Real Estate Pros · November 10, 2026 · 21 min listen

How a Wholesale Brokerage Closed 2,300 Real Estate Deals in Six Years | Matt Miller

Show summary

Matt Miller, co-founder and COO of Fair Trade Real Estate, a Southern California wholesale brokerage that has closed over 2,300 deals with fix and flip investors since 2020, tells host Issa Hanna how he went from helping launch New Western Acquisitions’ Houston office to opening California with four guys, no licenses and no playbook. He explains why his Army background and his business partner’s football career make their partnership work, and why Fair Trade built its own private marketplace and custom Salesforce so a small team could handle the volume of its busiest years. He also shares the have-to-sell opportunity he sees coming in California’s older housing stock, and why new agents should join the right team and treat real estate like an apprenticeship.

Key takeaways

Fair Trade Real Estate has closed over 2,300 deals in about six and a half years since launching in 2020, buying properties to resell exclusively to fix-and-flip investors in Southern California.
Matt Miller's path started in 2012 helping launch New Western Acquisitions' Houston office, then moving to California in 2013 with four partners, no licenses, and no playbook to build that operation into six offices before starting Fair Trade.
Fair Trade built its own private marketplace and a custom version of Salesforce to track transactions end to end, so a small back-office team can handle the same volume they did during the busiest COVID years with fewer people and better processes.
Matt Miller sees a coming 'have to sell' opportunity in California as the market and capital markets slow, with many functionally obsolete, mostly post-World War II single-family homes needing updates since there's little land left for new development near the Los Angeles corridor.
His advice for new agents: join the right team of operators actively doing the specific real estate niche you want (wholesale, fix-and-flip, luxury residential), and treat the first two to four years like a paid apprenticeship rather than jumping between different directions.
Matt attributes his partnership's success to complementary backgrounds: his Army experience taught him to maximize limited resources, while his partner's football/NFL background instilled the mindset that someone is always ready to take your position, pushing both to keep recruiting and improving.
Being around masterminds and people with more transactions, money, and experience than you is described as a key part of leveling up in the wholesale and fix-and-flip business.

In this episode

About the guest

Matt Miller is co-founder and COO of Fair Trade Real Estate, a Southern California wholesale brokerage he started in 2020 that has closed over 2,300 deals with fix-and-flip investors. He previously helped launch the Houston office of New Western Acquisitions in 2012, then moved to California with four partners to build that operation into six offices before starting Fair Trade. He has an Army background and runs Fair Trade with a business partner who played professional football.

Listen to the audio

“I’ve always thought of real estate really similar to an apprenticeship. If you’re a journeyman electrician, if you’re a journeyman who’s coming in to learn any other trade, you sit in a room with operators that are doing this at a high level.”
Matt Miller

“Came out to California with four guys, no licenses, no playbook. And we built that group into six different offices doing a ton of transaction volume.”
Matt Miller

“You need people that are older than you, that have more transactions under their belt, that have more money, more experience. And that’s gonna be the recipe for success.”
Matt Miller

wholesale real estatefix and flipSouthern Californiabrokerage operationsSalesforce/CRM toolsreal estate team buildingNew Western Acquisitionscareer advice for agents

Questions answered in this episode

How many deals has Fair Trade Real Estate closed and since when?

Matt Miller says Fair Trade has closed over 2,300 deals in about six and a half years since starting the company in 2020, buying properties to resell to fix-and-flip investors in California.

How did Matt Miller get started in real estate?

His now business partner convinced him to join him in Houston in 2012 to work with New Western Acquisitions when it was still a small operation with just a handful of offices. About a year later they came out to California with four guys, no licenses, and no playbook, and built that group into six offices before Matt left in 2020 to start Fair Trade.

What opportunity does Matt Miller see coming in the California real estate market?

He expects a slowing market and capital markets to create a 'have to sell' scenario for many homeowners, creating opportunity to turn over functionally obsolete single-family homes, mostly built post-World War II, since there's little land left for major new development near the Los Angeles corridor. Fix-and-flip investors can bring these homes up to current standards, like updated bedroom/bathroom counts.

Why did Fair Trade build its own software instead of using existing tools?

As the company grew quickly after 2020, they found no existing software could actually function the way their business needed, so they built their own IP including a private marketplace and a custom version of Salesforce that tracks transactions end to end, allowing a small back office team to handle the same transaction volume as during their busiest COVID-era years with fewer people and better processes.

