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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Marcus Inman, a real estate investor specializing in pre-foreclosure properties. Marcus shares his journey into real estate, the challenges he faces in the pre-foreclosure market, and his unique approach to helping clients. He emphasizes the importance of capital, the need for a solutions-based approach, and his future focus on mergers and acquisitions. Marcus also offers valuable advice for new investors, highlighting the significance of mentorship and finding a niche.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Marcus Inman (00:00)
We’re a solutions based process versus a property forward process.obviously we’re investors. We want to buy the property. However, when we approach the owners, we don’t approach them with, your property’s, you know, we’ll give you X amount of dollars for your property. We show up and we ask them, you know, have you tried forbearance? Have you looked at, you know, the possibility of a refinance? Are you looking at bankruptcy? We ask the why they’re in this situation before we ever really talk about the property.
Michelle Kesil (02:04)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Marcus Inman, who is a real estate investor, specializing in pre-foreclosure properties. So excited to have you here today, Marcus.Marcus Inman (02:20)
Michelle I appreciate the invite you guys I followed you guys in the past and have seen a lot of your guys’s episodes as well so being invited to come and speak ⁓ really was a highlight for my new year to get startedMichelle Kesil (02:34)
Awesome, excited to dive in with you today. So first off, for those who are not familiar with you and your work yet, can you share what your main focus is?Marcus Inman (02:44)
So with real estate investment, I am solely focused on pre foreclosure. ⁓ I found a niche, I liked it, and I got pretty darn good at it. So I don’t really venture outside of that. ⁓ That’s just where I focus. It just seems to be where I fit with my ⁓ mentality and the way that I like to help people and also help myself and my partners make a little bit of money.So it’s a win-win for everybody.
Michelle Kesil (03:20)
Absolutely. And how did you get started in this?Marcus Inman (03:24)
So I think it’s like anybody else, ⁓ you know, heard about investing and read some books and, you know, Rich Dad Poor Dad and, you know, all the stack of books that you can read about real estate investing. And ⁓ one of my close friends actually started down the road of doing some real estate investing, was doing some fix and flip stuff. And I grew up around construction, so I knew a lot of that.And then he got into wholesaling and he started teaching me wholesaling. And I was like, oh, this is kind of neat, you know, cause I don’t have a whole lot of extra money. I’m, you know, young and just a good blue collar work in person. And this wholesaling thing may be pretty neat. And I’d ran into a couple of pre foreclosures and I realized one, it’s a complete different dynamic whenever you’re working with those folks. And two, I actually liked it better.
And so I just moved completely out of doing any wholesale and traditional fix and flip work and just focus solely on pre-foreclosure.
I stumbled into it by accident.
Michelle Kesil (04:29)
Yeah.Yeah, and why specifically pre-foreclosure?
Marcus Inman (04:37)
So a lot of folks listening to your podcast understand the wholesale process. It’s almost a two sales process and it’s very, very marketing heavy. So you have to go out there and find the distressed property.And then you have to get that owner to sell you the property. And then you have to either assign the contract, whatever you’re doing in the wholesale process. ⁓ Even on fix and flip, you still have to go find that property. You still have to be able to acquire said property. You still have some pretty strict timelines and depending on your loan provider. ⁓ With pre foreclosure, I found leads were way, way more easy to find because they’re public knowledge.
So I could find properties without having to spend a ridiculous amount of money on this, on finding available properties. ⁓ And it gave me some, and because of some of the tools I learned from wholesaling, I was able to take some of those tools and apply it to the pre-foreclosure. So it just became a very simple process procedure for me. So I moved into it because of the simplicity involved.
Michelle Kesil (06:33)
Awesome. And are you operating in specific markets?Marcus Inman (06:34)
Well, lead, Jim, simplicity, sorry.Yeah, I actually only operate out of the state of Missouri. And the reason is one, I know the state laws. It gives me a focus there. Two, because of the nature of pre-foreclosures, you have to be able to react quickly. You have to be able to move and get things done very rapidly. So there’s nothing in the state that I can’t visit tomorrow or the next day. I can get my car. can drive across the state. I can view the property. I can know exactly where I need to be at on that deal within 24 to 48 hours so I can start putting together.
everything for that owner to get them stabilized and ready for the next chapters that they have coming in their life.
