How to Find Off-Market Distressed Properties and Raise Private Capital

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In this conversation, Dan Can shares his extensive experience in real estate, particularly focusing on off-market property acquisitions. He discusses the importance of understanding distress situations in real estate, the need for effective communication and empathy when dealing with distressed sellers, and the significance of building relationships in the industry. Dan emphasizes the value of content creation and personal branding, as well as the role of technology in modern real estate practices. He encourages aspiring investors to take action, overcome fear, and focus on creating generational wealth through real estate investments.

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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

DanCan (00:00)
If you want to make big profits, you got to solve big problems. And I know that that’s like contrary to what everyone else is saying out there because we live in this point and click world where people want to make $150,000 by just clicking and all this other stuff. But that’s not really how life works. You have to solve a big problem to make big profits.

Dylan Silver (01:52)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, DanCan in Spokane, Washington has a background as a business owner, 20 years as a business owner, 500 plus real estate transactions, an expert in off market property acquisition, and also a background in insurance, Christian leadership as well. And he also has a podcast, Dan, welcome to the show.

DanCan (02:18)
Hey, thanks for having me. I do believe that we’re gonna have a fantastic time and if we Can help even one of your valuable listeners, hey, it’s well worth the 20 to 40 minutes, maybe hour and a half. That’s a joke that will do this.

Dylan Silver (02:33)
Dan, thank you for coming on today. You’re involved in so much. I always like to start off at the top of these shows by asking guests how they got started in real estate.

DanCan (02:43)
Yeah, so I got started in real estate. First and foremost, by happen chance, I had a house and you had mentioned Christian Leadership. And so we really had a heart for a university where I used to live in Tacoma, Washington. And I found a house right by the university. I was the rugby coach for that university. The house was literally a block away, which I wanted to have the guys over all the time. And so

we bought that house and then the house we were living in, that became a rental. And so that was actually my first step into being a landlord. And most recently though in the last 15 years have really gotten into fixing and flipping and some holes because of a fantastic friend slash mentor in my life that had really encouraged me to say, listen.

This is how successful business owners do it. You have a rock solid business that you spend your time and energy, talent and build systems and procedures, hire all that great thing. And that’s the insurance side of things. And I’ve been in the financial sector, insurance sector for over 20 years. And so at that point, that’s when I jumped in was when I had the systems and everything built for the insurance side that gave me the freedom to go out and learn another industry such as off market.

acquiring properties and then now over the last three years financing those properties as well.

Dylan Silver (04:07)
I want to talk about the off market space. This is where I come from. This is where I really got my stripes in real estate is off market acquisitions, distressed properties, dealing with distressed sellers could be a variety of different forms of distress. It could be distressed in the property. It could be emotional, could be death in the family, could be divorce, could also be, hey, we’re headed to a foreclosure auction and we want to avoid this foreclosure. With all of these ways to

acquire properties, do you or did you have a preferred method of acquisition?

DanCan (05:31)
Yeah, so, you know, it’s really interesting, I kind of I call the off market world the underbelly of real estate, like people don’t know that it’s a thing, right. And so with the company that I run and own, wave capital, when I’m talking to investors, like I’d have to say about 25 % of them, I have to convince them in a very kind and educational way that this is actually a real asset class, like it does happen. Because it really blows people.

people’s mind like, well, wait a minute, if their houses were 300,000, why would they sell it to you for 140 or 150? And so this is where so I actually used to be a fourth grade teacher. I don’t know if I shared that with you or not. But and so it’s really amazing how much education helps me in my presentations, not saying that people are fourth graders, but I’m just saying it helps. And so stats are real. So as you know, six to nine 10 %

of every single rooftop in the United States of America in any given market is in some kind of form of distress. And that blows people’s minds, but it’s true. So that could be like the things that you just mentioned. The house could the actual structure of the house Can be a distress that they need a 20 $30,000 roof, they don’t have it. It has a crack foundation, the line, the sewer lines busted, right? There’s all these things. But then also what people don’t understand is that the actual people that

own the house, whether it’s a landlord or their primary residency, they are in distress, they might be having a divorce or they may have inherited a house. The stats and I love stats. I’m a numbers guy. love baseball. And so I love numbers. So the stats are this if somebody inherits a house, if they don’t live in that geographical area, the average distance is over 350 miles.

from where they acquired that house. What are they gonna do with the house that they just inherited? They don’t know how to clean it out. They don’t know anything about, know, probate and taxes and all these other things. And so we Can come in as problem solvers and you know, a lot of these houses have a lot of equity in it and just say, listen, I know you Can look at Zillow, it’s worth 300. I don’t know if you have the bandwidth to take all this out. I Can purchase it for you. I Can close in a week to two weeks if title’s clear and I Can give you 150 to 170. How’s that sound?

