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Show Summary
In this episode, real estate expert Brian Grimes shares his journey from Wall Street to real estate development, focusing on cash flow, market strategies, and building scalable systems. Discover how to identify emerging markets, leverage relationships, and implement systems for long-term success.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Brian Grimes (00:00)
It’s definitely just a fuel. To me, the best way to get big in real estate is to start small. Start on the smallest deal you can find, get experience, and then apply that experience and knowledge to bigger deals in the future. So you shouldn’t chase doors. In fact, chasing doors is like a dog chasing cars.Scott Bursey (01:50)
Hi everybody and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey and today I’m joined by someone I’ve really been looking forward to chatting with. Brian Grimes. Brian is the founder of24-7 Cash Flow University, a premier coaching platform that has helped thousands of everyday investors navigate the complexities of property acquisition and renovations. With over $100 million in real estate transactions under his belt and a portfolio of hundreds of doors, he’s not just a theorist, he’s a massive scale developer who transitioned from a high-stress career on Wall Street to building a legacy through brick and mortar.
Brian, welcome to the show.
Brian Grimes (02:34)
Thanks for having me. Really appreciate it.Scott Bursey (02:36)
I think our audience is really going to take something away from your boots on the ground perspective of the Philly market. You’ve shown that you don’t just study these neighborhoods, Brian. You actively are transforming them. And that level of local expertise is a masterclass in market dominance. Let’s dive in, shall we? So first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world,Brian Grimes (02:56)
Let’s do it.Scott Bursey (03:01)
Give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days?Brian Grimes (03:05)
So my main focus is finding financing, rehabbing, tentating and managing properties for ⁓ really busy investors from all across the country. Even some who are from outside of the country. Like one of our investors is from New Zealand. We have a lot of people from Canada. So we help investors to invest in cheaper cities across the country like Philadelphia, like Baltimore, where your money can just go a lot further.And where the landlord tenant laws are a little bit more favorable than some of the markets like California, New York. So really focused on the work, helping other developers to scale. I’m still doing deals myself as well. So just staying in love with the real estate game.
Scott Bursey (03:45)
Awesome. And what markets are you operating in currently?Brian Grimes (03:48)
Currently, my favorite markets are two of the top five cashflow cities in the country, Philly and Baltimore. I have my eye on Detroit. I have my eye on Cleveland, but I’m pretty big on sister cities, cities that are next to more dominant cities like New York. As people get priced out, they move to Philly because a lot of New Yorkers hate Boston and like New England and the Patriots and kind of all that stuff, the Sox. If people get priced out of DC, they move to Baltimore typically.So getting into those sister cities allows you to ride that wave of momentum. And that’s where I placed the majority of my focus.
Scott Bursey (04:23)
It’s been a winning recipe, no question about that. What caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to prioritize cash flowing assets without sacrificing the appreciation potential of the neighborhoods you’re betting on. You have a unique eye for identifying path of progress areas before the rest of the herd catches up. You know, that’s not easy, especially in this climate.What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?
Brian Grimes (05:40)
I would say systems and personnel. If I’m good at one thing, it’s building really good systems. The best systems are actually simple. Simple systems can scale. They don’t break. The complex systems always break at scale. So I focus on simple systems where we can do, you know, 100 deals, 200 deals in a year and having the personnel built into those systems so that we can kind of function and continue to grow. As an investor,This is a team sport. This is not like tennis, golf. You’re not going to go out and do 100 deals by yourself. You need a big team. You need the contractors, the architects, the engineers, the permit expeditors, the lenders. You need a lot of different relationships. And then you need a behind the scenes team like your virtual assistants. You need to be able to scale and not burn out. So a lot of us think we’re going to just do this ourselves or this is like Property Brothers.
I’m gonna pick up a hammer and go in the house. It doesn’t really work like that. So if you wanna scale, you have to build those systems.
