How to Create 3 Paydays on Every Real Estate Deal | Chris Prefontaine

Chris Prefontaine (00:00)
What else was frustrating? Well, I was doing real estate like a lot of people are used to, but it was very transactional. Do a deal, get paid, do a deal, get paid. That’s a job.

Quentin (00:07)
Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Prefontaine (00:07)
It took me all these years to realize it, right?

So then I set up the rule of let’s not get paid once anymore. And we trademarked the three payday system. So that’s just a different quality of income. It’s money now, money over time, and money long term. That’s different for most people, right? It’s a better quality income.

Quentin (01:55)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds, and I am super excited to be here today. Have another fantastic guest. And you know, this is what excites me when we get to look through the lens of someone else and get to glean from their experience and what they’re doing and just really just dig and get some nuggets from the value that they give us. So today is no different. And I’m going let him tell you everything that he’s doing. mean, one thing for sure, he want to help

people get deals. He want to help people generate deals and I’m gonna tell you, let him tell you more about it. But I am so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Chris Prefontaine. Mr. Chris, how you doing today,

Chris Prefontaine (02:36)
I am doing awesome. Thanks for having me on buddy. Appreciate it.

Quentin (02:38)
Absolutely, man. So glad you’re here. And Mr. Chris, listen, I want to dive right in. I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. If you can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to where you are now. We love the hero’s journey. And then if you don’t mind telling them what part of the world you’re in, because sometimes people are like, he’s right around the corner. Let me see if I can get in contact with him. And so, Mr. Chris, sir, you have the floor,

Chris Prefontaine (03:01)
Thanks buddy. Yeah, they might tell from the accent, but I’m in Rhode Island. It’s the, it’s a tiny dot on the state that nobody goes to, but it’s beautiful. We were right along the ocean here. It’s awesome. So yeah, I go back. I won’t put everybody to sleep, Q, but I go back 35 years in the biz. So, ⁓ you know, that, that goes way back to when my father sold his company and I literally was fired by the company that took over. wasn’t real estate. It was a welding supply business, but I got fired and my kids were one and two.

So if you can picture that, no income. I think they gave me a month. They gave me a month’s income. But the blessing is it got me into real estate. So from there, I’ll fast forward through the years. I built hundreds of homes. Then I built a brokerage. Put my broker hat on, never did that before with one intent, sell it. I sold it in 2000 to Coldwell Bank. Everybody said, you can’t do that. It’s just a brokerage. We did that. At that age, it was good. It was sizable for my age at that time, late 30s.

Foray from there through the crash was an interesting one. I built my own properties very conventionally, like people know how to buy real estate, either going to a bank and signing personally or raising money. And then when the crash happened though, it was like a light switch was flipped in 2008 because literally the flow fell out a lot of my projects and I was on all of them personally. So.

That then was the impetus to do what we do today though, because after four years of being a mess mentally and going, oh my gosh, I messed up, it must be me. It wasn’t, it was the national market. But I took it personally and by about 2012, I started getting back at it and I set up some rules, and they were super important. They were things like, what hurt me? Well, I signed personally on bank loans, let’s not do that again.

What else was frustrating? Well, I was doing real estate like a lot of people are used to, but it was very transactional. Do a deal, get paid, do a deal, get paid. That’s a job.

Quentin (05:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Prefontaine (05:34)
It took me all these years to realize it, right?

So then I set up the rule of let’s not get paid once anymore. And we trademarked the three payday system. So that’s just a different quality of income. It’s money now, money over time, and money long term. That’s different for most people, right? It’s a better quality income.

And then we started getting demand to show other people how to do it. That’s how this all came about. My wife actually said, hey, why don’t you help other people learn how you dug out of the hole? Like I went from a ocean front home queue to a one bedroom apartment.

and sold off cars and had to walk to my office. Like that’s where it was after the crash. So when I set up new rules, they were important to not mess up again. And so we’ve been doing that now for over a decade. And as you alluded to, our main focus as a company still is and was started for this reason is to do deals with people. Because look, when people come in our ecosphere and they come in our community, they do not want to leave if they do deals more quickly, right? Who would?

these deals to cap off this and then I’ll let you peel back anything you want. These deals are worth, from a three payday standpoint, they’re worth like 45 grand to 350 grand a deal. They’re not small deals over time, right? They’re not, they take time, two, three, four, five years. But that’s a lot of income. So most people can drastically affect their lifestyle with, you know, four or five, six, dozen of these deals. So that’s kind of the journey. I did 35 years in about three minutes, New England style.

Quentin (06:53)
I love it, man. I love it, man. I love the stories. I love when people can unpack their journey because I think, you know, people that’s listening at various parts of their journey, some of that beginning, middle, you know, further on. And I love hearing the journey of someone that went through some trials and tribulations and where they are now. And so I’m going get back to the business, but you said some incredible things. 35 years in the business.

somebody bought your father’s business, they fired you when you had a kid that was one in two. You you built hundreds of homes, built your brokerage, got back at it in 2012. You had to sell some of your cars and then you had to move from a home to an apartment. So I’m going to absolutely love asking you this question. So, Mr. Chris, I have a saying that I say probably every podcast, destiny has no wasted moments.

meaning no matter what you go through in life, these moments build the person that you are today, right? And so you have had some moments. And so I would love to know, Mr. Chris, what is these moments in this journey? What has it taught you about yourself? Has it taught you resilience? Has it taught you humbleness? Has it taught you discipline? Of course, you talk about the rules that you put in place. So what is these moments in your journey taught you about you?

