Why Tradespeople Have a Massive Advantage in Real Estate Investing

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Show Summary

In this engaging conversation, Dylan Silver hosts Bob Beall and Darren Burke, who share their unique experiences in the plumbing and real estate industries. They discuss the importance of building a personal brand, the intersection of plumbing and real estate, and the strategies for managing home flips. The conversation also delves into the current real estate market in Cleveland, highlighting its affordability and opportunities for investors. Throughout the discussion, the guests emphasize the significance of teamwork, planning, and leveraging technology to succeed in their respective fields.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Bob Is The Plumber’s Website
    • Bob Is The Plumber on Youtube
    • Bob Is The Plumber on Instagram
    • Bob Is The Plumber on Facebook
    • Robert A Beall on X
    • Darren Burke on LinkedIn
    • Search Cle’s Website

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Bob Beall (00:00)
  Well, you know one of the books that I read many years ago said you always make your you don’t make your money when you sell the house you make your money when you buy it so you got to buy it below market cost

  And the other thing too is, again, being a plumber, I do have the advantages. Everything that you can’t see where there’s plumbing, you got to figure out a way to see it. And by that, I’m referring to a sewer line or water lines under the ground. One of the houses that I flipped that Darren and I sold and it had a heating system in this concrete slab was the rate of forced air heat.

  I was able to camera that system so I knew what was under the ground. Sewer lines, camera them, water services, check them out, make sure if it’s old galvanized lines, you gotta move on. You gotta know what you’re gonna get into. So try to dig below what you see to know what you’re gonna put in for repairs.

  Dylan Silver (02:22)
  Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guests are Bob Beall and Darren Burke. Darren is a Keller Williams agent out of the Cleveland, Ohio market. And Bob is a master plumber licensed in five states. Bob also holds a bachelor’s degree in business and is a real estate agent in Pennsylvania and Florida. And he slipped over 50 homes in his career. And he’s legally blind. He’s a motivational speaker as well who uplifts others in the trades and beyond. You can find Bob online at Bobistheplumber.com or

  on all his socials. is the plumber. Bob and Darren, thanks for taking the time today.

  Bob Beall (02:57)
  My pleasure. Our pleasure.

  Dylan Silver (02:58)
  Now we were talking before hopping on the show here. You guys are actually in Manila in the Philippines and I’m talking to you from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and we’re gonna talk about plumbing and real estate today. How cool is this?

  Bob Beall (03:12)
  Fabulous. It’s amazingly, it’s amazing.

  Dylan Silver (03:14)
  What time is it over there? It’s 9 a.m. over here.

  Bob Beall (03:18)
  9 PM at night. Right? Yeah.

  Dylan Silver (03:22)
  We’re going to be ⁓ watching back this podcast and it’s really just remarkable how these connections are being made because like I said, we’re talking plumbing and real estate and we’re in two totally different parts of the world, but real estate has enabled us to have this conversation. Now I was ⁓ watching your socials, your TikTok and Instagram and you’ve got really a tremendous brand.

  I actually want to start there and ask you about building a brand as a plumber. It’s not something that I’ve seen too many people do. When I think of the trades, kind of think of folks who may have a book of business but don’t necessarily have a social media brand. When did that all come about for you?

  Bob Beall (04:05)
  I started about April or May of this year. Had some other adventures going on and I was looking for the next step of life.

  I just started it and been learning my way through every curve of it from buying equipment to knowing where Riverside FM is to Spotify and everything. It’s been a learning curve.

  Dylan Silver (04:30)
  Now, when we talk specifically about scaling a business in the plumbing field and not just your brand, but also what people can do to retain clients and gain exposure. Most of the time when I think of this, I kind of think of spheres of influence. That’s at least the plumbers that I know. That’s how they’re operating. But once you get to a certain point, now you’re you know purchasing

  marketing, you know, you’re having maybe ad space for newer plumbers who may be just starting out, you know, they’re somewhere along their journey, right? They might not be a master plumber just yet. They might be a journeyman, right? What advice would you have for them if they’re thinking at some point in time about, you know, scaling their own business and brand?

  Bob Beall (06:05)
  Tell them to think twice about it, no, with more so seriousness. A plan. You have to have a plan. How are going to fail? I mean, how are you going to fulfill your dreams? The number of calls you need per day, your average call to build up, you know, to support your advertising.

  It’s much simpler than soldering a pipe together or cleaning a drain. You have to have a plan. No plan is a plan to fail.

