Lost Your Home? Here's Why You Could STILL Be Owed BIG Money! 💵 (Must Watch!)

You made a person $400,000 who lost their property to a tax foreclosure?

That's correct.

How?

When they lose a property, let's say they owe the county $100,000, and that property goes to sale at the auction for 500,000, the owner that lost that property due to defaulted taxes is owed that 400,000. The county has a fiduciary duty to let the owner know. But what a lot of the counties do is they send it to the property that they lost that they're owed this money. So 90% of owners that have lost their property due to tax deeds or foreclosures don't know they're owed this money.

What's the percentage you think of people that get the overage money?

Probably 20 to 30%.

Okay.

There's over $4 billion worth of excess proceeds out there ready to collect. However, the caveat is, a lot of these counties have redemption periods. So if they don't collect that money, then it goes back to the county, and the county keeps it. Most people, all they want is, what, you got some extra money for me? And I don't have to pay anything up front. I'd be like, no, nothing up front. I just need you to sign this agreement allowing me to help you find this money. And if I find it, then I get a fee.

Welcome to another episode of Brick by Brick with Charles Noonan. Today I got a very special guest, somebody who I admire, who just goes absolutely crazy online with the amount of money that she makes. I have. I am MCOM Coleman. Mika Coleman in the house. How are you?

I'm great. How are you?

I'm doing well. Awesome, awesome, awesome. All right, so you focus on tax deeds, and you're a tax deed and overage educator.

Correct?

Right. But we got to just jump right into it. We got to crack into it, like, right off the bat. You made a person $400,000 who lost their property to foreclosure to a tax foreclosure.

That's correct.

How? Tell us how. That's, like, crazy.

What most people don't know is when they lose a property, let's say they owe the county $100,000, and that property goes to sale at the auction for 500,000, the owner that lost that property due to defaulted taxes is owed that 400,000. And so basically, I teach people how to go after that and get a commission. So my commission from that 400,000 was 140,000.

Absolutely crazy. That is absolutely crazy. Something that I've never heard of. I heard of overages before. Could you just explain it to where, like, I could understand it or anybody could understand it. What are overages?

So I would like to say, first off, that it's called excess proceeds. I personally use it overages because it makes sense. It's over the amount that would have been owed to that county or to that mortgage company or to that bankruptcy. So, like, let's say you owe the mortgage company 200,000, or you were behind in your taxes, 200,000, and all of those go to sale for, like, 500 or 600. Whatever the amount that you owe to the county, you get the overage. The owner that lost it gets the difference.

Okay, so the owner that lost the property has a right to the money that was sold over what they owed in taxes.

Correct.

How do people typically go about recovering that money if so first, they don't even know that. That they could get it.

Well, technically, the county has a fiduciary duty to let the owner know. But what a lot of the counties do is they send it to the property that they lost that they're owed this money. So 90% of owners that have lost their property due to tax deeds or foreclosures don't know they're owed this money.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah. Yes.

So. But I would assume most people forward their mail. Is that not the case?

Not everybody.

All right, so some. Most of the time. What's the percentage you think of people that get the overage money?

I would say it depends on the county. I would say probably 20 to 30%.

Okay.

There's over $4 billion worth of excess proceeds out there ready to collect. However, the caveat is that a lot of these counties have redemption periods. So if they don't collect that money, then it goes back to the county, and the county keeps it.

Okay. Interesting.

Yeah.

So you. You started a business helping people get over. Get their overage money back.

Correct.

Can this. This works in every state that has.

Tax deed, sales tax deed, and tax lien sales. But tax deeds are more prevalent. And what I mean by prevalent is they happen in certain states every month, whereas tax liens is a little bit more of a process, because it's a lien, and then you have to get a tax deed certificate in order to sell it. But you can do this in pretty much any tax deed state, and there's 19 states in the United States that have them.

I see, I see. Talking about. Could you just explain to people that don't know what's a tax deed, what's a tax lien. And do you know the difference between those and land banks?

I'll try out with the land banks.

Give us tax deed, give us tax liens. So you're the first person that, that I have on here that is educating people on tax deeds and tax liens. Okay, so let's go.

All right, so the way I like to explain it is they're all tax liens, but there's a difference on how you can acquire them. So if you are a tax deed investor, if you go to an auction and you go and you bid on a property, you get that deed for that property, a tax lien, you get a certificate. But they all, they're all tax liens at first. They're just a different way of how you get them if you are an investor. So the tax lien, you get a senior certificate and it's a percentage you get on that certificate. And once it's matured, maybe it's a year or two, and then you could turn it into a tax deed and then you acquire the property. And as far as land bank, land bank is what, what I, how I discovered land bank is if those properties aren't sold at the auction, they go to a land bank. And then you could get those properties directly from the county, which I used to call them before I met you was over the counter because you could go directly to the, the county and purchase those properties.

I love hearing somebody else have to say a definition because every interview I do, they like, so what's a land bank? And I gotta be like, a land bank is a public entity whose sole purpose. Right. And I have to give that definition. So I had to put you through that just because it's done to me all the time. But isn't it weird explaining it once you understand and know it?

Right, right.

Yeah. So yes, land banks are a form of over the counter ways that you can purchase property. Land banks usually are properties that didn't sell in the tax lien and tax deed sale. But what I like about land banks, and we'll talk about overages too, what I like about land bank properties is the fact that the land banks have the power to wipe away all the liens and encumbrances on the property.

