🏡💼 Nationwide Real Estate Wholesaling Masterclass with Carlos Jimenez 🌟

Yes, what's up, you guys? Welcome back to the podcast, the New and Experienced Investor Podcast, the real estate podcast that brings real estate investors from all walks of life together. I'm one of your hosts. I'm Alex Barnett. I'm the new guy.

And I'm Joe Holmes, and I'm the old guy this week. Old guy this week. Yeah, old guy.

Joe likes to sit in it.

Yeah.

Um, if you guys haven't seen, we did an April Fool's video. That's like top, top announcement right now. We did an April Fool's video. Yeah. It's going viral currently. Go in there, let us know what you think.

Mm-hmm.

Um, it's got all the keywords, squatters, evictions caught on tape. It's a wild ride. I have to say it was, that was a good time.

Yeah, it was a good time.

And we're thinking about doing a spinoff series.

Comment, comment, comment, like, and subscribe.

Everything.

Share all that stuff.

All that stuff. Yeah.

Um, we're super excited because we've got King Closer in the studio today with us. Um, Carlos Jimenez. Before we bring him in, because I know he's going to be ready to just drop some knowledge on you guys, we're going to talk about the meetup really quick that we're having on April 22nd. Um, at Hangar 24. Joe still doesn't believe that there's guests coming. Um, I've been assured that there are. It's basically, um, creative finance guys that I know that do all sorts of creative finance, and they've cre— they've, they've— I don't want to say created again, but they created a company all around creative finance. So if you want to learn more about that, come out. to Hangar 24 on April 22nd. Irvine, Irvine, California.

And as soon as Alex gives me the information, I'll post it online.

But I have it for you.

I'm waiting. Yep, I've been waiting for like 2 weeks.

It's been a little while. I'm waiting on their bio, but I'm gonna go ahead and write one up à la ChatGPT. Oh, and then get that to you. I have their names. We'll do it if they're gonna lag, but Okay. Yeah. Um, anywho, let's go ahead and dive right into it. We have a returning guest in the new studio, Mr. Carlos Jimenez. How you doing?

Hey, glad to be back. Glad to be back. Now, super excited to be here. Thank you guys so much for reaching out and having me here. I'm excited to share some, uh, hopefully value.

So every time there's value.

Yeah.

And it's been amazing to watch your progression into real estate and outside of real estate. I mean, you're always doing something really cool, but let's go ahead and let's let the people know, you know, kind of your background and how you got into real estate and then we'll go from there.

Yeah, no, totally. So going back to just really quick background story from my childhood. So born and raised in Mexico. I flew over here with a visa and then went to school, got a scholarship to play basketball, and couldn't really figure out what to do after that. I needed to get a job. I needed to figure out my paperwork, my citizenship, all that stuff, right? And it seems like it's a hurdle. It seems like there's a lot of obstacles for people, for immigrants when it comes to starting their own business, Buying property, investing, all of that, all of the above, right? And through the right people, through the right research, and with the help and support of family, friends, mentors, I was able to figure out how to start a business. Right after I graduated college, I started my first business, which was a basketball academy, youth basketball academy. And I pretty much grew that up until 2019. When COVID hit, I luckily was already dabbling into real estate learning, being mentored by a lot of people. One of them being Joe. Joe was huge in my journey. He's still huge. He was one of the people that took me under his wing and gave me the knowledge and support without expecting anything back really, which is rare to see nowadays. So super thankful for you, Joe. So because of that, my my excuse was like oh like let me save more money. Let me let me continue to grow my basketball business blah blah blah blah. And I was listening to bigger pockets every day and watching videos and analyzing deals and all that stuff right? Well, I never really pulled the trigger until COVID hit because literally I had to refund thousands of dollars at once because there was no sports. Parks were being shut down. Gymnasiums were being shut down. So all these families, I'm like, there's no basketball, give my money back. Right? So I don't have any income. I don't know how I'm gonna pay my rent. And then I called Joe and I told him, hey Joe, like, I'm ready. Like, I have to, I have to make this move. I have to go all in. And he said, well, call Ryan, my son-in-law, and see if he has anything for you. So long story short, I reached out for a while to Ryan. He blew me off. And then he finally answered.

Oh, oh, oh.

He finally answered. He told me to come to the office. He gave me scripts and a bunch of big-ass lists and told me to cold call. So I cold called for 7 months straight without getting a deal. I was showing up to this office, this very office, 8:00 AM, 9:00 AM, and I wasn't leaving until 9:00 PM, talking to sellers, choking, stuttering, not knowing what to say, not knowing how to analyze deals. Didn't know anything. I simply was doing, which I think is huge. And then on the 7th month, 8th month, we got 7 deals, which was life-changing. I got my first check for $2,500. Nothing crazy, right? But it made it real for me. And that's what I tell all my people that I work with, my students, mentees, or friends that are trying to get into it, people that follow me. Once you see that first check and it becomes real, that's when you're like, okay, game on. Right? I had already put the work for 7 months straight without anything, without getting anything. So after that it was easy. Yeah. Move forward. Me and Ryan started our own flipping and wholesaling company. We did a bunch of deals and have some rentals, Airbnbs, and I'm sure we'll go straight into that, but that's how I got started.

I love that, Joe. That's cool.

You're welcome.

You're helping that many people. The heck?

All the time.

Wow. And all you ask for is donuts and lunch?

That's it.

We went to Waga— we went to Waba, Waba Grill.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, you got Joe to eat lunch.

$12.47 a bowl, chicken bowl, teriyaki bowl.

Oh, she remembers the price. What is it now? I didn't have it.

I didn't have— I didn't have the money.

I didn't—

like, I, I was like, okay, here's my investment of $12 and it was worth it. Look, look now.

Yeah, exactly.

It's worth a little bit more than that now.

All right. Yeah. Well, let's go over the wholesaling because now you were doing Southern California, now you're nationwide, dispoing deals all over. For people that want to get into wholesaling, how do you get through that first 7 months of not doing it?

How do you get through it? So like I said, doing is huge, right? I think a lot of people get stuck in In trying to learn, trying to trying to have a buyer, trying to have a proof of funds, trying to have a website, trying to have a title, an escrow company. People get overwhelmed with all these all these things that quote unquote you need, and then it holds them from taking that action, right? So you have to do and figure out as you go. There's so many things that I've done that. I'd really, I don't know what I'm doing, but because I'm doing, I feel like God opens the doors and then, and then I get through them and then I'm figuring things out. Right. It's just how it works. Like if you do, you're gonna, you're gonna stumble across people that are gonna be willing to help. Like I was ready to take action. Joe helped me. Ryan helped me. Like all other people helped me. And then we figured it out. So you don't need to be an expert. That's the first thing. Don't, don't feel like you need everything figured out to do. Just do and and then learn as you go. That's probably the biggest thing. Okay, and once you're doing, don't give up. Yeah, right. PBD Patrick B. David always says if you outlast and outwork, you'll probably win and and beat the competition. Like because if you outlast but you don't outwork, then you're gonna be behind still. You you you'll still do it for a long time, but you're gonna be behind. If you outwork but don't outlast, then you're only going to win for a short period of time. Right? So.

That's good. I mean, that's words to live by. I mean, in any industry.

Anything.

Anything, really.

Anything.

What would you say the biggest difference is between wholesaling locally versus now going virtually? You don't need to see the houses and be there. You can just do this all from a laptop. That's possible.

100%. Yeah. I posted a video recently and a bunch of screenshots throughout my day. Like I have an office and then I have to go, I go to the gym and then I work from home and then I go to my academy and I'm pretty much everywhere. And throughout the whole day, there's stuff happening. Like there's deals being dispoed, there's escrow being opened for a flip. There's Managing of lead managers, virtual assistants. There's emails being answered, calls being answered, all because of that, of a team. So is it possible to do it from a laptop? 100%. If you're a one-man show, I would recommend just really figuring out what your steps are and then follow those. If you're trying to scale and put a team in place, then make sure that you define those roles and assign those tasks very detailed to every person so that everything kind of runs. It's like a machine, right? Like everything needs to congruently work together and operate and you'll be able to do it. Does that make sense?

