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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Hayden Wallace, who shares his journey in real estate, focusing on low-income housing. Hayden discusses the importance of progress, learning from failures, and the value of relationships in the industry. He emphasizes the need for gratitude and the lessons learned from challenges faced in his career. The conversation highlights the significance of community impact and personal growth in the real estate business.
Resources and Links from this show:
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- Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
- Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
- Mike on Facebook
- Mike on Instagram
- Mike on LinkedIn
- Hayden Wallace’s Phone Number:318-510-0636
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Hayden Wallace (00:00)
We had sent 230,000 gallons of water through this house. So there I am in my happy new year. We were so excited for 2020 to be the best year of our lives. And I was there with a box cutter, taking sheetrock four feet off and ⁓ hard to find dumpsters at three o’clock in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve. So out the window she was going and… ⁓Quentin (00:27)
Yeah.Hayden Wallace (00:28)
I call that the, we still own that house, that was rental college.Quentin (02:05)
Everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Excited about my guest. ⁓ He’s been filling me in. Great storyteller. Great things that he’s doing within his sphere, within his market. And listen, I’m just going be honest with you. I want you guys to hear it from him, himself. Like I said, he’s just doing amazing things. so I want to introduce you guys to Mr. Hayden Wallace.Mr. Wallace, how you doing today,
Hayden Wallace (02:35)
doing well Q, thank you for having me on today.Quentin (02:40)
Nah man, thank you so much for being here. And listen, I’m gonna be honest, and I think you know this, the best thing, what we’ve been through. I wanna dive in, cause I don’t wanna miss anything that you have to say at all. And so that I want you to take this into your world. I want you to tell us what your main focus is these days. Maybe a little bit about how you got started and what markets you’re operating in.Hayden Wallace (03:03)
Sure, so we started about six years ago with low income housing. We bought our first home for 8000 bucks, which was really handy because I had $8000 exactly. And and and and man, we we love it. We’re in Shreveport, Bouger, LA and for those who don’t know, we’re about 45 minutes south of the Arkansas border and probably 30 minutes east of the Texas border.Quentin (03:39)
You’re still talking or did you stop talking?Hayden Wallace (03:42)
I stopped.Quentin (03:44)
Okay, because you know, unfortunately you and I, we gotta ask those questions with each other. so, but no, that’s great. That’s amazing, man. And so I know you’ve made some strides. I know you’ve done some things. You and I have talked, you talked about, know, portfolios and I don’t want to pour nothing out of you that you don’t want to give. But I guess I’ll ask this and then I’ll let you expand on this question as much as you want.Hayden Wallace (03:47)
Yes, we are…Quentin (04:12)
It’s not always easy in this climate. So what’s been the key to you staying your machine running smoothly? You staying passionate? Like what’s the key to keeping everything going the way it’s going?Hayden Wallace (04:15)
Mm-hmm.Yeah, so I live very much by the philosophy that great is good and good is great. Getting up to bat is always as important as being able to hit a grand slam out of the park because that’s what I can, I can’t control the pitch, I can’t control necessarily exactly where I hit it, but I can control that I got up there, got in the box and started swinging. ⁓
And it’s just about getting on base, making that forward progress every single day. And that I feel is what’s going to get us to where we need to go. And we might move slower than a lot of other people do. We may move faster than a bunch of folks. But what I’m most proud of is that we’re actually taking forward steps, building momentum. Certainly not in a reckless fashion. You know, we do underwrite like everybody does. We are careful. ⁓ We walk away.
and things have to meet, all of our deals have to meet a standard in order for it to be something that we will get involved in. that’s not to say that we’ll take anything, but it’s just what type of progress can I make today?
Quentin (06:31)
Absolutely. And I love that talk about forward progress. We hit, we miss 100 % of the balls we don’t swing at, right? I know you said you love baseball. I believe he’s telling me that. And so, you know, we got to, you know, we got to swing, we got to look at the pitch, we got to get up the bat and we got to build that repetition. Got to build that muscle of forward progress, right? You know, habitually you have to build that habit of moving forward. And if you don’t, you’re to stay stagnant.One of my favorite books is Atomic Habits. And he talks about just being 1 % better, just 1 % better than you was yesterday. And if you have that mindset, you will build yourself into a routine habit of being better and moving forward. So I love that. I absolutely love that. Now listen, Mr. Hayden, let me be honest with you. You’re probably going love this question because you probably know exactly what I think of. When I say this question, you’re probably going to think the same thing I think.
Hayden Wallace (07:06)
Yes.Quentin (07:27)
But there are moments when things get real, right? When things happen, when you have the pivot fast and Mr. Hayden, is there any stories that you have that may fit that criteria?Hayden Wallace (07:32)
Yes!Yes!
