Real Estate Investing Strategies For A 2024 Market Shift

Hello everyone, this is Brian with Global Integrity Finance, and today I have the distinct pleasure of bringing you the owner and CEO of Global Integrity Finance, Mr. Toby Potter. Toby, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great, Brian. How are you doing?

I am doing fantastic. Uh, go ahead and introduce yourself and give us a little bit of a background of what influenced you to kind of dive into real estate and create Global.

Sure, you bet. So I'm Toby Potter, President CEO of Global Integrity Finance. Great story. We had a company back in 1994 called Imperial Mortgage. It was a mortgage company for doing primary resident financing, stuff like that, and built that up, had a RE/MAX franchise and a title company, and it was doing a lot of owner financing. We were buying houses, fixing them up, and then owner finance them until they could get ready to go into an FHA loan. And we were turning and burning those, you know, quite a bit. So really got a good insight of the demand, the need, and really got some good experience. And then of course, as everybody knows, uh, market crashed. Literally crawled in a corner and cried because, you know, we had really built this up nice. We had a great organization, corporation, was living high on the hog. Was— it's that rags to riches, now back to rags story. Um, and really didn't know what to do. And we, we, we dumped a bunch of properties. We had a plethora of those that we'd owner-financed. I really thought that the financial world was gone. You know, we saw 258 national banks go out of business inside 6 months during that time, and it never really understood. So we dumped a bunch of properties, we let them go back, we just, you know, walked away from the market. And so I got into insurance, but I just never really scratched the itch that I had. And so around 2015, really kind of put my big boy pants on and said, I want to get back into financing. It's what I love, it's what I do. And we started Global Integrity Finance and From that, at the time, we were just going to be a commercial lender, you know, whether it be working capital, whether it be equipment financing, whether it be AP financing, just whatever kind of business financing you needed. We were that go-to person. We had probably 70-some different programs at that time. And lo and behold, real estate kept coming across my desk and being just gun-shy, PTSD, did not want to get back into it because in my mind It was a dead beast. Wish I'd have known then what I know now, because I could have come right out of 2008 like RCN, like Lima One, and start this hard money lending like they did and really, uh, take it by the horns. But I didn't. So 2015, we did. 2016, more and more that came across our desk. So I decided, let me see what's going on. We're hearing about it. We're seeing that it's out there. So we started brokering deals. We brokered to Wildcat. We brokered to Longhorn. We brokered to RCN. We tried to broker a lien with one, but they rejected me. They said I didn't have enough experience, and so they would not onboard me. And it was before Jeff Tennyson was running the ship. It was the original founder, and I was pissed. I mean, I was mad. How dare you decline me? But, and there's a great story now because they see that they kind of messed up, but they had some hard, fast rules that you had to have at least 3 deals in the last 2 years on your name, and we didn't. I'd been in the insurance industry, so to them I was nobody, no experience, and they said, we won't onboard you. I said, back up and watch out. So we got Global Integrity Finance launched as a broker and did quite a few deals. We did about 200 deals. It was just Rochelle and I. And through 2016, first of 2017, we started bringing people on and really started seeing the growth and the opportunity and the demand. And we ran it through local people. We were doing a 90-mile radius here in McKinney to where I could go drive the properties, meet with the homeowner or the client, meet with the contractors and kind of manage their construction and really get a good feel and have good positive production. And so we did that for about a year and a half. And then in 2018, we went national, said, hey, I got this, I know what I'm doing. I understand the trades, the assets, how it's now all asset-based. You know, we don't require any kind of pay stubs, W-2s, job history, anything like that. So it's all asset-based. And I really needed to understand that because, you know, prior to the crash, it was income-producing. I mean, we needed to know this person had a job, they can make the payments and all that. So this was a whole different beast and higher leverages just didn't make a lot of sense. In fact, we were doing them in 2016, '17, no credit, no appraisal, no survey, 100% purchase, 100% rehab, the worst risk out there. But man, it was, it was lucrative. Yeah. So as we evolved 2018 into the institutional side of it going national, We then started closing and funding and selling off, and we really, really loved that engine because we could close $2, $2.5 million this week, sell it off next week, close another. So we were running about $2 to $2.5 million every week, just revolving door and staying liquid. My fear was market ever crashes again, I don't want to be tied up with a bunch of real estate out there. I want liquidity. I wanted cash. And so that's how this evolved. 2018, 2019 was a record year. We really really took the industry by storm. And of course COVID hits and, you know, that really, that tanked us. March 13th, 2020 was D-Day. And, you know, here again, market capitalization stops, capital markets quit buying. And we were just, had our locomotive just streaming down the tracks. And then, you know, we had to revamp. So at that time we became an NMLS-licensed company. I became an NMLS-licensed loan officer. My wife is licensed. And so we started doing primary residence, rate-to-rent, the 1s, 2s, 3s. We were closing loans at 15 years at like 1.875%. That's free money. So why not take advantage of it? And so we did that. And then, you know, then the bean counters at Wall Street realized that the default rate wasn't going to spike the way they thought it would. And capital markets came back. 2021 was another record year. We almost tripled our 2019 volume. And then, of course, 2022, Fed decided interest rates are too low. Let's raise them up. Let's lower leverages and all the economic debacles that we've gone over the last couple of years. But that's kind of been the history in the background between, you know, the inception of Global Alternative Finance and where we are today.

