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Pre-Foreclosure Experts Reveal How to Close “Impossible” Deals

By September 17, 2025Real Estate Pros Show


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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds engages with Rick Hamrick and William Bonnell, experts in pre-foreclosure solutions. They discuss their unique strategies in the real estate market, emphasizing the importance of consistency, focus, and collaboration. The conversation delves into the challenges faced in real estate, the significance of partnerships, and their goals for scaling their business while helping distressed sellers. Listeners gain insights into navigating the complexities of real estate transactions and the value of building a supportive network.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Will (00:00)
    Yeah, I mean, you know, one thing that I would say is a big part of what we’re doing with a lot of the types of leads that we’re going after. We are very specifically showing up for people when they’re going through the type of times you were describing. So most of the deals that we’re doing because of the fact that we’re helping highly distressed sellers. I mean, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had a little old lady, for example, tell me she’s been practicing tying nooses because she’s getting sick of the stress. You know what I mean?

    Quentin (01:59)
    Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and I am excited.

    ladies and gentlemen, I’m excited to bring these two gentlemen onto the stage. They are phenomenal at what they do. They are phenomenal at training people and they hit my heart for

    helping people that’s in that pre-foreclosure phase. They have a niche that is much needed and I am excited to introduce them to you and have you look at things through their lenses. And

    so I want to introduce you guys to Rick and Will. How are you gentlemen doing today?

    Rick (02:39)
    Hey, I’m great, Q. Thanks for having us on.

    Quentin (02:42)
    Absolutely. Well, how you doing, sir?

    Will (02:44)
    Every day above ground is a good day, man. I’m just grateful.

    Rick (02:46)
    you

    Quentin (02:49)
    Absolutely, absolutely, man. These gentlemen, we’ve been talking backstage. I love that heart. I love what they do. so listen, gentlemen, I’ll be honest. I just want to dive right in. I want you all to take us into your world. I want you to tell us what your main focus is these days. What markets are you operating in? And then just don’t just fill us in on your unique strategy within this.

    This thing we call real estate and what we all do, right? So I’m trying to flow over to you guys. Let’s dive in.

    Rick (03:17)
    That sounds great. I appreciate it Q. ⁓ So my name is Rick Hamrick as Q said, I’m actually in physically in the Kansas city market, but by the nature of what we do, we actually work across the country. Right? So we provide solutions and services for investors, agents, brokers, attorneys, title companies. It doesn’t matter who it is. We focus on pre foreclosure and forced sale.

    solutions, right? We are those guys that can actually take care of deals that most investors and agents will crumble up and just throw away because it’s got an IRS lien or it’s got three or four junior liens and it’s, and I just don’t know how to take care of it or it’s got low equity or no equity. I can’t do anything with this. We take that. I can’t do anything with this and provide solutions, not only in our local market, but nationally. And we also teach other agents and investors how to do that as well.

    Will (04:14)
    Yeah, we, we very heavily focus on this type of transactions almost specifically because of the fact that there’s very little competition. Sorry, there was a bit of an excess delay. There probably wasn’t the smoothest, but I was just waiting to make sure I wasn’t going to be tripping over anybody.

    probably waited a little extra, ⁓ sorry.

    Quentin (04:32)
    Nah, I love it Will.

    No, you’re good Will, go ahead brother.

    Will (04:39)
    So what I was going to say there is just, it’s ⁓ by going after specifically stuff where there’s a little less competition, we’re going after the hairy stuff. You know, we’re going after things with title issues. We’re going after things, the properties that make it all the way to the title company and 72 hours or less before closing, everybody walks away because there’s something wrong with that title and it can’t be closed without some form of.

    curative measure, right? ⁓ Because of the fact that we’re going after that type of stuff, there’s a lot less competition for two reasons. There are less people that want to do this type of stuff because they don’t get it and they don’t know that there are solutions to these problems. And there is, there’s some work involved. Luckily we live in a very, very lazy place these days. So if you’re willing to put some work into something, it’s pretty easy to outshine the competition.