Kind of. Yeah. Would you say it's best to start locally first so you gain that knowledge before you go Talk to somebody in Florida.

Yeah, I think so. I I think so because you can drive to the property. You can one of the basic one one of the things I was doing when I started was driving for dollars. Like I didn't have any money, but I had the time and I had a car. So I was driving. We're in Orange County. I was driving to San Bernardino. I was driving to Riverside and Apple Valley and these smaller towns with a lot of distressed properties and I was writing them down and then I was skip tracing them and then I was calling them. So the fact that you, by not being able to do that, I think really gives you that confidence of like, oh, I see the house. I can see, I can walk in, I can walk to it. I can knock on the door. I can possibly run into an owner in the backyard and ask him if he wants to sell it. And it's easier Because also you probably have more connections. You'll probably know an agent that you can talk to and be like, hey, like what do you think this property's worth? You know, obviously if you're looking at a property across the country, like it's a little bit, it's different. It's similar but different. But to answer your question, yes, I would recommend locally for sure because driving for dollars and going to local meetups and going to investor clubs and all that stuff, You'll have all the tools and resources locally if you stay local. So otherwise you're going to have to get out of your way to try to find somebody to go take pictures at a property in Georgia.

Yeah, exactly. And I think once you've done it enough times, you kind of see the steps A to Z, then you know all the players you got to put in. So now if you are going to go virtual, then you're like, okay, I need boots on the ground. I need a guy to put the lockbox on and all the things that you would normally do yourself. You can, you know, try to hire that out, but yeah.

And even then it's not that, it's not that difficult. We have a property right now in Virginia. We've never done a deal in Richmond, Virginia. And I had my assistant literally go on Thumbtack and hire a handyman to go change the locks, take a video, change the locks, and then we're going to blast it out to buyers. Right. So because people, those are the questions that people come up with, like, oh, how do I take pictures? Like, what do I tell the seller? Like, I'm not there. Like, you know, it's not, it's not that difficult, but that's a whole nother like class right there.

You know? But for sure, for sure.

Yeah.

If you set expectations with the seller about how it's going to go exactly step, step by step, then once you do that and you're like, I'm going to send my handyman over, they have no problem, you know, making that happen. Interesting. Okay. Well, how are you marketing nationwide then? Like what's your biggest, how are you getting these leads?

Yeah. Our main source of deals right now, it's cold calling.

Nice.

100%. And then Facebook advertising.

Awesome.

So they're both a little bit different. One of them, it's inbound, right? So a person is scrolling through their Facebook and they're going to see our ad and then they're going to reach out. They're going to submit their information, inquire for an offer. And then we have our team in-house that is going to call them and be like, hey, Johnny, you submitted an offer for— you want to submit— you submit an inquiry for your property, right? And then we'll go from there. And then the cold calling, obviously it's volume, right? We have to do— each agent does 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 calls a day on a power dialer that is just dialing and powering through a big-ass list of records to try to talk to 50 people. And get three sure offer me, and then maybe one out of a couple hundred will be like, actually, yeah, I'm getting a job in Nashville and I need to move out of California like in the next thirty days. Like what you got for me? You know. So obviously you have it's more volume. You have to go through through the hassle of managing agent cold callers, make sure they're operating, making sure that their their leads are qualified and. And, and make sure that you, once they do, once they provide the leads, then you follow up properly. Because even if they provide you with the best leads, if you don't call them, nurture them, follow up with them, then you're not going to close it.

Exactly.

Your, your cold callers, are they local guys that, uh, you know, like you're training, helping, or are they virtual assistants from other countries?

They're, they're VAs. They're in South America. We have callers in Nicaragua, El Salvador. And then we have Egyptian callers as well that are English only. So South American, they're bilingual, they speak Spanish fluently, their native language is Spanish. And then the people from Egypt are English only, which are fluent as well. Some agents have stronger accents than others, but we train them on what to say, follow a script, and it works for the most part. Obviously, if you have US-based callers, it's easier because you can relate, you can build rapport, you can talk about the Super Bowl, right? Like that somebody overseas is not going to know anything about. But obviously that's going to come to a price, right? It's going to be $25 an hour as opposed to $6 an hour, right?

So, and I think like the work ethic isn't there.

Like if you hire an American caller, for some reason, let's talk about work ethic in America, man.

It's like, no, this These callers are like machines. They'll clock in right at the perfect time every day and then they clock out and they're just on the dialer.

They get after it. They get after it. I've now, it's been about going on 4 years that I've worked with virtual assistants from South America, the Philippines, and these people don't sleep. They're trying to get after it. They're trying to grind for their families. Even though it's not that much for us, for them, it's, it's pretty good salary, like very good salary, you know? So yeah, it's, it's, it's a win-win, you know, it's rewarding for us to provide jobs and for them to work for us and work from their home and be able to make really good money. It's great.

That's awesome. And, and like, like you said, you've, you kind of mastered the, the cold calling, um, as far as a lead source. That you ended up creating your own company around that. Can you kind of like go into like why you ended up doing that and then how hard is that, you know, and the benefits of that?

Yeah. So the company pretty much started because I was finding the same pattern and issues with every other cold calling company. I probably have used like 10 of them since I started and they're all the same. Well, the first The first thing is that they'll try to lock you in for 3-month, 6-month contracts, right? And then they'll tell you that they're going to deliver on 3 to 5 leads a day that are ready to be closed when it's just not true. And then the third one is that you don't really have access to your VA or your call caller because they're scared. The company's scared that you're going to go around them and be like, hey, I'll pay you directly. And then they're scared that the VA is actually going to do that as well. Go around them and then go to you and be like, "Hey, I'll charge you three bucks. You know, like you don't have to pay six." So there there was no like way for me to monitor the agent, and and we will constantly like tell the company like, "Hey, like I told you ten times not to say this. Why are they still saying it?" So that was probably like those were the reasons was of why I luckily have people already in in these like in Egypt and South America that I. have been working with me directly for a while. So I trust them for them to then go out to their network, their local networks and be like, hey, we're hiring for this. This is what we're looking for. And yeah, we just did it. Got rid of the middleman. And we have direct training with these agents daily. And it's a work in progress. It's not perfect. It's tough. Cold calling is tough. Telemarketing is tough. But They've been getting better. They've been getting better. And, um, it's, it's, it's worked out. It's worked out.

That's great.

Yeah.

And, and Joe and I have used 'em. Um, and what, what one thing that I really like is like, they're checking in with us, you know, cuz we're dealing with all this other stuff.

Mm-hmm.

And so, um, you have like managers that are constantly checking in with us like, hey, how's it going on your end? Mm-hmm. Um, how can we improve? And there's like this dialogue where as we've, we've used other companies and it's been like, you, you don't hear from anybody.

Yeah.

And then you're trying to like, get access to stuff like you said, and, and it's like almost impossible.

Yeah, once, once you swipe your credit card and they're, they're, they're like, they're nowhere to be found.

Exactly. Yeah, you have a client success manager and you're like, how do I get a hold of them?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, if, if, uh, if anyone from Easy Button is, is listening right now, uh, they owe us like $4,000.

Oh my God.

Yeah, they put us into a contract, they never delivered. And then Ryan jumped on a call with them and he said like, hey man, like what's up with this? And they're like, well, you cancel. And we're like, yeah, we canceled because you weren't delivering. They're like, yeah, but you should have followed the contract. So now we don't get— we're not going to give you a refund or leads.

Oh no. So that's savage. Yeah. Savage tactics.

But yeah, there's just so many, so many companies there. Like I've heard of recently, I heard of another one. Should we just name brands right now or just put them on blast?

