Real Estate Investment Challenges: How to Thrive and Succeed

John Harcar (00:00.13)
All right, hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with Matthew Weaver. And what we’re going to talk about is his real estate journey and, you know, really, you know, the fundamentals of how he treats sellers, buyers, investors, et cetera. Remember, guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, I mean, all real estate entrepreneurs, to five extra business. We do that by providing tools and resources not only to grow,

the business they’ve always wanted, it in turn helps them live the life they want to live. So Matthew, welcome to our show.

Matthew Weaver (00:33.367)
Thank you, pleasure to meet you.

John Harcar (00:34.988)
Yeah, I’m excited to talk about your journey from your bio. I’m sure this is very filled with some great information. But before we kind of get into some things, why don’t you tell us about your background? Kind of what got you into real estate? What got you here?

Matthew Weaver (00:49.709)
So my background is educationally, it’s finance and customer service, which I use enormous amounts of those in this business. As we know, it’s all about relationships. Very first project back in the day was a 38 room historic hotel. 157 years old at the time. Rebuilt it, was run by some beautiful, lovely people, but ran out like a country club.

John Harcar (01:05.003)
wow.

Matthew Weaver (01:15.437)
And we went in there and turned it around and you know, the finances are the finances, customer service, rebuilt 38 rooms in a building that’s 155 years old. Uh, give me an idea. Engineering was if you wanted two stories, you did four red bricks wide, not two. I mean, that was the engineering in the gold country hotel. You can still see it online. It’s gorgeous place. Um, and then, um, had other businesses that.

John Harcar (01:33.326)
wow.

Matthew Weaver (01:45.377)
were not related to real estate that had gone south, business partners that doing swell. And I headed overseas. I went to Saudi Arabia. I’d been there in 9194 and ended up working for the largest company in the world, Saudi Aramco. And that was a crucible of perfecting finance operations. They don’t do anything without a system. And they did well, as was designed by the…

big, the five sister oil companies, you know, a hundred years ago. So went to the Middle East. I was part of the team that took Saudi Ramco public. doing a not largest IPO that’ll never be matching. All of that was just the finance and the systems and, and, uh, had been around real estate, hadn’t, you know, in 2008 crash, there wasn’t all the information and the availability online like we have now.

John Harcar (02:28.791)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (02:38.753)
Yeah, mm-hmm.

Matthew Weaver (02:39.501)
You can just fall into it. You still got to know what you’re doing. You still have to have a talent. You still have to study. You still have to do a lot of things. It’s not as easy as some on the internet might want you to think, but there definitely wasn’t any of that in 2008. Still the big boys were playing in the business. So fast forward up to COVID and our kids were going to school in the U.S. and we’re in the Middle East. When we could travel when we wanted, it was no big deal, but the moment COVID shut everything down.

All the borders were shut down. Summer, my wife had to go out on an embassy flight so that she could be with the kids for the summer. And that was a one-way ticket until they figured out when they were going to open them up. So I finally went out in October, hadn’t seen my kids in about 10, 11 months and said, okay, time to change. And I started ArgentRealEstate.com and started with doing driving for dollars. And in the process,

John Harcar (03:11.085)
Mmm.

John Harcar (03:16.951)
Wow.

John Harcar (03:25.544)
man.

Matthew Weaver (03:40.033)
It’s kind of funny how it all came together. I flew out during the week while my kids were in school, they were going to boarding school, and to see my mom in Arizona from Indiana. And I sat next to this young lady in college and she ended up being my first driver. My second driver was her father, who’s about 70 years old and a beast. The man’s incredible. Both of them are. He found my first property, which I bought while I was still in Saudi Arabia in Indiana. And that was the beginning of it.

John Harcar (03:57.097)
Hmm.

John Harcar (04:03.157)
Okay.