Dylan Silver (07:52)
You know, when I think about the distress space, that’s exactly what I was doing, you know, and it’s interesting because you mentioned people being in disbelief about, hey, that this is a real thing. How are we getting these deals at such a steep discount? But there’s also a component which people don’t factor into, which is like the degree of difficulty or the degree of discomfort. People don’t see this. But if you’re walking into a distress seller situation, you don’t know what you’re walking into. Many cases, I mean, how many

DanCan (08:12)
yeah.

Yeah.

Dylan Silver (08:21)
how many places have you walked into where you’re like, wow, this is really, you know, a tough situation, whether it could be hoarding, whether it could be, you know, someone passed away there, whether the property could be in severe states of distress, to the point where if they were to go list that on market, you know, depending on who their realtor is, they might not get the kind of reception that they were thinking. And you Can’t go get a traditional mortgage on that. So it already has to go to a small buyer.

DanCan (08:49)
Yeah, a lot of my investors will text me because I love I’m a storyteller. I love telling stories. And so I do I communicate a lot through video short little video clips. And so I Can tell you out of the 24 investors that I work with, they oftentimes reply back, I’m glad you’re doing this and not me. Because, you know, we’ve had some choice walkthroughs. And, you know,

distress is exactly that man is distress. It’s not pretty. You know, my really strong referral partner, Ethan, he’s a real fantastic realtor here in Spokane used to work for me on the insurance side. That’s another story in itself. But he found a fantastic house. And it’s kind of is inherited property. And I mean, it’s the cleanest. It’s basically the cleanest house I’ve ever walked through.

on a distress situation. And so the numbers on this guy, we got it locked up for 299 ARV is 450 to 475. Well, I’m just gonna hold this thing. I mean, it’s it’s it’s gorgeous. The cool thing about this property is that it had a old school 1950s jukebox in the basement. And man, I tried so hard negotiating that into the

Dylan Silver (10:02)
wow.

DanCan (10:06)
deal. But unfortunately, there were like four to six family members that wanted it. And I was like, All right, well, we’re out. So, you know, yeah, I mean, totally. Right. All these stories. I’m sorry, these houses have stories. And, you know, I could go on and on about different situations like we did. I just told this story the other day. But we I purchased a lot at the auction and it was a sheriff sale and here in Washington, you have to wait a year before you Can actually

Dylan Silver (10:12)
Yeah, we’ll take the jukebox, not the house.

Yeah, me too.

DanCan (10:35)
own the property. And, you know, that whole year, the prior owner still thought he had it, he didn’t. And he tried to break into the condo, he tried to break in and steal our trailer, he tried to break in, you know, mess up the job we were doing. And I just told my crew, I own a construction company as well, two crews, because I just got tired of contractors, be honest with you. And so and I just told my guys, Hey, let’s just jump over this other property, he’s gonna

Dylan Silver (10:56)
Yeah. Yeah.

DanCan (11:37)
Fizzle out in a couple weeks, we’ll go back and sure enough he did. They all it’s just story after story. But my investors at wave capital, they just love hearing like, how’d you get this house where there’s a direct mail piece, pay per click, wholesalers, door knockers. So you get them.

Dylan Silver (11:53)
You’re doing volume, but I tell you, think it doesn’t it never never gets old for me. If I was doing the volume that you were doing, it might change a little bit. But I still think that each story is unique. It checks out to me that the investors love hearing these stories. I do want to ask you about what your perspective is or what your feedback would be for folks who may not have their own construction crew. They might not be a contractor themselves.

but they’re looking at getting into the off market space. So they’re, might deal with some more distress, right? Then buying, then buying on market. Should they be looking at things that are more turnkey because maybe that’s going to be, you know, less risk for them or, know, if they have to look for these deals at a steep discount, they might have to look for something that is going to require some more, some more rehab.

DanCan (12:43)
Yeah, that’s a fabulous question. And first and foremost, thank you so much for having me on the show. I Can’t believe I didn’t say at the beginning. We had such a great pre talk. I was like, here we go. Thank you so much for having me on the show. First and foremost, if you want to jump into this world, I just have this saying I say it a lot, they probably heard it like leaders read and readers lead, you got to start reading, you got to start learning and having mentors in your life. And if you don’t have men or women that are doing this, you Can have books mentor you.