    You know, I’ve heard people say on multiple occasions, it’s easy to actually be…

    among the better performers in any industry just by showing up these days.

    Literally just by consistently showing up because other people most of the time won’t. ⁓ But what we find by going after this stuff, by specializing instead of just going after anything that we come across, it doesn’t take over our lives. We’re able to live a life by design instead of jumping.

    You know, instead of asking how high every time somebody says to jump, we don’t have to pick up the phone during the middle of dinner and run away from our family and go sit down with the seller because of a desperate mindset. We don’t have to do that. We know there’s another seller getting referred to us tomorrow and another one the day after that and another one the day after that. So we don’t have that same scarcity mindset that a lot of people do.

    Quentin (07:10)
    I absolutely love it. something I’m getting used to saying a lot, especially talking to gentleman like yourself. When you know who you are, you know what to do, right? When you know who you are, when you know your strength, when you know your systems, you know how to operate. And I love how you said, listen, we ain’t getting up in the middle of dinner answering our phones. We know who we are. Tomorrow is a new day. We know we’re going to outwork the person. We know people don’t want to go after the stuff that we’re going after. So you guys know who you are. You know what your niche is.

    You know how to power forward. And so I absolutely love it. I guess my question would be, it’s not always easy in this climate. Y’all seem that y’all make it look easy, but I know it’s not always easy. But so what’s the real key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

    Rick (07:53)
    I would say it’s just consistency, right? Consistency and focus. think a lot of people in the real estate world chase the shiny object. They don’t ever become good at one thing. And then they spread themselves too thin and then effectively don’t do it. I mean, I don’t know how many investors I’ve talked to that said, I’m an investor. I’ve been an investor for, you know, two years and they’re like, and I’ve been a short-term rental investor, a patch put investor, a short sale specialist, like you name it.

    they are that specialist and then you look at them and you’re like, how many deals have they have you done? And they’re like, none. I’m still looking to do my first deal. And so it’s really about focus and becoming that go-to expert in your market and becoming so good at it and having it systematized to where it just kind of operates on autopilot so that if you do have that sustainable aspect to the business, you can look at some other forms of investment or some other things that kind of.

    So I would definitely say it’s the focus, right? And the day to day grind and learning and becoming an expert at how to remove IRS liens or to accomplish short sales, negotiate against some of the biggest institutions in this entire country. And that’s what makes the difference.

    Quentin (09:09)
    Have a nice day, Will.

    Will (09:10)
    Well, you know, I think one of the things that has really distinguished our approach from many others is we are proactively seeking out referral partners. That’s one of the methods that we utilize to generate leads is we’re going directly to the people who are likely to already be interacting with that very same lead.

    Oftentimes for a different purpose though. So what I’d like you to picture for the purpose of understanding the methodology behind that. If you were having work done on your house, it’s entirely possible. You might have some work for a plumber, but you might also have some work for a tile guy, right? And those are two separate trades that use separate tools, separate training, separate expertise, but they could refer each other business on a regular basis without tripping over each other. Right.

    they’re not a threat to each other in any way, or form. At that very same time, we can deal with bankruptcy attorneys who are providing one service or product to the very same person that we can also serve in a separate and different way. And because of that, we’re able to basically refer business back and forth. And that’s one of the primary methods of lead generation that we operate on, which allows us to benefit from

    the marketing dollars and marketing efforts of third parties. So it also helps us to not have the same kind of spend that most other people do because we’re capitalizing on somebody else’s lead generation in many cases.

    Quentin (11:18)
    sir. I love it, man. That’s absolutely brilliant. I love that. so, got the coaching initiative. also, too, both of you got your own businesses. And so I’m sure y’all see a lot of different things from so many different angles. And so I guess the question I want to kind of ask, because we have a lot of people listening in and

    So many times we talk about the success, but we don’t talk about the process to get to the success, right? And so there are times when things get real, right? There’s things, you know, go sideways. Sometimes you have to pivot fast. And so I don’t know if you guys have a collective story that you can share that maybe talks about times like that, or even individual stories that talk about times like that. But I think our listeners would benefit from hearing some of the process that go on to actually, you know,

    pivoting and dealing with difficult times. And so hopefully that made sense. But you guys have a story like that that maybe that you can share.

