How to Buy Distressed Properties With Empathy and Still Make a Profit

Chris Moore (00:00)
You want to feel like you’re cool and doing stuff and have all these business going on. You got five flips going on. And then the first of the month became my worst day of the month. Because the mortgage pay the mortgage payments were due. The hard money mortgage payments were. And you like five or six hard money more. You’re like, my gosh, I don’t have sixteen thousand dollars right now. Like, how am I gonna do this?

Freddie Steen (00:18)
What did you do?

Chris Moore (00:19)
Sold my car, sold cameras, and I sold stuff I had. You know, ⁓ it just cause you like and I and I learned you you just gotta like you you gotta kind of really know about numbers and not go for that vanity of like I’m a big time realtor and I got or investor, I got this and that.

Freddie Steen (02:08)
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Freddie. And today, real estate pros, I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to connecting with, Chris Moore, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate investment space with We Buy Any House. So I’m glad to have you here, Chris. And I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re a

Approaching some very difficult moments that all of us come to face when it comes down to legacy mortgage transitions from elderly population that is living longer thanks to great health care. What happens at that moment when you have to transition that title, that deed, on to a legacy? Well, Chris Moore is here to help. Let’s dive in. So, first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version.

What happens when a home becomes distressed? What’s your main focus these days? And what markets are you operating in?

Chris Moore (03:09)
Well, thanks so much for your time, sir, today. ⁓ to start off, the the market I’m in is Jacksonville, Florida, Northeast Florida. And we get a lot, we have a big variety of homes out here. We have new builds, of course, lots of new builds because Florida’s flat. But then we have this older area of homes that are just from 1940s and up. And what I find out here is that there is this, there’s this huge gap. I’m sure other American parts of America have it where the people who bought their home back in like say the 80s, for example.

And they’ve been living there forever, they hit this wall where for whatever reason, it could be credit card bills, car payment, ⁓ spouse loss, and then their money changes. And then something cash off home, and then they can’t fix a roof. They run out of money. And then that’s where this landslide of mishap miss misfortune happens for them. And it’s usually an older person, again, they’re on a fixed income, and all of a sudden now they can’t afford the mortgage payments they have.

And that’s when usually they reach out to me or I’ll see them online, I’ll find their house. I I tour house, I drive around, drive for dollars, and you meet these people and they just cannot afford their home anymore. And usually again, it’s someone in their late 70s and they tend to have like maybe an adult child at home. I say adult child, but it’s a it’s an adult. And the person may not be working, the person might be transiting through life, but that’s usually the MO and people I find. And then they just have nowhere to go. They can’t afford to get a new rental because they’re on a fixed income.

And it’s it’s it’s just it’s heartbreaking sometimes when you go out and meet people and see how their the living conditions are and and they’ve been living in a a house that probably has mold and everything like that for the last five, ten years and there’s like I just can’t do nothing about it. And then you know, you wanna come along and be that helper for them. That’s what I try to do in my marketing.

Freddie Steen (04:45)
I love it, Chris. I mean, what caught my attention to the real estate pros listening about We Buy Any House is the way in which you’ve been able to glean from your roots on the West Coast in Seattle and come to a market like Florida and still maintain very strong margins when population is healthier, is aging. And these type of distressed homes are coming up, not just in our country, but also in our families.

And you’ve been able to maintain strong margins in a very niche and difficult space. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. Chris, what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Chris Moore (05:25)
Man, I’m glad you asked because it is, I have to remind the biggest key is probably in all of us. It’s in ourselves. And I have to remind myself, this is a business. I am a business owner. And the numbers have to make sense. And I ⁓ when I was in the the military, I didn’t, I was in the Marines, I worked in numbers, and then I got out and I worked for a Japanese company. And this Japanese company was a tier one auto supplier. So I lived in Japan working for them. And their whole business model was like numbers gotta make sense. Numbers gotta make sense.

If numbers that make sense, you just you just then operate. And so I have to remind myself that and I tie that back to real estate like I do meet these people who are distressed. I do meet people who have a hard time. And I wanna help them get much money, but I have to remember numbers have to make sense and I have to make sure that I get money in their pocket, but at the same time keep my business going and not just give away money for anything.

Freddie Steen (07:00)
That is such a key for our listening audience. Chris, you’ve been in the industry for a while. First and foremost, we have to say thank you for your service.

Chris Moore (07:09)
Thank you.

Freddie Steen (07:09)
With the type of logistical, strategical, and then global impact that you’ve had living in Japan, working in multiple industries, how did you make the pivot to translate that into real estate? Can you give us three things from your background that helped you shorten the learning curve?

Chris Moore (07:28)
It was ⁓ again coming from moving from Seattle to Japan to be being the military, then coming to Jacksville, then going to Japan, also living there. I just had to learn how to adapt to a variety of people. And especially in the military, taught you how to deal with a lot of people and taught you how to be patient with people from all backgrounds. And of course, then live in Japan teach you how to be peace patient people all backgrounds. So when I got into real estate, I decided at age forty, I’m like, you know what, I’m tired of this nine to five blue collar job.

