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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Erika interviews Abdullah Ghaffar, a successful entrepreneur in the real estate industry. Abdullah shares his journey from working in IT to discovering wholesaling and building a thriving business. He discusses the importance of systems, tools, and virtual assistants in scaling his operations, as well as the challenges he faced along the way. Abdullah emphasizes the value of consistency and the 10,000 hour rule in mastering any craft. Looking ahead, he shares his aspirations for new developments in real estate and the importance of mentorship in navigating challenges.
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Abdullah Ghaffar (00:00)
So now we’re JV-ing the deals so I even make more money by helping them get the property sold. So I’m helping my investor find a deal and you know I’m helping my client make money from that deal. And then I’m helping the cold callers with everything. When you pay your cold callers a salary, you’re actually helping them.with their livelihood and their family. you know So it’s like you’re helping everyone, especially in real estate. When a transaction is completed, everyone gets paid. The realtor gets paid, the attorney gets paid, title company gets paid, the cold callers get paid, the investor gets a lucrative deal, the seller walks away, he gets paid, the wholesaler gets paid, everybody gets paid. That’s what I love about real estate. I’m like, man, we’re changing lives here.
Erika (02:10)
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Erika. And today I’m joined by someone that I’ve been looking forward to chat with. Abdullah Ghaffar. He’s been shaking things up in the real estate world with his company, National Fast Offer. Abdullah, I’m glad to have you on the show today.Abdullah Ghaffar (02:28)
Thank you for having me, Erika.Erika (02:30)
I think our listeners are really going to be fascinated with how you’ve grown and scaled your business. let’s jump on in. First off, Abdullah, can you share with our listeners who aren’t really familiar with your world, how you got started in real estate?Abdullah Ghaffar (02:45)
Of course. So I got started on accident, actually. I was in IT, I was a business analyst, I was doing that for a few years, doing well in that, but end of the day when you have a job, you get belittled, you don’t get appreciated, and you know every time I would finish a project, I just get another one. And every time I was in a project, I’d still get more. So it was like, they would overwork me, which, you know it’s a job, and you know you basically…utilize your employee to the best of his abilities. And you’re just a number at the of the day. So I just wanted to get out of that rat race. That nine to five was just way too much. And then I discovered real estate because my dad’s friend, he at the time he had a mansion and Bentley, nice cars. asked my dad, hey, what does he do? And he said, oh, he does real estate. He’s a realtor. And I was like, oh, let me get into this. Let’s look into it. So I went on YouTube and
and I’ll Google, try figuring out how to get my license. So I went to class, finished up the class, and then I needed to pass the class, pass the exams. So I went on YouTube, typed in, how do I pass my real estate exam? So while in that process, I was reading into all this stuff, watching all these videos, and I came across wholesaling. Wholesaling where you don’t need a license, you don’t need a college degree, you don’t need much capital to get started, and I was just like, you know, let’s give this a try. I bought a list, started cold calling.
In the beginning, it took me a little time to understand the script, how to talk with homeowners, how to underwrite a deal, all that good stuff. How to find a buyer, which title company to use. There was a lot of, it was a whole learning curve. You know, it wasn’t easy, but after eight months, I closed my first deal and that first deal netted me $2,000. So it wasn’t about the money for me. was like, I made $2,000. I proved the concept. It doesn’t matter about how much money I made, but I proved the concept. From there.
when something works, when you’ve proven the concept and you know something works, you just go all in. So that’s what I did. Year two, started making more calls, got my brother involved, made $40,000, and then $100,000, then $200,000, and then just kept on going from there, and I started building a team around me to where now we’re doing hundreds of deals. We have a whole operation here, close to a decade in, and we’ve done over 500 deals.
Erika (04:54)
Wow, that’s incredible. well you know to get where you are today, were there certain tools or systems that you used to really help with that growth?Abdullah Ghaffar (05:53)
100 % in business. It’s all about the systems. It’s all about the processes of all the SOP and it’s all about the people that you have around there So some of the best systems that I’ve used and I still use it’s called prop stream Prop stream is my favorite tool where I can run coms I could look at all the comparables who’s bought what? What property is on the MLS what properties are selling to cash buyers for a to Z? So that tool itself has made me millions of dollarsYou know, that’s one of the tools. Other thing is like lead generation. Cold callers have helped me out a lot. When I first got started, I started cold calling myself and then I hired my first cold caller and then my whole business is ran from virtual assistants now. You know, where they bring in the leads, it goes to my acquisitions, they get the property under contract, it goes to my disposition. He sells the deal and deals with attorneys, the title companies and I get a call now.
when the checks cleared. You know so I’ve automated the business in a way to where I don’t have to work in the business, I can work on the business.