    Rick (12:21)
    Right. Yeah. I mean, I think from from my perspective, you know, difficult time can can mean a lot of different things. Right. So, ⁓ you know, we are nationally recognized as short sale experts. Right. And we always kind of laugh because there’s nothing short about a short sale. So there is like diving in and actually truly understanding the process. And essentially, I mean, our tagline is to to hone your craft.

    Quentin (12:41)
    Yeah.

    Rick (12:49)
    Right? The only way you can actually hone your craft is by practicing. And the only way you can get a deal done is to overcome obstacles or objections in every deal. Right? There isn’t, you know, hardly a deal that goes off picture perfect without some type of adversity, whether that is the borrower that’s in distress. I mean, you can’t imagine the stories we hear ⁓ from them and how they got to that.

    particular situation and you just have to approach it with empathy. And then you move on to the fact that there are more than just one entities involved in these, right? You’ve got the mortgage servicers, you’ve got the investors, you’ve got the insurers, you’ve got mortgage insurance, you’ve got all kinds of different things, you know, from all of the major institutions. So where most people would stop at a roadblock, you just kind of have to keep trucking through and really at the end of the day,

    If you do it, if you understand the rules, the regulations and guidelines set forth by these massive institutions like FHA and Freddie and Ginny and USDA and all of them, ⁓ it actually becomes relatively fun to overcome those obstacles because you’re taking that knowledge and what you’re owning over time and you’re putting it into practice, right? You’re leveraging their own rules against them to actually make money. And at the end of the day, those borrowers

    seniors, broken homes, whoever they might be that are in that particular situation, to have them be truly thankful and the expression of gratitude and I didn’t know what to do, where to go, nobody else could help me and you guys just step in and do it, make it all literally worthwhile. So I get paid good money to actually help somebody who is extremely thankful at the end. So it’s kind of pushing through and honing your craft on every single deal because there’s

    always going to be objections and adversity from any number of parties.

    Quentin (14:42)
    Yes, love it. Love it. Will, how about you, Anything to add there?

    Will (14:46)
    Yeah, I mean, you know, one thing that I would say is a big part of what we’re doing with a lot of the types of leads that we’re going after. We are very specifically showing up for people when they’re going through the type of times you were describing. So most of the deals that we’re doing because of the fact that we’re helping highly distressed sellers. I mean, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had a little old lady, for example, tell me she’s been practicing tying nooses because she’s getting sick of the stress. You know what I mean?

    ⁓ with that type of, I’m serious. yeah. We, mean, we’ve had so many of those circumstances. You got, it’s some of the most, forgotten people among our society. Like a lot of people would think if they’re, you know, kind of speculating about who might be behind on their mortgage, they would talk about it in such a way where it sounds like anybody who’s behind on their mortgage is just.

    Quentin (15:16)
    Wow.

    Will (15:40)
    irresponsible, they’re a drunk, they’re a gambler, they’re a drug addict, something like that. The reality is the biggest group of people that we run across is actually elderly people.

    That’s the biggest group of people that are falling behind on their mortgage. They’re also the biggest group of people that fall behind on their property maintenance and the biggest group of people that struggle with their real estate taxes and their real estate insurance. Sometimes even if they don’t have a mortgage anymore.

    When they get, when we get toward the end of our lives, we often find that we’re making a lot less money than we were at earlier phases in our life. Right? So now all of a sudden, even though we’re weaker and we’ve got less to work with, you know, we’ve got less money coming in as well. And we are one of the only countries in the world that very badly neglects our elderly population. don’t have.

    our parents typically living with us when we’re in our 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, whatever. There are of course exceptions to that, but we’re like the one country in the world where like, all right, mom, time for you to go to the nursing home. You’re getting inconvenient, you know?

