How He Got 15 Real Estate Contracts in 36 Hours Using Off-Market Deals

Randy Wagner (00:00)
I have an analysis so far on one of one of the businesses that I’m building. The analysis so far so far, between three to five years, we could sell the business between one hundred to three hundred million dollars. Now that, if that don’t get your if that don’t light your fire, your woods wet. That’s light that and and and where I want to go with that is where we started. I want to build a house every year every year for a family in need. That has been my goal from day one. And I didn’t realize how expensive that goal was until I started doing it. You get you get like minded people together, it’s possible.

Joseph Crooms (02:15)
Welcome to Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Joseph Crooms, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. His name is Randy. I’m gonna let him explain it and tell his first name, but I’ll tip you off Wagner. And Randy is our guest today. So Randy, say hello everyone.

Randy Wagner (02:38)
Hi everyone. Of course, like he said, Randy Wagner, been in the game for about ten years. I’m a real estate investor, off market specialist, not a wholesaler. Okay. And I am I am absolutely stoked to be here with you today.

Joseph Crooms (02:55)
You know what, Randy, you drove right into it. So let’s talk about your niche. Explain it to us a little more in detail.

Randy Wagner (03:03)
So my niche, I I I like to set myself apart as far as my niche goes. It’s it the game is saturated. If you’re not pivoting, then you’re not getting the deals that’s gonna land you success. So it’s a it’s a const it’s constantly changing. My big thing is getting in front of the sellers. You put me in front of a in front of ten motivated sellers and I’m I’m gonna walk away with ten contracts. It’s it’s it’s a matter of how you present it and the transparency behind it. I I spend time with with with folks and I lay it all out. I show them exactly what the game is. They’re motivated. They’re they’ve they’re already there to hear the options that I have to give. So I might as well lay it out and it might as well make sense.

Joseph Crooms (03:56)
So Randy, tell us ex if someone was to ask you to explain your market, how would you explain it?

Randy Wagner (04:03)
Hot hot hot. That’s the Knoxville market. So you’ve got Knoxville, you’ve got mu you’ve got pit okay, so Knoxville’s great for fixing flips round. Just just a good market. It slowed down, but it’s still one of the top ten markets in the United States, if not the world. But I I do believe it is the United States. Now how the however that has dwindled over over the time. You’ve got the Tri-Cities, you’ve got Bristol, you’ve got Johnson City, and and and not to mention, I’m sure you guys are familiar with Dollywood. So we’ve got Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, we’ve got fix and flips, we’ve got short term rentals, we’ve got lakefront, we’ve got mountains, we’ve got it all here.

Joseph Crooms (05:33)
And what do you mean by off market? How how do you describe that? Off market, you all right.

Randy Wagner (05:37)
Specialist. I don’t like the word wholesaler. A wholesaler has gotten such a bad breath. And it’s because of how they’re being taught. They’re being taught to lie. They’re being taught the only way to get their contract is to deceive the seller and it’s just not the case. I could put I I’ve I’ve had I’ve in the past thirty six hours, I’ve managed to get fifteen contracts and we could put every one of them on the call right now and they’ll all tell you that I told them the same thing. And it was all 100% transparent. They know what I’m doing. I’m allowed to market my deals anywhere I want. And I don’t have to hear anything about it. I don’t, you know, it’s I’m allowed to post on Facebook or or or or I’m allowed. I don’t it you know, I don’t have to just sum it up to an email or a text blast. I can throw it out there to the mass. And and when I do my marketing, I do mass marketing.

Joseph Crooms (06:33)
Caught my attention when you talked about the off market brand that you use in your niche. How did you come up with that?

Randy Wagner (06:40)
It just hit me one day, I got so sick of being labeled a wholesaler. Just because the it was so far from the understanding of what of how I seen myself. I seen myself as is a completely different niche. And that’s when I just said, I’m not a wholesaler, I’m an off market specialist. And that ever since I’ve said that, people love it. And I hear I hear it a lot now, but and I’ve I’ve I was the first one that said it. It just it you know, I remember back when I got started in seventeen, it it was unheard of. It was unheard of.

Joseph Crooms (07:18)
How is your revenue?

Randy Wagner (07:18)
Yeah.

Joseph Crooms (07:20)
No, no, no. Yeah, how is your rent revenue and and who is your client?

