Using AI, Education, and Relationships to Find Real Estate Opportunities

Zach Dunivan (00:00)
Well, the point is there when you look at an investment or you’re talking to an investor just a different frame of mind is that, well, at least in this particular podcast, said, don’t know, maybe three or four. If I told you I was going to give you a thousand dollars for every red car that you saw, I bet you’d see more than three or four. So it’s opening that mindset of seeing those opportunities everywhere, seeing those opportunities, especially in real estate.

Q Edmonds (01:56)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I’m excited to be here today. I have another fantastic guest who is going to teach us about what it is that he does. And y’all know, this is the exciting part of my job is to meet new people and to find out about their processes, to get into their world and see how they conduct systems and processes. And so…

Zach Dunivan (02:02)
See ya.

Q Edmonds (02:24)
That’s what I’m excited about because we’re all going to learn from each other. And so the beautiful thing is, Tijenma loves to educate. So this is perfect. Like he loves to educate. He loves to help people, specifically help first time homeowners. And so I’m excited. I’m excited about all that he’s going to talk about. And so I want to introduce you all to Mr. Dunivan. Mr. Zach, how you doing today, sir?

Zach Dunivan (02:47)
I’m Goodpoint and how are you today?

Q Edmonds (02:48)
Good, good, good. Did I get that last name correct that I do good with that?

Zach Dunivan (02:52)
I’m sure my accent, you know, of, know, Dunivan. Yeah, that’s right.

Q Edmonds (02:57)
Gotcha.

Okay. Good. Good. Yeah. I went to school with some dunamins. So I thought I was on, but I just wanted to make sure. So that’s perfect, man. And so listen, sir, I am the type man. I like to dive right in, right? So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story. Kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. And you already mentioned it, but you know, let people know where you repping, where you’re from, man, because people love to know where people are geographically. And so what you’re up to.

Zach Dunivan (03:02)
Gotcha.

you

Q Edmonds (03:26)
Your gorgeous story, where you are, Mr. Zach, sir, you have the floor.

Zach Dunivan (03:29)
Well, I appreciate you having me on. I’m in Little Rock, Arkansas, right in the center of the state. A little bit about my origin story. We’ll just jump right in here. ⁓ I got started in my real estate career ⁓ in Northeast Arkansas around Jonesboro. And I was there for five years and just due to life circumstances and changes, ⁓ followed my wife to Central Arkansas, to Little Rock for her job, for her career. And I’ve been here for about two years now.

So ⁓ my main focus right now is really focusing hard on first time home buyers. If you’re not using AI technology out there, you’re lagging behind. So definitely jump into that through my research, through Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, all those. ⁓ At least for me, the best ⁓ market is North Little Rock for first time home buyers.

And that’s the reason why I’m focusing more on first time home buyers for right now. Yeah, like six to 12 months anyway.

Q Edmonds (04:33)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. I love it, man. Thank you, man. Thank you for giving me the quick journey from where you are, how you got started. And I’m going give you a brief summary of what you told me. And then I want to make a statement to ask you a question. Because you synthesize your journey from where you started to where you are, maybe like a minute or so, right? But we know life doesn’t happen in like,

You know, the journey doesn’t happen just, you know, it’s ebbs and flows, right? And so, you you started out in Jonesboro, you know, was there for five years, followed your wife to central Arkansas, there for two years. Your focus right now is on first time homeowners, because especially you found the sweet spot, where there’s sweet spot where, within your region where these homeowners are.

Zach Dunivan (05:04)
⁓

Q Edmonds (06:12)
And so Mr. Zach, always make the statement that destiny has no wasted moments, right?

meaning like no matter what we do in life, we’re building momentum to the people that we are now. And we’re borrowing from the journey. Every leg of the journey we’re borrowing from and it refines our personality. It refines our mindset. It refines our processes. So I would love to know, man, in your journey, you know, from Jonesboro to central Arkansas, what has the journey taught you about yourself, man? Has it you discipline, resilience? Has it changed your way to innovation like…

What is these moments brought to the forefront about you?