Yes.

So oftentimes the reason properties don't sell is because they didn't make sense in the tax lien and tax deed space because they may have had the mortgage still on there. Maybe an IRS lien or something was on there that made the tax lien indeed. Investors not buy it. Profitable, right? Today's episode of Brick by Brick with Charles Noonan is sponsored by unsoldland.org Unsoldland.org is your one stop shop for everything land. Unsoldland.org has property in the available states. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and many, many more. Prices start as low as $1,000. Unsoldland.org go there for anything land. They will also finance your land as well. Back to the episode. Make sure you guys like and subscribe. Thank you. It just didn't make sense. So it falls into the land bank slab. The land bank clears it up and then here we come, right? That property that once was no good, now we get to buy it. Clear, Clear. Free and clear.

Yes.

So one of the biggest differences I like to share with people about tax liens and land banks is that land banks, land bank properties come free and clear of any encumbrances. Tax deeds may have some liens on them still.

Some of them just depends on the county.

Yep. So do you invest or did you or are you just at the point where you just help people with overages and get that money back? Because I'm about to ask you, what was the commission on that or what did, what was your take on that? 400,000?

140,000.

A hundred and forty thousand. So do you invest in tax deeds and liens as an investor?

Yes. What I like to teach, especially my one on one clients, if you. Some people have cash, some people don't. But I like to teach them to do the overages first. So it's like a hundred, it's like infinity roi because you don't put any money into overages. It's just knowledge and research. So what I teach my one on one students is to get the cash from the overage, take that money and invest in tax deeds. So to answer your question, yes, I've purchased tax deed properties. I like to do what I call straight deeds, investments. Those are in California, Oklahoma, there's a few other places. And you get the deed and you could just basically buy that property and flip it, do whatever you want with it.

Please give us the top three tax deed states or straight deed states. Top three. You just look like you had 20 of them. Give us top three. Top three. Let me fix it. Let me fix your mic because I think I feel like, okay, there we go.

I don't know the top three. All I could say to be completely transparent is the top three that I've done, which is Nevada, California, And I want to say Texas, but Texas isn't. I've basically done the over the counters in Texas.

You have a six month wait, waiting.

Period, but you have a six month waiting period in Texas.

And then you own them outright.

And then you own them outright. Unless like you said, Land Bank, AKA over the counter, you get them, you know, straight.

Oh, yeah, there's a Houston Land bank, too.

Oh, my gosh, that is just phenomenal.

Yep.

That's actually the first. That's the first city that I went to when I first started was Houston. And I'm so glad I went there first because I thought every tax auction was going to be like that. And that was like the by far the biggest one I've been to besides Oklahoma.

Awesome. All right, we're not getting away from that check. 140,000. What'd you do with it? Did you blow it?

No.

Was that your biggest check ever?

Yes, that was my biggest check ever.

What did you do with $140,000?

I invested it in some stocks and I just re. I keep reinvesting in either my business or tax deed auctions.

Okay, so you're buying them to resell them?

Yes. So my strategy, because for those that don't know me, I've been in real estate for 20 years and I've done everything, when I say everything, in real estate under the sun. I've done everything in real estate under the sun from fix and flipping, buying and holding. I've done it all. And so for me, as I get older, I just want to. I get like a 50% or higher return on my investment. So my strategy is, and I have a list of investors, if I could buy it right, and make 50% on what I purchase and sell it to an investor, that's what I do. So my personal strategy is just wholesaling. So I buy properties really cheap, make sure that there's enough room for me on the bone and enough room for the investor, and I'm done with it.

I love that strategy. So you have your investors first that say, mika, I want. I'm looking for one acre or a quarter acre in Houston in this particular county. You'll go there, buy it, and then just sell it to them. So that transition time is small. That whole time that you have it typically is small.

Yes, depending on the state. So I kind of stay away from Texas unless I'm doing land bank or wherever.

Where's the state that you do this at?

Oklahoma, California, Nevada. I love those. You can. Yes. Super cheap. Yeah. Those you can do the time period in order when you get the deed and transfer is rather quick.

Yeah, they do it. They. So I took a group to the Oklahoma. To the Tulsa, Oklahoma, auction.

Okay.

They do it once a year. But what I found unique is that all the counties do it on the same day.

Yes.

So I was like, I absolutely fell in love with the auction. And here's the unique thing about the auction in Oklahoma. The cashier, as you buy, you pay.

Yes.

So you don't have to sit at the auction. Some auctions will wait till all the properties are sold, and then everybody has to line up and pay. The Tulsa, Oklahoma auction, which we're going to go annually, you buy and then you just go cash out. And they record it, I think, next day, right?

They do. Yeah. It's really quick.

So you actually have ownership right there. And then you. Can you sell those right away?

Absolutely. And I have a list of investors. And I mean, it's good for individuals that just wanted, like, just see how. Just go to an auction. Just get your feet wet. Go out there, get experience. You don't even have to have experience. Just go. And it's crazy because I have a list of investors. One time I purchased property at the auction. I had, like, four people come up to me. I was like, we'll get that. We'll take that from you. And I was like, okay, well, you know that there's a process. I was like, let me go pay for it. Let me get your number, how much you want. But. Because they already know how much I bought it for. But yeah, basically, there's never a short of investors to buy property. You just have to know how to buy. Like you said, make sure there's no encumbrances on the property and make sure you get your. Your percentage, what you want. And I'm. I'm all about everybody winning.

