The Mindset Shift Every Real Estate Investor Needs To Build Wealth

Lee Patterson (00:00)
Yeah, it goes back to a saying I heard that if you don’t get your mind right, you’ll never get your money right. Meaning like you have to have a the mindset of an abundance. Like if you chase money, it’s probably gonna run from you. You know, and it’s the same thing when it comes to real estate. I don’t chase houses. Yeah, I work towards them and work hard, but I I feel like this stuff is I’m already receiving it. Like growing up, we grew up broke, but we were never poor because right, poor was a mindset.

Meghan Escobar (02:00)
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Real Estate Pros podcast hosted by Investor Fuel.

I am your host, and today I have the pleasure of sitting down with an incredible young man, Lee Patterson, owner operator of LAP Investments, and he is also runs a teaching academy. So looking forward to hearing more about your story, sharing it with our audience. And, you know, one thing that I really enjoyed about you prior to getting on here was the way that you approach our business coming from the heart, you know, with a true desire to help people. So I think our audience will take away some great insights from your journey and the way that you are approaching and building your business. So again, Lee, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us today. First off, sorry, go ahead. Boris. So for those of you who might not be familiar with your name or your business, give us a 30,000 foot view of what your main focus is these days and what markets that you’re operating in.

Lee Patterson (02:50)
So thanks for having me.

So I I operate down here in the state of Georgia, mostly in the college town of Athens where I went to school. I am an international investor in Dubai and also I’m originally from Texas. So I have a lot of land and a lot of things that I bought back home that actually that I don’t make money on just yet because they’re houses that I bought for my my family. I have a book that I read, called Run Her House Money. If you if you come across it, you know that it’s part of my journey is I bought back the childhood home that I lost growing up 26 years later by using these exact same principles that I teach within LAP Investments. So within LAP Investments, I have a portfolio, a seven-figure portfolio, and I now have Credit to Real Estate Academy where I now share the knowledge, share the game, teach others how to get started with within real estate and find their niche or carve their niche out. And so that’s that’s that’s what we’re all about.

Meghan Escobar (03:55)
That’s incredible. I love that. And you know what caught what also caught my attention is the way that you mentioned always being a student. You know, I think some people look at themselves as maybe a know-it-all, or they’ve just got too much knowledge. So talk to us a little bit more about what that means to you.

Lee Patterson (04:17)
So my mentor told me the more you learn, the more you earn. I I never forgot that I’ve been to I’ve got a lot of degrees that I don’t use. And the biggest good degree or the biggest thing that I learned is the the the ones that I actually pay for in the sense of like th the the real estate knowledge and and and and investing in mentorship. And so that’s that’s where this whole thing has taken me to. And that’s why I’m such a huge believer and just hoarding knowledge in the specific area that you are you that you’re you’re in obviously in the in the field of real estate like me and you discuss, it’s always changing. The market’s always changing. And if you’re not up to date, you’ll be like a lot of people who still think in most areas that real estate is still at a premium. And now it’s kind of more of a buyer’s market right now if you if you’re not paying attention. But if you’re not you still think like, my god, I can sell my house for three X as if this was still two years ago.

Meghan Escobar (06:05)
Another thing that I liked about what you said was you’re a big believer in giving back. I think this is huge. Can you tell us a little bit more about why this is so important to you and where that passion comes from and why you’re teaching folks and giving out free information?

Lee Patterson (06:21)
Yeah, for sure. I I’m from the South. I grew up in church. I grew up and I was my my grandparents, they always gave back. They were always my mom still, she she will hoard stuff just to give to people later. And so I would be it would be crazy for me to sit here and say that I did this on my own. I’m self made and all this stuff when there have been people along my journey that has helped me, that has pushed me, that has actually given me free gain. And and and and f and so with that being said, I know that there’s people out there that just need that one nugget or that extra push or the extra encouragement, which is why I was telling you earlier that I create a free community for people to just get started. Cause sometimes you just need to know where to get started. And most people I just tell them to get started with the credit. Because even if they don’t even get into real estate, fixing the credit can completely change their lives in a lot of different ways.

