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Show Summary
In this conversation, Tom White shares his journey in real estate development, emphasizing the importance of community relationships, personal growth, and resilience in entrepreneurship. He discusses the challenges faced in the housing market, the significance of health and mindset, and how money can be a tool for positive community impact. Tom reflects on his aspirations for the future and the legacy he wishes to leave behind.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Tom (00:00)
I heard a guy say years ago that a lot of people, when they’re younger, they give up their health for their wealth and then they end up giving up their wealth for their health. know, just anybody that hasn’t done 75 hard, I would encourage you to do it. You can Google it. It’s a challenging program, but I think the the wisdom and the just the traction you’ll get from doing it is worth it. mean, everybody can say they don’t have enough time, but you don’t have time for, you know. Absolutely.Quentin (00:33)
Yeah, we got it.Hello everyone. Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Super excited to be here today. We have another fantastic guest and he’s going to talk to you about land development. And so I’m excited. Got to know this guy a little bit and I really believe that you guys are really going to enjoy this conversation. And so I would love to introduce you guys to Mr. Tom White. Mr. Tom, are you feeling today, sir?
Tom (02:34)
Good, Quentin. Hope you are both.Quentin (02:36)
man, man doing good. Like I said, excited to have you one. I believe you and I got a good rhythm and I believe the people are really going to be able to digest and love what you’re going to say. And so Tom, I’ll be honest, man, I want to dive in. I want you to take the people into your world. Tell them what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story of kind of how you got started in real estate, we love origin stories. And if you want to tell them, you know, where your, where your market is.who you’re serving, we would love to know that too. So Tom, start the floor is yours, man.
Tom (03:09)
Sounds good, I appreciate it. See, I grew up about 30 minutes outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, just east. And I’ve had another business for a while and then transitioned into construction probably about 2016, working with a friend of mine doing grading for a lot of the production builders.And then in 2019, transitioned into just doing land development for myself. just, thought there was some other opportunities and for the most part, I’ve pretty much always have worked for myself since I think I’ve worked for, since I was 18, I might’ve worked for another, for someone or a company for five years. So, ⁓ you know, what, since I’m 43 now, so five years, it ain’t that long for, I’ve always just been a independent.
driver and we we own some real estate rentals ⁓ previously too and ⁓ just
I saw a need where we were having such a housing shortage in the 18s, especially once COVID hit, that I started doing some development. Started the first one in Nash County, it was a small 47 lot subdivision. And then now we’ve been able to grow it to about 4,000 units under development. Some of those are apartments, for the majority of it, single family detached.
Quentin (04:38)
I love it man. You guys, you you’re growing. I love how you say, you know, for the most part, you know, this is kind of in what you’re doing. You haven’t had, I ain’t gonna say the real job because this is a job. This is what you do and this keeps you busy. This is how you make it a doughnut, you know? ⁓ But I love man, how you’ve worked yourself up to success. And I wanna pick your brain a little bit Tom about strategies, right?And I want to ask this question and I would love you to answer it two ways because I’m sure you have business strategies that you have identified that works for you. But I’m also wondering, do you have any personal strategies that work for you? You you look like you may go to the gym a little bit, you know, you look like, you know, you may have some personal routines that kind of, you know, settled you in as a person. So I would love to know what are some of your business strategies and what are some of your personal strategies?
that you found that’s helped you have success.
Tom (06:22)
A lot of it, I say yeah, a lot’s changed in the past couple years. ⁓ We actually started an oil and gas company too and put me on the road a lot, which is really how I transitioned more into the residential development too in between the construction. Because I’ve always been self-employed and I grew up, there were six of us in a two bedroom trailer off of a dirt road. And so growing up, we always…We never thought we were poor. I don’t think you ever realize how poor you are till you get out. And then ⁓ when we were doing the oil and gas, my brother still has that company. I think they employ about 150 people now. you know, I was always striving for more and then kind of went through a divorce in that time period. And it hit me like a ton of bricks that, you know, I say that I’m always doing this stuff for my kids. But at end of the day, what’s the point in doing it for your kids if your kids don’t even know who you are?
Yeah. And, uh, kind of a little bit before the divorce, I started working on, you know, let’s do this program called 75 hard each year. And, that’s really a mental, it really helps get your mind and focus. And I think once you get your mind in focus, you can get your, your body in focus. Cause you realize you have to put a priority on your health so you can run the maximum optimization. uh, I really do focus a lot on that. Going to the gym every day is my non-negotiable.
