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Show Summary
In this conversation, Rhett Hebert shares his journey in real estate investing, emphasizing the importance of adaptability, networking, and continuous learning. He discusses his unique approach to seizing opportunities, the challenges of managing a growing business, and the significance of setting clear goals. Rhett also highlights the value of masterminds and networking in expanding one’s horizons and achieving success in the real estate market.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Rhett Hebert (00:00)
I wanted 40 doors before I turned 40. And that was a reasonable, goal to attain looking back, I was under retrieving, but, I surpassed that goal and I’m at 140 doors,and to this day, as we were acquiring apartment building, single family, I started out in the single family world, got into some other opportunities as well and didn’t just look at single family.
Q Edmonds (01:58)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and you know, I’m excited to be here excited about my guests. have another fantastic guest and listen, be someone that you really can’t pigeonhole. You know, he can, he can move around and do different things within this real estate space. And I’m going to make sure I let him tell you exactly what it is that he do, but I’m so excited to have him. He’s someone that adapts to the opportunity.When the opportunity come, he’s adaptable. He’s gonna find a way to get the deal done. And so I am truly excited to introduce you to Mr. Rhett Hebert. Mr. Rhett, how you doing today,
Rhett Hebert (02:36)
Great, great. How you doing?Q Edmonds (02:38)
I’m so excited for our listeners to be able to see things from your perspective. And so I’ll be honest with you. I kind of want to dive in. I want you to take us into your world.I would love for you to tell us what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of how you got to where you are now, we love origin stories, and then tell them what markets you’re operating in. So Mr. Rhett, sir, you got the floor.
Rhett Hebert (03:00)
Great. So, I’m, I’m in my 10th year now of full-time investing. ⁓ I started out, you know, getting in the workforce. I was in the oil field as a landman negotiating contracts for all field companies. And, throughout, you know, as I, as I started getting older and, and more into my field, I started thinking about, you know, investments and, and, you know, how can I basically, invest my way to freedom and,you know, not be able to have to show up to a nine to five or, whatever the job was. So I love to travel. And I started, you know, looking at rental properties. My first my first thing I did was.
I had built a car wash location. My father had a small car wash that he had built in the 80s. So growing up, I was around that industry, helping him out. as I got older and had some financial gains to invest, I built my first location. Still doing land work. A couple of years later, I bought a second location. And then…
The following year I had an opportunity to buy two more, which at that point, you know, I started thinking, you know, I need to get into the real estate world full time. I’m, I’m, I’m able to make more traction than, you know, doing my land man job. So, um, I bought, I bought two, more locations, which, which gave me a total of four. And then, uh, in that transition, I got my real estate license and, you know, I started hanging around more real estate.
uh, investment mine people. And then, uh, I transitioned into real estate full time around 20, January of 2015. And then I hit the ground running, started buying my first rental property, you know, but at the time I was doing it all, I was, you know, looking for deals, uh, underwriting them.
project managing, going to get materials. I was kind of doing it all to get everything going.
And then I started getting some traction. hired a secretary to start helping me with paperwork. About two years into it, I found an acquisitions manager that’s still with me today, which has been a great help.
You know, we was able to start looking for deals full time while I could still grow the business. And then hired a maintenance guy also to help with managing the projects and managing some rental properties. And I had wrote a goal down when I first started, you know, I was, I think 31 at the time.
And, uh, you know, lot of, a lot of people say, you know, write your goals down, you’ll achieve them much faster.
And my goal was when I started, wanted 40 doors before I turned 40. And that was a reasonable, you know, goal to attain 40 rental properties before I turned 40, which, you know, looking back, I was under retrieving, but, uh, so, but I, I, I surpassed that goal and I’m at 140 doors, you know, before, uh,
before that time span. and to this day, as we were acquiring apartment building, single family, I started out in the single family world, acquiring single family properties, renting them out and then doing some fix and flips along the way, but got into some other opportunities as well and didn’t just look at single family and attended some.
some commercial masterminds for apartments and just kept expanding my horizon on the investment world and being open to opportunities. So yeah, know, to this day, I don’t like to sit in one box. I just like to see what opportunities are available to invest in.
Q Edmonds (07:31)
Absolutely.Rhett Hebert (07:32)
kind of my journey from, you how I got into real estate to, you know, to where we are today.Q Edmonds (07:40)
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, man. Thank you for taking this now, ⁓ taking us through the journey, ⁓ taking us up to what you’re doing today. And I love it. How you said, listen, you had 140 doors before 40. And I mean, that’s just remarkable. That that’s a testament to your persistency and your, your grit pretty much, you know, so I appreciate that. I want to pick your brain a little bit about strategies. I would love to know what are some core business strategies that you have?But I also would love to know some core personal strategies that you have. I know some people wake up and go to the gym in morning. Some people do meditation. So are there core strategies for business and core strategies for personal life that you really know has helped you along the way?
