Stop Losing Motivated Seller Leads: The AI Deal Flow System for Real Estate Investors

Chris Bounds (00:00)
Yeah, yeah. So for house flipping, like everything the— the one thing you cannot change is the your purchase price. You can change a lot of things. You can change the condition of the home. It’s just a remodeling budget issue. You can change your timeline. So maybe you don’t flip it, but you rent it out. You can change the financing. You can’t change the location. So if we’re gonna add that. So location and price. The number one thing that’s an insurance policy on risk is your price. So I’ve seen a lot of strategies over the years on like no my— no equity deals. Like do no equity deals. Can you do a no equity deal and it makes sense? Yes.

Meghan Escobar (02:13)
Welcome back to Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Meghan Escobar, and today I am joined by a special guest here, Chris Bounds. And after spending a few minutes with him, before we hit record, I can already tell you that this is gonna be one of those conversations where you’re gonna wanna stick around until the end. So welcome Chris to the show. Let’s— let’s start here. And for somebody hearing your name for the very first time, tell me a little bit about you. Who are you and what problems are you solving in the real estate industry today?

Chris Bounds (02:37)
Thank you very much, Meghan. Glad to be here. Yeah, yeah, and I mean the beginning stories, you know, you know, told quickly, started off very scrappy, didn’t have any money, was in college, knocked on doors for pre-foreclosures, did four deals my first year. I was just dumb enough to believe the guy that was teaching me. I— I say that, you know, jokingly. I just— someone told me what to do, I was like, “All right, well, I’ll just do that.” Knocked on doors and eventually got success. Leaned in heavy on that, did four deals, graduated. Got a high-paying sales job. The one thing that gets in the way of a great life is a good life. And I had a high-paying sales job. And so some time went by, got married, started thinking about the future. Wife and I, Jamie, we started— doing what I did in college and did a few deals, decided we want to scale that, go full-time. All in all, flipped around two hundred houses over the years. Raise 20 million dollars in private equity and private money lenders to do those deals. And then when you include the multifamily, been a part of around 900 doors. It’s pretty easy to jump that number up when you’re dealing with large multifamily. But yeah, my focus now is AI operations, specifically helping investors implement what I call an AI deal flow engine, because that’s— it helped my business tremendously and investors that lean in on that will have a outsized level of returns over the next couple of years.

Meghan Escobar (04:18)
Love that. And you know what most people see is the success, right? Especially in the world that we live in with the social media pulling all the highlights of all the success that we’ve created and— and— and made the, you know, sold-out network and events or you know, the houses flipped and the— the— the network or the net worth, right? Very few— very few people see the road it took to get there. And you just said one line that I actually wrote down and I thought was really powerful. One thing that gets into the— it gets in the way of a great life is a good life. So take us back for just a second here, Chris, and tell— tell us a little bit about how it all started.

Chris Bounds (05:00)
Yeah, so when I graduated, so I went to Texan University, graduated, I got a sales job. So it was inside sales, I was selling cruise vacations. It was super easy, there’s no lead-in. Basically you just answer the phones, close, and you get a commission on these vacation packages. And I had no college debt, I had roommates, so I had very low expenses. I’m not really a flashy like need to get a new car or have like designer clothes or anything like that. So my expenses were really low and I was making basically a hundred thousand dollars right out college in two thousand five. Pretty good spread with my monthly cash flow. So that’s— that’s a good life. And now I still— I still had the rentals from college. So I— I just played that game for a little while.

Meghan Escobar (05:43)
A bad one. Yeah.

Chris Bounds (05:51)
And— but my sister— I, you know, if I could go back, would I buy houses and would I do what I do now? Yes, definitely wish I could do that. Now there’s a version of that story and maybe in a parallel universe where I do that, maybe I get burned in two thousand eight. So maybe I avoided that. I don’t know. But when my situation changed, getting married, all of those things that I wanted to do originally came back. Planning for the future, kids in private school, not wanting to work a full commission or a W-2 job my whole life. All those things were— were true before. It’s just I got grounded again. You know, reality said— and so I had a good life, but I didn’t have the great life that I really desired. So I had to change that. So the only way you’re gonna change the situation is you have to change what you do. That for me was the only thing I knew how to do. Knock on doors for pre-foreclosures. So that’s what we did.