I played sports when I was younger and played rugby some too. And then when I was 32, I got up 295 pounds and I’m only six foot. And so through that, transitioned, I got down to 220 and I’m about 250 now, but I’m a healthy 250. just seeing how optimal you are.
going through that 75 hardware you don’t drink and you are working out constantly, you see how much more efficient you are and how, you know, everybody talks about momentum, but it’s really, it really, has a lot to do with it. Once you get that ball rolling and it’s just kind of going back to what we were saying, you know, my first development was 47 lots. It took me two years to get to 200 and then the following two years we went a little bit over 2000, you know, well we went from 200 to
4,000 total. So you can just see once you everything in gear and you kind of stay focused how much really momentum does kick in. ⁓ you know a lot of what I do is I don’t fight with all the big boys in the Raleigh Durham markets. I ended up picking up some opportunities in Raleigh and Durham but…
I think just growing up a little bit outside and having a good relationship with lot of farmers and landowners in what we call secondary tertiary markets has really given us the ability to grow at the rate that I’ve been able to grow. Because not only can you put on a suit and tie and deal with the negotiations at the public companies, which is who we mainly sell to, the Linares and NBRs, guys like that, but you can also relate to the general
a farmer who’s looking to pass down ⁓ some wealth to his kids and grandkids. And so that’s what’s really helped us focus is just staying in the secondary markets and providing an affordable product to the workforce community of Raleigh and Durham.
Quentin (10:35)
Yeah, man. So Tom, honestly, man, thank you for your gift of vulnerability and your gift of transparency. You didn’t have to share what you shared, but you did. And so I’ll go and record with you too, man. Yeah, I’ve been through a divorce and when I went through a divorce, I lost over a hundred pounds because like you said, you start to get your mind right, right? You start to get your mind right. You start to understand that your mental health is kind of your first priority.And then as the mind goes, as you so eloquently said, mind goes, the body goes. So I started getting into gym, working out five times a week and I, you know, lost transform my body. I too went down about two 20. ⁓ and my, highest was like three 60. So, you know, I went down to two 20 and then when you start working on your mind, you start working on your body and then you kind of regressed. And that’s what I did. stopped going, putting into work and I started to regress. And so now I’m remarried.
I got this weight back on, but it’s like now I got to get my mind back to the position of working out, doing the things I need to do health-wise mentally. That’s going to transition to my physical health. And that’s what I’ve been doing, man, for, for the last, would say three months, I’ve been consistently working out about three days a week. And I’m down about two pants sizes down about, you know, two shirt sizes.
You know, and now I’m getting back into kind of reshaping my body. And so I just wanted, I said that to say, I feel what you said and thank you for your transparency because that really means a lot to me because I hear you. I hear what you’re saying. And I believe every business owner, when I ask them that question, they tell us something that centers them. you, the business success is wonderful, but if you’re not having personal success in your life, it’s hard for you to sustain that business success.
And I think what you just shared kind of keeps proving that over and over. And so I don’t know, man, how did, how did that land? you did? Did that make sense to you, brother?
Tom (12:38)
No, it did.I heard a guy say years ago that a lot of people, when they’re younger, they give up their health for their wealth and then they end up giving up their wealth for their health. know, just anybody that hasn’t done 75 hard, I would encourage you to do it. You can Google it. It’s a challenging program, but I think the
the wisdom and the just the traction you’ll get from doing it is worth it. mean, everybody can say they don’t have enough time, but you don’t have time for, you know.
Quentin (13:12)
Yeah, we got it.Tom (13:15)
And so, ⁓It’s just a, if, if success is important to you, if your family’s important to you, you know, I think you should do this because it really does help you gain traction in so many areas that it’s worth the 75 days of hard that you think it’s going to be. ⁓ and I mean, it’s another thing that I walk around saying a lot, you know, ⁓ you know, doing what we do is hard, but so was being broke. So I’d rather choose what I choose. I’m choosing the heart of what I do. You’re going to choose the hard.
You don’t realize at the moment what hard you’re choosing. So just knowing up front that which one you’re choosing helps you go a long ways.