Chris Prefontaine (07:55)
100%.

You hit some key words there. ⁓ Thank you. ⁓ Humbling is an understatement because you you picture that. mean, my ego was more than bruised, right? You go from that kind of lifestyle thinking everything’s great. And then I walk into an apartment that has, you know, dog-stained rugs and lime green tub. And like, that’s what I entered. My wife said, this is what we’re gonna do. I said, yeah, this doesn’t look so much fun. But we had a blast, right? We’ve been married 40 years. So this year, so we had a blast. ⁓

Quentin (08:35)
Yeah.

Chris Prefontaine (08:38)
in hindsight, right? You couldn’t have told me if you shook me then and said, Hey, Chris, Q says that this is going to be great in 10 years, I’d say you’re nuts, but it is and it was ⁓ as a result. A side note, I work with my son, my son-in-law, my daughter was here, but she had grandkids now, but you know, it’s all family is how it started. So that was a blessing to that wouldn’t happen. So this is all I couldn’t agree more with what you said. I know for some people that haven’t gone through it, it might sound a little fluffy, but I’m telling you, it is

Quentin (08:39)
Yeah. ⁓

Chris Prefontaine (09:06)
100 % true what you said.

And so I trusted them. My wife will say, I know what you’re to tell me. Everything happens for a reason. I say, yeah, it does. Just trust it. All the time this comes up. So humbling was a key factor there. And the other thing is definitely goofed back then where I waited from February of 12. I remember like it was yesterday, sorry, February of 8, 08 till February of 12. Why did it take so long? Because mentally I was beat up.

All I had to do was reach out to mentors. It’s the only time I didn’t. And when I did, they may realize how insignificant in the grand scheme what I went through is. And then I got back talking to them and boom, it clicked. So that’s a biggie. As much as I’m into mentors, I goofed and didn’t do it for those four years.

Quentin (10:23)
We are definitely going to come back to that for sure because I often talk about relationships, mentorship here in the pod. So we’re definitely going come back to that. I want to get into some more of your business. What is the next goal for you guys? Like, what are you looking to solve a scale next, Mr. Chris?

Chris Prefontaine (10:35)
Awesome.

we are looking as a, we always rack our brain with this. How can we get deals done more quickly? Right. As I said, so we’re, we’re now looking to acquire the companies that can help add fuel to the company, but more importantly, to the members of the community to do more deals more quickly and to get all the resources in house. So, so if we see them going out to a total company or we see them going out to financing company, we see, you know, for personal funding for their biz, anything like that.

Our goal is to acquire those aggressively in the next two to three years and we’ve already started this roll up we’re working on.

Quentin (11:12)
Yeah, listen, you talked about four years when you didn’t reach out to like your mentors. ⁓ I have, I talk about the word relationship a lot, but I also bring up the word community a lot because I believe healing happens in community. When you have common unity, healing happens and healing means just to be made whole. And so when you have an ecosystem of community, you will be made whole, you’ll be made whole mentally because like you said,

Chris Prefontaine (11:18)
Mm.

Quentin (11:39)
They told you like, was a small, this is a small thing in the car. And it don’t seem like it because mentally, like you said, you fatigue. So right now you can’t see the forest from the trees. You like, what in the world do you mean? But when you have somebody that’s in your community who you can lean on, they can kind of nurture you back to health with the words that they say, maybe even giving you strategy. So I firmly believe that healing happens in community, the people who you surround yourself by.

So I would love for you to talk more about that word relationship and even the word community, but definitely the word relationship. How important is relationships in business? What is your philosophy on it? Talk to me a little bit about relationship, Chris.

Chris Prefontaine (12:18)
Yeah, we have a lot of commonalities spot on. I would use the exact same concept and I tend to use the words association and proximity. I think it’s the same, right? I think it’s way more than people realize because again, I’ll go back to with my wife and I’s conversations. She goes, I know what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna trace it back to how that happened. I say, yeah, cause I met Q who then introduced me to so-and-so and introduced me to so-and-so and I just trust it and follow it. And man, oh man, it’s an eye opener.

Quentin (12:25)
Yeah, uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Chris Prefontaine (12:45)
If I look at, don’t know, probably more than four, but four or five pivotal times in my life, I’ll go back and go, yep, it’s because I met so-and-so. And I didn’t know at the time, just like I didn’t know when the you know what hit the fan. But it was for a reason and that person was introduced for a reason. And as you know, some people are there for life and some people are there for a season and that’s great. I just trust it. I don’t get upset or tied to it. It is super important. And now community wise, just to wrap that up, someone in our community,

You know, it’s real estate, right? But it’s not real estate if it was just real estate and just skill sets I can teach that overnight They can watch my videos on YouTube and go got it all done, but it’s not it’s all the stuff to become an entrepreneur All these challenges that come up all these curve balls that come up and then they reach out in tears about something Personally and I walk them through that or something else in the community does that’s the game changer They become stronger people not I can do a deal. I know the skill set that’s that if it’s that easy everybody would do a deal in 30 days and and

Quentin (13:41)
Sir.