Meghan Escobar (06:45)
Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. And there’s always a— a point in time in everyone’s journey, no matter what they choose for a career. Obviously, here we’re talking about real estate. What was the moment that things became real for you, Chris? The deal, the setback, the mistake, the lesson, whatever comes to mind.

Chris Bounds (07:06)
Yeah, I mean, moment number one was getting that first deal, like very, very first deal. Like it’s funny because I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. That’s the journey. That purple book is the journey for a lot of us. But it doesn’t teach you how to invest. And when it’s 2005 and there’s no BiggerPockets, there’s no YouTube University, and there’s no organizations like Investor Fuel that can— I can be a part of. Like I didn’t know what to do. So I’m like— calling realtors and all this stuff. And you know, I’m— I’m making realtors mad because they were like— they don’t want to submit my local offer. I had no idea until I just— I found some local guru who teaches pre-foreclosures. And— but even still, when I joined that class, and because I did not have the money, I’m a broke college kid. And I had to put it— he told me it was 1500 bucks. So I have this like savior on the phone. And you know, he’s made— like that’s fifteen hundred dollars for this boot camp we have coming up, and I’m like, “I— I don’t have it.” But I did have a credit card. And I did not say yes at first, but overnight I kept thinking, like, “What if— what if it’s true? What if I really can buy homes?” ‘Cause I— I— I’d also have been turned down with banks. Funny, banks don’t want to lend a college kid with no credit history, with no job, no income. They don’t want to loan the money to go buy this piece of— yeah, like funny. But I— I didn’t— I didn’t understand. I was just young and naive and— and— and ambitious. But this guy was like, “No, you don’t need banks to buy homes. Like you can buy with, you know, creative financing and I’ll show you how to do it, and you can buy them below market value and— I’ll even help you with your first, you know, first deals. We’ll just split the profit.” I’m like, “What if— what if what he’s saying’s true?”

Meghan Escobar (08:25)
No collateral, right?

Chris Bounds (08:51)
And that’s what I leaned in on, like it was pure faith. It was like, if what this guy’s saying is true, I’ll put it on the credit card and I’ll just bust my butt and I’ll get a deal and I’ll pay off credit card. It took me three months though, three months of knocking on doors every single weekend before I got my first deal. And I did— made fifteen thousand dollars on that first deal. That was the biggest aha’s like, holy cow. ‘Cause when I went to that class, I’m twenty-one years old. I’m in a class of middle-aged to like forty to sixty-year-old adults. And I’m like this hundred and sixty-five pound twenty-one-year-old like lanky kid. I’m like— so now I have new doubts. Like, who’s gonna sell their home to me? Like, yeah. But so if we go back to a single—

Meghan Escobar (09:35)
Imposter syndrome, right?

Chris Bounds (09:41)
—aha moment. That— that’s probably the single like moment, like realizing like what I didn’t know, like you can learn the steps and like you can actually create success from that. So that’s probably one of the single largest leaps that I’ve had.

Meghan Escobar (09:54)
Thank you. That was really powerful. And you know, most of our listeners are young kids looking to, you know, get started in the industry, or, you know, the older person who’s been in the industry looking to level up. And that’s typically who our listeners are. And so for those listeners, more so for, you know, the new kid on the block that may be looking to get into the industry and— I’m curious, like what piece of advice would you give that person going back to that moment where, you know, you— you felt like you had to sleep on it, you had to guess on it? And then what piece of advice would you give somebody that might be second-guessing, you know, taking a leap of faith and— and going?