    Quentin (17:24)
    Nah, man. Thank you so much, Again, I knew I was going to be excited to talk to you guys. I love hearing your perspective, hearing your heart behind what you do, like the real passion and the push of the wild. And so I thank you so much for sharing, Let me ask you this. What’s the next, like what are you focused on scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal for you guys?

    Rick (17:45)
    I mean, scaling the mastermind is important to us just because we need more solution providers. We need people out there that want to learn how to build a sustainable business in any economic condition or in any real estate market as, as you know, we discussed earlier, there aren’t enough providers out there to even handle a typical market, a good real estate market with a million to a million and a half.

    pre-foreclosure or forced sale situation. So scaling that is extremely important. And then also within our own operations that we’re doing both in our local communities, but then also spread out across the nation because people know what we do. They submit deals to us. We always say 50 % of something is better than 100 % of nothing that you would be doing when you’re throwing that lead away. So you might as well send that to somebody who can take it, look at it, assess it and help you monetize it.

    I would think that the scaling portion of it, is the next thing that we’re really focused on is ⁓ that intake, improving the systems, the process, the team around it, and then also leveraging artificial intelligence to help us multiply ourselves, know, gain those hours back ourselves so we can actually be in the living room or on the phone, you know, with the borrower or on the phone with the mortgage servicer or whoever. So.

    That’s largely what our focus is, is making sure there are more solution providers out there because we do have that abundance mindset, right? Life by design, share with others and make sure that others know how to do what you do because they’re not your competition, they’re your collaborative partner.

    Quentin (19:15)
    Yes.

    Absolutely will.

    Will (19:24)
    Yeah, I mean, that’s really the underlying spirit to what we’re doing. At the end of the day, a lot of people fail to recognize that real estate is a team sport. So a lot of people look at real estate, they’ll look at a successful real estate practitioner and think to themselves, that person’s just amazing. They’re super disciplined, they got the systems, the processes, the knowledge, the training, et cetera, all in place. And oftentimes that’s not the case.

    Oftentimes it’s actually that they’re surrounded by the right team. They got the right people in place and many hands make light work. You know, at the end of the day, no man is an Island in all reality. And the success that we achieve generally has to do with the people we surround ourselves with much more than it does our individual capability. You know what I mean? So we are constantly emphasizing to our members and to each other and to ourselves.

    Quentin (20:13)
    Sure. Yeah.

    Will (20:16)
    that if we want to achieve something, it’s usually a matter of who do we need to put in place in order to get that done and what systems and processes do we need to put in place around those people in order to enable them to do the very best job they possibly can.

    Quentin (20:30)
    Absolutely. Listen, last question before I get you guys out of here. Next to last question, the other one would just be about giving information. But man, how important are you two, the relationship between you two guys, the partnership between you two guys? How important is that for you two individuals?

    Rick (20:47)
    I mean, I would say it’s extremely important, right? You know, I mean, coming from the mastermind that we met in where he was the mentor and I was the mentee, you know, I am a firm believer of you get out of a mastermind what you put in to a mastermind. And the people that aren’t successful in a mastermind are the 80 % that don’t show up and don’t put in the work and don’t do.

    The dynamic works very well between us because William recognized very early on in that mentorship that I was just somebody who did what they were told. Like, Hey, go do this, go take this action, talk to the title company, talk with the local municipality, do these types of things. And then the results come. So when people look at him and his 25 plus years of experience and going through the GFC and there’s no way I can touch what he’s done transaction wise or anything else, they can turn and pivot and look at me and go.

    Well, wait a minute, Rick is the living example of exactly what they’re teaching. He did pivot his business and is now focused solely on pre foreclosure, forced sale and creative solutions. He is that model student. I’m a lot closer than, you know, to, the members than, than he is. And so that dynamic is extremely important where he’s up here and potentially unattainable in most people’s eyes. What they don’t realize is what I realized in 2020 is.

    He’s not up here, he doesn’t put himself up here. He’s very humble and he helps. He’s got a servant heart not only for the actual clientele that we serve, but also for the real estate community in general.