Meghan Escobar (07:14)
Yeah, I I agree. That’s definitely foundational. And when you mentioned that, you actually just brought me back to a moment where we when we first when we first chatted, you mentioned you gotta get your mind right before anything else. Which I resonate with deeply. Yeah. But there might be a lot of folks out there that don’t know exactly what that means or how can I even get my mind right? Do you mind sharing a snippet of that?

Lee Patterson (07:40)
Yeah, it goes back to a saying I heard that if you don’t get your mind right, you’ll never get your money right. Meaning like you have to have a the mindset of an abundance. Like if you chase money, it’s probably gonna run from you. You know, and it’s the same thing when it comes to real estate. I don’t chase houses. Yeah, I work towards them and work hard, but I I feel like this stuff is I’m already receiving it. Like growing up, we grew up broke, but we were never poor because right, poor was a mindset. So I always knew I was gonna make it. I didn’t know when. I just knew my pockets had to catch up, right? And so as I I share with people like you have to have that mindset of knowing that as you continue to learn, you’re gonna continue to earn. And I had to shift from the mindset, the biggest mindset shift was making money in my sleep and not just on my feet. Because we were kind of taught to like get a job of save. All that stuff is great, but not if you’re trying to create true wealth. Because you have to get to the point where you make money on its own, or your money has to be making money for you. And that’s how why I knew this was important for me to start teaching because a lot of people don’t understand how to get out of the rat race. And so again, I said, All right, how do I do that? What does that look like? And let’s implement a plan. And it all started right here in in in between these two years. These are two years that stick out.

Meghan Escobar (09:06)
It all starts with a thought. Mm-hmm. Yep. Okay. Perfect. Thanks. That’s some wisdom right there, folks. So get your pen and paper, write it down. And it’s it’s so true. You know, I I’ve worked with many mentors and they all have told me very similar little gems, right? Poverty is in the mind, not in the pocket. So I love it. Now every operator and entrepreneur that I know, Lee, has had a moment where things got real. Or, you know, a a time where they had to pivot really fast, or maybe a deal that had gone sideways. Do you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Lee Patterson (10:15)
Yeah, so in real estate, it could be a shady game. How I avoid a lot of this stuff is by running the numbers. I always tell people the numbers don’t lie. People lie, but the numbers will never lie. So the three most important people is your your realtor, if you’re using one, your banker, and your lawyer. Your lawyer won’t let you sign a bad contract and your banker won’t loan you on a property that probably doesn’t appraise what it needs to appraise for. And so there have been times where I’ve gotten in a I shouldn’t call it a situation where I just probably didn’t run my numbers correctly enough. And I got to the table and I just didn’t have my stuff together. However, I had it rolled up in a contract in a way where I could back out of it. So it got a little got a little crazy. But at the beginning of my journey, before I quit my nine to five, I tell people I could not close on this one deal, which was my first multi-family complex until I got my last check. And man, I I was I was a little nervous. Like I like, I I I think I should have enough. And I remember writing that check at the closing table, praying and hoping that it was enough because I had saved and I had kind of did the math and I was like, it should work. But you know how it goes. Sometimes you get to the closing table. Sometimes there’s a little extra you might have to do whether it’s mission or something like that. And so, but for the most part I’ve been able to steer clear of a lot of craziness. I’ve had people cancel contracts on me. And well I’ll tell you what, not counsel, but I’ve counseled on them because they didn’t do the they they were operating in a shady way. And they, you know, threatened to sue you because, you know, you know, in this business we deal with third parties like wholesalers. We deal with people that are hustling in a way that they may not know exactly what they’re doing. So those are kind of the some situations that I’ve had to deal with that I had to figure out how to pivot last minute. And if I should, should I go through with the deal? Should I pull back? What are the repercussions? And when you do due diligence, if I do cancel the contract, do I just decide to lose that money? Mm-hmm.

Meghan Escobar (12:25)
What what do you use to help you make those kind of tough decisions? Are you like an intuitive more of like what feels good in the gut, or are you more of like a factual person?

