EP 610 – Powerhouse Deals And Opportunities In The Atlanta Real Estate Market With Amy Ransdell

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This is the no Closers show where you get the latest developments in distressed note investing and learn the secrets of how you can control millions of dollars worth of property for pennies on the dollar. Get educated and entertained by someone who has closed thousands of deals and lives to support you in achieving the same. Now here's your host CEO of We Close Notes Scott Carson.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Note Closer Show. As always, Scott Carson, excited to be here today and I'm really jacked up and excited to have somebody who's doing an amazing. She's an absolute powerhouse when it comes to what she is doing with her and her teams and her staff and amazing people that she leads out of the Atlanta market. And we all know Atlanta hot Atlanta, as we like to say, is a hotbed of real estate deals. We always have so many investors that are loving invest in Georgia, obviously as a note investor. It's one of the fastest foreclosure states out there. It's got a couple tricky little things they want you to do as a note investor, but I wanted to bring on somebody who is absolutely killing it. She is running an investment team in brokerage sales there in Marietta, Georgia and has been renovating wholesaling homes for over 18 years. She's also a note investor, but she's also a big marketer. That's one of the big things that I love about what she is doing with her national blogs, different events, coaching and her a couple of my buddies are doing an amazing job with their podcast as well out there. So we are honored and as always, excited to have Amy Ransel joining us this morning. What's going on, Amy? How are you doing today?

Well, first, I'm doing great. Thank you for asking and thank you for having me. This is awesome. When you reached out, I'm like, oh yeah, we totally do your show. This is awesome. You're great content that I enjoy. So thank you for having me.

Well, thank you very much. But you know, one of the things, let's dive into some stuff you and I were talking beforehand and we'll get into some of the systems that you are a fan of and then also cracks that we see in our systems because we were joking about that how most people think we always gotta have everything together.

People think we do.

Yeah, exactly. Let's keep them thinking that. But let's talk a little bit about where you see in the Atlanta market. You know, you're doing so many some amazing things, wholesaling, fixing, flipping homes you're also a note investor out the neck of the woods. Where do you see kind of Atlanta being at right now for you?

We just come through a crazy event. So I guess we'll talk timely, right With COVID and so forth. In Georgia, I will say we were, we had a little bit of an advantage because real estate was considered a essential business. So we didn't have to completely freeze. Although it did really change the game of how we applied ourselves. What we're watching right now is what's not only what's happening right now, but what's going to come in the next 3, 6, 9, 12 months, you know, 18, 24 months. Like those are some. There's a massive economic event we just had. There's going to be a natural progression of events that come from it before it heals itself. And so right now in Atlanta, we're experiencing just a massive real estate crazy night. I mean it's like a boom. Like it's, it's this, but it's a blip. And so we'll talk about that in a second. But we're having a lot of activity. Inventory is really low. If a buyer's in the market right now, they're a serious buyer because they're willing to go out there and look even with COVID Right. So that's something important. And of course interest rates being at historical lows and going to hit even deeper lows, we all presume then this is a market where everybody is just pushing. So we're seeing multiple offers over list price is a consistent thing that's happening at this moment. Right. So which is pretty good.

Are you seeing the most amount of the most activity in your first time? Are you talking 500,000 or less or let's talk kind of maybe some of the specific numbers of the Atlanta market price range and stuff like days of market, stuff like that for you.

So really, really good question. So in our market jumbo loans started 510. Here we don't have, you know, first time homebuyer is going to be 175 to 275 and so forth and almost every market, and I can say this and not be all inclusive and looked at like I'm the dummy for saying this, but in almost every market there is a need for housing at the lower end. Okay. So it's highly competitive here to find properties to flip on the lower end that are going to go retail flips. It's highly competitive to find rental properties because same thing. Although we are a fairly good market. Fairly Diverse for finding positive cash flow property. But I will say that's always going to be a pocket. Anybody in any market should go figure out what that range is in your area and see if you can make that happen. In micro markets in Atlanta, it's really powerful to find properties to flip or sell that. Let's just put it this way. There are aggressive investors who are adding on square footage and making these houses much bigger to go for these bigger ARVs. But the reality is there's a very low amount of inventory for the smaller footprint properties and a lot of buyers that want those. So same thing. If you can figure out what those little ranges are, then you've got a really hot place to play in. Okay, once you get over about 550, 575, just about everywhere we're seeing longer days on market, we're seeing price reductions. And really if you want to win at the higher price point, you better have a stellar product. I mean stellar. It's got to have a great living plan, be really well done. If you're a retail listing, you better do everything your agent says to make property is very marketable because you're not. It's not going to move as quickly unless it stands out from the crowd. So I don't know if that answered you, but that's what we're saying.

