How Creative Real Estate Investing Creates Deals When Traditional Financing Fails

Erick Jimenez (00:00)
They knew that. So they started working me sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety hours, which I didn’t think any human being could do, ninety hours a week, but I did. So literally working for pennies on the dollar while my wife and the kids get to go to Disneyland. Dad’s at work, busting his hump and busting his butt, not enjoying the kids. So I had to have I guess a coming-to-Jesus type of talk with myself and God, and I said, “You know what? I need maybe do this real estate thing. Is it real?”

Joseph Crooms (01:56)
Hey everyone. Welcome to Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, I’m Joseph Crooms. Today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking to draw forward to chatting with. Very proactive guy. His name is Erick Jimenez. Erick has been in the real estate business for a while, making some serious moves. Talking about… was a former flipper, but he’s advanced in his knowledge, advanced in his approach to real estate. So hey, Erick, say good hello to everybody.

Erick Jimenez (02:28)
Hey, how you doing? Hope you’re having a great one out there. Hope you’re rocking and rolling. Hey, I— and I say, Joseph, thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate it. I’m here to do my part the best possible way I— I— I can, and I appreciate it. And say, hey, how— how y’all out there in the United States of America and the world?

Joseph Crooms (02:43)
Alright, Erick. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching the real estate industry from in your niche also, and even though it has expanded. So let’s dive in. So first of all, for people who may not be familiar with your world, Erick, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days, and what markets are you operating in?

Erick Jimenez (03:06)
Sure. The main focus is creative real estate investing, and that’s gonna be subject-to existing financing, seller financing, options, lease options, all the good stuff. All the exit strategies that are what I like to call in the untraditional, I guess, arena. And so… but we still dabble in the public sector as well, because we have a brokerage and a lending company, but the private sector… so in a nutshell, I focus on creative real estate investing, going after, yes, the pre-foreclosures and deals like that. We’re all in all four counties in Southern California is where we focus on.

We also are in the Texas Triangle area, we’re in Florida. Wherever we have boots on the ground, we will establish and go into that market. And the goal is to obviously dominate and for ourselves and what we can do along with the people that we’re working with in those areas. But dumb— but pr— predominantly, it’s all creative real estate investing. I enjoy that stuff. I enjoy, you know, the negotiating and all that good stuff and working with other people. So it’s put— it’s a bit of a passion. So we’ve launched some other stuff with, you know, the training, coaching, mentoring, stuff like that. But we’re in the game, so that’s my jam, Joseph. I love the negotiation process and working with sellers environment.

Joseph Crooms (04:09)
Okay. So Erick, when you first started in real estate, you… I guess you were a broker, that what that’s… and you started flipping homes first, or what— what did you do? How did you start?

Erick Jimenez (04:16)
Well, my wife was in the lending business and she said, “Go get your real estate license, Erick, so you can bring me deals.” I’m like, “I don’t want to be a real estate license… I don’t want to get a license. I don’t want to babysit agents or buyers. I like the language of an investor.” “Go find me the ugliest house on the block, Erick, and I’ll get you some money.” I said, “Really? I c— I can do that.” So that’s what I started doing. I started off as a bird dog, and then I eventually started, you know… I wanted just to fix and flip property. So was working a corporate job, right, at forty-five hours on a salary. And I wanted to move up the corporate ladder.

They knew that, so they started working me sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety hours, which I didn’t think any human being could do, ninety hours a week, but I did. So literally working for pennies on the dollar while my wife and the kids get to go to Disneyland. Dad’s at work, busting his hump and busting his butt, not enjoying the kids. So I had to have, I guess, a coming-to-Jesus type of talk with myself and God, and I said, “You know what? I need maybe do this real estate thing. Is it real?” So I had do some research, figure out, is it real? Can I really buy properties with no money, no credit, and all this good stuff— five dollars, ten dollars, and all everything that you hear back in the past and stuff up today?

