How Nick Watkins Profits Either Way in Today’s Market (West Michigan Playbook)

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Nick Watkins, a seasoned real estate investor from West Michigan. Nick shares his journey into real estate, starting from buying his first house at 20 to building a successful business focused on buying, holding, and flipping properties. He discusses the importance of networking, providing quality service to tenants, and adapting to market changes. Nick emphasizes the significance of relationships in real estate and offers valuable insights on maintaining a successful business while caring for people.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Nick Watkins’ Website
    • Nick Watkins on Facebook
    • Nick Watkins’ Phone No: (616) 292-7605

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Nick Watkins (00:00)
  one of the quick tips, right, that I’ll give people, you know, if you have a property management company, they’ll never do the same thing that I do, right? So if a tenant is ever late, there’s a 99.5 % chance that that first time when they hand me the late fee, I hand it right back to them. But I always tell them that they have to go spend it on dinner for their family, right? Like take your family out, take your family out and go enjoy the night because right, what we just had here,

  isn’t that big of deal, right? Go enjoy.

  Quentin (02:02)
  Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. And if you follow me, you know what I’m gonna say. I’m excited to be here. Excited about my guest. I love this guy already. We’ve only been talking for a little bit, but I love this guy already. I’m sure you guys are gonna love him. He has a ton of knowledge. Listen, this guy loves the network. And so that’s why I’m so glad he’s here because I know you’re gonna get so much value from looking at things through his lens.

  This is a guy who listen, he will buy a house in any condition and flip that thing and make that thing cashflow. And so I’m super excited for you guys to hear from Mr. Nick Watkins. Mr. Nick, how you doing today,

  Nick Watkins (02:42)
  I’m great. Thanks so much for having me on.

  Quentin (02:45)
  Absolutely, man, absolutely. Brother, listen, I’m to be honest with you. I want to dive right in because I want the people to get everything from you that you’re willing to give. And so listen, I want you to take us into your world. I want you to tell us what you mainly focus on these days. If you want to tell us a little bit about how you got in real estate, why real estate, I’m sure we would love to hear that too. But then also tell us what markets you’re operating in.

  Nick Watkins (03:09)
  So real quick background, I’m from West Michigan, Grand Rapids kind of specifically. Grew up separated family, so very poor on both sides. So how I got into real estate, I bought my first house when I was 20 years old. You know, it’s hard to have a mortgage that, so I rented it out, you know, I rented out a room to a friend, realized, hey, that pays for the mortgage or half of, and I ended up buying a duplex and kind of went off from there. So, you know, that’s a quick background for me.

  And then, know, I, today I built my business for the, you know, I’ve been in this business for 15 years. gosh, 16 years. ⁓ and I, buy and hold was my primary focus, right? I used to have a day job. ⁓ and then COVID hit, I lost my day job. I had already built my business up big enough to where I really could retire. I, I knew it. I just didn’t believe it. Right. Cause I mean, my job wasn’t bothering me. I, you know,

  woke up to the same thing every day and it covered insurance and things like that. Now my wife covers the insurance, but don’t be scared to go do it. You know, that’s the big key, but, you know, owning a bunch of rentals. Then I, you know, I, I flipped one house during COVID and I made pretty much the same amount of money that I was making in my day job. So I said, heck, if I can do this once, I can do this a bunch more. So, uh, we started flipping a little bit, uh, you know, in my area, there’s, there’s just like everybody, right? So you have.

  Quentin (04:12)
  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (04:35)
  ABCD neighborhoods, right? I grew up in a DE neighborhood. So, ⁓ you know, like I don’t want to own there, right? I don’t want to go back to that. And so, you know, I’ll flip there though, right? Because I’m offering, I feel like I still have to give back. And one way for me to do it is to go buy this place. And now I don’t have to get top of the market for this thing, right? Everybody talks about how expensive houses are. Like I have a house that’s right now for sale. And it’s like,

  Quentin (04:40)
  Mm-hmm.