What advice does Matt Miller give to new real estate agents or investors trying to build a network?

Join the right team of operators who are actively doing the specific type of real estate work you want to learn, whether that's wholesale, fix-and-flip, or luxury residential. He compares it to an apprenticeship: commit two to four years to learning from a group at a high level, treat it like a paid internship, and avoid jumping between too many different directions in the business.

Resources and links

Fair Trade Real Estate
Fair Trade Real Estate on Instagram
Fair Trade Real Estate on LinkedIn
Matt Miller’s Phone Number: 949-467-4966
Matt Miller on LinkedIn

Full transcript

Matt Miller (00:00)

I’ve always thought of real estate really similar to an apprenticeship. If you’re a journeyman electrician, if you’re a journeyman who’s coming in to learn any other trade, you sit in a room with operators that

Are doing this at a high level, whether they’re fix and flipping, they’re wholesaling like Fair Trade is, and you commit two to four years of being with that group and learning everything you can, it’s a paid internship. You can make amazing money. and you can learn a whole new skill set that’ll serve your entire life. Whether you stay in the business and grow and run a team like our career progression is with Fair Trade or you decide to go and be a fix-and-flip investor and have a rental portfolio.

Issa Hanna (01:10)

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today we have Matt Miller here to share his knowledge with us. Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt Miller (01:18)

Hey Issa, glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Issa Hanna (01:20)

Super excited to have you, man. You’re a wealth of knowledge in the real estate space, especially in investing. But with that, before we get into your story and what you’re doing, I want you to give my viewers a day-to-day in Matt’s world.

Matt Miller (01:33)

I’ll give you a day-to-day on a typical weekday. So I’m up before the sun, go get my workout in, come back just as the household’s getting up. I’ve got a four and a six-year-old and a beautiful wife, do stuff with the kids, get set up for the day, and then head into my office to lead my teams and kind of get alignment from all the stakeholders in my company. I sort of sit in the COO role, so that means I’m talking to everybody.

I’m actively involved. I’m spending time in the field and trying to, position my team and agents to win. That goes till about five. And then it’s, sports, after school activities, dinner, wrap it up and do it all again. only thing that’s different is the weekends. We try to take some time for some R&R and enjoy Southern California weather.

Issa Hanna (02:21)

Heck yeah, man. you guys live in the best weather in the country. You gotta enjoy it on the weekends. and I wanna pull out a little bit something. That’s why I always ask you guys when you come on the show, give me a day-to-day. When you’re at the top, guys, like Matt is, you really gotta know how to delegate your time, right? So you can’t be frivolous with your time. You gotta know, hey, I’m gonna go talk to this guy. he’s basically pulling the strings at the top, making sure that he’s setting his people up for success.

And that machine keeps turning smoothly. and then I love that you start off before the sunrise. a lot of successful people do, and with a workout, right? It really wakes you up, it gets you mentally ready, mentally prepared for the day. as a fellow father, I know young kids, man, they’re hard to get ready in the morning. So when you get that workout in, you’re already awake, you already got that blood flowing, man, it just makes it so much easier to tackle the rest of your day.

For people at home, if you’re wondering, hey, what do I got to do to be successful? That’s one of the biggest things in the recipe to being successful. Get up early, get that workout in, get your mind right, your body right, and tackle that day. I want to dive into your story because you’re a broker now. you’re a Southern California broker. you guys specialize exclusively in dealing with investors.

Your game is the wholesale game. You’re a master of the wholesale game. I wanna get the origin story because it’s such a cool origin story. You’re working with this huge brokerage. I’m gonna let you take the floor from there and tell the viewers the rest of it.

Matt Miller (03:45)

Sure. Yeah. So how’d you get started in real estate? my current business partner convinced me to come join him out in Texas in Houston, specifically back in 2012, when he was working with a really large national brokerage, New Western Acquisitions, who a lot of us know and admire and respect, when they were still a smaller operation, still in Texas, just a handful of offices. Went out there and helped him launch the Houston office. And then about a year later,

Came out to California with four guys, no licenses, no playbook. And we built that group into six different offices doing a ton of transaction volume. COVID hit in 2020. I was running the regional office for LA, and it was a lot of stuff going on personally too. Had my first child come in and it was just the right circumstances and the right time. You know how they say never waste a crisis. And

Left to start Fair Trade and with a handful of friends and grew it into a pretty sizable wholesale operation. We’ve been around for about six and a half years and all we do is buy properties to resell to fix-and-flip investors in California.