And I— and I just started researching. And then I started… I go, “Well, I don’t have a bunch of money, I don’t have credit. Hard money is, you know, 30% of my bottom line. How— I still gotta come up with money. How am I gonna do that?” So, but I just jumped in. I built the brands because I’m— I was big on branding with my corporation or that corporate company that I work with. So I put the branding together, I put the websites together, didn’t know anything about it, and then just went with the full launch, got an LLC and all that good stuff, and started moving forward, and started moving forward in the business.

And that’s how it all started, right? So I was… so then I went and got another job. I quit my corporate job. Everybody thought I was crazy. Said, “What are you doing? That’s crazy. You got benefits, you know, you got… you gonna get your 250k a year, picket fence, send the kids to college, get your cars.” I said, “That’s expensive stuff.” So, you know, kids are expensive. I said, “If I keep on doing this, I’m probably gonna die, and I’m gonna die young. I need to fulfill… I wanna go… I wanna do this real estate thing.” So I talked with my wife, she thought I was crazy. I talked with family, thought I was crazy.

I quit my job, got a management job working from 4:30 to 2:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. I said, “I’m not working weekends,” but they made me say, “You’re in management, you gotta work at least one Saturday.” No problem. So I said I’ll do it. So I already s— I was already 45 hours on a week. I said, “Well, I’m already working 90 hours with the other company. I’m gonna spend the rest of my 45 hours all on real estate. And I’m gonna make this happen.” The— the pivotal point was making a commitment. It said, look, tell the world once, that’s what I did. I shut up and I just went and did it with all the pain and all the tribulations that came with it, including my wife. Almost got a… I shouldn’t probably say this, but almost got a divorce over it at the end of the day.

But, you know, people and God just kept telling me, “Hey, you’re on the right track, you’re on the right track, you’re doing stuff that other people are not doing. So move forward, move forward, move forward.” And I’d keep going— hit a fence, then God opened the door; hit a fence, God opened the door; hit a fence, and then finally things start opening up. And that’s pretty much my Reader’s Digest version of what transpired with me. And I was trying to just get deals, and investors kept saying, “No, just sell me the paper.” And that’s how I fell into wholesaling by accident, because I didn’t know it was legal. And I found out that it is just selling paper and sustainable, so I started fueling my business with wholesale deals. And then eventually, looking at the good ones, cherry-picking, I met my mentor as well, Hal from Hal’s Houses, God rest his soul, and that’s where the creative world opened up.

Then I started fixing and flipping and buying and holding, and that was that— that was the start of it. I was like, “Man, this is— this is amazing. Actually, it’s… people can actually do this stuff.” But I buckled down and had to do a lot of research. It was a lonely, lonely place— didn’t have YouTube videos and all kinds of stuff. I had to read books, Joseph, right? And CDs. You know, Carlton Sheets, if you know who that guy is, right? 19 bucks and use his contracts. I did get an attorney, but I was on a budget, too, man. It was like 30 bucks a week feeding the family, paying all the bills, and that— that’s all I had. And my minivan was my office. So I’d— I’d suit up, even— even back then I’d suit up, my suit was in the back, my laptop, set my appointments, went speed to lead. Once I got a lead, I’d— I was all over it. Quality over quantity, and that seemed to work. Along with my Think and Grow Rich— I’m a big proponent to that, that changed my life over several, several years. Even when I was younger and started off in sales, those things, they helped me. And that— that was… and that’s basically how everything kinda started until now, yeah. So now it’s a different jam, it’s a different world. I see things differently, right, than I did when I got started in 2003.

Joseph Crooms (09:17)
Erick, let me ask you this. When did you know that you had enough volume? “I got enough income.” What was the numbers for that? How much volume did you say, “You know what? I could take this to another level”? How much income did you know that, “Hey, I can take this, I can do this”?

Erick Jimenez (09:35)
How much income as far as like saying, “Yeah, I’m gonna quit my job,” or something, or…

Joseph Crooms (09:38)
The— the volume of homes that you started flipping. The— the— the— the paperwork of wholesaling, yeah. How— how much, and I know you’re not working for anybody now, but Erick, so— so when did you know, “This is me, I can do this”? What was the volume number? How much revenue were you making, and then you say, “I’m gonna leave everybody. I’m going for this”?