Randy Wagner (07:24)
So my revenue is my revenue is right now it’s completely assignment fees. Because I did have to split with my partner, we did have to cash out on our assets. And a lot we we had to we had to cash out a lot of debt because we had a lot of debt with our business too. So right now it’s just assignment, assignment, assignment on building the capital and the big the big goal is to start taking down some solid some solid ad value apartment complex as storage units, RV RRV spots, mobile home parks, the the land, not so much the mobile homes. And and but of course unless they I put a bunch of brand new Claytons out there and and debt owner finance. Now that that’s that’s different. That’s

Joseph Crooms (08:21)
So collectively, first it’s a two-part question. How long have you been operating at this new level? How much are you doing approximately on a month at and in that period of time in that length that we just finally?

Randy Wagner (08:34)
I’ve been doing so my mom passed away last summer. So I had to take a a bit of a hiatus. I honestly it hit me so hard. And a lot of this business is motivation. A lot of this business is is smiles and and and cries and and it’s it’s a lot of emotion. And when something like that devastating happened, I did have to take a good hiatus. But ever since that the just I prayed and I prayed and I I got in the mud and I dug myself out of that hole and it just gave me this completely renewed way of seeing this business as being not just buyers and sellers, buyers and sellers, but we could be so much more. We could be so much more. Right now I’m I’m building I’m building apps and websites that have absolutely nothing to do with investments just because it brought me into it. I I know a lot about law just because real estate calls for it. To title you wear a lot of hats when you’re an off market specialist.

Joseph Crooms (10:28)
So how much first of all your con you my condolis is

Randy Wagner (10:31)
Monthly. I’m sorry, monthly. Real I I teach people and I I’ll leave it here. I wanna tea I I like to teach people that you can realistically make twenty thousand dollars a month and have plenty of time with your family working a part time job. Now the way that I’m doing it is a lot different. I’ve been doing it for s for you you know, the over a decade now. So my phone and my computer is blowing up from four o’clock in the morning till four o’clock in in in the morning. So it’s but but I enjoy it. And I I really do. And it slowed down a bit. I was doing better. Back in back back when the market was strong. We were pulling in we were having hundred thousand dollar months and assignment fees just on average, hu you know, $100,000 months. We’ve had we’ve had three, four hundred thousand dollar assignment fees. We’ve had a million dollar assignment fee. Unfortunately that one didn’t go through. We were two weeks away from closing. And it was a hundred and forty units off Parkway in Pigeon Forge right by Dollywood.

Joseph Crooms (11:42)
So how long have you been operating at that level now? And and and months and where are you about now? Are you about?

Randy Wagner (11:50)
Well, I’ll tell you, work starting with with my ex partner, I well, we hit the ground running right away. He wasn’t gonna hold my hand. It was it was I will show you how to structure these deals and I will teach you, but you’ve gotta hit the ground running. So when I first got started, it wasn’t it wasn’t all, you know, it was I it wasn’t reading, it wasn’t going to seminars. It was it was beating the pavement, making phone calls and getting the experience under my belt.

Joseph Crooms (12:21)
So on a on so you know, when people come to f someone that’s wants to teach, how much can you say, Hey, since the the passing of moms and you the transition your business, how w where is your revenue r at monthly now?

Randy Wagner (12:35)
My revenue monthly now I would say is between sixty and eighty thousand dollars a month.

Joseph Crooms (12:41)
And how long have you been at that level? In months?

Randy Wagner (12:43)
I can I can consistently stay I’ve been consistently at that level for about four months now since out of my hiatus.

Joseph Crooms (12:50)
Okay, great, great, great. First I’m happy that you

Randy Wagner (12:53)
And not just of course, not just the assignment side of things, but of course assets as well. I’m already working on building up my assets as well. And that’s just it it’s it’s a real exciting thing for the future now that it’s not just fifty percent. It’s I’m getting the whole Hundo now.

Joseph Crooms (13:12)
All right, all right, good. Let me ask you this question. What’s been the key to keeping your machine running smoothly now?

Randy Wagner (13:19)
I’m gonna go back to transparency, integrity, honesty, being present, following up, listening, listening. A lot of salesmen and I I’ve I I’ve I was I’ve sold from Cutco knives to cars, to home improvement, a little bit of everything. My pu my ex partner slowed me down and he said, Randy, you’re not a car salesman. Just give him the facts. And that was it. That that it made it made the world of sense to me after he said that. I was able to slow down. I was able to match their energy. And I was able to listen to exactly what it is that their problems is, the where where the problem is, so we can solve it and make a deal.

