How Abraham Gray Built a $45M Private Lending Business in Real Estate

Abraham Gray (00:00)

you just learn more about people. You learn just how some people can do anything, some people just aren’t capable, and some people can do it if you teach them and you give the right direction. So you definitely see a lot about people in general. you learn just about yourself because you probably fail more than you succeed. I’ve had more failures and successes. the reason why I’m doing so well, more every single year is because I learned from all the crap that I did wrong.

Quentin Edmonds (00:59)

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and we’re here with another podcast. I’m very, very interested to see how this conversation goes, because as I love when we can learn from other people’s experiences. I feel like we all can literally be doing the same thing, business wise within the same niche, but we’re gonna do some things differently because we are different, we process differently. And so today I’m so happy that we get a chance to peek through the lens of Mr. Abraham Gray. So, Abraham, how you doing today?

Abraham Gray (01:29)

Great, go ahead.

Quentin Edmonds (01:31)

Awesome. so let’s start here. I am the type, I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. if you don’t mind, give us a little bit of a origin story, kinda how you got started and then tell where you are in the world. People love to know that as well. So Mr. Abraham, sir, you got the floor.

Abraham Gray (01:47)

Yeah, so right now I am focused mostly on real estate. I have tons of properties I buy every single month for fix flips. I’m buying 25, 30 properties, fix and flip them or sell them to other fix and flippers. I buy a lot of rentals. I have over, almost 250 rentals now. and then I do a ton of lending. So anyone that borrow needs to borrow money in Georgia, because I focus primarily on Georgia and I do some Arizona. I have forty five plus million dollars out at all given times of my money and investors’ money. So anyone that ever needs loans or anyone that wants to put money into investing in loans, that’s what I do. And then I have dozens of businesses. So I have all kinds of entertainment businesses and home service businesses and retail stores and all kinds of online stuff. So I do a little bit of everything, but I’m primarily focused on the on the lending and on the Just buying properties for fix uplips.

Quentin Edmonds (02:38)

Love it, love it. So where did this passion from real estate? Where did that come from?

Abraham Gray (02:42)

it came from making money. yeah, I mean if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t care as much about it. But I started in business when I was really young when was fifteen and made a lot of money in my teenage years in my early twenties. And a friend of mine came to me and said that I should diversify, get into real estate as well. So when I was twenty two I got into real estate and I always kinda did real estate on the side as I was doing business. I’d buy a few rentals every single year just for tax purposes and just for long term wealth and eventually I got into fix and flipping, then got into lending. And when business kind of isn’t doing as well, I go more into real estate. When real estate’s kinda going slow, I get more into business. And after COVID happened, a lot of my businesses kind of went down a lot. So I just started focusing more on real estate. And since after COVID I’ve been more focused on real estate than business. But it goes it goes back and forth.

Quentin Edmonds (03:30)

Archie. Yeah. So, everybody that comes on, I make this statement, I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? We’re learning from every leg of our journey. We’re running learning from the failures, we’re learning from the success. So I would love to know what has the journey revealed to you about yourself? Has it made you more humble? Has it made you more disciplined? Has it increased your tenacity? Like what has the journey revealed to Abraham along Abraham?

Abraham Gray (03:52)

Yeah, no, mean definitely I would say that you just learn more about people. You learn just how some people can do anything, some people just aren’t capable, and some people can do it if you teach them and you give the right direction. So you definitely see a lot about people in general. you learn just about yourself because you probably fail more than you succeed. I’ve had more failures and successes. the reason why I’m doing so well, more every single year is because I learned from all the crap that I did wrong. So you learn that when things go bad, you learn that you keep going and you don’t give up. And that’s a really important feature that people should have. if I just gave up every time something went bad, I would be nowhere. So you learn that about yourself for sure.

Quentin Edmonds (05:13)

Gotcha. Absolutely, man. So, you very, very successful. So I know operations and systems are a major thing. So people that’s listening, I would love for you to let them know maybe what’s one operational thing that you’ve put into place, let’s say maybe the last year or two, that has really helped you define your success.

Abraham Gray (05:30)

You’ve got to have good people around you. You’ve got to have good partners, good managers, good people that run your operations. Without that, you’re gonna fail. And then you gotta have really good, KPIs, which basically you can look at and see what’s going right, what’s going wrong, so you could adjust and do better. But yeah, I mean, I have tons of spreadsheets of all different types of data. So you have to be able to, gather data and be able to understand how to how to look at it and then read it and know how to Change stuff based on what you see. Yeah.

