How to Master Retail Real Estate Sales | Ryan Mellon Shares Tips

Ryan (00:00)
So what got me into real estate was I was working two jobs, 14 hours day, six days a week for over a decade. And it was just brutal. ⁓ And I saw some success that a good friend of my, a friend of a friend was having. And…

I started taking her to lunch and saying like, hey, I see you flipping on these houses, I see you making all this money and really moving up and leaving your corporate job, what’s this all about?

Scott Bursey (01:58)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host Scott Bursey. And today we’re injecting a massive shot of fuel into your sales game. Retail real estate is all about high stakes transactions. And our guest is an absolute master of converting leads into signed deals. He’s bringing the fire and the blueprint for closing in the fast paced retail sector.

Please welcome the master retail sales strategies, Ryan Mellon.

Ryan (02:28)
Hey, thank you, thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:31)
It is wonderful to have you here, Ryan. And welcome to the show. Let’s talk transactions, my friend. And I love hearing how pros like you found their fuel. For those of our listeners who aren’t familiar with your journey, what’s the spark that got you into real estate? And what’s your main focus now?

Ryan (02:47)
So what got me into real estate was I was working two jobs, 14 hours day, six days a week for over a decade. And it was just brutal. ⁓ And I saw some success that a good friend of my, a friend of a friend was having. And…

I started taking her to lunch and saying like, hey, I see you flipping on these houses, I see you making all this money and really moving up and leaving your corporate job, what’s this all about?

And I started reading about real estate, I got my real estate license, and then what happened was I read the four hour work week.

And that was a big game changer for me. Got me excited about travel and I was able to get two weeks off from my job, both of my jobs that I was working. And I went and backpacked Costa Rica solo by myself and came back and I came back to my two jobs and was like, I need to make a major change in my life. I told both my jobs within a year I’m gone. And I think they…

thought that was complete BS. They just laughed it off. But what had happened is within a year I was gone. I convinced a couple friends that we’re all going to quit our jobs and jump in an RV and travel the States for a year. And our job was just literally to save up enough money for that amazing trip, get on the trip and then figure it out when we got back. But on that trip about

three months into that one year trip, I realized not every day, like I was getting a little bored, I needed something to do even though we were traveling all over the US, 23 states in one year, it was amazing, we had a great time. I wanted to like,

just have something to do during some days and bring in some money. So I talked to my same friend, Laurie, who I had taken to lunch and that showed me some of the ropes of investing. Like I had my license, I had my license as an agent. said, is there any way while I’m on this road trip, even though I’m not in Virginia, can I help you find deals? And she’s like, absolutely. I don’t care where you are. Like if you can lock up deals for me, let’s do it all day long.

So what happens is basically teamed up with another agent in my office who was like the boots on the ground, went and recorded a lot of foreclosures. This was 2018.

So there were a lot of foreclosures on the market at that time. And we just got really good at figuring out all the different systems and the different websites for all the different foreclosure sites because they were all different. And we were just mailing in offers and offers and offers on behalf of my friend and client. And we did about like 25 deals in that last six months that I was on that road trip. And then I came home and I realized I don’t have to go back to my

two jobs, I just created some income in real estate. So that’s kind of the very beginning of how I got started. And then I did get into investing after that.

Scott Bursey (06:46)
What a journey! Wow, that’s incredible. A leap of faith. Ryan, let’s dive right into how do you handle a prospect who is locked into a fixed budget and resistant to considering higher value properties that better match their long-term retail strategy?

Ryan (07:08)
Yeah, so my core strategies are managing my rental properties, my real estate portfolio, which keeps my travel lifestyle going. ⁓ And I also wholesale properties. I do some select things as an agent. And also when I am home during the summer times, I do flip properties as well.

Scott Bursey (07:29)
What do you feel are some of your opportunities right now on the horizon that you may as a company be able to capitalize on?

