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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Victorious Thompson, a successful entrepreneur and real estate investor based in Austin, Texas. Victorious shares his journey into real estate, discussing his transition from military service to becoming a full-time investor. He highlights the importance of believing in oneself, the value of mentorship, and the strategies he employed to raise capital and build relationships in the industry. Victorious also reflects on his current investment strategies and the lessons learned from past experiences, providing valuable insights for aspiring investors.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Victorious Thompson (00:00)
Yeah, so when COVID hit, we had just put our first like 12 unit property under contract and I was just sitting there, I had the contract. I was like, I’m doing it. And then the very next day,I called the bank because we would work with financial partners because I didn’t even know what private money was. It’s kind of like, you know, when you get into it’s common now, but at the time you’re kind of everything’s new. So I called the bank and go, Hey, I need like $400,000. And they go, we’re pencils down for the COVID epidemic. Have a nice day. And I was like,
I’ve got 30 days to raise this money. And so I got, I was on my back porch and I remember calling my buddy who runs a CrossFit box. I could never do those double unders. And I was like, I’m going to learn how to do these double unders and just call people on my phone until I can raise the money.
Michelle Kesil (02:23)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone that I’m looking forward to chatting with, Victorious Thompson, who is a entrepreneur and real estate investor with 450 plus combined flips and private money lending deals nationwide based in Austin, Texas. So, excited to have you here today, Victorious.Victorious Thompson (02:50)
Yeah, hey Michelle, thanks for having me.Michelle Kesil (02:52)
Of course, I think our listeners are going to take something away from how you’re approaching the Austin market and all of the investments that you have done so far. we can dive in.Victorious Thompson (03:04)
Let’s do it.Michelle Kesil (03:06)
Yeah, first off, for those who are not familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is?Victorious Thompson (03:12)
Yeah, so I divide my time up into three parts. The first is brokerage, so just single family, buying and selling, I have some investor clients here in Austin. The next is I run what people would traditionally call like a hard money business, but I call it victorious money because there’s nothing hard about working with me.And I do those deals all over the nation. And then my, you know, kind of last third is my, what I call my sexy deals. So whether it’s taking down, you know, multifamily property, doing my own individual flips and things that are just, just me or a partner.
Michelle Kesil (03:49)
Awesome. And can you share about your background? Like how did you come into this world?Victorious Thompson (03:55)
Yeah, so I came into this world, actually called a buddy of mine. I went to the Air Force Academy and was in the military. I was an officer in the military and actually my best friend, Carson, he was 30 and died of cancer. And that was kind of a decision point for me. was like, it’s time to go for it. So I called my other buddy and I go, Hey man, do you own any real estate? And he goes, no, do you? And I go, no. And a bigger pockets podcast, it was before podcast.casting was really coming out. And so we just started watching that and then we saw that Mike Hambright was doing a free pilot program of his investor fuel back then was called Investor Machine in 2017, I believe. And it was free for veterans because he was trying to pilot the program. So we just wanted, you know, some people to go through that. So we signed up, went down to Texas.
And in like seven weeks we were marketing and we were real estate investors. So it happened pretty quick.
Michelle Kesil (05:44)
So cool. And what were your starting projects when it came to investing?Victorious Thompson (05:52)
Yeah, so it’s a funny story. So the first thing you learn when you get in is, hey, you have to send out mail to everybody. So we put together like 4,000 mail pieces. And what we didn’t know is that you need to break that out over the month, right? So send maybe a thousand a week. So what we did is we sent all 4,000, we went to our first investor fuel event and our phones were blowing up off the hook because all of our mail went out and then we went tothe mastermind. So we had a bumpy start. But then after that, we were specifically focused on wholesaling because I’ll say it’s the easiest money because you don’t have to get the property and do all the rehab. So we started wholesaling deals. But we also did a couple flips because we just want to cut our teeth and there’s, you know, a bigger bite there when you do the flip. that’s where that’s where we started at.