That's exactly what we're looking for. Yes, it definitely is good stuff out there for everybody.

Let me just add to everybody listening like I'm a total nerd. I'm a complete and utter numbers nerd. I just am. So if you're not a nerd, find somebody that is, that likes to study the numbers and study your different micro markets. Don't listen to macro projections, it doesn't apply. I don't want to hear a national projection, I don't want to hear a statewide projection, I don't even want to hear a citywide projection. Every small micro market is going to have its numbers, its saturation of inventory. Really get to know your markets, drive around in that market or get somebody boots on the ground that can do that for you. If I see tons of dumpsters and temporary power poles in the market, guess what that means? That means that we're going to have an inventory push come and that's going to push prices down and there's a market out. You want to know your market and study it.

Yeah, that's great stuff there. And that kind of dives into my next question there. With such a need for affordable first time housing, we see the same thing in many different markets across the grid, especially here in Austin, Texas. But with your experience and you look back at history, I think back to 2008, nine, what was going on, because we had a big growth. Have you seen a lot of new communities, new housing, first time homebuyer opportunities sprout up over the last couple years.

In Atlanta, there's been a ton. Right. One thing about Atlanta is that we don't have any geographic restrictions. Right. We're just this big, sprawling, flat, fat city. Right. So we really go all the way from Alabama to, you know, we go from every state line. It's greater Atlanta. Right. So, yes, there's been a lot of construction starts over the years. Construction inventory. There has been some ups and downs where there's been an over excess of construction inventory. And we watch that. Right. Construction numbers are really the first ones to watch before you start watching the rest of the retail numbers. At the moment we're seeing a lot of construction starts way outside the city. And I think that's in direct response to builders and developers, assuming people want to get out of the city dealing after dealing with COVID and then of course, all the protests and so forth that happen here in Atlanta particularly. So, you know, we're going to continue to watch that. Right. One of the challenges with the construction starts though is that there's already quite a bit of sort of looking for a backlog on construction material. So because of COVID just like we have some meat shortages and dairy shortages and things being predicted and already being experienced. There's also lumber and material and supply shortages because a lot of those places closed down for Covid and same thing, they're backlogged on orders. So anyway, yes, there is inventory outside, particularly this city for that first time homebuyer affordable housing. Now that's something else. Anybody here that's listening, that's a great niche to get into. There's huge government grants and all kinds of things that can come your way where the entire project is basically paid for. Like it's no joke. Affordable housing can be very profitable. Sounds like an oxymoron. I'm going to go build affordable housing. And it's profitable, but it can be.

Yeah, I agree there. You just got to make sure you're checking out with things. One of the things that concern always concerns me is the things that we've been tracking over the last 12 months a lot of times has been the kind of the rollback to as little down as possible, $500 down, $1,000 down or you know, I was even talking before all this back with a guy at bank of America, was talking about how they were donating the down payment on an FHA mortgage and then giving up to $7,500 worth of closing costs. And I'm like, oh my gosh. The ex mortgage banker in me is like, ah, you know, thinking back to 2008, 9 and 10 VU. Yeah, exactly. And have you seen things like that pop up there with people getting in for as little down and as little skin in the game as possible? I mean that's a beautiful thing. But then it always worries me when we have things like this happen where now they're in forbearance agreements, not paying or even when the tax values come back, now that they're being taxed on the full value and improvements of the property versus just the land. Do you foresee kind of that a little bit of start of the wave in some of those areas in those parts around Atlanta?

Yeah. In fact, we were talking about this before COVID I mean we really were like again, now you and I have the. We have experience on our side in the sense that I've been through several market corrections or shifts in my career and I very clearly remember the 08 world, right. So I was very heavily involved in short sales at the time. I happened to be on an advantage during that shift because of the niche that we were working primarily. But we all remember how loose lending was. And so we were watching lending become looser and looser and already saying to ourselves that that's going to create a wave of potential defaults, et cetera, not necessarily in the short sale arena like we saw before, where there's just an overwhelming amount of zero equity properties all of a sudden and so forth, but still seeing a lot of people who would end up in that mortgage late scenario. So we end up with a more motivated seller pool. And so we were pulling back out a lot of our transaction engineering of how to make money with pretty houses and all kinds of things. Right. Because those start to become strategies you want to pull. But yeah, that already a conversation. Now we sit here with COVID and we had everybody get unemployment or stimulus, okay. And so we're seeing this little blip of a lower unemployment number and everybody's going back to work, but not really the real numbers are going to come in a few months when anybody that was living on savings, that savings now gone, they've gotten complacent, they've not really put together any proactive efforts to be in a good financial position. And you have a lot of companies who are going to do those permanent layoffs, permanent salary reductions or they're going to close their doors. And so that's going to create a wave of people who are in these situations where they put no money down. Those are going to be your default wave. So we are all prepared strategically for there to be a wave of defaults and foreclosures.