Rhett Hebert (08:25)
Yeah, you know business wise I like to pay attention to the numbers, the KPIs, you know, because the numbers will tell you, you know, really what’s going on without you even really maybe having to to know what’s going on a daily basis. I don’t like to micromanage my teams. So you know a simple monthly spreadsheet or a P &L or you know we’ll have we’ll have monthly team meetings just to go over everything. ButI think, you know, business wise, you know, hiring the right people and allowing them to do their job often, you know, it’s less stressful when you trust them and you check in here and there rather than you having to micromanage and worry that they’re not doing the right job. you know, looking at, you know, if they can provide you with the right information and you can make your decisions based off of that rather than having to micromanage, it’s a lot less stressful and a lot less time consuming.
you know, on the business end. I think the hardest part, anybody would probably testify to this, but the hardest part of running a business is managing your employees or managing your teams and making sure that…
You know, you have the right people sitting in the right seats. And then that’s once you have that figured out, you know, a lot of times you can take off and everything will run much smoother on the personal side. Yeah, I think fitness, you know, a healthy diet, you know, I hit the gym. It’s either going to be early in the morning before the day or if I have an early morning, I’ll try and get it in, you know, in the evening, you know, and in trying to stay on a a healthy diet, I find is is very important.
you know, for just life in itself, staying sharp. But, you know, I think a key, the key thing too is whatever you are doing,
in life or whatever job or if you’re investing or whatever it is, you have to enjoy what you’re really doing. You know, you’re not going, it doesn’t feel like you’re working.
And for me, I love to travel. love, ⁓ you know, attending sporting events. So, you know, the real estate world has been my, let’s say my vehicle to allow me, you know, everybody wants to retire, but you know, you’re not really retiring. I wouldn’t say retire for the money. I would say retire for the freedom of being able to
If you want to take a trip tomorrow, you can take a trip tomorrow. If you want it to stay, you know, out of the country for a month, as long as I got my phone and my laptop, you know, my team could reach me. You got an answer. Hey, what should we do about this or that? I think that in itself is more valuable than having a million dollars in the bank. If you can work from wherever.
and buy deals and keep your, you know, keep your things going without you having to be there. I think that would be my advice or, you know, somebody that’s looking to grow, you know, make sure you structure it and try and grow your business where you don’t have to be in that office every day. You can work from anywhere as long as they have access to you. I think that’s important.
Q Edmonds (11:49)
Yeah, no, I think that’s, I think that’s incredible. You know, you always hear about people talking about buying back their freedom or getting their, you know, getting their time back. And that’s what you, that’s exactly what you’re saying is like getting your time back and having fun. Like, I mean, that’s what it’s all about is there’s no use to be working in, you’re not having fun. There’s even a concept of people talking about, don’t use, don’t we use your play. Don’t we use like that sense of playful mentality because that actuallyhelps your creative processes when you don’t lose play, when you have fun, it induces that creative gene and creative mindset within you. So I hear you very clearly,
Rhett Hebert (12:29)
Yeah, your mind’s able to think, you know, maybe new ideas, maybe you travel to a different city, you see a new perspective of something, or you might see, you know, an apartment building that, you know, man, I like this concept. So yeah, your horizons definitely get broader once you ⁓ kind of get out there for sure.Q Edmonds (12:48)
Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. I mean, I should have, what’s the next real goal for you? What are you looking to scale or solve next?Rhett Hebert (12:56)
So, know, lately within the last year or two, I’ve acquired a few apartment buildings and, you know, going from single, well, having single family and multifamily, obviously there’s the opportunity to grow is obviously much faster in multifamily and you’re basically playing with bigger numbers.Yeah, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. So, you know, scaling more into multifamily is definitely what I’m looking at more than just single family. But obviously, I never if it’s a deal, you know, I can tell people if it’s a deal, why wouldn’t you acquire it? know, whether it’s a single or a home run, you know, if it makes sense on paper, why, you know, why not? Yeah, but I’m I’m not just opposed to real estate.
So, you know, the entrepreneurial mindset, when I started this, I didn’t know I would have the opportunities of a lot of the assets that I owned. You know, I never thought that, you know, 10 years ago, hey, one day you might own, you’re going to own this building or one day you’re going to, you know, so that concept has allowed my mentality to never be closed off or
you know, whatever opportunity might might present itself. But in the future or coming up in twenty twenty six, I would I’m looking towards maybe getting into the Houston market. It’s a great market. I spend a lot of time in Houston, have a lot of friends there and again, traveling broadens your horizons. I think it’s the fourth largest city and growing. So the real estate market out there is there’s just not enough real estate.
and it’s only gonna continue to grow. So I think I would like to expand my portfolio into maybe the Houston market as well. And then, again, who knows as far as business opportunities that might present itself that just by you being in this business and knowing that you’re an entrepreneur, a lot of times business opportunities present themselves to you. And as long as you’re ready for opportunity,
Again, you make the right decisions and you never know what comes your way.