So, yeah, bro, what you think of that? You like that idea? Yeah, I think it's a great idea, bro. Would you. Well, give me an amount of money someone should. I get this question all the time. Give me an amount of money someone should take to an auction. I feel like I'm asking you the questions that they ask me. It's like. Because in my mind, I'll be like, what are you thinking? Did you not get the list? Do you not know? Are you. I get to ask you. That's. I'm enjoying this. How much money, Micah, should we take to the auction, man?

It's interesting because you said Tulsa. That was my second biggest auction, and I went with 10 grand and left with five. So each one was like 2,000. It just depends how. I'm from California. I moved to Texas because I purchased a lot for $750. And I was like, is everybody sleep, or am I the only one woke up? Because I was like, everybody must be sleep or something. Like, I was like. Or like, you know, when you're not familiar with the area, which I think most people fear if they're new. They're like, okay, I must have bought a piece of just, you know, Crap.

Yeah.

And so I purchased it. I had drove by it. So I was like, okay, it's a piece of land. I had never purchased land before.750. I sold it for 15,000. It was worth 30. But on 750, I was gonna be happy if I made three. You see what I'm saying? So to answer your question, my philosophy is whatever you have. My first student brought her first tax deed property for 500. She told me she had 3,000. And I was like, okay, well, I only want you to use half of that, which was 1500. And we found her something for 500. So.

Nice.

It just depends on your budget. I feel like there's a budget. Do you tell people that there's a budget for everybody?

Yeah. I got land banks where you can buy for $300. One of my team members bought 13 properties for $300. He sold them for $3,300 each. So he now gets. And he did seller financing.

Awesome. So now he has.

He gets $3,900 a month, every single month.

I love it.

Crazy, right?

I love it.

And it's just the confidence to do it. So I teach. I tell them to do it. I tell them what to do, how to do it. I created an acronym called Africa that teaches people how to buy land before they go to the auction. I like land because it's a lot less carrying cost.

Oh, my gosh.

You don't have to shovel. There's no electricity. There's no water bills. There's nothing.

No. Yes. Best thing ever.

Yeah. So that question I get all the time, so I just wanted to throw it on you just at least one time. All right, so you help people with overages, and I love that because it doesn't cost you anything. Nothing. You find the overages, you find what's sold. You call them, say, hey, I could help you get this money back. Do they ever circumvent you and just call the auction the county where they lost their month, their property?

I think for people I Get this all the time. People that go on on their own and do it because they don't really know what to say, and they tell them everything. Of course they're going to circumvent you because why would they pay you if they know where the money is? Yeah, so I just train people to just, you know, use different wording, but absolutely, you know, new students. And if you're not really trained, if you tell them where of course they're gonna go, and they don't what they need you for, if you tell them where the money.

So how do you get them to hire you? You say, oh, I got money for you, but I'm not tell.

I don't tell them where. I don't. I just say I work with several different government agencies to help you get the money that I believe you deserve.

Okay, so they hire you, do contracts. They like, oh, let's go to where you foreclosed on your house. His 200,000.

So this is a funny thing. There's one county that I work in, it was mortgage foreclosures. And when I tell you, the people were like heated, upset, cussing me out, threatening me. So, like, you don't want to talk about something because it's a sore subject for some people that have lost. So I don't even go there with people when I'm talking about that. I. Most people, all they want is, what, you got some extra money for me? And I don't have to pay anything up front. I'd be like, no, nothing up front. I just need you to sign this agreement allowing me to help you find this money. And if I find it, then I get a fee. Simple.

I love it.

Simple as that.

It's funny because people over complicate so much.

Tell me about it.

Like teaching somebody that I feel like I can do that based on what you told me. And I wouldn't put anything else on top of it. I would say just that. But teaching people, do you find that they just go backwards sometimes they just.

Do too much, Too much, just do too much. I said, keep it simple, kids. Just keep it simple.

For all of you people that are learning from people that are actually doing what they are teaching, keep it simple. Don't over complicate these concepts. And they be asking me sometimes, how do I say this? How do I say that? I'll be like, dude, you just did it go out. But no, you know what? Sometimes people don't know how to have a conversation.

This is true. Or they, like you said, they. They're afraid. Like you. Like you said, I heard earlier you were saying you just put everybody in a room and it gives them the confidence to do it.

Yeah.

I just think people are afraid. But I'm here to tell you, 20 years of experience, you just have to do it and you'll get over the fear. But I think the biggest thing is people are just afraid. Yeah.

That's how I think mentorship is. A lot of mentorship is about confidence. Giving confidence to do stuff.

Exactly.

Because they hear us tell it, They've heard it before, but they just don't understand. They just don't have the heart to do it. Absolutely. All right, so we figured out how much or you. You shared with us. And I appreciate that, how much you made. But being in this business, since you started your own business, tell me about what your biggest loss was.