Joseph Crooms (14:48)
Now, every operator I know has a moment when things just got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time that they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those you can even be more recent, that you had to pivot fast or make some quick adjustments.

Randy Wagner (15:04)
Yes, yeah, I will. I had a lady who came to who she called me bawling her eyes out just beside herself. And that’s that’s a way to get to me. I I’m very tender hearted. Mm-hmm. There’s been many times where I won’t even make a fee sometimes just because I wanna I I wanna help. The money will come. Just just do the right thing. She came to me crying. And she needed sixty-five thousand dollars for her mom’s house so she could put her in a home. She could not find a buyer. I found her I found her a buyer in less than twenty four hours. Okay. We were set to close about a week and a half later, very quick. It was, you know, about a week and a half later, even less than two weeks. We were supposed to close on Friday. She called the title company. Told them that she wanted to close on Monday, but our contract expired on Friday. Then she called me and told me I’ve never made thirty three hundred dollars on a check, and neither will you, unless I get half of that money. It was ten thousand dollars between three of us. They and and she I I stood my ground. I said, ma’am, if you can’t accept what we have done for you when in you came to us in your time of need and we’re asking a very, very respectable amount of money to do this, I think it’s it’s only fair that you honor your side. Well, she said, I’m gonna go to have dinner with my with my church friends and make a choice. And I’m thinking in my head if them church friends tell her to stab us in the back, I’m not going to that church. She ended up signing and we ended up closing that Monday. Great. And that’s just that was just a little one.

Joseph Crooms (16:59)
All right. Randy, listen, that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, it’s what separates the folks who are just dabbling from the ones who want to stay in the game for the long term. Let me ask you this. What are what are you most focused on scaling or solving next? What’s the next real goal for you?

Randy Wagner (17:21)
The next ri I you know. Owning a father company with several LLCs underneath it doing different things. And I’m actually going to be breaking out a company called Agape Technologies. And I’m gonna go ahead and do it here on the podcast. It’s gonna be called Agape Technologies. And it’s not gonna it and if you’re familiar with what agape means, it’s the highest form of love. When you speak of Christ and the love of Christ and God our Savior, that’s the kind of that’s the only word that could come out of your mouth to explain that kind of love. So Agape Technologies to me is going to be a hundred percent doing the right thing and solving problems wherever I find ’cause that’s what I’m doing now. I’m f I’m I’m finding problems and I’m solving them with our technology now.

Joseph Crooms (18:24)
Many. I yeah, I I guess you’re talking about AI s especially. Except

Randy Wagner (18:25)
And that’s exciting. Yes. If you can tap in. If you can tap in and if you can learn it. And if you and it really is, it’s it’s l you’re learning it while it’s learning you. And once you learn in all the different ways you can integrate systems and tap things in, I mean you can sit there and do a deal, you can s you can get a deal, have it write up the contract, send the contract, get it signed, turn around, get you another deal, analyze the deal while you’re doing the other deal. I mean, it you can’t keep up with it. It’s the it’s incredible. And that’s what I am working on right now, as I am working on an integrated system that’s going to change a lot of the way that we do business in many facets. Not just real estate, but the medical field. And and and and and I won’t get into other things, but I’ve got I’m I’m I I’m playing with a lot of things that that I’m very excited about and I’d love to come back and tell you how it’s going maybe six months or so from

Joseph Crooms (19:33)
Thank you very much.

Randy Wagner (19:35)
I have an analysis so far on one of one of the businesses that I’m building. The analysis so far so far, between three to five years, we could sell the business between one hundred to three hundred million dollars. Now that, if that don’t get your if that don’t light your fire, your woods wet. That’s light that and and and where I want to go with that is where we started. I want to build a house every year every year for a family in need. That has been my goal from day one. And I didn’t realize how expensive that goal was until I started doing it. You get you get like minded people together, it’s possible.

Joseph Crooms (20:18)
Randy, let me ask you a question and so and we’ll move on. Because we we we’ve about five minutes we have left. Well how has the AI been helping you develop your future, your next scale?