Zach Dunivan (06:49)
So for me, when you’re in a location, in a market for five years, like I was in Jonesboro, getting started just like with any business, because real estate is a business, once you get your license and you’re going through all the courses and classes, it really teach you, it basically teaches you how to stay out of jail, real estate jail. It doesn’t teach you how to run a business. So for the first year and a half, I had to learn how to run a business and then being in that market,

really being successful. was rookie of the year and I ended up having a great following, started investing, ⁓ met my wife. Things were going really well and I started getting comfortable. When you move, you pick everything up and you’re leaving on a high, or as you’re building, on a high, but you’re just continuing progressing, going higher, ⁓ performing at a high level.

Q Edmonds (07:32)
Mmm.

Zach Dunivan (07:45)
And then you move to, at least for me it was, I moved to a new area. thought, I thought it’d be easy for me. I had to change my mentality as far as, hey, I got to start over here. And it’s difficult. basically the move for me humbled me is what it did. And that’s, hey, I have a great wife, a supporting wife and a little girl and another one on the way. And that’s what motivates me to keep going.

Q Edmonds (07:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank

Zach Dunivan (08:15)
And just getting back to my roots and realizing, hey, you know, the work doesn’t stop. It never stops. And just to jump back in and find those grounds and those basics and get back into it. That’s going to be part of it. Hard work never stops, no matter where you are. And ⁓ don’t get complacent.

Q Edmonds (08:27)
Yeah, yeah, no.

Man, this is Zach,

sir. Thank you, man. Thank you for the way you synthesized that. You know, one of my mentors, they told me, and I’m 44 now, and he said this probably, I was in like my mid-30s, know, you’re pivoting in direction in life and different things going on. But he said, when you know who you are, you know what to do.

Zach Dunivan (08:50)
you

Q Edmonds (09:02)
And so I love how you talked about, you know, knowing your why, you know, when it comes to your family and different other things, like when you know who you are, when you know what your why is, but you know what motivates you, you know the engine that keeps you going, you know what to do. And so I love how you said, you know, hey, you did the move, but you’re going back to basics, you’re picking back up. even though some things are not going maybe the way you wanted it to go, you know, ⁓ projected it to go.

It’s like, no, the work don’t stop though. You know, the work don’t stop. So I love it, man. I love the perspective. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So man, so listen, you kind of put it out there and I would love to know because each business owner, you you said, real estate is a business. We treat it like a business. Everyone faces adversity, right? No matter what.

Leg you all on the journey, somewhere along the line adversity finds you. So how does adversity look in your world? And Mr. Zach, what did you do when adversity hit?

Zach Dunivan (10:33)
well, you just got to, when adversity hits, let’s just talk about, so I’ve got some stuff going on right now. And, know, it’s just the reality of it, know, life happens, right? And it’s not always ideal. So a client of mine ⁓ in Jonesboro had a listing as of today, I lost the listing and we’ll talk about that. So ⁓ just the reality is,

You

When you have, let me just take a step back here. You just gotta push through it. When it comes to adversity and don’t take it personally for one. know, life happens. If you’re gonna sit there and solve and be down on yourself, who is that serving? That’s not helping anybody. You gotta get back up, you gotta cut your losses and you gotta move forward and you have to learn, and that’s the biggest thing, you have to learn from your mistakes. know, when things happen, if you don’t learn from it and you repeat it, what’s that the definition of? Insanity?

Q Edmonds (11:30)
Yeah.

Zach Dunivan (11:36)
If you keep doing this thing over and over again and expect different results, you got to change something and don’t take it personally. That’s all I can say. It’s going to happen.

Q Edmonds (11:36)
Yes, Neither. Neither.

Yeah.

I mean, I appreciate your reflection on that. And like I said, people are on different walks of their journey, but adversity is going to hit. And so I love your perspective. It’s going to happen. And so I appreciate your reflective answer. What’s next for you, Mr. Zach? What’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve at scale next,

Zach Dunivan (12:11)
Ask me that question, what was that?

