VA Loans, Mortgage Brokering, and Building Wealth in Real Estate

Adonis McShan-Teague (00:00)
I’ve used my VA loan three times. I made or built about 800K in equity over those

there’s people I know that have been in military for 10, 15 years, never used it once.

they would have used it when they first got in at their first duty station You know the house to probably be up 200k. Maybe maybe more

everybody always talks about like military benefits, but you know, I think the VA loan is heavily disregarded amongst a lot of people.

real

not gonna make you rich tomorrow if you buy one house, right, but you’re implementing something In the future that one day you’ll be able to look back and be like

I’m glad I made that decision.

Pedro Pereira (01:10)
Hello everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. My name is Pedro Pereira and I am your host today joined by someone who I’ve been looking very forward to chat with, Adonis, who’s been making some serious moves in the real estate investing and mortgage broking space. Alright, Adonis, glad to have you here,

Adonis McShan-Teague (01:28)
Nice to be here.

Pedro Pereira (01:29)
Perfect. So think our listeners are really going to be able to take something away from how you’re approaching loans and the instability of the market that we have right now, being able to expand on your business. And this is something that we’ve been really looking forward to talking about with you. So let’s dive in. So first off.

For people who may not be super familiar with your world, can you give us a short version of what are your main focuses these days, what markets you operate in, and exactly how your business is doing these days?

Adonis McShan-Teague (01:57)
Yeah, mean, so, you know, just to give a short and simple introduction, I Don is McShan. I’ve been investing in real estate since 2016. I’m active duty military captain in the army. I have been real estate investing since 2016. gotten, I’ve ended up picking up about 63 doors since 2016. And I’ve dealt with it in all types of spaces.

mobile home parks, small apartment complexes, single family. So I’ve done a little bit of everything. On the long side of it, I’ve been a mortgage broker for about two years. That, you know, I was just doing deals and then one day I just thought, well, why can’t I just give myself the best rates, you know, and the best deals? So that’s kind of where mortgage broker came in. And that is, you know, that is kind of the world I’m in now.

And you know, that’s, you know, that’s a small introduction on that part. You know, we’ll focus on obviously I want to focus on a mortgage broker side. Kind of what we offer, but it’s kind of just a cut and dry introduction as well.

Pedro Pereira (02:54)
It’s fantastic. love it. definitely catches my attention how you’ve been able to start off in the business investing and then you decided that you wanted to work on this on your own and sort of get those loans the way that you needed to. So it takes a lot of initiative as I mentioned before, know, self-made man over here, someone who ⁓ definitely should be proud of his work. in the climate of these days and days, it’s not very easy to be a mortgage broker. The market is, you know, very inconsistent, very volatile. So how exactly, you know, what’s

What’s been the key thing that have you been doing to keep this machine running so smoothly?

Adonis McShan-Teague (03:27)
Yeah, mean, you know, we, you know, being in a military, we focus on VA loans, but you know, we do FHA, we do USDA, there’s conventional, we got DSER products. So, you know, it’s really about just being versatile, you know, and having a versatility of clients, right? So, you know, we do a lot of VA loans. It’s one of the better products out there, you know, 0 % down, up to four units, you know.

Loan you know the loan limit being anywhere from almost two million dollars on the fourplex in some places So you know it’s just kind of being you very You know speaking from one. You know I’m speaking from his experience, so it’s you know it makes it a little easier to be able to talk people through it and kind of that’s how I have been Trying to stay afloat in these rough times, but you know it’s been pretty good though

Pedro Pereira (04:17)
That’s great to hear. Yeah, these loans are definitely something that people are going to be looking into to be able to acquire homes. So it is something that being there and being present in the market, you’ll definitely be able to catch some fish in the sea. All right. Now, as well as everyone could be doing, as well as we want to paint our business, every operator I know has a moment where things really got real, where they might have faced some challenges or maybe a deal that went sideways. Something had to pivot fast from. Do you mind sharing one of those moments with us?

Adonis McShan-Teague (04:28)
Yep.