Randy Wagner (20:32)
Losing my partner Kevin gave gave it it took it not losing him, but it took my access away from from information that’s vital that only an agent would have it that would have access to without having to pay for it astronomically or still paying for it and getting the wrong information. CRS, tax records, complete deal analysis and and him being s resour having so many of those resources taken away from you, that’s when I said, I’ve got to figure out a way to create these systems that’s gonna help me analyze these deals to s to ensure that my numbers are correct. They have to be right. They have to be. See you you can’t just trust Zillow. Obviously. You can’t just trust Joe Blow with the JV. You can’t just trust you have to do your own due diligence and you have to even fact check your AI because it’s wrong sometimes. But it learns. It’s learning and it’s incredible. And like I said, it’s really hard for me to even keep up with it.

Joseph Crooms (21:49)
No. So I can see how you’re being careful in how you create and develop this and and and it and w the next move can really compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it.

Randy Wagner (22:01)
Yes, yes. The the AI it the tedious task, you know, the little the the smallest of the tedious little task that you’ve gotta do as as as an investor, as a real estate agent, as an off market specialist. It gets ti the emails, all of the all of the messages, the same messages I have to send literally thousands of times a day on Facebook, on marketplace, on all these different investor lifts and having a system that’s doing it for me while I’m able to build relationships with it instead of focus more on the screen, I’m focusing more on the soul and the problems.

Joseph Crooms (22:49)
Now I know a lot of people listening are either in their journey or looking to level up. I think the b they’ll benefit from from what they’re gonna hear hear me say. When it comes to building relationships beyond the AI and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Randy Wagner (23:07)
As far as building relationships, being there and following up and talking and listening, it’s it’s not just about the short conversations, it’s not just about the facts. Get personal. Find out who this person nine times out of ten, if you take ten minutes longer than what you usually would have, you’ll find out everything you need to know about that person. Whether or not you want to do business with them, what kind of business they’re doing, if they’re lying to sellers, if they’re telling the truth, if they’re transparent. Y you y y you’d learn a lot about somebody just by them sharing their purchase agreement with you. So that that’s really it. It it’s really you gotta study, you you gotta watch who you’re you know, who who you’re all who you’re joining hands with. And pay attention and spend time. And if they are doing it wrong, they were taught wrong. Teach right.

Joseph Crooms (24:04)
On the purchase agreement, give me in the eyes there of something that you will your ears will perk up that you will listen for for something good or bad about that.

Randy Wagner (24:13)
I I the the the whole earnest money thing, I I don’t like that. I don’t like when they when they say they’ve put, you know, five thousand dollars in earnest money and they don’t have seventy-two dollars in their account and they’re begging me to do a JV so I can pay the five thousand dollars in EMD and it’s non I I’m not gonna pay for your promise. And it’s non-refundable. I’m not gonna do that. You know, if if it’s a respectable deal and you’re not trying to force EMD on. Let’s be smart here. You if you’re transparent with the seller and you let know that the MD comes with the buyer, then you’re not coming out of pocket.

Joseph Crooms (24:50)
Which when you say JV, what what does that stand for? Joint venture. Thank you, Mandy. So those yeah, night I I know you can’t fake that. Relationships are everything and thank you for sharing how you’re which what you’re listening for. Right now, yeah. So before we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what they’re doing, what’s the best way to reach you, Randy?

Randy Wagner (24:53)
Joint venture. Yeah.

Randy Wagner (25:27)
Smoky Mountain Home Buyers. You can find me on Google, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. You can find me everywhere. I’m mostly on Facebook. It’s just it’s just the abbreviation of Smoky Mountain Home Buyers 26 so [email protected] and I can give my phone number as well. Sure. It is 865-299-2483 feel free to call or text.

Joseph Crooms (25:56)
And yeah,

Randy Wagner (25:59)
865-299-2483 I work in all markets. Not just here locally. I I I can I can work in every market guys.

Joseph Crooms (26:10)
Well listen, I appreciate your time, Randy Wagner. Your story, your perspective, and your philosophy and your belief. We need more people in this space who are doing the right it the right way. Thanks again for being here. Yes. And for those of you tuning in, I know you got some value from this. Make sure you are subscribed. We got more conversations coming from operators just like Randy Wagner who has been out there building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode. Randy, say bye to everyone.

Randy Wagner (26:42)
God bless, I love you all. Give me a shout.

Joseph Crooms (26:45)
And thank you all for see you on the next episode of Investor Fuel Real Estate Pros Podcast. See you soon.