Quentin (13:57)
Yes, sir. You literally took my quote out of my mouth. I tell people every day, you got to choose the heart. You can choose, you can, you can choose to sleep in, but then you’re going to choose the, the night, get up and attack the day. You got to choose one heart. It’s going to be a heart one way or another. And so you’re absolutely right, man. And speaking of heart, you know, obviously you do hard things. mean, you got 175 heart has changed your life, but then just listening to, know, how you’ve went through, you know, adversity.You obviously can do hard things and so within your business, has there been any adversities that you had to face as you was building? know, deals go sideways. Sometimes you have to pivot fast. So is there things within your business obstacles that you had to overcome?
Tom (14:43)
I mean, think as a entrepreneur, you’re never more than a few days away from a complete reset, right? Because I you know, I didn’t get to nearly 4,000 lots by being complacent. So I’m always pushing the envelope as hard as I can. And I’m confident in the decisions that I make.But at the same point, there’s always, you know, whether it be new legislation, there’s always something that could definitely derail you. mean, ⁓
You know, we’ve had approvals take much longer. mean, there’s a lot of things that are hard, you know, but so I don’t maybe I maybe need to ask the question. I think I kind of got on a little tangent. What was your question?
Quentin (16:08)
No,no, no, no, no, man, you go out ask it again. But if your answer is your answer, Bob, I’m just saying, have you faced any adversity as you kind of as you built your business as your business wise? Have you seen? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tom (16:22)
Yes, I mean, think, well, for this year, think the biggest, uh, probably just this year, the biggest adversity is where I’m 106 lots behind schedule on cash. Just because of interest rates, you know, we had, we had a subdivision that was supposed to close in April. Then the power company didn’t show up for 160 days. then, you know, so, I mean, that’s one, uh, interest rates being up. yeah, there’s this constant adversity and it’s just like with any business that what’s your, what’s yourone day will be a complete like you’ll figure out the solution that and you’ll face new problems and I mean you know some of the problems I was facing this year I told a buddy mine I said these do seem at some point insurmountable but what was funny is you face these problems today and you know that the next set of problems is going to be that much bigger and that much more interesting or difficult to challenge or to solve so
That’s ⁓ the cool but unnerving part of having your own business. As soon as you solve one set of problems, seems unsolvable. else. A new set, yeah.
Quentin (17:29)
Yeah, I love how you said as soon as you solve one set of problems that seem unsolvable, here come another whole set that’s like, I just solved something that seemed unsolvable, here come another set. I appreciate that.Tom (17:45)
No matter what you do, right? mean, whether it’s podcasting, know, when you’re the days you, the first days you were going, the problems you had seem like, man, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this. And now you do those, you deal with those problems every day. And so I think no matter what your career is, you can look back and everybody can relate to that.Quentin (18:06)
No, no, no, no, no, no, ⁓Let me make sure I get this right. It says things start at impossible and then it goes to hard and then it goes to done. So when you first looking at it, it seems impossible, but then you start it and it’s like, this is hard. But then once you get past the hard, you look back and like, dag, I’m done. I literally did the impossible all because I started it got hard, but now it’s done. And so, yeah, man, I hear you on that, man, for sure.
Tom (18:59)
Yeah, you know, hate to bring up the gym again, but like that’s, you know, that’s a, the most easily relatable thing probably because first time you go to gym, the bar is probably heavy and then you add to, you know, quarter on each side and then you add a 45 on each side. And the next thing you know, you got a couple of 45s on each side, but everybody had, everybody’s baseline is pretty much the same zero. And so you just continue to, to face the, endure the pain each and every day.Entrepreneurship is painful, but it has its pain moments for sure. And so you just continue to face the challenges every day. And like what you just said, you look back after eight years and you mentioned 315 10 times, You continue to face it every day and now it’s done, like you said.
Quentin (19:51)
Man, so well said bro. Let me ask you. What’s the next real goal for you, sir? Business-wise, personal-wise, definitely business-wise, but what’s the next real goal for you?Tom (20:00)
⁓ So right now we’re just, focusing more on retaining more units for rentals. ⁓ Cause I mean, I make a little bit of money doing development, but you know, it becomes a such a tax problem too that now I’m focused more on building more. ⁓Just rental communities. like, you know, I’ve got one that I’m working on right now. It’s 128 unit, 128 town home units. So it’s, uh, you know, I’m going to start doing more of a mix and hopefully just be able to, not that I want my kids to, really, I want my kids to have a little bit of comfort in their life. Not a whole lot. Uh, I want them to be able to, I want them to endure some of same things that I’ve endured, but for myself, it’s to have an amount of wealth that.
you know, if I decide to pass it on to my kids or decide to pass it on to the church, whatever organization I choose to, know, that I’m at that whenever I do get done, I get to heaven. Everybody wants to say when you get to heaven.