  Dylan Silver (06:37)
  Now, I want to ask Darren this question. When we think about, you know, outreach and marketing as a real estate agent myself, I know both of you all are real estate agents as well. It’s just part of my everyday life. Like I’m just always conducting some level of outreach, even when I’m not even thinking about it. I’m, you know, dropping in real estate or investing in something that I’m doing. When you see

  you know, Bob and then and then other people in the plumbing space get more into maybe the kinds of marketing and brand awareness that we might be doing. Do you think that this is a general trend that will will continue in the trades or do you think that, you know, most of the trades people are probably going to not necessarily have that level of brand that we might have as realtors?

  Bob Beall (07:27)
  Well, no, I think it’s evolving because I think it’s easier now with the technology for everybody to actually put themselves out there and build a brand. I think with the advantages that AI brings us, it really is going to offer a lot of, I think, separation, but also ability to really for an individual to maximize their growth. And I think you’re going to see a lot of separation.

  in all markets, in all those different fields.

  Dylan Silver (07:57)
  Yeah, I mean, when we talk specifically about, you know, building a brand from from nothing from the ground up. I mean, I again, ⁓ Bob, looking at your channels, you told me you got started not even a year ago, and you’ve got so much up there. You can really see that, hey, with a focus plan, it doesn’t take, you know, years of effort, but you can start to build that brand and have gained credibility through the website through having multiple social media channels through being on

  podcast, having your own podcast and putting consistent content out there. One of the things that I noticed about your bio that’s interesting is you haven’t just done the plumbing. You haven’t just been a real estate agent, but you’ve done 50 flips. And so I’ve always said, you know, people who are in the trades should do some type of real estate investing because they’re the best people to work on homes. How did you get started with the flips? When was your first flip?

  Bob Beall (08:53)
  Oh, man. Actually, my first flip was back in the 80s. Yeah, 88. I was just on the light.

  Dylan Silver (09:03)
  Okay, that point

  in time, were you involved in the plumbing field at that point or was that even before that?

  Bob Beall (09:13)
  No, I’ve always been involved in the plumbing field. You know, they started plumbing with my dad back in 1984. So plumbing just came natural and you know, luckily I was blessed to learn from my dad and some other builders the insides of construction, which makes a flip much easier to know, you know, to know what load bearing walls are versus a non load bearing wall. And then I personally believe in surrounding yourself by good people. I mean, this is how Darren and I, we actually went to high school together.

  Dylan Silver (09:37)
  Yeah.

  Bob Beall (09:43)
  And we, we’ve reacquainted when I was looking for a realtor to sell a couple of the flips that I did over the years and we’ve reapplied it, but 10 years ago. Yeah, probably 10 years ago. And, ⁓ it’s a, it’s an important role to have put a good team, you know, all the gurus that teach you this thing is they preach about a team. So, you you need a team, you need a good general contractor, you need a good plumber, you need an electrician. The mechanics are important.

  Uh, and a good realtor, you know, and, and, and, know, we’ve called one over commission and he’s in Darren used a phrase one time that I’ve quoted several times. Do you want me to list your house or do you want me to sell your house? And, I think that putting yourself around by people that have that attitude and that demeanor helps with the whole process. Agree? It’s true. And you know, one of the, one of the first times he called me, he was actually struggling to sell a home.

  that had been on the market 80 some days with no activity. And so he asked me if I’d go look at it was listed with his, uh, another realtor. And, um, yeah, I had to pull back brush to get in the house. And then, you know, there was a leak in the ceiling and there was, you know, there was just a lot of, a lot of issues, very overgrown around it. Can you see the front of the house, the bathroom needed some love as far as just to make over. So

  I actually brought in a couple people and got some quotes and just said, look, it really was a couple thousand dollars, a ridiculously small amount of money. Bob’s like, go for it. So I authorized the work and we relisted the house and sold it in two days. to me, the benefit of having someone like a Bob or a contractor is

  the way realtors search for new business that you have to search for trades in the same way. You know, have to find those trusted others and have them as a part of your network to help you on these flips, you know, or buying houses and just getting them ready for a rental. Because that’s one of the biggest things I think.

  Bob Beall (12:29)
  Yeah, I I have my license but I’ve never listed one of the houses I’ve flipped myself. I use Darren, he finds me houses. The only reason I have my own license is so I don’t have to bother him every time they need a lockbox key or whatever. Keeps it simple. But you know, even though I have my license, but I’m a plumber, I do what I do best. Okay, he’s a realtor, he does what he does best and we hang out in Philippines together.

