Episode 21 | Life As A New Wholesaler / Investor

Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome back to the podcast, the New and Experienced Investor Podcast. Today we have a guest in the studio, one of my favorite things ever. We got Kenny Manassero. What's up, man?

How y'all doing? Nice to meet you guys. My name is Kenny Manasero. I'm new to the little group, so I'm excited.

Heck yeah, awesome. I'm Alex Barnett. I'm the new guy.

And I'm Joe Homs. I guess I'm the old guy or experienced investor.

That's right. So, um, before we start, make sure you guys share the podcast. We are live, so you guys can jump in there and drop some questions. We would love to answer them live and, you know, just Teach as much people as we can while we're here. So let's go ahead and jump on into it. Why don't you give everybody your background, what you're doing now, and what kind of got you started on the real estate path?

Uh, well, how I got here— well, I'm originally— I'm a football player, currently still playing football at, uh, Saddleback Community College. And you know how when you go to juco or community college, reality is a lot more real there. So, you know, you got to find other ways of making income and not just depend on football, because football is a sport that comes and goes very quick depending on who you are or what position you play. And, um, I kind of got connected with Joe through my father. He was actually on my father's podcast, and they got to talking a little bit, and I told my dad that I wanted to get into real estate and learn how to do it, and, uh, he connected me with Joe.

That's absolutely correct. I was on, uh, He called it the Old Dogs, you know.

Wow.

I don't know if he just interviewed old people like me or what, but it was the Old Dogs Podcast. And it was a long time ago, and it was a lot of fun when he interviewed me. And so anyways, we did get connected through your father, and your father indicated that you wanted to start learning about real estate. So I've been very impressed with everything you've been doing so far. And that's literally showing up, you know, 'cause I talk to people all the time and, you know, hey, let's get started. And here I give you all the material and everything to get started, but I never hear back from them or anything. And he's been showing up, he's been showing up at the office and stuff. And he was here today to listen to Alex doing some wholesaling stuff. So, you know, you're headed in the right path, definitely.

Yeah, heck yeah. Okay, well, um, you kind of just touched on it a little bit. Football comes and goes, as you said. Um, what do you think real estate can provide, you know, that, that football can't?

I guess knowledge. Uh, knowledge. You know, football is a very— it's a compact sport. It deals with football. It doesn't teach anything outside of the world, you know what I mean? It teaches you how to be commitment to a team and all that. But, you know, with real estate, it teaches you all this stuff about homes, how to buy a home, what you need to look into. And I feel like, you know, football opens opportunities to, you know, continue to meet other people, but real estate is something that's everlasting. It's always going to be there, and it's something that you need to know how to do, especially when you go buy a home. I mean, you know, you need to know what to do and how to do it and who to talk to and the right people to get in contact with.

So So yeah, so you're— we're starting you off taking baby steps, and those baby steps are learning how to wholesale properties. Okay, so, um, I gave you my, my free course online and you've been going through that. Um, what about what you've learned so far? Uh, has been good, bad, ugly, beneficial, not beneficial? Where are you at with that process?

The good is it's very upfront. You know, the first thing that you need to know how to do is communicate with people and understand what their needs are and how you can meet that. You know what I mean? The things you can say to ease their mind and, you know, eventually get the deal. And something that could be a little bit overwhelming is just all the numbers and not understanding it. And that's something you learn as you go through it. You know, it's like you get all the pieces to the puzzle and you lay them out on the table flat. But, you know, sometimes it gets a little scary trying to put them all together. You don't want to put the wrong piece up. and end up with the wrong puzzle, and it's not the way it's supposed to go. But, you know, with Joe's course, it helps. It breaks down like the questions to ask, the, the things to look for, um, you know, just to set your chips up in the right way before, you know, you, you, you put them in the pot, you know.

Have you done any calls at all so far? You're, you're not even at that stage yet?

No, not, not yet. But actually, in Joe's, uh, course, it actually, at the end of it, it shows you like what a call would look like with a person who has a set deal that they want, or a person with multiple properties. So being able to listen to that kind of helps you with a little guideline of what to say. But as of right now, I haven't done any calls, but I'm very— I'm looking forward to be able to do that.

Okay. And then hopefully what's helpful too is that you can come in and you can speak with Alex, who is here on Thursdays doing nothing but that, but calling people. And you can kind of listen to what he has to say. And we've got other wholesalers that come in and do calls. So that's, that's kind of a hands-on approach, uh, to learning. And I know a lot of people, you know, prefer that other than, you know, like reading about it. They'd want to do the hands-on approach. So, um, you know, that's good that, that you're literally showing up. I mean, that's very impressive.