I wouldn't say it starts with this business. I think this is like one of the best businesses that I've started. And if you invest and do right, you will never lose in this. And I could guarantee that you would never lose in this space. For one, over just. You're not putting any of your money up front. There is no investment but your knowledge and your time, even though time costs. But you're not putting up any physical money. Tax deeds. Of course, if you're buying something that's landlocked, that's not worth anything, of course you'll lose. But I think my biggest is I'm probably dating myself, but 2008, 2009, my biggest loss in life, and it took me a long time to recover from. I was buying properties all over the United States, and I was doing it the traditional way. I was, you know, getting financing, getting mortgages. Owned about 10 rental properties, and I was property rich, but cash poor.

Oh, I teach against that all the time. Yeah, I hate that, that people lose their money, their houses, they work so hard for 200 a door. That's the worst.

It is. And I just feel like that's the poor man's way. And I heard you say it earlier, too, about the brr. It's like the worst.

Yeah.

And so that's why I love. I love what you're doing brick by brick. Land bank properties. And I mean, that's why I do tax deeds, and land bank is just. That's even better. I would choose that first and then tax deeds, but I vowed myself, after pretty much losing everything, that I would not mortgage and leverage my personal credit like I did.

High five to that, please. Thank you. One more. You do not need to do these big mortgages to make this little bit of money.

That part. Oh, my gosh. But you know what? It's. Even if I could be completely transparent, as much knowledge as I have, I think we're brainwashed. It's like, it's almost like we may know better, but we often don't do better.

We don't. We don't know better and we don't know better.

Yeah.

So here's a theory of mine, okay? Development is the biggest secret of real estate.

I agree. 100.

I say it all the time. Every construction site, they board it up, they cover it. They don't show you how easy it is to build. They build fast, right? We see it built fast, but they don't show us how. They don't teach us how. But if you just think developers have this like secret society, right, where they never gonna tell the secret of how they make millions and millions of dollars. So here's what they do and here's what they make popular. They get the land for really low cost. They build for really low cost. They're going to sell it on trulia, zillow, redfin, realtor.com. they'll even sell these properties to investors. The investors are going to do what? Rent it out, cash flow it, refinance it. Some of them are going to flip it. So what they're. What is glorified in the real estate industry is the fix and flip. For years they've been saying, doing that if I'm a developer, I'm not glorifying. Oh, yeah, I just made 200,000 on the house you bought for 359. No, let's not tell them that.

Right?

Let's tell them to go fix and flip it to burr it, buy, renovate, refinance, and repeat, pull all the equity out. So now you have nothing.

Right.

You took off all the money.

More debt?

Yes, more debt. You put your money that you bought it back in your pocket and then it just. It's a cycle of flipping the same.

Say that again. It's a.

It's a cycle of flipping the property over and over. And everybody's flipping it and they're waiting for mortgage rates to go down so they can pull more money out or resell it. Now they could sell it for a little bit more. But the reality of it is the real money, the guy made $200,000 in four months. He built it and sold it. He took his 200,000 off the table. Nobody else is making $200,000 off that property for years to come. That part it's going to flip, flip, fix, flip, value, add. Now that's the new thing, right? Value, add, value. So go paint it.

It's awesome.

Put new windows and now rent it out for market rate. It's a game.

It's a game.

It's a cycle of like, it's a.

Poor man's game to me. It's like a cycle of illusion.

It is a cycle of illusion. I may use that term. And, and I'll be asking people, I'll be like, so who you know, got all that? Got a bunch of doors, that's rich. And they be like, I can't say. I don't know, I don't know. Then we dig into the richest people in the world.

They're developers.

Ooh. That was not planned on rehearsals. This is just the facts, right? Going back to Fred Trump, Donald Trump's father. Fred Trump was a beast in real estate. Donald Trump took over beast mode as far as branding and branding. The name, right? Trump, Trump Towers, Trump Taj Mahal, like they branded. But it was development, development. Where it came from. The Bob Johnson's, we hear, the Don Peoples, we hear. Right. The developers.

Yes.

We don't have a bunch of rich people that say, I got 82 prop, 82 doors and I'm killing the game.

Right.

We don't see that. They say, I got 82 doors and headaches. Everything else negative. The balance in a portfolio and, and pulling money out and it's, it's wildness.

Yes.

But yeah, so I cracked the code and that's why I started. Once I learned development, I immediately, immediately changed the concept of what I teach and how I teach.

That's phenomenal. You're, you're godsend. Like there's not that many people that are teaching.

Yeah.

The strategy that you're teaching, let alone know from. I forgot what you said. It's profit. Like, no, it's. What are the three Ps?

It's four. So now that we're in the south, it's four. Because years after the Civil War, we actually own 14 of all of the available land at that. At that point, we were buying every affordable and available piece of property that we could because we understood that ownership was the pathway to freedom. We knew that if we owned. We don't have to pay anybody anything.

Correct.

We got away from that. We lost a lot of property through heirs property. And that came from us not trusting the system to hand the properties down when we passed away. So we didn't do Wells. We didn't do trust. We didn't know. We didn't have succession planning for our younger generation to take the properties over. So we lost them. Right. That was big in the South. So now I teach how to pick, purchase, profit, and protect your first property.

Yes. I love that. I love that. And Charles Noonan. Did I say her name right?

Yeah.

Was born to come and regentrify the South.

Really? That's how you feel?