Michelle Kesil (07:18)
Awesome. And how has it been with the foreclosures? What are, like how is that going for you now?Marcus Inman (07:27)
Well, currently, ⁓ I’ve scaled back a little bit. It’s just my focus has been other places. But previously, I mean, I’ve been great in that system. I think part of it comes from just our approach is completely different than a lot of folks that don’t deal with it regularly. ⁓We’re a solutions based process versus a property forward process. ⁓
And I say that because obviously we’re investors. We want to buy the property. However, when we approach the owners, we don’t approach them with, your property’s, you know, we’ll give you X amount of dollars for your property. We show up and we ask them, you know, have you tried forbearance? Have you looked at, you know, the possibility of a refinance? Are you looking at bankruptcy? We ask the why they’re in this situation before we ever really talk about the property.
So.
It just really expands in the way that we do it. So I only focus in Missouri. That way, one, I’m very familiar with the laws. Two, I have a network built here. ⁓ And three, it’s a reaction thing because most of the folks that we’re dealing with, we’re only going to have approximately 10 to 20 days to make the deal happen or it’s not going to happen before it goes to auction.
Michelle Kesil (08:47)
Right. What are some of the biggest obstacles of that having that like time crunch?Marcus Inman (08:55)
Capital, that’s a huge obstacle. early on I learned that the hard way. ⁓ Capital’s huge. ⁓ You have to have available money to move now. And ⁓ a lot of your loan brokers, folks like that, they can’t move at the speed of a pre-foreclosure. I’ve literally had to get money wired less than 24 hours before an auction to make deals happen. ⁓So capital is a big one. would say if you want to go into the pre foreclosure market, have your capital locked in either a line of credit that you can you can immediately within 24 or 48 hours get access to have a good capital partner that can, hey, I can write you this check today, make sure that everything’s taken care of. But I would say capital is probably the toughest just because of the speed that you have to be able to work in.
Michelle Kesil (09:49)
Yeah, and what are some solutions with the capital? Like is there any sort of creative way that you overcome it?Marcus Inman (10:31)
I wouldn’t say it’s creative. It’s actually pretty traditional I have a couple of partners that happen to do pretty well and They I don’t ask them where they get their money, but they’re able to wire as soon as we need ⁓ Within reason of course and then you know just having that line of credit to be able to you know, care of anyearly fees that you’re going to get absorbed into. But really, you kind of got to approach that traditionally. A lot of folks talk about wrapping the mortgage and things like that. I’m not a fan of it. There’s a lot of risk that goes into it. I’m not putting down the folks that do do that. And if it helps that homeowner and it helps them, then absolutely do what you’re doing. But as soon as that loan gets called or if that loan gets called due, which has happened with the interest rate changes a lot more frequently. ⁓
you can lose that property pretty quick unless you’ve got access to capital.
Michelle Kesil (11:25)
Definitely. What do you feel are some of the main keys that have made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to grow?Marcus Inman (11:36)
Honestly, I think it’s our approach. ⁓ We don’t strong arm. We don’t…Well, not trying to sound rude, but there are some folks that work the pre-foreclosure market that are predatory. They put a lot of pressure, things like that. ⁓ know, something that a lot of folks don’t know about me is 20-some odd years ago, I was actually homeless at one point. So I understand stress. I understand being in a bad situation. ⁓ So whenever I started working pre-foreclosures, you I really wanted to actually help people and…
You know, I’ve partnered with some great attorneys that will help these folks if they need to move on with like a bankruptcy, things like that. I’ve got a partnership with a credit repair agency that if there’s enough room in the deal, we’ll actually pay for like a 12 month period for that client to get credit repair while they’re finalizing this process, trying to help them move forward into the next chapter. It’s almost a case management in a way. ⁓
You know, we don’t approach it going, hey, look, it’s our house, get out. You know, there’s terms, there’s conditions. You know, usually it’s like, hey, look, we’re going to take care of this. We’re going to get you some cash in your pocket whenever you walk out the door. And we’re going to give you 60 to 90 days to transition.