Right. I think a lot of people, when they think like, hey, you're the CEO and president, it's all rainbows and sunshine, right? But as we were talking about a little bit ago, you didn't really sleep much last night. So you're pretty—

I have not been to bed. I have not been to bed. You can see the bags under my eyes.

So what's really helped you kind of navigate all these market changes over the year? What's kept you grounded and pushing forward with your eye on the prize?

So there's, you know, when we started Global 30 Finance and this is another funny story. When I started, I was, you know, with corporate America in the insurance world. I hated corporate America. I just, I'm not that guy. I just, I don't work for other people and I definitely don't have— I don't want HR down my back. So when we went right, when I quit and started Global 30, I said, you know, baby, I just want to make about $10,000, $15,000 a month. Just good cash flow. We got plenty of money, just play money. Well, as you see where we're at today, that didn't last very long because I'm just not— I'm wired for success. But I saw the opportunity. Ryan, and here's where, here's where it's probably been the biggest handicap of Global Integrity Finance, but the biggest claim to my fame. My whole premise is not to be ultra wealthy. My, my legacy drive is to make a difference in people's lives. And so as we're going through all this, we're seeing the impacts. We're seeing people who hate their job, they hate their 9 to 5, you know, Monday through Friday mundane, and, and the grass is never going to get any greener. Their 401(k) sucks, their IRA sucks. They just don't have a good retirement plan. We all know that Social Security is going to dry up. So we see people who want a better tomorrow, a better opportunity for financial freedom. And real estate is the right gig. It absolutely is. And so what we saw when I was going out and driving these deals and walking them through and teaching people how to look at how contractors could misrepresent good work and cover it up with bad. This was changing lives. This is people saying, oh my gosh, you know, This is awesome. And they would do a deal and, and they might make $20,000, $30,000, but you know what, they didn't lose any money. And then they'd do another deal and they, they evolved and saw now they have a future opportunity to get rid of the job or to have a better, uh, retirement. This was always been the game plan when I got into it and I saw it and I saw how much we can change lives and we can really help people achieve their goals by mentoring and managing those projects. And so this is what— even though, you know, it is, it's been a roller coaster. We started this in 2015, really kind of said we started 2018, and every other year there's been a punch in the gut. And yes, when COVID hit, everybody came. I mean, all my, my part, you know, all the other companies that I'm networking with, they shut their doors, they laid everybody off. They just kind of hibernated to see what's happening. And it just wasn't me. I didn't lay anybody off. We kept full staff. We pulled money out of savings to cover payroll while we weren't writing any loans, because in my mind, This too will pass. And if I got rid of everybody and it passed, then I could go start all over. And what keeps me driving is that if we can change one life, we can make somebody a better person tomorrow than they were today, then it's worth it. And I guess my faith, I believe that God got me here not just to get me here, but to get us to where he wants us to be at the end. You know, the old saying is, God didn't take you there just to get you there. He took you there to get to the next step. And that's, you know, we talk about it, we pray about it. And we, we understand that there's always going to be trials and tribulations. The difference is, and growing up as the way I grew up, you don't quit, you can't lose. If you don't quit, you can't lose them. But you quit, that's as good as it gets. And so this is what, you know, what we drive for every day is to figure out— I've got a huge network of, of people, John Hornick and others, uh, Jeff Jennison, Jeff Tesch, those guys, Eric Abramovich. We talk to these guys and say, hey, what do you see? They're smarter than me. They're 10 times wealthier than me, and they've been in this business for almost 15 years. So I talked to them, say, hey, you know, what do you guys see? And they're telling me this is what this— and trust me, in 2022, they all said it's going to get tough. You think COVID was tough? The next 2 years are going to be the toughest our industry has ever seen. And here's why it's getting tougher now, even though we're coming out of this. High interest rates are coming down, but valuations come down, which is good. But now our industry has gotten so institutionalized. I mean, they're securitizing everything now. They just had the first bridge securitization last week, which is— they think it was the, you know, best thing since sliced bread. I say it's not, because now you've got bean counters in Wall Street who are buying these tapes, these $200, $250 million portfolios, and all they're looking at is algorithms. Will this loan perform? Will this loan not? And that's how they're now picking these deals. Well, that's not true boots on the ground. We're boots on the ground. We're the ones that's out there in the field meeting with the clients, walking the project, and we know by the whites of their eyes this deal will perform or it won't. They're looking at experience, liquidity, you know, location, demographics, and which is right, but it removes where we started 11 years ago.