That's how I feel. Because you took it back to history where we had it. And honestly, I know you know this from experience, and I see it too. Oftentimes it's like, why they didn't pay the $300. And it's nine times out of 10, because it wasn't passed down. The heirs didn't know. And so people are losing, but you're coming back and you're stimulating it with our people, which is absolutely amazing. It's phenomenal. Like, hands down, like, you were born to do this. Like, that's. That's your godsend. Because so many people don't know that it is possible. You know what I mean? Like, a lot of people, like, when people come across, even taxis, they're like, wait a minute. You mean there's no mortgage? And that's my strategy is I don't no longer want to have a mortgage, of course, not unless I'm gonna build, like, my, you know, dream home. But, like, there's a way to do it without being the traditional way.

Yeah.

And you're teaching that, and it's. It's phenomenal. I was listening to one of your other YouTube videos and how you're talking about, like, developing. And it's funny you say that, because I have a play Big Brother. And he was fix and flipping. And I was like, well, how much do you make off of each one? He was like, between 40 or 50. And I was like, you know what? I was like, you know, there's a program where you could get lamb for a dollar. And I said, I could show you how to make a hundred thousand off of each one. And I knew he was really good. Now he's building. He's building all over Dallas.

Of course he's building. Building is where it is.

Right. And he's like, Mika. He was like, oh, my God. And it was crazy because I knew him in high school and he. He was an NFL player, and he had friends that kept telling him, but I don't know why he trusted me.

Yeah.

Because I never build. But I do understand numbers.

It's the Confidence.

It. I guess it is. And I was like, you know, you can make a hundred thousand that doing the same thing. And I said, once you get the numbers down, it's like cookie cutter, like probably exactly what you're doing, how you're saying you're going to have the pamphlet and you're, you're going to help people step by step on how to do it.

Yep.

And it's not as hard as people think it is.

It's way easier.

It is. It's really. It is really easy. And I'm so happy that you said in February you're going to have this.

Big thing and conference. Yeah. So the conference in February is Let's build Birmingham.

Yes.

Bringing 500 people to Birmingham, Alabama. I'm going to teach them the strategy of how to pick, purchase, profit and protect land and their first investment property in Birmingham. But I have to tell you, it's way easier than building and this than renovating. And this is why if you were to do the roof over so you buy a vacant property or you buy a property from somebody that you're going to fix and flip and the roof needs to be done. So they now have to take the old roof off. The demolition cost shingles, the plywood, the sheathing. Right. They take that off. To put new on plumbing, you got to dig up all the plumbing. You got to bust the concrete in the basement. Right. To get to the main trap, the main line, you got to bust the walls up, going all the way up to do new plumbing and everything. Whereas if you were building, they dig the footing, the foundation, they do the plumbing there. Right. They just lay in the plumbing down right there. There's no double work. They put a foundation, they put the framing up. There's no taking apart to put back together.

Right.

Building, you're just putting together. It's. I think it's easy. My builders shout out to, shout out to Manny, who has, who's a builder in Alabama. Shout out to my guy Russell. Shout out to my guy Steve. These are African American builders that are, that will be in Birmingham at the conference that are there to serve and build for our people.

That is amazing.

Yes. So they don't love the renovation work. They're like, dude, if you buy that house, I'm tearing it down and we starting over.

I agree 100%. I have like a triplex I bought for like 10,000 from a taxi. So. And I really, just really want to tear it down because I'm like, piece by piece.

Yeah.

Putting together and I'm sure, it's a lot cheaper to tear it down, but one of the things I think your program offers is you have your entire team there. Like, you just shout it out to your builders. And I think that's what's really important is like having a team that you could rely on that you know, that's dependable to, like, just get the job done.

That's everything in real estate.

Yeah.

I'm only successful there because of them. There's no way. I don't even go, I'm going to do like a ribbon cutting on tomorrow actually, to one of my properties. And I went maybe three times most. And they're just sending me pictures. I'm watching on the camera the house being built simple. And I don't want to dig too much into why that's better. We are here to talk about you and what you got going on. Let me say this. Can. Would you like to come to the conference?

Absolutely.

I'm happy to invite you. What state do you live in?

Right now I live in Texas.

Texas. So how far is Birmingham away from you?

I think it's an hour plane ride.

Oh, cool. All right. Yeah, we definitely gonna be locked in.

Yes.

All right, cool. So the negatives, the low point, the horror stories were when you own 10 fix and flips, thinking you were doing the right thing. Did you lose them?

So, yeah, when I was in my late 20s, I. I wouldn't say I lost everything because I'm in real estate. I was, you know, I saw the fall of the demise coming down, so I was like, getting rid of everything to the point where I had renters, so they were paying a mortgage, but I was like, almost destitute. So I was taking the rent money and using it to live. Oh.

Because I don't know what to say about that.

Well, let me just tell you because I think, and this is a key point, I want to say, to, like, the people that are traditional. Yeah. What people don't realize what I learned from that whole thing. The biggest pitfall was I had all my eggs in one basket, meaning I was an agent. I was investing in real estate. I was also dibbling, dabbling in loans. So when the mortgage industry, which funds everything the traditional way, came to a screeching hole. I have no money.

So you was going to collect the rent on a house?

Literally. I mean, I'm being completely transparent. Like, your girl was like, what the heck am I gonna do? Because that's all I knew was real estate.

All right, let me get this straight. So you were Going to collect. You were going to your tenant's house to collect the rent for the mortgage of the property, and you were using it for your own living expenses because you were in survival mode.