Yeah. I mean, with the— what, what's so good about this or working with you is that you can literally come in and if you have any questions, there are people here to help you with that. It's not like, here, here's my module and now figure it out on your own. You know what I mean? If you have questions, you can ask questions to people who are actually here and will answer those questions. And I feel like that's what's helpful to me a lot because that can be scary not knowing what to do. You have the, you have the formula, right? But how do you, how do you put it together for real and how do you put the right steps together? So having the group support is beneficial a lot.

Okay. And I went out to lunch with a future wholesaler agent slash agent, and she had indicated to me that she just recently paid $20,000 to a guru. And we're not going to mention any names here, but when I came back and I shared that, you know, she paid $20,000 to a guru, what, what did— what was your comment or reaction about that?

Yeah, I was like tripping. I'm not paying $20,000 because the first deal you make might be $20,000. You just paying that back to the person you wanted to learn it from. And I don't think that's what that should be. They should be there to help you actually learn and not take all your money while they're doing it, you know what I mean? So that was a little, a little crazy to me, something I wouldn't recommend for anybody to do, especially just saying $20,000. If that's the case, everybody would be doing it. But, um, no, yeah, that was—

Yeah, and, and we also discussed that she's the type of person that likes to sit down with, uh, you know, with somebody, a coach or whatever, and actually learn the process that way. And there's a lot of people like that. And she's not getting that from the $20,000 deal that she's in.

Yeah.

You know, she's getting, she's getting a mentor who's on the phone, you know, coaching her how to do things. And she says it's more high-level stuff. And I like to get people, you know, down and dirty into the, to the deal. It's like, this is how you're going to make money. Get on the phone. Okay. Learn how to talk to people, learn the questions to ask, Learn how to put deals together. I asked her, you know, do you even know what a subject-to deal is? And she says, well, I've been getting a lot of calls from another guru who does subject-to, um, and, you know, I'm not ready to pay them to learn that. And I, and I go, yeah, it's, it's not difficult. It's, it's a process and you can learn it. But, um, you know, I, I just, I really love the reaction after I told you about the $20,000.

Yeah.

That's why I bring it up.

Yeah, I mean, I wonder because, okay, so if she's not taking action with $20,000 course, what, what are the chances of her, you know, taking action if, you know, the information for free?

Great question. Absolutely. And I told her, and I tell everybody that I meet with, is, you know, you're going to be successful if you're actually doing something. And she was saying that she was on a group call with some other wholesalers, and there was one guy that is literally on the phone 5 hours a day after his job. And I go, that's the successful person. That's the one that's going to get a deal. You know, you're just telling me you haven't done anything. But I think she's kind of frozen in that, you know, she's thinking way ahead. She's thinking, well, if I, if I get a deal, then what do I do with it?

Yeah.

You know, Joe, like, they told me that You know, they would look at it and possibly buy it, which is fine. But, you know, are you able to do the same thing? I said, yeah, absolutely. You know, don't be afraid to go out there and do things and, and get stuff under, under contract. Um, and, and, you know, there's some semantics along the way. We talked about double closing, which she had no idea about. Um, so I, I think they're doing too much high-level stuff and not, you know, hey, this is what you need to do. To actually get that deal, right? Okay.

It's too much in the weeds, you know? Like, in the beginning, it's literally like, get over your fear of just talking to that first person. Yeah, because I remember that, like, I was looking at a list, I had a number just calling from my, you know, my cell phone, and I was like, oh my God, here we go. Yeah, you know, just like, all right. And then, you know, I have no idea what to say, and then they don't answer. I'm like, oh yes. Yeah, that's the first hurdle. It's like dialing that first number, you know. That's, that's where you got to start.

So what are the next steps for you? What, what are you looking to do? What do you need help with? Um, you know, where are we headed?

Well, as of right now, we have all the, the pieces, right? We have— we understand what's going on, we understand what the process is, but now we just need that, that being able to get on the call and, and being able to have that first conversation like that I just said, 'cause that's where I'm at right now, you know what I mean? It's just getting on my first call and being able to talk to that person and finding that right deal. Being able to be okay with the no, you know what I mean? With someone saying, hey, no, we're not interested right now. So that way it builds up confidence because what's the worst thing you can say is no? Now you can call someone else and they might say yes. And move on. Exactly, you move on. It's nothing to cry about, you know? Someone says no, people say no all the time. But once you have that once yes, that's where you get your check, and that's where, you know, you build confidence. So right now I'm at the stage of just getting on calls and being able to call people and having the right conversation, saying the right things and the right words.