You Can see this little mug here, right? Read and do. We homeschooled all three of our boys and we believe in the classical education model where there are principles in classic literature that you Can take that are timeless, that you Can take into any kind of field. Now, I know we’re talking about off-market properties. Like, is this guy talking about telltale cities? Well, I Can tell you there’s a principle within telltale cities that will help you be successful. And so

Trying to find the perfect off-market property takes time. You know, there’s not an off-market property store where you could just walk in like Walmart and like, here we go, here we go. You gotta look at a lot of dogs before you Can find a diamond. Most recently, I was talking to Ethan, we looked at, we did the math. We looked at 15 houses before we bought this house I just talked about off at Jefferson with the jukebox. It’s now affectionately called the jukebox house. And so,

even though I didn’t get it. So start reading books. If you want to get in this game, I’d really, really encourage you to read a richest man in Babylon. It’s a fantastic book about mindset. I read it once a year. It’s a Middle Eastern fables. It’s awesome. It’s a really great book. And then there are other books that you Can read that are specific to the off market world. If you want to get in this game, you really got to be a fantastic communicator.

Now, some of you are like, I Can do that. And then some of you are like, I’m an introvert. I hate that. Well, guess what? If you want to get in the game. And if you don’t have the kind of capital to hire, you got to hire yourself. And you got to learn how to be a fantastic communicator. This is really an outside sales game. And I’ve been in outside sales for 20 years. And I have this conversation, I do a lot of business mentoring with young guys and other businesses and stuff. And this is what I communicate. Listen, everybody will make a lot of money.

Dylan Silver (14:27)
100%.

DanCan (15:36)
If you Can learn how to leave the cave kill something and bring it back. And that’s what you’re learning how to do if you want to do this off-march. You’re leaving your comfort zone, you’re going out there, you’re putting yourself out there, but you got to bring it back. Now, when you bring it back, you got to have a team that Can do this other work like, you know, renovate it, remodel it, all this other stuff. Well, those people aren’t going to get paid like you because that’s the cleaning. That’s the…

Dylan Silver (15:46)
That’s

DanCan (16:05)
technician side of things. That’s what I call it, the technician side. to be outside to be an outside sales and go get that property, you really got to have tenacity, you really got to have fantastic character. And you really have to be able to build trust. Because trust is about two things. It’s about character and capacity. So do you have the character and do you have the capacity to do the work? You Can do that by reading books and getting around mentors.

Dylan Silver (16:28)
100%.

Let’s

break that down a little bit because as someone who’s done this and then you’ve done it at large scale, People may think, okay, communication, I Can talk to people. That’s not too hard. Or maybe I’m already in sales. This is maybe a different type of sale, but there’s a difference when you’re walking into someone who’s losing their home. They may be 15 days away from an auction. There’s a difference when you’re walking into someone’s home, their hoarder home. They don’t let anybody in their house and you hear they are letting you into their home.

peeling back the layers of the onion, so to speak. And so you’re effectively walking into a heated situation in many cases. So I remember this, and I’m curious to get your perspective on this, Dan, is I would walk into homes knowing, my first thought is not, I need to buy the home. My first thought was almost like triaging a ongoing situation. Like, how is this person’s mental state?

DanCan (17:20)
Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (17:24)
How’s the situation at home? Do they even really own the home, even though they say they own the home? Are they the person that they say they are? And so from there, I’m like, okay, let’s get everything on ice. Let me talk to them and then we Can talk about the home.

DanCan (17:30)
yeah.

That’s a good point.

Yeah, so the most fantastic sales reps that I’ve ever trained and had on my teams, first and foremost, they’re fantastic listeners. And you just want to write that down. You have to be a fantastic listener. You have to be able to have a tremendous amount of empathy. These people are in a very tough spot, whether it’s their house or their personal situation, or they lost a loved one.

Maybe they unfortunately had a job move that they don’t agree with, but they have to leave town and sell quickly. So you have to be able to listen because within their story, there’s going to be a pain point or a problem that you have an opportunity to solve. And so if you Can really break that down in your presentation of the problem that you’re going to solve for them, it’s really going to help you out. In addition to that, you got to have empathy like I talked about, but you also have to have some kind of product knowledge in regards to

how you Can help them.

If you want to make big profits, you got to solve big problems. And I know that that’s like contrary to what everyone else is saying out there because we live in this point and click world where people want to make $150,000 by just clicking and all this other stuff. But that’s not really how life works. You have to solve a big problem to make big profits.

And so for example, you talked about foreclosure.

Well, if you know their numbers and they’re telling you the truth, say, okay, well, listen, you could go to foreclosure, you Can go to the auction steps, you’re lose your house, you’re gonna get zero, you’re gonna get zero money. Okay. However, if you agree to my price here, you’re gonna walk away with 15 grand, would you rather have 15 grand or would you rather have zero?

Dylan Silver (19:16)
That’s right. Who’s going to say no to that?

