How JV Partnerships Help Real Estate Wholesalers Scale Faster Nationwide

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (00:00)
This is a business just like any other business where partnerships and joint venturing and actually taking on the industry with other people is a great way to get not only a leg up, but to expand a lot quicker because you get to help and leverage one another in a way that

Okay, you know something I don’t know and that’s gonna change how fast I can get to point B because you’ve already seen this kind of thing before. And it takes the legal weight off of your shoulders. It takes some of the financial burden.

Michelle Kesil (01:58)
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil And today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Niccolo Fazio, who is a wholesaler focusing on dispositions and JV partnership, as well as wholesaling nationwide. So excited to have you here today, Niccolo.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (02:20)
Yeah, Michelle, I’m excited to be here too. Thank you for having me.

Michelle Kesil (02:23)
course. So let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your work yet, can you share what your main focus is these days?

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (02:31)
Yeah, so like I was saying a little bit before we were getting to know each other for the last five years, we’ve been heavily focused in doing dispositions and JV partnerships in the state of Texas and Florida and.

Over those five years, we’ve been able to help a lot of people get really good assignment fees, move their deals for higher assignment fees than the industry standard. And so now this new year, our goal and our objective is to get into every other state. We’re going nationwide, so we’re trying to help more people and not just lock ourselves into those two markets.

Michelle Kesil (03:01)
Yeah, amazing. And how did your journey start with becoming a wholesaler?

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (03:03)
Hmm.

Yeah, that’s a good question. So wholesaling wasn’t really the direction I was planning on going when it came to real estate.

I actually was working a normal job. was in corporate finance actually for a good bit before getting into this. But it was that journey of trying to work my way up the corporate ladder that helped me realize that I don’t really want to work for an industry or a company that doesn’t really have values that match to mine. And so while working for this company, and I went through a lot of different ⁓ career choices before getting to that one.

I realized that when

It came to my progression and the lifestyle that I wanted to have for my wife and I. It wasn’t going to be had by being at this job. And I quickly realized that too, COVID kind of came into play. So this is around 2019, 2020, when the job started to demand even more, but there was nothing to be, I guess, like compensated or appreciated on the backend. were working 180 hour work weeks. I mean, we were literally working day in, day out within the firm and then we’d go home and they’d expect you to work.

a full ship almost ⁓ virtually. And so it became very taxing on myself. And so I was looking for an alternative to like this type of lifestyle. And that was when I met with one of our friends from Pennsylvania. She was a nurse too during the COVID time. And that was obviously just as taxing, if not more. And so she saw…

real estate also has a way out and the way she did that was going to get her license to become a real estate agent and she was seeing a lot of success with that. And so I thought maybe that’s how you get started in real estate. You start as an agent, you work your way up, you make connections and you network and by doing that you finally break into some really big deals and opportunities that change your life for the better.

And so I went and I was studying for my license while still working for this financial firm. And around the same week that I was finally testing for my license, which is insane in Texas because it’s 180 hours that you have to get under your belt before you’re allowed to test for license. The same week that I was testing for it and I passed the exam is the same week that that financial firm ended up letting me and my whole team go during COVID for all of the layoffs that people were seeing nationwide. So.

Obviously faced with the thought of, my God, I’m losing my job. I’m losing my financial structure. I’m, we only just moved to Texas. I mean, we were, we moved here back in May of 2019. I got that job and we were only ramping it up. And come August of 2020 is when they decided to let us go. I didn’t know where to really put all of my energy.

I have my license now, so I thought I was going to try and be an agent working with Keller Williams at the time, but Keller Williams was very anti-wholesale, which led me to leaving their brokerage later on. I only brought up wholesaling to them because…

Like I said, I only just moved to Texas. had no friends or family here. was just my, at the time, fiance and I, and neither of us knew anybody in Texas. She’s from Chicago, I’m from Pennsylvania, and so I was trying to figure out how to get my book of businesses realtor to start off, and their only recommendation was to use your sphere of influence, your friends and family in the area, but we didn’t have that. So they were like, well, just go to a networking event or something like that where you can meet with, invest

investors or people who are looking for properties and see if you can drive clientele that way. So I went to an event or two, met with investors, started talking with them and understanding the lingo and I quickly realized that I would rather work with an investor clientele than retail because I didn’t want to drive all over Dallas just to be told that the six or seven homes we just viewed were

not having the right backsplashes or colors that the individuals were wanting. And so because of that, they were just not going to move forward. And that seemed like a waste of time.