Michelle Kesil (06:46)
Awesome. And so, what do you feel have been some of the main keys that made the biggest difference in allowing your business to grow and to have success?Victorious Thompson (06:55)
Yeah, well, two things. One is going all in. We were both kind of working part-time jobs because we just, you just don’t know how it’s going to go. So after we started maybe a year and a half later, I quit my job. We all quit our jobs and went full-time and we had it kind of rolling.bit so at that point we saw our deals you know we had did we went from doing one or two deals to 23 deals then up to 50 deals so one of those things was
just going all in and I remember quitting my job. It was the summer of 2019. Then my second thing is COVID hit that next year and I went, oh man, I left my job, you know, and I was just sitting there like, did I make a mistake? And that goes to the next thing is you have to believe in yourself and your team. And if you don’t, I don’t know where people are at that are listening, like writing it down in the present tense. Like I am a real estate investor.
Sometimes you just have to do that. There’s the part in your brain, the particular, the RAS, is like whatever you focus on expands. It’s like if you see a bunch of like, oh, Tesla.
Michelle Kesil (08:02)
Yeah, RecticularActivating System.
Victorious Thompson (08:04)
Yes,thank you. So it’s like you have to trick yourself because your subconscious can’t take a joke So whether you tell it you can or you can’t usually do so that kind of going all in and then really like Reprogramming your brain and trying to attract success you set the work But like you have to get you have to tell yourself that you can do it and believe in that and it grows over time
Michelle Kesil (08:27)
Yeah, that’s incredible. So how did you go from real estate to the lending?Victorious Thompson (08:31)
Yeah, so when COVID hit, we had just put our first like 12 unit property under contract and I was just sitting there, I had the contract. I was like, I’m doing it. And then the very next day,I called the bank because we would work with financial partners because I didn’t even know what private money was. It’s kind of like, you know, when you get into it’s common now, but at the time you’re kind of everything’s new. So I called the bank and go, Hey, I need like $400,000. And they go, we’re pencils down for the COVID epidemic. Have a nice day. And I was like,
I’ve got 30 days to raise this money. And so I got, I was on my back porch and I remember calling my buddy who runs a CrossFit box. I could never do those double unders. And I was like, I’m going to learn how to do these double unders and just call people on my phone until I can raise the money.
So I stayed out there, took me a couple of weeks to figure that out. But then I started going to people and saying, Hey Michelle, I’ve got a problem or an opportunity. Could you just like talk to me about this problem?
and I would tell them what’s going on.
I’ll say, hey, I’m looking for some investors. Do you know anyone that would want to maybe invest? And they go, hey, actually, I’d like to invest. And so I just kind of learned how to present the opportunity and basically ask them, hey, could you help me with this or refer me to someone that can? And in doing so, it’s very nonchalant. I guess it’s ⁓ sales tactics, if you will, where it’s like, hey, Michelle, was just hoping you could help me out and maybe refer me to someone. But then you start getting a couple of people.
and then it’s like ⁓ I’ve raised like most of the money.
yeah, I haven’t done a ton of deals, so I’ll give you like a favorable return because I didn’t have the experience. And I remember sometimes we were, you know, giving people 15 % on the money because we needed someone to take a shot on us. And then shout out my dad, he was the one who gave me the first 15,000. And he’s like, I believe in your son. And then from there, they just, the checks just start getting bigger as you continue just to do a good job and return the investors capital and their interests. So we just kind of built up slow.
Michelle Kesil (11:13)
Awesome. That’s so cool that you just went for it.Victorious Thompson (11:17)
Yeah, yes.Michelle Kesil (11:19)
What are some of the things you’ve learned along the way?Victorious Thompson (11:22)
I think when you’re learning, there’s only beginner, intermediate, and advanced in podcasting real estate. So one is like knowing where you’re at. And then once you know where you’re at, you can just do the things to focus to get to the next level. And I think you should focus.on one thing. So for example, I had a couple of their partners and we kind of all touched, we all kind of touched the different parts of the deal, but then I said, hey, I’m just going to focus on raising capital for our deals. And I raised all the capital privately for our 150 ish deals. And with one exception, there was one time that I didn’t get it. ⁓ And that just happens sometimes, right? Like you got to be able to walk away from any deal if you can’t, don’t want to force it. But I do think it’s fair to say, I want
to do real estate investing is like well what do you want to do and by focusing on raising capital that’s what I got really good at and other people would ask me to raise capital for their deals and it kind of became it’s naturally a second business for me.