Like, you don't care.

Well, yeah, just it's I think a lot of things work and a lot of companies I'm sure do a good job. It's just a matter of really doing your research, really trial and error. Trial and error, right? We've all tried different things and yeah, from SMS softwares to PPC to— we've tried everything, right? So it's just a matter of trial and error. Doubling down on what works and doing everything, doing your best on your end, right? Like following up and all of that stuff.

For sure. Why don't you let people know? Because I do know there's a bunch of people when they're first starting, they get a list and then they're working a 9 to 5, so they don't even have time to call. Just blast it out there.

Yeah, no, I mean, you can DM me or you can send us an email at callers@trustedinvestors.com. We'll send you all the information, pricing tiers and all that good stuff. You can interview the callers yourself. You'll have access to them directly. You'll see who they are. You'll see their face. You'll talk to them every day. And we'll do our best to provide you with some good leads so you can find a deal.

Amazing.

Yeah.

And we'll link that in the description as well.

Awesome. Thank you.

For sure. Let's talk deals because I know, yeah, it's not just wholesaling that you do. You started, like you mentioned, flipping and then buying and holding and You got your primary residence through seller finance. Yeah. Seller finance.

Yeah.

Beautiful deal.

Yeah. Beautiful deal. Maybe you can touch on that one and then we'll talk about your short-term rental.

Yeah. So this aligns with what we talked about, about not knowing or being an expert, right? Obviously subject to and seller finance has become popular more recently, but when I bought my primary residence was 2022. So I guess it wasn't as popular on social media. And I just pitched it. I knew about it. I talked to people about it, my partner, my mentor Joe here. And I just did. I pitched it to the seller and she agreed. So I guess we can go a little bit into detail. But so this property, she had a squatter in there. She wasn't getting any money for the rent. It was her son actually, and she wasn't very happy with him. So she said, Carlos, I'm ready to sell my property. Like, what can you offer me? So we analyzed it as a flip and the numbers made sense for for a flip. And at this point, I had already built a good relationship with the with the owner because she has sold those other rentals before, and I always kept in kept in touch. I would send her happy birthdays. Actually, it's her birthday today. Actually, yeah.

Happy birthday.

Yeah. I was sending her happy birthdays, Merry Christmas, Happy Thanksgiving, all that stuff. Right. I stayed in contact. So she reaches out, we analyze the deal. It's a great flip. And then I thought to myself, like, hmm, like, what if I tell her to sell it to me? Like, as a seller finance deal.

Right.

And I asked her, like, well, Sherry, what's more important? What's more important to you? Is it getting all this cash or is it the monthly income? And she said, well, I'm 76. All I care is about my monthly income so I can just continue to enjoy my retirement. And I don't really want to give Uncle Sam a bunch of money in capital gains. Right. So we structure it to where like, I will give her monthly payments. And there was a first position loan with Wells Fargo. So the deal, we structure it subject to the first. And then she was going to carry a second. So the first, it had like a 4.8% interest. And then the second one, it was a 3% interest with her. So killer deal, 1% down. And now I've been making the monthly payments and it's, it's, and I love it. So that's how that one worked out. Recently I closed on an Airbnb that didn't work out for me. And I had to sell it as a seller finance deal as well. And the reason was because, so this property, we've evaluated at about $600,000 when I bought it. This is when Joshua Tree was blowing up and I got it for $200,000. I put another $150,000 into it to make it pretty nice as an Airbnb. And I finished it and everything. I got my permit. Everything didn't have any issues with that, with that thing, with that side of things. And then after that, I'm like, okay, I need to finish the backyard. I didn't really want to finish anymore. It was a kind of a headache because I had another Airbnb there and it was going well, but it was kind of like, is this really worth it? What if I just put all my money into something else?

Right?

So long story short, It ends up selling for $460,000. Luckily, there's enough spread there to not lose money, but I wasn't getting any offers for just cash offers or to just cash out and get my money back until I got this offer that they were interested in Airbnb-ing it. And for them to make sense, it needed to be seller financed so that they could Airbnb it and then still make a little bit of money. So for that one, the buyer got a first, uh, got a first loan and then I'm carrying a second for that one for 7 years. And there's gonna be a balloon payment after 7 years, interest only at 7%. Mm.

Nice.

So now I get the benefits of the cash flow every day.

Yeah.

Uh, I don't have to deal with guests. I don't have to deal with property management, with cleaning a jacuzzi. Oh, I don't have to deal with any of that. And the cash flow—

Sorry, the wraps are my jam. Like, all the things you're listing off right now, it's just like—

It's literally like, it's literally like a, like a door. It counts as a door. Um, but you don't have to deal with any of the pain, you know?

Yep.

Um, and you get $1,200 a month cash, no, without any, without any worries, you know?

So who wouldn't want that?

And obviously you don't get the— you might not get the, the appreciation and all that stuff, right? But it doesn't matter.

Like, a lot of it's just one deal.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. As long as I get my cash flow and I don't have to worry about anybody, then we're good.

And it's really amazing how creative finance can turn a deal like you're saying. Like, I bet you most people would just be like, oh, just list it, take a loss, whatever, you know, like it is what it is. But the fact that you had that knowledge and And figured out a way to like turn that into cash flow plus like a balloon, you know, in 7 years. That's, that's amazing.

Yeah, no, totally. I think people need to be— they need to know, like, to be safe when they buy a property, I think they should be ready to have different exits. That's, that's one thing I think. That way you're playing it safe like 3 times. Because for this property, it was an Airbnb first. Could I have rented it long-term or midterm? Yes, but I was still going to have to deal with tenants. I wasn't going to make as much as with the Airbnb. So then the third option, I was like, okay, I'll just seller finance it. And then like I said, I'll get the cash flow. But if you're buying a long-term rental, Whatever it is that you're buying, I think if you have different exit strategies, you're going to be in a good spot. And if you buy the property at a pretty good discount, then you'll 100% be okay. Like there's no, there's no way to lose if you buy a good deal, right?

Yeah.

I think we've all heard it where you make money on the purchase. So yeah.

And it's crazy because I mean, Joshua Tree, like you mentioned, was like the biggest thing ever, plus short-term rental. Was like huge too, but now you're seeing like big guys are like, "I'm selling all my short-term rentals because of laws," or there's so many third parties involved that you can't control that.

When I bought this too, there were 600 Airbnbs in Joshua Tree, and then now guess how many there are now? Like thirty thousand, thirty five hundred, three thousand.

Okay, for sure.

No, there's literally thousands.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's crazy.

And and I know I have friends that have sold theirs. It's still a good spot. You're making. I was projecting making twenty thousand a month, and then we're making six.

Yeah.

You know.

So yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Mortgages are low, so it works out. Everybody gets paid, and I make a little bit, but it's nothing to where you thought. So yeah, yeah. I have a friend that she had. She had. I think she still does eight Airbnbs in Dallas, and then Dallas just recently, I think last year passed. Banning all that stuff, and I'm like, that's crazy. What do we do now?

You know, I know, and that became almost like a meme when like people would send you deals and they're like, it works as a short-term rental, and you're like, okay, that means it's sketch because it's gotta like it's gotta pencil out like you said a few different ways or else you're gonna get caught with your pants down.

Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, do your research, but still don't let that hold you back.

Just yeah.

Just buy properties and you'll, you'll learn.

That's it. Yeah. That's the best way to learn. I mean, you could, you could do all this in a spreadsheet all day long.

Yeah.

But until you're out there and you're like dealing with monsoons in the freaking desert and you're like, a fence blew down. I don't know. We had a flip and it was like something was always going on there down to the last day when I went to go get the lockbox.

Oh.

And it was like encrusted with the dirt and it like wouldn't work. And it was like the last stage. I was like, go pick up the lockbox. I'm like, okay. And I couldn't like get it open. It was a Supra, so I had to go to Home Depot and get wire cutters and like cut the Supra off.