Ryan (07:38)
Yeah, so looking in the future, I’m looking at maybe some multifamily properties or storage units. They’ve always had intrigued me quite a bit, especially on the storage unit side where there’s very little maintenance, very little. You can pretty much automate automate everything now where you don’t even really have to have a person full time in the office like you used to even anymore. It’s gotten really, really.

easily able to to work work it from anywhere and that’s how I built my investing business in general because I I do travel six months out every year so Anything I look at on the horizon needs to bring more freedom and and I also need to be able to manage it from anywhere So that’s what I’m looking forward to

Scott Bursey (08:25)
and I understand you’re in Vietnam right now. Can you tell us a little bit about your latest journey?

Ryan (08:31)
Yeah, actually I’ve been traveling since like November. I was in Mexico, I was in the Philippines and now I’m in Da Nang, Vietnam, which is a beautiful beach town in the middle of Vietnam, right on the coast. There’s a beautiful mountains right outside the beach, 10 minutes from here. Has some of the coolest endangered monkeys in the world. There’s only about 3,000 of them left. So let’s just out there checking out these.

very beautiful look like art painted monkeys in their natural habitat just 15 minutes here from the beach. Vietnam is a very bustling economy. It’s one of the fastest growing economies in the world right now and it’s also some of the most affordable places.

place, it’s one of the most affordable places in the world that you actually want to go that has a great culture, great people, great food, amazing beaches and mountains and it’s just, it’s incredible. So I’ve been in this part of Vietnam for about almost two months now. So yeah, enjoying it, loving just the 85 and sunny every day.

Scott Bursey (09:48)
Awesome, 85 and sunny. How big is your team right now and are they with you in

Ryan (09:53)
So my team, you’re looking at my team. I’m a solopreneur. I manage everything and do everything myself. I’ve had VAs over the years. I’ve had help with social media. I’ve hired, you know, contracted out some things. Of course I have contractors like repairmen for the keeping.

maintenance on the on the properties, but I own and manage my own rental portfolio And I run everything on my own. So everything’s pretty I have a very good systems in place where it’s not too much ⁓ and I don’t have a huge portfolio, but it’s enough that it does cover all my expenses traveling around the world and ⁓ And I am able to manage it on my own so

Scott Bursey (10:39)
Tell us a little bit if you would Ryan about the deals that you’ve been able to put together or that you’re working on from Mexico and NAMM.

Ryan (11:23)
Yeah, so I have done all kinds of deals from everywhere. I mean, I remember the last time I was in Vietnam, I had someone call me and said, do you buy land in Texas? And I’m thinking like, no, I live in Virginia. I’ve never done a deal in Texas in my life. But then I was like, tell me more about this land. And it was just a lady who had inherited it and

didn’t want much for it. And I was like, look, I’ll, I told her exactly what I was going to do. I talked to my attorney who also happened to be licensed in Texas as well. And he said, it’s okay to hold wholesale a Texas property from Virginia. And so what I did was I, told her, you know, I’m gonna give me a couple months to find a buyer for it. And I had a way out if I couldn’t find a buyer for it, just was straight up with her.

She lived in Maryland. The land was in Texas. I never went out to see it. I sold it to a lady in North Carolina through my Virginia LLC and while I was in Vietnam. just I doubled my money on that that wholesale deal that was no downside. If I couldn’t find a buyer, I could get it get out of the contract. So that’s kind of one of the more memorable ones.

I’ve also helped a friend buy a very high-end compound type Airbnb while I was out of the country. I think I was in Mexico at the time. And we got a sweet deal on a very large property outside of Richmond, Virginia that she rents out on Airbnb for anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000 a night.

and so that’s another one of those cool deals that, was, was put together out of the country. And then when I got back in the state, I got to go see it and was just blown away by, this massive, this massive gated property, you know, decent size, like, 5,000 square foot house and a three car detached garage, apartment above that huge pool and a pool house that had its own.

kitchen, bathroom, second floor, so three living spaces, sleep 16, pool, hot tub, sauna, tennis court, sprawling, sweet retreat style living, Airbnb, that was all put together without me even being in the country. So there’s been some really cool deals we’ve done.

Scott Bursey (14:04)
Yes, I would say so. And what sort of challenges are there when you’re you’re abroad?