  Nick Watkins (05:02)
  I just gave somebody a $10,000 break. Plus I offered them $6,000 for closing costs. Like I’m willing to hand these things away. Like dude, if you want to get into it and that’s what you want for your family, I’m willing to help you out 100%. Right? Like if I don’t make 50 grand on one place and I only make, I’m happy. Right? Like I go to sleep at night happy about who I am. So, um,

  Yeah, it’s a primary, you know, right now we’re going to some commercial space as well, just because we’re finding that’s where the market is letting us be. By commercial, I mean, so I own a couple of apartment complexes. I don’t call that commercial. The banks call that commercial. like commercializing, like warehousing space, we’re doing some of that. So.

  Quentin (06:31)
  Man, I absolutely love it, man. Thank you for taking us through the journey. You said, listen, the wife takes his insurance right now. Listen, I get it, man. You sound like y’all great team, brother. I absolutely love it. And so, you know, the way you talk, you know, you make it sound very easy, what you do, but we both know it’s not always easy in this climate, right? So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly? Like what’s some of the secrets of your sauce, man?

  Nick Watkins (06:40)
  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  And you know, as to always care, right? Like, I mean, really, I, this is your business, take control of your business, be on top of your business, right? You know, we were networking last night with a bunch of people and you know, I was giving my buddy crap because he has, he, he, he actually hauled a refrigerator to one of his rentals. And I was like, man, you got to stop that. Like Lowe’s would deliver for 20 bucks and

  between your time and your back and ain’t even worth it. And he’s like, yeah, but I like to give my tenants that refrigerator that day. And I was like, yes, I understand that. Like that’s where I started out, man. The day that the refrigerator, I got a call, I go there and I fix it. Right. I mean, I, Hey, I got a leak here. I got this, you know, so my philosophy is I want everything addressed and fixed within a 24 hour period. ⁓ and if that can’t happen, that means it’s a professional that has to come do it. And they will give me the timeframe.

  But, you know, with that, I’m building relationships with my HVAC guy, right? He’s making me a priority. Nick, can, he’ll come over. He’d be like, Hey Nick, it’s 10 o’clock at night. I can come look at the furnace. We either A, can get it up and running or not. But with that happening, I’m bringing over space heaters just in case we can’t get it running. I’m doing, you know, I’m going above and beyond for service, right? ⁓ And my, and, and I’m buying my properties cheap enough or I’ve held them for long enough to where

  Um, I don’t need to get the top of rent, right? Um, there’s a bunch of corporations out here that they’re going to go for the top, top market. Um, you know, if, a three bedroom here is $1,900, I’m okay with getting 17, 1750 because I can afford it, right? Um, it allows me to pick the best possible tenant to come in and that will respect, you know, my average turnover in the 16 years I’ve been doing this is, is about eight and a half years.

  Quentin (08:38)
  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (08:49)
  Right. People stay with me for a very long time, but you you offer them quality at a decent price, man. You’re going to be okay with it.

  Quentin (08:49)
  Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.

  Yeah. No, man, I love it. mean, just just talking to you just a little bit, man, I can really tell that, you know, of course you’re about your business, but also, you you care about people at the same time. And so it’s like when you care about people, when you when you offer them a good something good, like you said, you got a potential rate. You got people that stick with you for eight and a half years. And so I love that mindset that you have, man, the way that you want to make sure that you value people, but also just do good business at the same time. It sounds amazing, man.

  Nick Watkins (09:26)
  Absolutely. You know, one of the quick tips, right, that I’ll give people, you know, if you have a property management company, they’ll never do the same thing that I do, right? So if a tenant is ever late, there’s a 99.5 % chance that that first time when they hand me the late fee, I hand it right back to them. But I always tell them that they have to go spend it on dinner for their family, right? Like take your family out, take your family out and go enjoy the night because right, what we just had here,

  isn’t that big of deal, right? Go enjoy.