Erick Jimenez (10:36)
Yeah, that was… I started off, it took me… I’m not gonna lie, ’cause I’m a systems and having all the ducks in a row… so it was about maybe eighteen months to build all my websites, my branding, and all that good stuff, while I’m working a full-time job and studying for my real estate license and doing the business. So about eighteen months to get that all rolling, and took me four months to get my first deal. And then from there, I moved from zero to sixty in about six months, and sixty thousand… and then I moved to about sixty thousand to a hundred and eighty six months later.

And then about maybe a year and a half, I was up to about seven, eight hundred thousand. I controlled about four or five, six million dollars’ worth of property. But by then, I was not wholesaling. I— I— I started doing subject-to existing financing for fix and flips. And I know that’s not normal for other people, because they’re like, “Hey, the margin of the deal has to be super tight.” I’m like, “No, I want deals that are sixty, sixty-five cents on the dollar. I’m gonna take them subject-to existing financing, and then I’m gonna control them if I need to get a loan, leverage assets, or fix them and flip them, or buy and hold them.” But I wanted that leverage, ’cause at the time, people were kind of crazy and they’re s— they’re— they’re stealing deals from people and even stealing houses from people and taking the deed. I said, “We’re never gonna do that. Everything’s transparent.” Even our contracts are about thirty pages long. We sit down with the seller, go through everything and all that good stuff.

So I probably… the goal was obviously, you know, to start doing multiple millions of dollars per year, so— so I knew that I needed scale. So I got an office, and then I got a bigger office, and then I started hiring runners and all that good stuff, and you know, front office, you know, collecting checks for the buy-and-holds and stuff, and then having the back closed off like a bullpen with computers and desks and people. And— and— and after that, that’s just how it started and kept rocking and rolling. And then the market obviously started shifting and changing, so we had to adjust, adapt. As I always say, I say, “Rock and roll or you perish.” So by that time, have my license. My wife made the move to join a brokerage for the loans, and then eventually here we are now where she’s a broker and she has a lending NMLS license. So we blend those all together along with AHA, Americans Helping Americans, and that was born in 2013 after the crash and all good stuff to help our fellow Americans. And then AMP Live! was born, which is the marketing company that fuels us and what we do. And then we’re obviously with VIP Execs Realty, Lending & Investments to this day, and we recruit and do business throughout the United States of America.

Joseph Crooms (12:46)
Erick, let me ask you this question also. What’s been the key to keeping your machine running smoothly?

Erick Jimenez (12:52)
Technology— be on top of technology. Staying on top of technology, automation. Or when it comes, don’t be afraid to go in and try it out and test it and adapt to it. That was only the thing when I got started that separated me from the agents and the brokers, was like, “How are you getting those properties?” Well, I got a website here for sellers, a website over here, and people would, you know… we drive traffic to it and fill out their information. Mission is submission— quality over, you know, speed to lead and quality over quantity. And those systems, as they kept moving, they, you know… as you know, things start changing, right? Calls, texts, ringless voice message, AI.

And I love technology, so we’re always adapting to the technology and then using it in our business where we think it’s most efficient for us, and then scaling it up and going that route. And obviously, I know we can do a better job, obviously, right? ‘Cause I’m not an internet marketer, although I love internet marketing, I love branding, but I know where my strengths are at, and I know that finding those other things and finding the right companies to plug into those things… and I’m a stubborn person. A lot of times I’ll have software or I’ll have services that we’ve had for five, ten years, right, until we don’t change until they either go out of business or they start losing their quality and customer service. Then we’re like, “Okay, we gotta find something else. Let’s— let’s find a— a— a replacement for it.” But it’s— it’s the technology and all that good stuff, and you’re never… you know, if you can stay abreast of that, it’s always gonna change. But I think it’s… especially in this market, you need to have that or you will… yeah, you’re gonna perish. Can’t be using paper and spreadsheets and all that good stuff.

Joseph Crooms (14:13)
When the market began to change, how did you look at technology to help you survive that change, or did you look at it?