Oh man. I was like, damn you, Joshua Tree, I'm never coming back.

Yeah, actually I haven't been in a while. I have— I have not been to Joshua Tree in a while.

We're done. We're done.

I got a buddy, he's always trying to bring me back because he loves Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree, and he does well out there as like a retail agent.

Okay.

And he's always like, dude, Like, let's go in on a thing together. I'm like, I'm— I still have PTSD from—

Well, it's interesting. Like, you're— you'll still— if you drive out there, there's still new builds going on.

Yeah.

So it's—

I mean, like, I know it's—

I don't know what you guys are thinking. Like, it probably might work still, but yeah, I don't know.

I— it's one of those things you gotta know the, the— like, he knows, like, oh, this street sucks, but over here is good, and you gotta have boulders. Like, the buy box is crazy right now for what actually works.

Yeah, you have a— you gotta have a Joshua tree next to the bathroom.

Exactly.

So when they look out, they see it, they snap the photo, and then yeah, some of the, the Airbnbs out there, like, people are spending like, I don't know, $7 million on some crazy compound.

Yeah, I've seen some with like pickleball courts and all that good stuff.

Yeah, it was good. It was good, you know, during COVID Yeah, it was fun, you know, when there was nothing else to do, you know, where do you go? You go out to Joshua Tree.

Yeah, get all weird in the desert.

Then reality hit. And we're back to work. And everybody said, no, we don't need to go out there.

Yeah, they're like, I don't leave LA anymore.

So, Josh, you're on your own. And, you know, like you said, the local governments, you know, they had to put their finger into the mess and they messed it up.

They didn't even know how to deal with it. Like, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree are cities that there have been— there's literally like 100 people living there before all this.

He had 3 guys on the street council.

Yeah, they didn't know how to deal with it. Right.

I know they were backed up like a year backed up from permits and all that stuff, like for permits.

That's where if you can get in on the front end of it, I think, and you see like some trend coming along.

Oh yeah, people that got in early, they made their money.

Yeah.

Get out, sell it way over.

It's just like with wholesaling, like right before COVID uh, right when COVID hit and wholesaling was popular, like people that were doing it earlier were selling to hedge funds market value or 90% of ARV and they were making crazy money. And then now where are they?

I don't know.

We're still here though.

Yeah, we're still here going. Well, this is, I think, where you learn to be creative when there's not a lot of inventory, people aren't moving because they have those low interest rates and you're out there digging for deals every day.

Yeah.

Trying to find a gold nugget. Yeah.

They're out there though.

Oh, they are out there. That's what I'm saying. And so if you get your systems all set up now, when the market goes back up, because it will, then all of a sudden it's like a flow coming in.

When is it going back up?

Uh, mid-2025. We're gonna have a complete interest rate drop once Trump gets inside.

Oh, let's go! Getting political.

You gotta buy— you gotta buy everything. You gotta buy everything right now.

I'm joking.

I'll put my—

buy everything right now.

Yep.

Suze Orman said yesterday on CNBC, she said something about like even if the rates go down like a A smidge. People are waiting on the sideline right now, and the prices are just gonna go up. Yeah, it's just—

I think 6% is, uh, is a magic number for everybody.

That's the new 3.

Down to 6, everybody's, everybody's coming back in. And when that happens, yeah, the prices are going to go back up.

So buy now. That's all you can do.

Buy cheap, buy cheap, buy cheap. And then the interest rates won't matter, the market won't matter.

That's right.

Because there's only so much land on earth, right?

That's right.

I mean, in South—

I heard this from older people. Not you, Joe, you're young. But thank you. Right?

Yeah.

All the, all the, all the actual OGs of real estate, they'll tell you that there's only so much land on earth. Yeah, just buy it.

Yeah, get as much as you can. Um, but yeah, even seller finance, you know, no banks, no nothing involved.

Yeah, it's huge. It's huge. Um, what right now I'm kind of working on, on selling more deals as a rep to Hispanic families because a lot of them are immigrant and don't have papers, don't qualify. Um, we almost closed one in North Carolina to a family from Honduras. Wow. And unfortunately, um, everybody, by the way, Joe is Puerto Rican. I know he doesn't look like it, but he is Puerto Rican and he speaks Spanish. Um, but what I was gonna say is that a lot of Our community, Latino community, they're all skeptical and they think that they got you're out to screw them and get them. And they're so skeptical. Like we couldn't close because they thought they found little things in the contracts that they thought were something else. And very frustrating, kind of sad as well because you're trying to help them and they don't let themselves get help. But yeah, yeah, that's one of the missions: try to educate more. Because yeah, success and properties for everybody.

Well, and they have like the cash too. Like, we sold a mobile home like on a wrap and the guy rolled up, or I think his dad was gonna buy it, and he owned like a tow like company or something, and he was freaking loaded. He brought like all cash somehow.

Yeah.

Did he bring you all cash in a like a duffel bag?

No, they ended up not getting it, but It needed a lot of work, and I was like, yeah.

I mean, all all all of all he all Latinos like they'll literally pull their money under the under the mattress, and but then I'm I'm telling I'm telling the the couple this couple. I'm like, you're gonna rent for the rest of your life, like until hopefully something happens with immigration, right? But if if it if it doesn't, like what are you gonna do? Like this is your chance at ownership. Yeah. Excuse me. But instead of getting frustrated, I'm like, okay. How do we educate families? How do we educate more people, uh, especially minorities, right? Yeah.

So I think you just, you make a reggaeton song.

We should have Bad Bunny start financing something.

Exactly, dude. It gets the message through. I know how it works.

Yeah, that, yeah, that gets me fired up.

And yeah, yeah, raps I think are good right now. If you can get something on seller finance or even a sub-to, wrap it, get the cash flow, you're good. I've even been seeing some pushback on sub-to because it got so big thanks to Pace where like people were just freaking willy-nilly with it. And I think selling it to people who weren't ever going to perform, plus also dealing with these lenders, they're selling off this debt to different companies. Like it seems like daily.

They were taking advantage of it. That's what they were doing.

Who?

These people that were putting those deals together.

Oh yeah.

They just wanted quick cash.

Right.

They, like you said, they didn't care. They didn't go that extra step. They didn't do their due diligence.

You know, they're like, I'm gonna make $5,000, here you go.

And then somebody's like—

Well, because they're all asking for down payments, right?

Yeah.

So they're asking for the down payment or whatever entry fee, and right, that's their gain.

Yeah.

And then they're like, here, forget about the note, or Right.

Deal with it.

For sure. So I think, um, I don't know, maybe see, it's still a viable option, but I think you got to be way more careful than what the videos were kind of laying out. It was just like, go get houses free.

Yeah. I mean, you have to be way more careful if you're buying something like that as an end user.

Okay.

Okay. Not as an investor, because as an investor, you know that You're just trying to, you know, get it low, lock it in, and then sell it to somebody else. So you have to be ethical that you can, you know, sell it to somebody else.

What's that?

Ethics.

Oh, just kidding.

I know, that's—

No, I'm just joking.

That's really hard sometimes with, uh, I won't say it.

I won't say it.

Yeah, I got you.

Yeah.

So, so you say as an end user you have to be careful. So if If a family is listening, how would they be— how would they be careful? Like, what are 3 things they can do to vet the investor or whoever they're buying it from?

It's not the investor per se. It's really the end user. Like, if, if, you know, I guess it could be both. So somebody tells you, yeah, you can have this house. It's $1 million. It's on the beach in Newport Beach. And your payment's going to be, you know, $3,000 a month. You need to start asking questions. It's like, how, how does that work? I'm going to pay $3,000 a month for a house on the beach in Newport Beach? It's like, that just doesn't make sense to me. Um, and again, the end user, you're sitting there like, uh, yeah, well, I'll buy it. You know, if that's the case, I would buy it.

When can I move in?

I was gonna say, I would probably take that deal. So it happens.