Chris Bounds (10:36)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s two-part. One, you have to want it. Like, I wanted it. I knew— my whole life I’ve been an entrepreneur. So it was not— never a question in my mind of am I gonna go on, you know, create a business? Am I gonna— I— I didn’t necessarily know real estate investing as a kid, even though I— I saw it. My grandparents had a lot of rental properties. My parents had a rental property, so I did see it, so I know it was a thing, but— I wanted it. It was going to work. It was just a matter of time and a matter of application. Like, well, what method am I gonna use? And this guru, thankfully, showed me a roadmap, a plan of action that I can actually follow. And that was good. So you gotta want it. And if you don’t want it, like, just work a job and buy rentals. Like, you— you don’t need to flip twenty, thirty, fifty houses a year. You don’t need to be Grant Cardone to be successful and— and have a million-dollar rental portfolio. You can work a W-2 job, buy one rental a year for 10 years, and you have a multi-million dollar rental portfolio. You just let your tenants pay off the mortgage, that plus your 401k, you’ll be fine. I knew I wanted to go into business though. So there’s that. The— the second part is knowing the end in mind, like your— your big, big goal, work your way backwards and make sure that the actions that you’re taking—

Meghan Escobar (12:31)
Mm-hmm.

Chris Bounds (12:44)
—are putting you on a path to get you there. So I took some missteps there because my big goal was building passive income, financial freedom, time freedom. But along the way, I ended up building a house flipping business. And a house flipping business is very much not financial freedom or time freedom. Like, you can make a lot of money, don’t get me wrong. But—

Meghan Escobar (13:07)
Commitment.

Chris Bounds (13:08)
—it requires a lot of time, energy. And— and I like— I have to be there. And even if you have a full team, I’m in charge of the team. Very, very few people are gonna build a houseflipping business to a level to where they can just be an owner and not be a CEO. Not impossible, just very difficult because of the nature of the business. At least if you want to be profitable.

Meghan Escobar (13:35)
Yeah.

Chris Bounds (13:35)
Right. So we ended up scaling back to a more of a hold model. Like, if I could do it again, I would, you know, flip two, hold two, flip two, hold two, something like that.

Meghan Escobar (13:43)
Gotcha. Well, I think that’s really important for people to understand because again, going back to the highlight life, right? Like, so many people see the highlight life. They don’t see the path that it takes to get there. And I love what you said about wanting it. And that goes into also like— you mentioned something too, which I don’t think you even— even spoke enough on, is like— believing it, right? Like, you saw it, you’ve seen it, you knew what you wanted, but you also believed that it was possible. Do you think that’s important as well?

Chris Bounds (14:14)
A hundred percent. So like, pretty much anything is possible. It— it’s— it’s really just a matter of are— do you want it? Are you willing to pay the price to do it, to get it? And are you committed enough to see that entire process through? So we all know the like— the three feet from gold story where the guy was like digging for gold and like he just gave up and then—

Meghan Escobar (14:18)
Yeah.

Chris Bounds (14:39)
—the— the next guy came in, hired an expert. That’s pretty cool. You know, we actually hired someone to know what they were doing. They were like, “Yeah, just shift a couple feet over and— this fault line’s why, you know, you’re not seeing gold here, just shift over here and then boom, down on this gold.” You gotta be willing to see it through. Like, if I would have quit— hey, good story here. The first house I got, knocking on doors in college, the guru’s— I think it’s his daughter or daughter-in-law. She drove by that house and did not unlock the— she gave up. I actually felt like it. ‘Cause it was the way the route was, it was like that was one of the last houses of the day. And it’s exhausting knocking on doors, especially pre-foreclosures. They’re not entirely happy you showed up in their house. Three months knocking on doors pretty much every weekend, and then it’s like the last house of the day, and it’s right up by the highway where I can just go back home. And— but— but I did. I got out and I did the same thing I did with all the other ones. And it wasn’t that knocking on doors didn’t work. It’s just I— I— I like how it— it— in— I hate that as an excuse, but that is still true. So here’s one way you can sum it up. Just do enough volume that it’s un— completely unreasonable that you would succeed. So does cold calling work? Yeah. Well, I’ve called a thousand people.

Meghan Escobar (15:41)
The numbers game, right?

Chris Bounds (16:00)
Call 10,000. Like, is it reason— is it unreasonable that out of 10,000 people, you don’t find someone who’s willing to sell their home below market value? Are you willing to do that? Like, you’ll probably find results sooner, but you gotta be willing to do the 10,000.