DanCan (19:17)
And

if you’re getting into this game, you also have to have what I call proof of concept, which is which is you have to have some kind of not availability, you got to have proof that you’re actually going to be able to perform what you Can do. And so I call that content. And so out of all the companies that I own, this this model is always the same. And it’s content, I’m creating content that’s proof of concept.

through the content, I’m increasing my customers, my customer database, my contacts, and then I’m always focused on closure. And so even though I’m 50 years old, even though I’ve been in the game for 20 years, like I’m always focused on those three things. I post a reel every single day, Monday through Friday, sometimes on Saturday, Sunday’s a rest day. And then I’m always working on.

my contacts, I want an emailable database that’s hearing the Dan Can story and the problems I’m solving. And then if and when I do get a chance to present an offer or close on a house, I gotta have closure. I’m always looking at that. And so those are three things if you’re getting in the game, start that now.

Dylan Silver (20:27)
Yeah. ⁓

think about the problem solving off market as very different from a lot of other things in real estate. Give you an example. So I’m a realtor. Before becoming a realtor, I was in the off market space exclusively. So my natural thought was, okay, you know, I was unlicensed previously. Everyone who’s a realtor kind of probably knows a little bit about this off market space. That’s what I thought at the time.

DanCan (20:55)
Yeah,

Dylan Silver (20:56)
Once I

DanCan (20:56)
yeah.

Dylan Silver (20:56)
became licensed, realized like this is a totally different world. Like realtors in many cases not saying this is all them, but they don’t necessarily even want to deal with this because they’re not going to qualify for traditional mortgages. It’s going to be a very specific buy pool. They might not speak the lingo of the investor. And then also too, there’s many cases where these homes Can’t be listed because people Can’t come to agreement. So I remember distinctly

you know, bringing families together like people that haven’t spoken in years, getting them to agree on certain things. Or if they don’t, you know, if they’re like, hey, I don’t want to speak to this person. They might say, Okay, well, let me wash my hands of it or give me some money for it. But I don’t want to have to do this. So you’re really diving in not just as a quote unquote, you know, real estate transaction coordinator, but you’re also having to get people to agree.

DanCan (21:23)
That’s a wrap.

Yeah. Yeah. Good for you. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (21:49)
Outside of just signing on the dotted line. Hey, let’s sit in the same room. Let’s talk about this Hey, dad’s getting older and you know, he’s wanting to do something with the home so that it doesn’t become overwhelming for him Can and I imagine you’ve done this too Can we move dad into a different place so that he Can you know live more comfortably and so you now you’re really bringing a lot of? Components together. I’m imagining Dan that with with wave capital. This is

you know, really a lot of the stories that the investors are interested in. But one of the benefits is rather than them having to go out and do it, they Can go to you and they Can hear these stories kind of secondhand and invest their money out.

DanCan (22:28)
Yeah, you know, most Americans want to hit the easy button. And if you have one hundred and twenty thousand to three point five million to invest with me, I Can tell you right now you hit the easy button with me. You’re going to get 10 percent simple interest. You’re going to get it every month. I do it. I mean, it’s what we do. You know you brought up a really great point about solving problems. And if you’re like the listener right now, I’m talking to you. If you want to get involved in this game.

This is the most simplest way to get involved. Start talking about it. I Can tell you with the 20 years of experience I have, whatever you talk about happens. As soon as you stop talking about it, it stops happening. Whether it’s yourself or if you have a sales team or whatever. And so I am always talking about off market properties. I want to share this story because it’s proof of concept. I have three wonderful boys.

And one of my sons, he was down at our country club and he was hitting balls on the range. A prior employee of the country club who’s a member now he shows up. And my son’s like, Hey, I haven’t seen you for a while. Where you been? He’s like, Well, I just graduated college. I’m back. And so my son simply asks him, Well, what are you doing now? And he goes, Well, I’m realtor. I’m working for my dad. And so my 17 year old son looks at him and says, Well, my dad and I buy off market properties.

If you ever come across one, let me know. This guy’s jaw just drops. goes, I won’t say my son’s name, but he basically said my son’s name and he said, I’m going to a property in an hour and a half that needs to sell quickly. And so my son’s like, well, you know my dad, here’s my dad’s number, give him a call. True story. Two days later, I’m in that house, put an offer on that house. I gave my son a commission check of 2,500 bucks.

at 17.

Dylan Silver (24:23)
He’s rich now, yeah.

DanCan (24:25)
Now, and the amazing thing is he put in his college fund. He didn’t take a single dime out for himself. put in his college fund. So yeah, it’s kind of unfair the brain that guy has. I got that from his mom for sure. but just watch the chain of events here. So my son talked about it happened, bought the house, we flipped it, we sold it. He created a relationship with these two realtors for me. Four months later, the dad calls me and says, Hey, I have a situation I think you may be able to help with.