And that human aspect, right?

That, that's the human aspect of clarity. Yeah. When Jeff Tesch started RCN in 2010 or 2011, the guy was the pioneer of this and Civic and some of these others. But they said, you know what? From the crash, we had, I don't remember how many thousands of properties hit the foreclosure market because people couldn't— I mean, that's why it crashed. They, they're not performing. And so all these properties hit the foreclosures and you had investors who wanted to buy 'em and fix 'em and put 'em back out there and, and turn this around. And Tesh and, and, and, and probably 10 or 15 others that are still around today said, we can do this. We can get some capital money and we can finance these fix and flips and we can be— because banks aren't lending. Fannie Freddie wasn't lending. Everybody was out. And this is where hard money lending conceived. And that's when it was right because you got to know the client. They met with the client, they walked the properties. We got guys today that still fly over the, all over the United States walking properties with their sponsors to make sure the deal's moving along. Well, you remove all that, you now might as well just sell everything to Fannie Freddie. And, and this is where our industry is going to tighten down. It's going to tighten down tremendously. And it, you know, for the bean counters, yes, they're going to have like a 4 to 6% default rate. But for the people on the ground, you're just, your production is never going to get back to where it was. You're not going to hit the $200, $300, $400 million a month that they were. Cash, Tennyson, CB3, those guys, they're probably capped out at their, their $110,000, $210,000, $300,000. That's probably as good as it's going to get for them. But you have people like, uh, LIMA One who has their own balance sheet, so they don't have to worry about securitizing. It's all us guys that aggregate and sell off is where it's really going to pinch tight.

Obviously over the years you've dealt with all sorts of borrowers, right? Good ones, bad ones.

Yeah.

A little crazy, right? Which is always good from time to time.

Always.

But when, if somebody's listening right now and they want to know like, hey, what, what should I look for in a lending partner? What's, what's important? What kind of advice would you have to share?

So that's, and I was reading through that last night. That's a great question because you're right, there are all types of borrowers and, and, and to be successful myself or anybody else, it takes two major things. And this is what we try to emphasize. And of course it doesn't always work out. You need two things. One is you need a good project and there's projects all over the place. I just, you know, we've got the deal in Evansville, Indiana and, and a couple of the multifamily deals that we're looking at taking down are taking longer. So I just went and looked on single family. I pulled up 15 out of like 241 listings. I pulled up 15 single-family deals that I'll take under contract by the end of the week. There's 15 deals in the little town of Evansville, Indiana that are great. Buy, rehab, and rent, and then sell them in a couple years. So it takes— you got to find a really good project, and, and there's projects everywhere. The variable of that is your experience, your liquidity, um, and, and your availability. So for you to say this is a good deal, you got to be able to check those 3 boxes. The other thing is you've got to have a team, and this is more important than the deal. I'll do these deals in Evansville even though it's 400 miles away because I've got a great team on the ground, a great team of contractors that are highly recommended. But what we see, Brian, with the guys that run through the project seamlessly, check those boxes. They know what they're doing, they know their demographics, they know their budget, and they've got a great relationship with their contractor. And therefore, it just go— they send in a draw, We inspect it, it matches 100% or more, we pay, they move on. The guy that doesn't, the client that is trying to get some deals in and is cutting corners and doing all this, he sends in a draw, he hasn't walked the property, he sends in a draw, we reject it, or it's 30% accurate. He then doesn't understand because the contractor's telling him one thing, but he's never been to the property. And then it's a fight for us for 2 weeks.

Mm-hmm.

