Transform Your Wealth: Andrew’s Insights on Real Estate Investing

Dylan Silver (01:32)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today’s episode is brought to you by the Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind, the premier real estate mastermind for real estate investors. Today’s guest, have Andrew Holloway. Andrew is the founder of and CEO of Sir Plutus, a company dedicated to transforming financial futures through passive real estate investing. Andrew, welcome to the show.

Andrew Holloway (02:02)
Thank you.

Dylan Silver (02:03)
Absolutely, and before we hopped on here, we’re both in the DFW area. You’re in Capelle, I’m pronouncing that correctly. I’ve made that error before calling it Cople and was told this is not how you pronounce this area. So I always make sure whenever anyone’s from Capelle that I’m hitting and dismounting correctly on the Capelle part. But Andrew, I always ask my guests at the top of the show how they got into the real estate space.

Andrew Holloway (02:13)
yes.

So I was told for a long time that I should get my real estate license, but I was one of those that didn’t like the idea of not having a steady paycheck. And that’s what I thought of it. So I procrastinated for years and years. And then finally I did and launched myself into a huge career. So yeah, that’s kind of how it started.

Dylan Silver (02:57)
the real estate license. this is interesting because you would think that on a real estate podcast, we would have more people with licenses on the show. But what I found is it isn’t always having a real estate license isn’t always synonymous with being a real estate investor. And so my personal journey has been going from being on the outside looking in to being a wholesaler to then I actually got my license yesterday in Texas. So I’m happy that I passed.

Andrew Holloway (03:26)
Nice, nice work.

Dylan Silver (03:28)
Yeah, I mean,

I joke with people that the test was so difficult that now if you’ve taken the test, whether you’ve passed or failed, you have increased respect for realtors in Texas.

Andrew Holloway (03:38)
Yes, that’s true. That is very true. Most do not pass on their first try, so if you did that, that’s great job on your part.

Dylan Silver (03:46)
Yeah, I’ve spoken with quite a number of people. Believe me, there was an all nighter or two in preparation and some stress. I digress. Going from being outside of the real estate to being a real estate agent yourself, was it a natural transition? Did you know people? Was it in your blood? How did you decide, I’m going to go and embark on this career?

Andrew Holloway (04:10)
Well, so that’s the thing. You know, you mentioned a minute ago about not many people having licenses. I have actually since sent mine back to the state. I don’t need anymore. But it opened a whole lot of doors. In fact, more doors than I would have even realized were available to me without having it. So how it really kind of launched was once I got it, my first kind of job out of the gate, besides selling some family property or whatever,

I landed a job with a company that started this whole trend of buying to fix to rent. United States, they’re not a, they’re Japanese based firm and they were before Zillow and Open House and all of that. And so I actually entered right away as an acquisition agent for them. And that’s where I really got my feet wet in the whole investment space.

Dylan Silver (05:49)
Wow, so at this point in time, you’re familiar with the realtor side of things, the MLS, so on and so forth, know, truck promulgated forms, but now you’re going into the acquisitions space, which being in it myself, and I think anyone who is in this space can confirm, it’s a little bit of the wild wild west, specifically back then. Was that your sentiment when you first got started?

Andrew Holloway (06:15)
Yeah, and it was crazy because we were under this umbrella of this huge organization with billions of dollars in cash So any single-family home that I walked into if it fit my model I knew it was gonna be mine and it was during the big buy frenzy And it was so cool. It was but I didn’t know that was the thing It was such an introduction to the world of real estate because I didn’t know what a wholesaler was I had never heard of such a thing, but we worked with them and you know, I mean like all the

all the ins and outs of acquisitions and yeah, it was incredible, an incredible experience.

Dylan Silver (06:50)
So when you’re first getting started and you’re being told you’re gonna be acquisitions, how I got started was in acquisitions. I didn’t even know what that meant. All I knew was I wanna somehow be in the real estate space. This company’s taking a shot on me. Let’s go see what happens. Did you know exactly what you were gonna be doing?

Andrew Holloway (07:06)
Oh, yeah.

No, I Googled it for sure. didn’t know what that was. And was fine, which is cool. But I had no idea. mean, we were each agent was responsible for 30 to 40 houses minimum a month that we it was high level and it was so cool. It was but a great education.