Yeah. But The problem is that you're not going to be able to make that payment, you know, the first trustee or the seller financing. And, you know, you're going to go into a default situation. So you have to be, as a buyer, you have to be very careful as well that what you say you can do, you can do. And that's why most of the time, you know, when you're selling to a buyer like that, they need to get prequalified by a lender.

Right.

Have all their credit run and all their history.

Yeah, that's the safest, right?

Yes, absolutely.

That's probably the safest way to do it.

Yeah, it's not just, you know what, oh, let's open the door here and find the first person we—

That has cash under the mattress.

Yeah, that we find and say, oh yeah, here, you know, $3,000 Newport Beach on the beach, you in? Well, yeah, I'm in, you know.

Yeah, there are companies that do underwrite, that do like the—

Oh, you have to, you have to have them underwritten.

And then that'll—

if not, then, you know, there's going to be a situation. And if you're the seller in that deal and you're doing the seller financing, you know, hopefully you're knowledgeable enough to know that you're going to have to foreclose on this person and take the property back and sell it again. You know, and, and that honestly, that could be your endgame strategy as a seller. It's like—

People do that?

Yeah. Give me $20,000, $50,000, $100,000 down. And then a few years later, they can't make the payment or whatever comes up. And you're the bank.

People do that for sure.

You're the bank and you just go foreclose again and you get the property and do it all over again.

I know mobile home parks. People do that for sure. Yeah. Mobile home parks do that all day. They're like, oh, the ones on leased land.

They know like, oh, I'll get these back in 3 years.

Don't worry. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And they evict them, foreclose them, resell it.

Yes.

I mean, it's, it's a good business model, but you got to feel like crap.

You have to, you know.

Seems unethical.

It seems pretty unethical.

There's that word again.

Yeah, keeps popping up. Um, let's check out a few videos, producer.

Video time.

Yeah.

Okay, what we got? I have no watched these, by the way, so I don't know what—

Classic reaction.

I don't know what they're putting up there.

None of our guests watch them. We don't even watch.

We don't even watch them.

Is it one of myself or producer?

It's you in Cancun in a scantily clad bikini.

Okay, here we go.

Short-term rental cons. One, it's a ton more work. This is not passive income, so do not be deceived and think that you're going to get into this and just buy a property and someone else is going to manage it. Short-term rental con number 2, it is much riskier. If somebody doesn't book your property, you have no revenue coming in. You typically have a much higher mortgage on something like that. And short-term rental con number 3, it is less secure. You don't know if the municipality where you bought this is going to allow short-term rentals in the future. So you are taking more risk and being less secure when you buy a short-term rental. Short-term rental—

Thoughts?

No passive, 100%. Literally with the first con that he said, My first prop, my first Airbnb came to mind, and that first year— right now it's it has been pretty automated, and his house it is pretty passive. Like I don't talk to guests. I don't talk to yeah. I don't do anything. I just get the bookings right. But the first year was a there was a nightmare. The grill got on fire. The clo the toilets backed up. Yeah, yeah. Got got like three bad reviews. Had to fight, had to fight with Airbnb to remove them.

Oh my gosh.

Um, yeah, it was literally a nightmare. And there was— it was a new property, and you never know if your workers did a good job until you live in it, right? And I never lived in it, so when guests were coming in, they were like, oh, look at this, oh, look at that, oh, look at—

you know.

Dang. Um, are you allowed to review people that, uh, visit your location that tore it up? Are you allowed to give them bad reviews?

100%.

And do you do that, or do you like fear that, you know, if you do it, if you do it to that, that, um, you know, people are not going to come because they think that you're going to give them a bad review?

They won't see it.

Okay.

Yeah, people that are— let's say people are looking at my property and they see the reviews, they won't be able to see the review I left to other guests.

Got it.

Yeah.

Unless they show reviews.

And then that shows up, like if they go and rent or do Airbnb at Alex's place, Alex will be able to see your reviews of them.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Because the person is going to inquire and then Alex is going to, is going to see, oh, Lauren inquired about booking your place. He can click on her profile and see what other hosts say about her. So if they say she's trash, don't let her in, then he can see that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's good.

I have glowing reviews.

I had somebody, I had this girl, um, I didn't, I did not talk to her. The husband got all pissed because I wasn't talking to him. It was only the manager and it was like, it was a holiday. Um, and he got all mad and he, they left a trash review for Some BS thing. I don't even remember. But anyway, we fought it. They got rid of it. And I was like, yeah, screw you.

Like, yeah, I mean, people, people, yeah, some people try to game the system and get free stays and all that kind of stuff.

I love people, but I hate people.

Certain people.

Yeah.

All right, next up.

Okay, here we go.

So let's say we're going to get involved with a subject-to deal. So we have a property here. And you've got a distressed seller. And so what you're going to look at doing is buying this property from this distressed seller. Now, in a lot of situations, what we might do is set up a limited liability company. In fact, I probably taught you that if you watch some of my older videos on subject-to, to in fact do this. Now, in this environment, we don't want to do that because, as I said, I'm going to show you how to avoid a lender finding out that this property has been transferred to this entity, because that's really key here. We don't want the lender who's on this property— let's say this was Wells Fargo— to find out that this distressed seller here actually sold the property. In order to do that, we're not going to use a limited liability company as, as our entity. In fact, what I want to use is I'm going to set up here a land trust. So let's say we're going to get involved with a subject.

What do you guys think about that?

Joe loves land trusts.

I do. And that's The guy that I use. Yeah, Clint Coons from Anderson Business Partners.

Okay.

Hey, Coons, send some gift cards.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan and I went to his, one of his seminars, uh, must've been about 10 years. When did Kobe Bryant pass away?

2020, January 26th.

That's when we went.

I cried.

We were, we were at his seminar and we went to lunch and everybody in the restaurant was crying. Yeah, yeah, they just heard what had happened to him. Uh, but anyway, that's where I, um, I learned about it.

That's where you were that day, right?

It wasn't 2020. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all. It was 4 years ago.

January 26th.

Yeah, gosh, I'm thinking like 10 years ago.

It feels like it now.

Mama mentality. Yeah, if you have the mama mentality, you'll win in real estate and anywhere, anywhere. So yeah, anyway, um, what about like just a regular trust?

Can you set up like a regular— like, does that have to be—

that's what he's talking about.

Okay, okay. Trust is a regular trust.

Oh, okay. So is that, is that a good way to— and then do you keep the seller on there as like a beneficiary, like 1% or something? Or what do you— like, if you're going to do a sub-to, how do you set that up?

The seller is out. You're just making payments on his behalf or her behalf.

Well, I know that, but I think it's like to prove— this is for a subject-to.

To mask who you are in the purchase of the property. So You know, you— nobody's going to know. Like, if you record this in the name of 123 Main Street, that's how I do that. Who's the owner? Yeah, nobody knows. You're the only one that knows that information. So that's what he's talking about.

That's—

yeah, that's how— that's how I did this, my house.

Okay, nice. Because I've seen where people do get the due-on-sale clause and then they have to go back, deed the property back to the seller. And that cures it. And then it— then you put— then you set up the trust if they didn't do this already, and then like move it back.

Okay.

Kind of like stuff like that.

You know, now that you're talking about it that way, that is one way to do it. You can put it into a land trust where the owner is the beneficiary. And then in the land trust, there's a document that says, I'm going to change or sell my property to this person. That never gets recorded.

Right.

So you can do it that way as well. Yes. In case the due-on-sale clause comes back, you can basically say, well, it's the owner. It's like if you owned a property and you put it into your living trust.

Right.

So your living trust is, you know, Alex and Lauren Family Living Trust. The land trust is the same. It's just named differently to keep that privacy there because Obviously, if you put your name on there as a living trust, they're going to know, well, Alex still owns this. It went from their name to the living trust name in their name. So that's easy to figure out.

Okay.

There you go.