Investors were very numeric focused. They knew what they wanted. They just had to make sense. If the numbers made sense, the deal made sense. And so I wanted to focus that way. And that’s when I got into an investment group that was having a RIA at the time. And that sparked the idea of wholesaling. I got introduced to what wholesaling was. I realized that it was really the same process that I would go through to be an agent with clients. The only difference was it was a lot less paperwork and there wasn’t a brokerage trying to control what I could and couldn’t do. And so I started

segueing that way. And then like I said, I talked to it with Keller Williams, but they were super against it. So I ended up having to move to a different brokerage that accepted it at the time until I later hung up my license to stop acting as a real estate agent and do wholesale full time. So that’s really what led me into it. I mean, it gets a lot crazier, but really COVID just pushed me out the window of safety and W2 lifestyle. And it forced me to spread my wings.

and really give this whole thing a shot.

Michelle Kesil (08:44)
Yeah, that’s amazing that it ended up pushing you in the, I’m assuming the right direction because you’re still here and you’re enjoying it. Yeah.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (08:46)
you

yeah.

Way, better direction. mean, when, I got back to the office for that financial company, after the crazy COVID shifts that they were making us work and they were trying to bring it back to normalcy again, their way of saying thank you was giving us a thank you card and a box of Sour Patch Watermelons as like a thank you for all your hard work and your sacrifice, which is just like, I mean, they may as well just give us a pizza party. It was ridiculous.

Michelle Kesil (09:18)
Yeah, it’s not feeling good.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (09:19)
Yeah.

No, not after all that. I mean, COVID was wild. So that on top of just how long and how crazy they were working us, it’s just, it was insulting to say the least.

Michelle Kesil (09:31)
Absolutely, glad that you were able to pave your own way through that process. And so what do you feel have been some of the main keys that made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to grow and run successfully?

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (09:35)
Mm-hmm.

So I’d say a lot of the big differences and main points that really developed what we have today is I took a lot of dumb risks at first, and that was in the matter of hiring way too many mentors or joining too many coaching programs. ⁓ I had shiny object syndrome galore. I was buying every software, thinking that was going to be the salvation to getting a deal because I was struggling to get that first deal or really just understand

what wholesaling really was, like fundamentally. So joining all these groups and joining all of these mentorships, it led me into all these different communities. But the problem was that mindset wise, I was still thinking that I had to do this whole business by myself. I was locked in this dog eat dog, you you have to kill and fight to get on top type of mentality.

And it was that exact mentality that was holding me back for about nine months until I finally shifted my mindset to go forward into, maybe this isn’t a all me business.

This is a business just like any other business where partnerships and joint venturing and actually taking on the industry with other people is a great way to get not only a leg up, but to expand a lot quicker because you get to help and leverage one another in a way that

Okay, you know something I don’t know and that’s gonna change how fast I can get to point B because you’ve already seen this kind of thing before. And it takes the legal weight off of your shoulders. It takes some of the financial burden.

You’re sharing a deal with somebody, but it’s better to get 50-50 of like two, three, four deals than try to figure out a way to claw and bleed your way to getting just one deal. So getting out of that mindset, shifting that mindset so that I’m able to put myself away from

my like stop fighting myself to get actually in front of a deal in front of a seller and actually started working through the industry was a key kind of paradigm shift. And both my wife being a therapist and a lot of the great people I met in the industry helped me see that. And once I let go and started working with other individuals is what really like set off like a rocket, the whole business and everything that we’ve built here today. So I would say that the groups though they were expensive burdens,

and they put me into a lot of debt and that created a whole lot of stress, especially being unemployed and we were only living off of my wife’s income at the time. It was because I took all of those chances to meet people that I figured out the real secret to any business and that was working with other people. Now you don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that. Unfortunately I did, but that’s kind of why I’m so passionate too about JV now, where I meet people all the time at these networking events.

at and both free and paid for or just on the street and they hear about this industry or they know who I am and they’ve seen the post that we’ve made and they just start talking with me and if I could help somebody not only make a million dollars in this industry but I could also help them by avoiding spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on things that they really don’t need at that time of life then I would love to help people avoid those mistakes because that’s another beauty of what joint venturing has done for me and I know for a lot of others is you get to

move away from all those burdens, or at least it’s not all on you, and now you can avoid mistakes that somebody’s already seen, there’s no reason for you to get sued over something that someone else has already gotten sued for before, let that wisdom guide you into something more successful.