But it all has to fall into, I mean these deals are pre-vetted. I know the address before I even reach out to the folks. I’ve already looked them up, you know, with our software we run like PropStream, things like that, to see what loans and liens and things like that are already on the property. So I already know if the deal’s a good deal or not before I even reach out to the client, before I ever approach it. And then at that point it’s very hands off, I do letters. I send a handwritten letter to every potential client.
and tell them, look, here’s your options. This is what we may or may not be able to do if you’re an arrested call.
You we don’t blow their phone up like, I mean, if they’re not making their house payment, there’s a high probability they’ve switched phone numbers and they’re probably getting about 500 other calls a day about money that they haven’t spent because most people pay that mortgage first.
I think it’s really our approach that really sets us apart because we try to work on solutions, not the problem.
Michelle Kesil (13:51)
Yeah, that’sWhat are some common solutions that you support your clients with?
Marcus Inman (13:58)
Well, so oddly enough, we’ve kind of standardized. We’ve been doing it long enough. I’m pretty standardized. It’s usually, you know, as long as the structure is there and it usually is, you know, $10,000. 60 days in the property after we close. And that’s usually pretty standardized. Like, you know, when we approach and if they’re open to working with us and one of the other options aren’t available.they may have not even had a conversation with the bank about a forbearance or if they can ⁓ renegotiate that loan or do a you know
Any any other options that the bank give them they may not have even had that conversation and I’ve ran into that They’re like, I didn’t even know that was an option then they find out my banks willing to work with me.
Those to me are big wins But if they’re at the stage where there’s no other options, it’s then you know, I’ve pretty much standardized. It’s like hey, you know Look, we can offer you once we close on this deal. What we’ll do is we’ll take care of everything else We’ll go on ahead and set aside $10,000 for you guys So, you know and give you guys like 60 days so in that
60 days when you find a place that you guys are going to move, let us know. We’ll take part of that $10,000, make sure that your deposit’s paid, whatever you need to do to get moved, we’ll take care of that. And then whenever you guys leave the property, we’ll give you the balance of the account.
and move forward. We’ve just really standardized it. Some folks need more, some folks just want more. Sometimes the property allows for it. Sometimes there’s not as much room, but I’ve kind of standardized it. Because most folks in that situation are less worried about how much you’re paying for the house as much as they are, where am going to sleep next week? Those are two totally different mindsets. Somebody under stress,
there’s immediate need and there’s secondary. they may want more for the property, but they also understand that it’s, unfortunately, they’re losing the property either way. So let’s do this with some grace, some dignity, and with some upside.
Michelle Kesil (16:40)
Yeah, absolutely, that’s important. And what are you most focusing on solving or scaling to next in your business?Marcus Inman (16:51)
So actually, I am looking at, so I do a little bit of work in mergers and acquisitions and taking actually our philosophy from pre-foreclosure, a lot of folks don’t know, I’ve also done some business brokerage and do some buy side advisory work and I’ve ran into deals recently where on the commercial side, someone’s buying a business, there’s property included but they don’t want the property.And what I found is the business is either underpriced or the property is significantly underpriced and we can actually leverage that property to get the business deal done by working with REITs and investor groups that want the commercial properties on a buy-leaseback process for new business owners. actually, it helps them open up cashflow. I saw situation where the $2 million business, they only ended up having to carry $800,000 after the sale of the property. There’s been some really positive moves there and we’re able to…
get some pretty reasonable advisor fees and things like that on those deals as we’re moving forward. And all started because of my background in the real estate, doing what I’m doing in the pre-foreclosure, finding solutions to issues. And then this is now becoming a natural exhaust of some of that work over the last few years, learning, ⁓ there’s more options out there. So I think I’m going to do a little bit of focus there. I’m going to keep doing what works on the pre-foreclosure stuff, but then I’m going to put a little focus there because I’m hedging into a little bit of mergers and acquisitions.
work.
