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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Micah Johnson speaks with Brandon Morales, a rising figure in the single-family residential investment space. Brandon shares his journey from working in a startup wholesale company to building his own real estate business. He emphasizes the importance of transparency, empathy, and service in the wholesaling industry, aiming to change the negative perceptions surrounding it. Brandon discusses the significance of having systems in place for business growth and the emotional fulfillment that comes from helping clients through difficult situations. As he looks to grow his team, he focuses on quality over quantity, aiming to create a company that prioritizes value and service.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Brandon Morales (00:00)
Ican’t tell you how many homeowners we’ve had cry on the phone, you know, thank you so much for helping us. Like you don’t even understand how much it helped just you listening to me talk and hearing my story and helping me, you know, get this money in my pocket, pay off my mortgage. So my record isn’t ruined. I just, the, feeling that you get,when somebody tells you that like, you helped change my life. That’s better than any money. I’m telling you, that is the best feeling in the world. I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it, but it really is.
Micah Johnson (00:21)
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m speaking with Brandon, who’s been making some serious moves in the single family residential investment space. Brandon, welcome in, man. Glad to have you.Brandon Morales (02:12)
How’s it going? Yeah, thanks for havingme. Pleasure.
Micah Johnson (02:15)
Absolutely, absolutely. I’m excited for you to be with us today. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from your journey in real estate, how you approach it, why you make so sure that transparency and staying service oriented is utmost in your values. So let’s dig in on that. For people who may not know you yet, what’s your main focus right now and what markets are you operating in?Brandon Morales (02:37)
Yeah, main focus right now is building the team. pretty fresh into building my own company, but not fresh in being in the industry. We’re about, say, seven months in. So the goal for this year is one, to continue to build the company, continue to build a team, hopefully start to scale so that way we can service more people. Because right now we are in Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri. That is like our main markets where we really dug our roots in. But we are starting nationwide.So we’ll see how that goes, but we’re putting ourselves out there. So hopefully we can service as many people as possible this year.
Micah Johnson (03:07)
Nice!And what’s your main strategy that you’re using right now?
Brandon Morales (03:17)
Right now, wholesale innovation, typically assignments.Micah Johnson (03:20)
Okay.Excellent. Excellent, man. Well, take us back a little bit. Like you said, your current company is about seven months old. How long ago did you get into real estate and what was the path that led you to where you are today?
Brandon Morales (03:32)
Yeah, it was a little bit of luck involved. know, six years ago, I was, to be honest, doing Gordache and Instacart. I wasn’t in the best place. I wanted to find something that was going to change my life. So was actually going to get my license and be an agent. And I just happened to stumble upon an Indeed listing for a startup wholesale company, which I had no idea what that was. So I thought I was signing up to do something as an agent. And I went in for the interview. ⁓ended up getting the job and from there within a year I became the sales director so for the last five years I’ve been hiring, scaling and building teams for that company and we went from sub million to a multi-million dollar company over the last five years so that’s what I was doing with them very blessed gained a ton of knowledge over there very grateful for those guys so my yeah my journey isn’t like a lot of people who just start fresh with wholesale and things like that I
Micah Johnson (04:22)
I am from that.Brandon Morales (04:29)
Luckily was able to learn a lot, to learn how to run a business, a real estate business, and to learn how to build teams and things like that and build sales processes. So I’m very blessed in that aspect.Micah Johnson (04:41)
Well, I want to point something out there, man, is for those of you listening and watching, I highly recommend Brandon’s path. You don’t have to just jump into real estate, start your own company. There’s so much you need to learn and there’s so many moving pieces where if you can find a way to make a day job, pay for you to learn, like get to make, put yourself in the position to learn the industry while you’re still getting paid.Brandon Morales (04:48)
Yes.Micah Johnson (05:53)
Man, that’s on the job training is what it is, especially if youLet me ask you this, when did you know you had that entrepreneur bug that I think I want to do my own thing? Did you always know? Did it come about later?