I was in survival mode, all right. That's why I said I was property rich but cash poor. Like you were saying the brr. Like you refinance. I was refinancing and then putting it into another property. And you keep that going. Literally my overhead was like 30, 000amonth to keep all those properties afloat. And even though I had renters in there, like, I still had to make that mortgage if they were late, you know, so what it taught me was, first of all, single family is for the poor man, in my opinion. If you want to be like you said, you never heard anybody saying, I got 120 doors and I'm a millionaire. That's just. It's.

It's not uncommon. We don't know how honest they're being about how much money they're making per door. That part they don't really. They won't really share that. They talk about the number of houses they own, the number of doors they have.

Yes.

Not how little they make.

That's the. That's the clickbait.

Yeah.

$120.

But look, we. I'm. We not. We're in a non judgmental zone.

Right, right, right.

Educational zone. Right now we're just saying, hey, look, you want to make $100,000, build the property and sell it, be a developer. That's all we're saying. We're not knocking. If you're trying to get to a thousand doors and you think that's the way, like, go for it. I just want to be the guy who told you you could probably do this in a better way.

Right. Work smart and not hard. I wish somebody would have told me that because I was like, literally, I would fly into a state and buy something the traditional way.

Yeah.

Had I known what I know now, I. I'd be a multi millionaire.

Yeah.

You know, it's not.

It's about the education. That's why we're here to educate. Right. All right. So. So you down. You down bad. I know people that got wiped out from real estate and, and ran away from it. So during that time, me and my friends sold our properties and we made money from it. That was the first time that I was like, I considered myself to be rich because I was doing the no income, no asset loans back then.

Okay.

Buying up everything that I possibly could. And my Just like studies, forecast of the market. I knew that it was time for me to pull out. We were doing things. We, we had rooming houses and most of these properties. So just imagine, will you chop it up. You don't rent out the whole unit. You rent out rooms. Separate rooms. Okay, so let's just say a three bedroom. We would rent out the living room and the three bedrooms and charge 150 a week for each. Each room. And we was making so much money that way.

Wow.

Just my luck, though. That concept was wearing thin on us as owners, on me as an owner, because every single week I had to chase people down for money. It was a headache, it was a problem. It was getting violent. It just got bad. But we were like, hey, if we could just make $200,000 off of selling these houses right now, we are good. We sold.

That's.

So I honestly, I made like $200,000 per house back then.

Wow.

And we got out the game. I was afraid to go back because now the bubble busted. What we once paid $200,000 for is now 4, 5, $600,000. The same exact houses. So it was like, oh, these numbers don't make sense. How are people doing this in New York? The market comes back now New York is seven, eight, nine. A million dollars for a three family. And I never got back in. It just the numbers didn't make sense to me. So that's where I started to buy land bank properties. And I'm like, oh, a thousand.

Cool.

I could do that all day.

Right, right.

And that's where I really started my land bank investing journey.

Okay. Yeah. I think people get afraid after, like, for me, you asked what was like the, my biggest pitfall, and that was me. I didn't even know I was a millionaire until I had to file bankruptcy. I didn't, I didn't even know I had that many assets. And I, I know real estate is my passion because I could do it all day, all night, and I have to make myself go to bed sometimes. And I knew for me, because I am an entrepreneur at heart, there's no job, no career where I could go back out there with the knowledge I have and make a hundred grand in 60 or 90 days. There's. There's no way. I'll never forget my first deal. And this was me, like out of the gate, like brand new. No, I wasn't an agent. I was nothing. All I had was my courage and my confidence and belief in myself that I could do this. My first deal now I could have made 150,000 on that deal. My first deal was 80,000. I told my sister to quit her job. She's six years younger than me. I said, we're going into real estate.

Nice.

And I never looked back. I never looked back after that. I was like, people work 12 months out of a year to make that. And I made that in 90 days.

I tell my friends, quit their jobs all the time.

Yeah. But one of them.

One of them hates me for it because it's like. It's embarrassing, but, like, the reality of it is there's so much money to be made, so it's hard. Some people want to work, some people just don't. And some people wait till they get fired to join a program or to start investing or then they got to start with a struggle budget because now they're worrying about bills and everything. And it's like, the best time is when you got money, right? The path is drawn out clearly for you, and then you got to just be able to take that dip. So you said something to me I didn't know that you mentioned just now. You filed for bankruptcy.

Yes.

Did you cry?

I had to have a come home to Jesus talk with myself.

And what you say, like, girl, this real estate thing ain't for you?

No, I did not say that. I was like, how can I do this smarter and faster to build my empire? Because at that time, I was like, oh, I'm on a trajectory. I'm a retire when I'm 40 years old. Because at that time, rich dad, poor dad was really big, and I was a Robert Kiyosaki fan, okay? So I was like, I have my investment properties. I was like, in my late 20s, I was like, about, you know, in 20 years, I'm like, shoot, I can retire. But nobody prepares you for the pitfalls. Nobody tells you about the struggles, the downfalls, or, like, if something happens. So I always tell people, if you're investing in real estate, always have an exit strategy. Don't put your eggs all in one basket. And those are the things I learned. But I didn't cry. I just was like, how can I do this? A lot smarter and faster because now I don't have time. You know, I got more years behind me than I do ahead of me. And so that's how I came about the overages and the tax deeds. Because I was like, overages. I don't have to put up my personal credit. I don't have to put up. I don't have to have a job. You don't you don't have anything. All you have is your knowledge and your time. And like I said, I made $140,000 with just my time. And literally, once you have them on the hook, all you're doing is texting them, you know, and that's. That's automated, you know what I mean? And you just wait for the check.