Michelle Kesil (18:17)
Awesome. Is there any advice you have for people that are earlier on in their investing journey?Marcus Inman (18:23)
⁓ Well, one, keep grinding. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. ⁓ I think there’s a clear definition there if people really think about that. ⁓ Two, if you choose to go the route I did, like pre-foreclosure, create a system because when you do finally get that first deal on your desk,it’s going to go fast. You don’t have a lot of time to react. You don’t have a 30-day window.
Whole selling a pre-foreclosure just walk away Don’t tie up a con don’t don’t contract a house that you don’t know if you can sell especially when someone’s about to get kicked out the bank Don’t care if you have it under contract ⁓ But mostly
Find what works for you. I I think that a lot of folks get into real estate investment, especially early on, unless they’ve got the financial backing to get really deep into it and have a lot of high hopes. But learn a good process that works for you. I find that whenever I get focused into a niche market and I, you know, learn the one system before you try to do all systems, because I think that’s where a lot of younger…
investors really they try to jump in they’re trying to do fix and flip and rentals and wholesale and hotel and You know everything all at once and then don’t understand why not a single one of those things are scaling I think that having a singular focus is going to be a better outcome for somebody new into that market And quit paying gurus $10,000 a week
Everything’s free on the internet. You got great podcasts like Investor Fuel.
Michelle Kesil (20:03)
Yeah, definitely. There’s so much you can learn online. How did you learn? Did you like have any? Yeah, go ahead.Marcus Inman (20:05)
yes. yes. Well, I had a very good.I think mentors are important. I don’t care if it’s what you do for a living or if you do nothing for a living. think that mentors are important. Just having a good connection with somebody that can think outside the box with you on the problem. You know, when I came into this, it was a close friend of mine. Him and I played music together.
So another weird, strange fact about Marcus is Marcus was in a rock band that’s played on stages with Grammy nominated artists and had a song on the radio. I don’t talk about that in my real estate stuff though. Anyway, he was our guitarist and he was the one that got into the real estate investing and I’d read the books and I had grown up around construction and residential remodeling and saw a lot of the process and he really sat down and started teaching me. And again, it was initially wholesaling because he was doing classes to where if we landed deals, he got a percent
of that deal which was fine. So it didn’t cost me a ton out up front ⁓ which was great and that’s really what got me rolling was a buddy of mine doing something that I’d always had a little bit of interest in and he kind of nudged me forward. Thank you Mr. James Perkins. He probably listens to you guys as well ⁓ and got me really moving in the right direction and ⁓ you know it just…
That’s what got me started, just a buddy that we played music and he was being successful and I wanted to feel what that felt like.
Michelle Kesil (21:34)
Yeah, that’s awesome and so cool that you were able to get inspired and get support in that way.Marcus Inman (21:41)
Yeah, I think it’s important. I really do. I think everybody needs to find that person that helps inspire them, no matter if it’s your spouse, if it’s your best friend, if it’s a mentor somewhere. Just find like-minded individuals.Michelle Kesil (21:56)
Definitely.Marcus Inman (22:02)
So.Michelle Kesil (22:03)
Yes. Well, before we close out here, someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more. Where can people find you and where can they connect with you?Marcus Inman (22:12)
You know, one of the best places honestly to connect with me is LinkedIn. You can find me very easy on LinkedIn. There’s only one of me that I know of. I’ve Googled myself quite a few times. You can also find me on Facebook. Look for the bald head in the glasses. I’m probably in that.I actually took down my corporate website for real estate investing ⁓ because I had shifted a little bit of my focus to the mergers acquisitions. So I would say really LinkedIn is the best route. I’m on there religiously answer almost every message that comes through there. So I would say that’s probably the best start point. Facebook’s kind of questionable, but LinkedIn’s probably the best way to find me. Unless you Google foreclosure 411 and then you’ll find my phone number.
Michelle Kesil (22:55)
Perfect.Marcus Inman (23:01)
Or foreclosure-411. Yeah, that’s us.Michelle Kesil (23:02)
Awesome.Great. Appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.
And for those, yes, thank you. For those that are tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Marcus who are building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.
Marcus Inman (23:12)
thank you.