Scott Bursey (06:38)
Absolutely. Couldn’t agree more. It’s impressive that you’ve reached that level of autonomy. Was there a specific moment, Brian, or a particular deal where you realized, okay, this is actually working?Brian Grimes (06:51)
I would say when I did a deal, one of my early deals, feel like this was deal number eight, somewhere between eight to 15. I did a wholesale deal that I purchased for 80 grand, did a full gut rehab in about 30 days and refinanced, had the appraiser show up on like day 31 and was able to full cash out refi about 50,000 out of that deal, hold it as a rental property and cash flow four or 500 a month off of it.When I did that and I was coming to that property maybe twice a week, three times a week, really managing the contractors in-house, doing that gave me the confidence to say, I can keep this recipe going, I may have something special. So getting the hang of the full gut rehab process and taking that on, taking the reins and really owning the process and doing it quickly, that was kind of the eye opener.
Scott Bursey (07:44)
Absolutely, and you have reached a level that most people are really aiming for. So now, Brian, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments with us?Brian Grimes (08:03)
Definitely. I think it was when I was just getting serious about this back in 2015. I purchased three properties on a block next to LaSalle University for those who know the Philadelphia area out in Olney. One was ⁓ a tear down, one was a burnout, and one was just a cave in. Like the roof was in the basement, basically. And I had a contractor run off with 50 grand on that project. And thatI mean, that was set most people back and just kind of knock you out of the game. Luckily I had cash reserves, but that was what made me decide, you know, if I’m going to be serious about this, I need to step in. I need to learn the cost of construction. I need to learn how to do this myself so that I don’t get burned by a contractor out there. And that was ultimately what led me to build mentorship, build this program, build a done for you process where we can do it for you. Because I felt that was the only way I could help.
to protect other people from having that experience, from getting burned by some of these rogue contractors out there. So doing that, getting set back, having to deal with bringing in lenders for the first time, because I ran out of capital. So I brought in some community lenders. That was eye opening, getting that type of leverage. So I think that experience, which was a big negative of having somebody run off with 50 grand, pulled me deeper into the process. And my learning accelerated from there. So it was actually…
a blessing in disguise, believe it or not.
Scott Bursey (09:24)
Excellent insight. Remarkable. Looking at your business today, what tripwire or system have you built specifically so that exact misfortune doesn’t occur again?Brian Grimes (10:11)
So when we build houses for our members and our Done For You program, our Boots On The Ground program, because of my relationships, because I’ve built, you know, I’ve done over 450 of these projects at this point in time. I’ve done maybe 300 of those with my A-Team. Because of the relationship, they’re willing to work ahead of the money. So we will pull out of our pocket 30, 40,000. We’ll go in and do demo, framing, roofing, windows.and then we get reimbursed for work completed. So we actually do the work ahead of the money. And when that happens, you can’t get burned on construction now. You’re not going to have a contractor run away, say, hey, give me 20, 30 % upfront and then I’ll get started and run away. So we actually structurally changed it so that the work must be completed, inspected before money is released. That keeps everybody safe. And to me, that’s the best way to do business is where everybody’s safe.
Scott Bursey (11:03)
That’s a phenomenal safeguard. And that’s the kind of stuff people, you know, they don’t talk about enough. And honestly, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long-term. Let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next,Brian Grimes (11:06)
Yeah.Yeah.
really our AI acquisitions process. We’ve been working on a proprietary model. My team, we’re all programming it currently to pretty much data scrape from different listing services and find the best deals on the market with our in-house knowledge. Because we’ve done so many full gut jobs, we know the cost of construction down to the penny, right? So putting our brain programming
all of my experience into a AI algorithm and being able to find the best deals faster than the competition gets me and all of our clients in front of the best opportunities. It starts to box out the market. So we think that’s going to be a big value driver for our entire operation and for all of our members moving forward. And we’ve already started to see results. We put maybe 12 to 14 deals under contract in the last two weeks with this new model.
So it’s already accelerating things and we’re already seeing the return on investment.