Meghan Escobar (16:12)
Yeah. Yeah. Great story. That’s your three feet to gold story. That’s beautiful. Thank you for sharing. If somebody doesn’t take value from that, then don’t listen. So that’s— yeah, really, really solid advice. What is something that most people completely misunderstand about your niche?

Chris Bounds (16:34)
About house flipping or AI or—

Meghan Escobar (16:38)
Well, I guess if you wanna touch on a little bit of both, since you’re kind of in— in both right now, but— more so real estate for real estate purposes.

Chris Bounds (16:46)
Yeah, yeah. So for house flipping, like everything— the— the one thing you cannot change is the your purchase price. You can change a lot of things. You can change the condition of the home. It’s just a remodeling budget issue. You can change your timeline. So maybe you don’t flip it, but you rent it out. You can change the financing. You can’t change the location. So if we’re gonna add that. So location and price. The number one thing that’s an insurance policy on risk is your price. So I’ve seen a lot of strategies over the years on like no my— no equity deals. Like do no equity deals. Can you do a no equity deal and it makes sense? Yes. I— I don’t do them, but there are paths. I know there are paths. I’ve seen large gurus talk about certain strategies with no equity. But the problem is, if those deals don’t really pan out the way you think they’re gonna pan out, you have no backup strategy. None. Now you’re left with supporting a property until you sell it, but there’s no equity, so you’re never gonna be selling at a loss or supporting a property with long-term negative cash flow. Can you support that? So I say all this in— in the sense of with— with house flipping, like you— you have to buy cheap. And we’re in a really good market right now that’s softening, where it’s easier than before to get really discounted properties. We had a de— we had a lead, organic lead came in the other day. New home worth around six hundred thousand dollars yesterday. Today, in pre-foreclosure situation, they were willing to let it go for 450. Yeah. So— and the mortgage was like 380 or so. So—

Meghan Escobar (18:24)
Wow.

Chris Bounds (18:30)
I as a house flip, you know, it’s not my kind of niche. But for someone who maybe has a longer term, you know, plan or maybe a unique situation, maybe they can do owner’s financing, that can work for them. A lot of opportunity. So don’t— especially in this kind of market, my— my advice, folks, is be very, very strict and stingy on— on your margins. Don’t fudge those and make sure you have plenty of room in place for days on market to go— be longer than you expected, your budget to be higher than expected, and your sales price to be lower than you expect. And the only way that you’re going to do that successfully and walk and close at the end of the— end of that time period and actually have money to be happy with all the pain you went through is if you buy it cheap enough. Maybe it means you do fewer— fewer deals, but I guarantee it’s— you will be happier doing fewer deals that you made money on all of them than doing more deals.

Meghan Escobar (19:13)
Hehehehe.

Chris Bounds (19:24)
Because the couple of deals that you did that you lost ten thousand or eighty thousand on, the— the financial stress sucks. The emotional stress is, in my opinion, way more taxing.

Meghan Escobar (19:36)
I cannot agree more. I cannot agree more. Like, a dollar can always be made, you know, and lost. But the emotional stress is really what’s gonna take a toll in the future, right? Like, dra— dra— taken on that like baggage emotionally.

Chris Bounds (19:55)
And it’s never just you. So if you have a family, your entire family will feel it in some form or fashion. Like, maybe your kids don’t— they don’t know, but they do know that we’re not going out to eat, we’re not going to vacation. It affects them. The private money lenders, there was a— an investor, it made big news, who was buying all these sub-two deals in Florida that, you know, they all get foreclosed on. No-equity type deals. There were private lenders on those deals too. So they had seconds. That affects them. And we’re not talking about BlackRock here. We’re talking about, you know, Joe and Sally who just worked hard for 40 years and, you know, they were trusting you. So I take that stuff to heart. I’ve raised 20 million dollars. And there have been situations where it didn’t go to plan. Go back to my investor. “Hey, look, you know, this is what’s going on. Are you okay extending? I’ll keep making payments. Do I need to refile you out?” This kind of thing is like— just be honest, trustworthy, and transparent. But make sure that— it’s just so much easier if you do fewer deals, make more money on those deals, that way everyone gets fed.