Brandon Morales (06:04)
It came about later. I’ll be honest. I thought I was going to be with those guys forever. I loved what I did for a great portion of it for a while. ⁓ And then as I started to hit that ceiling, which, you know, working for somebody who eventually will, I realized I just had so much more that I could give and so much more growth that I could attain. And I started to feel stuck, wasn’t performing at the highest level. So that’s really when those thoughts started to creep in. I was like, Hey, you I’ve,I’ve seen what I’ve been able to do with these guys and I’ve helped them scale this thing. I’m the one building the teams, building the system. Like I can, I think I could do this on my own. I had a baby, you my first baby girl, she’s two, about to be two years old. But once you have a kid, everything changes. And from there I was like, okay, I can no longer think small. If I’m going to do this, I have to do this now. You know, I feel like this is my, my chance to that I do this now or I’ll be here forever. And I just wasn’t.
Micah Johnson (06:36)
Right.Congrats.
Mmm, it’s good.
Right.
Brandon Morales (07:03)
Okay with that. I took the jump, I took the leap. It scary. It took a while, but best decision I’ve ever made.Micah Johnson (07:10)
Well, it had to give you a ton of confidence going into. mean, there’s always the what unknown when you’re opening up your own thing, but how much information you took in with it had to help a ton with that, right?Brandon Morales (07:22)
Definitely, 100 % because I felt like I already knew what systems I needed to put in place in order to build the foundation, which I think for a lot of people is the hardest part. They’re just kind of willy-nilly trying to do deals, but they don’t know how to build a business. And that’s how you really scale.Micah Johnson (07:38)
Right. Like building.Exactly. You build a machine that trades in real estate is what the best do. It is not hope. You’re not wondering. You are. It’s a highly dialed in thing where it’s very measurable. And it gets to the point where it does get boring, but that’s the beauty. Once it’s boring, it’s beautiful, baby. Like that means it’s it’s working and you get to get the focus on those things and grow. Exactly, man. Once you get that flywheel spinning, it is a
Brandon Morales (07:45)
Exactly.Right. We’re getting there. We’re getting there.
Micah Johnson (08:08)
things can really catch on. So as you look at this new year and you’re wanting to grow your team, what is it that you’re looking for and the people you want to bring on? What’s important to you?Brandon Morales (08:19)
A big thing for me is it has to be, I don’t say a good person, there’s plenty of people out there, but they have to align with what we’re trying to do. And what we’re trying to do is maybe change the, how do I put this, like the impression that people have about wholesales, it’s wholesalers and wholesale companies. It’s not, from what I’ve heard from people, it’s not the best look, but at the end of the day, I think when you lead with transparency and really stop looking at it as like a get rich.quick type thing, which I think a lot of newcomers do and start looking at it as, I’m providing a service. These people that I’m helping are real people. They’re clients who actually need help. And when you go into every transaction, helping people, that’s how you build longevity and you build a real company. So the people who I want to bring on are people who are hungry, people who want to actually help people and people who aren’t just, hey, I need to make a ton of money and I need to make it quick. So I want to do this sales job just to
Micah Johnson (08:52)
Right.Brandon Morales (09:17)
just to hit a million and splurge and for social media, that’s not what we align with. We really are value focused, value based.Micah Johnson (09:20)
Right.And your experience has to play a huge part in that, because you nailed it, man. ⁓
A real estate investment company, it is a service product when you’re wholesaling and no-baiting. When you’re assigning deals as your main mode, you are a service to someone who’s going through a really hard time. And that’s what most folks don’t get about this industry, especially single-family residential. You buy a house at a discount because of very specific reasons. It’s not random. It’s not just someone woke up and said, I want to sell my house for way under the equity that I have in
Brandon Morales (10:38)
All right.Micah Johnson (10:38)
You’regoing through something hard and typically they’ve been going through it for a long time, right? Like pre foreclosure and foreclosure is a real popular place to get good deals from. However, the person you’re talking to, that’s the most embarrassing thing they’ve probably going through in their whole life. They are not happy about like, it’s a very hard situation. And for those that have shown up in the industry just wanting to take seeing it as only numbers.
