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Show Summary
Micah Johnson sits down with AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles to talk about their first year building a real estate wholesaling business in the Chicagoland, Northwest Indiana, and Indianapolis markets. They share how their partnership began, how they divide responsibilities, and what daily operations look like in an early-stage but rapidly growing business. The conversation dives into leadership lessons, hiring and team culture, mentorship, and the importance of systems, discipline, and consistency when scaling a real estate company.
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AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (00:00)
Yeah, it’s funny you say that because, you know, we’re in process of moving right now. ⁓ Right now it’s just me and him. We have an office in our unit. And one of our reps who’s just like, he’s right there, but he’s like, he just needs like an extra push. So I’m like, you know what, screw it. You know, I’m going to get a three bedroom place, just live with us for free and we’re going to turn you into a Savage. you know, like that’s kind of like what we’re doing. We’re looking to create a culture, looking to create like a pretty much an army of just a tight knit group that everyone is happy to show up every single day.Micah Johnson (02:00)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by AJ and Charlie, who’ve been making some serious moves in the single family residential space for a little over a year now. Guys, welcome in, glad to have you. Absolutely, I’m excited for our talk today. I think our listeners are really gonna take something away from how you’re approaching partnership and making sure that your business does as good as it can, right out of the gate. So.AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (02:13)
Appreciate it. Thanks for having us.Micah Johnson (02:26)
Before we go any further, let’s talk about folks who don’t know you yet. What’s your main focus right now and what markets are you guys operating in?AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (02:35)
So we’re located in Chicagoland area. We handle the Chicagoland area in northwest Indiana and a little bit of Indianapolis. ⁓ Our primary focus is wholesaling, but recently we’ve been shifting over to innovations and hopefully we get into some fixed clips here soon.Micah Johnson (02:49)
Now for you, Charlie, you’ve been in real estate a little bit longer than AJ, right?AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (02:56)
Yeah, I’ve been in real estate for a little over three years now.Micah Johnson (02:59)
Right on, right on. And then what brought y’all together? So how did y’all end up meeting each other to put together what you have today?AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (03:06)
So ⁓ yeah, I had another business out in Atlanta with a couple other business partners. then ⁓ I signed up for Cam Olivera, his course. ⁓ I was kind of like his first student. And then he grew up with Cam, knew Cam ever since they were little or whatever. ⁓ then once, I would always fly out to Chicago just to come visit them.And then once I flew out to Chicago, I met AJ. After I met AJ, we kind of hit it off immediately and decided to go all in on a wholesale business together.
Micah Johnson (03:41)
Nice and AJ okay so you were best friends with Kim growing up were you also working for him too?AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (03:46)
Yeah, so I was working as a setter, appointment setter for him. And then I pretty much couch surf with the guy. And so I can be out there and be with them. And Charlie would come in and me and him just kind of hit it off right away. And one loss at the casino turned into us starting a multi-six figure business together. So now we’re business partners and roommates, it’s a pretty cool thing.Micah Johnson (04:07)
That’s awesome. There’s nothing like the right timing, Things line up for you and then you actually get that boost you’re trying to hunt. Now take us into what you’re doing today. So how long you’ve been working together and then how do you all each go about the daily tasks that you have to make things run?AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (04:14)
set.So we’ve been working for about a year together. And I think every single day ⁓ we’ll have a meeting with our whole team. Right now we got three guys on the squad. And ⁓ like I was saying, I play the bad cop, he plays the good cop.
I don’t know, he’s handling all the back end work, all the contracts, ⁓ pretty much all the systemized, all the systems and whatnot, they make it pretty seamless. And I handle all the front work, talking to attorneys, talking to title companies, buyers, sellers, and having those tough conversations. And it kind of clicks together. We both play our roles and we’re very extremely involved in this business.