Issa Hanna (04:52)

I love that, man. And you guys are not playing around. In six years, you’ve closed over 2,300 deals. So major, major operators in the space. Northwestern man, it has a huge, reputable, amazing name. So we’re talking to basically an architect of their California market. You got to learn the wholesale game inside and out. And when you’re bringing

This many years of high level experience, man, in 2020 when you started your brokerage, it was just a recipe for success, I believe. I’m loving that. And the kids will make you think, right? The crisis, like you said, don’t waste a good crisis. It’s like, okay, well, let me do something for myself. you put together a great team and I want to pivot into the team because you have a partner who I actually share a little background with. We’re both former JUCO football players. He ended up playing in the NFL.

You took the army route. So you guys are two opposite guys but complement each other so well that it just works. I wanna kinda have you shed some light on the partnership, how’d you get started and then what makes it work so

Matt Miller (06:30)

Yeah, we definitely have a unique partnership, a really great way of working together. I think we’ve known each other since high school and we’re close since then. So the fact that we still get to work together still blows my mind. And it’s really fun as we both become, leaders and fathers and husbands and all these things. But I think some of the foundational experience that I experienced in the military where

You almost have to maximize all your resources because oftentimes there’s nothing else coming. it sort of contrasts with athletes and especially at the highest level collegiate sports and professional athletics, there’s always someone coming up to take your position. There’s always an able-bodied person. And I think the ability to think those kind of conflicting thoughts about a sales business or an investment business is helpful.

Because we both maximize our resources while also recognizing that recruiting and bringing new blood in is vital to being able to, serve the investors the best possible product to purchase.

Issa Hanna (07:33)

One hundred percent. And you guys, like you said, the army, the type of discipline and the type of inner fortitude that it instills in you is very similar to the collegiate level, right? playing collegiate level football or sports and then going on and playing professional. You have to be disciplined. and the one point I love that you made is there’s always somebody behind you ready to take your spot, right? So you get to learn.

to think ahead, to stay on top of your game, because if you’re not on top of your game, somebody’s gonna come take that spot. So y’all bring that right into the business world, and that’s what keeps you driven and motivated to stay at the top. Man, I’m loving this answers. Guys at home, make sure you’re taking your notes because we’re talking to a really high-level broker, somebody who really knows this stuff, and he’s giving you recipes to success and golden nuggets of knowledge. So

Take your notes. we got how you started. I wanna get some future stuff, right? you told me earlier some pretty cool things. you said yeah, an opportunity that you see in the future, I’m gonna let you take and tell our viewers what the opportunity is. that you told me about earlier.

Matt Miller (08:38)

Yeah, and I’ll give a little bit of backstory on some of the things that was important for us as a company to develop as we were growing Fair Trade, right? Started in 2020, business grew really fast. We had a lot of wind behind us, like everyone in the industry did. Lots of transactions going on. In the rear-view mirror it was kind of an easy time to be in real estate. But as we were growing and bolting on pieces of the business, bolting on personnel.

We recognized pretty quickly that we were gonna have to develop some tools and processes that were unique to us because nothing existed that we could use that was actually gonna function in our business. It was a bunch of different software, a bunch of different people inside and outside the company just coming together to make things happen. And we knew if we wanted to scale, we were gonna have to be strategic about that. And we spent a good amount of company resources.

both dollars and brain power developing a bunch of our own IP. That includes private marketplace, software development, our own custom version of Salesforce, that tracks the transaction end to end. We want to be able to do with a small back office support team the same amount of transactions as we did during our busiest times during the COVID years. with frankly, just with less people and better processes for specifically for our agents who are our core customers.

And I think we’re coming into an opportunity right now where as the market slows down, both capital markets, the real estate market in general, there’s going to be a definite have to sell scenario for a lot of homeowners. And that those are sort of the owners that we service, both through our direct marketing efforts and through other brokers that bring us opportunities. And I think there’s going to be a very big opportunity to help.

Turn over a bunch of these, functionally obsolete single family homes that are all over California. Most of our stuff was built in post-World War II. There’s no more land left to do major developments in unless you’re further out from the Los Angeles corridor in the Central Valley. So the markets we serve, we think there’s going to be a huge opportunity coming up for the fix-and-flip investors that are bringing these properties up to the standards that people are going to.

want today. Right amount of bedroom, bathroom count, fully updated, all the things that they’re going to expect when they’re coming in and, paying quite a bit for a new property.

