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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Caleb Luketic, a seasoned real estate professional with a unique approach to creative financing and wholesaling. Caleb shares his journey in the real estate industry, discussing his extensive experience, the current market challenges, and the importance of systems and networking. He emphasizes the need for massive action and resilience in the face of market shifts, encouraging listeners to take risks and learn from their experiences.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Caleb Luketic (00:00)
Yeah, I mean, I think that a couple things one like it’s gonna be okay. It is ⁓ things happen in the business world that you might not be able to control or you can maybe messed up right? You’re like, gonna made a bad choice. Right? Listen, been there done that right? ⁓ Came out of losing a half a million dollars, not pretend equity money know like real dollar like dollar bills like actual money that I did not have that I haddig out of that hole. ⁓ And through what through bad choices. But guess what, no bad choices, such a such a bad choice on the business front that like you can’t out hustle your way out of it, right? You can always hustle more to get yourself out of it.
Quentin (02:14)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Q Edmonds. Y’all know I’m super, super excited to be here today. We have another guest that’s just full of so much value that is going to give you some, a peek behind his lens, through his lens. And he’s kind of like a unicorn. mean, this guy knows what he’s doing. He has his niche down pack and I’m just excited for him to talk to us about it. And so please.Allow me to introduce you guys to Mr. Caleb Luketic. How you doing today,
Caleb Luketic (02:51)
Good man, yeah good, thanks for having fun andQuentin (02:53)
⁓ I’m super excited, man, again, to have you here today to be able to peek through your lens.I’m excited to have you here.
I’m excited about your unique advantage that you have within this space that we call real estate. But just the different ways you do with your creative finance. then really, you know, I want you to talk about what you do. So let’s do this. Let me step back. I want you to take us into your world. Tell us the things that your main focus is these days. If you want us to tell us a little bit of the backstory of how you got to where you are, that sounds great as well. And also tell us what markets you’re operating in.
I pretty much just stick this into your world, Mr. Caleb.
Caleb Luketic (03:32)
Yeah, absolutely. So a little quick background, kind of highlight level version. Been in real estate since about 2016 and done pretty much, you know, anything and everything you can think of. ⁓ You wholesale innovations, owner financing, sub two stuff. You know, I mean, you name it, been there, done that, right? Have done well over 300 transactions and, ⁓ you know, ⁓ people probably know me a lot on the marketing front of things.I used to run a very, very large agency. And I’m sure there might be people listening right now that I used to run your ads. And so or I still do. I don’t know, maybe. Right. So, you know, one of those things, man, that about a year and a half ago, roughly, I just really well, really, I guess it’s about two years ago now that I was just like, man, I miss houses. I just I miss real estate side of it. just marketing’s fun. I love it. I’m fantastic at it. And, you know, I just and there’s just I just love houses. And so
You know, that kind of led me back into it and was was doing some ⁓ marketing for some pretty big companies, one of which, you know, I mentioned them, you guys would know it. ⁓ And, ⁓ you know, just got back into this. And so I’m over in East Tennessee. When people think of East Tennessee, they’re like, Chattanooga, my good friend, David Olds down there. You you’ve got usually Knoxville. It’s like, I’m even further east than those.
in a little small market called the Tri-Cities. so most known for either two things.
Number one, if you’re a NASCAR fan, the Bristol Motor Speedway or the most famous one, Darius Rucker named Johnson City in the song Wagon Reel. And so that’s typically I’m like, know, Johnson City and they’re like, oh, Darius Rucker. I know I’m like, yeah, Darius Rucker. Yeah. So and so that’s kind of where I’m at.