My neighbor was a real estate agent and he was smiling every day. Like, yeah. I’m like, I wanna be like that. You know, I’m wearing a boot I’m wearing a polo shirt, khaki pant, dickies, and you know, steel toe boots. And I’m like, Man, I wanna wear a suit and smile at him every day. And then I jumped into real estate. ⁓ I was I I yeah, I was scared. I I didn’t I mean, I at that time I was like, Well, if things don’t work out, I’ll just go to the job at Best Buy. You know, I’ll what I’ll figure something out.

I’m never scared of being homeless or anything like that. I’m just like, because I always I think the military really helped me out. Military and ⁓ living in Japan really helped me out as far as like you can do anything. Someone you you might be fearful of it, but someone’s done it before you. Unless you’re like, you know, the Wright brothers learn how to make an airplane or whatever. But someone’s done before you. So when I get scared, like, okay, when you do get in real estate, you get an investor, you’re like, all right, if that guy’s doing it, that lady’s doing it, I can do it.

You know, it’s not it’s not rocket science. So you just gotta, you know, go out there and study, learn from a peer and and get into it. And that’s the way I approached it when I got in.

Freddie Steen (09:00)
Chris, that resolve is something all of our real estate audience can get behind. Now, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. I mean, maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Chris Moore (09:18)
man. You bring all these emotions I’ve been holding down about when things get real. Like there’s too many of them. It’s it’s ⁓ the biggest one I tell people like is you definitely should partner up on deals. And I made the mistake of not always partnering up on deals, and I thought I could handle everything. You know, I wasn’t scared to get into real estate as an agent, but jumping into becoming an investor and you think, I’m gonna get five houses, it’s so cool, and you

Freddie Steen (09:24)
That’s what I do.

Chris Moore (09:43)
You want to feel like you’re cool and doing stuff and have all these business going on. You got five flips going on. And then the first of the month became my worst day of the month. Because the mortgage pay the mortgage payments were due. The hard money mortgage payments were. And you like five or six hard money more. You’re like, my gosh, I don’t have sixteen thousand dollars right now. Like, how am I gonna do this?

Freddie Steen (10:02)
What did you do?

Chris Moore (10:02)
Sold my car, sold cameras, and I sold stuff I had. You know, ⁓ it just cause you like and I and I learned you you just gotta like you you gotta kind of really know about numbers and not go for that vanity of like I’m a big time realtor and I got or investor, I got this and that.

And I tell you, when that first of the month comes around, it’s it was there were several months where it’s like, my gosh, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I don’t know. I mean, I threw a car, I had a my favorite sports car, I had a Porsche Cayman.

And it was like, I got a deal. And I was like, this deal was they wanted 20K down. I was like, man, I love my car. I went I want the cars and bids by a car for auction. I needed the money. Like, man, this is, you know, it was it was it was hurtful to lose my favorite sports car. But you know, I was like, man, just you just gotta be careful what you do and plan stuff out. And again, that’s where I think sometimes strategic partnerships come up.

Where the numbers make sense for both of you got, you know, both people in the partnership. And don’t get stuck with just so many mortgage payments. That was probably the hardest part of just being stuck with a bunch of mortgage payments. And then you on top of that, you’re like, your electric bill, your utility bills for all those houses come up. And then you gotta take care of your own personal mortgage payment as well. And so it all starts snowballing that pressure of like, my gosh, this is this isn’t like what they show on HD TV. You really have to plan out, you know.

How much money do you have in reserve to do stuff? Then your contract wants money for a draw. So it’s like all that money coming out, you’re like, just trying to figure out how I’m gonna make this happen. What do I gotta sell? You know, what I gotta do.

Freddie Steen (12:08)
Chris, you could have folded at that moment. Instead, what bled through was sacrifice, bootstrapping, and your deep entrenchment on service. That bleeds through with we can buy any house. And that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. I have one last question related to that, Chris. Just let our audience know. As a former Marine, why did you not quit?

Chris Moore (12:32)
⁓ man. That’s ⁓

You got me going. ⁓ man. I wasn’t worried for that. It reminds me of ⁓ so so my kids would go to Japan for the summertime to study Japanese. And so they went to they went to a Japanese public school. And so I remember they’re like six or seven. Well and I was a I was amazed because we went to the Japanese public school, which is a regular elementary school. And

I mean, I’m walking there with them and we get there to school and then there’s probably like at least, you know, 600 kids, whatever. And the principal’s like, hey, this is in Tokyo. Principal’s like, hey, I want your two kids to come up on stage for the assembly. We’re having the assembly just for your kids to then introduce themselves. I’m like, my gosh. If those kids can do that, there’s nothing I can’t do. And they and and they stood in this, if they were as foreign kids in a you know, all Japanese school that’s in Japan, and they made it through that, there’s there’s I I have no clue.

Freddie Steen (13:11)
Wow.

Chris Moore (13:24)
I can do anything. If they did it, but they didn’t they didn’t know that how hard it was. They just that’s what dad put them through. But I’m like, if they can do that, I can do anything. So there’s no issues here.