I love it.

So that was. That was my mindset, and I wanted to say that like you were saying about, you know, people, friends and jobs. And I get it because sometimes people have families they need, you know, health insurance. They can't just quit their job. They can't just be like, all right, I'm about to go on this real estate thing. I had never done it before. I'm about to just hop out and just, you know, go and do this real estate thing that I've never done. You. You got. It's all about a mindset, and you got to have the courage. So it's like when I filed bankruptcy, I was just thinking about, how can I do this a little bit more efficient. I know I'm not the only person that has lost everything. I'm. I know I'm not the only person to have bad credit. So there is a way. I just got to figure it out. And I think when you open your mind and you believe in yourself, that is possible.

Yeah.

The sky is the limit, man.

That's it. That's. Belief is the biggest thing that part. Belief is the biggest thing. I have people that will question the hell out of me. They just don't believe they could do it.

I just be like, all money ain't good money. I'm like, you ain't ready.

But they're our people, so I don't give up on them. But it's just a matter of they don't.

They just don't. I'm sorry, I can't.

They don't care that you. They. They think you did it 150 times was just a one off situation. You're. You got magic. You're lucky. It can't be done for other people.

Yeah.

Even though other people in our community are doing it right. Every once in a while, I get someone that just feels like they can't do it. They just don't believe. And it takes a while. Where I come from, I understand those people. I understand people that don't believe in themselves. I understand people that. That there's people that never won anything. Right. There's people, you can give them something, and they're so happy. And they say, oh, my God, I've never won anything. I've never whatever. And it's like the confidence is what, like I said before, we have to give people. And then once they get the confidence, is game over.

Yep. Well, that's why I said, you're heaven sent. Because I don't have the patience for the people that don't believe. I need the people that just need a little bit of inspiration, a direction or direction. Because one thing I have learned about in life, and I've been an entrepreneur the majority of the life, the best thing my mother ever taught me was she's like, mika, don't find a job or career. Find something you love. And it's like my passion. And I just. I realized you could try to help people, but unless you change your mindset, which is part of your belief.

Yeah.

You're gonna always be wherever your thought is. You know, they say, what's that book? So a man thinketh. He is. There's a book called that. And I really, really believe that.

If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you're right, you can't. All right, so what would you say is the thing that separated you from all the other people that had 10 properties, eight properties failed, flat on your face, went through bankruptcy? What separated you? What made you different? Because it hurts. You gotta tell friends, family, yourself, like, whoa. Like, because you thought she was killing it. At one point, when they offered you to get the 9th one, the 10th one, you thought you was killing it. You fell, which is. Which is fine.

Right.

I don't know millionaires. That. And I'm going to ask you a question about, is struggle necessary after, I don't know, a lot of millionaires that didn't fall.

Right.

So what separated you from all the people that fell to. Now you have this super dope niche that costs nothing but time, energy, and belief.

I'm just going to go back to mindset. I. My mom always told me that I always had the tenacity that when I put my mind to something, there's nothing I can't accomplish. And I just really think it just goes to mindset. And like, you said belief. Like, I was like, I was making millions in my 20s.

Yeah.

So it was like, you know, I think there's this also saying, they said they could take everything away from you, but if you have the knowledge, there's nothing you can't accomplish. So even though I lost everything, and I'm not gonna lie, it hurt. I was like, underneath A rock?

Yeah.

Like, and then I had woke up one day and I was like, I had that. Like, I said I had to have a come home to Jesus talk with myself. And I was like, look what you have accomplished. You're not even 30 yet. You can do this again. And I think it's important, like people like you surrounding yourself like people with you and knowledge. And I think we're in that stage where there's a wealth of knowledge.

Absolutely.

I think what separate me from everyone else is the will and the mindset.

Right. You know, I used to think, I used to see a lot of courses, mentorships, everything. It started with mindset and I used to skip it.

Oh my gosh, give me five on that. Give me five on that. Cuz that's exactly how I felt like skipping it. Yeah. Like, I'd be like, I just need to get to that money. I just need to make this money. Forget my set. Forget my why everything Mindset.

There was a mindset period where it's like, all right, so we got to start with mindset. I'm like, all right, forget it, I'm out.

Right.

Like just. Just show me the money.

Right?

Yes. Like, you bullet point me, go to the county, they overpaid, say this to the people and get the money back. Make them sign and you want. That's all I needed. But I didn't realize that is such a mature mindset.

It is.

Your mind is saying, oh, I'm a kill this. Mika made $140,000. I know it's possible. I'm a crush it. I'm gonna skip the mindset part. It's a heightened mindset that or it could be a really low mindset where you like, this is scammy. I ain't listening though. I hate when they start with mindset.

Right, right.

And you just ain't gonna do it. You don't have the killer mindset. But if you have it, you're like, I don't need that mindset stuff.

Right. But you really do.

Yeah, yeah, it's important. I skip it sometimes. I skip teaching it sometimes. And I always kick myself when somebody comes back and says, well, how do you know that this will work in this county with this town? And how you know you're going to find a builder or an investor? How do you know? And I'm like, wait, so we looking at 500 properties for $600 and you talking about how I know like, what?