Yeah. And I want to say, I think everybody's breathlessly waiting to see what's going to happen and shake out from the government, who's going to get bailed out, who's going to, who's going to be saved, how big a check is the government right to the banks. But I think there's going to be a lot of people that, especially not just borrowers, but also owners, landlords, smaller investment companies or even smaller real estate investors who have owner financed their properties and now they're not getting the aspect of the bailout and things like that. Any insight on that that you'd like to throw into there with your geekdom and I love your geekdom. I love your numbers aspect of things like that. You and I are fellow geeks.

Yeah. Good. All right, cool. Yeah, I'm a little crazy like that. I love studying economics, but I was a biochem major that got an art degree. It's a long story. I probably should have studied economics, but okay, so I told her I'm a complete nerd. So I will say this. She says something like about the landlords, things like that. Again, this is a trickle down effect. This is a natural impact of a series of events that have to happen. So there were a lot of statistics that most rents were paid still at a 75% pay rate during COVID And a lot of people were shocked because one of the first things they thought was that nobody would pay their rent anywhere across the country. But that wasn't true. And stimulus checks and so forth seemed to have been applied towards doing that. Okay. But again there was stimulus and support happening. When the real numbers start happening, where people are actually really affected, then they stop paying the rents. And that's when you start seeing the landlords where they can't pay the mortgages or the owner finance payments or the wraps or whatever structure they put themselves in. And then we start seeing a wave from that. Right. We see those landlords that are in that break even, those break even landlords where they can't really afford to do their repairs and assessments and so forth. It's actually a negative cash position. For them, they may be benefiting from a tax position or initial equity gain, but they're still in a negative monthly cash flow position. Those are the guys that are going to start wanting to just kind of get rid of property. Right. We're also going to see a wave of hard money stuff kind of hit the market on a default. There's a lot of that already coming. As a note person, I'm getting brought lists of default properties. Hey, do you want to buy these? Right. And I'm shocked. Like, I'm looking at the addresses and I'm like, oh gosh, I know these houses. Oh, I know that borrower. Right? But those waves are coming.

I'm glad you brought that up because that was going to be. That was the next question. I'm sure you're seeing it increase in mezzanine financing. Hard money loans starting to roll out there too, huh?

Yeah, for sure. So you talk about retail lending and how loose it was getting again, right? Okay, let's give the bank some credit. They did learn some lessons in 08. Okay, right. So even so, even though they were lowering rates, lowering down payment requirements and so forth, and opening up some no doc loan type products again, they still were not 100% like it was in 08. I mean, in 08 I could be like, I don't know, a guy who collected worms and I could buy a million dollar house. Right? Like you really could, right? Oh, and I could buy three or four of them, you know, hey, why not? Okay, all right. So it's different. Even within that situation, the lenders were doing more due diligence to make sure that the borrower did have a DTI ratio that could support it. They did have verifiable income of some form or another. They were doing a lot more. So I'll give them some credit, give them some props. But in the hard money side, oh my goodness. And this is like institutionally backed funding. And I'm watching this happen and I'm just breaking my heart where they're giving these crazy rate hard money loans and even dropping the interest rates just because it's got so competitive. Letting newbie investors come in with no experience whatsoever, or fake experience, because they'd bring in a quote unquote partner on the LLC that had experience. Right Now I was watching all these things happen and I'm like, oh my goodness. And so now you drive through neighborhoods and there's lots of projects that are boarded up and unfinished and it's because it was a borrower who really wasn't in a cash rich enough position to handle the hard money scenario, didn't know how to actually put a property through production and stay in budget and so forth and didn't know what they were doing right. And I watched hard money lenders also. I feel personally I watch some inflation, some appraisals and things like that. Or they push ARV appraisals because wholesalers and so forth sourcing, they were pushing the buy prices up and up and up. So they're trying to justify the end by a lower construction cost and actually is an ARV higher than it was to justify it. And now a lot of those people are in bad shape and then a.

Lot of them are basically scared.

Yes, yes. And we get those calls in our office. They're like, amy, can you help me? And they're making that noise. I'm like, oh, maybe not.

That leads to opportunities if you know what you're looking at. You know how to structure those deals, you know. And that's the beautiful thing about what seemed fault what you're doing. Knowing the rehab side versus okay, what can you. What do you have to put into it versus what do you want to pull into it? I think we all know a lot of real estate investors that have gotten into fix and flipping have over rehabbed or over amenities a property over amenity.