Michelle Kesil (12:21)
Awesome. And what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next in your business?Victorious Thompson (12:26)
Yeah, a couple things.since 22, the market, I’ve just been way more conservative on deals. But since I got to Austin in the last couple of years, I’ve actually turned on brokerage services because I am just trying to grow my community through real estate and doing more brokerage services. I just meet way more people. I transact way more. The relationships are deeper. I mean, if you’re someone’s, you know, realtor, I never thought I would be in the realtor business when I was an investor because I was just trying to talk directly to the
I
was like, get out of my way, realtor, unless I need to sell it. But that’s really helped me evolve. So now I can you know do the residential wheeling and dealing to grow my.
you know real community and then I can tap into those folks that if they want to invest or they want to, you know, lend or they want to get into some of my lending deals, now I can provide even like a bigger suite of service. And when you do that, your network expands. So it’s like, Victorious, he’s like the realtor, but he’s an investor and a lender. And so you kind of become a triple threat as people get to know you. I can do way more now than I could do in 2017.
Michelle Kesil (13:34)
Yeah, amazing that you’re full on.Victorious Thompson (13:37)
Yeah,I’m all in. All in.
Michelle Kesil (13:39)
What are some obstacles that you have maybe gone through in the past recent years that now looking back in hindsight you have the lesson on?Victorious Thompson (13:52)
Yeah, I think the scariest one is, know, when you’re raising money from other people and something happens to the deal, say it’s we need to extend or someone sues you and you go to court, that’s pretty pretty scary, I think, just for yourself. But then when you get those phone calls. So in 22, I was trying to get out of or not get out of single family, but move up to multifamily. And we took down a 245 unit deal, which long story short, the lenderended up like suing the operator and there was about 130 veterans in the deal. I probably raised about 2 million out of the 5 million and
when that happened, investors were calling me going, hey, what’s going on? Hey, what’s wrong? Like I saw everybody freaking out. And some people, you really learn who people are. Cause some of my, people I thought would freak out were like, Hey Vic, we believe in you. We trust you. And what that taught me is just two things. One is make sure you talk to people that are writing you checks or investing in your deals. Hey, here’s the fine print and always go over the worst case scenario. Hey, it’s unlikely.
But if something happens, I need you to know this is what would happen in case of we got sued or it didn’t go as planned.
And then number two, I think when you’re raising money or if you’re someone that’s looking to invest, is start small. You know, wanna have a good first dance, maybe it’s 25, 50K that you do with someone before you go and put in 250,000. So I think it’s good to have a first dance no matter what you’re doing before you ask each other to go to the prom.
Michelle Kesil (16:15)
That was a good analogy. Yeah, definitely that makes sense.Victorious Thompson (16:17)
Thanks.Michelle Kesil (16:21)
So when you were more focused on investing, like how is your portfolio looking now? Are you still holding onto a lot of these investments and kind of just like, what’s your strategy?Victorious Thompson (16:33)
Yeah, I’ll tell you what, Michelle, I wish I could have kept a lot more of those properties when we were flipping. But when you got a couple partners, people are married, kids, it’s like you got to feed the beast. So,So that one is but it’s I wish I think everyone I wish would have started early earlier. But over the last couple years when it’s been more conservative I’ve been kind of flipping and selling off some property kind of cashing up and then lending more on very conservative deals. However I did take down 29 unit property out there in South Carolina this year just outside of Greenville. So the play is for that is we’ve got a great deal on it.
we bought it for $750, it appraised at $1.3. So we’re just going to bring it up to stabilize it. And then I think we’ll you know have it stabilized and then hold it for a couple of years and then sell the dream of knocking it down and developing it to the next guy. So I’m looking to do more. What I’m focused on is looking forward to doing more deals here in Austin. But as I mentioned when we were talking before is, you know, it’s different than Athens, Georgia and Greenville, South Carolina, where we started. You the dirt
is 300, 400, and then you’re another couple hundred thousand. You know, it’s like an 800,000 and up kind of property. So it’s just higher stakes here. So I’m not in a rush to do anything. Again, I’ve learned to be more patient and diligent. And I’m just trying to, to me, success equals relationships plus time. And I’ve got the relationships going, just looking for a little more time to pick my spots.