Erika (06:53)
Yeah, that’s really exciting. Tell me more about building out those virtual assistants because that was probably a whole story in and of itself.Abdullah Ghaffar (07:02)
⁓ 100%. So when I first got started, I was making the cold calls myself. And I said, you know, I only have eight hours in a day to make these calls. I need to buy back my time. I need more people to call. And I got my brother involved. So I’m like, okay, now we got 16 hours. I got a friend involved and you know, I got a few people involved and then, people come and go, you know how that goes. And I was like, I need more reliable people. Can’t hire friends. So I started looking overseas, Philippines.Pakistan, India, Venezuela, and then I came across Egypt. So I hired all different types of people. But what I realized, people have accents overseas. Yeah, they’re more affordable, few dollars an hour, but they have an accent. And if you’re talking to someone in America, especially for real estate, to buy their house and you have an accent, it kind of gives away that scammy type of feeling, you know? Well, people don’t want to sell to you. And then when I came to Egyptian callers, I was like, hey, these guys have phenomenal accents. They don’t even have an accent. They sound…
fluent, know, like you can’t even tell the difference. It’ll be little bit more expensive than the Pakistanis and the Indians and the Venezuelan, but I don’t mind paying a few extra dollars. I don’t mind paying $6 an hour or $5 an hour for a cold caller that’s going to sound fluent and it’s going to bring me leads. So I started with two callers and then I scale it up to four, then I went to 10 and at 10 callers, they’re bringing anywhere from like 30, 40, 50 leads each and I’m getting hundreds of leads coming in.
every single month and out of those leads we’re getting properties under contract and we’re making money and then you know once you start making money people start to notice like hey what are you doing you know that’s different than us and I’m like hey I’m just hiring people overseas having them call sellers I’m buying pre-foreclosures probates code violations absentee owners I’m buying all this data dumping into my dialer having my callers call and just bring me warm leads you know so I’m getting listings I’m getting off all off-market properties to where I could
sell to investors, could list the properties, could get first time home buyers to buy these properties, approved, I could do creative finance deals, innovation deals, all different types of stuff. And then, you know once I started going to these real estate events and seminars and all that good stuff, people started like, hey, can you help me get cold callers? And then this actually started in an accident. Then I started a virtual assistant company. It’s called AK Callers. So that’s such a high demand, and plus I’m on social media.
I bought a Lamborghini. I’d be like, yo, how’d you get a Lamborghini in your 20s? I was like, you know, it’s just real estate. And then it just came to a point where people wanted to cold callers for me. And then I’m like, you know what? could turn this into a business. And then started my own operation out there. And then started supplying real estate investors, people that want to fix and flip, landlords that want to buy and hold, wholesalers that want off-market deals, all that good stuff.
And now I have over 400 employees that work for me and I cater to investors like myself and I help them get off market deals.
Erika (10:26)
wow that’s really impressive and you’re helping the industry with that too.Abdullah Ghaffar (10:31)
100%. I built the community. So what happens is now my clients get all these leads that they get under contract and they’re like, hey, can you help me find a buyer?So now we’re JV-ing the deals so I even make more money by helping them get the property sold. So I’m helping my investor find a deal and you know I’m helping my client make money from that deal. And then I’m helping the cold callers with everything. When you pay your cold callers a salary, you’re actually helping them.
with their livelihood and their family. you know So it’s like you’re helping everyone, especially in real estate. When a transaction is completed, everyone gets paid. The realtor gets paid, the attorney gets paid, title company gets paid, the cold callers get paid, the investor gets a lucrative deal, the seller walks away, he gets paid, the wholesaler gets paid, everybody gets paid. That’s what I love about real estate. I’m like, man, we’re changing lives here.
now we have a community where we’re doing hundreds of deals, hundreds of leads are coming in.
People are getting hundreds of deals under contract every month and we’re just, you know, we’re just building.
Erika (11:28)
That’s awesome. So I feel like a lot of what we talked about so far, although it’s been great, it’s been very glitzy, shiny, exciting. Let’s talk about, you know, some of the tougher things. You know, working in real estate is tough. Being an entrepreneur is tough. Was there a moment on your journey, you know, maybe a deal went sideways, maybe you had to completely pivot what you were doing. Can you share one of those moments and what you learned from it?Abdullah Ghaffar (11:55)
Oh, 100%. So in the first few years of doing it, you know, like my first year, second year, third year, where I was making less than six figures, it came to a point where was like, I don’t know if this is the right thing. I was making more money doing my job. I can make more money doing this, doing that. But what I’ve realized, if you stay consistent on one thing, just one thing for five years, doesn’t matter what it is, suppose you want to be a barber, right?Your first haircut that you gave is gonna be the worst haircut. The second haircut you gave is gonna be better than the first. The 10th haircut, better than the other nine. Now when you’re on your 100th cut, 1000 cut, 10,000 cut, now you’re considered an expert in your industry. So I call it the 10,000 hour rule. Before you quit anything, if you like that craft, if like that profession, but you’re not making money, put in 10,000 hours in it and then see the outcome. In anything that you do, I’ve seen people that, chefs.
If you’re a cook, if you’re a chef, you’re not the best chef right off the bat. Yeah, you might know how to cook a little this and that, but the only way you get better is by cooking. So the more stuff you cook, the more recipes you make, and this and that, you get better at it. So same thing with the real estate. I wasn’t the best. I wasn’t good at all. But I put in the work, and then after I put in the 10,000 hours, now I’m starting to enjoy the fruits of my labor. you know so in the beginning, it’s going be tough.