Or worse under amenities sometimes. Right. Or they just don't have a. Not just a design eye, but an understanding of the marketability of a property to make the right choices in living plan. And you know, just crazy because they don't have experience. You know, they watch Chip and Joanna Gaines on TV and they're like, hey, I can do that. All I gotta do is put ship flop on a wall. I gotta asshole. Right? And so it doesn't work like that. No. And they learn the hard lesson the hard way. So we all can mentoring, but not everybody does. So.

No. And hgtv, Flip this House or Flip or Flop does not count as mentoring.

It does not. Thank you. Right. Okay. So yeah. And I have a lot of friends who are actually on reality TV shows. Like I know them. Like I actually really know what's going on. And then these people that watch these shows, it cracks me up. But it is what it is. That's never gonna change. I don't, you know, like in any market. I mean Trading Spaces ruined it for us all 20 years ago. And it is what it is.

The original Flip this House series draw.

On the wall anyway.

That's right. That's right. I only need $1,500 paint and carpet.

We're going and we're going to finish under budget. And before we thought we would.

So let's dive into some of the things on the systems, because we could talk on the market all day long. But you're also a big part of Reva Global. We had Bob Lachance on a couple months ago. He was just on note camp recently talking about some assistance put in place for notes. Bob's a great guy. Good friends with Patrick Precourt as well. You know, you guys make a great tripod. You know, a triangle of content and expertise in different markets, making things happen out there. What are some of the biggest system errors that you see from investors out there? Besides, we always talk about what people should be doing, but let's talk about the biggest errors or the biggest gaps that people fail on, especially investors.

Okay. Broad one is just failing to actually do what I call the four steps to efficiency, that they try to do everything themselves. Right. So that's that typical entrepreneurial failure mindset. I mean, some people get it right away. They love execution, and they understand that they're not the guy to execute, and they're really big idea guys, and they find people to execute. That's great. But a lot of people jump into entrepreneurship, and they just aren't really prepared for really what all that means. And so then when they're in the weeds of everything, they just keep growing more weeds, but still trying to cut them all themselves. Right. Okay.

That's a great analogy there. I love that.

I could just see the guy hoarding my weeds. So not that kind of weed, but. All right, so that's West Coast 420 there. But they do. They try to keep everything internally, and then they end up in a burnout position or procrastinating or their business always looks like a roller coaster for production. They've got a great deal. Then they let every other department fall apart. Will they get that deal closed? And then when that deal closes, they don't understand why they're in a bad position, so they got to start again. Right. Or they're always pushing the mossy rock up the hill, like, and they're getting smashed until they give up. So my thing is number one, on a macro level, like, if you're listening to this call today, you know, do yourself a favor after you get done with Scott's show and just sit there with a pen and paper and literally write down all the things that you're good at, all the things that you're not, the things you procrastinate on the things that are the most highest revenue generating, most important decision making activities for your business that you should do and everything else. We're going to find another solution. And the first solution is you probably should eliminate a hell of a lot of it. Just saying there's a lot of stuff we all do that we think we should be doing. Should's an emotionally abusive work. I should be doing this, I should be doing that. The reality is you probably should not be. So eliminate a lot of stuff and figure out what you can automate with technology. Then outsource and outsourcing. I mean virtually, I mean this is remote outsourcing. I don't care if you hire one of our virtual assistants. All they would love for you to, but just get stuff outsourced and what's left should only be two things. Either what you should be doing right or what you can delegate to a physical team member on your team. So that's my macro answer. My micro answer is my number one pet peeve with investors in general and agents and realtors, brokers or anybody in sales is they don't follow up with the leads they generate. You are literally throwing money down the drain by not having a follow up process. You'll increase your net bottom line by minimum of 70% across industry broad if you just add a follow up sequence.

That is so true. I mean American Marketing association says that only about 48% of people actually follow up after the first phone call the first lead. Totally the same thing with investors. We see people that go to a workshop or they go to a seminar and they get all excited about marketing. They send out a let her blast and then they're scared to answer the phones. I was working with an investor this week and he did an email blast and he had a great open rate to leads. He's looking for some self storage facilities and email owners and he had about 20 people that opened the email more than once. I was like okay, that's a good sign that they're thinking you're planting seeds. Call them. Oh no, I can't call them. I'm like.