Scott Bursey (12:19)
That’s staying ahead of the game. We see people chase doors of revenue all the time. For you, is that goal the destination or is it just the fuel that allows you to do something even bigger?Brian Grimes (12:32)
It’s definitely just a fuel. To me, the best way to get big in real estate is to start small. Start on the smallest deal you can find, get experience, and then apply that experience and knowledge to bigger deals in the future. So you shouldn’t chase doors. In fact, chasing doors is like a dog chasing cars.By the time you catch that door number, it’s not really going to mean that much. You’re not going to know what to do with it.
And you’re going to stop counting at some point. When I started, I wanted to do 10 deals in 10 years. I did 300 in about five to seven years. And I stopped counting after maybe 100 because you just fall in love with the game. You fall in love with the activity. I learned that from one of my early mentors. I said, hey, I want to make all this money. He said, Brian, if you want to make big money, fall in love with the activity. The money will follow the activity. And he was still working at 65, 70.
with the energy, more energy than somebody in their early 20s because he just loved the game. So I dedicated myself to falling in love with the game and everything else kind of falls in place.
Scott Bursey (13:33)
That’s big and some excellent words of wisdom, especially when you’ve already got the resource in place. That next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I know a lot of our audiences either earlier in their journey are looking to level up and I think they benefit from hearing this.When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?
Brian Grimes (14:42)
For me, it’s the understanding of what a middleman is versus leverage. So when you’re new to this game, you start thinking, I can cut everybody out. And that’s how I’ll save money. Everybody to you is a middleman. The realtor is a middleman. The lender is a middleman. So you start trying to cut everybody out of the process. And when you do that, you start absorbing their work. And you limit your scalability. The money is in the volume and the scale.So what you learn over the course of time is, sure, there are some middlemen, but there’s a lot of people who are just leverage and allow you to scale and do more with less. And you need to learn how to keep all of the people who are leverage and eliminate the people who are truly middlemen. But there’s a balance. And if you overdo it, you end up limiting scale. You end up hurting yourself, hustling backwards, one step forward, two steps back. So it’s learning who the good people are and then treating them well and understanding that everybody’s got to eat. This is a team sport.
design deals where everybody can win and you can scale indefinitely.
Scott Bursey (15:42)
Absolutely, and keep that momentum moving forward with that recipe. That’s outstanding. Everyone says provide value, but when you were starting out and didn’t have a huge bank account or a massive portfolio, what was your currency? How did you actually get the attention of the heavy hitters?Brian Grimes (15:45)
Yeah.The reward for good work is more work. So just doing the good work and paying the contractors, pay them one time, become known because even in any city for the people who live in all the major cities across the country, you kind of will also feel like this is kind of a big town at the end of the day. You get to know everybody and the word spreads the word of mouth. So if you do bad business with people, you don’t pay contractors.
You’re always giving people a hard time. You get a bad reputation. It becomes hard to scale. So for me, it was just doing good work, paying the contractors on time, and focusing on volume, acquisitions. If I can put more food on the table for the lenders, the contractors, the architects, the engineers, you become part of the ecosystem. And everything comes together to support you in the operation. We also build affordable housing in communities that need it desperately.
So there’s a, I feel energetic, universal energy reward for just going out and rebuilding communities that need it. So you’re of service to the community. The community will support you in ways that you can’t even fathom from the purview of just getting started. So just do the right thing. The reward is in the future and it will pay dividends.
Scott Bursey (17:14)
Definitely. Relationships are everything in this space. All right, Brian, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’ve been doing, what’s the best way for them to contact you?Brian Grimes (17:28)
You can find me on Instagram, briangrimes_247cfu for the twenty four seven cash flow university, which which I proudly, you know, where my twenty four seven cash flow. You can find me on LinkedIn, Brian Grimes, real estate. You find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on YouTube. Brian loves cash flow because I love cash flow on YouTube. So I’m out there. If you Google Brian Grimes, real estate, I’ll pop up and ⁓ we have a free training.that you can tap into that’ll teach you about our Done For You real estate program, how we can help you to tap into some of the top markets across the country and the Philadelphia market.
Scott Bursey (18:03)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and definitely your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators just like Brian, who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you in the next episode, everybody.Brian Grimes (18:14)
Thanks for having me.