Dylan Silver (07:11)
Yeah.

my gosh.

So were you in every one of these scenarios the end buyer, meaning it was going to your company that you are working for? Yeah, so this is would they consider themselves an eye buyer? Would that be the area that they were in?

Andrew Holloway (07:33)
Yes, it was.

Yes, so they were the original iBuyer, if you will. So they would buy and what was really cool and a great experience was that I, as an acquisition agent and then down the road manager, we would be in charge of the property from beginning to end, right? We had an in-house rehab team. We had an in-house leasing team at the end. from, we had a title company, a floor above us.

Dylan Silver (07:46)
Okay.

Andrew Holloway (08:11)
So we handled the transaction. we were in depth with all of the contracts and how that worked with negotiations. Two, we had a, I redid their rehab and what we put in, how we painted it, we changed different things, because we started a flipping thing, which I can talk about later. But yeah, and then we had it all the way to the end where we had handed off to the leasing team. So it was really broad view of the investment side of single family homes.

Dylan Silver (08:38)
Wow. So it sounds like you really took off and ran with this role. And I find that these acquisition roles can be great. I mean, they can really not just for me, not just for you, but a lot of people will attribute their success. The woman before we hopped on the podcast, I was talking about this woman who was from Romania, came here with $400 in her pocket, was going to be working at either a subway, a Walmart or a target just to make money because her, she had money frozen in a bank account.

in Europe and unbelievably she ended up being in some type of screening phone screening acquisition type role and is now doing you know seven figure commercial deals like these acquisition roles are really a way to launch people’s careers. So talk about you know John the excuse me Andrew talk about Andrew the scale here that you had from being in acquisitions to

fixing and flipping to then going out and doing your own thing.

Andrew Holloway (09:41)
So we were buy to fix to rent. That was the whole thing. They were reselling the properties back to investors back in Japan, but that’s all other thing. But basically I noticed that there was a big miss opportunity with flipping. Flipping had just started becoming like a thing on TV, know, that Chip and Joanna Gaines and all these people were starting to come out with that this was a popular thing for people to do, but also a good investment.

I actually started the flipping program there and it skyrocketed and took off. A few years after that, they had some management changes in the company. So I decided to break off and go start my own. So that’s what I did.

Dylan Silver (10:25)
That period where you’re starting your own entity, it can be a little scary, can be a little challenging. Were you gung-ho, hey, this is gonna work, or was it more of a leap of faith?

Andrew Holloway (10:39)
huge leap of faith. was terrifying. That because I go bigger, go home. So my first project out of the gate was we bought a house for 2000. It was 2000 square feet and we doubled it. It was 4000 square feet. It was over a million dollar sale, which was so cool. But of course, I couldn’t just go buy a little fixer up or down the road. So yes, that was terrifying. And write those checks and getting used to paying subs and contractors, tens of thousands of dollars a week and just watching it.

flood out of your account. It’s a, you know what I mean? Where it’s mine and my money, it is terrifying and it’s a huge leap of faith, but it taught me a lot more lessons than I ever realized at the time, even about little things like, you know, I always had a grip on my finances and financial stability, that sort of thing. But at the same time, a greater respect for money and being comfortable with those sorts of movements.

Dylan Silver (11:33)
So Andrew, talk about your first couple deals out on your own.

Andrew Holloway (11:39)
So the first one I did like I said was a big multi-million dollar or a million dollar Custom home that we doubled in size Then I scaled back a little bit and I jumped into the ARV of like 400 or less which was essentially the principle of the Japanese firm that I worked for and that’s where I’ve been Deadly growing ever since

Dylan Silver (12:04)
That first deal was a big deal. You’ve been doing it for a while so it wasn’t new to you in that sense but it was new being on your own. Was it straightforward? Was it some new challenges that came up doing it on your own the first time?

Andrew Holloway (12:21)
there were a lot of challenges. I mean, I had subs and workers, I am a licensed journal contractor or was so I, I mean, hiring those people before with the Japanese firm that was all in right. They handled the I just said, this is pretty put this in and they went and did it but hiring the people and managing the people and finding out that you don’t want to pay people hourly instead of per job and all those little things that kill you as an investor.