Issa Hanna (11:36)

Definitely. And that’s a good thing. We were kind of talking about it earlier. Investing in already developed, established, like you said, everything was built in the 50s. You can fix-and-flip, you can buy. As opposed to like these other towns that are building up all this brand new housing that you have to compete with, Southern California, that is the opportunity because, like you said, that bubble is going to eventually come. So if you are ready to buy when that comes.

Make sure you contact Matt and let him make you some real money because it’s coming, you guys, and he’s foreseeing it. I’m loving this. I want to get your advice for some new guys right now, Matt. a lot of guys are just starting out, right? they might be afraid to invest in real estate. They might not know anybody that they can get some knowledge like we’re getting from you. they might be new real estate agents that don’t know where.

to get the ball rolling on establishing that network. If you had to give these new guys one piece of advice on where to get the ball rolling on growing their network, where should they start?

Matt Miller (12:36)

Well, I think where they should physically start is probably making sure they’re joining the right team. And if your focus is traditional residential luxury, new home construction sales, wholesale, fix-and-flip, being on the right team makes all the difference in the world. Being in the right room with the operators that are doing the things that you want to do, that are going to be able to teach you the things that you want to learn. so that’s

probably the first piece. And the second piece is the mental piece of just being curious and making sure you’re continually learning. But also not, let’s say, soaking in every piece of information and jumping through a bunch of different directions.

Being around that environment is really, really critical. And it’s very important that group that you’re joining has both the longevity and track record, but also the people in it are doing the things that you want to be doing. the other people in the organization are flipping houses, own rental properties, maybe have done lending, all the things adjacent to the investment space. You want to be around it as much as possible because.

If you’re around it and you’re immersed in it, you’re gonna do it and you’re gonna continue to level up and I think accomplish the things a lot of the new agents think can be accomplished. It just often takes a little bit longer than everybody hopes.

Issa Hanna (14:24)

One hundred percent. You gotta get around the right people actually shaking, moving in that aspect, in that niche of real estate that you want to be in, right? because in real estate, you can get lost. There’s so many different avenues you can go down. that if you’re jumping from here to there to there, ten years could go by and you’ve made no money. So find that specialty, get around people that are actually moving, making those deals so you can get that knowledge, you can get that experience under your belt.

And the rest will fall into place, man. Amazing knowledge we’re getting from you today, Matt. I want to give you the floor now. if my California investors wanted to find some fixing flips, deal with one of the most knowledgeable investment brokers there is in California. Where could they reach Fair Trade?

Matt Miller (15:06)

they can reach us on our website at fairtraderealestate They can reach me directly. you can share my cell in the show notes, but it’s 949-467-4966. Connect with me on LinkedIn. especially for all those people that are getting into the business, especially agents. And this is an interesting career path that maybe you didn’t even know existed until after you started at your traditional brokerage. And

It’s a lot better fit for people that like high volume transaction level, left brain thinking, financial analysts. It’s still a relationship business, but wholesale and fix-and-flip is really an interesting space in the business to be in. And when you know how to work with investors, you understand how to acquire properties, you’re naturally going to also be able to build up the ability to do these transactions on your own, whether it’s your own fix-and-flip projects eventually.

Or just buying and controlling a portfolio that is gonna help change the trajectory of your whole family. it all starts with being able to be in the right room with the right people. And part of that’s also the masterminds and just being around folks that have already done it. You need people that are older than you, that have more transactions under their belt, that have more money, more experience. And that’s gonna be the recipe for success.

Issa Hanna (16:20)

Hundred percent. And so to you new agents out there, explore this angle, California agents, give Matt a call. because yeah, this wholesale, this high volume thing, it’s a whole different angle. It’s great to learn. and you could probably with the right guidance from Matt, make a lot more than the retail real estate agent because you just got access to so many more deals with investors who have the money, they’re ready to go.

So if you’re in California and this is appealing to you and your ears are perking up, make sure to contact Matt. Make sure to contact Fair Trade. A wealth of knowledge in the investment space and full of integrity. it projects through the screen, Matt. amazing. And it was a true honor today to have you on the show.

Matt Miller (17:00)

Issa thank you so much for having me. I appreciate what you’re doing. And to everybody who’s out here learning, we all continue to evolve and get better. So don’t stop.

Issa Hanna (17:08)

I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation as much as I did with Matt. Remember, I talk to people every day that could bring us different knowledge on every aspect of real estate investing. Until next time, the Real Estate Pros are out.