  This was money you weren’t intending to have, but please just go enjoy the night. And so I do that. Now the second one, okay, that’s a 50-50 shot on what happens on, if we’re given some money back. And the third, I never give it back, right? You, but the first one, look, we didn’t just become enemies. didn’t do anything, right? I want you to know, I generally care. Thank you so much for giving this to me. You know, my, my rules are, and that’s how

  Quentin (10:41)
  Yeah, yeah.

  Nick Watkins (10:55)
  tell my tenants, if you’re going to be late, just let me know because I still have my bills to pay. And I got to know where that money’s coming from. Right. Um, and you know, the communication that I have is just amazing. So that’s, you know, it’s a quick fun tip, uh, that I can give to people is look, don’t try to make your money off of the fees and off of the stuff, right. And give it back and say, Hey, go, you know, build that relationship with your tenant. Right. Like, uh, you know, another stupid thing I do every year.

  Quentin (11:01)
  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (11:23)
  It depends on the holiday, Memorial Labor Day, 4th of July, depending on what I’m doing in my life. I always buy my tenants a gift, right? Uh, I’m not gonna lie. It’s usually, it’s usually $5 or less per tenant. You know, we have, um, I have quite a few doors now, but you know, the one year, one of my favorite gifts I went and did, went to the dollar store and bought every Kool-Aid pitcher that they have bought a box of Kool-Aid and a four pack of cups, unless I knew that the family had more than four in it. Then I gave them eight cups.

  So I’m at, you know, I’m at $5 for this gift and I set it outside of every single door. If I walk through my 12 unit apartment complex, right? If I walk through the single family house, I drove to every single one of them. Uh, because, know, again, I own anything. I don’t own anything that’s outside of 20 minutes from my house. Right. Um, and so I’m driving to all these places. I’m, my, my wife’s handwriting a card for us. Um, that says, you know, Hey, thanks so much for being a tenant. look forward to the next few years. Um,

  Quentin (11:50)
  Yeah.

  Go, go.

  Nick Watkins (12:20)
  I’m telling you like to go above and beyond, right? Make them know that you’re human, right? Cause I hate watching these property managers just get yelled at and say, this, everybody talk about corporate. Like I’m not, man. I am. I’m a human just like you. Yes. I chose this career path because I’m not going to lie. I was broken. It just seemed to work for me. Right? Like, ⁓ you know, we all need to pay our bills. So that’s a, that’s a couple of quick tips. don’t, don’t copy everything I do, but go have fun with it.

  Quentin (12:25)
  Yeah.

  Yeah, yeah.

  Yeah. Yeah. Right, right, right.

  Listen, man, when you told me, you know, you go above and beyond, I’m like, this is just a tagline. I go above and beyond. No, bro, you go above and beyond, I absolutely love it, man. This is refreshing to hear. And I’m so glad a lot of people get to hear this because, that is definitely not common. You know, it’s definitely not common the way you’re doing things, man. It’s really not.

  Nick Watkins (12:56)
  Yeah.

  not at all.

  Quentin (13:11)
  I’ve been doing a lot of these interviews, bro, the way you handling your stuff is not common. so, man, I thank you. So you’re a great storyteller. And I would love ⁓ if you don’t mind, because I always tell people we look at the success, but sometimes we don’t talk about the journey to success. So I know there are times when things get real, right? When deals go sideways, times when you have to pivot fast. And so Nick, I was wondering maybe you could share a story like that.

  Nick Watkins (13:28)
  Yeah.

  Quentin (13:37)
  Because again, I love the way you think and I want people to know that there is a process to success.