It was straightforward in a sense, but also so not straightforward because there was all these finite details to learn because I now not only have my CEO hat on, but now I have the GC hat on and the accounting hat on and the resale hat on and so all these things. So it’s definitely a learning curve, but I got through it.

Dylan Silver (13:14)
I will say for folks who are fixing and flipping it does help you quite a bit to be a contractor, general contractor yourself.

Andrew Holloway (13:25)
yes. If you’re,

I don’t know about other areas, like DFW for example, even just buying the margins are so tight and it’s so hard sometimes to even get an actual project that that’s what I’ve noticed. A lot of people have come to me wanting to learn to flip and that sort of thing. And unless you’re doing it on scale, unless you’re doing it because you’re part of it, it’s just really, really hard to do these days.

Dylan Silver (13:52)
You know, to your point, Andrew, I’ve noticed so many people going from wholesaling to fixing and flipping to then seeing the margins are getting slimmer and slimmer to then just being the lender, hard money lending, know, note buying, structure loans. Like it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s tougher. It’s, there’s no question that it’s tougher and everybody feels it, but specifically if you’re flipping in DFW, ⁓ which leads me to, ⁓ pivoting here at my next, ⁓ couple of questions, you know,

You’ve taken this now from real estate agent to working for the Japanese company to doing your deals on your own. But help us help us piece together to today where you’re the CEO of Sir Plutus. How did that come about?

Andrew Holloway (15:10)
Well, so it came from that understanding of what you just talked about of things are changing and it’s getting harder and harder. A few months ago, I actually had ended up joining a club in DFW that talks about real estate and investing and it’s kind of a mastermind group. But they really talk about living an abundant lifestyle, right? And how you, even if you’re in real estate, even if you don’t have money,

much money to get started. You can start with the wholesaling and move to the fix and flipping. But the whole goal down the path is to get to passive investing. It’ll change your life, right? Whether you retire or you keep working or whatever, all the millionaires I know still have a job. So that whole like, like, I’m going to make a bunch of money and just retire. Like, no, you’re not. But your life be so much better if you invest, right? Within whatever you’re going to invest in. But luckily, six months ago,

I converted a rebranded, excuse me, my company, it had a different name into Sir Plutus. And I joined this forces with some other teams and group of people. And now we continue to do what we’re doing, but on a much larger scale. So in just trying to change as many financial lives as we can, we opened Sir Plutus with the idea that it’s for

a thousand bucks, which even my kids, have a 15 and 16 year old during their summer job can earn a thousand bucks. You can buy into a share of a house that’s being flipped, right? Just like you a big commercial syndicate, this way you can buy into just a single family home, right? So, and then we have other projects that are coming for people with much bigger wallets. But that’s where this all came about is this is not an easy industry to be in.

but I have all the key components to do what I do and continue to scale as we go. And this is the much smarter way to be in real estate is to invest in it. the compounding and I mean, Google a compounding calculator and you’ll see that investing in real estate is the way to go. I mean, it’s the number one Wolf builder of anyone.

Dylan Silver (18:07)
Andrew is this fractional invest thing is that that similar as I might totally off there.

Andrew Holloway (18:11)
Yeah, essentially. most syndications, right, real estate syndications, they’re taking these big apartment complexes or skyscrapers or whatever, and they’re offering participation in it. So what we do is essentially the same thing. So we take the, it’s very simple. We take the cost to do a project, right? Say I’m going to buy a house for $100,000, and then we’re going to put $50,000 in to fix it. I don’t break down all the fees, the title fees and all that stuff. We don’t worry about that.

So let’s just say for this example, our cost to do this project is going to be $150,000. So we take that amount and we divide that into $1,000 increments. The company keeps half of those and then we offer up, it’s not really sell off because there’s no markup. We offer up half of those shares to individuals. We usually have between five and seven individuals that invest in these projects. So basically, we’re creating these little investor groups that are going around and buying up these houses and flipping them.

Dylan Silver (19:06)
And is this in Texas is this elsewhere are you expanding.

Andrew Holloway (19:11)
Yeah, so we’re just in Texas right now. We have a lot of land to cover here. I am from the of Texan, and so this is kind of a passion project of mine anyway. So yes, right now we are just Texas-based, and we will be our way at least for the foreseeable future. We have plenty to do here.