Meghan Escobar (21:30)
Yeah. Don’t try to jump into the deep end, right? Like, get your feet wet first.

Chris Bounds (21:35)
Yeah. And I mean, i— if you have plenty of liquidity to take some of those extra risks that maybe you can justify, fine, that— that— that’s one thing. But starting out, no, just go after the easy wins.

Meghan Escobar (21:48)
Yeah. Love that. Great. And— and I love the— the genuine authenticity coming through, Chris. I think it’s really important, especially in— in this industry. And— and I mean in any industry, you know, there’s a lot of sharks out there that don’t care about the— the— the Joes and the Sallys of the world. So I really appreciate you sharing that. What are you building toward right now? Not just financially, but what’s the bigger vision for Chris Bounds and family? Yeah.

Chris Bounds (22:17)
Interesting there. So I mean, I’ve got doodad things, even though I’m not into the flashy cars and the designer clothes. My portfolio— my wife insists that I do wear better clothes than when I was a bachelor. But you know, I’ve got things that I— I would like to have. If we speak bigger than that, I mean, one, we’re very family-central. So we— we like travel, but you know, would like to have a like— a charitable foundation. I know— I know my wife, she’s got a soft heart for kids. She’s a teacher. And she works at her kids’ Christian private school. She works with like the pre-K. I think it’s pre-K, yeah, pre-K. And it’s like she loves shepherding their hearts. It’s like her mission. So it’s probably something in— in that line. I— I— I’ve been so much in operator mode over the last, especially the last five years, we haven’t really penciled that out, but it’s— it’s loosely there in the— the background to have that. Beyond that, yeah, having an impact on a hundred thousand— a hundred thousand people, which I have that well-defined with the number of properties that we own. The impact that we have are residents of those properties, the workers with those properties, the community that is surrounded by those properties, the investors who are invested in those properties. And we can only do that by continuing to reinvest in ourselves and reinvest in our business for growth.

Meghan Escobar (23:49)
Love that. Wow. Making impacts all over the place. So for someone— and I think we touched on this a little bit, but I just want to dial in here. So if someone listening might feel stuck, what is one lesson that took you years to learn but could potentially save them years of frustration?

Chris Bounds (24:06)
Mm. Getting stuck. If you reach out to people who are in parallel, you’re— you’re gonna get the same— you’re gonna get the same answers that you probably already know, but they’re not gonna be— it’s not that they wouldn’t be helpful. It’s not gonna be exponentially helpful to get you unstuck. So I guess you could sum it up— sum that up as, be careful what advice you take from— be careful what advice you take and who you take it from. So if I’m asking someone how to f— that I’m having a problem with my houseflipping business, and I’m going to ask a lot of the other folks that I work with, the advice, it’s— it’s not that they couldn’t help me, or there’s— there’s not nuggets, because I’m a— I’m always a learner. Everyone has something. But is it going to exponentially help me? Probably not. I need to talk with someone who’s maybe flipped 200 houses a year. So I’ve done 200 houses, which, you know, i— at at my peak is like five or so houses a month. You can whole— I talked to wholesalers, you know, they’re d— they’re wholesaling five to ten wholesale deals a month. I’m like, I’m sure it has its own hair on it, that kind of business. But when you’re dealing with houses, there’s a lot of wheels turning. So— but yeah, i— i— if I wanted to really scale that, I would need to then go look to the person who has flipped maybe 200 houses a month or— or 200 houses, sorry, a year. And— and I did that through masterminds. So when I joined my first mastermind, and it— it was a long process in vetting because I’m aware of the sharks and I was naturally cautious. But I was able to speak with some— at the time we were doing a couple deals a year. Mm-hmm and we were always cash-poor because you’re flipping. You get a lot of money going out for months and then finally you get a big paycheck. It’s like— and then we talked to— talk to this guy who, you know, he was— he’s done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of deals. And he gave us this piece of advice that helped us shore up that capital. So it was a way we— where we can build in our holding costs into the front-end acquisition, and then in the event of overages that were unforeseen, we can use gap funds to— to tie that over, that solved our liquidity problem. But that’s advice that I was not getting anywhere else. There— there’s a— here locally in Houston, there’s an unofficial mentor. So there’s never a— any official relationship. But he— he owns a hard money lending company. So he f— he funded some of my early deals and— but the guy’s flipped like two thousand houses.