And to the listeners, this is what you call a loaded question. So yes, bought my… So we bought our first rental. Contractor ripped me off. Major fell and found that out all after the fact. ⁓ By the time he was done, we had more fire hazards in the house than when we bought it.
And this was a property, the reason we bought it was it had two units on it. Unit one, we were gonna get that ready, serviceable, and get to rent on it. Unit two, we were a long way off from being able to work with that financially. And so I told him, said, all right, cut the line, because it’s on one water meter, cut the water line, and then we’ll rock and, this was before I knew what I knew.
And so it was ⁓ December 31st, 2019, and ⁓ the Holy Spirit tells me, go drive by the house. And I drove by and I’m in my truck and I look and I see water everywhere. we hadn’t had any inclement weather. And so I kind of chuckled and I said, man, some sap’s watering this whole neighborhood. I hate that. And turns out I was the sap that was watering the neighborhood. ⁓
Quentin (08:42)
Yeah, yeah.Hayden Wallace (09:09)
We had sent 230,000 gallons of water through this house. So there I am in my happy new year. We were so excited for 2020 to be the best year of our lives. And I was there with a box cutter, taking sheetrock four feet off and ⁓ hard to find dumpsters at three o’clock in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve. So out the window she was going and… ⁓Quentin (09:36)
Yeah.Hayden Wallace (09:38)
I call that the, we still own that house, that was rental college. We learned a lot off ofQuentin (09:43)
of Governmental College.Hayden Wallace (10:19)
I am so glad that we’ve, we probably, that helm is worth 20,000, you know, probably 25,000 on a really good day. We’ve probably spent 40 on it. ⁓ But what a great way to fail. It’s low risk. We’re young. We can make this back. I’m much glad. I’m very, I’m so thankful.Quentin (10:19)
⁓Mmm.
Hayden Wallace (10:41)
that we overspent by double on a $20,000 house than on a half million dollar multifamily property. And I will always be eternally grateful for that.Quentin (10:56)
And so I gotta be honest with you. Thank you for your honesty. I’m glad I asked you that question because I wanted people to just hear your perspective. Like so many times, ⁓ you know, on platforms like this, we glorify the success, but we don’t talk about the process it takes, the journey it takes to get to that success. And so I truly, I thank you for the gift of your vulnerability, for you sharing that because I know that plans to see in somebody’s mind and maybe face in hardship.that you are on the other side. We’re talking about, you know, 2019, 2020, but it’s somebody that’s right in the middle of going through. And we want to let them know, like, you’re going to get through this. Like, is the price. Failing forward is the price to success. And so I’m so glad you answered that. Thank you for letting me load you up with that question. And you knocking it off the park. I appreciate it.
Hayden Wallace (11:26)
Mm-hmm.Yes.
Yes!
Quentin (11:55)
Absolutely. So listen, Mr. Hayden, let me ask you, ⁓ what are you focused on solving next? Like, what’s the next real goal for you?Hayden Wallace (12:04)
Yeah, we want to continue to expand ⁓ our low income rental portfolio. ⁓ What we found in our area is the returns are fantastic. ⁓ Louisiana is Louisiana is one of the most impoverished states in the country. ⁓ You know what to do about that, I think is a question for, you know, for another venue, certainly. But but that’sThat’s where our tenants are and we’re going to serve them. We’re going to give them homes that they can be proud of and we’re going to make a make a return.
Quentin (12:45)
I love it, man. I love where your heart is. I love what you’re trying to do. I just love your perspective. I love your outlook. I really, really do. And I want to ask you this because I think we haven’t talked a lot about relationships, but just knowing a little bit about you, I think relationships are probably important to you. And so, you know, we have a lot of people they listening in there early in their journey and they could be, you know, looking to level up.Hayden Wallace (13:08)
Yes.Quentin (13:14)
but I think they need to understand about relationships. So I’m gonna ask you, when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?Hayden Wallace (13:25)
I think reputation is huge. When our circle of vendors know or see our phone, you see my name pop up on their phones, they feel like they’re gonna be paid correctly. We’re not gonna work them over ⁓ and they’re gonna be paid promptly.And so people or when I call people who are trying to, you know, sell their homes or real estate agents who have got a client, they know that if I come through, it’s we’re not kicking tires. This is very for real. All I’m you know, and when we go and look inside places, all I’m really looking for is unobvious traps. We’ve almost already made the decision whether or not, you know, that we were going to move forward before we even set up the showing.