Ryan (14:53)
Yeah, so if I need to, if there’s something that needs to be like boots on the ground, like maybe inspections or something like that, it’s important that if I’m working as an agent and it’s as a client that my client does know that I’m out of the country and they’re okay with that. And it also just having additional help, right? Like someone else in my office, if I’m working as an agent.

Or maybe I’m wholesaling this deal and then some of my other investor friends might pop in and help me out on a need to go open something up or I’ll have a contractor put a lock box on a house. So having that some boots on the ground in different capacities for different things is super important. I would say that’s probably the biggest challenge time zone. Also right now I’m 11 hours ahead so

⁓ If something happens at one of my rental properties ⁓ and the toilets clogged I am getting a phone call in the middle of the night it all my residents will punch through my My do not disturb so they can get a hold of me and it’s not always important because they think they’re calling me in the middle of the day but ⁓ it doesn’t happen that often and honestly, it’s worth it’s worth it because

Most of my days when I’m in a place like Southeast Asia are absolutely quiet. No one’s trying to get a hold of me because everyone at home is in bed, so.

Scott Bursey (16:24)
Yes, and any market risk that you’re watching closely.

Ryan (16:29)
As far as market risk, my market’s pretty stable. I’m blessed to be in a good area in Virginia that’s coastal and gets four seasons and we have a ton of military. ⁓ So we have a lot of people coming in and coming going and it’s a very good place to live. So we always have ⁓ good demand and decent turnover.

with the military coming out, moving every three to five years, which is a good amount of time. That’s a good time to turn over a property, get some fresh paint on things, get a deep cleaning, and raise rent, so yeah.

Scott Bursey (17:10)
Absolutely. Now the question everybody wants to know when dealing globally, what advice can you give to our listeners?

Ryan (17:20)
Yeah, a couple of things. would just say that you just need to think through like all the things that are taking your time and energy every day and who is going to do that for you if it needs to be done. a lot of the work I would say in the real estate world can be done online. We can send contracts to be signed digitally. We can meet.

online with a buyer or seller and we can do all, we can do rents all online. I do, I have systems for my tenants for non-emergencies to put in all their maintenance requests online. You can do so much, but the things that you can’t do is the things you shouldn’t be doing anyhow, which is unclogging toilets or fixing AC units. We have professionals for that.

for that, right? So just making sure that you have really good people that are gonna be able to get out there when you need them is super important. And I do have someone who’d kinda assist with like getting mail, like physical mail and stuff, sending me photos of that so that I can take care of any bills or if any legal notices pop up. And then also one thing that I do that…

helps me with my schedule of working or traveling every six months every winter when it’s cold is I don’t let my leases end during that time. And the way I explain that is I tell everyone, you know, look, we only allow our leases to expire from like March to October because who wants to move during winter, right?

And no one ever argues with you on that. So sometimes they get a shorter lease or a little bit longer lease at the beginning to make that happen. But that also ensures that I don’t have turnovers when I’m out of the country. So that helps with just stress and finding people in winter. So yeah, I’ve got tons of, I could give you a million other different tricks on just keeping things, how to do the real estate game remotely.

But yeah, those are some key points.

Scott Bursey (19:28)
Those are some excellent takeaways. Thank you for sharing those, Ryan. Excellent advice. This has been incredibly insightful. And Ryan, we’ve got a massive community of pros listening who are definitely going to want more fuel on this. For those that want to pick your brain or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Ryan (19:50)
Yeah, so I have a website called Digital Nomad Nation. If someone’s looking to run their business from anywhere and travel, I do one-on-one coaching and I do have some courses and a podcast there interviewing other digital nomads. And on Instagram and Facebook, I am the Digital Nomad Coach.

Scott Bursey (20:11)
Awesome awesome Ryan this has been so good to have you on the show

Ryan (20:17)
Thank you for having me, I really appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (20:20)
Absolutely and to our listeners we appreciate each and every one of you. If you got some massive fuel from this episode please hit that subscribe button. We’ve got a lineup of exceptional guests just like Ryan who are making huge moves in the market coming up soon. Until next time keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you on the next episode everyone.