Matthew Weaver (04:08.413)
And then by the middle, you know, there was other things that just kind of kept pushing the edge. Like my son and I got locked out during Christmas and couldn’t get home. And then it, and it’s spring break, the 14 day quarantine, all these, I finally said, you know what, sweetheart, I’ve had enough. We’re going home, go home, find us a house. I came home and I already started the driving for dollars and working on that. But it was time to just come back to the United States and it launched from there.

John Harcar (04:22.443)
Yeah.

John Harcar (04:38.445)
Okay. Let’s go back a bit, a little bit. you were in Saudi Arabia. When you got this 38 door historic building? That before. Okay. What, and I like to ask this from folks because I like to really get idea what influence, what, you know, was there anybody in your life, anybody that, you know, did real estate? mean, first and foremost to jump to a 38 door historic hotel is just not the norm.

Matthew Weaver (04:47.893)
No, that was before I went to Saudi Arabia. That was before, correct.

John Harcar (05:07.393)
that most people do when they get into real estate. So I’ll talk about that. But was there any influences in your life that kind of planted a seed for real estate for you?

Matthew Weaver (05:15.063)
So I had another business in town with a relative and this one came up very quietly in a small town, smaller town. And my wife is British and she worked for Intercontinental Hotel her entire career around the world, England, Luxembourg, Brussels and Dubai. the Middle East connection is where when we met kind of brought us together and we eventually obviously got married.

John Harcar (05:33.279)
wow.

Matthew Weaver (05:43.957)
So the team was my wife running the hotel and knowing ADR and how to run a hotel and me running finance. And it was a perfect team and we were very successful at it. You know, I remember the banker and getting the loans and the investors and they’re like, you’re going to take food and beverage to a million seven in 24 months? And I said, absolutely. And I walked in with the…

John Harcar (05:51.263)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

Matthew Weaver (06:12.169)
Statement in the second year put it on his desk said 1.7 95. There you go. So he’s like, alright, there you go And that was to her credit and we were a team. I mean I have all the finance I brought the investors together and and have my own, you know customer service aspect, but my wife had all the operational side and We had a great team. They learned they the same people were there They just had to be taught how to really run a hotel really

John Harcar (06:17.45)
eat.

John Harcar (06:30.221)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (06:40.289)
I gotta run it the right way.

Matthew Weaver (06:41.893)
cared and that made all the difference. Like anything, if you care about it, you’re going to do it well.

John Harcar (06:46.721)
Yeah. So, so when you did this, when you got this property and how did you find it again?

Matthew Weaver (06:54.242)
it was in the town that I lived and had another business and became known that they were selling.

John Harcar (06:56.735)
Okay. Did.

Did you, I mean, did you, obviously you hired out all the renovation and all that stuff? I mean, how did you, or how did you know how to do that? Or where to find these people to do that?

Matthew Weaver (07:12.297)
Operationally, was my wife construction wise, I had a lot of customers and friends in that business. you know, it had 38 old original claw foot tubs that had to be completely refinished. And through a connection from a general contractor that did really high end houses, he’s like, there’s a guy that’ll work for you and can get the job done. The guy did have his job. The general contractor is good friend of mine, still is, and did all that work.

you know, when I needed to go because it’s a historic site in California. And so you need certain approvals, which you need a lot of when you’re in a historic building and everybody’s got their eyes on it. It’s the focal point of the whole town. You got to know how to deal with relationships and have them all ready or find out someone who does and getting the fire department to help us with how do we keep the image and refine it and rebuild it, which we did.

John Harcar (07:46.114)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (07:55.276)
Right?

John Harcar (08:08.033)
Hmm, that’s awesome. then you go to Dubai and then while you’re in Dubai, you start a, what did you say it was? Argent real estate, Argent. Argent real estate. And this is, you’re doing driving for dollars?

Matthew Weaver (08:16.287)
Arjun’s realistic. Arjun’s is silver.

Matthew Weaver (08:25.465)
I started that way. And I was in Saudi. The Dubai was my wife was there prior to us meeting. We were in Saudi Arabia and I had drivers and they’d used, you know, deal machine very successfully. And they have a lot of good systems and, you know, and then it was, it was using the driver’s information.

