How to Stop Leaving Money on the Table in Real Estate Investing

Roy Hudson (00:00)
Well, for me as a professional basketball player, I’m I’m actually the point guard on the team, so I gotta run the team. I can’t be afraid to give that ball away. So passing the basketball to be efficient to allow somebody else to score, that has to be a an acquired skill. And I know I’m gonna be able to get my shots and pick my shots, but I have to be able to give that basketball away and allow that person to get a bucket based off of what I can create for them

Dylan Silver (02:05)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Roy Hudson, a Michigan-based real estate investor, former pro basketball player, and he’s got a background in construction. These days he’s focused on fix and flips, wholesaling, and creative finance solutions. Roy, thanks for joining us today.

Roy Hudson (02:24)
thank you for having me.

Dylan Silver (02:25)
Now, when we talk about the real estate market today and the ways where people are active in some of the segments that you’re active in, which strategy do you feel is best to scale a budding real estate business?

Roy Hudson (02:41)
I wanna say using great analyst skills, so analyzing what deal you come across, how you’re getting that deal, who you’re approaching it with, what’s the ins and outs of that deal, running your numbers, getting a perspective of how to strategize what that exit is gonna be and if it’s actually for you or for it’s if it’s for you or not. So that’s one way of scaling a business in real estate, but then also you gotta know your niche. You gotta know what you like, what you don’t like. I’m a I’m a guy that I don’t like leaving money on the table. So I use every strategy, every ability to exhaust what I can do to help somebody and help my community. So I don’t use excuses to that’s not a deal for me. I’m gonna walk away. I’m gonna find somebody that’s gonna walk into it so I can—

Dylan Silver (03:44)
Now when you’re looking for these opportunities, are there any specific strategies that you’ve been using recently to help you find deals?

Roy Hudson (03:53)
Yeah, I’m just I’m a guy that, you know, if you got a name, phone number, address, you know, I’m gonna track you down and I’m gonna get to you s one way or another. So when I find a address in whatever area I just target it, find out the ins and outs of it, get the numbers, find the logistics of, you know, when it’s been used, who had it, who owned it, all that stuff, and then come up with a strategy for a game plan to hit a home run.

Dylan Silver (04:19)
Now, when folks are connectors, as you’re a connector, right, it’s important not just to be able to find the deals, but also to know the people who can utilize that transaction to the fullest of their ability and who would be really, you know, excited for that deal to come across their desk. How do you manage both looking for the deals while nurturing these relationships?

Roy Hudson (04:44)
Yeah, so I just figure out what people know best. Like if it’s an individual that loves to track down properties, I’ll network with them and allow them to track down properties and then I’ll see what they have in their woodhed. Once I figure that part out, I use my abilities, which is to find the homeowner, connect. I use great elevator language w when I’m on the phone. So I’m a great people’s person when it comes to being on the phone. And if I get you on the phone, I’m closing you no matter what. So I use those abilities you know, to my advantage. And I network with those individuals that will wanna either partner up or not partner up at all and, you know, just want to get a deal move. So I just use all those strategies all together.

Dylan Silver (06:19)
Now you have a background in construction. We were talking in the green room and you had mentioned you started a construction company during COVID. What was that process like starting that business?

Roy Hudson (06:32)
Well, one morning I woke up and I told my wife I’m sick of being in the house and I’m just gonna figure out a way to get out of the house because we’re on lockdown and I just found myself figuring out on I think I was on Facebook and I’m like, “How’s everybody fixing the house and how’s everybody getting all this money?” And I kept seeing twenty, thirty thousand dollars, fifty thousand dollars on one guy from my previous job, he was using ninety-two thousand dollars to remodel his home and he needed some help. And I took that conversation home on the road and on the ride home. And I don’t know who you believe in, but I believe in God and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. So I had in, you know, a situation where the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Well, you don’t need to find help to get this situation fixed. You can fix it.” And I’m like, “Wow, well, how would I be able to do that? And I don’t know anything about fixing a house.” So my strategy was, well, let me go to the internet, figure out who has a construction company, and find the ins and outs. I seen what the construction company offered the community, what they did, their staff. And I’m like, “I could do this myself.” And I turned my business into The Dream Team Builders, and then I found contractors and I started working on houses.

Dylan Silver (08:02)
Now being able to pivot and adapt to different markets is a hallmark trait of a real estate operator. So you’ve been active in the construction side and you’re active in multiple different real estate segments these days. Have these pivots been intentional? Did you seek this out, or were these opportunities that came across your desk that led to further involvement?

Roy Hudson (08:26)
Yeah, just stumbled across things and use my ability to be an adventurous in my mind, always using strategy to the best of my ability and never turning things away. And yeah, you have to say no to certain things, but I’m always an open mind and always keep a yes in my mind to where I’m gonna figure out a way to figure out a a know-how to get this thing done, no matter what.

Dylan Silver (08:54)
I’d like to get a little bit granular here, Roy, if we can. there’s a lot of folks that are scaling businesses in one of these niches, whether we look at fix and flip or or wholesale or you know, brokering hard money loans. And they come to a point where maybe they’ve exhausted their buyer’s network and they’re realizing, okay, I’ve reached a point where I either need additional capital or I need additional people to buy these deals. Once people have reached a wall like that, what have you done and what can they do to continue to scale their business?