Dylan Silver (24:30)
Wow, discipline.

DanCan (24:53)
And basically what it was was a church had a house on their church parcel and they needed some big money fast. So they parceled it off. I went and looked at the house and we were able to come to terms. So in two weeks they were able to solve their problem. My son got another commission check because that’s how it works. I wouldn’t have that relationship if he hadn’t told or asked that first guy, what are you doing now?

And so that’s what I mean by whatever you talk about happens. And so if you want to get in this game, and that’s what I meant by content, just, I mean, with the socials and everything, it doesn’t cost you anything, it just costs you time. And you Can create a four month plan with using chat GPT on what builds the most value on why people would trust you as an authority. And so the reason why I shared that story is if a 17 year old can do it, you can do it.

Dylan Silver (25:47)
And when we talk about putting content out there, I know you hear this Dan, especially as someone who’s on the cutting edge of this. There’s a lot of people who say, well yeah, but what do I put out there? Or why would people listen to me? I’ve caught myself sometimes thinking that way, but then I realize you know you don’t know someone’s background necessarily, but if they’re giving you information and you’re scrolling through, that’s what’s gonna hook you.

And then the more that you do that, you know, you’ve got to start somewhere, then you’ll have this longer track record. But there’s a lot of analysis paralysis when it comes to the content thing I see.

DanCan (26:22)
Yeah, so really for me, it’s about building value and trust and being problem solver. I mean, that’s how you become an authority, right? And so if you’re younger, let’s just use an avatar of somebody young wanting to get into the game, right? Every story has a problem. Every great story has a problem. Every journey, you know, there’s this fantastic quote that every good story, you know,

A man goes to a man comes to town or a man goes on a journey, right? A new man comes to town or a man goes on a journey. So you literally Can create content about your journey. You Can create content about what you’re learning and how you’re doing it and being vulnerable and talking about the pros and cons and all the things that you’re learning and the successes you had and the failures. People love hearing stories like that. You know, someone I’m 50 years old, I’ve been in the game for a bit and so I Can talk about

past successes, but really I talk about the most recent things. And I’m actually talking about other people and the properties more than I’m talking about myself. And so, you know, if you’re just getting started, you want to get in this game, I’d really encourage you just start that journey. Use tell them books you’re reading, tell them the meetups you’re going to tell them the mentors that you have in your life. Feed off of other people’s successes, partner with someone in your area.

that might not have the energy and juicy that you have, but they have the capital or they have the connections, you could be the one to go to the meetups. I mean, there’s just so many different ways to get content out there. I would encourage people just to start, you know, my podcast, the the invested life podcast, man, I had no I I did what you did. I got what we’re talking about. I got really scared. I didn’t want to do it.

I mean, I’m a communicator, man. I Can tell stories for days, but I just got scared because of the tech side of things. Like I didn’t know how to do this. I didn’t know how to do that. Well, I partnered with this guy, Scott. call him Scott, the Canadian, the happy Canadian podcast producer, because he’s Canadian, he’s happy. And he’s just a great guy. He does all the things I just show up, I create this little studio, I go to work, I kind of tell my story, I do tell my stories, I tell my solutions, boom, he does everything else. Great. Thank you, Scott.

Dylan Silver (28:36)
want to actually hit on that point specifically, if we Can get a little bit granular on what it takes. Because I was of the same thinking, like I need a studio, I need to these big microphones. I mean, even the setup that I have, it might be more than what most people need. But truly, you know right now, in order to host a podcast, you need two phones. That’s it. You need two phones. right now with the technology, we use Riverside. So I’ll shout out Riverside. You Can have a

DanCan (28:58)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (29:06)
pretty good podcast with your phone, someone on the other end who’s not in the same place. You’re in Spokane, Washington. Right now I’m in Northern New Jersey. And sure, we’ve got mics and a setup, but even if we just had two phones, we could have a very similar conversation.

DanCan (29:20)
I’m glad you brought that up. That’s actually how I started was with my phone. And I started up in my office, I had to get a little tripod. So I’m all in 25 bucks for the tripod, I already had a phone. And as I started going, some young bucks from church who have been helping me with the YouTube side of things, they were like, hey, listen, you got really good content, but you know, you need to improve on this. And so just to get started is the most important thing, specifically if you’re playing the long game.