Don't be scared.

Just do it.

Figure it out.

Yeah.

Perfect.

What do we got?

How about we turn $15 into $10,000?

Oh, is that possible?

$10,000 wholesaling real estate. Sounds like an infomercial, but we're gonna do it with $15. Um, we're gonna use $10 to get a list and we're gonna use $5 for marketing. Um, and I'm gonna do it with you guys. This is gonna be actually really, really fun. Um, our first step is gonna be going to Fiverr, fiverr.com. Um, I have it linked in my bio. It gives you, I think, like 10% off if you use that link. If you don't want to use it, You can go on Google and search up Fiverr. Once we're on Fiverr, we're going to search for motivated seller leads, right? And then I'll show you guys exactly the one that I picked. I picked it because it had a lot of reviews and it only cost $10. I believe there's a $2 service fee. If you use that 10%, then it subtracts that $2. If you don't, then your total cost is going to be $12 instead of $10.

I can't afford it anymore.

Then we can start marketing it, and we're gonna do that with five dollars. So wait till part two. Do you want to make ten thousand?

What do you think about that concept?

Clickbaity.

Yeah.

Can you do it with fifteen dollars?

What is she getting for ten dollars? What are you getting for ten dollars?

She's buying a list.

She's buying the list.

Fiverr, which is usually yeah. It's usually like a guy in Pakistan. Pulls a list off PropStream and then like gives it to you.

Exactly. Oh, I thought it was some sort of advertising, uh, you know, like you do some logo or whatever and then you put that onto like Facebook advertising, which is what you do, right?

It's going to be more than—

not $10.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's— they're just selling you just a random list.

Yeah, drive for dollars. I would, I would Put the $15 in gas and go drive around and knock on some doors, write down some addresses, and then skip trace. You can skip trace for 2 cents, 3 cents a record. So you can get a list of 500 records or 100 houses or 200 houses for literally like $10 or—

Yeah.

So it'll be $25.

Right.

A little more expensive than her method, but—

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

But more effective.

Yeah.

More effective.

Yeah.

What do you think about the startup costs of being, you know, getting into wholesaling? Like, can you keep it low and for how long?

And—

Yeah, if you have, if you have the time, you can 100% keep it low because you don't— you, you literally all you need to do is call, call, call, call, call, and don't stop calling until you get that deal. There's no really Cost to for the contract, like I can give it to you, you can give it to them. There's no really cost for opening escrow. There's no really cost for finding a buyer. There's no really cost for any of that. So literally, like if you have the time, then just just call, call, call, call, call, call, call. Network, network with agents. Network with agents. Yeah, you can you can definitely keep it low. If you're trying to scale or automate or you have a full-time job or you're trying to start another business or do crypto or something, then yeah, obviously you're going to have to pay money.

Yeah. Or doing like the Facebook ads and stuff. It's ad spend. You got to have the ad spend.

Yeah.

It is what it is. But yeah, take it slow. I went through these phases where I would get like an assignment And then I'd get all the softwares and only use like 20%.

Yeah.

And then I'm like paying for all these other ones and I'm like, what, what, what does this chart over here? And Lauren's like, you're spending all the money. I'm like, but I need the newest thing.

And then sometimes you have to try it to learn more, you know?

Thank you. Yes. Carlos gets it.

Yeah.

No, she doesn't get it.

Yeah.

We, I don't, I don't blame her.

We spend a lot.

I don't blame her. I agree with her.

We spend a lot. Joe and her on the same side.

Yeah.

I agree with her.

They're spending all the money. Prove it. How is it better than anything else that you're doing?

I had to find out.

Yeah.

The hard part, the hard part is that there's just so many.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like texting, for example. Like texting is not, in my opinion, it's not really— I think it's dead now. Just really hard with all the carriers and catching up.

Yeah.

But literally there was like 20 softwares where you can do text and all of them told you the same thing. Like, oh, you can send all these texts and yeah.

Yeah, it's like AT&T got hacked the other day.

Really?

Oh yes, AT&T got hacked.

That's probably the guy from Fiverr or something like that.

Exactly.

Pakistani.

If you're, if you're AT&T, they've got all your info. Everything.

Yeah, exactly.

Phone number, email, everything.

But I can't text a seller out of the blue.

No, you can't.

And ask if they want to sell. Yeah, that's rude.

But those— but AT&T sells your info.

All right.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's how we get—

it's gone now. I know. Yeah, it's wild.

That's why I have T-Mobile. I'm just kidding. I don't care. I really don't care.

You're not getting paid for that.

You could be like the Shark Tank guy Kevin O'Leary. He's got 2 phones he carries around with him. I don't know if you've heard his own speech and stuff, but He, on one phone is a burner phone that he has TikTok on it. Nothing else.

So they don't trace him.

That's it. So they don't trace him. And then the other phone is his regular phone.

Okay.

You're a scarecrow trickster.

That's what you need to do is you need to have a burner phone as well. But then Lauren's going to ask you, why do you have 2 phones?

He's going to get in trouble if he has a burner phone.

Yeah.

See, that's what I thought.

That's what I said.

Yeah.

Okay. I'm not doing it.

It's like, yeah.

I know.

Yeah. Well, he also believed in like Sam Bankman-Fried was like a genius.

Oh, I know.

That's why he really had the burner phone.

Oh, Mr. Wonderful.

That's— you're not—

nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect. Oh, that was a doozy though.

No, it was. He's spending, uh, he just got convicted. He's in— and sentenced. He's spending 25 years in jail, which is— that's only a short period of time.

He'll get out for good behavior too.

He's young.

And yeah, think of the wild ride that kid—

That's a federal crime, so I think they have to do like, uh, 75%.

Yeah, no, he'll get out.

I mean, if it was state charges, you'd do 50% of your time and they'd let you out.

He'll get out, you know, he's got good lawyers.

Yeah, he can still probably wholesale from jail though.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. He'll do something. Yeah, he'll be day trading.

Gonna go in and you're gonna meet an older guy that teaches him something else, you know. Illegal to do.

So yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh. What, uh, how's the comments looking? Let's go to the— let's go to the live chat.

Okay, we got a couple. We got our resident regular, Liz. Hello!

And she says, hi, what's up, Liz?

Do you follow me on Instagram, Liz?

Yeah, follow Carlos Clothes.

Here, let me throw your Instagram up there. There you go.

There you go, dude.

Let's go longer. I want to talk about more stuff. I got time.

All right, it's— we go until Joe gets hungry, which is pretty soon.

Pretty soon. Pretty— who else? Any other comments?

Joe eats at the same time every day.

Yes, we've got Stephanie in the chat and she says, I could listen to Carlos say Joshua Tree all day.

Joshua Tree.

Hell yeah.

People sometimes say that I don't have an accent, and then sometimes they do. Yeah. So do I or not?

You have one.

It's okay. That's why I close so many deals.

It's coming from the Puerto Rican too.

Yeah, you have an accent. Yes.

Yeah, exactly.

That's how I close deals.

That's the secret. But I think that's what she likes.

Yeah, she does.

It's your accent.

Hot man with a hot accent.

Yeah.

No, thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, what's the question?

That's, that's all we got for now.

Okay, gotcha. Cool. All right, just comments.

Okay, well, we got a we got a we got time. We got a spectator here live. You guys can see him, but you have any questions, Angel?

Oh, come on.

It's your chance.

Come on.

Yeah, you have to quit. Well, let's.

I mean, he's been calling. He's been calling. He's been driving for dollars.

Okay.

He's been uh. He just posted a Facebook to Dispo today. It's nice in South Carolina. Cool. Um, it came from a list. It came from a cold caller.

Awesome.

Uh, who closed it? Gio closed it or you closed it? I was with Gio when he closed it, but— so Gio closed it.

They were holding hands.

They were holding hands.

