How to Diversify in Real Estate: Fix & Flip, Wholesale, Buy & Hold

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Frank Miller, a seasoned real estate investor with 20 years of experience. Frank shares his journey into real estate, the importance of having a strong team, and the challenges faced in the industry. He discusses the concept of the ‘trifecta’ in real estate investing, which includes fixing and flipping, buying and holding, and wholesaling. Frank emphasizes the significance of building a supportive network and the motivation needed to succeed in real estate. He also introduces the Believe Investment Group, aimed at helping aspiring investors achieve financial freedom.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Frank Miller’s Website
    • Frank Miller’s Phone Number: (502)-819-7400
    • Frank Miller on LinkedIn

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Frank Miller (00:00)
  It’s crazy, man. I appreciate you asking that question because, you know, all these shows on TV like HDTV and A &E, they do these 30 minute segments and they make it look good, right? But, you know, when you jump into this business, man, you don’t hear all the hardship, right? But, you know, some of the stuff that we see on a daily basis is just like, you know, dealing with people out here in this business. I’d say the biggest thing is that some of the hardships that we see is like some of the families and what they’re going through.

  Let’s just talk about a little bit like say foreclosures, right? When all these different individuals are in foreclosures and you see the situation the family’s living in, you know, that’s kind of tough and then once you come in contact with that you make a relationship and then you make that deal happen and then honestly, you know when you get to the closing table you see that you kind of change those people’s lives, right? You see the smile on their face and then once we take over then that’s kind of when the hardship comes in, right? So we start having the difficulties of

  having to deal with contractors, right? Making sure the right contractors show up, having all these subs. Basically, kind of what I like to say is, is it feels like I’m running a babysitting service. So basically what happens is when I’m babysitting all these jobs, right? And then I’m trying to make sure everybody’s showing up at the right time and doing the right stuff. In the past 20 years, that’s kind of one of the biggest things and that’s our pain point is just dealing with the right contractors. Because I’ve heard so many horror stories where

  You know, some of my friends and investors have dropped 30 or 40,000 upfront to a contractor. Next thing you know, they don’t show up on the job, and now what do they do? So.

  Quentin (03:06)
  everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. You know, like I always say, I’m excited to be here today. I’m very, very excited. I’m excited about my guest that’s here. He has a beautiful trifecta working within real estate. man, you know, he has a great vantage point, a great lens that he’s going to talk to you about. And I’m just happy to introduce you guys to Mr. Frank Miller. Mr. Frank, how you doing today, sir?

  Frank Miller (03:31)
  I’m doing good, how about yourself?

  Quentin (03:33)
  man, man, I’m doing great, man. I can’t complain. I’m even more excited because I got you here today, This is what I live for. I love being able to connect with people. I love to be able to listen to people bring things, bring us into their world, take us through their lens. And I know you’re going to do that today, man. And so I don’t want my voice to be the predominant voice today. So I’m ready to just to dive in, man. So if you don’t mind, Mr. Frank, take us into your world. you know, tell us what your main focus is these days and what

  and what markets you’re operating in.

  Frank Miller (04:04)
  Well, appreciate you having me on. So basically, we’ve been doing this business for about 20 years. We do a little bit of everything. We diversify our portfolio. So basically, kind of what we do is we fix and flip, we buy and hold, and we also wholesale. We call it the ultimate trifecta. And we want to kind of do that just because we want to make sure we stay diversified in real estate, because you never know what’s going to happen in the background,

  Quentin (04:28)
  Ain’t that true. We never know what way the markets gonna shift. And you’re absolutely right. Mr. Frank, I wanna dig in just a little bit, man. Tell us where the passion came in from real estate. How did you get started,

  Frank Miller (04:39)
  So the passion was about 20 years ago, I was a delivery driver for DHL Express, kind of like UPS. And honestly, I was just sitting at home one night, late night TV commercial came on, three o’clock in the morning, you had this guy sitting in front of a jet and a Lamborghini, right? And said, hey, I’m doing real estate. So what I do is I go buy the books and tapes and the next thing you know, I start studying up on that. I hook up with my local real group here in Kentucky and then it kind of took off from there. So basically what I started doing was hanging out with more like-minded people.

  And once I got my foot in the circle, it was kind of all uphill from there, downhill from there.

  Quentin (06:01)
  Absolutely. So it was the jet for you, man. When you seen that jet, you said, wait a minute, I’m doing, I’m doing something wrong. Amen. You’re talking to a guy that was with the United States post office for 14 years, man, as a mailman. So I feel you, man. When we can get that action strategy, I’m wishing it. We hit it, you know? And so I get it, man. And you know, you got the trifecta. I know it’s not especially always easy in this climate. So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly, man?