⁓ And yeah, you know, we’re really focused right now on all things creative, financing and wholesale. We’ve been flipping a lot of I’m actually licensed general contractor as well got our own crews and all that stuff. But as I’m sure everybody listening to this, you’ve seen the market kind of shift a little bit. And so we’re doing the same things. We’re like, okay, it was here, right? We were just talking about this that, man, we’ve got
Quentin (06:39)
youCaleb Luketic (06:39)
a house that we an appraisal in hand at 419.And we have it listed at 359 and not even one showing and the house is brand new. I we’re talking, it’s very well done, brand new everything, right? Like literally electrical plumbing, roof siding, windows, right? Everything. And it’s just not moving. And you’re like, okay, so what’s going on in the marketplace? And so we’ve been able to kind of step back and look obviously wholesaling that’s not going anywhere. We’re, you know, we
network with a ton of different investors, and we’re moving deals all day long, but really creative financing. And so with us being able to go and sell on terms to people owner financing, it really, I started to pick up on this. And people started to say, man, thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to buy this house, right? And I’m like, ⁓ interesting. Okay. And I just kept hearing those same things. Whereas on the flip side, that’s funny, but I met on the flip
Quentin (07:34)
Ha ha ha,Caleb Luketic (07:35)
side, right? ⁓Quentin (07:35)
yes!Caleb Luketic (07:36)
Is like, we literally have this one, have this one house that the garage door color, three people, I kid you not. They’re like, I don’t like the color of that. So we’re going to offer on a different house. Like, so tell me to replace the garage door. And I happily with no questions asked, I’ll do it. It’s, you know, what 2500 bucks, maybe easy. Let’s do it. Right? No, like, that’s the reason that they said why they’re not offering and I’m like, but I’llfix the thing that you don’t want. You know, just banging your head against the wall. Like, what do I have to do to sell these houses versus people being like, thank you so much. I never thought I could do this. Right. So so that’s just kind of, know, really what we’re diving into more of and really focusing on that end of it. And it’s been great. Really excited. We’ve, got people just even somebody today that looked at one of our houses that wants to buy it on on owner financing was like, is this
Is this real? Like, yeah, like, you know, you know, we’re talking to him like, then Google us like we’re real, got 150 five star reviews online, we’re like, I’m local, this is real, dude, like for real, you know, so I know just really allows us to tie deeper into the community and again, give people opportunities that others may not give them. And so which is own a house in the American dream, right?
Quentin (08:33)
Yeah, yeah.Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Miss Kayla, I gotta be honest, man. The more you talked and the more I just was keying in on you, got a little jealous about your beard and your glasses, man. I’m like, he’s doing it better than me. I got a little jealous, but I’m gonna get back on track. But I just, I had to point that out. I was like, But no, man.
Caleb Luketic (09:15)
In the wintertime,it gets a little more Amish-like. I don’t like cold, so kind of get a little thicker, a little fluffier. Summertime though, man, I’m sweating, dude. Even now, I’m like, all right, we got to cut down some on it, man. It’s getting a little…
Quentin (09:22)
Gotcha!Yeah, me.
I know what you mean, brother. I know exactly what you mean. But man, I mean, that’s incredible. Thank you for sharing, know, coming from dominating the marketing world, doing that at a very high level. And then, you know, with the owner financing, I mean, this is great, man. This is honestly great success. And you make it sound easily, easy, but I know sometimes in this climate,
It’s not always easy. So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smooth?
Caleb Luketic (10:39)
Yeah, I mean, man, I think the the biggest thing ⁓ has really been our systems, right? I mean, having a great team, obviously, like having processes and systems. So if somebody’s out, somebody else can step in and jump in and do that stuff. Right. Just even today, right, our acquisition manager, his ⁓ fiance now had to go to the emergency room for a couple things happening andAnd the beautiful part about it is that our team was able to fill in and step up and overcome that, right? And so again, when you build processes and systems, I think that’s the biggest thing that you need to have. And of course, the marketing stuff, I tell everybody this, I kind of have an unfair advantage a little bit because, I I’ve spent and managed over $20 million on Google ads and the…
the social ads on Facebook, YouTube, you you name it, right? And so I’ve got kind of that different insight a little bit. And so that’s really the secret sauce, if you will, of the thing that’s kind of kept us, you know, ⁓ rolling, man, that when direct mail is not doing well, when TV ads haven’t been doing well, like the things that constantly do well, Facebook, Google ads.