But how do you feel about that? How do you feel about making your first call? Like, are you going to go home tonight and you're going to go, oh God, I can't sleep because I know I got to get on my first call pretty soon? Or are you comfortable enough to say, I'm good. I mean, I know I'm going to make mistakes. I know I'm not going to ask the right thing. I know, I know I'm not going to, you know, I'm going to let them go too early. I should have asked that. But that's the way you learn.

Yeah.

So are you okay at this point with all that?

Most definitely. I'm comfortable with that. I'm comfortable with not being able— not, not knowing everything from the first call. And I mean, no one knows everything the first time they do it. People say no all the time. But once you have that one session, not being— not knowing everything from— No, I'm not nervous at all. I feel like Joe's course— I mean, no one knows everything the first time they do it. One session, not being— Not knowing everything from— No, I'm not nervous at all. I feel like Joe's course— I mean, no one knows everything the first time they do it. One session, not being— Not knowing everything from— No, I'm not nervous at all. I feel like Joe's course—

I mean, no one knows everything.

I promise you, I don't charge for any of this. So it's not like, you know, hey, I want $20,000 here, you know. No, I don't charge for any of this stuff.

I didn't even know we were doing the podcast today. Like, this is like literally out of the blue. So none of this is like—

Yeah, but I, I like to make people famous. Yeah. And so I want to make you famous, you know. I want you to share it out there. And then obviously it helps us because if, you know, you share it and they share it, then, you know, they're gonna come back to us and ask us questions and, and, uh, you know, maybe meet up like we did.

Yeah.

And, and, and that's one thing I do ask is if you meet up, you buy me lunch. So yeah.

That's the only money I was probably gonna charge you.

That's it.

That little lunch fee.

Yeah, lunch, coffee, you know, whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But nah, yeah, it was, it was, it— none of this was put up to. I'm actually enjoying the process of learning and having that under my belt. So yeah.

That's awesome. So what are, uh, what are some next steps? I mean, where do we go from here?

Hey, you keep looking at me. I don't know, it's up to you. What are the next steps?

Oh, next steps.

Yes.

The next step, I think, is getting on their phone.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I just finished the course, the Wholesaling 101, today. So hopefully next time I come in, I'll be making some calls and building that confidence and, you know, just learning the playbook, you know. So that's the next step for me.

I like that, the playbook. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, next year. Yeah. You'll be like the playbook of wholesaling.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have my own playbook, stuff that works for me.

Yeah, there you go.

I'll take from other people what I've learned and input it and Build your own playbook, something that works for you. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't have to work for everybody else. As long as you're getting your deals done, that's all you could ask for.

Absolutely.

Yes.

And that's an interesting point because there are so many ways to make money in real estate. I mean, Joe says it all the time, to the point where you almost get shiny object syndrome. So you find what works for you and you just kind of walk down that road and Yeah.

Yeah, what I, what I don't want you to get into, and this lady at lunch that I had lunch with today, she's in what we call analysis paralysis. You know, I don't want you or anybody to get into that. It's like, okay, you've got this coming at you, you got this coming at you, and it's like, okay, well, where do I go from here? And I think that's where she was. That's why she wants to meet with Alex, sit down with him. This is what we're doing. This is our program. We're sharing people. We share what we've, we've got. Um, you know, if she wants to make calls for us and get us deals, that's what we're here. That's what we're here to do.

Yeah.

So, and same to you. If you want to make calls and get us deals, great. You start out that way. You, you know, build up enough money so that next step is teaching you how to flip.

Yeah.

You know, and that's the next program is teaching you how to flip. So instead of selling us the deal, you do the whole deal yourself from beginning to end.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Yeah.

That's awesome. And I mean, as far as big picture things, where do you see yourself in the world of real estate? I know you said your dad has a background.

Yeah.

Okay, so I mean, are you following down his footsteps? Are you getting into multifamily? Are we just buying single families? What's the big dream?

The big dream? Be like Joe. You know what I mean? But, um, no, the big dream is being able to Have the confidence to do any deal, no matter what the deal is, you know, whether it be a multifamily house or, or even building my own, you know, little complex, whatever the case may be. It's just having enough knowledge to do whatever deal I'd like to do. That's the big picture. Say I don't want to do it anymore, that's fine. But if I wanted to jump right back into it, I have the knowledge of whatever deal that I want to do. I'm not afraid to approach it because I already have the knowledge and, and have the understanding of what to do. So the big picture is to make the big deals without having the stress of, oh, do I need to go somewhere else to learn how to do it? No, I've taken the steps for each phases of real estate, and now the picture has come to me and I'm at the big deal. I know how to do it because I've already gone through all the processes. I've already, you know, conquered this wholesaling, now flipping, whatever the case may be. So yeah, that's the initial— like, the big dream is to be able to do the big deals without having to Hey, hey guys, how do I do this? Hey, what course do I need to take?