  Dylan Silver (12:54)
  Now, when we we talk specifically about managing flips, one of the things that flippers always talk about is you have to have the right people on these flips, both because you’ve got to make sure that deadlines are being met, but also because you don’t want to have to go back and redo some of the work. And the big things that come up that I’ve seen are plumbing issues, electrical issues, foundation issues. I’d throw in maybe a roof as well, although

  a roof ⁓ maybe less complicated to fix than pervasive plumbing or foundation issues. For folks who are not licensed plumbers and don’t have a background growing up in the trades or in construction, what advice would you have for them if they’re interested in getting started with flips?

  Bob Beall (13:41)
  Well, you know one of the books that I read many years ago said you always make your you don’t make your money when you sell the house you make your money when you buy it so you got to buy it below market cost

  And the other thing too is, again, being a plumber, I do have the advantages. Everything that you can’t see where there’s plumbing, you got to figure out a way to see it. And by that, I’m referring to a sewer line or water lines under the ground. One of the houses that I flipped that Darren and I sold and it had a heating system in this concrete slab was the rate of forced air heat.

  I was able to camera that system so I knew what was under the ground. Sewer lines, camera them, water services, check them out, make sure if it’s old galvanized lines, you gotta move on. You gotta know what you’re gonna get into. So try to dig below what you see to know what you’re gonna put in for repairs.

  Good advice. Make sure. Yeah.

  Dylan Silver (15:17)
  Yeah, yeah, I mean, when we talk specifically about not knowing, right, that that’s, that’s a huge issue, right? For folks who everything seems good on maybe a superficial or surface level, and then they start, you know, maybe doing some level of rehab, and then more issues arise. I’ve seen this time and time again. And it’s one of the risks of flipping, right? Is that especially if you’re someone who’s not from the background of the trades, not from the background of construction, that

  you might purchase something that has now pervasive issues. so when we talk about, you know, risk tolerance, some people say, okay, I’m going to buy just on market properties that are already rental grade. Other folks might say, hey, I’ll buy maybe something that’s, that’s off market or maybe something that needs some light rehab. But then you’ve got folks, I’m imagining I throw this, you in this category, Bob, who are comfortable with more of a full rehab based on their experience and their scope.

  Bob Beall (16:13)
  I mean, every time he gets one that’s a total rehab, I’m his first phone call. Because he knows when I go in and do them, I take them down to the studs. One that we did that he brought me was, you know, I put an addition on it. And again, it was just a little slab house with the block walls. I mean, basically everything was new except the exterior walls and the roof.

  You know

  Dylan Silver (16:39)
  Darren,

  I want to ask you this. Sorry to cut you off, Bob. Darren, I want to ask you this question. know Cleveland, Ohio, which forgive me, I’m a little bit ignorant on Cleveland, but I’ve had many investors tell me that they’re looking at Cleveland and it does seem to be one of these secondary markets that is a hot area. Can you, for myself and for folks on the show who may be interested, what’s the market like for

  real estate investors in Cleveland. there properties that people can find on the market? Are there a lot of great off-market opportunities? Are deals penciling out there?

  Bob Beall (17:16)
  Well, one of the great things about Cleveland is it’s one of the last vestiges of affordability in the United States. So, you know, the average price points in Cleveland are among the lowest in the nation. And so we have that going for us. Cleveland’s never going to be big, huge swings, you know, where a lot of the markets have gone down around the exteriors of the country in Florida, Texas.

  California and some of those areas, Cleveland is still in the seller’s market. And so we are in still a tight inventory market. However, you know, even with that, there’s less multiple offers than there used to be. And with the affordability, there’s a lot of consistency in being able to buy there at a lower level. You know, one of my friends is from Toronto where

  price of houses is close average price points about a million and a half, you come down to Cleveland and buy something for less than $200,000, $150,000, $200,000. So it really is a much more attractive, easy entry to get in.

  Dylan Silver (18:27)
  We actually are coming up on time here though. Where can folks go to reach out to you Bob and where can folks go to get in contact with you Darren?

  Bob Beall (18:37)
  Well, for me, can Google Darren Burke Realtor and ⁓ searchcle.com is my website and bobisaplumber.com. Everybody watch and just scroll down to the bottom of the website, fill out the form and get some swag sent to you. I’m just trying to build a brand for myself and become that credible person in the industry.

  Dylan Silver (19:00)
  Darren and Bob, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for coming on the show.

  Bob Beall (19:04)
  Hey, enjoyed it.