Commercial Mortgage Broker Secrets To Six Figures In 12 Months

Hello and welcome to the Global Integrity Finance Podcast. My name is Brian, and today I have the proud pleasure of bringing to you Terence Young with eFunderCapital.com. Terence, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great, Brian. How about yourself?

I am doing good. Rain cleared up here in the Dallas area. Go ahead. Tell us about where you're at, what the weather's like, and what's going on with your, your organization over there.

All right. Well, I'm in the great state of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to be exact. Go Steelers, right?

Steelers.

The weather's pretty good here, but then what, 75, 5 degrees 2 days ago and it's in the 40s today. So, uh, but, um, yeah, but my company, eFunder, um, you know, we, we're, we're commercial real estate brokerage and we help real estate investors and business owners get financing for whatever their specific needs are.

Nice. Yeah, looking at your website, uh, extremely nice website. I encourage everybody to check it out. Uh, very fancy, very well put together. Um, you know, you do have a lot of lending solutions on there for, for business owners and things of that nature. Can you tell us about, or maybe some of your favorites and the things that really get you excited right now?

You know what? Yeah, pretty much everything gets me excited because everything is an opportunity, right? Yeah. You know, just an opportunity to be able to help people and make money in the process. So whether somebody's, you know, they're in the fix and flips, you know, to be able to help them build out their, you know, build that business of theirs. If they're in the fix and rents, if they're in true commercial, you know, just be able to put that thing together for them to help them and watch them grow. So we're pretty much generalists here, and, you know, pretty much everything excites me. Nice.

So tell us about your business. Like, when did you get, um, started? How did you get involved in real estate? Give us some of that, the historic backgrounds, if somebody wanted to know that overview of you.

All right, well, let me tell you, um, hey, hang on here because, um, I'm old school, so Um, well, it goes back to— I just remember when I worked my first job— I mean, I'm sorry, my last job. It was like in 1998. I worked for Best Buy. I remember that. And once I left there, that's when I got my taste of entrepreneurship, right? So they got rid of the home delivery department. I was going to be let go, so I need to figure out, you know, what to do. So I did some research, found out the company they was, um, outsourcing it to. They told me how their business structure worked and I opened up a trucking company. So from there, so from there I ran that for maybe, you know, about 5 years or so. Basically what happens is I will come home dead tired and these infomercials about real estate will be coming on and it's like, it's something I wanted to do. Um, I just, I just, I needed to get out of doing what I was doing and then I finally got the opportunity and once I got the opportunity to dive into real estate, I literally let go of my, uh, trucking company and I went all in. And I went and got my license as a real estate agent in 2004, only because as a, you know, in the trucking business, trying to schedule to see properties was like impossible, right? With these agents in my schedule. So I got a license and from there, um, I started investing in real estate. Um, I ended up joining a group called, you may have heard of them, called Fortune Builders. And so, um, once I joined them and I really truly learned and I really start taking off in the industry, and I can't even, I can't even tell you, you know, how many houses I've rehabbed over the years, but I was good enough to become a Mastery Coach with that company. And so at that point, I started helping other real estate investors all over the country, you know, get their real estate businesses up and running. And so it got to a point where, um, things happen, um, '08 and all that, you know. So, uh, which wasn't bad for us as investors and everything, but it came to a point where I wanted to do something different. Um, I wanted to teach more, um, in the beginning, right? But then it kind of got— I don't want to say soured, but a little bit frustrating. And then the reason it was getting frustrating was, um, you know, some investors, they was having great success. Some investors, they weren't. And I had to sit there and I had to figure it out because they're all getting the same information, right? That's when I realized, okay, this person actually has access to money and this person doesn't. Those that have access to the capital, they take off. Those that don't because they got to figure out either owner financing or wholesaling and things like that. So they struggle more, right? So from there, um, that's when I kind of, I guess, how can you say, I just had that moment.

Yeah, a light bulb, right?

Right, right. It's that light bulb moment because I really didn't know anything about the lending side of the real estate business. And only because, you know, I just always been blessed. As many houses as I've rehabbed over the years, I've always had private lenders that I could depend on. It's literally just picking up the phone. Hey, I need $100,000. I need $200,000. I need, you know, and that's the way I operate it. So, um, the lending side is something I had to learn, right? To be able to help people because my private investors aren't going to loan to these people that they don't know. Yeah, exactly right, right, right. So I end up, um, doing some research and I picked up this book, right? And, um, I ended up reading this book and I read like 3 different times, okay? 3 times just so I could get an understanding. And so from there, that's when I opened up eFunder, okay? So what ended up happening was in— it was, um, September of 2019, you know, got on my articles, everything. Got a legit business here, right? So then, um, I put a few, um, deals together and I end up closing my very first deal in December, in December of 2019. And actually, I still got it. I still got it all, the copy of the check.