  Nick Watkins (13:43)
  Sure. mean, let’s talk like bright now, right? So the, the economy, the market is changing in West Michigan for sure. Actually. ⁓ we just hosted a meetup with, ⁓ the, the head of economic development for a local college here, Grand Valley State University, out to them. ⁓ and he, it’s funny cause he draws more people to hear him speak than you’ll ever imagine. Right. We, we sell out the room, right. And it’s free that we offer, but, ⁓

  You know, so right now I have, you know, I just told you, I have a house that I offered 10,000 plus 6,000 for closing costs. You know, I took it. So, you know, we’re talking about pivoting. Like I can’t get this household. It’s listed at the price that I’m told is right. Like I’ve, I’ve dropped it. You know, I started out at, I’ll give you numbers. started out at 224.9. I dropped it to 219.9. I dropped it to, you know, 114.9 and I’m, I’m doing one more price drop, you know,

  So 209, ⁓ again, I’m still willing to give away the money for it, but you know, Hey, if I can’t force somebody to want this granted, it’s fallen. The weird thing is it’s fallen through twice, right? Two people have put offers in it. Two different, you know, the one, ⁓ it passed inspections. They just couldn’t get financed. The next one they came to me and they said, ⁓ there’s too much stuff to do outside. And I said, man, I just had my rental certification.

  This other person said there was nothing wrong with it. Like, and so I said, Hey, please email. Like what, you know, we’ll take care of it. We have no problem taking care of anything because I want to offer a good quality product, right? Like that’s who I am. ⁓ and so now, you know, and now I got my guys over there, like searching for what the heck might be wrong, you know? ⁓ but so that being said, so I, you know, I decided yesterday, I was like, all right, well, I guess, you know, it’s been up for 93 days.

  Quentin (16:00)
  Absolutely. Absolutely.

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  Nick Watkins (16:15)
  I don’t want to just keep sitting on a house paying property taxes and gas and electric for it to, know, winter winter’s coming here in Michigan, right? We get, it’s not easy winter. It’s not going to keep a furnace on, but so I either want to sell it or I got to get a tenant in there. So I just put the thing up on for rent, even though it’s a house that I don’t normally want to own. It’s more in the, the CD neighborhood. I

  Quentin (16:35)
  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (16:37)
  I’m going to go rent this thing if that’s the first thing that happens, right? Like to me, it’s first come first serve. Like you want to buy it? Great. It’s yours. want to, if you want to rent it, great. Here we go. Let’s, make a great partnership. So, ⁓ you know, I really think being able to have the flexibility to buy or hold, ⁓ or to, sorry, to sell or hold, I think that’s where, you need to be.

  Quentin (16:48)
  Yeah, yeah.

  Yeah. thank you so much, man. I think your mindset and what you just laid down, it shows really the difference between people that just dabble and people that are sitting for the long term. And I think I’m starting to really, really see a pattern of why you’re so successful. Again, it’s because of your mindset, man. You do great business, you serve people, but you know the right moves to make when you need to make it. And like you said, you you had it on the market, but listen, now, you know, I’m going to rent, you know? Again, I just appreciate the systems you have in place.

  Because again, it is showing me through your lens, why are you so successful? And honestly, why I know you’re going to continue to be so successful. And so with that being said, man, I would love to hear what you’re focused on solving or scaling next. Like what’s the next real goal for you, Mr. Nick?

  Nick Watkins (17:42)
  Sure. you know, I say, I’ll take a quick step back. So, ⁓ you know, we talked about networking, you know, one of the biggest things is networking doesn’t pay right away. 90 % of the time, right? You get to meet somebody which pays, right? But like the outcome of it. we tell you, I think I’ve said, I got a couple of apartments, small apartment buildings or things like that, right? Some complex, ⁓ you know, when I first started, I got very fortunate to meet a guy who was my mentor.

  ⁓ and then fast forward, you know, we talked all the time, right? Every week. And then fast forward 10 years later, he finally sold me an eight unit building, right? But I built 10 years worth of that relationship. ⁓ you know, I held that for five years, actually just sold that building. ⁓ and I, you know, mate, I sold that building and made enough money to pay off 90 % of my portfolio. I’m keeping, I have four loans currently, right? Out of my entire.