Those are the guys that just, they don't last. The guys that know what they're doing, they know their area, they know their neighborhood, they know their demographics, they know the demand, and they know their stuff. They know how to swing a hammer. They know how to cut a 2x4. They know how to— they know the stuff so that the contractor doesn't. So when they walk the property, they agree this is good work. Then the inspection— those guys, they sell through and they do 10, 15, 20 deals a year, if not more, with no issues. And so we see all that and we reckon— and when we first started, one of the things we took brand new people And I would tell them, I said, I'll take you under my wing. We'll find you a contractor. I'll walk the properties with you and the contractor. I'll teach you as I'm instructing the contractor. And these people evolve. They would do 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 deals, and then they're on their own. The guy that comes in that's not done that many, it's been 2 or 3, and he's living in one town and the project's in another, you know that's gonna be a disaster. You know that deal's not gonna work. You ask him, and you know, we ask him, how did you meet the contractor? How many times has he, how many deals has he done for you? And all, and they're like, well, we got him a referral from here, from there. Did you check with that referral? Did you really do a due diligence on it? They're just ready to do a deal. 90% of the time they're just ready to do a deal and it doesn't work out. What happens? They run the full 12 months of the maturity, project's not done. Now they're in maturity default, payoff's demanded. They walk from and say, I'm done. I'm fed up. And I'm out. And they're out of money because they've been making payments for 12 months on the note and they don't have any more money left and they can't get the property on the market. Those break my heart because if they would just do it the way we try to coach and mentor them, they would have guaranteed success.

Yeah, I would say we've dealt with calls like that here as well within Global where they've hit that month 11 in their bridge loan, right? So for those listening that don't understand it, a bridge loan is temporary financing where you do the work and then you submit a draw like Toby was talking about where you get reimbursed on that, right? Of everything that you put into the property, all that work. So it's super important to validate, one, it's been done, and then two, it's been done correct. So you're selling a good product at the end or holding onto a good product at the end. But you get those clients that they're already in default, now they're scrambling to find anybody. And with the market tightening up, right, and not being able to lend in those situations and really kind of look at things from a holistic view, you know, clients really do need to be, you know, on the ball when it comes to their property. You know, if they have a full-time job, it's not that you can't do this, but you definitely need to be swinging by after work, right, in your car to go walk the property, see things, make sure you're staying on top of it.

We did in 2019, we did 12 deals in Sherman, Pottsboro because nobody wanted from Dallas to do these deals up there. All the contractors were in Dallas. They weren't going to drive. That's too far to drive. So then I'll do them. So we did 12 deals in Pottsboro. And of course it was just me and Rochelle, a couple of people. So I was still running the company, but Angie and I would leave here at 4 or 5 o'clock and we would drive to Sherman. We still lived here in McKinney. We drive to Sherman, Buffalo, and we'd walk that property every night. And then on weekends we were walking new properties with my general contractor. He and I would go walk new properties and budget. So they knew when they got this property done, this one was next one in line and we just kept them going month after month and They loved us because they had a guaranteed paycheck. They knew they had business coming. And but you got to, you got to walk in and build that trust, build that relationship. Now, today I turn him loose on me. I mean, maybe walk it twice, twice a week. But you've got to know that they, they got to respect you as the owner, the person that is financially liable. They've got to respect you and do the work that you need done. I can't tell you, Brian, how many times when we were doing— when I was doing these inspections here in McKinney, We literally walked to a property with the owner and the contractor, and I would say, I'm not paying a dime on this work. And they're kind of like, why? I said, well, here's why. And I point out all the flaws. And the owner's like, oh my God. And I'm like, this is, this is what we do. It'll be fine. And in the, in the contractor had a choice, fix it or leave. I don't care. We still got the money. You're not getting paid a dime. You're not gonna put a mechanic in because I'll record all this bad work. And they would normally would fix it, but after the second or third time, it was amazing. How we walk at the third, fourth time, and that work was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Where before they were trying to cut corners, be cheesy. And we walked out one time and this is no lie. House was done. We didn't do any inspection. The guy kind of did it on his own. But then one, he said, you know, he wasn't happy when we come walk it with him, the contractor. And literally on the outside framing of the windows, I saw a little bit of rotted wood and I grabbed that piece of wood and just stuck my whole hand in and ripped it. It just crumbled in my hands and they just basically painted over rotted wood on the whole window frame. And I said, this is what you paid for. So, and that, that deal went south fast, got into a lawsuit. But this is when you don't know what you're doing, you need somebody there, you need a partner, you need somebody to ensure your success and profitability. And that's our tagline. That's my number one tagline that I, that I coined in 2018 was we are going to guarantee your success and profitability.