Chris Prefontaine (13:42)
⁓ It’s not that easy.

Quentin (13:43)
No, from your mouth, man, I say it a lot on this podcast. One of the constant things in your business is you. You are the constant in your business. And no matter where your business go, you are smack dead in the middle. And so, you know, really being able to reflect, being able to take inventory on yourself. Because, know, sometimes you can be your own bottleneck, like within your business. So it’s like just even evaluating yourself.

Like that way, I just love it. I mean, you’re saying it. I appreciate it. ⁓ I don’t know if we got to the name of your business. Do you mind telling us the name? And I would love to know the story behind the name.

Chris Prefontaine (15:00)
Yeah, so there’s a name and then there’s a front marketing, right? We have been Smart Real Estate Coach since day one, but it took us from, it’s a DBA, it took us a long time to get trademark rights to Wicked Smart. So we have Wicked Smart as the corporate name, our facing name is Smart Real Estate Coach. My wife thought of that years ago when this was an idea. That’s all it was, it an idea. So yes, that’s the name of the company and it’s smartrealestatecoach.com.

Quentin (15:11)
Mmm.

Chris Prefontaine (15:25)
Because of so many people that enter the space, I think it’s still solid for a lot of reasons. Part of our mission statement is to create smart investors who are committed and serious.

Quentin (15:37)
Mm, mm, simple, sweet, right to the point, I love it. Hey, Mr. Chris, is there any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about, or is there any words of like inspiration, education, motivation that you wanna give to the people?

Chris Prefontaine (15:53)
a capsule. And that is there were half the room that, and I bet the listeners are the same boat, half the room had a W-2, a J-O-B. And I said at very beginning of the day, said, who ideally, if you could snap your fingers, boom, wants to leave that? They said, yup.

So by the end of the day, I then re-asked for the commitment and because of the nature of the commitment, then not so many hands came out. I said, well, look, there are some people that love their jobs, their specialty, right? A doctor, a lawyer, I get that. But all the other ones that aren’t, if you’re listening and you don’t, you don’t have to be there. You don’t have to be there. There are people that have done this. And it’s not just our community. I’m biased, but I don’t care if you go open a restaurant, there’s people that have done it successfully.

and just know that you can follow that. It’s been modeled before. Now on that note, I’ll give you three quick steps and we can wrap. Again, doesn’t matter if it’s real estate, restaurant, you and I are gonna open a popcorn stand. It doesn’t matter. Now three simple steps. One, find a niche. Let’s just talk real estate now, but it doesn’t matter. Find a niche that you like. And when I say you like, you can get behind morally and ethically too. Like there are some niches in real estate that are a little more predatory. Ours is not. It’s a super win-win. I tend to like that. I think it’s healthy. Second step.

That’s step one. Second step, within that niche, find someone, please, please, please find someone that has had like a bunch of economic twists in their career. They’ve had, they’ve had, they’ve gone through cycles and maybe even gone through life events because you’re going to hit that. It is, it’s just life. and I just kind of referenced that. ⁓ and you can attach to them with that community from moral, ethical, and value standpoint, cause Q, you and I both know people that have wrecked relationships to become successful. It’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the whole picture.

And third is the toughest. is once you find those first two things, or you identify them, put the blinders on for three to seven years and do not deviate. You will have an amazing experience. Anything short of that, because the internet tells you can get rich quick tomorrow, you won’t have a great experience. So those are just three quick things. I did it yesterday and I think it’s worth, I hope there’s a nugget or two in there for people.

Quentin (17:50)
I definitely believe that it is. Mr. Chris, man, thank you so much. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

Chris Prefontaine (18:01)
I get a free book for your group specifically in Q. It’s not free book, but then put in shipping costs. Okay, that’s not what we’re doing. This is free. You won’t put a credit card in for 10 cents. Just go to three, it’s the number three, threepaydaysbooks.com forward slash fuel. Threepaydaysbooks.com forward slash fuel. And you’ll actually get a couple of our best sellers, no charge whatsoever. We just need your address. Our gift to you for having us on.

Quentin (18:28)
Absolutely. Well, let me say three things to you, sir. Sincerely. One, thank you for your time. I think you know you can put a premium on your time. So thank you for your time. I appreciate you being here. Secondly, man, thank you for your story, your narrative for coming and planting seeds and people that’s probably going to course correct some people and probably get people to think a different a different way from from the first time they saw this. So thank you for that. And lastly, thank you for your perspective, for your mindset. You paid.

and experience and probably in dollars to be able to think the way you think now. So thank you for bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you, Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Chris, please get into the show notes, get the book is free. You don’t gotta put in no card or nothing like that. Get in contact with him, but definitely make sure you’re subscribed here because we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Chris. So sir, thank you again and everyone else. Y’all have a fantastic day.

Chris Prefontaine (19:02)
You’re very welcome. Appreciate your energy.