Quentin (21:05)
Well done, my good and faithful servant.Tom (21:08)
And I don’t like that. So when I, I don’t want to, I don’t like that. So everybody says they want to hear well done by good and faith of service. want to, I want to get up there and God be like, damn dude. He said, I gave you this much potential and you lived up to 95 % of it. Congrats. Instead of, you know, he said, man, I gave you all this potential and you only use this little bit. I want them to up there and be like, thanks son, you did good. So, you know, and like I said, it’s not, you know, having the cars and the toys and all that is a lot of fun.But at same point, knowing, just seeing the impact that you can have on communities. Yeah, I’ve been fortunate enough, I’ve been to over 50 countries and just having, seeing how you can help people that really don’t have that much opportunity and how you can change the trajectory of a kid’s life.
Quentin (21:58)
Yeah.Tom (21:58)
Just a few things.It’s pretty cool. Money is a tool. You can either use the brick that you buy with the money to build a strip club or you can build an orphanage with it. So it’s just, look at money as a tool to help others a lot.
Quentin (22:18)
So I’m so glad you brought that up about helping others. It sounds like some of these trips may have been mission trips. can, you know, check me if I’m wrong, but it is just, and I even heard you earlier when you talked about generational farmers and like helping that community and their kids. So it just seemed like to me, you know, the value of building healthy relationships. And so I just want to talk a little bit about what’s your perspective when it comes to building relationships and helping people has building relationships really impacted you in a positive or negative way.Tom (22:49)
It’s a hundred percent positive ⁓You know, and I’ll go back to that first, uh, 47 unit subdivision. And I talked about that was my first one. That was the first one in that community. And when I was there getting my subdivision approved, the, remember at end of the meeting, the police kit, the police chief was offered a raise. The police chief deferred his raise onto his officers because the town didn’t have enough money to give everybody raised. Well, now I’ve been out, you know, through the projects that I’ve done in that town.
we’ve grown the population of that town 40%. So now that town has new, three new officers, new cop cars, several other new equipment. And you know, what I do…
wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the relationships that I built with the engineers, the surveyors, some of the farmers. There’s one family that I buy at least 100 acres a year off of, you know, and that we continue to do business because I’ve dealt, I’ve done what I said I was going to do with those guys in the past with their family. And so they’re willing to, you know, sell a chunk off to me each year. It works out well. I mean, you know,
I’ve learned a lot, know, since I’ve had several businesses just being able to see how the relationships go further than the money. ⁓ know, if you have somebody take advantage of you, they might have made $100,000 on that one transaction, but they’re losing out on millions because they didn’t value the relationship. They valued the money. And I think if you value the person, the money will come.
Quentin (24:30)
Man you you saying so many things that I try to share on a daily basis every episode I always say people are the real currency like you said you value relationship Everything else will come like if you invest in people the resource could come and a resource may come money It may come with getting you know something passed that you need to get passed like you even talked about with the police I can’t say I can’t remember this position, but the him deferring his raiseBecause everybody else can’t get the raise that he’s getting for how y’all has affected the community in a positive way. People are the real currency and when you invest in people, you get an amazing return on your investment. And so I hear you loud and clear, man. I hear you loud and clear. Tom, man, this has been a privilege, man. I thank you so much. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, how would they get in contact with you,
Tom (25:29)
LinkedIn is probably the best way the ⁓ the email or the urls linkedin forward slash Thomas P as in Paul white like the color and then they can obviously go to ⁓ My website is axiom hyphen land LAND and that’s AXIOM as in Mary hyphen land LAND.com And either one of those I don’t do much social media, but I am on LinkedIn ⁓Quentin (25:58)
GotchaTom (25:59)
So.Quentin (26:00)
Gotcha Well, listen y’all heard Tom sir. I thank you so much man for your time. I thank you so much for your story Definitely. Thank you so much for your perspective man. This has been refreshing I knew this is gonna be a great episode, but it actually exceeded my expectations man So thank you so much for being here man. I appreciate you so muchDo to you as well, man. So listen, everyone, y’all got the value from Mr. Tom. Y’all got the value. I told you we’re going to continue to bring up incredible people like Mr. Tom. So I just need y’all to make sure you are subscribed. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations. So Mr. Tom, I thank you again. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