What team members would you recommend? And then what outlets when it comes to, uh, learning, books, podcasts?

I mean, one of the things I used to say was HGTV made us famous because you had Fix and Flip Vegas, you had Chip and Joanne, you had all these shows all of a sudden came out in 2018. I mean, oh my gosh, you couldn't hit a TV channel that didn't have something flipping. And so everybody said, man, that's just easy, we'll jump on it. They don't— real life, you— what we tell everybody is go to these networking events. If you have a property, you need to go to every networking event. Until you find a partner. And yes, you're going to give up some equity, but holy cow, I would rather give up 15%, 20%, 30% equity and have a successful deal with education than to try to do it on my own and lose everything. And that's what we've seen. Go to these networking events, find contractors, find people who have done flips, and find out who they use as contractors. Have them mentor you, pay them $1,000, $1,500 mentoring fee. Figure it out to have somebody watch your back as you learn. There's no better education than on-the-job training. And we try to push that so hard, but people are lazy or greedy or both. Like, oh no, no, I watched, I watched Chip and Joanna. I watched every episode they've done. I mean, this is easy stuff. Really? You don't, you see 30 minutes of, of, of 90 days of work.

Mm-hmm.

How can you really discern you have a clue? Uh, and that just pisses 'em off. So I, I try not to say that to people anymore. But this is how, but this is how you do it. We interviewed, I don't know how many people in Evansville before we found, and we talked to the city. We went to the permitting committee, we went to code enforcement, we went to the redevelopment committee. We talked to 5 different committees in Evansville and said, I need your top 3 contractors that you guys do business with. And they gave them to us and we interviewed them and interviewed them, interviewed them until we saw what we wanted and said, this is our guys. And I'm telling you, it's the best thing because I trust them with 100% of my money on these projects.

I'm gonna say that's, that's what's going to happen, right? You're building these lifelong relationships and ideally you have an income stream that's coming in, right? And you're passing that along to other entities and businesses. So they are going to rely on that relationship, that network to say, hey, no, you are now a part of my business plan, right? And you keep those relationships close and tight-knit to where people want to put out that good quality work.

It's not that they don't want to lose— they don't want to lose the job. They want to keep the long-term relationship. And we tell them, hey, we're looking to buy 1,000 doors. Are you going to be our guy or we're going to have to find someone? Oh, no, no, we're in. We're in. What do you need? And that's when you give them that, that stability of growth within themselves. They're your partner. Who's your partner?

All right, I don't want to take up too much of your time, but wrapping up Q1, we have, you know, Q2, um, getting closer, much closer to the election time. When it comes to, you know, rate considerations, market evaluations, things like that for the rest of 2024, what do you, what do you kind of see within your little personal crystal ball, right, which everybody wishes they had? What do you see on the horizon that people need to be aware of or at least keep an eye out on?

So number one, property shortage, not gonna happen. There's 6.5 million housing lack right now. I mean, there's 6.5 million people nationwide that need housing. There is no housing. So there's not going to be property shortage. It's only going to continue to grow. So the demand is there left and right nationwide. You have your hot pockets and you just need— I mean, I tell you, if you would've asked me about, you know, hey, do you want to do some deals in Evansville, Indiana? I'd have told you no. I don't know the place. I don't know anything about it. We have some brokers that do some business up there, but no, dude, it's a hot pocket with what they're doing with that city and with the redevelopment and the Riverwalk and all that. That is now a hot commodity. And this is what you got to find. There's demand in every area. You just got to find them. So housing shortage, not going to happen. Valuations. Valuations, what we want to come down. We were in a huge seller's market through 2020, 2021. Rates low as they were. Everybody could afford a house. Sellers are selling them 20%, 25%, 27% above asking price. Those are now coming down. They have been coming down. It should continue through the election for those property values to come down another 12%, 18%. 22%, um, where they were, at least to get it back to flattening that curve. Um, rate volatility, in my opinion, based upon 2020's election, based upon the noise that all the people that, that make a lot more money than I do are saying, rates are going to come down just a little bit more, probably going to stabilize around 6% on the 30-year bond. Uh, that's probably going to be about it, bounce back and forth, maybe dip below, but it's going to be your floor. Your ceiling is going to be about 7.5%. So as long as we stay there, we're right back to where we were 2018, 2019, which is perfect for our industry. As long as the valuations come down and we can buy these properties at real price, going to be some changes. It doesn't matter who wins the election. The working class man and woman is going to have a tougher tax bracket than they've ever had. Doesn't matter whether it's the Republicans or the Democrats. Both of them are going to change this to where it is now not fun to go to work because you don't make any money. That's my opinion. I'm not— I'm not— I'm not—

everybody's individual crystal ball, right?