Roy Hudson (09:31)
Well, for me as a professional basketball player, I’m I’m actually the point guard on the team, so I gotta run the team. I can’t be afraid to give that ball away. So passing the basketball to be efficient to allow somebody else to score, that has to be a an acquired skill. And I know I’m gonna be able to get my shots and pick my shots, but I have to be able to give that basketball away and allow that person to get a bucket based off of what I can create for—so if a opportunity in real estate created itself for me and I wasn’t good enough at that position, I’m gonna pass the ball off to somebody that is better than what I better at it than what I do and partner with that person. you can’t be afraid to share money in real estate because that’s business and that’s opportunities for you, you to grow along with that person. either experience wise or the importance of doing more business together. So that’s one way to scale, but also partner with somebody that has more experience than you or sees something differently than how you see it.

Dylan Silver (11:16)
Now, when we’re working in a referral network and we’re finding key strategic relationships for these types of deals, it’s sometimes challenging for folks to continue to nurture existing relationships and then also to continue to make friendships and relationships with these referral partners. How have you been successful in cultivating your network?

Roy Hudson (11:42)
all partnership is is partnership and sharing. I love to share. I love to partner. I love to network with people. So I’m a knowledge sponge. I pick up knowledge from everybody, every opportunity, every situation, and I use it to the best of my ability. And then I write I write and jot things down that I know and that I don’t know. I use my strategies. I use my abilities to be able to focus on certain things that I need to upgrade or enhance and I just continue to keep that positive flow of expertise to be able to excel myself in a in a positive way. So I I got a no quick s—I got a no quit scenario in me. it’s I call it the Jordan mentality and my wife she cracks up about it because she’s like, “Here you go again. It’s is just something that you just will not stop and it’s just a rigorous approach to all the strategies or all the situations that I come across.” And it’s it’s a championship mindset. You gotta win at all costs. And if you you at that point to where you’re down by two, you need you need to get up, you know, some points or whatnot, I’m gonna make sure I use the best possible way that I can get those points to be able to win the game. Cause I gotta win the championship. I gotta take it home.

Dylan Silver (13:00)
That’s right. I mean, look, it’s doggy dog in a lot of ways. And so if you’re not the one that’s out there, someone else certainly is going to be. That’s one great way to look at it. If we look specifically at one of the strategies that you’re involved with, creative finance, right? There’s a lot of people right now who are interested in creative finance. We’re seeing marketing for creative finance these days. Where are you seeing the best use case for creative finance strategies?

Roy Hudson (13:29)
So for me, I’m looking at those agents that get fired from their their assignment. So if they post a house on the MLS and it’s sitting over there, you know, 90 to 100 days on market, I usually reach out to some of those and I have to educate some of these agents because they’re trained to not do anything outside of traditional. So I let them know like, “Hey, this property is sitting there and is losing money, you haven’t been able to sell. What are you doing?” And most case scenarios, they’re saying, “Well, you know, the the the person that’s selling the property, you know, they they they’re stuck at this number, just don’t know what to do.” And I’m like, “Well, why don’t you teach them how to keep their home and be able to move to something else by just taking a down payment?” And then it’s always, you know, trying to figure out, “How did you come up with that?” And I’m like, “Well, haven’t you bought a car before? You weren’t able to just buy straight cash, you had to get it financed, right?” And I go through this whole process and it gets the wheels turning, and then that’s how I get my creative deals.

Dylan Silver (15:20)
Now those conversations are tricky, right? Because you’re having to explain a new way of purchase and selling of a home to an agent, and then they’re having to explain it to the seller. And then also having to explain, well, why is this better and more convenient for them than simply listing and waiting for it to sell? Some of the bottlenecks that I see people often encounter with seller finance is they’ll be going to the agent and basically saying, you know, “Have you ever considered seller financing?” right? And not painting the picture of limited liability, really. So if someone comes in and is making payments on the home, if they stop making payments, and in most cases, it goes back to the seller. Right. And so they get to keep the down payment, they get to keep all the payments that were made to them, and then they can go list it again. Right. So the the downside is that, okay, well, you’re not getting a lot of money up front. But the the upside is that you could potentially, if things go wrong, you have two opportunities to sell the home. And I think that’s an addition to what you said, so many ways that seller finance and creative strategies are sometimes undersold when really there’s a lot of power to it.

Roy Hudson (16:40)
Exactly. And I always pitch, you know, “Wouldn’t you like to be the bank?” You know, everybody wants to be the bank. So to be able to beat the banks, it’s best for that homeowner to be the bank. Just figure out what terms they want, what monthly payment they want, how can I get from A to B and still have A still pay for B while I’m still, you know, able to do what I need to do and not allow A to be, you know, a nightmare for me. And then yeah, you have to pitch in there because it is a risk, but the way you eliminate that risk is you you let them know, “Hey, if if an alien came and abducted Genius Real Estate LLC and couldn’t make any more payments, the house defaults back to you. So whatever I paid in that span of time, you get the property back.” It’s no different than the house being on auction, you know, or be the house being redeemed back from these other companies or corporations. They do the same thing as well. So why not you put yourself in that executive seat rather than the company doing that for you? You can do it yourself because you have an asset that you can appreciate.