SEO constantly, right? Those are the those are those things that that are the consistency for us that when in doubt, we can rely on those three channels, they always perform, they’re great. And so I, you know, I think really, that’s the consistency part of it that we know, hey, if marketing spends not going somewhere, and it’s just not working well, like, again, we always can fall back on it kind of, okay, catch our breath reset while we still have leads coming in and then go back and
hit it, right? And so I think that’s the biggest thing. Yeah.
Quentin (12:40)
Yeah, yeah. No, I love it, man. And I thank you for that unique perspective. That’s actually the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough. And, you know, being honest about, listen, I got a leg up. I’ve been in these spaces. The things that you’ve done have kind of propelled you to be a little bit ahead of the game and see things from a different perspective and unique advantage from other people. And so I appreciate you, Shana. I appreciate that, honestly.Let me ask you, what are you most focused on solving next? Like what’s the next real goal for you, Mr. Caleb?
Caleb Luketic (13:13)
Yeah, I mean, I think really, man, we’re pivoting in the market, right? ⁓ You know, I really think that’s the biggest thing. You know, we’re slowly expanding into two new markets right now. Just kind of testing the water a little bit. Okay, let’s see what we can hear. Let’s see if it makes sense. You know, we talked about this some, but ⁓ you know, earlier this year we…kind of figured out, you at one point, you know, we were spending 30 to $35,000 a month on marketing, you name it, had it happening. And we really dug into the KPIs of that. And when we were spending, you know, 15 to 18,000 a month, we got the exact same results. And I’m like, so tell me I could have built my wife, the, you know, the outdoor stuff that she had wanted. I’m like, all right, listen to this, because she’s gonna be mad if I tell her that, ⁓ you know, so
Quentin (14:04)
Hehehe!You
Caleb Luketic (14:11)
Seriously, right? Like you think about that, they’re like, all right. You know, obviously, though, on the flip side is all right, dude, if I would have made that and tripled it, you’re like, yeah, baby, that’s such a, you know, hindsight’s always 2020. But but still trying to be very, ⁓ very methodical and how and where we’re spending money. So I really think those are the biggest two things of dealing with the market. How’s it shifting, adapting, offering lower, we’re already offering, telling sellers, hey,Quentin (14:18)
Yeah, yeah.Caleb Luketic (14:40)
If you called me two months ago, I would have paid you that much money. But now it has to be 20 % lower because the market’s telling us that we’ve got legitimate data in front of us that that’s telling us this. And so this isn’t like we’re making this up.again, that’s where you’ve got the good systems and processes that kind of link into those things. ⁓ So yeah, just trying to be wise, trying to make the great choices that are going to
make us go upside down, right? It’s like, okay, how can we maybe expand to some markets, increase wholesale revenue, do some more owner financing, transactions and, and really at the end of the day, just okay, get our bearings right with where the market’s going. And I don’t know if any of us will for the rest of this year, hopefully we can figure it out, right? If somebody figures it out, hit me up, let me know. ⁓ Because I would love, I would love to know. but yeah, man, that’s, I mean, that’s really it. Yeah.
Quentin (16:19)
Absolutely, man. We’re going to start a fax machine kind of chain. Like when we figure it out, we’re just going to fax each other. You know, I had one guy, so you he was selling me, man. He said, man, I go all the way back with fax machines was a real thing. You know, I was like, yeah, we ain’t heard that mentioned in a long time about fax machines, I hear you. Go ahead.Caleb Luketic (16:39)
I’m like, I had to call the title company like borrow your fax machine. These people are stuck in 1995. Sorry, like I don’t like, sorry.Quentin (16:46)
Yeah,absolutely. But that’s big, I’m moving into, I’m trying to move into two new markets. You know, and I hear you when you talk about systems, you know, one thing about systems, systems build a discipline that can keep us from being emotional. And you were talking about like the numbers, when the numbers make sense, they make sense. It is what it is. And if it’s not, we can’t make it what it’s not. And so I love the fact that you talk about systems and
Man, you’ve been in for a long time. know, the next move, it can either compound things or it can create total chaos depending on how you play it. And so ⁓ I love hearing when you talk about systems, people talk about systems. I love hearing it because systems keep you disciplined and disciplines keep you from being emotional. So I absolutely love it, man. I absolutely love it. Now, you know, before you and I, we’ve been talking and you talked about, you know, mentors, you know, so I think this…
question would be good hearing from you, listeners, seeing this from your perspective, because we have listeners that’s the early in their journey, or they could be looking to level up. But I think they have benefit hearing when it comes to relationships. So when it comes to relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you, Mr. Caleb?