Q Edmonds (12:13)
Yeah, no, no problem. I was saying, what’s next for you? What’s the next real goal? Like, what are you looking to solve or scale next? What’s next for you?

Zach Dunivan (12:21)
So for me, I am an investor and also in real estate. So ⁓ right now, a big focus for me is building, ⁓ continue to build my real estate portfolio. Currently, my wife and I were working on a fiveplex in Jonesboro, just finished up, we’re about to start accepting applications. So really exciting there. And then once that’s filled, ⁓ we’ll start looking at the next chapter as far as that next property.

Q Edmonds (12:39)
Yeah.

Zach Dunivan (12:50)
You know, we have currently have two Airbnb’s and I think, I don’t know, maybe nine or 10 other doors total. So really excited about that chapter and having all that, having that cash flow, know, having those units built. And as far as my real estate, I’m really wanting to focus on two things. ⁓ One is first time home buyers and educating those

first time home buyers. I do feel that most people aren’t educated, unfortunately, and I feel it’s my job to educate the public, anybody who’s willing to listen and have that perspective of ⁓ building more generational wealth or starting that and seeing how owning property really is a great step towards that. There’s lots of other avenues, but I do feel that real estate is probably one of the best avenues for generating generational wealth over time.

Q Edmonds (13:26)
Yeah.

Zach Dunivan (13:49)
You know, it’s not taught in school. Nobody teaches you about, you know, I’m not going to get into the, I’m not, I’ll just go and say this. They teach you to be a good worker when you go to school. That’s it. And, ⁓ it’s a second here. So am I still there? lose you? I had a little technical glitch there. ⁓ so what else?

Q Edmonds (14:09)
Yes, sir. No, no, I’m still here. Can you hear me? Yeah.

Yeah, no problem.

Zach Dunivan (14:17)
trying to elaborate on this a little bit is that people just aren’t educated in what, and they just don’t know. And education is what builds confidence. So my goal is to instill confidence in people by educating them and sharing my experiences that what I’ve done and what I am doing with other individuals. that way, know, home ownership is an awesome thing. It’s got to make sense for you though, too. And then I work with a lot of other investors that are mostly just getting started and building their portfolios.

And then my other specialty that I really like to do is agricultural lands and recreational properties. Love that. In fact, one of the properties that we bought here recently, we bought an 86 acre farm. Great property. We love that. And one of the benefits of real estate and building wealth is being able to see opportunities that are out there. I’m sure Quinton, you’ve heard this expression before.

In fact, I listened to a podcast just the other day. can’t remember who it was, but they said, Hey, how many red cars did you see count on the way to the office this morning? How many red cars did you see? I’m asking.

Q Edmonds (15:25)
Well, listen,

I haven’t been out the office just yet. My office is at home, so I haven’t seen any red cards today, so

Zach Dunivan (16:13)
Well, the point is there when you look at an investment or you’re talking to an investor just a different frame of mind is that, well, at least in this particular podcast, said, don’t know, maybe three or four. If I told you I was going to give you a thousand dollars for every red car that you saw, I bet you’d see more than three or four. So it’s opening that mindset of seeing those opportunities everywhere, seeing those opportunities, especially in real estate.

Q Edmonds (16:38)
that was great, man. That’s a great, what I call a bar. That’s a great bar, man. Thank you. That was good, man. That was good. ⁓ Zach, I’m going to get your perspective on this question. Actually, it’s a word, and I love asking it because I love everybody’s unique perspective. So Zach, when you hear the word relationship, sir, what comes to mind for you when you hear that word relationship?

Zach Dunivan (17:02)
Relationships is everything. So it doesn’t, and I’ll go ahead and say this, it doesn’t matter how educated you are or lack of education that you have. Does it matter your physical abilities or not? You can only get so far on your own. Relationships really, they can make or break you.