Dylan Silver (17:59)
Yeah, I mean that’s spot on. and when we talk about the ways that these conversations can unfold, there’s a a right way and then there’s a better way, right? Or there’s certainly a wrong way to do it. let’s pivot here, Roy. I wanna talk about out of state investing. That was something that you had mentioned in the green room, looking at several deals from out of state, and you also mentioned a deal I believe in Milwaukee. How have you been able to find deals outside of your region?

Roy Hudson (18:27)
Yeah, I love to travel because being a professional basketball player and motivational speaker, I get booked in a lot of places. Some places, you know, remote to where I’m at, you know, you know, odd spots and whatnot, but I love taking risks that’s calculated that are good risks. So just adventuring out to other places allows me in real estate to be able to like hone in on other other areas that I’m not familiar with. And just getting to know that area and getting familiar with it, tapping into those public records, figuring out the situation and you brought up Milwaukee, so the individual there had a property that was basically getting ready to go to foreclosure and I helped save it. So I’m not buying that property, but I connected with a a local investor there and he’s actually wholesaling it to somebody in California. And we’re making a pretty big spread off of it because the agent that was helping before she allowed it to go into probate, which she tried to coach the homeowner to be able to let it go to probate. I don’t know what her strategy was there, but I basically got her fired and I took over the property and then now we’re able to get it sold. But the the tail end of that now, you know, probate is throwing a wrench in our time frame because this deal could have been done four months ago and now it’s finally getting to the finish line. And I mean, we we save a a a a person that was basically losing her home from her mom that passed away and she inherited the property two, three years ago, and it’s just going it’s tanking and she was about to lose it all. And now I helped her. So—

Dylan Silver (20:15)
Those probate deals are so tricky. And one of the things that you know real estate has taught so many people who are active in in this side of the game is you know, you want to have a plan for your assets because if not, the government’s gonna find a plan for it, and it it’s always tricky once it gets into probate, right? I’ve seen that wholesalers in many cases are really family triage coordinators to a degree. You’re bringing so many people together and having to get people to agree and you’re having to move the the ball up the court, you know. And so if it’s not for the wholesaler, like you mentioned, either nothing’s gonna happen or they they could, you know, lose the home in some cases or lose their rights to the home.

Roy Hudson (21:02)
Yep, exactly.

Dylan Silver (21:03)
let’s let’s dive into the creative finance piece once again here. I know that right now there’s a lot of folks that are also looking at, you know, subject to the existing mortgage and assumable mortgages and these types of deals. What’s your feedback on that strategy?

Roy Hudson (21:21)
Yeah, usually when I identify those, if the person owns outright, that’s a that’s a one hundred percent seller finance, you know, they can make up their own terms, do whatever they want to do. Subject two, is a little tricky to explain to somebody that you know doesn’t know about seller finance or creative finance. So subject two, that person is nine times out of ten, when you say this to a person that doesn’t know, they’re gonna go to the bank and they’re gonna ask a question. And then what they’re gonna do is they’re gonna trigger the bank to say, “Well, if you if you do that, you know, we’re gonna do a do on sales clause and we’re gonna charge all the money.” I’ve been in a scenario with a partner that had that happen to him. And all it is is just you know, you get your attorney to write a quick letter and say, “Well, this property has been sold. We paid, you know, our deposit and all the good stuff. And they went to find another home and they took our down payment and bought their other home. We’re still paying on the on the property, so you have nothing to worry about.” And the due on sales clause, out of ten properties you might get one, maybe, that might be a do-on-sales clause, but they’re just giving you a warning of, “Hey, the the the actual owner actually left and we need our money now.” So it’s nothing to panic about. It’s just talking and massaging, you know, that company out, whoever had that that first lien mortgage.

Dylan Silver (22:57)
We are coming up on time here, Roy. any new projects that you’re working on? And then also anything you’d like to mention directly to our audience.

Roy Hudson (23:05)
Yeah, new projects now. I’m just I’m I’m being the change. I’m wanting to help individuals that don’t know about real estate learn this stuff. And yeah, just teaching. I I love teaching so using my fix and flip strategies, creative finance and wholesaling and putting them together. And for your audience, my line of motivation is a quote that I’ve I just heard recently that Michael Jackson used to say to himself in the mirror. he says, “If you can dream it, you can believe it. If you can see it, you can achieve it.” So I wrote that I wrote that out and I put it on my refrigerator and I say it to my wife a lot, and then I talk to—I say it to myself a lot. So I talk to myself while I’m in the mirror just to motivate myself, because I’m a motivator of people, but sometimes I need that feedback myself, so I need to motivate myself as well.

Dylan Silver (24:03)
Amen to that. Roy, thank you so much for joining us here today. Thanks for your time.