And so, and, then sometimes we have found ourselves in a pinch and sometimes we’ve, you we’ve had occasions where, Hey, I, I’m jammed up. need your help. And those folks have come through for us. And so you’re right. Q I mean, relationships, relationships are everything. And it takes, it takes one, one bad act to ruin 10 years of goodness.
and trust is ⁓ something that has to be built over a very long period of time, but you can vaporize it in an instant.
Quentin (15:41)
Man, you just took me to one of my favorite sayings about trust. Trust is earned and drops and lost and just gallons. Like, it’s earned and drops. And then once you just, that thing turns over, it’s done. You got to rebuild it all the way back up again. And so you are absolutely right. Relationships are everything. Listen, I want to ask you this.Hayden Wallace (15:54)
Mm-hmm.Quentin (16:10)
Cause I love your perspective, man. love how you can say, let me, cause I wrote this down that you can say 20, 230,000 gallons of water is just rental college. That’s what you said. So when you, when I got somebody over here that got that type of perspective, right. I want to ask them this question. Like, is there any thing from the heart or anything that you’ve been thinking about?Hayden Wallace (16:25)
You ⁓Quentin (16:39)
that you can give to our viewers as far as like inspiration, encouragement, because I just know with your lens and your perspective, the way you look at life probably can be a little different than some of us. And so I want to propose that questions to you. Is there anything that maybe you’ve been thinking about that you want to offer to our audience that can kind of inspire and help them?Hayden Wallace (17:03)
Man, never quit. Get started and never quit. Don’t be unwise. And don’t do things when your gut’s telling you that something’s wrong. Don’t do that. But having a rental house that is good.is better than finding the best deal. Today, I would have done a thousand things different than I would have on that first deal. But if I had not done that first deal, our paths would have never crossed, none of this would have been going on. So just get started, do your best, and talk to other people, right? One of the things that, ⁓ to quote ⁓ Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank, there’s nothing proprietary about this.
This community is full of podcasts, books, websites. You don’t have to pay thousands of dollars for it. Get involved and learn from other people. Like, it would have never occurred to me to Google my contractor’s name. I would have seen the federal indictment that he had had I just Googled him before we met. Guess who Googles everybody these days?
Quentin (18:17)
Yeah.Yeah.
Absolutely.
Hayden Wallace (18:25)
That’s right!Quentin (18:26)
Listen, you said it was college, right? You said, listen, you said it was college.Now you can do a dissertation. Google search. No, absolutely. No, I love it.
Hayden Wallace (18:33)
Yep.And the feds got him. That had to have
been bad. The feds aren’t interested in most people.
Quentin (18:44)
come on.You absolutely right. You are, and that means they was building the case probably for a while too. And so yeah, so you ain’t lying about it, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hayden Wallace (18:50)
andThey had put some work in that. And when I mentioned
to several people who I’d been working with, they said, ⁓ he’s a crook. Really? Thank you. Glad I know that. Yes.
Quentin (19:08)
Now you tell me.You could have told me that 230,000 gallons of water ago. I’m sorry, man. Hopefully I’m not rehearsing your trauma. But man, that is just like, my. Man.
Hayden Wallace (19:21)
I ain’t…Like I said, was…
Now, at the time, certainly at the time, I didn’t have a great attitude about it, but man, like I said, I’m thankful about it because it could have been so much worse. What if I had not gone by? What if it had been 500,000 gallons?
Quentin (19:34)
Yeah, absolutely.Yeah.
Hayden Wallace (19:44)
You know, then what if I hadn’t gone back and checkedout all the new fire hazards he had installed?
Quentin (19:52)
Mm. Mm, mm. Mm.Hayden Wallace (19:56)
So I’m grateful.Quentin (19:57)
No, Mr. Haydee, are exactly right. So you took the words out of my mouth. I was going let you know, my wife and I, we have a gratitude jar. And at night we will write something on a piece of paper and put it into that gratitude jar. And we said, at the beginning of the year, we’ll go back over the year and look at all the things we were grateful for. And so that’s why I absolutely love your perspective, because you’re right, We’ve got to have gratitude. got to be great. Gratitude gives you hope.Hayden Wallace (20:18)
Mmm, I love that.Quentin (20:27)
And when you’re facing a situation, if you don’t have hope, you’re not gonna be able to move forward. And so again, man, I thank you for your story and your gift of vulnerability. really do.Hayden Wallace (20:38)
Yeah, I’m glad I’m glad to man and it’s you know, and you kind of alluded to this earlier, you know, it’s really easy. It’s too easy to get up here and share with you all the things that we’ve done right and you know, flash our brilliance and all that type of nonsense that you see on on the other that you see all the time but ⁓You know, I enjoy hearing about other people’s failures because, okay, how can I learn from that? What am ⁓ I doing that led this individual down this path? What can I stop to avoid that?
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