Erick Jimenez (14:22)
When the market started shifting and changing, yeah, we did have to adapt to technology and websites and automation and CRMs. But they were so clunky and clunky and horrible at that time, we had to use a lot of stovetop remedies, right? Which kinda can get a little daunting with st— all, you know… a little bit here, we gotta go here to go this, do this, do that, do this and do that, and then adjust and adapt, because we’re going through pre-foreclosures, then short sales, and then REOs. And luckily we had Liz with the brokerage-type stuff to be able to tap into that stuff. So we had literally had to adjust not just technology, but we had to adjust the way we do business and adapt to what the market was doing at those particular times.

Same thing now. We’ve seen some micro, you know, bursts. We’ve seen the bottom out 2012, ’13, and then 2015, ’16, things change— changed, and then during the, you know, the 2020, and little micro, I like to call them micro-cycles, right? You know we’re coming into another cycle, Joseph, right, pretty soon? And 2028, 2030, ’33, things are gonna happen. Hindsight’s 20/20, so preparing for that now is— is what we’re obviously doing. But I think it was just— just adjusting and adapting and adapting to the marketplace as well, ’cause you know it’s like a living organism. You know everything goes in cycles and trends, so…

Joseph Crooms (15:32)
Thank you for sharing that.

Erick Jimenez (15:34)
Yeah, and it is old-school and new-school, so I think that’s what you’re trying to say, or… but yeah, so—

Joseph Crooms (15:40)
You mentioned that you’re bringing two and making it one. Can you say… can you explain that so a layman such as me can understand that?

Erick Jimenez (16:33)
You mean like the— the— the— the private sector and the public sector?

Joseph Crooms (16:36)
And the traditional, yes. You sort of mentioned that the traditional, yeah. Can you explain exactly what you meant? So take it from A to B.

Erick Jimenez (16:43)
Sure, so no problem. Is we got the public sector, obviously, right? And there’s a lot of agents, and right now we’re hearing there’s more agents than properties, and no different— every cycle, what happens at the same time, right? People get into the business, they get a bunch of— bunch of… they get their license, and then obviously if they’re not very good, they have to go back to regular job or title companies go out of business, all that good stuff. But we’re looking at the, you know, with like with VIP Execs Realty, Lending & Investments, right? And— and— and l— and luxury properties, that’s a public type of real estate thing. You deal with listings, you deal with buyers.

But guess what? You got wholesalers now, you got investors, you got other savvy people that are creative real estate investors that are taking that business, right? And they’re losing that business because they’re not wanting to either work with other agents, or they see other agents, but they’re coming together now. Three, four, five years ago, that wasn’t the case. They’re like, “You’re the enemy, you’re the enemy.” Now it’s like, “No, we can work together to make money.” But a lot of agents, if you notice, ninety-nine percent of agents do not know how to real estate… no, don’t know real estate investing, but they should, because they’re professional— they’re considered professionals. So that niche is not being fed by what? The private sector, which is the creative real estate investing.

Because when these deals come down the wire and they cannot list it for whatever reason, they c— if they had the skill sets, which we like to bring to the table with bringing them together, is going, “Yes, we’ll show you these things, right? We’ll show you where the money’s at. We’ll show you how you can still make money and get a commission off of a Sub-2 deal, a seller-finance deal, a rent-to-own. Maybe it is a fix-and-flip or a DSCR-type loan, and you should know that stuff.” But they’re not teaching that ’cause brokers say, “No, no, stay away from that, stay away from that. Or no, we’re not gonna teach that, because then you’re not gonna be getting us a bunch of listings.” No, you’re gonna get more listings. You’re gonna get more business and you’re gonna get more units by having the private sector put together with the public sector, you know, to be able to… and I— I truly believe I’ve been preaching this for two, three years now, that that’s the future of real estate.

A bunch of brokerages and franchises are gobbling up everybody up, right? And they’re gonna dictate what’s gonna happen, they’re gonna control a lot of the content and data. But it’s always us little investors, if you want to call it… we’re not, you know, smaller investors, mom-and-pops, are the ones that actually take care of and pull the United States of America out of those hard, bad spots— not the big corporation that’s always the low-hanging fruit. Guys and gals like us and other people that are buying these fixer-uppers and properties. So there’s gonna be, you know, the private sector and then we have the public sector. We put those together, they’re… and then now you have what’s called, I like to say, I don’t know, a real estate agent or brokerage and real estate investors that are gonna dominate whatever area they go in, because others aren’t doing that.