So if I was his coach I would immediately say okay, we either got a limiting belief in the way there, right? We don't believe in the results or we don't believe in what we're actually doing or we need to get rid of whatever fear it is, whatever phobia it is. Sometimes it's just not knowing what to say. But you're right, they don't touch up a Lot of people, they just, they do like, I'll see you guys spend $20,000 on a direct mail campaign, right? And it's a lot of money, right? Cost per acquisition on average in the country is about $4,000. CPA, right? So if you're putting a big direct mail campaign come out and you're not answering the live calls when they come in, that's a number one mistake. You can have a VA help with that, right? They can be consistently answering that phone. Or B, they want the layup, they want the one call, one and done, it's a deal, I'm done. And if they don't get the layup, then they'll say that that $20,000 direct mail campaign didn't work. And I'm like, excuse me. I said, first of all, most people are several months away. Remember, sellers are ready when they're ready. I always say our bumper sticker phrase here in our office. I use it all the time. And every type of strategy is, I'm ready when you're ready. Right. Whether it's learning, whether it's selling your house, I'm ready when you're ready. Okay. And I'm going to stay like on your radar till you want a restraining order against me so that I'm available when you're ready. Okay. And that's the key because people are going to touch. You're going to touch them multiple times. Most of your conversions are going to happen about the third or fourth potential follow up. And then you have another pool that are months out that are like follow ups. 10, 11, and 12. Right. So you've just got to have that in place. It'll change the game for your business.

Yeah, I love it, I love it, I love it. You're exactly right. Third, fourth, fifth time, 80% sales, remainder for the fifth contact. I'm ready when you're ready. That can be for a lot of things in life besides just real estate, right?

I use it for everything. Let me tell you, it's the most powerful phrase in marketing. I reckon you, like, really need to make a whole book about that. And I probably am. Nobody steal that. It's mine as I've been saying it forever. And we even have shirts that say it's over. I mean, it is a really powerful line. If you really think about it that way, then it will help you affect the decisions you're going to make for how you interact with the leads you generate. Monetize all effort. I'm not spending money on a lead unless I've got A plan to turn that into money or it's not worth spending the money in the first place.

You're 100% right. So many people will try something but not commit to it, not give it time for those seeds to sprout, for those leads to return to that follow up process that they bounce from strategy to strategy to strategy, but they never have any type of success. That's one of my biggest pet peeves of the real estate investor market, is that follow up doesn't really happen unless you really are committed to. A lot of people teach a theory, but they don't follow. And that's why I like having you guys on, having you on specifically because you guys do follow up. You are teaching that you've put Riva global together for VAs. And I've been really interactive with Bob and his team over there getting some stuff put together for our students. That's the key more than anything else is while we love fix and flip, we love rentals, we love buying some property, it really is the media business we're all in and staying that touch and follow up aspect of things, right?

Amy? You know, I tell people all that time, like all this stuff that you just described, whether I rent or flip or buy notes or buy assisted living facilities or buy commercial apartments, whatever, I don't care. All that stuff, those are all exit strategies, okay? But you're never going to get to any one of those beautiful exit strategies unless you first on the front end have a kick ass system to get the leads coming in the door and then B, a really great process to convert them. That has to be a dedicated part of your business. But you just said something I have a pet peeve too about, you know, everybody goes to REHM meetings, they listen to this guru, that guru, they hear stuff. And I have no problem, a lot of my friends. But the problem is, is that, you know, if I could get my hands on all of them to help them as a coach, filter their decision based upon alignment with their core, core values and their life goals and to pick the niche they want to stick with and then rock it, right? If I could just do that because so many of them will go listen to something and they're like, oh, now I need to go do that, right? And then they'll spend several thousand and they'll say, oh, that doesn't work because they didn't take the calls or they didn't do the follow up. And so then they go do another one. And then before you know it, they're saying real Estate investing doesn't work. That's not true. You haven't. There's. We know that, but I'm able to look at those. Wait, wait a minute. This guy over here is killing it, right? So you know, pick a niche, but make sure that you're prepared, you're disciplined and committed, first of all, decide that's what you want to do and then be disciplined and committed to converting the business that you generate. And you'll do well. I can guarantee it. I would put 100 bucks on that to anybody that challenged me.

So, you know, you've got to align your goal, you got to align what you want to accomplish. What you're passionate about as well too, with what you're doing in marketing and your focus of things. You know, that takes me to another aspect of things. We've given a lot of people that have really expressed a lot of interest in the commercial market space. Commercial real estate aspect of things. When you mentioned a couple things, residential assisted living apartments or self storage, you talked about office space there. What opportunities? If you're looking at your crystal ball there, look at your crystal ball. Maybe it's a Guinness beer. Sometimes we look into the beer and stuff like that to look at our futures here for you. Where do you see the investment opportunities in the commercial space there? In your guys markets in different areas. Are you guys oversaturated in one spot that you think is going to be opportunities for things here in the, in the next 6 to 12 months?