So for me, real estate is about building generational wealth. So like everybody, you got to know your why. And so if you’re writing, if you’re taking notes on your phone, you’re writing in your journal, just write that down. What is my why? If you don’t know your why, the what’s never going to happen. I mean, it’s just you’ll fizzle, it’ll get hard, you’ll quit, and then you’re just going to do this toilet bowl of things and not finish anything. So I’m telling you from past experience. So my why is

my wife is I’m trying to create generational blessings. You know, we talked about this at the intro, but I’m the son of two immigrants. So I’m the first one to be born in North America. My mom immigrated from the UK, my biological father immigrated from Santiago, Chile. My mom had me when she was 18 years old, not a cool thing in 1975. My dad left when I was four months old. So it’s just my mom and I we are living in section eight housing and food stamps. I’ve had three step dads. I’m the first one.

on both sides of family to have a four year college degree. I’m the first one on both sides of family to have a master’s degree. I love this country. It has meant the world to me. And so I’m in real estate to build generational wealth because when you come up when you come across the Atlantic or you fly out from Chile, you have no family safety net. There is no rich grandpa, there is no rich uncle, okay, like you have yourself. And when that

puts in you a drive. So my Grammy who came with my mom, she was the head custodian at the VA hospital in town where I grew up. Okay, she was custodian. And she did a darn good job. But that’s what she did. And that’s what she retired from. My mom worked for the coma school, coma school district for 30 plus years. And thankfully data and tech. So she had a fantastic job. I’m the first one on both sides of my family really branch out of government work, not that there’s anything wrong with government work.

But I wanted an entrepreneur lifestyle because of a mentor who showed me a different way. Now I was a fourth grade teacher. I loved teaching. I loved working for the government. It was awesome. But I’m trying to create generational wealth because I love history. love biographies. I’m usually reading two to five books at a time. And if you look historically over the history of man, real estate is a part of

every successful what I mean by successful is abundance of finances. They have real estate in their portfolio, they own properties, they control land. And so I want to be in that world. And if I Can buy a property with 20 to 40, sometimes 50 % of equity. You know how hard it is to make $180,000. And I just, and I just, and I just did it in a single purchase.

Dylan Silver (32:37)
It’s not easy. Yeah.

DanCan (32:42)
That’s why I believe people should really get into the off market space.

Dylan Silver (32:47)
I want to talk about the idea of, you mentioned being a teacher, Dan, I’ve seen on this podcast, there’s more and more, and maybe just because of social media and the internet connecting us, but there’s more and more interest or seems to be in people that, you know, our police officers, our teachers, you know, maybe working for their local municipality, they might not think like, Hey, I don’t want to necessarily leave the W2 world, but I’m interested in tapping into, to, to real estate.

And I’m seeing this as, hey, folks like yourself, folks like myself, I do feel like I have a responsibility, not just for me, but for those people too, especially as me being a realtor, hey, let me show you how to do this. Hey, I know that you’re looking at, you know, fix and flipping your first home, you’ve got a full time job and you don’t necessarily know nobody in the contracting world. What about, you know, maybe looking at something more turnkey that might be more suitable for what you’re looking at or

You know you’ve got a little bit more time on your hands, but you don’t wanna do a full rehab. There’s a quadplex over here. You Can get four doors for only a little bit more than that one single family home that you were looking at. How about we take a look at this?

DanCan (33:55)
Yeah, one of the most successful flippers and hold investors here in Spokane, I coached his son in football, blew my mind. He’s a firefighter. He’s called to be a firefighter. He loves it. And he’s an amazing firefighter. He’s an amazing man. But he has ample properties because of what you just said. Like 20 years ago, he was like, wait, like, I love being a firefighter, but I also want to build this generational wealth.

And so he just started networking doing all this stuff. Now firefighters have a unique schedule where he was able to, you know, utilize some of those hours off hours. But yeah, I mean, if you want to get in the game, there are so many fantastic ways to you Can partner. You Can go slow, you Can go fast, you Can invest in a real estate fund, you Can partner with you Can go to meetup groups. I mean, there’s just so many opportunities. But really where where I see people stop is

Fear is real. Fear is real. And a cousin of fear is passivity. And I hate passivity. Like literally in my quiet time this morning with the Lord, I literally wrote, do not be passive. And so today I am searching every avenue of my life where I am being passive in. Whether it’s sending that text or email or having that conversation, hard conversation or whatever. And so don’t be fearful because it’s just gonna rob, steal, kill and destroy you.

And then that cousin of fear is passivity and you want to break through that. And that’s why action. Now I’m not saying you do everything all the time, but I Can tell you more times than not, my biggest breakthrough is when I just took action and I’m like, okay, I got to go down there or okay, I got to ask that investor for the money, you know? And so in two years for wave capital, I’ve raised over $13 million. So think about that zero ad budget.

pretty much talking to my sphere, talking to people I know, telling stories about what my real estate partner and I find out there on the open market. Basically, as a part-time position, I raised 13 million. People Can do this. People Can raise capital because people understand real estate. They understand percentages.