Dylan Silver (19:27)
And is it we’re in DFW Metro. it centered around here or is it all throughout the state?

Andrew Holloway (19:33)
Oh yeah, we have, if you’re familiar with DFW, we have a project that’s up for sale by White Rock Lake. We have another project that’s in the middle of construction over in Rowlett, Texas. And then we actually, I just closed on another one in Plano, Texas, probably one of the best suburbs here in Dallas. So yeah, we’ve got, we have projects all over.

Dylan Silver (19:54)
Andrew I’m curious to see what your feedback is on. No one has a crystal ball but there’s a lot more what seems like I’ve heard this term fractional investing right. And people aren’t aware that they can get in to real estate investing without buying the whole the full the full thing you know taking down the whole whale so to speak. Are you seeing this as a trend. Are was this kind of how you.

saw that it was ripe for innovation and said, hey, I’m going to launch Sir Plutus because of this need, right? People want to partake in real estate, but don’t necessarily know how. Am I off on that or is that some… Yeah.

Andrew Holloway (20:34)
No,

no, that’s exactly right. A few years ago, when I put this kind of idea together, I didn’t know that syndication was a thing. I didn’t know that people were doing that. Since I have launched, I still have not found another platform that does exactly what we do. However, to that, there is great innovation in the space. There are several other companies that do allow for even $100.

for you to get in and invest in real estate. The difference and the key difference in what we do at Sir Plutus versus all of those companies is that they’re all REITs, right? So you’re putting in and you’re running your percentage off of the average of whatever projects they buy into. That can be fine or it can be bad because one project can spoil many.

where ours are project specific. So you’re investing in specific homes. You have a specific rate of return that’s with that. I mean, right now, the last six months, our single family projects have been paying 12 % on six to eight month terms. So some people have doubled that. They’ve gotten over 20%. So you’re not finding that anywhere else. And you’re certainly not finding that in a REIT. So yes, it is becoming a more and more popular thing as it should be.

This sort of thing should be available to the masses. That’s part of my goal here at Running Sir Plutus. And I have seen others and like I said that where you can get in for even $100, it’s not exactly the same, but at least it gives the common man, if you will, the opportunity to invest in real estate, which wherever you do it, you should be doing.

Dylan Silver (22:17)
To your point, Andrew, the idea that someone can get into the real estate space without taking down the whole deal themselves, I’ve seen these competitors or other people in the space with the REITs, but you’re specifically able to do individual projects, which makes you unique to a degree.

Andrew Holloway (22:39)
Yes, absolutely.

Dylan Silver (22:41)
And then from there, are people able to select which project that they would like to be a part of? Or is it more of a deal where you’re kind of pulled together with other people with similar interests? How is it working on a granular level?

Andrew Holloway (22:56)
No, so we only buy based on demand. So when you get on the mailing list for Serplutus, there’s no contracts involved. You just sign up for notifications. And then you get notified when new projects become available. And then it’s first come, first serve, because there’s only so many shares to each project. So that’s kind of the exciting part about it, is there is an excitement and demand to investing. It’s not just a click of a button.

Dylan Silver (22:59)
Okay.

Andrew Holloway (23:26)
And that’s for single family as well as commercial. So yes, you pick the specific project, your funds don’t all have to go into one. If you invested $20,000, you could put $10,000 in that house and $10,000 in that house. It does not matter. It’s freedom of choice.

Dylan Silver (23:43)
I’m personally passionate about this idea of people who are outside of the real estate space getting into the real estate space. I think frankly, and I think this is somewhat sad, even though I’m in the industry myself, is if you are not, you might get left behind. Because the cost of real estate, it’s just, let’s face it, it’s expensive. And it might go down temporarily, but over the long term in American history, it’s

has not happened, right? And so if people have a way fractionally, you know, buying shares, right? These are great alternative investments that people can get into with really without having to be the contractor without having to swing the hammer.

Andrew Holloway (24:31)
Yeah, it’s mailbox money. It’s just like if you struck oil and that oil company just started sending you checks. It’s just the same thing. And now with the implementation of so we’ve been doing the single family program and then come April, Monday, April 14th, actually, we’re launching several new single family projects for new and current investors. But also that day we’re launching our commercial division.