  Frank Miller (06:31)
  So the great thing about keeping the machine running smoothly is having a great team on your side. Obviously you can’t do this business alone, right? So if it wasn’t for the team that I have in the office and the contractors I have out in the field and all my general contractors, then obviously we wouldn’t be successful. But the great thing about real estate is you can produce financial freedom pretty quick. As long as you stay on the right path and you have that circle and that team behind you, I mean, this is like something I took the leap in and I’m not looking back at all.

  Quentin (07:00)
  No, man, having the right team around you, like I heard somebody say the dream is only as strong as your team, you know? And so having the right people around you, absolutely is a big thing. Now you’ve been in this for 20 years, so I know you know this, but I’m about to say there’s moments when things get real, right? Maybe when the deal goes sideways or a time when you had to pivot fast. Man, I listen, friend, I don’t want to bring up no trauma points, but I would love if you could dig into that 20 years of experience.

  and share a story like that with us. I think that would be helpful for the audience.

  Frank Miller (07:33)
  It’s crazy, man. I appreciate you asking that question because, you know, all these shows on TV like HDTV and A &E, they do these 30 minute segments and they make it look good, right? But, you know, when you jump into this business, man, you don’t hear all the hardship, right? But, you know, some of the stuff that we see on a daily basis is just like, you know, dealing with people out here in this business. I’d say the biggest thing is that some of the hardships that we see is like some of the families and what they’re going through.

  Let’s just talk about a little bit like say foreclosures, right? When all these different individuals are in foreclosures and you see the situation the family’s living in, you know, that’s kind of tough and then once you come in contact with that you make a relationship and then you make that deal happen and then honestly, you know when you get to the closing table you see that you kind of change those people’s lives, right? You see the smile on their face and then once we take over then that’s kind of when the hardship comes in, right? So we start having the difficulties of

  having to deal with contractors, right? Making sure the right contractors show up, having all these subs. Basically, kind of what I like to say is, is it feels like I’m running a babysitting service. So basically what happens is when I’m babysitting all these jobs, right? And then I’m trying to make sure everybody’s showing up at the right time and doing the right stuff. In the past 20 years, that’s kind of one of the biggest things and that’s our pain point is just dealing with the right contractors. Because I’ve heard so many horror stories where

  You know, some of my friends and investors have dropped 30 or 40,000 upfront to a contractor. Next thing you know, they don’t show up on the job, and now what do they do? So.

  Quentin (09:07)
  Nah, man, thank you for that unique lens. Thank you for the story. I mean, that’s the sign of stuff, like you said, that we need to talk about, right? We like to talk about it here because, you know, so many people show their success, but a lot of people don’t show the, you know, talk about the journey, the hardships, and it really took the go-through to get to that success point, right? And there’s no success story that doesn’t come with some kind of adversity, some type of trial. And so I appreciate you saying that, and honestly, listening to you.

  that what you’re talking about, it separates the folks from the ones that dabble from the ones that’s in the game for the longterm, you know? And so again, I appreciate your perspective on that. So let me ask you this. What’s the next, like what’s the next thing you’re focused on solving or scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal?

  Frank Miller (10:30)
  So kind of what we’re looking for in the next six to 12 months, and the reason why me and my wife, my partner as well, so we started something called Believe Investment Group back in 2017. And the reason why we started that was because I was president of the local REIA here in Kentucky. And I had so many people come up to us and say, how did you get to where you’re at today? So by seeing that and having so many different people show up, right, and kind of figuring out, trying to figure out their path and their way.

  So what we decided to do was we was like, hey, you we want to help out the community. You know, we want to form some kind of community where everybody’s like-minded. So we started this group called Believe Investment Group. And then next thing you know, what we want to do over the next six to 12 months is we want to produce some real deal real estate investors. And what that looks like is by using that tri-perfective formula that’s helped us out for the past 20 years. I mean, here’s what people don’t understand is they jump into the business because they see all these shows on TV, right?

  And then next thing you know, they’re trying to fix and flip and they’re like, man, I’m way over budget. So what’s gonna happen? Or let’s just say they jump into a fix and flip and the next thing you know, the market crashes and then you’ll have no exit strategy. So that’s the reason why we wanna open up this so-called trifecta program to say, hey, you can fix and flip, can wholesale and you can buy and hold. And that’s the straight path to financial freedom.