Freddie Steen (13:34)
Chris, sharing your why with this audience, honestly, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term. Let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? I mean, what’s the next real goal for Chris Moore?

Chris Moore (13:51)
The the the the big ultimate goal would be if if I could afford it would be get some land and do like single wide mobile homes or tiny homes. Because again, I meet all these people who usually older people or or even not even older people, people are who who can’t find a rental or place to live. And there’s just nowhere for them to go with their fixed income. And not trying to do charity cases of people who can work but not doing, but these people who are truly disabled or elderly, like, man, if I had a place where I can

Put these people in a good environment, you know, maybe a just a regular one bedroom, one bath studio, not studio, but like a little tiny home or or a single wide, have a place for them to go where I know they can afford it and they’re there, they’re good. That would make me feel better at nighttime versus trying to, you know, help people out, but then like, where is this person going? Where’s Miss, you know, Bertha going or something? You know, I wanna really have a place to help those people who who deserve it. And I guess, ⁓ again the the scan semantics of who deserves it, but it’s really the people of just

who who don’t have anywhere to go and they’re about to lose everything. And you’re like, okay, I want to help help these people out. And sometimes around here, there’s not much affordable housing for people. And, you know, the builders, I saw some study on a podcast a long time ago saying that the builders used to build like small homes. But now everything’s a three bedroom, two bath, like 1700 square feet. So no one can really afford, I mean people can, but people who aren’t lower income can’t afford that kind of home. And so I want to be able to have that kind of

place for people to, you know, go after I help them whatever the real estate solution is for their house and whether it is buy their house or help them do loan modification, I wanna be able to help people out and and point them in that direction.

Freddie Steen (15:21)
Big. I mean, especially when you already have this deep knowledge of the industry, your sacrifice, and your service with We Buy Any House in place. I mean, the next move ⁓ can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I know, Chris, a lot of people are listening, either earlier in their journey or looking to level up like you are. And I

Think they’d benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Chris Moore (16:36)
⁓ I think the biggest difference was again, I’m telling you I traveled and I had to meet other people and do a lot of business overseas, was just being able to listen. And then I always tell people if you have questions about how to do this business right in real estate or any kind of sales, I always look I tell look at the guy Eric Maddox, ⁓ army negotiator who helps who helped catch Saddam Hussein. And he will emphasize to you empathetic listening. And listening’s the key. It really is a key to listen to people.

Put people on their stage, let people speak, let let them have their story and don’t jump on their stage and let their story be heard so they feel like they’re being heard. And then you’ll realize how much easier it is in all kinds of parts of business and life. If you can do that for people, then it makes the difference. It makes makes things so much easier.

Freddie Steen (17:18)
When negotiating a distressed home toward a resolution with We Buy Any House, has listening helped you advance to being profitable despite the market conditions?

Chris Moore (17:29)
one hundred percent. One hundred percent. Because when you when I listen to people and you let them tell their story, you can really feel what their connection is to the home or what part of the home or for example, we had one lady, ⁓ she had a nice mobile home, ⁓ and her husband had passed away of cancer. And she just couldn’t manage it anymore. She just fell apart because everything reminded of her of her husband. And on the mirror, he wrote a little sticky note before he left for the hospital one time saying, I love you, baby.

And so when we when we bought the house and we fixed it up for her, we cut out the mirror for her, gave it to her, and she’s like, my gosh. Like, yeah, we listen. We listen to what you what matters to you. And she that meant the whole world to her. And that there’s so many stories like that where you listen to people, you hear their pain points, hear how you can help them, and you just want to be there. Again, I still have to be a business though. I have to be a business, but I need to listen to what their situation is and address it as a business owner.

and be empathetic, but at the same time be a business and help them get money in the pocket so they can move forward, help my business grow as well.

Freddie Steen (18:25)
Yeah, you you can’t fake that, Chris. I mean, relationships are everything in this space. All right, before we wrap, Chris, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with We Buy Any House, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Chris Moore (18:42)
Best way you can call or text me, 904-606-9163. I’m on YouTube @chrismoore904 . I’m on I have my website, webuyanyhouseinflorida.com But ⁓ that’s the best way to reach out to me. But I always tell people when you want to get started, you gotta find people like Freddie and get on a platform like this. This is really because that’s how I got started was being around people who are doing it and studying from them and learning from people who who are the connectors like Freddie is like what you’re doing.

And how you connect people ’cause then you got this knowledge that I can learn from already and have a base point. And then I can apply it and then find a coach to help me in my business.

Freddie Steen (19:16)
Gratitude. That’s perfect. Listen, Chris, I appreciate your time, your story, your sacrifice, your commitment, your empathy, and your service. Your perspective is unique. We need more people in the space who are doing it the right way. So thanks again for being here, Chris.

Chris Moore (19:33)
No, thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Freddie Steen (19:35)
And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Chris Moore, who are out there building real businesses just like you. We’ll see you on the next episode.