Michelle Kesil (13:47)
Yeah, that’s an amazing perspective to have. think a lot of people tunnel vision on one way of doing things and yeah, it’s good to see the other side and seeing how it’s actually more supportive for you.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (13:54)
yeah.

Right. And it just is. mean, it’s my favorite part, aside from obviously getting more deals because you’re sharing those opportunities, is it’s just easier to sleep at night knowing that the whole deal is not on your shoulders alone. It’s a partnership. I mean, you’re partnering with title companies and a lot of other people too to get these deals done. But when it comes to two wholesalers or investors or whoever you are in a deal, knowing that it’s not solely up to you, it’s a joint effort, takes so much pressure off your plate.

Michelle Kesil (14:13)
Mm-hmm.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (14:27)
and it just makes it that much more enjoyable to go through the process.

Michelle Kesil (15:12)
Absolutely.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (15:12)
Mm-hmm.

Michelle Kesil (15:13)
And where do you find your deals? Like what does that strategy look like?

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (15:17)
So a lot of how we found deals recently has just been by the lot of the branding and the impact that we’ve had in a lot of these markets and events that we go to. Trying to do right by others has been a really the biggest impact that we’ve seen on the business itself. Because we’ve helped so many people so far make hundreds of thousands and if not millions of dollars in assignment fees, by just doing right by them, then they go to their circles and talk about the success they’re having.

and they speak very favorably about us and say, look, if you have a deal in XYZ areas, like Nico and his team can absolutely help you and not only just help you get it sold, but get it sold for higher margins so that you’re making more than you would have even anticipated. Because that’s sometimes where a lot of the hesitation comes from, is people think that they’re going to be losing part of their deal, but they’re really just giving themselves more time to go get another deal while we handle all that legwork. And a lot of times we’re able to sell the deal for 15%, 20 % more than the average wholesaler.

And so that additional assignment is really making up for that loss of the partnership spread. And so they’re not even feeling that financial impact either. So it’s really like a multiple winning situation for them. But the best thing is that we’ve seen wholesalers who were doing maybe one or two deals a month get to three to five and almost up to 10 deals per month because now they’re getting all that time back to start curating more contracts while we handle a lot of the transaction coordination and dispo.

Michelle Kesil (16:39)
Yeah, amazing. And so what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (16:41)
Hmm

So our focus, our big focus for this year, obviously going nationwide, is to help as many people as possible. My passion isn’t helping people. It’s not so much the deal spreads. We can do 100 deals. We could do 10 deals. The goal is to have as much impact as possible. And that goal starts with 1,000 wholesalers or 1,000 people in the real estate space helping them reach that million dollar mark that really brings their family that financial freedom that they’re seeking for.

And so to do that, we’re trying to master all of these new states just as well as we’ve mastered states like Texas and Florida so that we’re able to better serve people in those communities who are looking to just get started and get that first deal or people who are stuck only having one or two deals every month or every other month because they’re stuck in the machine that this industry can become and helping them unlock their potential and get them to a point where they’re doing three to five deals consistently, upwards of 10 deals.

And that’s something that we’ve been helping a lot of people with too, going from solo operator and helping them understand how to build a team so that they can start growing themselves and making wholesaling not so much a financial hobby or benefit to their family, but an actual career move and changed it for their lives to come.

Michelle Kesil (18:00)
Yeah, amazing. So do just people that want to get into wholesaling reach out to you and you like guide them through that journey.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (18:08)
Yeah, I mean, they can reach out to me. They can reach out to my acquisition partner, Juan Pinilla They can reach out to Jade Vaughn. She is my partner on dispositions. And then Alex Trefney is on joint venture partnerships. Any one of us, it’s like speaking to the whole family. The familia is what we actually call each other because we treat this whole world that we’ve created like family. And especially the people that we like to work with, we want them to be those who trust in us as much as we trust in them because trust and transparency and integrity.

are things that I feel like are sometimes lacking in this industry. And so we really try to push that to the front lines when it comes to helping individuals. But anybody at any point in time, whether they see us in person or on social media, can easily reach out. And they’re going to get the support of the whole team.

Michelle Kesil (18:52)
Amazing.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (18:52)
Mm.