Meghan Escobar (26:43)
Wow.

Chris Bounds (26:44)
He knows a little bit more than me. He’s— he’s seen a few market cycles. And he’s loaned on like four thousand houses. So I— I know that I can go to this person and I’m gonna get it. The context to visit— his advice dwarfs pretty much most of my peers that are— have flipped, you know, three, four, five houses a month. You— you really have to level up. You have to level up the person you’re asking the advice from.

Meghan Escobar (27:08)
I love that. Never be the smartest person in the room. I always say, you know, if you feel like you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.

Chris Bounds (27:15)
Yeah, and— and I’ve seen there’s some folks, it falls into snake category, where I talk to them and— and they’re smart, but the difference is they think they’re smart.

Meghan Escobar (27:25)
There you go.

Chris Bounds (27:26)
And I mean, I— I think I’m an averagely intelligent guy. I was never an A-plus, I was never an— I was— I was always a B-plus student, and I had to work really, really, really hard for the B-plus. So really my talent, you know, perseverance and— and work ethic. But I’m an avid learner. The guy, hey, good point here. The guy who I said flipped like 2,000 houses, he still goes to networking events. And I heard him say it once. He said, “I always like to see what’s going on— to see what other people are doing.” He himself is a forever learner. Not that he doesn’t know how to do the business, he does, but he just— he wants to see what’s going on, see what he can pick up on.

Meghan Escobar (28:03)
Yeah, that— that’s the difference between someone who is a Mr. Know-It-All versus the forever learner.

Chris Bounds (28:11)
The smartest people and the most successful people that I know are smart enough to know they don’t know everything. Yep. So they’re willing to be open to learn.

Meghan Escobar (28:19)
Yeah. Thank you thank you thank you. But you know, this really leads into my next question or— or, yeah, question is like relationships are everything in business. No matter what business you’re in, you know, network— is your— your network is your net worth, right? And so what’s one thing, Chris, that you’ve learned about building those meaningful relationships that most people might overlook?

Chris Bounds (28:45)
Yeah, and this is a challenge for me, because I’m an introvert and— and I hate saying that because I know that’s also self— you know, self-fulfillment, self-fulfilled prophecy. I— I— I’m in my element, especially people I know, like I can talk. But if you put me in a networking event and I don’t really know anyone, then it’s just— it’s a challenge. Like, there’s social butterflies—my wife, she can kinda like blend in and move, you know. She— she can talk to anyone, which is great when I go to events with her because she helps— she helps. Yeah, yeah. But I would intentionally go early on, because I didn’t know anything. I would intentionally go and I— I had a goal. I had one or two questions that I wanted to get answered at this event, which I was gonna ask. And usually the person I was gonna ask is like the person hosting, because I just viewed them as an authority.

Meghan Escobar (29:19)
Your wingman.

Chris Bounds (29:41)
So it’s usually gonna be them, but no matter what, these one or two questions I’m gonna answer, but heavy emphasis on the one or two. Because I would always tell people don’t go to an event, trap the host, and trap them for 30 minutes, asking them like 50 questions, trying to get like private mentorship. It’s not that they’re not willing, it’s just it’s not the right setting for that kind of thing. Yeah. Be respectful, one or two, because you don’t want them running from you the next time. And I did that. And then now we gotta play the consistency game. Do that at every single event you go to and go to those events every week or every month. And I did that. So there was, you know, I went to a lot of events and then I kind of narrowed down the couple that I found the most valuable. Started seeing similar faces, getting to know those people, and you see the vendors that are sponsoring. So you’re starting to know like the support system around. And of course, they can offer referrals, but they also have insights on, “Hey, this is a good contractor, this one’s good,” or, “No, no, no, you— you— you probably don’t want to use that one. You know, they’re— we’ve heard some things,” that kind of thing. But being very intentional about those relationships. So I have to be extra intentional just because it’s— it’s not a— a strength as an introvert, because like— like, COVID was like heaven for me because I don’t want to go anywhere anyway. I don’t want to go— like, other than the gym, I just— and even at the gym, I was like, “Don’t talk to me. I’m— I’m just here to work out.”

