corey, who are building fantastic real estate empires. We’ll see you on the next episode.