Yeah, and it's nice to have big dreams, um, but like I tell everybody, you have to still do the baby steps.

Yeah, 100%.

You know, you have to learn from the ground up, and it's a normal process. Alex has experienced this, uh, wholesaling, and he's still doing wholesaling, but then he decided flipping was good, so we started partnering up on some flips as well. Who knows, maybe he'll get tired of flipping and then he'll want to go into, you know, multifamily or something else. Who knows? But yeah, it's kind of the process that happens. But you have to, you have to get both feet on the ground to begin with.

For sure.

Learn that process and then start moving forward.

Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Nice. Well, um, we're definitely gonna have to have you back when you start, you know, making some headway and you can come back and let us know what you learned, what the— maybe what you thought was gonna go a certain way ended up being different, you know, just all those things as a new investor.

Yeah, I mean, I'll be more than happy to do that, especially, you know, one thing I pay attention to is beginners, how they talk in the beginning and the amount of knowledge they have. Hopefully the next time I come, I'll be more elaborate and more you know, efficient with my words and as to what I'm saying.

And well, you know, let me give you a challenge. Um, Alex— Alex is exceptional. Yes, he's exceptional. When he started wholesaling, how long did it take you to get your first deal? Because I get that question all the time.

Yeah, I think about 3 months, a little under.

Yes. Another guy that I trained that Um, in 2021, I believe he got 40 deals that year. It took him 9 months to get his first deal, but after that 9 months came around and he was calling every day and doing this full-time, the deals started to flow.

Yeah.

You know, so much so that now he teaches others what to do and how he's done it. Um, so my challenge to you is you have to get a deal within 3 months so you can beat Alex.

All right.

And you come back and tell us, hey, I got a deal.

All right.

And the first deal, who did you give that to?

Sold it to Joe.

You sold it to me.

All right, Joe.

Okay.

You're my, you're my first deal.

Yeah. That, that's all I ask besides lunch is whatever deals you get, please run them by me first. And if they're good enough, cause I've taught you the right way, I will buy them from you. Yeah, okay.

And that's another thing about working with Joe is you got your first investor, you know. I mean, you don't really have to go look for other people. I mean, it's good to have other people, but if you're, you know, not too confident or still learning your first deal, Joe's a good person to come to with it.

Thank you, appreciate it.

Well, I remember because, um, that first one, it started off literally like, uh, I did agent outreach. So this agent said, hey, I got this deal, we're gonna need like Cash offer, let me know. So I was like, "What do you think about this property?" Joe's like, "Yeah, I like it." You know, put it under contract. Okay, how do I do that?

Literally asking the question.

I'm like, "Okay, now it says this. What do I say?" He's like, "Say that." I call it back. Okay, now she said this. What do I say?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Line by line, just all the way through the whole thing. And it was once you see it all the way through, you know, then you have that concept.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Totally different from there.

Yeah, yeah, and we've done many more deals since then.

There you go.

Yeah, yeah, awesome, dude. Well, I appreciate you sharing with us. Yeah, you know, I I could tell like you're gonna be awesome on the phones already.

You know what I mean?

You have like that confidence that is just gonna come through or people are gonna trust you and like you, and that's half the battle. So yeah, we dropped Kenny's IG on there. It's Full of some dope-ass sports stuff right now.

Yeah, yeah.

But, um, we'll figure out how we're gonna, you know, integrate the real estate stuff.

And yeah, um, I need to hop on Facebook. I've recently found out because, uh, um, Facebook's where it's at.

So yeah, that's where most wholesalers are. Most— a lot of deals on Facebook, you know, whether they're working out or not, but they're on there. Yeah, so yeah, definitely be on Facebook.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But please hit me up on Instagram too. You might see me running around without a shirt or whatever, that's because of football, but I'm also a businessman too.

That's awesome. Well, uh, we appreciate you guys joining us, um, today, and we'll be back next Thursday, possibly in a new studio. So I'm pretty pumped about that.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah, we're already upping the production value. And please share this podcast with any new or experienced investor. And we have a meetup coming up if you're in the Orange County area, September 25th, right here off El Toro Road. Um, I just created a flyer for that so we can drop that on all the socials coming up, but we will see you guys next time. Joe, anything to add?

Nope. I'm good. Thank you. I appreciate you, uh, sitting in on this. I know it was a surprise, uh, but I think it's better quality when it's a surprise. You don't know, you know, what we're going to talk about. So I get, I get more genuine information. Out of you.

Yeah.

So thank you. I appreciate it too. I appreciate you being a good sport.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right.

We'll see you guys on the next one.

Take care. If you want some more advice on real estate investing, reach out to us one on one.