Yeah, you got your, your copy of your dollar or whatever it is, right? That's perfect, man. That's motivation right there.

Exactly, exactly. So I end up making a whole $2,112, right? And so, but I was happy. You know, first check, it was all good. Yeah, but here's the thing. In January of 2020, I end up doing a little over $13,000. In February, I end up doing a little over, um, $18,000. In, um, March, I did over $20,000. And then in that April, I had $50,000, little over $50,000 in the pipeline ready to close. And Brian, it's like, you know, I done struck gold. I found a business like I don't want to go back out and rehab, whatever, you know what I'm saying? I found something that there's nothing that can stop me. And then, like, out of nowhere, wait a minute, what? A worldwide what? A pandemic? What is that?

Ah, so hit your heart, huh?

Yeah, man. So basically from there, um, basically that April, that $50,000 that I had in the pipeline They pretty much all died because lenders were going out of business. Um, but it taught me a very valuable lesson in this business. And what I found out is, you know, every lender isn't necessarily a true lender, right? Every lender isn't— doesn't have a sustainable business. And what I mean by that is, you know, me and Joe Smoke could go out and get us a million-dollar line of credit. And we could start lending on deals. And when we package those deals and we sell them to the secondary market to make our money back, to keep replenishing and keep doing it all, hey, we could make a lot of money. But when that secondary market shuts down, then what, you know? So that was a very valuable lesson, but it taught me to dig deeper to see who's still out there, who's Who's still out there lending? Who are the true lenders? And I'm blessed to be able to find, you know, lenders like you and the other lenders that I deal with where I know that you all are sustainable. But that's pretty much how I got started.

Yeah, that's great. And nowadays, I guess you would equate that to, you know, your TikTok stories or your Instagram Reels where people are like, I can do it, you can do it too, right? And you're like, ah, it's such a sham. But, you know, maybe that's something we need to bring back in the real estate world to get people excited about it again. And then he mentioned books and, you know, you mentioned your book and I don't recall, I'm sorry. What was the book that you read?

It's called Getting Started as a Commercial Mortgage Broker: How to Get a Six-Figure Salary in 12 Months. Nice. Yeah, that's the book. Oh, there you go.

A little unsponsored plug there.

Right, right, right. And, yeah, because I don't know this guy Peter, but I'll tell you what, I made six figures in that first, you know, in those first 12 months. Yeah. You know, it's true. It's just, you know, implementing.

That's awesome. That is awesome. And thank you for sharing that. And it's cool to see that literally within arm's reach, right? So that's right. So, okay, so we were talking about— you were talking about how you used to teach investors, right, and to your lending, how that transition from that to your own company, you have a dynamic in the sense of how you serve clients and what you learn about your clients, right? So what would you say is when it comes to the real estate world, what is kind of the biggest lesson? Like, if you could go back to yourself or your best friend, whoever, 10, 15 years ago and say, hey, you need to learn about this now, this is the one avenue you really need to understand within real estate or investing in general, what would you teach somebody? What would you teach your younger self?

Well, you know what? I think the one thing I would definitely teach my younger self because like we all have to get started somewhere, right? And so when I think of my path of, you know, wholesaling real estate, um, you know, wholesaling real estate or, you know, rehabbing houses, things like that, which are all active businesses, um, and it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. If I would go back, I would actually tell myself to learn this side of the business. Okay. Yeah, yeah, because in reality when you help these other people and, you know, you can only rehab so many houses at a time, right? Because, um, you know, there's only X amount of dollars, right? But you can literally, on this side of it, help 5, 10 investors at a time, you know, to be able to make the money. So how much more time would you save? How much more time you'd be able to spend with your family? Um, and then just how much more lucrative, you know, it would become. Because even when you rehabbing houses, you still got to be able to eat in between, right? But that's what I go back and tell myself, learn this mortgage side. Okay.

That's great advice. That's, and I think from a networking perspective, it makes more sense too, right? So I've met people throughout different networking events that do the lending, do the investments themselves, right? Sometimes involved with the project management directly, right? As opposed to just the behind the scenes investor. And I think to your point, the lending side is huge because if you don't understand how the money works, none of it's going to work, right? Like you might understand how to build a house, but if you don't understand how to handle those draw budgets and and understand why it's important to do certain things at certain times to get your money from lenders, right? Or to justify to your investors, hey, I need X amount to do this in my scope of work, whatever it is. I think that's, that's huge to understand. So that way you don't fail too hard too early in that process. So great advice there. Now, you own some investment properties yourself, right?