And anything that you guys do, doesn’t matter if it’s wholesaling, doesn’t matter if it’s fixing and flipping, if you want to buy rental properties, it’s going to be tough. There’s times where I wanted to quit, but if you just stay consistent and you follow the 10,000 hour method, I’m telling you, there’s light on the other side.
Erika (13:32)
Yes, yes, that is an encouraging message right there.Abdullah Ghaffar (13:35)
Thank you.Erika (13:36)
Abdullah, what would you say is next on the horizon? You’ve done a lot of wholesaling, buying old flips, you got AK collars. What’s next on the horizon?Abdullah Ghaffar (13:45)
Well, this is a surprise. I didn’t really tell anyone this yet, you know? But I’m in the works and in the talks of getting into new development. You know, I don’t want to just develop new houses. Yeah, if you, you know, get land, especially as a wholesaler, I come across all types of stuff. come across single family, duplex, tri’s, quads, multis, land, mobile homes, all different types of stuff. So we’re trying to pick up a big, you know, a few, you know, a big parcel, maybe like anywhere from like a 10 acre property.10 acre piece of land and develop on that, you know, and make townhouses or even single family houses. And I want to to new development because each project could net you anywhere from 200 to $400,000, you know. Unlike wholesale and fix and flip, yeah, you can make good money. It’s a great way to build capital, but this is like the next level, you know, especially new construction. So that’s the next move. That one again.
Erika (14:36)
Yeah,that’s really exciting. Are there any challenges that you foresee with entering that market?
Abdullah Ghaffar (15:25)
Well, I still want to stay in real estate because that’s the niche. There’s challenges in everything. When I was wholesaling, there were challenges. When I was fixing and flipping, I got robbed many times by GCEs. People broken into copper, took appliances, whatnot. There’s all those challenges there. When I got into rentals, there were challenges there where people don’t want to pay rent and I have to figure out what an eviction is. And I have to the whole eviction process, hire an attorney, do cash for keys.there’s challenges there, right? And I know there’s gonna be challenges on new development, but the thing is, you have to hire a mentor. That’s what it is. When I started doing all these things, I did everything myself. But what I realized, when you hire a mentor, he’s gonna help you skip those hurdles. So that’s what I wanna do when it comes to new development, is hire a mentor and he’s gonna help me skip those hurdles. And he told me how it works, it’s very simple. You get the land, you put the foundation, it’s step by step, it’s more.
cleaner than doing a fix and flip. Because on a fix and flip, you already have bones, existing bones. So now you’re just playing around with what they already have. Wholesale is a great way to build capital. Rentals is great for cash flow. You got depreciation, you got cost segregation, you got bonus depreciation, tax write-off. It’s a great tool for taxes. You got multiple ways to save money using real estate. So that’s one thing that I love about that. But I know there’s going be challenges.
There’s challenges in everything. Like even my call center, I had a lot of challenges. Getting to 400 employees, close to 500 employees, it didn’t happen overnight. We had to fire a lot of operation heads. We had to fire quality teams. We had to fire many people, hundreds of people before we got to the level we’re at.
Erika (17:03)
Yeah, sometimes you gotta say no to get to the ultimate yes.Abdullah Ghaffar (17:08)
100%, 100%. Thing is, you’ve got to fall on your face a few times before you know how to walk. It’s like a child. So first you crawl, you’re crawling, it’s all sweet. But then once you start walking as a baby, you fall. You fall on your butt, you fall on your face, you fall on your hand, you fall many times. But then eventually it comes to a point where you don’t fall at all. So it’s just like, that’s the…Same type of thing here where it’s like in real estate, you’re gonna fall just like a baby, you know? Imagine yourself a newborn baby. First you’re have to learn how to crawl, then you’re learn how to walk. know, once you know you’re gonna fall a few times on your face, your butt, but once you master how to walk, then you’re gonna be, then you can start running, then you can start cycling, then you can start driving, then you can start flying, you know? So it’s like, that’s the concept that I would say, that’s an analogy I would give in anything, you know?
Erika (18:03)
Yeah, yeah, wow. I don’t want to stop the momentum here, but after you saying that we’re flying here, I do have to land the plane on the podcast here. Abdullah, if someone here listening wants to connect, reach out, learn more, what’s the best way for them to reach you?Abdullah Ghaffar (18:21)
My name is Abdullah Ghaffar on all platforms. I go by I Hustle Bro. That’s like the, that’s a slang that I have, because you know, I’ve been hustling all my life. So you could type in I Hustle Bro on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat. I’m on every platform. You know, I post content. I educate. I’m an educator as well. I help people get into real estate. I love to do deals with my students and my clients. So if you guys need lead generation, if you guys want to learn how to wholesale.You guys already wholesale and you want to do JVs, I would love to be your guy to help you make some money.
Erika (18:53)
That’s great. Well, Abdullah, I really appreciate you sharing all of this on the podcast. It’s been really wonderful.Abdullah Ghaffar (19:01)
Thank you so much for having me.Erika (19:03)
And for our listeners, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pros podcast. We’ve got more conversations lined up with experts like Abdullah who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.