Michelle Kesil (18:53)
what have been some of the biggest challenges that your team has overcome.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (18:55)
Thanks

Challenges going honestly from just a single boat states. We were really heavy in Texas. We were in Florida, but not as heavily, but we were still doing very well in Florida. But now that we’re nationwide, the biggest challenges are just understanding the craziness and the numbers and the expectations that come with these new markets. What a good deal looks like in Chicago is very different than a good deal in Dallas, Texas. And aside from that, we have

the legalese that come into a lot of these different states, especially now in modern wholesaling, where certain states are outlawing or changing the rules on how you can do certain deals ⁓ and the paperwork required to do such or the professionals you need involved to be able to do such. so trying to catch up with each of these markets that we haven’t been involved with has been a bit of a challenge, but it’s an exciting challenge because with every new venture into a new state where we figure out these pieces.

we start making relationships, and we start understanding the market as a whole, that just means that there’s a handful of wholesalers that we’re now able to better service and help them just as much as we were helping the ones in Texas and Florida.

Michelle Kesil (20:06)
Yeah, amazing. And so how do like other wholesalers find you guys?

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (20:10)
⁓ So my name is Unique. If you look for me in Texas, I’m probably like one of the only Italian guys in Texas, especially with Niccolo. But you can search us on Instagram, Facebook, ⁓ TikTok. I mean, you name it. We’re on all those sites now too. Juan as well, Jade as well, Alex as well. Each and every one of us are trying to be more intentional about posting content. So if you see us, seriously just reach out because we’re ready to help anyone we can.

Michelle Kesil (20:34)
Are you like, yeah, what kind of people are you looking to support? Is it just like investors, those that want to be investors who’s kind of like your target?

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (20:43)
⁓ I mean, we, we want to help all walks of life. So whether you’re just trying to get started in real estate, you don’t even totally understand what wholesaling is yet or your experience. And like I said, you’re stuck in a certain bubble of X amount of deals per month. You don’t know how to get out of that and into the next best level of that opportunity. We’re, helping people from all, walks of life. And as well as people who are just looking to change up what they’re doing, they might be in a W2 job that’s

maybe serving them right now, but they know for like the long term, it’s not gonna actually be what helps their family progress into the future. And so they want to just learn about the industry and what ways they can get into the industry. I have a lot of great friends that are builders. I have great friends who are fix and flippers. They’re building their portfolios for rentals. I have hard money lenders and other types of lenders that are in this industry. And so even if wholesaling isn’t the route you’re looking to go,

There’s somebody that I probably know in the industry that I can introduce you to if you’re looking to segue into something else that’s relevant to the industry, but not specifically what we focus in. So I believe that, I mean, that’s always been a big thing of me growing up and it’s from a small Italian family up in Pennsylvania, but like it’s really who you know. And by just knowing somebody and being able to pass that information along to somebody credible that you know is trusted by the individual you’re asking that gives you more confidence to move forward and work forward with.

with that type of person in what you’re trying to pursue. So reaching out in any forms and again, it doesn’t matter where you are in your journey. I think everyone has the opportunity to help one another. That’s kind of the beautiful thing about entrepreneurship, entrepreneurialism and just helping one another ⁓ in this world that we have today.

Michelle Kesil (22:25)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for sharing all of that. Yeah, so if someone wants to reach out, connect and learn more, where can people connect with you?

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (22:28)
Yeah.

so you can look me up on Facebook. It’s Niccolo Fazio, same as, as my name here on the podcast today, same as Instagram. It’s actually just backwards. It might be Fazio.Niccolo. So either way, if you search for me, I’m sure you’ll find me in those two areas, TikTok as well. Don’t seriously be afraid to reach out because I have tons of people who messaged me on Facebook and Instagram. I try my best to get to everybody. And at the same time, I’m here local to Dallas.

and our team puts on events every month. We do local events in the Grapevine area ⁓ once a month and every quarter we actually just did it ⁓ last weekend actually. Our quarterly event which is hosted here in Frisco, Texas, our next one’s gonna be June 6th. So if you’re in the area or you’re of coming to the area, you can come to our quarterly event in Frisco, Texas and I would love to meet you in person.

Michelle Kesil (23:25)
Perfect. I’ll appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (23:29)
Yeah, I appreciate it, Michelle.

Michelle Kesil (23:30)
And for those tuning in, you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Niccolo who are building real businesses. We’ll see you on our next episode.

Niccolo Fazio | (214) 286-5606 (23:41)
Mm-hmm.