Lee Patterson (12:37)
Remember, I tell you, it’s all about the numbers. I’m I’m I don’t go on my emotions. I’m I try to stay as factual as possible. Obviously, it’s not gonna be 100%, but for me, I can dissect the deal within 30 seconds. I’m gonna look at what it needs. I can look at the ARV, I can look at what things are renting for in the area. I can also ask questions to the person who’s selling about the major things in the house that needs to be repaired. Well that I can just do the math in my head. Like, all I know a roof’s gonna cost me X amount of dollars. I know what plumbing’s gonna cost me, depending on the square footage of the house. I can come up with a relatively decent number and and and know relatively quick. So that again, that’s why I say, you know, just operate on the numbers. You might not be close, but you you can get close enough to put you in a situation where you can give yourself seven days a due diligence to go really figure out exactly how much it’s gonna cost you.

Meghan Escobar (13:34)
Nice. Thanks for sharing that. You know, I think that’s just stuff that people don’t talk about enough. You know, we live in this highlight world where everybody’s highlighting their success on social media and not enough people talk about what’s actually going on behind the scenes. What are some of the struggles that we have to face to overcome and get to, you know, a a certain level of success. And I truly believe it’s what separates folks who just come in to dabble and make a quick transaction versus, you know, those who are in the game long term. And Lee, you’re clearly in the game long term. You mentioned that you started about twenty years ago, is that right?

Lee Patterson (14:12)
With the real estate about fifteen. I went into the the food business and that’s when I really realized that it’s all about the real estate, right? Because the the the the the the the franchise that we bought was sitting on dirt that was in a a separate entity. We were paying using the the the the the franchise to pay the dirt. Once the dirt was paid off, that’s where the real money is made, which if you watch The Founder, you know that’s why McDonald’s is one of the biggest landowners in the world because of that very principle. So I was like, you know what, instead of dealing with a bunch of people, customers, parents, vendors, let me just go into just regular real estate and just deal with a family or some college students and then to the point now I just got a property manager. I don’t even really deal with all that headache.

Meghan Escobar (15:37)
Nice. Let me ask you this. What do you most focus on solving or scaling next? Like what’s the next real big goal for Lee and LAP Investments?

Lee Patterson (15:47)
Scaling how to incorporate AI into the business, which I have been doing on we spoke about earlier, just incorporating AI and how to streamline things and sh and sh and actually scale my did the digital side of this because again, real estate is great, but there’s a whole separate entity on the digital side that you can be making money on. And and it came from the knowledge I was telling you. Like I’m I’m now scaling the knowledge part. Like, how do I sell to more people the digital side and the knowledge that I’ve hoarded over all these years of disinformation that people really need to hear. Like it’s it’s nothing that’s not you can’t Google, but a lot of people don’t even know what to Google. And that’s the thing with the AI. People like, well, all right, well how do I take advantage of AI? GPT would tell you anything if you know what to ask it. And most people don’t know what to ask. People like, well I I typed in this. All right, well you have to keep refining

Meghan Escobar (16:44)
Yeah, the problem.

Lee Patterson (16:46)
Correct. And which is gonna give you a better answer and a better answer. And so when I’m working with students and working with clients or people or even just individual businesses on how to incorporate AI, this is how I’m teaching them what to do and how we do it. Because again, some people do ask, even though I’m setting this stuff up for them, they do ask. And I I don’t, I don’t know, I can’t help it. I I tell them this is how I do it. This is what I don’t go too detailed, but I say this is what you do. Put it in the ChatGPT. It’s not that hard. Just ask questions and you’ll get to where you need to be.

Meghan Escobar (17:20)
Yeah. I think that’s great that you’re, you know, willing to share a certain amount of information. And like you said, you don’t go too deep because there’s levels to energy, right? Like there’s only certain amount of energy that you can pour into people without getting it back. But it it seems like you have a pretty good idea of, you know, what levels to give away and it returns back to you tenfold.

Lee Patterson (17:40)
Yeah, hundred percent.

Meghan Escobar (17:42)
Love that. Okay, cool. And so a lot of people that listen into our podcast, they’re either, you know, very early on in their stage figuring out, you know, where can I get my feet wet? Where where do I start with real estate? You know, do I become a realtor? Do I become an investor? You know, do I become a a builder? Whatever the case may be. And then we have folks who have been on the game for a long time and just looking for the next best thing or looking to level up. You know, I really think that they would benefit from hearing this. So for you, when it comes to building relationships, and we talked a little bit about this, but growing your network, what do you feel has made the biggest difference for you?