Really great questions. I gotta get kind of a macro micro and we use it. We use our Magic 8 Ball. That's what we use here. I do actually consult that about once a day. I have one on my keychain.

All right, so commercial scientific process right there for you everybody.

Seriously. I told you I ended up with an art degree. So I mean, something went wrong somewhere. Anyway, my science professors are all cringing in their seats right now. Okay, so here's the thing on commercial. So let's first talk about what happened with COVID and some stuff to watch. So in my again opinion, I believe there's going to be a massive default wave. We already have a default wave on the rents, but a default wave for the retail restaurant space. The second wave, I believe, will be some of your large brick and mortar office spaces. Your big corporate titans, they're going to tighten up and they're going to get rid of any peripheral office types environments that they don't need. Because a lot of people are adopting the work from home scenario more than ever or that pool work environment where they have a smaller office but people only come in half a day, they use the same space. Like those are things that are going to happen in direct response to the fact that people are enjoying working from home. And if that company didn't provide them a great in office corporate environment or corporate culture, then they're going to either go somewhere else or they're going to say, sorry, you either let me work from home or I leave. Right. So that's going to create a wave in the office space environment. I think there's waves of opportunity coming in. Storage facilities, co work, co share workspace facilities. Assisted living is something that is a powerful space because that boomer generation like this, one of the largest groups of a generation pocket, they all are living longer and living healthier. And that 55 plus community area is really strong. And then the assisted living facility is really strong. And it's the smaller facilities now that are going to be even more attractive than the larger ones. Again in response to the COVID events. So if you're looking for things to invest in there, in the Atlanta market, I would say there's a lot of development opportunities still. There's some infrastructure development need within certain parts of Atlanta. We had something called the Beltline, which if people understand Atlanta market came in and it really changed the face of our city considerably in a beautiful way. But there's some challenged parts of the beltline where there isn't any infrastructure support. And so I do mean ironically, some of that retail, restaurant type scenarios, shopping and so forth. And so what comes around that. Well, what comes around that are things like gas stations and apartments and townhomes and things like that. So I think people should be paying attention to those opportunities and where they are anyway. I don't know if that gives a deep enough answer, but it does definitely.

I think you got to be finding a spot that's flexible I think is the biggest thing we've got the death of them all, you know what I mean? The big box stores, those getting converted to something self storage, larger co working spaces, you got to be a flexible space and be able to kind of pivot when things are going there. Because I think we can see a glutton of those things like we've seen in the past.

Yeah, totally glutton. I love that you said flex. And so I think yeah, same thing. If you can have multi work, use, storage, retail like all in one, right. That's gonna have some strength and some power. But I do caution everybody, you know, in that course that retail restaurant side of things, that if you're gonna have dedicated space within your flex space for that, you may still have a challenge finding a good platinum tenant. So I don't want to make sure that they are right. So.

Well, and then you look at some of the bigger platinum tenants and the bigger staples for your smaller strip malls, you know, like subway, 20,000 locations, not paying rent immediately overnight, you know, the pizza places and stuff like that. I think that's. I think the bigger boys that are the bigger operators, they're going to figure out a way they buying stuff, they got money cheap enough that they can kind of go through it. I think it's. You're going to see a lot of stuff obviously in the smaller operators, the mom plot, commercial owners out there that don't have the resources like we talked about before, similar to the residential side, but being able to come in and that's what I love about the debt space, is being able to come in and buy that debt discount, but then working to create some sort of flexible solution for the owner operators. Right.

We just had 149 IHOPs brought to us in bankruptcy.

Wow.

And the guy just walked away. He's like, I don't want to do this anymore. I'm just done. As soon as Covid started, he said, I'm done. And these were not unhealthy IHOPs and their financial statements. He just didn't want to have to even deal with trying to figure out how to balance all the cost and expense that he knew was coming in response to the COVID challenge, even though he probably would have qualified for a pretty sizable PPP stimulus anyway. So, yeah, I mean, smaller stuff, you're right. If people are. Anybody that's watching the financial markets, you know, a lot of the retailers on the retail spectrum, some of the ones on the bottom, they've already declared they're done bankrupt, so forth. I know on a daily basis I hear of an individual restauran mom and pop operator end that are saying, I'm done, we're closed, we're closed. In fact, I went and hung out at one of my local pubs last week because it was their last night. And so they tried. Right? It is what it is. So again, from like a macro statement, everybody make sure that you're just again, doing your research and being really well educated on what's coming and what's happening around an area. And if you're going to do any kind of commercial type investment, you've got to be on the pulse of what's coming around it, what's coming in development around it. What's the city backing? Go hang out with the chamber of commerce, go hang out with the city development, go to the town hall meetings, go and find out these things. Go shake hands with your politicians. Go understand what's happening and coming because that will affect. So that type of investment is not short term. Right. It's a longer term deal. And so you want to be very well aware. Yeah. What's coming.