Michelle Kesil (18:06)
Absolutely. When it comes to relationship building, what has worked for you? Do you go to networking events or what’s your relationship building strategy, per se?Victorious Thompson (18:18)
Yeah, I build my relationships. There’s kind of like three main areas and they’re just things that I already like to do. So I’m like very active in my faith. So my church brothers and sisters, I spend a lot of time with those folks. I’m an avid golfer. Ilove to golf and and then real estate. So if there’s investor meetups or there’s other, you know, I invest in some funds personally and they’ll have like quarterly events. And then within my network, I try to ask them, can I go with you? It’s like, hey, we’re having I got some guys that do some reclamation work. So they’re very tied into like the local magazine and the interior design. And I got a buddy that works at Tesla that always has events. So
So
kind of the, invite people with me if I have an event to go to, and then I try to get invited to events where it doesn’t feel like I’m like going crazy, like the networking guy trying to like make everyone my friend. I kind of just am really intentional about, hey, I’m going to have at least one to two events a week.
And then I talked to Mysphere of probably like 50 people. I probably talked to them like three times a month through, you know, a personal text, a newsletter. I just, I just really focus on Mysphere and growing Mysphere.
Michelle Kesil (19:38)
Yeah, amazing. That’s a fun way to do it.Victorious Thompson (19:41)
Yeah, because it’s just, I’ve been the guy like, hey, I’m new in town and let me get your card. And it’s just like, Oh hey, Michelle, it’s nice to meet you on the golf course. where are you from? You you just get so much easier when you’re kind of on home home field advantage.Michelle Kesil (19:57)
Totally, yeah, it’s more authentic.Victorious Thompson (19:59)
Yeah, I’m not saying you can’t do it the other way. Do what you gotta do.Michelle Kesil (20:03)
Totally, everythingworks for different phases and different people. Awesome. Any advice for those that are maybe just aspiring investors or got their first deal and getting started?
Victorious Thompson (20:06)
Yup.Yeah, I think one, you should get a mentor or be someone’s apprentice. I mean, that’s why we joined Mike’s group. We didn’t know what we were doing. And he had done like 400 deals at the time. So we’re like, okay, let’s go here and take the training. And also when you take the training, know that one person is not gonna get you from zero to 100%. You know, talking with Michelle might get you to 25 % and then talking to Mike might get you to 75, right? So you’re always gonna attribute that last, whoever helps you.
like they’re that most helpful. And I think when you go and you have, you seek out some of these mentors and look, they’re not all created equal, but there is some good stuff out there online, is get the information, then just try to imitate.
If Michelle’s having success as an investor, let me see if I can learn from her and imitate. Then after you’re able to produce some results, then try to innovate. Don’t just come in there like, I’m new, man, this is how I want to do it. It’s like, you need to really be open to learning and coaching. And that’s where I think the most success is people that are just open to learning and coaching if they’re brand new.
Michelle Kesil (21:25)
Absolutely, there’s so much value in that mentorship space.Victorious Thompson (21:29)
And if you’re experienced, I think you should mentor others just because you know, you’re responsible for the next generation and if we’re not actively taking care of it, you know, how are they going to learn?Michelle Kesil (21:37)
Woohoo.You’re right. That’s a good point.
So before we wrap up here, if somebody wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where is the best place for people to connect with you?
Victorious Thompson (21:50)
Yeah, I mean, I’m all over social media. If you’re an Instagram person, I’m at thevictoriousthompson.com . I’m on LinkedIn, Victorious Thompson, and I’m also a Realtor too, so my number is very public. But yeah, I just encourage you to reach out if our Venn diagrams overlap on anything real estate, Christ or golf. I think we could be best friends.Michelle Kesil (22:15)
Perfect. Appreciate your time, your story, your perspective. Thank you for being here.Victorious Thompson (22:20)
Alright, thanks Michelle. Happy Holidays!Michelle Kesil (22:22)
Of course, happy holidays. And for the listeners that are tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators who are building real businesses, and we’ll see you on the next episode.