  I had, was up, I’m not gonna lie. was, I was up to like 95 units at one point, right? So last year we sold about 80 or sorry, we sold, uh, 48 units last year, uh, got rid of the low hanging fruit, the C’s, the D’s because you know, I firmly believe the economy is going to head and I’m to be able to rebuy those things for pennies on the dollar. Because again, we talked about the banks, um, not allowing the refi, but

  ⁓ So where am I headed? I’m just building these relationships for these people that have, hey, I sold it to them five years ago. I sold it to them. I hope I never capitalize on it, but I’m hoping that, they’re at a point where they can’t buy it. So I’m actually looking at a 48 unit, just not too far from me. ⁓ It’s all in one building. I know the owner ⁓ really well. Three buildings, three brand new boilers, three brand new roofs.

  He’s done all the capex. his life has just kind of changed a little bit. And so he’s like, Hey, I just don’t want to do that. He’s he’s right. He’s down in Texas. The buildings are here. He’s, know, just tired of the day to day maintenance. And, ⁓ you know, he gets a phone, you know, he’s, two hands on to be, it’s funny. I said this, he’s two hands on to be, an absentee landlord, right? So, man, this guy, this guy,

  Quentin (19:45)
  Yeah.

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  Nick Watkins (19:58)
  Every

  day calls every day wants an update every day wants things. And it’s like, bud, you know, if you just work now, but you know, he, but in his big boy job, right? makes a couple million bucks a year. this, you know, million dollar, three million dollar investment just doesn’t impress him. It doesn’t make him enough money to where he didn’t have to work the rest of his life. So, ⁓ you know, the, joys of being poor and having a poor job was it was very easy for me to replace my income. ⁓ right. Like, you know, I,

  Quentin (20:14)
  Yeah.

  Yeah, yeah, man.

  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (20:28)
  600 bucks, know, you start cashflow and 600 bucks. That’s one week’s paycheck for a person that was making, you know, 35,000 bucks a year. I wasn’t making, you know, I now I go do it again. And there’s 600 moments. Well, you know, next thing I know, I replaced all my income. You know, I say, I, tell everybody all the time. I was like, retired, right? When COVID hit. Yes. Legally. I got fired. ⁓ this is the fun. always, this is my favorite story because it’s like, it’s like a big, ⁓ F you back to the company, right?

  Quentin (20:48)
  But.

  Nick Watkins (20:56)
  ⁓ so they fired me because I wasn’t volunteering to work during COVID because I said, Hey, you know, I’ll take, I didn’t take unemployment and do anything. Well, I sat around and then I went and claimed unemployment for 17 weeks because they fired me. I said, all right, great. And then the government wrote me a check, right. For, for the extra COVID money. And I went and bought a house with that and then flipped it and made the same amount of money. So it was like, all right, you’re right. I don’t need you, right? I don’t need you. And so once you learn that, that was amazing.

  Quentin (21:23)
  Yep.

  Nick Watkins (21:26)
  So where am I headed?

  Quentin (21:27)
  Absolutely, man. Yeah. Now please, Kazee, please, please. I don’t want to you off. Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (21:30)
  yet is it not

  where my head you know ⁓ i have a ten-year-old currently ⁓ and my wife and i just found out we’re having another baby so i’m headed to be a dad even more again right like i get to read this well the heck out of this kid so yet my personal life that’s wrong

  Quentin (21:38)
  Mm-hmm.

  Let’s go!

  Yeah, man!

  Yeah. Oh man, bro, I love it. I was just, know, COVID created so many opportunities for people if they was able to seize it, you know, in the moment. And it sounds like you absolutely seized it in the moment. 10 year old kid, one on the way. Oh man, man, life is just great for you right now, bro. And I want to ask you this because I’m loving the way you talk about people. You talk about your mentor. You brought up your wife several times. Super excited about your kids. No doubt you’re an amazing dad.

  Nick Watkins (22:16)
  Yeah.