Well, and that's the thing is you've got to plant the seeds. You got to see what's going on, talking to people surrounding you. It's not just a, hey, I'm going to do this one thing and I'm going to be made. Real estate investing is a long term play. It's not a get rich quick aspect of things. Even though the shows like to say, oh, yes, you know, I'm a gamer and I'm an Airbnb or an Uber driver and I can afford $3 million, we're gonna flip this for five grand and make a million bucks.

You know, Uber drivers make a lot of money off me. I'm just saying.

But exactly. Yeah. Now if you look back and we kind of take this back here, we know you got Steve been doing this for 18 years. So you got started when you were three. If you think back, what was a lesson, one of your biggest lessons along the way, an investor for you in the last 18 years, where it's one of the biggest things that when you think about stands out the most, is teaching you something more, something, you know, changed the way you approach real estate.

You know, the first thing, two things that came to mind. So I am pretty broad across a lot of niches. I work as a coach as well. I have for majority of my career and I'm a high level coach. Don't advertise it. It's a truly referral type scenario and work with a lot of people, different types of businesses. So you learn a lot doing that too. Sometimes I learn more from them than I am from myself. But I would say personally, two huge lessons. And I know these are, I'm not, these are not going to blow anybody's minds as being original and new. But I believe in how powerful they are. They were for me. They still are. One is that you have to find someone to work with as a mentor or coach in whatever niche you're going after and at whatever level you're playing at. So let me explain. I have multiple coaches. I invest in coaches. When Covid started, I hired a coach immediately specific to the needs I knew I was getting ready to face in order to lead all the different teams that I do. If you haven't sought someone out that's going to do that for you, that you know is going to take you where you want to go next, that you've decided clearly and committed to go next, then that will be agent for me. Those were always the game changing where I would have those massive growth changes in my business. It's where I applied having a really awesome mentor or coach. And then the second thing is check your ego. I'm just going to put this out there. Check your ego. Where I've ever made a mistake that cost me, it was where I allowed my ego to make the decision. And by the way, ego doesn't mean big headed ego is also things like shame or guilt even. That's still your ego. Speaking as a great book called ego is your enemy. If nobody's read that, it could change your life. But I truly, honestly, if I ever made a decision that lost me something, it's because I made it impulsively or I was made an assumption because of my experience. Therefore I knew. Like. And so I now as I get older and more and more mature, I check myself more than I ever have before as to why am I making this decision and where is it coming from. So that's my two biggest like takeaway things that I know I'm not going to do like strategic real estate investing. But I tell you what, that's going to come into play on everything we do.

Ego could be a strangler when it comes to success. You know, we all, I think we've all struggled with that. I mean this is as entrepreneurs, we all kind of control freaks and egomaniacs in some sort of fashion. And you're right in a way.

You kind of have to be a little bit right. I mean, to play at our level, you gotta have a little bit of that crazy, right that the guy that wants to work the same job for 40 years doesn't have. There's a difference. There is. You are different when you're an entrepreneur, you have something in you that's a driver that's willing to put yourself out there to take this big risk to go after something. And that does require a little, like I said, a little bit of crazy. Right? But you got to make sure that you check that little guy and make sure how is that driving your decisions? Right? You'll thank yourself so much later. You won't end up doing something you don't love because of it. I know a lot of people who make big decisions based upon, well, I heard this was the, this I'm going to go be great at it. And then they're miserable 10 years later because it wasn't really what they wanted to do. So, you know, just do that commitment for yourself. Check it.

Yeah. And I love what you said. Finding a coach, somebody you can talk to, somebody that you can share the good. Somebody's been where you want to go, you know, or is that where you're at? That's the biggest thing. I think so many people hire coaches that they're not where they need to be in the long run, right?

Yeah, that's part of it too. Vet out that this is a person that's going to take you where you want to go. And this is all areas of life. Right. Like if you want to go be a bikini competitor, then you need to go hire a coach that's trained other bikini competitors and or been one themselves.

That's not going to work for me. No bikini competitor here. Sorry.

All right, so it's okay. Now we can go for another type of competition. But anyway, so. Yeah, but whatever that is, you want to be the best, like, you know, hot dog champion, hot dog eating champion, Then you go find the guy that's won every award for hot dog eating and be that guy. Right. I don't care what area it is. So, you know, I say that not lightly. I mean, if you're worried about your health, you hire the best nutrition coach. Right. If you want to seek that out, don't let your ego tell you that you don't need it. Instead, go find it and then let your ego allow you to receive what that coach tells you. And by the way, a good coach, they're not nice, right? Like they're to be your friends, kind of. Like as a parent, I'm not my kids friend. I love them. I'm there to be their parent, which sometimes I'm gonna make them do something they don't wanna do or don't wanna hear. And that's a big part of good coaching. Good coaching will help you hear things you might not want to hear. But that's why you've hired the coach, right?