John Harcar (08:41.908)
Okay.

Matthew Weaver (08:52.813)
having, uh, developing through a very good property manager that I got to know again through I need an agent and you just start meeting people online. I’ve been part of bigger pockets. I think I’ve watched, I don’t know how many double digits of their videos. I mean, and that education just kept continuing, right? When I finally moved home, I’m like, okay, I really need to download now. And I read 12 books in the first year. and

John Harcar (09:04.994)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (09:08.567)
Hehehe.

John Harcar (09:16.193)
Right.

Matthew Weaver (09:20.629)
It’s not that difficult. I am not a reader. know, how’d I do it? 10 pages every morning.

John Harcar (09:23.308)
Yeah.

I’m at 10 pages a day, that’s what I do. 10 pages a day, that’s what I’ve learned.

Matthew Weaver (09:27.949)
the day. I’m up at 434 o’clock. I have been for so long. can’t remember and start the day that way. And I got through all those book. I’m like, okay, there’s a body of knowledge right there. Now go execute even better.

John Harcar (09:40.877)
Yep. Yeah, no, that 100%. Now with these drivers, how are you paying them, you know, for finding your properties? Were you paying like a commission or something like that?

Matthew Weaver (09:49.365)
Yeah, so they got there hourly, had contracts that actually came from Deal Machine that set up. So we had proper contracts, had all the proper paperwork, something I learned from my prior days of unsuccessful operations with a partner, made sure that paperwork’s in line, and then we’d give them a commission based on, didn’t matter how I transacted it, whether it was buy and hold or a flip.

John Harcar (09:51.597)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (10:08.845)
Mm-hmm.

Matthew Weaver (10:18.369)
which I’ve never really done much of as much as more buy and hold and get the investors and hold onto the asset. And they get a commission for finding it when I close the deal.

John Harcar (10:27.917)
Awesome. Now are they doing, are they like, you’re obviously talking to the homeowner and you’re doing negotiation and you’re doing all that. Are they going and like taking pictures of the house for you, you know, getting wet signatures, all those types of things?

Matthew Weaver (10:36.301)
Bye.

Matthew Weaver (10:41.695)
Initially, it was the driver. And then I migrated to finding an inspector that would do that work or a contractor that would go in and just expanding to other people that that’s what they did. Right. I mean, they made sure that documents, DocuSign is a beautiful thing or something like it. Right. And having that, that trustworthy, that contractor that could go in and say, get the pictures. You know, what do we need to do? Here’s the value.

John Harcar (11:00.599)
sure.

Matthew Weaver (11:09.929)
and working way backwards in the underwriting kind of thing.

John Harcar (11:12.746)
Mm-hmm.

What were some of the challenges of running a business from Saudi Arabia here? You know, mean, you obviously, besides the time, what other challenges did you have?

Matthew Weaver (11:23.063)
Yeah.

Matthew Weaver (11:27.373)
It’s deciding that you’ve got to trust people and you’ve got to research who you’re going to find to do the work. I mean, you can’t just take the first person. You’ve got to talk to people, use the contacts within portals that, like your organization, you help people build up and grow their business. You’ve got to those contacts. None of us are an island. Nobody knows it all. They’re the first one to fail. And you start asking questions and…

John Harcar (11:35.841)
Mmm.

John Harcar (11:47.34)
Right?

Matthew Weaver (11:55.339)
won’t say that the first people worked very well sometimes, right? And you think you found a good one, that doesn’t work and you got to find someone else. But when you, you eventually find that right set of people and group of people that you can do it successfully.

John Harcar (11:58.061)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (12:10.189)
100%. So what does your business look like now? I mean, how many doors do you have? If you still have doors, are you still doing the D for D stuff? What does it look like?