  Quentin (22:19)
  So I do want to talk about relationships for a little bit, man. So like when it comes to relationships, how do you, how do you value relationships? I know you’re a network guy. So when growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

  Nick Watkins (22:32)
  ⁓ I mean, right. Being you know, being there. ⁓ Everybody needs something and you have to figure out what it is. Right. My wife needs a an amazing husband because that’s who I am. Right. She needs a partner that’s there. She needs some. So there’s times where she needs somebody to listen. There’s times where she needs a hug. There’s time, you know, where my mentor. Right. What did he need? My mentor needed to see because he wasn’t hustling as much anymore. He needed to see the kid out there hustling.

  Right? He used to get so excited when I call him and be like, Hey, should I buy this deal? Even though I knew I was buying it, I would run it by him because it showed that I respected his opinion. Right? The way I bought his first eight unit, I was looking at a different eight unit. I called him and said, Hey, would you mind walking this with me? It’s a bigger purchase. And he’s like, ⁓ and he walked through this thing and he goes, Nick, this thing’s a piece of crap. And he goes, come look at mine. And I go, yup. I’m hoping to run it kind of like this. And he goes,

  how much you want to pay for that one i told me goes great by this one it’s way better running product and so but it’s a bit ten years so building a relationship you know with my with my contact my hvc guy you know we go to a global met my gc i’m all my my my plumber ⁓ all that if we’ve done well not you they’re all usually pretty financially successful guys by themselves so it’s not they don’t need money right a lot of times they need they need a friend to like a

  Quentin (23:34)
  Yeah, yeah.

  Nick Watkins (23:58)
  We got to get you out. ⁓ every year, every year I actually go, Hey, we’re to get together on this day. We’re to go bowling. You can’t have any excuses. We always pick one day to go golfing and these guys don’t get to do anything. I pay for all the golf. I pay for all the bowling and every year I lay in my bed on Christmas Eve. It’s you. Cause I usually, I always say I forget, it’s, and then I’m usually texting my guys going, Hey, thanks so much for everything. I appreciate all you do for me this year.

  Quentin (24:07)
  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (24:26)
  ⁓ if it’s ⁓ if it’s a bigger company i always show up to the office and ⁓ i don’t know the name of the chocolate company but they make this it’s a white box really fancy

  Quentin (24:36)
  I’m

  a white box. I was going to say Godiva, but that don’t sound like white box. Yeah, I’m not sure. Be honest with you. Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (24:41)
  yeah I wanna

  say it’s like ⁓ I don’t even know but anyway so I always go buy a box of chocolate and I actually drop it off usually when I get a handwritten card to the office people and say hey thanks for everything you get because they have they’re talking to me on the phone right they’re gonna be like hey Nick blah blah and they don’t even know and then I show up and they’re like ⁓ or you know even cookies every time I go to my title company I bring them

  So I know that the one has allergies beyond belief, right? The only thing she really can eat is popcorn. I’m very fortunate that I actually have a popcorn place around here. And so I always go to Grand Rapids popcorn. buy a bag of fun popcorn. ⁓ you know, know she doesn’t like spike, but like it’s usually, ⁓ sea salt and caramel or something, right? And I bring that and then I bring two cups of coffee and then some, I’ll bring, ⁓ like last time I brought cupcakes. The time before that I brought cookies. ⁓ and it could, because.

  look i’m not buying fancy places i’m not doing all this stuff what i’m doing is there’s times i stopped at speedway and they sell it’s a gas station for me right ⁓ and they sell two packs of cookies and i’m like hey here you go thanks for everything right great most people look at it and say man this title company although they’re making the five hundred bucks and they’re charging or the thousand bucks

  Quentin (25:44)
  Yeah. Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (25:56)
  you know my title company does for me i mean they they will pull records for me they will do so you know if i call them like a i’m gonna go by the sheriff’s sale house what is ready back anything nick you’re good book i’m spending three dollars five times ten dollars or less to to tell them thank you again uh… why because again but the title company was a giving me an advance the giving this my my hvac guy what is he giving me uh… you know he’s gonna be peace of mind that he’s gonna go take care of this my plumber