And they’re not preaching to say, “Yeah, go learn this stuff, right?” And if they do, they’re doing it on their own. They’re gonna go spend ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty thousand dollars to try to learn real estate investing, wholesaling, and we already know the game there. Ninety-seven percent may fail, shelve it, and never do anything with it. One to three percent will be successful after just watching videos and Facebook groups. You know, the ones that make it is either coaching or one-on-one mentoring if you can afford it, and now you got a better chance. But if we come aboard and they join the brokerage, you get it the best of both worlds, yeah. And they have maybe the opportunity, “I want to learn more.” And at the same token, there’s investors that are saying, “Hey, you know what? I’m wholesaling. I’m gonna get my license, hang it with the brokerage.” And then there’s others that have licensing, but, “You know, I want more deals. I like dealing with the pre-foreclosures and probates and investors.” Okay, now we’re gonna— we’re gonna learn the private sector, right?

So those things are emerging, and I’m seeing that happen more and more, especially when we work with what I work with on the private sector and they’re getting their license, and I, “Hey, I’ll introduce you to Liz and VIP Execs. If she likes it, she’ll bring you aboard and you’ll learn both.” And vice versa has kind of been happening, and just by design, it’s— it’s— it’s working, right? And I’m pretty sure other people are doing it or doing hybrids of it. But I think that… I truly believe that’s gonna be the future to be able to adapt into the future, because we are gonna go through another cycle of ugliness and we wanna be prepared for that. You wanna have two things: a bunch of money, or you wanna have the skill set and creative real estate investing in the public sector and the private sector to be able to survive and thrive through the next cycle. If you don’t have any of those things, then you’re probably gonna perish.

Not go doom and gloom. I’m just, you know, it— it— people should probably know this stuff and then go for it, right? If they can find it out there and find the companies that are willing to help along with the technology and all that good stuff… you know, kinda like what you guys do and everything, right? Is, you know, I know that it’s— the— the tools are there, it’s just finding the right companies. And customer service— that’s— that’s gone out the door, Joseph, for the last decade or so, right? People just don’t take care of their clients. They think that, “Hey, it’s a privilege that you’re working with me.” No. Vice versa, right? It’s— it’s— it’s we take care of the client first. Yeah, you know how that goes.

Joseph Crooms (21:03)
Erick, thank you for sharing all that. We got like five more minutes. Talk to me about American Mentee Program. What motivated you to develop this?

Erick Jimenez (21:05)
Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah, that’s— that’s a great question. I appreciate that. Yeah, the American Mentee came out of our brand when we rebranded 2013 or so with Americans Helping Americans. I’m not a cliché type of person, but at the time, people had two, three jobs trying to do the business, saying, “You know what? We need to do something for our fellow Americans, not just properties. But people want to get into properties, so it’s Americans helping Americans, one America time with property time, one family at a time, right?” Doing our part to get America back on track became the cause and mission, so that is a true cause and mission.

And at the same token, the American Mentee Program was born out of necessity, because people were spending fifty thousand bucks on programs, twenty thousand bucks on programs. I heard a seventy-five dollar or seventy-five— seventy-five thousand dollar bus trip, and you get a hundred-page manual and they tell you to go talk to a bunch of agents, and they got a second on their mortgage and all kinds of crazy stuff. Then I ask them, “Hey, have you done a deal?” “No.” “How long has it been?” Six months, a year and a half, two years, and nothing. I’m going, “Okay, do I want to get into this space? I— I know there’s a need for it, but what do we charge? How do we make it reciprocal so they’re just not watching a bunch of videos and they get into a group and they get, you know, Zoom calls at three or four hours and nothing happens, they can’t ask questions and stuff?” You know, that’s fine— Kumbaya and all that stuff, it works, it’s great. But a lot of times people need, “Hey, they’re business owners. I need you to help me get me to where I need to get to. Heck, I need to get my fifty thousand dollars back, Erick.”