Uh, you're training him? Is that the relationship here?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. So Angelo, he's— he works at a hospital. Um, so he's been trying to make the move, right? Yeah, yeah, he's awesome. He's a hard worker.

He's young.

So how old were you when you started, Alex?

16.

I'm just kidding.

I was not. No, I was 37.

Okay, I was 37. Yeah, I was— so 2020, how old was I? 2020, 4 years ago, 27.

There you go.

You, Joe?

12.

16.

Yeah, 16.

How old are you, Angelo?

24.

24. See, so you already got a bunch of time.

There you go.

I bought, uh, I bought my first house, my primary, when I was 20. My first investment when I was 22.

Houses were $23 back then with that coupon. Gosh, Orange County property back in the day. That's what I would do if I had the That's, that's a good question.

It was $35,000.

If you— that's a good question. If you started, Alex, if you started as a 21-year-old, what would— what do you tell yourself, or what do you— what would you do? And then we'll go back to Angelo.

He has a question. Put the guitar down for a second. Okay.

Oh yeah, he's an artist.

That's right. But then I wouldn't have met Lauren, so it all had to go.

Yeah, it's— it all works out. Yeah, it's all written.

It's written. I know. Exactly, exactly. No, I wouldn't change it. any of that stuff.

Yeah.

Um, but I do wish I would have bought at least like a couple properties. I did know, like, I toured with a band from Australia and that's what they did. They bought like multifamily with their tour. I don't know what it cost. I don't know how much they were making, but they were like, yeah, we bought like a small apartment building.

Yeah.

I was like, oh, that's cool. Why would you do that?

Anyway, would you say, would you say Angelo is on the right path?

Yes. 100%, dude.

Doing his drive for dollars.

Yeah, are you kidding? Absolutely. Yes, driving for dollars. Yeah, any— just listen to Carlos. Yeah, exactly. Just keep buying houses.

Listen to me saying Joshua Tree and you'll win.

Joshua Tree.

Yeah, don't, don't do anything in Joshua Tree.

All right, he had a question.

Anything in the desert, don't do anything. Do you have a question?

He had a question.

He had a question.

How long would you say, like, you are— get efficient at Wholesaling, how long would you say you, you should wholesale for until you take on like your first flip?

Nice. Repeat the question.

How long would you wholesale before you start flipping?

Good question.

Um, honestly, not a long time. I, I think, I think it's more of a, of a question That here's an opportunity for it. I've been wholesaling, let's say for 2 months. And then I get an opportunity, like, uh, you know, one of our people at the meetup came to, and she's cold calling and she's cold calling pre-foreclosures. And the lady says, yeah, I need to sell my house in less than a week or else I'm going to lose my equity. What do you have? And she says, well, how about I do subject to on your first? And the second, I think, was like $100,000 or somewhere around there. She says, well, I'll pay that, which left the seller $250,000. But the seller, her motivation was that she wanted to stay in the property for 2 years because her son was in high school. So she says, okay, well, do you want to rent back from me for 2 years? Yeah, I can do that. I can rent back from you. And I'm, and I'm And I'm counseling her and I'm telling her, that's not a great idea because she can't make the mortgage payment here. Why would you trust her with this? But then the lady says, well, how about, you know, I sell it to you and under those terms, but I keep the $250,000 in escrow and then you don't give that to me until I move out in 2 years. I said, really? That works for me.

Yeah.

Like, yeah, go knock on her door and get it signed and move forward. She did. And so, um, the first rent, the first rent payment was April 1st, April Fool's Day.

She paid?

She paid.

Let's go.

She paid. Not only she pays, but she told her that, you know, um, if there's anything that needs to be fixed or whatever, that's your responsibility. You, you created this mess. So like, if you need something, then you need to pay for it.

Yeah.

So to answer your question, it could fall in your lap like tomorrow.

Yeah.

You know, you've, you've, you've been wholesaling a day. Okay. And then tomorrow some great deal like that falls in your lap and you decide, well, you know, in her case, she decided to hold onto it and rent it out for 2 years, but she could have easily flipped that property as well, you know, without, without a problem, you know, and, and finding, finding money, um, or somebody who wants to partner with you on a deal like that, that's the easy part. The hard part is the deal, finding the deal. That's the hard part.

Yeah. I don't think there's an exact timeline. I think if you're resourceful, it could be at any time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Really?

Like you're just—

You're going to need some resources.

Yeah. You're working on lead generation is what it is. And wholesaling is just one exit strategy that you're going to master.

But it's the foundation.

It's the foundation.

Yes.

So you can see it A to Z. And then once you have like, okay, now this lead comes in just like every other lead, but you're like, oh, if I flip this, I can make like $300 grand. So then you go like Carlos and you're like, hey, let's partner on this flip, split it 50/50 instead of making it.

If that South Carolina one was down the street, we will flip it in a heartbeat. I was going to say something different.

That's a whole nother virtual thing.

Oh, the foundation. Yeah. Real estate is about finding deals. So If you get good at finding deals, you'll be able to do anything like multifamily, single family, long-term rental, midterm rental, Airbnb, whatever. Because you find a deal, right? Like Joe said, the hard part is finding a deal.

Yeah, people got money lying around. What you realize?

Really? Yeah. Ask, ask.

You gotta ask people.

I funded, I funded three properties. This past week, just from texting people, be like, "Hey, I have these properties in escrow ready to be funded. Would you be interested in investing? I'll send you more if you're interested." Then some people were saying, "I'll pass," and then some people were saying, "Like sure, send me more details," and then I will send a breakdown via email, and then I will follow up, and they'll be like, "Yeah, I'm in." Like just like that. Obviously, I have a track record now and all that stuff.

Yeah.

Ask, you know, because. If if you come to Joe with a good deal, even if he doesn't know you and he but he looks at the numbers, he'll be like, "Here, here's the money." Yeah. Right, Joe?

Yeah. Here's some money, Alex.

Yeah.

Joe's got money.

Yeah.

Bring him deals.

He's got like we hungry for deals.

He's got a Cybertruck coming up.

I'm always looking for deals.

He's got a Cybertruck coming.

It's yeah, an order. Who knows when? But It's on order.

You're seeing more and more of them.

Yeah.

Out and about.

All right, what else? Liz, Stephanie, do they have any questions?

Oh, we gotta chime in for Joe. Diana says, hope your cruise was great.

Who's Diana?

Joe is always cruising.

It was good. Yes, thank you for asking.

Diana Rosette, you know her? Yeah.

Oh, I know her. Yes. Yeah, thank you for asking. It was great. Yeah, it's nice to get away for a week, and it's like so easy. Literally go down to, you know, Long Beach, jump on a cruise ship, you're gone for a week, come back, start all over again.

You know?

Yeah, it's a cycle.

You look for the next break.

Joe's like, it's so easy to leave for a week. Meanwhile, our escrow's on fire. I'm like, what do we do?

Yeah.

It happens.

Well, we kind of put the fire out, but not really. I would say it doesn't—

it's not looking good.

No, it's not. No, I'm going to reach out to him tomorrow.

Okay. Putting out fires.

It's good.

It's fun.

Yeah.

That's the fun part.

The more you do, the more, the more you make, the more you do. It's, it's, it's just putting out more fires, you know?

Yeah.

What's the goal for the new and the experienced investor for the rest of 2024?

Alex, you have a goal?

I do, yeah. We're gonna get— we're gonna do more flips, um, more seller financing, just get the machine down.

You just have to get them by Lauren.

Yeah, no, exactly. Yeah, get things more automated. I want to have just a more predictable—

It sounds like she told you the same thing on the last deal that you presented to me. I told you you need to get it at less than that for it to be a good deal? Because you think everything's a good deal.

Is that the one? Is that the one that you were referring to when you post about canceling a contract or something?