  Quentin (11:51)
  Yeah. No, I absolutely love the name Believe Investment Group. Is there a story behind the name or how? Because I mean, I absolutely love that. It sounds like to me, you’re really trying to empower the next generation. And so I would love, man, any insight about the name, the name that you came up

  Frank Miller (12:08)
  So honestly, ⁓ my wife was the mastermind of that. So what happened was back in 2017 when we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do and what was gonna be next, ⁓ there was a statement that she said out of her mouth. And as soon as she said that, I was like, man, that’s catchy. All she said was, I believe. And when she said, I believe, I was like, man, that just, you know, that’s it right there. So then we just called it Believe Investment Group and it stands for big, go big or go home.

  Quentin (12:35)
  Bro, why didn’t I even see that? I didn’t see it. Yes. Yes, man. Yes. No, I absolutely love that. And that’s honestly like, you know the next move, it can either compound things or create chaos, depending on how you play it. And so I like the concept. Listen, we’re go big or go home. We’re gonna embrace the chaos. We’re gonna believe it makes something out of this. Sometimes, it starts off as dysfunction until we put order to it. You know what I mean? No, no, I love it. I love the fact.

  Frank Miller (13:01)
  Exactly.

  Quentin (13:04)
  that you’re in partnership with your wife. And this kind of brings me kind of to my next question, man. You know, there’s a lot of people listening and they’re either early on their journey or they’re looking to level up. And I think they have benefited from hearing this when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what has made the biggest difference for you?

  Frank Miller (13:25)
  Honestly building relationships and your network I would say what helped us was is hanging around like-minded people all the time because you know you’re gonna all have these naysayers around in your life right and a lot of us have close people that are that way but the more you hang out with like-minded individuals show up to your local Rio groups watch Podcasts like this and just get dialed in because the thing about it is is that the more you’re around those people the more they’re gonna build you up and help you in this business because literally

  Everybody in this business wants to help you succeed.

  Quentin (13:58)
  No, man, you’re absolutely right. You cannot fake relationships in this business. You know, I think we said it on camera and I’ll say it again. The dream is just, your team is what makes the dream work. Your team is just supporting as your dream. They make the team, I don’t know, I’m kind of getting tongue tied. Your team makes the dream work. That’s kind of what I’m trying to say. I had a nice little pretty tagline, but for whatever reason, it won’t flow over my tongue. But you’re absolutely right, man.

  is relationships, partnering with the right people. And I love the fact that y’all have a heart that not only want to, of course, succeed, but want to make sure that others succeed. And so listen, you know, I don’t have too many more questions left, but I do want to just take a moment and kind of give you the floor. If there’s any kind of inspiration, encouragement, like anything you’ve been thinking about that maybe you could tell our audience. We have a lot of people listening. They’re looking at it from different perspective. People are in different parts of their journey.

  And I just think that sometimes some inspiration and encouragement can really be helpful. So is there anything that maybe you can think of that you wish you had with the people right now?

  Frank Miller (15:45)
  Yeah, I’m so glad you asked that because the thing about it is that you always need motivation. So literally throughout the week, I always watch YouTube videos and motivational videos that will kind of get us through the day, right? So what that looks like is moving forward. No matter if you’re new, you’ve been doing business for a long time in real estate, but you’re going to learn something new every day. It doesn’t matter where you’re at or where you know who you’re learning from. So what my, I guess, words of wisdom is kind of moving forward is always continue learning.

  always continue hanging out with the right people because here’s what’s gonna happen is, is just like the other day, I’ve been doing this for 20 years, a guy came up to me and said something to me and I was like, man, that’s an aha moment. I didn’t realize that. So the more you hang out, the more you listen to this kind of stuff, and trust me, the biggest thing though is what I do is just say, for all the new people, just take action. If you can jump in and put one foot forward in that circle, and once you’re in that circle, man, you’re set.

  Quentin (16:44)
  Again, man, I appreciate you. Listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

  Frank Miller (16:55)
  So the best way to get ahold of us, like I said, we’re in Louisville, Kentucky. We work out of Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and then sometimes it’s Florida as well. But we’d love to connect with anybody around the country. So the best way to get ahold of us is go to our website at believeinvestmentgroup.com. So it’s believeinvestmentgroup.com or you can connect directly to us at 502-819-7400.

  Quentin (17:19)
  I love it, I love it. So there he is again, Mr. Frank Miller. Sir, thank you for your deep insights. I know our viewers are gonna take some positivity away from this and some great nuggets. And so I thank you for your time. I thank you for your story. I thank you for your perspective. We definitely need more people like you that’s doing it the right way. So thank you so much for being here, man.

  Frank Miller (17:41)
  Hey, I appreciate you and thanks for having me.

  Quentin (17:44)
  Absolutely. And to all those that’s tuning in, please make sure you’re subscribed. You do not want to miss. look, you see it? see it? Listen, you do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations that are happening. So again, thank you, Mr. Frank and to everyone else. We’ll see you on the next time.