Yeah, that's right.

So I don't know.

That's just what I see and what I fear for myself and for my employees. Market rents, market rents are going to be your go-to. Affordable housing is your go-to. Rates are going to be high. So, so you have to understand that everybody that could refi in 2020, 2021 down, say, 3% or below, they're never getting out of that note. They are never getting— they're not going to ever refinance. And the people that didn't buy houses in that time couldn't afford it because rates were at 6, 7% prior to 2020. Now they're back at it, so they still can't buy either unless they got— I mean, it's a small percentage because they do get promotions and rate, uh, income increases and salaries. So small percentage will. But people, you have a $6.5 million— $6.5 million housing shortage. Those people need good affordable housing That is the demand. That's why I'm buying all the housing I can over the next 12, 24 months. I want to be a, a huge landlord because that's what the demand is.

What are some last thoughts you can share with us about Global Integrity, why people should consider your organization as their lending partner or maybe their last lending partner that they have?

I think that, that one word is what we really focus on and, and not everybody does. Like I said in the beginning, we probably lose a lot of deals. We don't want to just write loans at Global Integrity Finance. It's not— we could write hundreds and hundreds of loans and hundreds and hundreds of them will default. We want to write loans and build relationships. We want to be your partner. As you said, Brian, you know, what are we looking for? For partners. Partnership is the key element for me. I'm an old country boy from Oklahoma. Um, loyalty is everything. And so when we work with clients, if they would listen to us— and, and we're not the smartest, trust me, I would never tell anybody I know it all, but I know enough to be successful. And I teach our team the same thing. It's all about profitability and success. If you do a deal and you have success, means it performs and you have profit, you're going to do another deal. If you don't, if you don't have success, it doesn't, you hit maturity, you're not done, and you lose your shirt off your back, you're done, you're out, you're pissed, you're mad at the world, and it's always going to be somebody else's fault, which is fine. So what we try and what we teach here at Global Integrity Finance, Brian, is we want you to be a partner with us for life. We want to be your go-to company that guides and directs, that mentors and coaches to ensure profitability and success so that you'll come back. And if we can help you do one deal, then two deals, then three, now your financial future grows. And your, your, your, your retirement fund now has a, has a promise. Your college fund has a promise. Everything that you're wanting for tomorrow now has an opportunity because you're seeing success in real estate investing. And as Warren Buffett said, more money's made in real estate investing than anything else. He's made more money. Bill Gates made more money. Everybody that is a multi-trillionaire makes more money in investing in real estate. And that is the gospel truth because it is a solid commodity that will always have a demand. And we want to build relationships with those people that are serious about becoming real estate gurus.

Yeah, it's just like, uh, with the stock market, right? So people play in the stock market, they get a little bitter because they put money in and, oh, it's all of a sudden gone.

Right.

Well, when you do it in housing, it's not necessarily going to be gone, but maybe the, the, you know, 25% return turns into 18%, or maybe it turns into a 2% because you didn't plan accordingly. You didn't have the right partners on your team. Um, but that doesn't mean it stops there. So You have to continue on with that partnership like you were saying and really look for those people that are going to be in your corner to help you navigate the next deal and the next deal. So I was really proud to see this morning we had a returning client come in for more deals, right? And I think that's 60-something properties. So it's things like that that really allow us to take pride in our work knowing that we're helping them. And at this point, we have so many files done, it's like we know this person by the back of our hand, so it makes the loan process much easier. So yeah, your first few times might be a little tough, might be a little sticky, but the more relationship you have, just like with those contractors, agents, anything like that that you were networking with, it's going to allow that transaction to move much smoother and feel like a habit as opposed to a new skill you're learning.