So that started transpiring into the American Mentee Program to go on making it reciprocal. How do we make it reciprocal? Well, we do one-on-one mentoring— true one-on-one mentoring, build the foundation, work on them, work on the target of what they want to achieve. A lot of the times it’s legacy and freedom, and single family, multifamily, whatever it is, we design it and we put a— a— a— a target together and a game plan for them for the next six to twelve months. Then we work with them. It’s a do-it… it’s like my mentor did with me. I would go with him, I do the legwork, but he would negotiate. I got to hear the inflections of his voice, and all this stuff was downloaded. So the one-on-one is— is what we’ve been doing, and that’s what the American Mentee Program is all about.

Same token, it’s done-with-you. Now we have technology setting up the CRMs and all that other good stuff, but also partnering. I know there’s a lot of companies out there that will not partner. Even attorneys said, “Hey, it’s probably not a good idea. Don’t go on the contracts, liability issues.” But we are so selective when we pick people, we know that we’re building a bond together and it’s reciprocal. So, you know, as long as we’re— we’re on the same page, they paper up, we sign some paperwork, you know, and there’s— there’s non-disclosure, confidential agreement, all that good stuff, right? And we know what’s happening and what we expect of each other, and we partner up for six deals for the next six to twelve months. And our whole goal is to get them up and running a business in the next twelve months to the point where, you know, they’ve done their deals.

And even if they done— didn’t do their deals, we’re not gonna go after, “Oh, you owe us for three more deals.” No. Just keep on, “Hey, we’re happy if you just send us stuff.” That means we did our job right, right? ‘Cause you feel… and there’s no like right of refusal or anything, just, you know, let’s— let’s do some business. And I know that we’re putting into the bank of good, but yeah, the hard costs, of course. You know, we live in America, it’s a capitalist country, nothing is free. So you gotta take care of hard costs— that’s just the bottom line. You know, there’s no way around it. And when there’s no hard costs involved, people don’t show up. We tried that before, and we end up holding the bag and it costs too much money, and you end up going out of business. All we ask is take care of the hard costs at the end of the day, so we can, you know… we make our money doing deals.

And that’s been… even on the last cycle, it was an idea until the market crashed. We folded all that, said, “No, we’re not doing that. Let’s just do real estate.” And then when the market started coming back a little bit, that’s when I started hearing all these stories, and social media and YouTube videos and everything else started coming out with people doing wholesale stuff. And I’m going, “Okay, there’s a need for this. Let’s— let’s just do it in our own unique way.” And going against what everybody else is doing, right? That ATM money stuff. And— but you know, my daughters and my son basically said, “Hey, if you want to help tens of millions of people, Dad, you— you’re gonna have to— you’re gonna have to adapt, and you’re gonna have to do what they’re doing eventually to reach all those people.” I said, “I know.” So I did have a program, and we, you know… so now we got some lower-tier programs just to help people out. But the one-on-one, the American Mentee Program, is our flagship program. And that— that comes from… it’s God-driven, and it comes from a place where I know where I was at, and I— and— and— and I know where people have invested a bunch of money and, you know, they just needed a little help to put the pieces of the puzzle together. And then it became a passion, you know? Then a God-driven type of journey is what it’s been. But hopefully that makes sense.

Joseph Crooms (25:23)
Thank you so much for that. That’s been… especially when you’ve already been pretty much successful yourself, Erick, the next move can either compound things or create chaos, depending on how you play it. Yeah. I know a lot of my people listening are early in their journey or looking to level up, and I think this question would benefit them from hearing this. Okay. When it comes to building relationships, yeah, growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Erick Jimenez (25:49)
Yeah, it— it’s the— it’s the people and the networking over the money, you know, has always been the most important part. Even with sellers, investors, doing the right thing. Seller number one, and you probably heard this before, buyer investors number two, they get taken care of. We get paid, we get taken care of, we’re last on the totem pole. So I believe that and bringing back that customer service and taking care of clients, right? Being transparent, you know, one hundred percent. Integrity, loyalty, and communication. Communication can break down, ’cause we’ve got families— we all gotta do stuff. But the integrity and loyalty, once they’re broken, there’s no reason to do business. And we pretty much have… I have, and everybody else that I share this with when they’re working with us or come aboard and work with us through our companies, then that is the credo. You break that, then there’s no reason for us to do business. Don’t call us, don’t call our staff. Good luck to you.