Matthew Weaver (12:19.821)
So I moved off D4D and doing a lot of searching on my own using PropStream and mailers and so forth. I use wholesalers as well. That’s really successful. I’ve got a good reputation with them. They know I’m going to close. You know, once it’s a deal, I’m not going to retrade kind of thing. And so they know I do my due diligence. And in the prop once moved home,

John Harcar (12:42.285)
Okay.

Matthew Weaver (12:48.235)
I went through a few contractors, I had done more work in the Culver area and then went to South Bend, Indiana and now South Bend and Indianapolis is where I focus as well as Ohio. And so, pardon me? Exactly. We’ll talk later. And, so the contractor I use now who is

John Harcar (13:01.206)
I got a property for you.

said i got a property for you

Matthew Weaver (13:16.909)
extremely reliable and does most of my places. I found because I had bought a house that had red oak floors. And all these houses, 1910 as you know in Mishwah, 1910, 1890, and they have great stories, right? I like the older stuff because it’s got stories. And so I walked in and underneath the hoarding mess, which you could barely see the floor, but when I cleared it away was red oak.

John Harcar (13:35.137)
Yeah.

Matthew Weaver (13:44.811)
red oak frames around the windows, red oak frames around the doors, red oak doors. And this little house of a thousand feet had $25,000 worth of red oak in it. So I wanted to save that, called some flooring companies, settled on one. The guy came out, gave me an estimate for refinishing, got the house all settled, got moving along on the rest of the construction, called them back and a different guy answers. And it’s named Edward instead of Steve.

John Harcar (13:45.015)
Cheers.

John Harcar (13:54.144)
Incredible.

Matthew Weaver (14:13.365)
And so I’m like, okay, you know, it’s not a small company. And Ed comes out and we meet Ed and he’s like, all right, we’ll get the floors done here. And here’s the, the price stays the same. Had a few changes. He was really good to work with. One of the spots wasn’t done to my liking. He had it handled. And then my contractor fell apart at the very end, last few bits. And he says, well, I do construction as well. So he finished that up for me. We moved to the next house.

is bids are good and we developed a relationship which to me is a great one.

John Harcar (14:43.915)
That’s awesome. Yeah. How important is it to you or how important you think it is for someone to go out and really find that perfect, that good relationship, right? When you’re working with, especially these trades guys and the contractors and all.

Matthew Weaver (15:01.271)
Yeah, it’s, we all know this business and anything you do in life, it’s about the relationships and stick into what you do. I shake your hand, it’s as good as gold. There’s no other way to do it successfully. And, you know, you have to realize that when you bid, these guys, yes, they bid, but if you want them to come all the time, sometimes I pay. I had an electrical contract.

I knew he was more expensive, but I, you know, I wanted to know what he saw that maybe I missed. It was a pretty extensive bit of work on a four-plex I just finished. And I paid him for it. I paid him for that estimate. He didn’t expect it, but I’m like, you spent a lot of time, give me a lot of information. In the end, your numbers just don’t work. And I get it. You know, you had done other work that did work for me, but this one for whatever reason, he priced it the way he did. I’m like, I appreciate you taking the time building that estimate, not being successful.

And here you go. And that guy, when I call, will he come back? And what was it? $100? You know, not talking $1,000, but it covered his time and his gas to come out and do what I needed to have done. And people don’t realize that. they just, they should do them. That’s their job. Their job is to run jobs successfully and make money. If you’re a good person, are you really helping them? And it’s a relationship, not this hierarchical, you know, hey, dictatorial situation. Some people don’t realize that.

John Harcar (16:07.841)
Yeah.

John Harcar (16:14.536)
Exactly.

John Harcar (16:23.543)
Mm-hmm.

So what does your team look like now? Is it just yourself and your wife still, or what does that all look like?

Matthew Weaver (16:31.415)
So the team is my wife and myself. have brokers, agents in three different cities and here in South Bend, Culver and in South Bend. I have contractors in both, actually Culver because it’s close as you know to South Bend. So I have another one that he does some heavy duty work when I had a…

John Harcar (16:50.957)
Mm-hmm.