Brandon Morales (10:56)
yeah.Micah Johnson (11:05)
They created that bad mentality that doesn’t see man. There’s a human behind it all. Yes. The investment side has to work on numbers. We are deal finders, not deal manufacturers, but the human can never be forgotten because once they get forgotten, it all falls apart. It doesn’t work right anymore because they can smell it on you. Someone going through a hard time to smell commission breath quick. They can tell when there’s that pressure versus someone that’s like,Brandon Morales (11:19)
Right.yeah, 100%.
Micah Johnson (11:33)
Even if it’s not me that’s helping you, here’s how you get out of what you’re dealing with. Okay. Like I understand what you’re going through. I’ve dealt with this situation before and you start laying out those blocks. It’s like the age old adage. No one cares what you know until they know that you care. And when you can show up with that service heart upfront, I’ve personally walked it out in my own career. It is a game changer in real estate. It really is.Brandon Morales (11:49)
Thanks.yeah. And just to piggyback off that, it’s one thing. Yes, we can make a lot of money doing this. We’re making a lot of money for the service that we provide, but how much more fulfilling is it in the long run?
can’t tell you how many homeowners we’ve had cry on the phone, you know, thank you so much for helping us. Like you don’t even understand how much it helped just you listening to me talk and hearing my story and helping me, you know, get this money in my pocket, pay off my mortgage. So my record isn’t ruined. I just, the, feeling that you get,
when somebody tells you that like, you helped change my life. That’s better than any money. I’m telling you, that is the best feeling in the world. I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it, but it really
Micah Johnson (12:30)
Yeah. Right.Brandon Morales (12:36)
Like how many times have, how many times do people tell you that in your lifetime? I won’t even lie. I’ve had that more than I can count on my hand and most people will never get to experience that. So that’s why I look at this the way that I look at it because we really can help people at a tough situations. And when you find that right person who actually needs that help and you see it,Micah Johnson (12:37)
It is. ⁓Right.
Brandon Morales (12:57)
point A to the finish line, it’s just that much more fulfilling.Micah Johnson (13:02)
It is, it is man, you’re saying it. I know plenty of people have experienced that same thing where they are thanking you for the service and actually happy for you at how much money you made and think you’re worth every dollar, which is so opposite of the mentality of the takers, where if you only worry about the dollars, you’re leaving millions on the table. Millions, there’s so many people that won’t work with you because they’ll just sniff through that. You’ll get plenty of low hanging fruit, but you won’t get the meat of where thatreal estate market really is, which requires the relationship part, requires you to talk to them and understand. And if you’ll take that time upfront,
The rest of the transaction, even when things go a little bit south and you need to ask for renegotiation and you got to go down some, it’s not a mystery to them. They understand why you’re doing it and what the point is and how it still helps them along. And it’s not, that’s what I found when I had that good relationship and clearly explained how the numbers work, because it’s just not a mystery. We don’t need to hide it. I like how you’re being transparent. It just is what it is. This is how it works. It either works for you or it doesn’t work for you. And most people it doesn’t work for.
Brandon Morales (13:49)
Mm-hmm.Exactly.
Micah Johnson (14:10)
Like, what is it like 95, 96 % of deals in real estate do not work for a wholesaler. So you shouldn’t be getting that many yeses, but the yeses you’re getting should be super high quality because that’s what gets those deals closed.Brandon Morales (14:15)
Right.100%. And I’ll say this because I don’t have a lot of issues with like people backing out or trying to sign for a higher price with other people. And that’s what happens when you do business the right way and they feel like you’re actually trying to help them. You won’t have that type of fallout.