Caleb Luketic (17:52)
Yeah.Yeah, man, I think that ⁓ a couple things getting in rooms that are smarter than you, right? Figuring that stuff out. I I can’t tell you ⁓ how much money I’ve spent on just purely education masterminds, things like that. You know, man, I’ve spent, you know, better part of, you know, a quarter of a million dollars over the years on just self development, ⁓ education. Now, obviously, someone sitting there is like, well, good for you. I don’t have $250,000.
Well, I’ll be honest, I’m not some billion gajillionaire either. I don’t really just like, oh, yeah, let’s go buy a Lamborghini, right? No, this was in increments of maybe 5000, 10,000 seeing these different things and how I’ve been able to take that and the relationships and have coupled that into go make more elsewhere. And so I think that’s really the the one of the biggest things. And just going to like local meetups, that’s a phenomenal way to get in with who in the marketplace locally, wherever you’re at is is
doing deals, right? And they’re gonna be the ones you’ll learn real quick. Every market has them guys that are they’re just willing to share information for free because typically they’re gonna be a little older vets that have been in this for a long time. They’re like, man, I just want to see other people succeed. And so I mean, you get around those guys and the best thing to do is when you bring a deal, hey, let’s partner on this deal. Do you mind if we partner on this renovation? If we partner on this, if we do
you’ll find real quick that when you start making other people money, they’re real quick to tell you and share a lot of things with you. And then all of sudden now, man, you’re gonna really get in there. ⁓ But honestly, yeah, all that’s great. Just do it. Like, I, yes, all the all of the masterminds in the world, ⁓ all of the educational stuff, all of the, if you’ve never done a deal, just go jump in your vehicle, start driving around. If you’re too lazy.
get on Google Maps and start doing it there. You know, straight from your iPad, computer, phone, whatever. You know, all of a sudden, if you just do it and just start putting yourself out there, and you stumble your way into it, you just get yourself all of sudden, man, you’re gonna build those muscles up, you’re gonna build that muscle, that muscle of okay, this is what it looks like to do a transaction, it gets us something done. So again, the biggest thing is just go make it happen. And you can kind of figure out the rest of it later.
Quentin (20:09)
Yeah.Caleb Luketic (20:22)
But man, massive action, massive action over perfection and all this stuff. Like, then give me the person that that that takes massive effort, massive action that might get stuff wrong along the way, but they’re willing to put the work in versus somebody who’s going to be that perfectionist. it’s gonna be perfect. They haven’t even made a phone call yet or, you know, done something like no, man, you got to just jump in and make that happen. Got to.Quentin (20:48)
Yeah. No, I love it, man. A lot of us, we store up knowledge, but it’s the applied knowledge. You got to take what you hear, what you learn, and you got to apply it. And connecting with the right people, they can give you the information, but you got to go out and apply it. And so definitely connect with the right people. They can give you the information. Man, it runs with people smarter than you. You get a lot of knowledge, and then you got to go and apply that knowledge. And so I hear you very, very clearly, man. Very, very clearly.Listen, I want to open it up the floor to ask you, is there anything pressing within your heart, within your mind that you feel like people might need to know that something, a word that can educate or inspire people? I mean, you come from years of experience. so I just, if there is something that you feel like, Hey, you know, I’ve been thinking about this and I really feel like people need to know this. I just want to open up the floor now for you to maybe share that.
Caleb Luketic (21:38)
Yeah.Yeah, I mean, I think that a couple things one like it’s gonna be okay. It is ⁓ things happen in the business world that you might not be able to control or you can maybe messed up right? You’re like, gonna made a bad choice. Right? Listen, been there done that right? ⁓ Came out of losing a half a million dollars, not pretend equity money know like real dollar like dollar bills like actual money that I did not have that I had
dig out of that hole. ⁓ And through what through bad choices. But guess what, no bad choices, such a such a bad choice on the business front that like you can’t out hustle your way out of it, right? You can always hustle more to get yourself out of it.