If you show them proof of concept in your given area that you Can find, you Can find all the time, you Can find properties that are 30, 40, 50 % of value. If you build your character in your brand, personal branding is a whole nother topic, but you build a personal brand. I look at my neon sign, Dan Can. My full name is Dan Cantillana Okay. But Dan Can, everybody remembers Dan Can And so you Can then raise funds.

And you Can make margin on those funds and then you Can lend those that money out to other people. So there’s all these different ways. But back to the point, you got to be able to get the asset, you got to be able to get what I call the vehicle. The vehicle is the off market real estate property bought at a discount, you have to become a master of acquiring that.

Dylan Silver (37:08)
When folks are looking at getting in, they may be thinking, well, what do I have to offer? I don’t necessarily have this big nest egg. Let’s say, a firefighter who’s just starting out on their career, you know maybe young 20 something, same thing with a teacher, right? They may be thinking, well, how am I gonna take down this whole deal? Or what do I have to offer these investors? What I would say to those folks is you have the drive, you have the brand, if you’re already marketing yourself online.

That’s great. You’ve got that. If you’re not, you Can start so you Can be the deal finder. And I’ve now seen more and more of this through this show is there’s a lot of people probably very much like yourself, Dan, who are looking for maybe some younger people to a work for them or mentor or find deals. And that kind of creates these relationships which Can be not not just, you know, financially bountiful, but also fulfilling. Right. You’re creating this community around real estate.

DanCan (38:03)
yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I believe in God and I believe in God’s plan. And God’s plan is that we live in community with one another. God’s plan is that we specialize in something so that we Can be blessed by that specialization. I mean, this is this is the dawn of time. Okay, this is how it works. And we live specifically in America where we we idolize this John Wayne Frank Sinatra, I did it my way kind of thing. And there are moments where you do need to do that. But we do need to be in community more times than not. And so if you’re taking notes on your phone or on your journal,

I know that’s the third time I’ve said it, but you should be. You want to write down these two acronyms. OPM, other people’s money. OPT, other people’s time. You Can go to people and say, buy my time. I have time, I have character and I have grit. I don’t got any money. You do, but I got time. So let me be, you know.

your OPT sounds like that Michael Jackson song, but I’m not gonna sing it right now. But OPT other people’s time. Okay. YPT anyway, so I’ve firmly firmly believe so I’ve been to almost every continent in this world. Okay. And I don’t want to disrespect other countries, but I Can tell you there is no country in the world where you Can create the kind of wealth that you Can create United States.

There isn’t, there just is not. And so if you Can just start reading books, get off the couch, get a little hustle, start doing content, contacts, and closure, there is nothing stopping you from being successful. You just need to get off your rear end and start doing it and start doing the great hard thing, which is work on your character, work on building yourself as the authority.

telling people the story and the problems that you solve and allowing them to know that they are buying your time. I mean, that would be the quickest way, in my opinion, if you weren’t someone who’s sitting on 13 million to lend out and all these 20 years of experience, right? That’s what I would say.

Dylan Silver (40:18)
We are coming up on time here, Dan. I do want to touch on something you mentioned there, you know, the opportunity that we have as folks living in the United States. I live outside of the United States between, I live in the Dominican Republic, but I’ll go between the Dominican Republic and Texas where I’m licensed, and now I’m in Northern New Jersey visiting parents for the holidays. But when I think about, you know, what really makes

America special and just to be blunt, it’s the ability to create wealth to your point, you know, you look at your you look at your own story, you know, coming from folks who were who are not raised in the United States and then you had to come up basically from nothing, you know, advanced degrees and then being able to build multiple businesses, insurance and real estate. It honestly, especially as someone like myself who, you know, never really thought about

DanCan (40:52)
set.

Dylan Silver (41:12)
what it’s like outside of the country. It took me traveling outside of the US to really be able to appreciate some basic things that most people don’t understand, like roads. Like we have roads that are smooth.

DanCan (41:25)
Electricity

that stays on the whole time without blackouts. Yes. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (41:29)
Yeah, drinkable water like there’s

signs of wealth like emergency EMS ambulances that all arrived you call 911 they show up like these are signs of wealth they’re indicators of not just you know, one or two people but a large group of people who fought and everything that we have to be grateful for it becomes more clear when when you leave have you had that experience as well?