So we have some really, really exciting commercial projects coming up and those pay monthly dividends 30 days from project close. So, I mean, you’ve got opportunity and options galore.

Dylan Silver (25:10)
So this is not just a one time, you know, fix and flip. This is passive income. Is that right?

Andrew Holloway (25:16)
Yeah, as soon as your project is done, you have first. So if you’ve invested in a single family flip project, as soon as it goes under contract, we go and start seeking another project so that if you want to, you can roll more investment in part of it. And you can start drawing dividends. The idea is to get into this program and stay there, right? And add to it and build yourself a financial future.

Dylan Silver (25:42)
So it’s fixin’, it’s fixin’ flips though, right? So it’s not rentals, okay.

Andrew Holloway (25:46)
We don’t do rentals on the on the commercial side. There is some renting to it. It’s a combination of things. I can’t talk a whole lot about it yet. But yes, on the that’s where we’re also different is most. This has been a real big trend. This fixed to rent thing and we are. I could go on a whole other episode of yours to get on my soapbox about how we’re becoming a rental nation.

even thanks to the Japanese firm that I worked for. that’s another story. So no, we focus on the fix to sell. That’s our key market. It’s not an easy business to be in, but luckily that’s one of my best skills.

Dylan Silver (26:28)
mean, yeah, you’ve got lots of experience in there doing on your own, working for the Japanese company. And for folks who are totally new to it, it is quite an undertaking, right? So these expenses, like you take down a wall and you’d have no idea what’s gonna be behind that wall, right? And then if you’re selling it on the MLS, like you have to have it to standard to find a traditional buyer. Like it’s work, right?

And so having, it’s not just having a mentor, it’s having a proven system in place, a platform where that is taken away from you. It’s like you said, mailbox money.

Andrew Holloway (27:10)
and doing projects, is a whole, it looks so fun on TV and they sure do make it look good. But let me tell you, it is a, you know, we can deep dive into a house and take out walls and go down to the subfloor and all these things and bring it back to life in two, two and a half months. Like it’s incredible what my guys do. But at the same time, when you’re in it, it just drags on it. I think it, you know, it causes divorces during remodels.

So it’s better just invest.

Dylan Silver (27:43)
Yeah, I mean, I was on a flip site, just really trying to get gain experience for myself because I have no background in the trades. My family isn’t in real estate. I’m the only kind of one in this space who is brave enough to embark on it. And there was a project in Denton, which is where I’m at, where I was doing demo work. And during the same day, they were also doing some type of plumbing or foundation. And the foundation cracked and shifted. And so

the contractor who was also the owner said, like, I don’t know how to fix this, right? And so they ended up having to, I didn’t know this was a thing, but you probably are aware of this, Andrew. They had to foam the foundation, which ended up being quite expensive, and then sending it, it was very, very difficult work, right? And so these things come up more times than you’re aware of, and it’s not like,

Andrew Holloway (28:20)
Bye.

yeah.

yeah.

Dylan Silver (28:39)
You know, I don’t know the name of the shows, but the HGTV shows that make it look like a walk in the park and fun.

Andrew Holloway (28:45)
yeah, we’ve we’ve had a foundation leveled and then because of the age it had cast iron pipes underneath and people don’t realize that at certain ages, they stopped all that and that cracked that so that’s been a $30,000 extra mistaken. You just know I’ve we’ve torn up bath tazza for and there’s literally no foundation under the tub. just a sinkhole. mean, it’s just crazy the things you run into when you’re reading.

Dylan Silver (29:10)
You’re like, is, I’ve never seen this before, but pivoting a bit here, Andrew, you know, there’s lots of different ways where people who are on the outside looking in can get in. this is a great platform, know, Ser Plutus where they can go. But folks also have the opportunity to, you know, do the short-term rentals, midterm, midterm rentals, Airbnb, you know, the VRBOs, right? And I think it’s kind of almost death by figuring out how to get in.

And so I’m curious to hear your take on kind of the multiple different popular ways that people who are maybe novices are getting into the business.