So then I would just say that anybody that’s, you know, the markets kind of stressing them out, different things like that, like, man, go study some history, go go study some economic history, what happened.
in 2008, 2009, back in the 70s, even back into the 20s, go back and go read and look at history of what’s happened when the markets are fearful and all these things. Look at the wealth that’s created out of it. I I just had recently seen something that somebody shared, what came out of 2008, 2009, that massive crash, all these companies now that today, we’re like, we can’t live without them. And all of sudden,
like, ⁓ Uber, ⁓ Facebook even is one of those, right? You know, like all these companies like, I’m sorry, but when I’ve traveled, I’ve definitely gotten food, Uber eats my room, okay, like, right, like that stuff, right? Like that didn’t exist. types of things that were like, well, duh, those just are no, man, those didn’t exist. Somebody had to take that risk and do that stuff. And so, man, anybody that’s feeling like I am like, Alright, what’s this market doing? What’s going on? Like,
Quentin (23:20)
Yeah.Caleb Luketic (23:34)
guys, it’s gonna be okay, make good decisions. Now is the time when your processes and systems, they’re gonna rise to the occasion. And I’ve seen it now, you’re gonna start seeing it too, I’m sure. I’ve already seen people bow out and go out of the market. They’re like, hey, we we stopped marketing completely. I’m sorry. So you’re telling me you just gave me a bigger share of the market? Thank you. Right? That listen, it’s gonna come it’s gonna happen. People are gonna drop off.It just means bigger opportunities are waiting there for you and for me too.
Quentin (24:09)
Man, so well said. I think about, you know, Zoom and Google Meet was around, but how it spiked when COVID hit, I mean, took off. so, but they had, they had the system in place, right? And so when people came calling for it, it was there. And so that’s why I love when you preach systems. Systems, again, keep you disciplined. Discipline can keep you from being emotional. But when you got the system in place, who never knows, like you said, when they come calling for it, you already got it in place.Caleb Luketic (24:18)
Right?Quentin (24:36)
The times are changing, man. The systems are putting in place, people are calling for them. So I hear you, sir. I you loud and clear, So listen, sir, listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you,Caleb Luketic (24:51)
Yeah.Man, you know, the coolest thing is I’m the only one to me in the world. So if you literally type Caleb Luketic, you did Google, right? Facebook, whatever. I’m the only one to me that even exists, man. That’s seriously out there. So if you just type Caleb Luketic, again, you’ll find me. My personal site is Caleb Luketic, dot com, social media, real easy. ⁓ Man, I’m my real estate company.
Quentin (25:03)
Come on, Yeah.Caleb Luketic (25:19)
Google me. You’ll find it. You look my name up, you’ll find it. I’m not even gonna give it to you. You can find it, yeah.Quentin (25:20)
Yeah. Yeah.love it. So listen, as we close the show, I’m going to refer to you from now on, from here on out, as we close this show to Mr. Luketic I messed it up. So Mr. Luketic, no, no, man, no, man, no, man, with some respect to you. Mr. Luketic, thank you, sir. Mr. Luketic, you have been wonderful. Mr. Luketic, I thank you for your story. I thank you for your time. I thank you for your perspective. No, no, really, man. I thank you for just investing us with your time, giving us your time.
Caleb Luketic (25:36)
You’re good, man.after the break.
Quentin (25:55)
I’m here to drop some valuable nuggets and I know all you, listeners and viewers are really going to appreciate this episode. So, sir, I really appreciate you. Thank you,Caleb Luketic (26:03)
Awesome, and thanks so much. love it. And hopefully somebody got something that’s going to help them take it to the next level here.Quentin (26:09)
Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. So, man, y’all heard it. Listen, y’all say, y’all know when you get to this point, I say the same thing over the time, all the time. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations. Mr. Caleb gave us valuable information and we’re going to continue to bring people up. That’s just going to continue to give you valuable information. So you have to make sure you’re subscribed so you do not miss out. So Mr. Luketic Luketic, thank you again, sir. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