Micah Johnson (14:39)
Right? Right. Because they know they don’t feel like they’re just something another cog in a system. that’s man. Someone actually caring is the secret sauce. I learned it from How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, where he talks about the process of how you talk to people. But if you don’t actually care, none of it matters.Brandon Morales (14:44)
Mm-hmm.Micah Johnson (15:41)
None of it matters at all. Like it is a technique 100 percent. But the secret is something that only you can apply, which is actually caring.And don’t stop in your career until you can actually care. We all have paths up. if you notice yourself, like even what you notice, you’re doing great, building this other thing, thought you were going to be somewhere forever. And then the ability to actually care leaves. I can’t care about my team the same way. I’m not caring about these the same way. OK, so what do we need to do? Where’s the way out? What’s it look like? OK, for me to restore that in my life, this is that next step.
It makes complete sense to take it. have the experience. have the background. I’m not just running and gunning this. I can now compile these two and pay that emotional paycheck and that financial paycheck.
Brandon Morales (16:31)
Exactly, and it’s not that hard to care. For everybody out there, it’s not that hard to care.Micah Johnson (16:36)
It’snot. It’s really not. It’s really not. Because it has zero to do with you. It’s something I tell my 12-year-old daughter. We’ll be walking around and we’ll go on walks and I’ll ask her, if someone walks by, say, you wondering what that person was thinking about you? And she’d be like, how’d you know that, Dad? I said, because they’re wondering the same thing.
Everybody’s just wandering around what other people are thinking about them. So if you can step outside of that and actually think about other people and put yourself in the position, it’s, like a secret hack to life because most folks are just walking around like that. And when you can just step out and enter their world and create space, they’re just like, Whoa, this is different. This is new. And it, for my 12 year old, she’s like, man, that’s crazy, dad.
Brandon Morales (17:01)
Right.Hahaha
Micah Johnson (17:24)
I never thought of that. And I’m like, maybe girl, nobody’s thinking about you. I think about you all the time. Daddy’s thinking about you, in the big scheme of things, honey, you worry about stuff that nobody else is worrying about.Brandon Morales (17:30)
Yeah.Right, great life lesson for her.
Micah Johnson (17:38)
Right, man. Hey, real estate teaches all the way down. got it. Your two year olds are going to know too, my friend.Brandon Morales (17:42)
Real estatesales will change your life 100%.
Micah Johnson (17:47)
That’s it, man. That’s it. I started taking my daughter when she was two, actually. That’s right when I got into real estate. I have a picture on my phone. My first deal I ever did as a realtor. She’s standing with me on the car and it’s just like, man, that’s so cool to see. Anyways, we’re tailing off, however, but it all ties in together, man, because real estate, it allows you to do that. It allows you to be around your kids. That’s one reason I went into it was, hey, I want to see my family more. I was in the medical field before.Brandon Morales (17:58)
That’s cool.I love it. Love it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Micah Johnson (18:13)
I didn’t see them. I didn’t see my daughter for like her almost her first year of life. And that’s when it hit me like, Hey, Hey, no, no, I don’t want to do this anymore. This is not the life I want. It doesn’t matter because no matter how much it was paying me, I was miserable. I was miserable. And it’s like, okay, what’s next? What’s that relief valve? Where can I go?Brandon Morales (18:14)
Go.Pump the brakes. Yeah.
Yeah.
Time is the real wealth.
Micah Johnson (18:36)
That’s it, man, that’s truly it. And it makes sense. One thing I love about what you’re talking about too, and I wanna point other folks out, you clearly identified that because of your experience, you realize real estate is a system and a process business. You set it up, you make the machine go, and it spits it out at the end. How has that helped you with your consistency in these first seven months of your new business?Brandon Morales (18:59)
I think it’s been great. ⁓ And I think as I’m getting ready to start hiring, start building the team, it’s going to help me set whoever I bring in here up for success. That’s a big thing. And that’s what for everybody who’s listening, if you’re going to start this and you really want to whatever company you’re going to build, like the systems that you put in place are going to dictate whether you have longevity or whether you don’t. If you don’t have systems and you’re all over the place, well, it’s going to be really hard to grow anything. Sure. Maybe you’ll do, you know,Micah Johnson (19:22)
Right.Brandon Morales (19:29)
100K year or anything like that. But if you really wanna do big numbers and scale, you have to have the systems dialed. So for me, everybody for like so far in 31 weeks, we’ve done 129,000, we have like 160 something assigned. And a lot of people tell me, oh, you’re doing great, you’re doing so fast, that’s crazy. But to me, I feel like we should be doing more, but it’s really just because of the systems that we have in place. It’s helped us, I guess, move quicker than.Micah Johnson (19:52)
Right.Right.