For me, mean on the long side, I haven’t had that happen personally. you know, mean, there’s every loan has its own challenges, especially when you’re talking like, you know, any government back loan, FHA, VA, USDA, you know, obviously there’s people, know, income’s a big thing, credit’s a big thing. In terms of like my personal experience, you know,

The thing that I can say where is went left for me at least is uh left but I had hiccups on the road Sometimes you could get door-hungry, you know, sometimes you know what that means is You know really and analyzing the deal as much as you would mine would be Austin I bought a four-plex in Austin in 2021 and I

Didn’t do as much research as I should have done, but you know, I was going off the assumption that Austin was growing, which it is, did. You know, it’s just, that’s one of those things I’ve had hiccups where I’m like, okay, I might have bought this place and it had some work cut missed or whatever. You know, on the long side though, mean, hiccups really on the long side is just making sure your credit’s fine and income’s, you know, solid before getting into the long process. And I think that’s where most people run into, you know, issues per se.

Pedro Pereira (06:49)
And from the experience that you learned from there, have you changed anything to be able to do more research and be able to really get all the information you need on those ⁓ properties before going forward, going into the business and learning that and transferring it into the loan equity system as well?

Adonis McShan-Teague (07:05)
Yeah, I mean, you know any good loan officer is going to Thoroughly assess their client, you know positive, you know, just that’s some that’s how you avoid some of the hiccups of like a long side of it of You know thoroughly assessing their income making sure everything is peachy clean before we push out and a pre-approved, you know

Good pre approvals, when we push a pre-approval, we want it to be like, mean something, right? So when I say this person’s approved for some whatever, I made sure to do the research to ensure that the loan will close. So that’s kind of on that part. For on the investor side of it, just being cognizant of the inspection, reading it thorough.

making sure that you get, you know, make sure, you know, just making sure that you actually are involved in a process from the get-go.

Pedro Pereira (07:58)
of of course, I appreciate that. That’s definitely kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough. So I really appreciate you touching on that. And honestly, it’s what separates a lot of the folks that just kind of dabble into the industry and those who are in the game longterm, being able to evolve, being able to learn from past challenges and being able to grow from that and not only that better yourself and it is something that is absolutely key. So if I may ask, what is the thing that you’re most focused

on solving or scaling next. What is the real next goal for you in your business right now?

Adonis McShan-Teague (08:31)
Yeah,

mean for loans, know, loans out of the house, I always want to do more loans, you know, get more veterans and more houses. mean, obviously, I think, you know, everybody knows real estate’s one of the biggest factor in anybody’s net worth, you know, especially people that are…

like us right no business type deal like you know real estate usually accounts for most of your rent worth so you know I think a lot of veterans out there are missing an opportunity to

a missing opportunity to use something that they have accessible to them. Same for FHA, right? Not just veterans, but same for FHA. You have this product for you, you’re paying rent, and you could be paying, investing in yourself every month versus investing in someone else. I think focusing on that part of just getting out the information.

you know, and giving people that warm and fuzzy of like, buying a house is a big deal, but you know, it sets you up for the future. So I think you should look at it more holistically, you know. And then, know, on the, you know, that’s just the long side of it. On the investor side, I mean, obviously I’m getting into like development and trying to build apartment complexes and stuff like that. So it’s kind of what I’m doing on the investor side, but.

You know, it’s just funny because like every loan process basically is not the same, but not the same, right? There’s little small things like, you know, I’m going through a commercial lender now. you know, but a lot of stuff still remains true, you know, to be a, to ensure credit is good, you know, income’s good and just being an overall trusted buyer.

Pedro Pereira (10:37)
Perfect, perfect. That’s great to hear. And I wanted to touch on the point you mentioned that you’re really passionate about getting this information out to veterans who might not know exactly how to use these loans or what they can benefit from. Do you want to, for our listeners, just go into a quick little explanation of what exactly you’ve been doing with those loans so then in case some listeners who have not known about it could learn a little bit?

Adonis McShan-Teague (10:58)
Yeah, I you know,

I’ve used my VA loan three times. I made or built about 800K in equity over those

So, you know, I buy use it twice in quad Colorado and I use it once in Austin, Texas. And, know, it’s just, you know, the amount of

the amount of money you could save by doing the right deal or buying the right place, multifamily, going up using multifamily, being able to basically live for free or live for almost free.

there’s just a lot of things people don’t consider. you know, like

everybody always talks about like military benefits, but you know, I think the VA loan is heavily disregarded amongst a lot of people.

know,

there’s people I know that have been in military for 10, 15 years, never used it once.

And it’s like.

You know

they would have used it when they first got in at their first duty station You know the house to probably be up 200k. Maybe maybe more

So you know so you know it’s just one of those things a lot of people disregard you know,

not real estate’s not a It’s not you know, it’s not gonna make you rich tomorrow if you buy one house, right, but you’re implementing something In the future that one day you’ll be able to look back and be like

I’m glad I made that decision.