Matthew Weaver (16:58.175)
A failure on a basement wall, as you know, from a lot of heavy rain. He got in there and did the concrete work and this rebar work. That’s his kind of thing. and so in every city, I’ve got a complete team. have an absolute stud of a property manager in South Bend, invaluable, because I don’t want to do that job. That’s that. That’s the job. That’s where I stop. I’ll, I’ll do the acquisition. I do the material purchase because a contractor that’s not.

John Harcar (17:01.9)
Yeah.

Matthew Weaver (17:27.903)
swinging hammers is not making me any money and not making himself any money. So we do all the acquisition of the materials and I get it delivered. He just has to be there with his crew. I have to be dependable to have it there on time. And so I have every aspect of the team in all three cities and they make sure that it’s getting rented out right or I’m finding the right deal or if I’m to earn it. so, and that’s taken time. I mean,

John Harcar (17:51.501)
Perfect.

Matthew Weaver (17:56.351)
when it was all me and that very first deal and I’m still in Saudi Arabia. Yes, I had eyes on the ground, but I went, you know, I went through a couple of those as well. Now you have solid teams, the acquisition is much more predictable.

John Harcar (18:04.781)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (18:09.416)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. So you’re in the three markets. How many Tilted Doors do you have?

Matthew Weaver (18:16.109)
We have 14 doors. I just finished up a four plex that rented out in very quick time in South Bend. And I turned a couple regrettably, the very first deal. I ended up whole tailing that out and I’ve regretted that. I tell that story every time. I’m like, should have never done it. It was a great, it was in the Flannery neighborhoods of Indianapolis, which had a lot of great history, but I did what I did. And so, you know, I’ve had a few more, but nothing, nothing gets turned unless it’s.

John Harcar (18:23.755)
Awesome.

John Harcar (18:40.109)
Mmm.

Matthew Weaver (18:46.081)
with the intent was to flip, which is mostly buy and hold right

John Harcar (18:50.157)
Got it. Where do you see your business going in the next 18 months?

Matthew Weaver (18:54.445)
So migrating a bit to that mid-range multi, not a bit, to mid-range multifamily, so five to 50. You’ve got these guys out there that are very good at the hundreds and the 200s and the 300s. There’s a of big players in that. And I don’t want myself and my investors to be the small player in a deal. We want to be the larger player and have a larger control.

John Harcar (19:22.504)
More control of it,

Matthew Weaver (19:23.661)
When you stay out of the vision of the Black Rocks and all those big boys on the two and three hundreds, five to 50 is smaller owners. You can find that tired owner that says, really want to move on. And the relationship is even more important. You get out there and meet them. You know, the first time I talked to them, it’s not about buying, it’s about how did you do what you did? And how can I learn from you? I’ll buy you a cup of coffee.

John Harcar (19:31.789)
No.

John Harcar (19:38.167)
Tired landlord. Yeah.

John Harcar (19:50.007)
Mm-hmm.

Matthew Weaver (19:52.671)
lunch, whatever it may be. And in real estate, we want to talk about it. So learn from them and then deals start coming. And there’s other angles. You’ve got potentially owner finance and that type of thing. And so when my investors come in, we are just a few on a deal that’s going to cashflow really well from day one. Does it need to be something that’s dead in the water for months on end? And

John Harcar (19:56.993)
Yeah.

Matthew Weaver (20:20.297)
and there’s a lot of them out there that are ready to be bought in turn.

John Harcar (20:24.173)
Mm-hmm, with the you know, the the silver tsunami right they the you know so much of it Getting up their age and these are the guys that own these

Matthew Weaver (20:32.853)
Right? Exactly. And they want to know somebody that’s going to take care of it. You know, even if they’ve let it run down a bit, that’s been their baby. My mom had her own business and when she sold it, and I remember that always, my mom’s, you know, in her nineties now, you could have more easily removed her right arm than selling it, but she knew it was time to move on. And these owners are the same way. And when I respect that and you go in and say, Hey, I know what you’re going through, but I’m going to make it even better. And you’re going to be proud to say,

John Harcar (20:41.858)
Yeah.