Micah Johnson (05:49)
Dive into that deeper for me, Charlie, when he says extremely involved. What’s a typical day look like for you?AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (05:56)
So a typical day, like he said, we hop on a meeting with our whole team. We kind of get the energy right.get ready for the day. ⁓ And then afterwards, we’ll both pretty much hop right into acquisitions. So we’ll start dialing through follow-ups that we’ve got on the day. And then with smart lists as well, we’ll hit ⁓ people who haven’t been contacted yet, new untouched leads. We’ll go through everybody who’s within an offering or negotiating stage and ⁓ try and convert those people to contracts. ⁓
And then I will typically take a couple hours out of my day to make sure that the systems are running properly. All of the integrations are doing well. And he’ll typically take a good hour or two out of his day to check in on current deals that we have with title companies, talk to attorneys ⁓ and all that good stuff to make sure that these deals actually hit the finish line.
Micah Johnson (06:48)
And you nailed it right there at the end, man. Get it to the finish line. And one thing I’m excited about in our conversation today is where you guys are in your business. think podcasts like the one we’re doing right now is really important to show other people. This is what it looks like a year in. OK, like most time on podcasts, you’re listening to billionaires talk about how the cool they are, which they get to do some awesome stuff. I’m not denying it. However, it’s so far away in a typical journey like it can start to lose its emphasis. So that’s where I like totry to dig in on the real part of real estate. This is what it looks like in that day to day where early as a business owner, it’s not glamorous. You are in there slugging away, finding out, what actually needs done and you’re doing it together. So you’re offsetting each other’s weakness, setting each other up to each other’s strengths and making sure that things get done. And now that’s led to y’all being able to expand your team some. So tell me a little bit about your team and what you have them doing.
and what you know, what 2026 is looking like for y’all.
AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (07:51)
Yeah, so we just brought on three guys full time. And honestly, like it’s crazy because like I was super against it. You know, one of my childhood friends was like begging me all the time, you know, seeing me doing pretty well. He’s like, let me work for you. Let me work for you. Like, please, please, please. And I was like, no, just, you know, it’s working super well right now. It’s just Charlie and I. So we brought on one guy and I was kind of skeptical about it. I was like, let’s see how this works. So, you know, we pulled some pretty targeted data and I was like, hey, I’mcall this list, see what we can do, we’ll train you through it. And it worked out great, honestly. First month in, the guy ended up locking up two solid deals that I think total made us around 40, 50 grand. So he showed us some really good numbers and then we had another guy in mind.
was like, know, let’s bring him on. You he’s doing great. You know, he’s putting in almost 350 calls a day, just cold calling and then on top of that CRM calls. So, you know, they’re in the mud and, you he’s brought in another guy and, you know, they’re just pretty much acting as acquisitions agents for us, you know. They’ll just call, cold call, call all the lists for us, you know, single dial, you know, no triple line, call these leads, go about it very targetably and, you know, push the leads to us and, you know, we’ll handle those more important conversations.
Micah Johnson (09:01)
It’s a good setup, man, moving people up the funnel. And one of the things that’s important when you’re building a business is how you replace what you’re doing right now. Because the bigger it gets, the more the CEO part becomes important. Right? Like we all love those parts up front, the titles and the things, but when it’s just you or you and somebody else, like you’re wearing all the hats. So, you know, you get to be a good boss to yourself. But as you start growing and you layer those people in underneath, that starts to activate some new skills. What have how Charlie take this one to?How have y’all, how’s it made you grow as people, hiring people, if that makes sense? Like what’s it brought out in you? What parts of that have you enjoyed? And training, things like that.
AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (09:42)
Uh, well, number one, will say most of the people, actually all the people that we’ve brought onto the team are either good friends or people that we’ve met and known for a good amount of time within this business. Um, so it’s not like I’m talking to a complete stranger, um, who I’ve never met before. Um, so we have a, we have a really good dynamic,Micah Johnson (09:58)
Gotcha.AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (10:38)
between, between everybody who, uh, is on our team. We can kind of all just speak our mind and you know, it’sNo one’s feelings are going to get hurt. we could speak our mind. Another thing is it’s teaching us how to actually like run and manage a team. Like it’s not…
at the beginning, when you make your first hire, you don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know like how you’re supposed to go about it, the meetings you’re supposed to have and all that, all that good stuff. But it has really taught, especially like, I don’t, can’t speak for him, but for myself, it’s taught me like the leadership and I’m still, it’s still very new to me. So I’m starting to learn, you know, as I go, but it’s like staying on top of the right things. What do they need to focus on? Where are they struggling and how can I help push the needle forward?
Micah Johnson (11:17)
Mm-mm.AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (11:28)
not only for ourselves, but for them as well.Micah Johnson (11:31)
It’s a growth phase for sure. Love that answer though. AJ, same question, man. What’s that brought out in you? What has hiring folks done for you?AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (11:41)
Yeah, I I grew up playing team sports, I’ve always kind had a leader leadership mindset. ⁓ But it’s a lot different versus being a leader on the field versus being a leader in business. At least I’ve learned. ⁓Especially with some of them being friends, sometimes you gotta have really tough conversations with them, like, what are you doing? But one thing that kinda stood out to me, which I’ve been applying recently, is kinda just like, I don’t even know how to word it, but making the other agents jealous. We have one guy who stands out, like last week, he ran laps around the other guy, was like, dude, he’s running laps around you, that should light a fire under you, man. If I was you, I’d be pissed. He’s beaten you with this aspect, you should be right there with him
And you know, we kind of just like almost put like these little challenges in front of them and I feel like that’s what’s been working the best like, you know, like we’ll also throw incentives in there like, you know, next contract in, know, it’s a $500 bonus and stuff like that. So, I mean, I feel like you got to be with them to checking in. You know, I’m always checking like around, you know, two or three hours into the day, like where’s everyone at numbers wise, you know, how’s the day going, you know, what’s working, what’s not and, you know, really just being there with them as a resource versus just, know, hey, go out, do this and then I’ll meet with you tomorrow.
everything went like, you know, we’re in the mud with them. You know, we’re calling, we’re calling the leads with them as well. Yeah. And I think, I think something else that I’ve learned is like some people work like you kind of have to hold their hand for the first good minute. I’ve got, I’ve got a guy who I kind of have to hold his hand left and right, make sure he’s doing everything the right way. And then I’ve got another guy who’s very self-sufficient and he can pretty much just go anywhere into our CRM, into the lists and figure out how to make something work.
which both of those roles, there’s nothing wrong with either one of them. It’s just some people need a little more guidance than the other person.
Micah Johnson (13:30)
You know, some people pick it up quicker. Some people, the way they learn takes a little bit longer, but once they’re up to speed, they’re up and running. AJ, you were right, man. One of my favorite quotes, think Dan Martell says this is you got to inspect what you expect. without it, most people view it as a negative thing or a harder part of leadership. But like you’re experiencing, especially if you can gamify something, there’s something to that. And companies have been a part ofAJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (13:56)
I was in.Micah Johnson (13:59)
and high level companies are always trying to create solid dashboards that game of five things. So it gets it. If you’re running a business, especially one that’s so heavily sales related, like real estate, tap into the person that that does it for them where, man, if I can just do a little bit more here, that gets this. And when you can do that, now you create an upward lifting environment. That’s not so heavily driven that way more that it’s pulled that way. That’s the environment that’s been created.And it does, man. And throwing in bonuses like that. People respond to that, but there’s two things. There’s a emotional paycheck you got to pay and a financial paycheck you got to pay. One has to do with the environment they’re working in that you guys are being really intentional about because that makes them want to get up and get going. And that’s when the money part really slides into place because now you got alignment. They enjoy what they do. It’s doing it for them and they’re getting rewarded financially. And those two things, man, y’all got some some bright days ahead.
AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (15:40)
Yeah, it’s funny you say that because, you know, we’re in process of moving right now. ⁓ Right now it’s just me and him. We have an office in our unit. And one of our reps who’s just like, he’s right there, but he’s like, he just needs like an extra push. So I’m like, you know what, screw it. You know, I’m going to get a three bedroom place, just live with us for free and we’re going to turn you into a Savage. you know, like that’s kind of like what we’re doing. We’re looking to create a culture, looking to create like a pretty much an army of just a tight knit group that everyone is happy to show up every single day.Yeah, I don’t at the end of day, I don’t want a thousand employees. I want a group of five, seven people who are just going to absolutely like destroy whatever market we hop into, whatever leads we’re calling. They can just like adapt very well and they’re just killers. That’s what I’m looking for. Yeah. And one person kind of stood out who told me something like this is one of my good buddies, Ethan. You know, he told me he’s like, I want to have 10 people who are just like me versus a hundred people who can do the job mediocre.
If I can have five of me or 10 of me, I know for a fact I’m gonna get across that finish line every single time. And that’s kind of like what we’re trying to replicate.
Micah Johnson (16:47)
Yeah, man, people who are bought in folks who are actually they want to do the thing that you’re doing with them. And there’s nothing like want to there’s nothing like that enthusiasm. One of my old football coaches growing up, we call it intensity enthusiasm. And what he was talking about was an intensity enthusiasm. You got to like when you’re going to be out here, you got to have both. was a football coach whereYou got to have that aggression while you’re playing and you really got to enjoy it. And if you can marry those two, man, it’s fun running into people. get a, it’s for you, right? Like, let’s light this candle. Let’s do that. And that’s the same thing I’ve brought into, as my life kept going on and love pass that on to other people. Because if you have that gift.
I came from the sports world too, AJ. The gift to get people fired up on a field, it is transferable. when you, it’s not directly transferable, but when you learn, if you can do it one place, you can do it the other place. And when you learn that and get people bought in, man, it fuels your fire. Cause that’s what keeps YouTube going even more now. There’s, there’s a part of the responsibility of employees. But if you’re the, if really, if you’re the right person for what you’re doing, those things,
fuel you, they don’t become the burden, they become part of the overall mission because you’re expanding.
AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (18:05)
Absolutely.Micah Johnson (18:09)
So take me through what has allowed y’all to be so consistent in your first year of business to reach levels of success you have so far.AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (18:21)
⁓ I mean, I think that it’s number one, the relationship that we have, ⁓ like we were talking about earlier, it’s like, we were very transparent with each other. If one of us is screwing off, then we immediately address it. We make sure that it doesn’t happen again. And if it does happen again, it’s addressed again immediately. ⁓that kind of relates to the discipline as well. Like some days we’ll have like days where we’re a little less locked in, I guess you could say. ⁓ But as long as we can pick it back up tomorrow and do double the work, then we’re in a good spot. Another thing is mentorship. We had a couple of people by our side when we first started this that were very, very helpful and very, ⁓ like would just help us. ⁓
scale our business, get the right systems in place, get the right leads in place. And then, yeah, I mean, those are really the two things that really shot us to where we’re at today. And then
very recently hiring on people. think that’s another very, because we can do it by ourselves all day, but I think it’s something about the energy and the culture when you bring a couple other people on who have the same vision as you, and they want to do not only for themselves, but for the betterment of the entire company. ⁓ I think that is a very big part as well. Yeah, I 100 % agree with Charlie. The main thing I think is buying into your success and buying into your knowledge. If you’re not willing to invest,
four grand in this mentorship, you’re probably not gonna wanna invest in your business. So there’s a point where you’re spending close to $10,000 just on lead flow, and then we’re also spending a good amount on our mentorship as well as our consultant that really just jumped our business up. It’s pretty much paying to win essentially. You’re paying to get ahead of the curve versus learning it out on your own.