Brandon Morales (19:58)
most.Micah Johnson (19:59)
It’s building for growth too, because like you said, you got to skip some steps by doing it a great way. Learning from a company that’s already doing it. Borrowing, getting information from other people. It is the way to do real estate. It’s not a mystery, y’all. It is not a mystery. The best in the business all do it the same exact way. it’s, they may have different style of team meetings and different culture, but the nuts and bolts of the business areBrandon Morales (20:06)
Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah.
Micah Johnson (20:26)
marketing dialed in sales dialed in accounting dialed in legal dialed in. Like it’s these certain things that you got to have those dialed in. And when you have them now you built to scale. And I, that’s where a lot of folks see, like you’re saying get messed up. They’ll get in there and get a few deals. They’re like, okay, I got some extra cash laying around. Let me go send out a bunch of marketing. And all of sudden now you got stuff coming in. can’t even do anything with it. Now it’s like, you’re all discombobulated and you’re trying to piece together things in different orders. AndBrandon Morales (20:28)
Mm-hmm.Micah Johnson (20:55)
Some folks figure it out and they actually become successful. Most don’t. Most burn out. Most get a wrong idea about what’s actually happening. And that’s what really showed me. I love belonging to different groups. And my first one I was a part of back in 2022, holy cow, when you get into a room with high level folks that…Brandon Morales (20:56)
Exactly.Yeah.
Micah Johnson (21:17)
have the heart to share that same kind of mentality of transparency and how to do good. Holy cow, man, you go, it showed me the process is the shortcut. You want to do this fast, learn the process. That’s as fast as you can do it. There’s no other way that’s faster that’s sustainable.Brandon Morales (21:28)
Mm-hmm.Yeah, learn from the people who are already doing it. They already set the blueprint. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Micah Johnson (21:40)
Right.And a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck there because we want to be inventors, right? I think we mix up inventor and entrepreneur a lot. it’s, ⁓ people have been doing real estate a long time. The system is there. Go learn it. And again, what I love those high level people, if you ask them, they’ll tell you, they’ll say, yeah, here’s how you do it. Here’s some mistakes you can avoid. These costs me about five years and $2 million. And there you go. Don’t do that. And it’s like,
Brandon Morales (21:54)
Man.Yeah.
Micah Johnson (22:09)
Thank you, sir. Appreciate that.Brandon Morales (22:10)
Yeah,I’d lose a couple hundred bucks. I freak out two million. That’s a lesson. That’s a lesson right there.
Micah Johnson (22:16)
Right. Right. Like, Hey,and you don’t forget those expensive ones at all. it’s, I’m very big on the mentor space. got, ⁓ one of my mentors now he’s in his late sixties and that one’s on purpose because he can see around the bin. You’re a guy in his sixties. You’ve grown your family, built your business. You’re on a different stage of life. You can warn me what’s coming, man. What do I not see from this guy? Okay. You’re looking back and telling me brother, I want to know. ⁓
Brandon Morales (22:21)
Mm-hmm.Yeah.
Yeah. ⁓
Alright. That
was good stuff.
Micah Johnson (22:50)
So for 2026, the big idea or the big opportunity for you is to grow your team. How many folks are you looking at bringing on? Do you know yet?Brandon Morales (22:57)
Um, that’s a good question. I don’t know a hundred percent, but I don’t feel like you need to build a big team. I’m thinking by the end of the year, probably in total three closers, three acquisitions. Um, I’m currently going to be doing disball, probably at a disball agent, maybe a VA, but that’s, I feel like that’s really all I need to, build this to the seven figures.Micah Johnson (23:19)
Right?Yep. No, you can do it with a lean team, especially when you’re going national and using that strategy. So that’s another thing to think about as a business owner. Certain strategies allow you to do business a certain way where you can move around. Like fix and flip is a hard one to do all over the place because if you, got to know all the people that is a team intensive effort to do that. One person ain’t flipping a house. It is a lot of people that are involved.