Correct. Yes.

Tell us a little bit about that. Tell us about those properties and how you got started with those.

Well, you know what I love? I just love commercial. Okay. You know, I got some residential rentals, but the commercial is what I love because, and everybody's kind of like, you know, because of the pandemic, people working from home and things like that. But my place is still full, right?

I'm sitting in an office right now myself. Right.

And, but I just love it because, you know, people, they're in the buildings usually maybe say 8 a.m. and they're gone by 5, right? So not a lot of kids, you know, throwing things down toilets and stuff like that, like on the residential side. So much easier to maintain. And then what I really love about commercial, period, whereas with the residential, especially the 1 to 4 units, no matter what I do, I'm stuck within the realms of that appraised value. Whereas with my commercial buildings, I can do value adds to that and increase my rents. And just by increasing rents, it actually increases the value. Okay, there's just such a huge difference there, and that's why commercial.

That's awesome. Um, when it comes to your investments, like for your commercials, right, um, what, what do you think is, uh, something somebody should know right before they get into the commercial side, right? So we can talk residential all day long, that part, fix and flip and things like that, but when it comes to that commercial side, whether it be on the lending or the actual like property acquisition, what advice do you have to share there?

Um, when you look at a place, kind of know who your client would be, your ideal client, right? Uh, just say you just got a simple box that's maybe 2,000 square feet, something small like that. Now you know you're probably only going to put one tenant in there, right? Compared to say you have something maybe 5,000 and above that can be split. So now you could get more than one income, commercial income, from that particular property. And even if you do lose a tenant for a little while, you still got income coming in. So that's that. I mean, that, that's the biggest thing to me because even if we look at like, say, multifamily properties is the exact same thing, right? Same concept. You know, you're always going to be getting something coming in. Okay.

I appreciate that. Now, with real estate, like you mentioned, you know, COVID, right, hit everybody, put everything in a whirlwind. Rates right now are shaky at best. It's an election year, so a lot going on there. What would you say are some of the biggest challenges in the real estate industry, kind of outside of some of those things that I mentioned? Like, what's your thoughts there?

Well, you know what, rates have been a bit of a problem, right? Because we can't control them. Right. So it's more— I guess it really depends on the type of client, because one of the things that we're blessed to be able to do as, you know, mortgage brokers or, you know, in the lending industry, is our marketing, right? So we can gear our marketing and, and change it. So maybe we're not necessarily looking for the, um, the new purchaser, even though that they're out there. But okay, you do some research, and who has mortgages coming due, right? Who needs to refinance? So it doesn't matter where the rates are because they got balloons coming up, you know, then they're forced to cash out, refinance, even if it's going to be at the higher rate. So if you market to clients like that, you always be doing business. And then on the same token, like, let's say you're fixing— you're fix and flip people, right? They're act— they're in active businesses, you know. So it's more or less when you market towards that crowd, then, you know, they just got to buy at a better price. Yeah. And so one of the things I do in my business, um, like, you know, you'll see on my website I got a free consultation, right? And so it's just a little 10-minute consultation I have with people. And so They, you know, I get, I get lined up with calls all the time, um, but it's still according to my calendar.

Yeah.

And, you know, just have those conversations with them because there may be something that they want to do, but by us being who we are, we can actually, um, you know, kind of advise them on things they didn't think about, right? So, yeah, so, you know, to be able to, you know, like, don't worry about rates because think about hard money. Yeah, it just raises anyway.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

Yeah, it all depends on your strategy, your plan of attack. Really quick, how do you stay organized? Like, what, what hack do you have? What do you have for us there?

Well, you know what, I used to be all over the place, right? But, um, you know, I created a custom-built technology stack. It's called Lendtrex, L-E-N-D-T-R-E-X.com. And basically that right there houses my whole entire business. So all my leads is in one place. All my communication is in one place. All my marketing is in one place. Um, everything I need to do to run my business, my contracts, you know, my broker fee agreements, my invoices, it's all in one place. And by, by everything being in one place, I can keep my sanity, right? Because I know where everything is. I basically run my business off of a phone app. So, you know, I could be at my son's soccer game, my daughter's dance, um, recitals and things like that. You know, they might not— my wife might not be too happy with me on the phone, but you know, sending this or sending out a bill.

In person versus in an office. That's great.

Exactly. You know, so that organization has been the biggest help to me within my business.

That's awesome. Well, we are going to go ahead and wrap up there. Terence Young, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate talking to you. Everybody, please be sure to check out eFunderCapital.com and Lendtrex.com to see what's going on in Terence's world, all this hard work that he's created and what it's come to. Thank you all so much and have a wonderful day.