  Quentin (26:14)
  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (26:25)
  Right. I take care of him. He’s I love the guy to pieces. He’s so cheap. Uh, you know, I have a plumbing company that charges $150 just to show up. And then they charge $75 to pull a toilet. I called my, I called my other plumber, he’s more of a handyman plumber, but he’s a great plumber, right? He’s not certified. So I don’t need certified stuff. like, Hey, I got a toilet that’s doing something. It’s rocking. Right. And she goes, Oh yeah, let me take care of this. I got a bill for $40. Do you know?

  Quentin (26:49)
  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (26:53)
  i’m you that for a bill to do a hundred dollar bill right i showed up at his house i’m sure that is also a hundred dollar bill is that he goes thanks so much that you change it up no thank you for everything you do like rightly he does such great stuff but now build a relationship i’d get prices like that now right i mean i’m not taking it that he’s at the price i’m willing to pay the price were both he’d i don’t give them crazy amount of work you know and you learn

  Quentin (26:57)
  Come on, man.

  That’s right.

  Nick Watkins (27:20)
  Do you want, you know, so like my, my HVAC guy, I know that he’s so busy. He doesn’t want to do something. So I say, Hey, what I do is I call him and I go, Hey, all right. I can get you in anytime. What works for you. Awesome. I’ll be there Thursday, 10 o’clock Thursday, 10 o’clock was not, was not a negotiation. That’s when he’s going to give me for free. And so I tell my tenant, this is what works. This is what’s going to happen. And I, I do the scheduling for him because I know that it’s easier for him to do this.

  Quentin (27:45)
  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (27:50)
  ⁓

  you know, when it, buying, buildings, you know, not every relationship has to be great, right? networking, you know, last night I was doing, I was doing some networking and, I think three beers were bought for me, right. because, because I’ve, know, I had a friend that just texted me this morning that said, Hey, Nick, ⁓ thanks so much for reaching out to this lender. ⁓ he actually reached out to me cause I followed up with him because I called, I call my people out and I’m like, Hey,

  Quentin (28:04)
  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (28:19)
  This guy said he called you two days ago. He hasn’t heard from you he’s like, Oh, he’s on my list for the morning. And, uh, you know, but he, he’s like, Oh, and he’s one of the guys that bought me a beer last night just for making the connection, right? Grant. This guy’s going to make million, million bucks, but again, for that $4 beer, he’s, he’s happy. So, um, relationships and networking to me leads to the life that I have, right? Again, everybody needs something. You got to figure out what they need. Right? So, um, free up some time, free up some energy.

  Quentin (28:36)
  Yeah, yeah.

  Mm.

  Yeah, yeah.

  Nick Watkins (28:48)
  You know, don’t, don’t it’s for, for somebody that’s well off, you’re never going to be able to buy them something enough to, buy something. Right. Just being there and having a conversation with them is probably more than they need. Right. My mentor is worth millions of dollars. So when I show up, I show up with Kikkoman plum wine, right? Like it is, it is a $10 bottle of wine. That’s become, you know, he laughs just like you do because it’s like, Nick,

  Quentin (28:49)
  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  There you go, come on.

  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Nick Watkins (29:18)
  It is something we both enjoy and have some fun. But we sit on his back deck overlooking, you know, he just put a $3 million waterfall into his backyard, right? Like, so do you think that there’s a bottle of wine that I could buy that’s going to impress this man? Like, no.

  Quentin (29:28)
  Dream. Wow,

  HOO!

  Nick Watkins (29:40)
  What I send is I send my friendship. send my joy of being there, right? Like, and I share an interest in what we both have, right? Real estate, ⁓ real estate is our interest, you know, and, you know, a quick tip, if you ever get somebody that’s, ⁓ that’s willing to take you, know, you don’t have to do it right away, but once you build a relationship and they’re teaching you things and they offer for you to go golfing and you’re working a day job, the best half day you’ve ever taken is that day, right?