That's why I said you're heaven sent, Charles, Because I don't have the time. I don't. Let me tell you something. I don't have the patience for that. I'm sorry. I don't.

But, yeah, understand our people, they've never. We have never been taught certain things. We've never been taught that you can build a property. We're not wired that way. The American dream is what?

To get a job and buy a home.

And buy a what?

A home.

It's not. Build a home.

Right.

The. You know, the builders. American dream. Build a home. I keep saying this over and over. My friend told this to me. My builder friend told this for me. He. He be like, yo, y' all think y' all having a housewarming when y' all buy a new house and you invite everybody over? Wait till you see my house warmings. Because when I build and sell it, like you paid $800,000 for. I made $300,000. My house warmings are way warmer than yours. You invited everybody to your housewarming for a house that you bought that you're.

Gonna have to basically, like, pay for 30 years. 30 years. And most of the time, that's tied to a job that you can't leave because you're tied to that mortgage.

Yeah. Then you have your kids, and then you get a car. You get the car because you got the credit. Right. You got 800,000 on your credit now. So now you popping. Now, you could go get that car, and then you really caught up in the cycle. You might be in an American nightmare when they start laying people off where you work that part and you stop.

Actually, you should do a video on that. The American nightmare.

American dream versus American nightmare.

Yeah, that's a good one. That's a good one.

I see builders struggling. I don't see builders say, man, I can't make no money off of this. But. All right, cool. So you teach, but you select what your. I could tell you your enrollment process is hard. It's strenuous. How do you. How do you accept? How do you determine who you accept and who you teach?

To be quite transparent, I. When I get on a call with someone, I just listened to their conversation, and I'll never forget this one guy, and he didn't sign up, thank God. But he kept asking me questions, and he was like, well, you're not pushing me, and you're not encouraging me. And I was like, I don't think that's my job. Yeah, like, that's just not my job. I. I am here to inspire and encourage people. Like I said in the beginning. And you don't have to do it in real estate. There's so many other ways. But I feel for our people is that we haven't been taught to believe in ourselves. So I think like my channel is not only to educate but also inspired. That you could do anything, right? Anything you set your mind to.

Yeah.

And so like to answer your question, I just listened to the conversations and ask them questions because to make a hundred and forty 000 without investing a dime takes tenacity, it takes patience, it takes research, it takes persistence. And so I don't want you investing your money or my time if you don't believe.

Yeah.

And my time is valuable. Like I could make that on my own. But I like you how you are wanting to help others. I want to help others, but I also want you to help yourself because I don't want you to have to depend on me. I always believe. Teach people how to fish and they'll never come back and they. And then they'll teach someone.

Yeah.

So that, that's just one of my beliefs.

Awesome.

Yeah.

So you have a nice conversation. I know you do. Your cohorts, your masterminds. What else do you have where people can learn this strategy from?

I have my YouTube channel.

Okay. What's the name of it?

It's Tax Deed and Overage education is popping.

27,000 subscribers. Tell. Tell my audience where they can find your YouTube channel, please.

It is leverage MDB, tax deed and overage education on YouTube.

27,000 subscribers. I love it. Do you have a, like a small course, an extended course, and a mentorship? Where do they find that?

You can find that@ leveragemdb.com leveragemdb.com I love it.

And what we got here? What's this?

That is my book.

So you got receipts in here too? I verified. I'm looking at this check right here. $402,199. Thank you for being a receipt. Right. But what's the book? Tell me what's in the book.

So my book is the Best Kept Real Estate Secrets and it's how to buy tax deeds and how to make money with overages. Sometimes, you know, people don't know me. Everybody's doing something. But I'm so passionate about this that I sat down and wrote a book about how you could get into it. A lot of times, what I have been, what I want to say, because I've been in real estate for so long, sometimes I forget that the average person doesn't know a lot of things in real estate. So I wrote this book to break down everything that you may not know as far as, like, apn, you know, assessable parcel number, different things like that, but also to how to invest in tax deeds and how to do overages. So I wrote this book. You could find it on Amazon. It's just a way for you to get to know me, for you to get to know this niche without investing a lot up front.

I am so happy you wrote that book. I'm so happy that you teach and share. I appreciate it. And I'm personally inviting you to let's build Birmingham, because I want you. I want people to meet you. And just like, we have to normalize people like you that are saying, yes, you can, of course you can. Why can't you?

Right, Right.

Why. Why are other people doing something and you don't feel like you can do it? I want them to see your success. I want you to be in the room with other people. So I'm going to ask you February 21st to the 22nd, will you come to Birmingham to. Let's build Birmingham.

I will be there.

I love it. All right, so that is gonna. We're gonna stop right there. You said yes, right?

Yes.

So that wraps up this episode of Brick by Brick with Charles Noonan. Guys, like, subscribe, Follow as well as, like, subscribe and follow her YouTube channel because you, like, you could never learn too much. And our industries are so similar. I think coupled together, we're gonna make some people dangerous. Yes, we are gonna make people dangerous. All right. Let's build Birmingham. Let's build Birmingham.com is our national conference where we just gonna go absolutely crazy over two days. We're gonna party. We gonna have some fun. We're gonna learn. We're gonna build, pick, purchase, profit, and protect from your first investment property. We are out of here until next time. Thank you.