I don’t regret any house I’ve ever bought in. And I’ve lost yet on any house I’ve ever bought in. I’m a big believer in just following history versus, I know it’s scary, it can be scary, but if you just follow history, you will see that real estate really doesn’t fail us. There will be bumps in the road, but as a whole, it hasn’t failed us yet.

Pedro Pereira (12:29)
Mm-hmm.

That’s some great insight on that. Thank you for going into detail and it’s really big It’s a it’s a space that I believe as well is not very tapped into as you can see and as you said you know, there’s a lot of Information that just people don’t have out there to be able to use those loans So I really appreciate you and your business for being able to bring light on this information And that’s especially big when you have the experience that you have as well from not only doing your own deals as well but then going into the the private the mortgage broker side of things

to able to understand exactly not only the purchasing and investing properties, but the loan portion of it as well. So you have a very well-rounded mindset of it all, which is a very rare thing. And honestly, the next move that we make can either compound or things to grow or create chaos depending on how we play it around. now…

Adonis McShan-Teague (13:14)
Bye.

Pedro Pereira (13:16)
I know that a lot of people listening here are either early in their journey or looking to level up in the real estate. And I think that they benefit hearing this from you. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what really made the biggest difference for you in either the mortgage loan side or the real estate investment portion side?

Adonis McShan-Teague (14:16)
Yeah, mean, you know, just, honestly, it’s just keeping your name out there, Like, that’s just, it’s a lot of people I don’t think put, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s important. Like a lot of people don’t put a lot of emphasis on it, but like when you’re the guy that buys houses or, you know, invest in beat up homes or tax delinquent homes or whatever, you know.

When you’re that guy and you your name’s out there with multiple realtors or multiple people around the area, you know, I mean, you build your community in whatever area you’re in, right? You know, try to get your name out there. Like I can’t tell you how many deals I’ve gotten off market with like, you know, somebody, a realtor a friend, they’re like, hey.

this person is losing their house or they just want to get out of it, it’s beat up, they don’t want to put on the market and they’re like, hey, I know you buy houses, like you’d be interested in this. Like honestly, I have not gone out and actively done any type of advertisement for any deal I’ve done in last like two years. It’s all been just word of mouth from other realtors, just people I know and being, know, just people that know me as a guy that buys houses or investing homes, right? So, you know.

know

some deals aren’t as good as others right but regardless like I have not had to do any active advertising it’s always been just like hey got this person house beat up and you know would you just be something what would your offer be on this type of deal so you know that’s just kind of why it’s important to kind of get your name out there you know do your research get around like-minded people and you know

Be in those crowds that so that you know, you don’t have to necessarily always have to go look for the deal It may come to you one day

Pedro Pereira (15:54)
Of it’s great insight. Thank you for that. All right. So this has been a great, great podcast. Before we wrap up, if we had someone who wanted to reach out to you directly, connect, maybe collaborate, what would be the best way for them to reach you?

Adonis McShan-Teague (16:08)
Yeah, I mean, I’m on, you know, obviously anybody could text me number is 575-496-8091. I’m on Instagram and I’m on TikTok. I do a lot of TikTok videos, you know, but on TikTok, it’s all educational stuff. It’s about dollars, ⁓ about dollars on TikTok.

Pedro Pereira (16:18)
Perfect.

Perfect.

Adonis McShan-Teague (16:25)
So you know, can follow me on there, hit me up or text me and I’ll respond. You know, you got any questions as always, I’ll be there, you know what mean? I love talking about this stuff. I talk about it all day, so I don’t ever get tired of it. So yeah.

Pedro Pereira (16:36)
That’s great to hear. We’ll make sure to include all that with at the end of the podcast there. Well, perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story and most of all your perspective on this very hot topic that we have here. We need more people in the space who are doing it the way that you are to make sure that this is getting done right and to benefit people. At the end of the day, we want to put houses in people’s hands. We want to get them to be happy and have them to do it in a in very nice and hopefully non consequential way. For those of you tuning in, if you got value from this,

Make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators just like Adonis, and we will be building real businesses hopefully over here, listening to all of their experiences. We’ll see you soon on the next episode. Thank you so much.

Adonis McShan-Teague (17:17)
Thanks.