Micah Johnson (20:01)
Right.You nailed it. And y’all went right through the next door I was hoping to talk about was the relationships you’ve built and who’s helped you along the way. Because real estate’s not a mystery how to do it. Other people have very successful companies doing it. And buying that knowledge is the same thing as going to buy in a college degree. And it’s the process. That’s what they show you. And if I could tell anybody this is the process is the shortcut.
AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (20:40)
Mm-hmm.Micah Johnson (20:46)
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, especially when it comes to business. There’s already a method that works and a billion other ways have been tried. Figure out what’s already working and then one of the, I’m heavy into coaches and mentors as well. If you’re not willing to invest in yourself, one, you’re just leaving so much of yourself on the table. So much of your potential will never be activated because you just, you don’t know what you don’t know.AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (21:02)
Mm-hmm.Micah Johnson (21:12)
And you’re not guaranteed to stumble into it throughout your life, right? Like, you gotta be a bit intentional about that. And the doors that they unlock for you, it’s exactly what you are experiencing. It is part of the process that says, if you’re serious about being successful in this, these are the steps you take.AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (21:12)
you.Absolutely. And that kind of ties, that ties into when I first started this, I, it took me a year to close my first deal purely for that fact. I mean, to be fair, I was like negative in my bank account. I had just dropped out of college. I didn’t have any money to pay for mentorship or anything, but, ⁓ for like the first six months, I wasn’t following up with leads. Like if they said no off the rip, I was, you kicked the can. Like I don’t want to talk to you. ⁓
Micah Johnson (22:01)
Okay.AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (22:04)
And then it was as soon as we invested into Cam and bought his course, we were just like, immediately started closing deals left and right, just because we took the little bits and information and things that you don’t even think of and just implemented that the followups, the tracking of the leads. That’s like two of the most important things that you can do in this business. And then from that point forward was like, we just started closing left and right because we followed a system that we saw worked.Micah Johnson (22:33)
Right? It’s not a mystery. it’s one thing I like about what y’all have done is you get good at one thing in the business and then add the next one. Y’all aren’t going out trying to do all three in your first year. You wholesale, wholesale, wholesale. Now you added novation. So you got two bullets in your belt. Now you’re going to add, and then you layer on top. And it’s what I’ve seen the best do for years and years and years. One of the reasons I enjoyAJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (22:36)
Yeah.Micah Johnson (22:59)
the high level real estate masterminds that you can be a part of is you go get in rooms with folks who’ve done it and show you this is, it’s a very methodical path and haven’t seen it before and watching you guys, I’m excited for y’all’s future, man. Y’all are going down a good road, laying the right kind of tracks that actually things can be built on. You can get the momentum and growth and it’s awesome stuff that you’re doing. I really appreciate your time, y’all story, your perspective today.For those that are listening and watching along, what’s the best way for them to find you if they wanted to see what you guys are up to?
AJ Fattori and Charlie Pyles (23:35)
I’d say Instagram, if you want to shoot me a follower or reach out, my Instagram’s AJFattori. then, yeah, same thing for here. ⁓ My Instagram is Charlie.G.Pyles. P-Y-L-E-S.Micah Johnson (23:49)
Awesome. And again, if you’re listening and watching in, check the show notes. We’ll make sure that AJ and Charlie’s links are there. Follow along, see what two guys building a real business in the industry, what it’s really like, how you really do it. So that, you know, if you’re interested in it, you can be successful yourself. Cause again, it’s not a mystery. AJ, Charlie, thank you guys again. Really appreciate you. If y’all like this episode, please, or if you got something out of this episode, please like it, share it with someone else you think could get value out of it.As always, don’t forget to subscribe. We appreciate everybody that follows along with us here. We’ve got more operators coming up, conversations with just like AJ and Charlie who out there building real businesses. We’ll see you in the next episode.