You are the average of the five people that you’re around the most. So who are you around? Think about that. And those relationships that you have, ⁓ and I hate to put it this way, but leverage those relationships. Depending on those relationships that you have, are they good and they’re bad? If they’re bad, need to cut them. How are they affecting you? If you’re the average of the five people, if you want to be a millionaire, I would recommend you hang out, find.

four or five millionaires to hang out with. I promise you, you’ll get there. If you want to be fit, go hang out with four or five fit people. You may not get fit overnight, but I promise you that their influence is going to affect you.

Q Edmonds (18:09)
No, man,

that’s so well said. know, I often use the word community when I use the word relationship and I always see healing happens in community. Like when you build a healthy community, people start supporting you mentally, physically, financially, ⁓ you know, with your health. And so I stand with you, man. When you put yourself around an ecosystem of people moving towards a same common goal, yeah.

Zach Dunivan (18:12)
Thanks

Q Edmonds (18:35)
You’re going to help, you’re going to get support and everybody’s going to shape the community is going to shape and start to look like, you know, what the community is supposed to look like. Everybody’s going to begin to look the same way in a sense. And so I love it, man. I appreciate it, sir. Listen, is there any topic that I have not brought up that you want to talk about? Is there any other words of inspiration, education, motivation? Like, maybe you came in with a thought on your mind and you want to make sure our listeners got it. I want to open up room for you to land that message.

Zach Dunivan (19:03)
Honestly, know, there’s so much going on up here right now. There’s so much words of wisdom, so much education I’d love to share. And I think it’s gonna be one of those things where, hey, we just gotta pick a topic and spend the time talking about that topic. I try to put out educational pieces, whether it’s YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, all the meta, Facebook. ⁓ My goal is to help people. And in fact, one of the things I’m working on right now

if you want to call it cheating or not, I’m using AI to help me prompt me with questions as far as a book goes. So my goal is to have my real estate journey from the time that I started real estate until now. And one of the things that I’m calling this, this chapter of my life, you know, it’s definitely not the end. It’s for people who want to break out of a normal everyday nine to five, eight to five, whatever you want to call it and really

you know, bet on themselves. And using this chapter of my life to show how I went from in debt to owning properties and finishing a fiveplex. And then that journey through that. So I’m working on that right now. I’m working, ⁓ the outline’s finished, 10 chapters of the book. It’s in the style of Rich Dad Poor Dad. Surely you’ve read that book.

Q Edmonds (20:05)
Yeah.

Zach Dunivan (20:32)
Okay, so it’s in that style and finishing up chapter two. So hopefully by the goal is here by the end of this year to have that finished for people and then I’ll give it out for free. That’s not, you know, I’m not going to make anything on that. So.

Q Edmonds (20:47)
Yeah,

yeah. Yeah, I love it, man. I love the trajectory you want. I love the way you process. And I love the way that you go about doing things, ⁓ Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you exactly?

Zach Dunivan (21:05)
Lots of different ways. I’ll give you my cell phone number. You can call me text me 501-988-3758 You can do that done of in real estate comm then you can find me on LinkedIn Instagram all those things just you can search Zach Dunivan and I’ll come up

Q Edmonds (21:25)
Yeah.

Well, listen, Mr. Zach, let me say three things to you, sincerely. One, thank you for your time, because you could have been doing anything else with your time. So thank you for your time. think time is our most precious commodity. So thank you for that, Secondly, sir, thank you for your story. Thank you for the gift of your vulnerability, the gift of your transparency, the gift of your authenticity. I believe stories have a way of planting seeds in people. You may never see the growth.

It may happen two years from now, five years from now, but the seed is there. So I appreciate you coming on and planting some seeds. And man, lastly, thank you for your mindset, sir. Thank you for the way you think, man, and bringing that mindset to this platform. I appreciate you coming on today,

Zach Dunivan (22:07)
Appreciate being here. Hey, thank you.

Q Edmonds (22:09)
Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Zach? Listen, his information is in the show notes. So please get in contact with him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Zach. So sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, listen, you’ll have a fantastic day.