Brandon Morales (23:24)
Mm-hmm.Yeah.
Yeah.
Micah Johnson (23:47)
Having that ability, yeah, man. And it lines up and it goes along with, that personality thing. Some folks don’t want a huge team. Some folks want hundreds of people. It really, as I’ve met more more business owners, it’s awesome, actually, because you get to do it your own way. you’re the guys that I know that have huge teams, they always wanted to be the CEO of something. It just happens to be real estate. Like, that’s just the thing they like to do.Brandon Morales (24:14)
Yeah.Micah Johnson (24:14)
If it was something else, they were building a business doing that too. And usually once they get bigenough, they go ahead and build a different business in an industry. got the book. But it’s, it’s, it’s just one of the things I love about real estate, how big the umbrella is and how it lets you, when you approach it, well, again, like the way I think that you did that I highly recommend find a job in the industry. If you’re struggling with cash and especially education, education is the number one thing in real estate. You have to know how to do it.
Brandon Morales (24:21)
Alright.Yeah.
Micah Johnson (24:43)
the numberone thing and it’s not just a course online. There’s action involved. It’s a bunch of things that you gotta make sure you’re on top of to be successful. Because as much as folks wanna say it’s get rich quick, to be really successful in real estate, get rich slow. is a be in it for the long game. because rich is gonna change its definition to you as you go along. When you’re younger, less money sounds like a lot more. As you get older,
Brandon Morales (24:54)
yeah.Yeah.
Yeah.
Micah Johnson (25:13)
changes like you change everything changes. You can start having real activities. They cost you money is when they’re little kids, but when they really start doing stuff, it’s like, wow, holy cow. ⁓ That’s right. That’s right, Well.Brandon Morales (25:16)
yeah.Uh-huh.
You check the wallet? ⁓
Micah Johnson (25:32)
Brandon, man, I really appreciate your time today, your story, your perspective. Thanks for hopping on with me and sharing that journey. ⁓ One thing, again, I love to showcase on this show is just real people doing it, you know, seeing what it’s like, hearing what it’s like from the back end of business owners that are across all the stages. It’s so easy that we hear like folks that have already done it accomplished and are on the way out, tell about what they went through. But to me, that’s so far away, right? There’s so many steps in there whereBrandon Morales (25:35)
Of course.Yeah.
Micah Johnson (26:00)
Talking to folks like yourself, man, it gets me hyped up. I love for others to hear that because it’s like, here’s how you really do it. This is what 31 weeks looks like in a new business after six years of this, right? This is what it really is. So again, man, thanks for being here. For folks who are following along, are listening and want to follow along with you and see what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to find you?Brandon Morales (26:13)
Just getting started. Of course.Yeah,
me on socials, I’m on Instagram, TikTok, at Brandon closes everything. And I do also want to say we have a really good team in Kansas City, Kansas, Kansas City, Missouri. So if you do have deals there, we are doing JV opportunities. We can help you with those deals. So definitely feel free to follow me, reach out to me and yeah, follow the journey. And hopefully I can provide value to everybody out there.
Micah Johnson (26:49)
Love that, man. If you’re listening to this or watching, checkshow notes. We’ll have Brandon’s links there. Follow along with a good operator. It’s one of the best things you can do is again, it’s not a guru. It’s not just a one-time thing. It’s seeing people day in and day out in this business, doing it for real. So Brandon, thanks again for being here.
If y’all got value out of today’s episode, please like this episode, share it with someone else you think would get value out of it as well. As always, please don’t forget to subscribe. We appreciate every single one of you that follows along with us out there. We have more conversations coming up with operators just like Brandon out there building a real business and creating that general wealth for their family. Thank you all for joining us. We’ll see you on the next episode.
Brandon Morales (27:06)
Pleasure.