DanCan (41:37)
Yeah, yeah.

absolutely. I mean, I’ve been to Africa, China, Australia, UK, Egypt, like I said, so yes, yes, yes. And yes. You know, the town that I grew up in Port Orchard, I grew up on a I grew up on a in a double wide on three acres on a dirt road. In this small town. My mom worked very hard. And I’m very proud of the fact that we we had a place right? That same town where I lived in a double wide.

I now finance, fundamentally own four houses.

I mean, you Can do it. And the thing that stops people is that limited belief in that closed mindset. And so when you start reading books, I know I keep talking about this. But when you start reading books, people men and women have gone before you and they’re sharing their expertise with you, which allows you a road of victory. But you have to get off the couch, you got to start doing something. And so to your point about building wealth,

My why necessarily isn’t about building wealth, although that’s part of what I do. My why is four or five generations down the road. I want them to be able to know who Dan Cantillana was, which is why I started the podcast because I want a digital asset to where they Can go and hear the stories and what I was about that I try every day to glorify Christ and everything that I do. I try to love my wife with purpose. I try to be the dad that I never had.

And I want to change that generational tree. That’s my why. I could spend my time on a lot of things. And I’ve chosen insurance and real estate, because it’s highly relational. It’s in the financial sector, which I get. And I love people. I love being in community. I love helping my investors. I am so humbled that I am a part of their financial plan.

I mean, to be talking to somebody that has $2 million invested with you that you did not know 11 months ago, the gentleman had never known me. 11 months ago, he was a referral from somebody I shared with him my story. I shared with them our system. He invested $2 million with me. I was talking with him and he said, could you use another million dollars? Do you know how humbling that is to hear this from somebody that

has spent their whole life acquiring this wealth, all the sacrifices he has made to have that kind of money to invest in off-market properties. I mean, it’s fascinating to me. As a listener, you Can get there, but you have to take the first step.

Dylan Silver (44:41)
It’s an act of faith. You you talk about that time and energy. That’s what it is. You know, you’ve got to you’ve got to believe before you Can see, you know, the the account number roll up in your bank account, you’ve got to start with the idea that hey, this is gonna work, whether it takes three months, six months. I personally know Dan, a lot of people who are like, well, I just got started. I haven’t found a deal in three months. And they’re looking at giving up. You know, it depends on what

where you’re at, what segment of the real estate space you’re in. If you’re looking at, you know, multifamily properties, this is not the easiest time to buy multifamily.

DanCan (45:13)
that’s a long

runway just to begin with. I

Dylan Silver (45:18)
Yeah, so people who are like on the ropes and thinking about giving up because they haven’t found a deal in their first year, there’s institutional players who haven’t bought a deal in five years. So I tell folks, know, don’t give up. Keep going when you think, OK, well, I’m not cut out for this. Find some other people. I truly believe, even if you are introverted, that this real estate game is for everybody, whether you’re a passive partner, whether you’re the capital partner, whether you’re the deal finder, whether you’re doing the content, there’s a space here for everybody.

DanCan (45:48)
If you’re taking notes, I’m going to give you a new job description and title. And this is this is my job description for everything that I do. So write this down. I am in charge. Of creating and maintaining big relationships. I am in charge of creating and maintaining big

relationships. That is the way forward if you want to find off market properties, if you want to create generational wealth. It’s that simple.

Dylan Silver (46:29)
Dan, are coming up on time here. Where Can folks go if they’re interested in learning more about Wave Capital? How Can they reach out to you and your team?

DanCan (46:39)
Yeah, of course. So first and foremost, man, I’ve really enjoyed this. Thank you so much. So you Can go to my website, which is invest with Dan Can put in your contact information. There’s a webinar there you Can see my exact way on how I get these properties. If you want to hear more encouragement, if you want to learn how to invest in yourself, others and what you’re called to do, then you Can go to my podcast, the invested life with Dan Can

the invested life with Dan Can, I want to leave with this. And this is how I end my show. And oftentimes, every meeting that I have is I have this thing that I learned 22 years ago called the law of 72. And it’s this, when I listen to a podcast, when I go to a seminar, a teaching time, I take one concept one to two concepts, and I have to do it principles, I have to do it within 72 hours. So if you’re listening to this,

And there were one to two things, whether that’s go to a meetup, buy a book, talk to a referral partner, get your real estate license, become a loan officer, whatever it is, you have 72 hours to do that. Write that down law of 72. Start being a man or a woman of action. Believe in yourself. And you Can do this. Believe me, if a first generation immigrant kid with probably ADHD and dyslexia Can do this, you Can do this.

Dylan Silver (48:06)
Dan, thank you so much for coming on today.

DanCan (48:08)
Yeah, man.

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How to Find Off-Market Distressed Properties and Raise Private Capital

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