Meghan Escobar (31:44)
That six-foot rule was your— your, yeah.

Chris Bounds (31:47)
It was great. It was great. But yeah, d— be— in— be intentional. Don’t be just a taker, give.

Meghan Escobar (31:55)
Yeah. Put yourself in the— in— in that— in that person’s shoes for a second, right? Like, no— like you said, that’s not the right time for it. So I think that’s such really solid advice. Just go in with very intentional questions, the one or two, and— and leave with— leave with the answers that you, you know, went in with expecting.

Chris Bounds (32:16)
Yeah, yeah. And don’t say, “Can I pick your brain?” The— the— there’s so many— like, folks, like, that is the word, if you say it, it’s an immediate shutoff. So please don’t say that. And don’t ask me to go to lunch. Like, I barely eat lunch as it is. The last thing that I want is, you know, you to pay fifteen bucks for— for lunch to extract like, you know, $150,000 worth of, you know, fifteen years of experience. The— the trade there is not worth it. The time, quite frankly, I just— I just don’t have the time. Most people, if you ask them to go to lunch or pick their brain, just be cautious. They may not be receptive to those kind of things. Yeah. Very intentional. “Hey, got this question. What are your thoughts?” And most people are willing to answer those questions.

Meghan Escobar (33:06)
I love that. Such good rel— such, such good advice. And you know, you just can’t fake creating relationships. You don’t want to, right? That’s not how you wanna go into it. So just be genuine, be authentic. Like Chris said, you know, relationships are everything in this space. So take his advice. He’s clearly been around the block a few times and he’s— he knows what he’s doing here. So I would agree with taking his advice. And before we wrap up, Chris, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, you know, maybe potentially collaborate or whatever the case may be, what would be the best way for them to touch base with you or reach you?

Chris Bounds (33:44)
Yeah, I’m— I’m all over social. So pretty much anywhere you can find me, I’m very heavy on Facebook and LinkedIn. Okay. I’m on Instagram. I know most real estate folks, you know, they’re heavy on Instagram. I don’t know, I haven’t figured it out yet. I’m there, but Facebook, LinkedIn, very active on there. And I mean, my focus is AI and operations. That’s what I try to help investors do is help them get an AI operating system, an AI deal flow system. So if that might be of interest to you, happy to, you know, have that conversation and see, you know, if what we can do can actually be an exponential you know, solution to your deal flow.

Meghan Escobar (34:30)
Love that. And finding you on socials, is it just Chris Bounds or is there a business name?

Chris Bounds (34:35)
If you Googled Chris Bounds, it probably pulls up a ton of stuff. I’ve been doing content for a long time. Google should have me. I’ve never ChatGPT’d my name.

Meghan Escobar (34:46)
I haven’t either. I didn’t even think of that.

Chris Bounds (34:48)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I— I know there that there’s a— there’s a— there’s a pastor or a minister and then there’s a sports guy, a football player, at least he was a collegiate football player that had Chris Bounds, so we were like fighting in the rankings early on. I don’t know where they’re at now. So interesting. But anyway, I’m— I— I’m you— I will not be hard to find.

Meghan Escobar (35:07)
Okay, okay, noted. Okay, perfect. Well, listen, I really appreciate your story, your time, and most certainly your perspective. We mo— we need more people in this space who are doing things the right way. And as you listened to Chris speak, you know, from the heart and his passion shines through. So I— I really truly appreciate you and thanks again for being here. And for those of you that are tuning in that may have gotten any value from Chris’s advice, please make sure to subscribe. We’ve got more conversations coming with owners and operators, just like Chris Bounds here, who are out here building real businesses in real time with real people. So we will see you on the next episode.