Right. And one of the things I want to tell the viewers, listeners, when we— Global Integrity Finance— when the team member asks you for information, don't get offended. We're trying to make sure that we are setting you up for success. You're hiring us to be your mentor consultant when you pay us to do a loan. And I've told everybody when I would get up on stage on When I lend my money out, my money sits in a vault and it does not make me any money. Because of our SEC registration, I cannot have it interest-bearing. So it sits in a vault, doesn't do anything. When I lend it out, it's now making me money, but I'm not going to lend it out for it to fail. So what we want to do is make sure that we're lending it to the right partners. Therefore, we both have success and profitability. Need to understand, we need you to know, we need to know that you know what you're doing. And, and if you're not, if you don't, then we need to get educated. Because before we lend out any money I need to know that this thing's going to perform. And that's why we ask questions. But I'm telling you, you as a client pay us to do the deal. You pay us fees and points. So utilize this, you know, let us ask you questions, let us guide you. Because if you have success, you buy the deal, you rehab it, you sell it, or you rent it, and it works out, you're going to do another deal. And this is how you become a partner for life. You can go to Google Reviews and you can see where people have said, thank you so much for guiding coaching and mentoring. Because of you, we now have a financial future in real estate. Prior to, we did all these guru things and done all this and done that, paid thousands, thousands of dollars to go to these 2 and 3 day trainings and they didn't do crap. Because the problem is those are in classrooms. You need real life, moment by moment coaching. You need boots on the ground with you. And that's one of the things why I believe Global Eternity Finance has the reputation it has is because we work with clients that way. We want to ensure their success. We want them to be a partner with us for their whole career. It's so much easier. Like you said, we've got the one guy that's coming back, brings 4 more deals. We've got all this documentation. All we got to do is basically underwrite the property. We don't need to underwrite the borrower anymore. We just need to underwrite the property, make sure it will perform the way he wants it to, and then we close and fund. So when we get those clients, you know, we had a lady that we did 72 deals with her. It was a slam dunk. She brings a deal, we close, we fund. She brings a deal, close, we fund. Boom, boom, boom. Because we'd already underwritten her. We'd already gotten a good relationship with her. We'd already gotten all we needed. So now the more we do, the simpler it is, the easier it is, the quicker it is. This is what we want. We don't need to do, you know, 200 loans a month. What we want is, you know, 40, 50, 60 loans that perform in a relationship and they come back a month and a half later, those same 50, 60 people, and they're just a revolving door of new projects. That's what we're all about. And that's what I want to really emphasize to the kind of clientele we're looking for are those that are serious about a real estate future and want to do things right.

Yeah, I would. Yeah. Sorry to cut you off. I would, I would agree with that. So it's one of those things we try to teach account executives, right? So anybody in sales, it's like, hey, don't, don't sell, consult, network, make a friend, right? Be curious.

I want that word out of everybody's vocabulary. I want to go around with the wooden, like the Catholic school stick. And they say sales, you slap them on the back of the hand. But CHR would get all butthurt about that. Yeah.

But, and that's, you know, that's why you have to—

I hate sales. I don't want to be sold. Nobody wants to be sold. We want to be consulted. We want to be guided. We want to be educated. Every grown adult wants to be educated. They want to be consulted. They want to be guided so that they're making the right decision. Nobody wants to be sold. Nobody wants to be sold. And that's relationships. Yeah.

And that's where I was going to get at is like, you know, I want to encourage people to actually call in and talk to somebody, even if you don't have a property in mind and you just, hey, you know, I did a deal a few years ago or my mom has this rental property and I'm thinking about whatever the situation is, right? To your point of getting educated and interviewing and knowing your team. Whether, you know, you're here in Florida or Atlanta or wherever, it's a simple phone call away where you can get a hold of somebody just to bend their ear for a few minutes.

Yeah. And, you know, when we first started, one of the things I would go to the meetups and the real estate network and we would talk and say, call me tomorrow and we'll go over that deal. And we would literally have 10, 15, 20 people call me the next day and we'd go over every deal. They tell me where it is. I pull it up in Zillow. We talk about it, I get their perspective, what they're wanting to do, what they thought they could do. I would give them my, you know, two cents about what I would do if it was mine. And then the deal would either fall out or we would fund it. But we would have conversations about the project, and I would meet them the night before, I'd met them two days before, and then they— and I say, you know what, this deal won't work, but the next one, call me, we'll do the same thing. And, and we would work these deals out before they ever put them under contract. We see so many deals right now, Brian, where they've got them under contract, they got a week to close, they've already paid, you know, huge earnest money and the deal doesn't work because nobody told them the deal wouldn't work. And that's where it just— that breaks my heart because those— we'll never get that client back. We didn't get any money out and we didn't help somebody be better tomorrow. There's better than— better tomorrow than they are today. And that's what we have to focus on is really, are we improving their ability to grow? And if we're not, then we got to change it. If we are, then we go home and we rest assured that we did our job.