  Quentin (29:43)
  Mmm. Yeah, yeah.

  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Yeah,

  yeah, come on, man.

  Nick Watkins (30:11)
  I

  took, know, Hey, we’re going to go golfing on Thursday here. get this information on Tuesday. I literally went to my boss and I was like, Hey, I’m taking Thursday off or I can leave by this time. Right. Like, he’s like, all right, cool. I’ll need you for a half day. was like, I’m gone because now I’m around seven other guys that are worth millions of dollars. Right. You are the average of the five people that you hang out with the most. Right. And so sure, you know,

  Quentin (30:22)
  Yeah.

  moment.

  Nick Watkins (30:38)
  people look at me and they go, you’re the average. You have no idea that I have two dollars to rub together. So you would assume that half my friends are overweight, half my friends have beards. You’d actually be correct. But now if we go to a social setting, you know, you’re gonna, man, how does Nick know that guy’s rich, that guy’s got that? it’s, because that’s who I hang out with. Like, man, Nick has a business?

  Quentin (30:47)
  Yeah. ⁓

  Absolutely.

  Nick Watkins (31:04)
  You know, people judge everything, right? And I get judged constantly, which is really fun for me. Um, it’s say, but

  Quentin (31:04)
  Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, man. Yeah, man.

  Nick Watkins (31:12)
  it, know, it’s very hard for me to leave where I grew up because I don’t understand. I don’t understand wearing a $50 polo when a, a $7 t-shirt works, right? Like they both cover the body. My brain doesn’t comprehend it. Right? So taking myself out of that poor mentality is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do as well. I know you asked that question earlier.

  Quentin (31:23)
  Absolutely. Yes, sir.

  Nick Watkins (31:34)
  But it just hit me that, you know, taking myself out of that and, ⁓ doing the right thing. It’s a little different. So.

  Quentin (31:39)
  Yeah, yeah.

  Man, bro, I appreciate you, man. You are so authentic. You are so genuine. And it’s so refreshing, man. And so thank you, man. Thank you for that being in your private life, in your business life. That like literally comes shining through, man, when I listen to you talk. so Nick, man, listen, we up on time. So I want to ask you before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, how would you like them to reach out to you,

  Nick Watkins (32:00)
  Yeah.

  Yeah, sure. Uh, so you can find me on Facebook, uh, Nick Watkins. Uh, I have a podcast where a website, so that’s called bucks and brews. Uh, we have some, we have some, uh, real estate episodes on there, but it’s more of a financial. drink beer and talk money. Um, and then otherwise I say, if you have a, know, your listeners want, I can give out my phone number. It’s a 6 1 6 2 9 2 7 6 0 5. My phone is on 24 hours a day. If you call me and I don’t answer.

  leave a voicemail or something and if you wake my wife up then you have to answer to her but you call it a normal respectful time

  Quentin (32:46)
  Absolutely.

  That, bro Nick, man, I appreciate you so much, man. Thank you for coming through. Thank you for your story, for your time, your perspective. Thank you for not getting overwhelmed with us in coming on. Because we would have missed out on this amazing, dis-amazing podcast, bro. So, that’s it. Like, I know you got me here, right?

  Nick Watkins (33:04)
  That was a… right.

  say I was I was complaining to my friend this morning about it I was like man this is rough so much but no I

  Quentin (33:09)
  I appreciate you so much, Yeah, Well, man, now

  we really appreciate you, brother. We really do.

  Nick Watkins (33:19)
  Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on. This has been really fun.

  Quentin (33:23)
  Absolutely. Well, listen, listen, y’all got the value from Mr. Nick. You can’t tell him what you didn’t. So just make sure you’re subscribed. That way when we continue to bring on amazing people like Mr. Nick, y’all can just tune in and just get this value. So Mr. Nick, can’t thank you enough, sir. I really appreciate you, man. And to the audience, we will see you on the next time.