Lee Patterson (18:22)
Just be being in a room. Like you have to show up to these real meetings. You have to talk to builders. I talk to random people. Then you build and I start like man, what y’all got going on? You know, like introduce yourself. I am Lee, Lee Patterson, and they tell you who they are, and you just never know where that will go. I tell people if this owns if you’re on social media and you say you want to be an investor, you want to be in real estate, but nothing about your your page. Talks about real estate. How does anybody gonna ever bring you a deal? How’s anybody gonna know what you’re doing? How are you gonna get lucky? Right? Cause some people you just got lucky. Yeah, I gotta call it consistency, consistency, consistently showing people what I do, talking about what I do all the time. You know, you can tell what people heart is, you can tell what people’s hearts are at within the first five minutes of talking to them. Cause we’re gonna talk about it. If it’s your wife, is your kids, is your family, your job, you’re gonna talk about it right away. And if it’s real estate, it’s gonna come out and you just never know who’s hearing it. So you you gotta mingle and you gotta be in the right rooms. You got to network and ultimately if you wanna move fast, you have to pay for mentorship. Yep.

Meghan Escobar (19:33)
Yeah, that’s a big one. You know, I think people have a lot of fear around that, about investing, and that all comes down to potentially a issue, rooted issue with your relationship with money. Many recommendations for that. Do you have one?

Lee Patterson (19:50)
A recommendation when it comes to

Meghan Escobar (19:52)
People haven’t a fear around investing in themselves.

Lee Patterson (19:54)
Yeah, yeah. You you would never regret. Will it be perfect? No. Will you lose? You gotta lose the d to get more. You know, that’s that’s why people never get in the game. Cause they’re too of they they’re holding on too tight on what they and afraid of what they may lose. And a lot of people that are broke, I’m like, well, last time I checked, zero divided by zero is zero. And and so even when I talk about what what I do, I’m just like, I’d rather make one percent of a hundred people’s efforts than and then a hundred percent of just mine, which is why you gotta be networking and working with people and and investing in in in in smart ways. And then just bet the people that you invest with. Look for testimonials, just vet people. Like you will find out a lot of stuff. You don’t have to just jump in bed with the first mentor you see, you just bet ask the right questions. And just know that everything you do is a risk. It’s a risk going to your nine to five. I tell people that they can fire you tomorrow. I’m in the state of Georgia. It’s called a right to work state. They can fire you at any moment for any reason with no explanation. I was like, I’m not gonna lie, when I heard that, it scared the out of me. And I literally writ twice as hard on my entrepreneur journey once I heard that.

Meghan Escobar (21:05)
Yeah, it it’s very true. Thank you for sharing that. I think that’s important for people to understand. You know, there’s risk in everything we do. You might feel secure at that nine to five, but nothing’s promised. Perfect. And you know, that’s something that can’t be faked. Relationships are everything in this space. I mean, relationships are everything in business. So getting out there and and and networking and meeting people is it’s part of the game. So you know, you g you gotta do it. You just gotta say hello, shake someone’s hand.

Lee Patterson (21:15)
Right.

Meghan Escobar (21:31)
And so Lee, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach you and gain some of your wisdom, collaborate with you, maybe learn more about what you’re doing at the academy, what would be the best way for them to reach you? Is it through social email or

Lee Patterson (21:47)
Yeah, yeah, you can reach me through my social media. It’s Lee Patterson across everything on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all these things. Yeah, or you can Google me and you Google me, everything will come up. But yeah, on my Instagram is where I get busy the most. I post a lot of game, post a lot of clips. They’ll see me and you talking on there. And they get they have access to the community if they want to be a part of the free or paid. The mentorship even in my book I just wrote I tell people I give you million dollar worth of game in a book for fifteen bucks, you know. So yeah, that’s how they can find me.

Meghan Escobar (22:24)
Might have to put that on my to read list. All right, Lee. Perfect. Well, thank you so much again for being here. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. And more importantly, your perspective and the way that you’re out here leading, leading people, mentoring people, and the way that you run your business. I truly believe we need more people in the space doing things the right way. As you mentioned, there could be some shady business out here. And apparently that’s not the way that you lead. Or the way that you run things. So again, thanks for being here. And for those of you that are tuning in, if you got any value from this, please be sure to hit subscribe and like. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators, just like Lee Patterson here, who are out here building real businesses with real people in real time. So we’ll see you on the next episode.