Andrew Holloway (29:54)
So I’ve had a lot of people talk about all those sort of things. think that, because I’ve done some coaching myself for some real estate people, and what I always tell people when they come in and they have these ideas and they go on of doing Airbnb or short-term and I have family that does all that stuff. These days, if you are a novice and you’re just getting into it, the truth is you can make anything work, but

Don’t do any of them just because you’re trying to make money. It needs to be something that you’re going to enjoy. You know, if you do Airbnb, it should be because you enjoy hosting people. You know what mean? Like that’s what’s going to make it successful because you’re going to take pride in your little Airbnb. And that’s what’s going to make you be successful in that sort of space. Because if just another person doing Airbnb or another person putting in an RV park, I see that like that’s starting to become a big trend is parks.

but they come in there and they just make them like a parking lot. Like there’s no expression or whatever. And at the moment they’re filling up because that’s just the way we’re going. But just like Airbnb, if you don’t from the beginning go in with a passion for whatever it is, it’s just not gonna do what you’re hoping it’s gonna do.

Dylan Silver (31:11)
Yeah, to your point, Andrew, the platform is for hosting, right? And so you have to remember, I mean, I’ve spoke with a gentleman in Miami and all he does is manage the Airbnb communications for investors in the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Belize, and the United States. And so just the communications portion of it, like someone’s checking in, someone’s checking out, there’s an issue.

Andrew Holloway (31:32)
⁓ huh.

Dylan Silver (31:39)
you gotta remember when are most of these bookings happening on the weekends because that’s people are coming in. now you work your full time job and you gotta be available at midnight on a week like you gotta have your phone right like on available so it’s it can be a job unto itself and my feedback has always been similar to yours. You you honestly do have to be passionate about it because otherwise.

it’s gonna end up costing you money, just in the long term, but also in the short term, because it’s gonna be bad reviews, it’s gonna be errors, it’s gonna be death by a thousand paper cuts.

Andrew Holloway (32:16)
And not just money, it’ll just ruin your mind. Because when you get into, I’ve been there before, and you even get into a project and it’s not going well, it just consumes you from the inside out until it’s over. And especially if you get into something like Airbnb, where it’s not like there’s an end date unless you just sell it, you better be really prepared with what you’re about to do.

Because you can be successful, but it better be a passion. Otherwise, it’s not gonna go well.

Dylan Silver (32:47)
Yeah, no, I mean, I can tell you not to scare people away, but I live in an area of Denton where I don’t believe it was Airbnb. I believe it was another platform, but this person was away, someone, short-term situation, one of the Airbnb competitors. had a huge party, huge party, ended up, gunshots ended up going off, and first responders there.

I don’t know if it made the news, but it certainly made the local rounds. And you know, these things can happen and God knows what happened inside the house itself as far as damage. you know, there’s liability there too. And then on top of that, these platforms, rightfully so, their consumers, their clients are the people staying in the homes. So you gotta remember if the home gets destroyed and there’s not a whole lot of…

evidence or it’s not reported properly, sometimes they’ll side with the people that are coming and not you. So it could sometimes end up costing you. And then Andrew, to your point, it’s just your sanity too.

Andrew Holloway (33:54)
yeah, exactly. But yeah, not trying to scare them away at all, are you?

Dylan Silver (33:59)
No. But actually my mentor is huge on Airbnb. And so one of the videos that he had was this had happened, something similar at one of his Airbnb’s in Denton. And it was just the video of like this giant party and him rolling up and being like, what’s going on here? And that ended up like helping more bookings get to that spot. So but, you know,

There’s a plus and minus with everything, but I will say that having a platform like Ser Plutus, fractional investing, gives people that opportunity to not have to go through that, to not have to go and deal with the what ifs, the managing the communications, the.

the dealing with the maintenance, the dealing with the visitors. You don’t have to deal with any of that. And to our listeners, I think it’s a great opportunity for you to get involved in real estate here. But Andrew, we are coming up on time here. How can folks go to get a hold of you?

Andrew Holloway (35:03)
Well the easiest way is to go to the website at SirPlutus.com. They can text or call us at 945-274-3985 or email to investorrelations at SirPlutus.com.

Dylan Silver (35:19)
Well, folks, that ends another episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast. Andrew, thank you for coming on.

Andrew Holloway (35:27)
Thank you so much for having me.