No, that was a— yeah, those were, those were a couple, um, where we had turned on like PPL and I— they were just like, I was spending so much on the leads and so I was just like not Underwriting them correctly. Yeah, locking them up too high. And then—

Were you underwriting— would you— were you— were you underwriting like too fast, or—

Yeah, I think it was too fast because we were trying to get it to where once the lead comes in, we'll process it, and then we're gonna get them an offer like right away and not wait forever. And so I was like, okay, let me do it. Like, one was out in Apple Valley, and like, you had to do it— like, every house had an acre. And so I saw one at like $525,000, but then when we looked at it again, it had like this giant barn build-out in the back that gave it some extra, I guess, value.

Value.

Yeah. But then once I looked again, once I was getting feedback from buyers, it was like, they were like, no, I'm looking at these ones. And so just kind of took it as a learning experience. And it happens.

Yeah. And it wasn't even good as a— that was for a flip or wholesale?

Yeah, no, that was for a wholesale. But it still—

Even as a flip, not enough spread?

Yeah, not enough spread. Yeah. So I had to get it. I think I had it at like, $358,000 and I had to get them down to like $320,000, which isn't far. Yeah, but they were like, no, we're gonna wait and like we can get this much. But I know they're not gonna get that much, so that's a follow-up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, come back to it. Yeah, we're working, uh, we picked one up in Hemet last week for $350,000, ARV's $475,000.

Nice.

Um, but we were thinking it was it's in better shape than it is.

Right.

So we do need it like $320,000. And yeah, when you go for price adjustments or price drops, sellers are usually not happy at the beginning, but I'm literally going to call him after this and just be like, yeah, it is. Have you thought about it? Like, you know, like properties in bad shape, right? It's the perfect lead. It's like bad shape. There's some, there's a little fire damage. the tenants are paying. Uh, it's like, what are you gonna do with this? You know? Yeah. Seller's always gonna tell you like, oh, I'll wait, or I'll fix it myself. But they don't really want to do that, right? They got under contract with you for a reason in the first place.

Yeah.

So I think it's just a matter of like negotiating and trying to totally sweeten, like, you know.

Yeah, there's ways to add value besides the price.

Yeah, for sure.

I know some people, that's their whole business model. It's like They lock it up a little high. I mean, that's what Opendoor does. They'll give you the best price. Yeah. And then they're like, someone told us, okay, we got a price from Opendoor and they had a convenience fee of $45 grand.

Yeah.

Like in there, just listed out.

Are they still in business? Did they come back?

Yeah, they're still there.

They're still doing it. So they came back, I guess. I don't know. They're still making offers.

We lost a bunch of deals to them in 2021.

They were going crazy. They were just losing money left and right. Is you go back and you'll see what they bought it for and what they sold it for. Yeah, it's like, I mean, they had the money behind them to do it, but yeah, it got annoying after a while. People like, I'm just gonna wait for Opendoor.

I know, I know.

Yeah.

Oh, okay. Do you know what they do? Yeah, so don't learn.

Come on, support, support this small shop, this, you know, like, yeah, why do you want to support the billion-dollar shop?

Yeah.

I got kids to feed. Why are you obsessed with money? God.

But that's a big corporation. Why?

Yeah, you know, Walmart.

Giving your house to them. Yeah. Yeah.

Wait, so what's the goal then?

Buy local.

More flips.

Yeah, more flips. Need so many more flips. And just to create like a—

How many, how many can you guys handle a month?

I don't know, like 2 or 3. But if we could get it consistently Yeah, then we can find more people.

We're also find those deals.

We're also teaching others how to wholesale properties as well. So we start Alex started that up Wholesale Startup Club.

Yeah, some people are getting some deals now.

Are they staying with it?

Yeah, yeah, some people are. I mean, we only meet like on Zoom once a week, and then we provide them with like lists and stuff like that.

They're cold calling for you.

Yeah, calling. It's mostly pre-foreclosures. Some people are door knocking, but it's not really for us necessarily. It's just to teach them how to do it themselves. And then once they need help, then we can help them.

Yeah.

And then we'll like wholesale to you.

Yeah.

To flip.

Yeah.

Correct.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So some people are getting some deals.

We need deals, people.

We need deals. Let's go.

I got a, um, a comment from my mom.

Oh, okay.

Hi, Mom. I think she's watching. She said that, um, she was trying to post.

She, she couldn't figure it out.

Okay, this might be the first time she's used YouTube. So, but she said that she had a friend call Joe and I and get some advice, and she basically is doing a, a sub-to deal that she was gonna buy out the loan, and now instead of using all her cash to pay it off, she's structuring a sub-to deal on a property. Zero down, 0% interest. No. And the tenant there is older and she's gonna give him— what is it?

A life estate? Yes.

Yeah.

What is that?

So you're old and you're gonna sell your house to somebody under the condition that you can stay in there for the rest of your life.

Oh, okay.

It's kind of like a reverse mortgage, you know, but you don't—

so you'll pass in the property.

You don't get paid any money every month like a reverse mortgage.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

But she'll pass in the property.

Yes. It's, I think it's a he, but yes, he'll, he, okay.

What's the age for, or the rule? Like, do they have to be older than like 80?

Yeah, I think he's like 76 or something.

They could live another, yeah.

What if he lives into 105?

Like, then you know what? That was a bad deal. You know, that's the chance that you're taking. Um, and she, this is apparently a, a neighbor right next door to her and she knows him very well. And she knows the entire situation. And, you know, she knows that he's not in perfect health, but he doesn't have any relatives. And he literally just wants to stay in his home for the rest of his life. And so, you know, it started out she was gonna buy the house for—

She was just gonna pay off the loan, which was like $79,000.

Okay.

Out of— she was setting up like a self-directed IRA. To pay that off and invest in the property.

Yeah.

And she's already been helping him out financially a little bit.

So yeah, that's cool.

And so I told her, I says, well, you know, why pay it off at all? Just do subject to on the property. And I said, you know, just make his payments. And she says, oh, well, I'm doing that right now. You know, I go—

She was already doing it?

Yeah. So it's not any different than what I'm doing. So you're going to buy the house and not have any money into the deal whatsoever. You know, you're just gonna have literally a life estate when he passes away. Then, you know, she does whatever she wants with the property at that point in time.

Wow, something new. I learned something new.

Always learn something new here at the New and Experienced Investor.

Joe is encyclopedia. Yeah, it's a walking— he's a walking encyclopedia.

Yeah, no, you know, I was on the phone with Lauren, uh, And I put her on the voicemail and, uh, not voicemail, but, uh, speaker. And I'm— she's telling me this whole story and I go, wait a second, like, sounds like a good relationship there. Just do subject-to. Why put any money into this whatsoever? And so thank you that she took my advice. That's awesome. Because I told her, if you don't want to do it, I'll do it, you know?

Yeah.

And she goes, Joe, this is in Oregon. I go, I don't care. It doesn't matter. I could zero down and just wait till— I know who's gonna go first, him or me, but you know, Joe, stop. Yeah, who knows, you know? But, uh, yeah, then my kids could enjoy it afterwards. Yeah.

Okay.

Because they get everything anyways.

Well, on that note, I think that's a good place to wrap it up.

Thank you.

All right.

Always learning something new. There you go.

How can people, uh, reach out to you?

Pretty active on Instagram, @CarlosCloses. What else? What else?

What else?

YouTube. I'm starting my personal YouTube this year. That's one of my goals.

Yes.

Yeah, I want it to be in Spanish.

Oh, nice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. But yeah, Instagram for sure. Hit me up. DM me. I'll answer any questions if I have the answers. Or I'll BS you and pretend that I do. Perfect.

No, I'm kidding.

That's half of real estate.

No, I'm just kidding.

No, I'll help. I'll help us as much as I can. Thank you guys.

Yeah, thank you, man. I really appreciate it. We've had a lot of fun. We'll see you guys.

Come to the meetup next week.

3 weeks. Come to the meetup.

Let's go. Let's get it. Get deals.

See you later. If you want some more advice on real estate investing, reach out to us one-on-one.