    Quentin (22:20)
    my man, how about you, sir?

    Will (22:21)
    I just, I just love listening to Rick talk at the end of the day. ⁓ I think a big part of what makes, ⁓ makes us work is the fact that we do respect each other and we do try to, we do try to compliment each other as much as humanly possible. And I don’t mean just compliment, you know, pay each other compliments, but we try to go out of our way to be. You know what, what is needed? You know what I mean? At the end of the day, Rick’s definitely got some skills that I do not have in, in quite a few ways.

    and has brought quite a bit to the table that I didn’t have previously, especially when it comes to systems, processes, technology, things along those lines. ⁓ And then when you really learn to not necessarily avoid weaknesses, but when you really learn to highlight and lean on strengths, know, ⁓ again, with no negative bias, we’re not looking to avoid weaknesses, but

    You really look to emphasize and lean on the strengths that you know definitely do exist. It allows you to build one hell of a synergy in all honesty. It really does. It allows you to almost multiply. It’s like one plus one equals 17 instead of two. know what I mean? That type of deal because you really learn how to work together in the best possible ways.

    Quentin (23:39)
    Absolutely. Man, I’m being honest, man. I told y’all what I had coming up next, but I could talk to y’all for forever. There’s so many more questions that I could give you guys. I just don’t have enough time to do it. And so I absolutely love what you guys are doing, what you’re building, how you want to empower people, your passion on wanting to help people. And so I thank you so much. But listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, or collaborate or learn more about what you guys are doing,

    Give them some information about yourself, the MaxMind, any information you want to give to our listeners. think now is the time for sure.

    Rick (24:13)
    Sure. mean, you know, from a collaborative standpoint, one of the easiest ways to get ahold of the two of us is to go to that website, which is just IPA and the number four REI.com. That stands for income producing activities for real estate investors. Ironically, the group is more than half licensed agents and brokers as well, but it makes sense because those are the same people that are talking to the very people that we help. It doesn’t matter what you do.

    In real estate, you play a part, you can be part of the group. We’ve got mortgage brokers, we’ve got real estate brokers, real estate agents, property preservation folks that come around. So that’s probably one of the easiest ways to get ahold of us. ⁓ I also have ⁓ Rick Hamrick.info. That is also, that’s kind of like my, my V card. If you want to get in touch with me that way, but I would say that IPA for pros is the best way to get in touch and collaborate on a deal that you’re having challenges with.

    or even potentially look at learning and becoming educated so that you can stay very relevant over the next five years.

    Quentin (25:16)
    Anything to add there Will?

    Will (25:17)
    Yeah, there is one easy way to get ahold of the two of us is just to send an email to info at IPA4REI.com and that ends up going directly to both myself and Rick. That’s probably the easiest way to get ahold of us. Working with institutions as much as we do, we do a lot of emailing and we also have the…

    esteemed privilege of basically working bankers hours because we’re working with bankers. We work with institutions, government agencies and banks ⁓ and insurance companies that ensure the investments of banks. So they all have a tendency to work during regular business hours, which one thing we love about that is it allows us to be able to spend some time with our, you know, with our families and stuff like that on the weekends and in the evenings and all of that, which

    You know, historically, real estate is very much associated with having no free time on the weekends and having no free time in the evenings. And we get to, ⁓ we get to avoid that by choosing specific niches.

    Quentin (26:18)
    Gentlemen, again, I want to thank you two for being here. This was definitely a pleasure. I know our listeners got incredible value out of this. So thank you for your time. Thank you for your stories. Thank you for your perspective. Thank you for what you’re doing with your niche within this space. Again, this has been a pleasure. So I thank you all again.

    Rick (26:36)
    Appreciate it. Thanks, Q.

    Quentin (26:38)
    Absolutely. Absolutely. Now to everyone else, listen, you’ve got the value. got value. Listen, we gave you the two for one here. We gave you two for your trouble. And so you want to make sure you are subscribed. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations. And so make sure you hit that subscribe button. Rick and Will, thank you again. And for everybody else, we will see you on the next time.

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