If anybody wants to, I would say, follow you on social media, get in contact with your organization, how would they go about doing that, Toby?

So First and foremost, we're all over LinkedIn, we're all over Facebook, Global Integrity Finance. Uh, you can search us there. Our website, globalintegrityfinance.com. Uh, you can see kind of who we are, what we do, the product lines. I know there's been some revamping and some more being done on that, but more importantly, I'm telling you, dial 214-548-5190 and talk to somebody. Tell them who you are, tell them what you're looking to do, and build a relationship before you ever go spend a dime. I'm telling you the one thing that I've done will do 100 times. I love talking to people about projects and I don't know it all, but I, all I will tell you, Brian, if you called in, I would tell you how I would look at it, what I would look at doing. And if that fits into your genre, great. Let's rock and roll. If you say, but if you can convince me, hey, I think this is a better way, let's do an Airbnb or let's do a flip. And you can explain that to me. And I, well, you know what? I didn't see it that way. That looks good. That's where we build a relationship. And now I trust you, you trust me, and we grow. Real estate investing is a blast when you do it right. It is an absolute blast unless you're that— I will tell you, I told a guy that one time, he was an engineer, a software engineer. He said he would come out to the job. It was out in Terrell. He would meet me at the job and he's like, dude, this place is dirty, filthy. I don't want to be here. I'm getting my shoes— I got these, you know, $700 pairs of shoes on. I'm like, dude, go get you a pair of boots. Come out here and learn to do this. How can you be a real estate investor if you're not going to get dirty? He did this one deal, we got him out of it, he's never been back. But so this has to be— real estate has to be a passion because I can promise you this, everything that can go wrong will go wrong. I don't care how great you are. I've probably done 100 personally and I have financed over 2,000. Something will go wrong on every deal. Doesn't mean it's catastrophic, but it's something you did not know, could not see, did not, you know, recognize. Will pop up on every project. So you got to love it because you can't let it destroy you. You can't let it beat you down. You can't let it, you know, annihilate your mood. You got to say, you know what? Okay, we'll work through it. Now I know what to look for. And you take that to the next property.

Yeah. And that circles back to your comment before about having the right team, right?

So yeah.

Oh yeah. Whether it's in life or, you know, in business and real estate, nothing's in your control. All you can control is what you're going to do next and your thoughts about it. So when it comes to the external factors, it's all about your family, your friends, your network, your group, your team that's going to help you overcome those. So the more you network, the more you have these people involved in your, in your life and in your business, the, the more help you have when it's needed. Right.

And then just, and that's, you got to have additional, yeah, you've got to have additional eyes on the project. You, it can't be just you. You've got to have other people seeing stuff because you will miss stuff. I mean, you know, this property, we've got this, this apartment complex in Evansville. I had this thing mapped out from day one. We were going to spend about $3.5 million in the rehab. My budget came in at over $5 million. That's how bad I missed it. And I kind of consider myself an expert, but that's how bad I missed it because I just didn't spend enough time doing my own due diligence. I was so excited about the project. I saw the value of it and we ran quick numbers, blah, blah, blah. Contractor comes in, he, you know, 45 days later gives me the budget and I send it back to say, you got your numbers reverted here. It's supposed to be about 3.5, not 5.3. He said, nope, those numbers are right. But I trusted him. And when we went through it line by line, we walked through it. I said, you know what, to do this right, this is what it's going to take. Still worth $10 million at the end of the day. So I'm good, I'm good.

And you're putting out a quality product that you know won't have any repercussions.

Yeah, because the worst thing you can do, which I've seen 100 times, is somebody cut corners, they get a tenant in there, and then everything starts falling apart. Or they go to sell it, and now you have a home inspector walking through there, and his job is to find everything wrong. And trust me, he's good. He sees 10, 15 properties a day for however many years he's been doing this. He knows where to look. And you cut corners and you try to mow over shit, he will find it. You'll never sell the house. You'll have to dump it or tear it out and redo it. So from all my experience and my one little nugget advice, do it right the first time. Even if it costs more money now, it'll pay out in the end.

Well, uh, we'll cut it off there. We will reschedule to have another one of these. I can tell you can do this all day long.

It's a true passion of yours. I love this stuff. I want to help people grow. And this is what gets me excited. Something I know. I know this shit. I know the money and I know the properties. Let's do it. We'll do this every day if you want to, Brian.

Nice.

All right.

Well, thank you so much, Toby. I appreciate having you on. I'll let you get back to your busy, busy day. And thank you so much. We appreciate you.