Quentin Edmonds (05:58)

Yeah, I love that. So what’s next for you? What’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve to scale next?

Abraham Gray (06:03)

So honestly for me, the next thing is my kids are just becoming the age where they’re getting into business as well. My kids are eighteen, seventeen, and fourteen. And they’ve been doing stuff the last year, and a half with me and now they’re starting to be in the business. So I’m more just kind of target, getting them geared up so they can kind of do their own thing and be able to do everything on their own and not have to, use me for much stuff. And then of course I help them when needed, but My main thing is just teaching them what I do, teaching them what they’re interested in and letting them see how they do with what they what they want.

Quentin Edmonds (06:36)

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I love that. I loved how you mention your kids. I always everyone that comes on, I love to hear their unique perspective on the word relationship. So obviously I’m hearing you talk about your kids. you mentioned some other people who have helped you be successful. So give me your unique perspective on building healthy business relationships and how do you go about it?

Abraham Gray (06:55)

Well, you’ve gotta have, like I said, the right people around you. So anytime you have positive people around you, successful people around you, you’re gonna be successful and you’re gonna grow yourself. if you’re around people that are not doing good and negative, you’re going to do crap. I mean, you’re gonna do really bad. So I just make sure that no one’s ever negative around me. If they are, I make sure they don’t ever come around me again and I kick out. but I think that’s the most important thing. And you want smart people around you. You want people that could help you teach you, could learn from. So that that’s really important. I said earlier that I learned a lot from a lot of my mistakes and that sucks. That’s the worst way to learn. So once I realize that there’s better ways to learn, I start learning from other people that are really good at what I want to that I want to be good at. So I would definitely find people that have been successful in whatever you’re trying to do. Now I only care about a few things. Like I’m not really good at most stuff, honestly. Like I’m good at very few things. 90 some percent of stuff I’m not good at, but I don’t care because I don’t care about that stuff. I don’t want to be good at that stuff. So I don’t need to find people that are good at that. I just hire people that are good at that stuff. They just do it for me. The stuff that I want to be really good at, I find the people that are best at that. I pay them to teach me. And now I have to let make less mistakes and I learn faster. So that’s kind of the way to speed jump, and get faster, get to where you’re at faster.

Quentin Edmonds (08:11)

Absolutely. No, I think that’s great information, great nugget, great tip. Hey, listen, Mr. Abraham, is there anything else you would want people to know about you, about your business? Any other words of inspiration, education, motivation?

Abraham Gray (08:24)

I mean look, if I know anyone could do this. I know anyone can be successful. Anyone can make money, especially if you’re around the right people and you you figure out what you want to do. you just gotta find those people. If you’re in Atlanta, come to we have meetups every single month. Sometimes there’s weekly, sometimes there’s different meetups somewhere, even if it’s nothing to do with me, there’s meetups all the time. So if you wanna be good in real estate, you wanna learn and make money there, find your local meetups, go there. If you’re in Atlanta, let’s connect. I’m always buying, I’m always buying properties, I’m always selling properties, I’m always lending money, I’m always looking for money. So there’s a million ways to do to do business with me, but there’s a million ways to do business with anyone that’s in the business that’s even remotely successful. So I find those people and do deals with.

Quentin Edmonds (09:01)

Absolutely. I love it. Well, listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you?

Abraham Gray (09:46)

So the best way is by email. I’m like the fastest, by email. If you email me, I’m gonna respond quickly. So my email is my name Abraham at MMA like mixed martial arts and then atl like Atlanta.com. So it’s Abraham@MMAatl.com. But I have a YouTube channel, it’s Abraham Gray, G-R-A-Y is how you spell Gray, my last name. Instagram, Facebook. I answer all those messages. So any social media, email, those are the best ways to get a hold of

Quentin Edmonds (10:10)

Love it, man. Well, listen, thank you for your time. I think time is our most precious commodity. So thank you for that. thank you for just showing up as your authentic self integrity. Always believe when we show up as our real self, as our authentic self, and plant seeds for people, because they get to know the real us and we get to talk about the real things. So thank you for coming and planting some real seeds. And lastly, man, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. Appreciate you coming on. Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Mr. Abraham. His information is in the show notes. Please get in contact with him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here because we’ll continue to bring up amazing people, just like Mr. Abraham Gray. So, sir, thank you very much. And everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.