And— and that’s it. I’d rather not do a deal if I can’t sleep at night, or the sellers can’t sleep at night, investors can’t sleep at night— walk away. And then the— the red-flaggers as well. So it’s— it’s very important. I’m a old-school guy with new-school, so I prefer to get on the phone and talk with people and not hide behind texts and emails. Gets kind of weird. Facebook’s kinda getting weird, too, with, you know, Craigslist-type stuff. You never know who you’re working with. So it’s very important. If you’re in California, yeah. You know, do I meet with a lot of people? You can’t do that anymore ’cause time doesn’t permit, but we have this technology here, so we use it. So I think the networking is one of the most important things, I truly believe, in this business— in a relationship business with the creative or just real estate investing in general. The— the public sector as well, they do come together.

But hopefully I— I— I shared that properly with you or, you know, that’s just my take on it. It’s never steered me wrong, you know. And— and yeah, you know, having, you know, business and friends and associates and mentors to be able to ask questions, like— like even asking you, you know, is that I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff that you know that I don’t know about. And— and— and humility… this is my newest thing for the three, four years, Joseph: humility. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. It’s okay, man, right? I’m the type of person, “I got figured out all myself, I gotta do it all myself, I’m not gonna ask for help,” right? That’s probably just something that happened when I was younger, right? You know what I mean, as we all say psychologically. But humility is a big thing now. And of course, you know, my family… and I— I’ll say it, I’m a God-driven guy. I’m not a holy roller, but, you know, I’m a God-driven man and we gotta… we got, you know, that’s just— that’s just what works for me.

And it seems to be the same thing with a lot of people when I have these calls with other people and talking with them and seeing if we’re a good fit. And it’s a lot of the same thing: “I want freedom. I want legacy. I want to build something for myself and my family.” And like, “Okay, you really put in the hours, you’re real ready to do this stuff.” And— but it is building that relationship. If I feel, you know, can’t— can’t peg all the time, right? But knock on wood, ninety-nine percent of the time we get… we’re working with good people. Maybe one percent, you know, you got somebody thinks they’re paying into a widget, or they can talk to you or me or staff in a certain way, and that’s not a good thing. So you just can’t wait till that contract’s up, right? Just to be frank about stuff, right? I’m always about— about the truth and being real, and— and you know, whether sometimes, you know, people may not agree with it. But networking is super important. I— I truly believe that, yeah. And I should… I’m not gonna lie, I should be doing more of it.

Joseph Crooms (28:46)
Erick, yeah, you can’t fake that. Relationships are everything in this space. All right, before we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way to reach you, Erick? And please feel free to repeat it twice for those that may be looking for a pen.

Erick Jimenez (29:04)
Yeah, no problem. I don’t really do that a lot, but you know, it’s… I guess you can catch me on— on Facebook, AMPLiveMedia.com. How about that? It’s— it’s— it’s AMP Live… A-M-P Live, the word “Media,” the word “dot com”— so AMPLiveMedia.com. So yeah, it’s— it’s a website that’s out there. It’s— it’s to be able to get in touch with me through anything that’s real estate related— anything that’s real estate related, it’d probably be the easiest way. And then you got americanshelpingamericans.net.

Joseph Crooms (29:33)
Thank you, Erick. Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, your philosophy, and your beliefs— not ashamed of them. We need more people in the space who are doing the right— it the right way. Thanks again for being here, Erick. I really appreciate you. And after you’re tuning in, I know you got value from Erick. Making sure you— make sure you subscribe. We got more conversations coming from operators just like Erick, giving real information to start real businesses, helping families and communities. That’s what we need more of. So we’ll see you on the next episode of what? Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. Erick, tell everybody you’ll see them later.

Erick Jimenez (30:17)
Thank you. See you later. Rock and roll in all what you do. Thank you very much, Joseph. You rock.