John Harcar (20:50.989)
Mm.

Matthew Weaver (21:01.749)
I sold to that person.

John Harcar (21:03.179)
Right, exactly. That’s awesome. let’s say someone’s wanting to get into the buy and hold or get into real estate. What type of advice would you give them nowadays, know, resources or whatever to set them up for success?

Matthew Weaver (21:17.291)
Education, number one, going in, half knowledgeable, with any type of half measure. If you’re, well, you’re going to lose money and everybody’s nervous about pulling the trigger. Don’t pull the trigger without, without having a lot of knowledge. there are so much resources out, so many resources out there. You know, I’m a book guy. And so every morning there’s a book sitting there and I still do it now.

something, hey, I need to understand something new about X. And so knowledge number one, get that knowledge base. It doesn’t take as long as you think. And if you stick to it as you sit, you know, 10 pages a day, the disciplines there. there, in the meantime, as you’re doing that, go to the meetups. And, and you know, how many times have we heard this, but how many people don’t follow. It’s taking the action, go to the meetups, meet someone.

meet just one person and focus on them. You want to be the most interesting person in the room? Ask questions of the person across from you and stay quiet. They’ll go, man, that guy is so cool. That lady is really cool. And so let them talk, learn from them, focus on one person. You don’t have to meet 20 people. You don’t want to look like you’re bouncing around the room. And yeah, exactly, it’s not speed dating, right? You know? And, um.

John Harcar (22:18.029)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (22:37.485)
It’s not speed dating.

Matthew Weaver (22:43.807)
And then get to know the people and the markets you want to be in, understand the market and understand that markets are microcosms. You know, I listened to some of these, to people on, on YouTube and their portals and they’re saying like in the case of Phoenix, the West side of Phoenix has got a glut. You can find two months rent free. You go to Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale. They’re not. Markets are super strong. It’s all the same Valley, but

John Harcar (23:10.829)
Mm-hmm.

Matthew Weaver (23:11.689)
You have to know where you are. have to understand, you have to drive it. I put a lot of miles just driving neighborhoods up and down one of the other and understanding the neighborhood and doing the research, you know, from different GIS to different, websites. check, I check what the crime is like, put in the address, tell me what’s around it. If it, if it’s not safe, I’m not putting a family in there and they don’t want to be there. Move on. Figure out where it is, write it down. I have my list that sticks to this day.

John Harcar (23:28.546)
Yeah.

Matthew Weaver (23:40.405)
you know, on a sheet of paper, bam, bam, bam, there’s my checklist of what I look at and make sure I don’t skip one. Find it, do it, and execute it, but get yourself educated.

John Harcar (23:52.053)
Awesome. If folks are listening to this and they may, they might want to reach out to you and talk to you about kind of your journey or ask questions or maybe they have a deal and you know, they’re wholesaler and they have a deal in Indiana or South Bend or something like that. How do they get in touch with you?

Matthew Weaver (24:07.821)
So my email is mattw at ArgentRealEstate.com. That’s all one word. So M-A-T-T-W at ArgentRealEstate.com. And I have a website, ArgentRealEstate.com as well. And then my phone number is 574-575-3374 for my direct line. I use different numbers for mailers and that type of thing.

For someone that wants to be an investor that wants to get into the business, call me directly. I’m happy to help.

John Harcar (24:44.939)
Awesome. And we’ll put all that information in the show notes. Matt, I appreciate you coming out, coming on here and sharing all that information. Some great stuff. Folks that are out there listening, I hope you guys took a lot of good information, took a lot of notes. And if you have any properties in Indiana or you want to reach out to Matt, please, like I said, we’ll put that information in the show notes again. Matt, thank you again for coming on. And guys, we’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.

Matthew Weaver (25:07.757)
Absolutely. Absolutely. It was my pleasure.

Matthew Weaver (25:14.893)
Cheers.