Q Edmonds (15:43)
Absolutely not. hear you loud and clear. I know you talked about hiring an acquisition manager and how much that’s really affected your business. I know you have friends in Houston. And so just want to talk about relationships for a little bit. And I want to get your take on relationships. Have they impacted you in a positive way, in a negative way? What kind of value do you put on building relationships?Rhett Hebert (16:09)
I think networking, the saying is your network is your net worth. And I think having relationships in whatever industry you’re in is a huge factor. Getting out there, telling people what you do, what you’re looking for. You may not do a deal with them today. You may not do any business with them, but…someone knowing that you’re a professional, you’re a good person, you’re trustworthy, and they don’t mind putting your name on the line, you never know what opportunity might come by you just knowing certain people or certain people knowing you. Matter of fact, my last apartment acquisition came from the company that was managing the apartments.
friend of mine, you know, he reached out to me and says, hey, you know, we’re managing this building. They may be looking to sell, you know, I know you’re interested. So I would have never acquired it. And that’s how it started. didn’t know. It took four months. We made an offer. They rejected it or they countered. I let it fall through and they reached back out three months later and says, hey, what about this? without him ever letting me know that
Q Edmonds (17:22)
Yeah.Rhett Hebert (17:25)
I may have never bought the building. You know, that’s, that’s, that’s one instance there. so yeah, I think, you know, getting out there, and networking with, you know, go to meetups, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s all these masterminds I’ve, I’ve, you know, I’m not in a, in a full-time mastermind now, but, but as I was coming up, I, you know, I found masterminds to attend where, you might just pay one time.deal. I’ve been to Vegas to mastermind. I’ve been to California to mastermind been to Texas for a mastermind and those masterminds in the small groups of 20 to 30 people. I find those are the ones that can bring the most value because you know everybody in the room is is doing you know solid business. Yeah. And that’s where you can probably get the most value. If you’re trying to go from you know zero to a hundred.
I would definitely say invest in yourself and find you a mastermind where, know, whatever you want to do, whether you want to do apartments, single family commercial, I would find a mastermind in that niche and invest in that and get yourself around those people. And that’s how I kind of got to scale and, know, who, who to hire, how to, how to structure the pay and acquisitions guy, a secretary, you know, what’s the best value to hire, you know, how do you structure it?
and that’s kind of how I got to where I was by, meeting people that was already doing it and obviously paying for the knowledge and knowledge is power. So, I feel like that’s, that’s the best way to scale and figure out. You know, how to get from zero to a hundred is you pay for someone’s knowledge and time and get in that network, get in that circle. And, you know, and just basically plug and play it’s obviously working for them. So it should work for you as long as you’re following that same model.
Q Edmonds (19:15)
Yeah, yeah, I couldn’t have said it any better, Mr. Rhett. I think you are absolutely right. Definitely when you say your network is your network, getting around the people, that’s either, I would say where you want to be, right? The people that’s where you want to be, that’s at where you’re going. And I couldn’t have said it any better. Relationships are definitely everything within this space. But listen, Mr. Rhett, listen, this has been great. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you,partner with you, collaborate. What’s the best way for them to get in contact with you,
Rhett Hebert (19:50)
So you can follow me on Instagram. It’s rhett.hebert, H-E-B-E-R-T 31. You can find me on Instagram. You can email me ret [email protected]. Again, I’m open to networking, meeting new investors, the business opportunity. Again, it doesn’t even have to be just in real estate. Even if you just said, hey, one day you’re gonna own a golf course.Never. I don’t even grow up playing golf, right? But the opportunity of a golf course came about. spent three months doing due diligence and reopened a golf course that was closed for three years. And here we are in year six. It’s thriving. you know, anything in the facet of real estate or business, if I would tell people I would never be closed minded.
because you just never know what opportunities come your way, but it’s what opportunities you don’t take that you might look back on and say, man, if I’d only done that, you know, that’s where you don’t want to be is looking back saying, I wish I’d have done this. I wish I’d have took that chance. You know, if you have that opportunity and it looks right, you need to figure out a way to make the deal work.
Q Edmonds (20:58)
Yeah, yeah. Listen, sir, I appreciate you. I think you’ve given so many nuggets, so much wisdom. And so I want to say I appreciate your time, first of all. I appreciate your story. Now also appreciate your perspective. I really think you’ve dropped enough nuggets that can give somebody a mind shift around some things and the way that they’re going at things. so, Mr. Rhett, I really appreciate you being here today, sir.Rhett Hebert (21:26)
Yeah, thank you, Quen.Q Edmonds (21:27)
Thanks for moving. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Rhett, you got the value, you got the nuggets. So please make sure you subscribe because we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Rhett. And so again, thank you, sir. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