Yeah. You don't want somebody just blowing smoke up your skirt or up your shorts. You want somebody who's actually gonna sit there. And I think back to the college coaches. When a college coach stopped yelling at you, you had to worry about things and then they stopped caring for the most part. Right.

I think that's true in relationships too. When someone goes silent, they're done. Right. So listen when they're not. Because if they care about you, then what they're saying is probably really, really important. And if you vetted them out and you know that they're of that high value position to help you, then don't refuse to acknowledge the support they're giving you. Right. We do it on a lower scale with Reba. Right. A lot of what we do is business owners call us and they're like, well, I know I need to outsource, but I have no idea how or where or what to do or where to start. And so we have to kind of ask those tough coaching level questions with them. And sometimes they don't want to hear the questions because they're like, ooh, now they have to face the fact that they probably should be doing something differently. Right. And so it's hard. So being a business owner is hard. Being disciplined is hard. Discipline requires oftentimes being outside of your comfort zone. And so what we're talking about here, kind of, that's what all that is. And so, but reach out, listen, get that support that you need. And if you can't do a coach, do an accountability group. But even then, make sure that members of that group at the level there.

Where you're trying to go, great, great, great counsel there. Amy, what's one of the things that you like to do to recharge your batteries? Because you're constantly going. Managing teams, working with a variety of things as entrepreneurs are pretty easy about burning the candle at both ends, right. What's the thing that you love to do that you recharge? You kind of get away. What's the thing that you really love to do that to help you get that good mindset? Because we've all got to take a break from time to time, right?

Yeah. Little postal moments. Those do happen. My team knows I'm known for having a roar. God did not bless me with a beautiful sweet button. I don't have a sugar coating button, so I tend to be anyway. But as far as recharging battery does personally kind of as to share with everyone, like find whatever that is, you know. So for me, it's two things. I'm a trail runner. I like to go out and hit the trails and I oftentimes will do that because I can't be on my phone and do that. And if you're not focused on the trail, you'll end up injuring yourself. So it's a cathartic process because I have to focus, which means from a hit, almost from a. If anybody that's into hypnosis or anything like that, I do a lot with nlp. We work in that world. Trail running for me is my hypnotic moment where I'm actually able to close everything else out and just get down. Laser focus on one thing, which teaches you how to laser focus on one thing, which as entrepreneurs, we got shiny pennies and squirrels going on and everything. So we're always being reactionary, and it's exhausting. Right. So if you can train your brain to get laser focused, then you'll also be able to do that when you're in a situation with lots of stuff going on around you. And then I have kids. I have three beautiful children. So we like to go kayaking and paddle boarding. And so we're usually at the lake as often as humanly possible, hitting the water. And everybody knows that about me, if you follow me on social media.

So, yeah, great stuff there. Well, yeah, you're right. Anywhere you can get to that. You've got to focus on something versus what's going on in the chaotic world wall behind us. Anywhere you can turn this off and unplug is one of the most important things these days.

Because I think everybody do something like find whatever that is. I mean, yeah, I can sit here and say yes. I mean, I also read incessantly. I spend every day, no less than an hour per day on personal growth. I do meditate every day, or I do what I call my intention. Setting time. I have a moment where I get quiet and remind myself of my intentions so I can guide my day. I mean, there are a lot of things that I could sit here and list off to say. These would be great things to do. But for whatever it is, whoever's listening, just pick something and then start making it a discipline until it becomes a habit. Allow that to make you stronger. That muscle appears stronger underneath the work of what we do that you're counting on that thing to be strong and you wear it out and your whole business can go to down the drain.

Exactly. And then you are running, screaming like a banshee out of the house or the office.

Yeah, I think my teammate behind me, I could see him stealing that and playing that at me during the day.

I'll send Preston one of these.

Lovely. Please don't. Okay. I will find it. I will throw it away.

You know, I've got one of 16 ways to say the F word, too. That's kind of interesting. Maybe I'll send you that one.

Oh, I love that. Yeah, that'd be awesome.

What's the best way for our audience to reach out to you to work with Amy? Or you have a specific client that you like to work with or who you people that you like to coach or mentor? You have somebody that's an ideal kind of client aspect of that too.

Ideal clients. My ideal client is coachable and has determined what they want. So if you have that very clear, then I may or may not be the right fit. But let's talk. Okay. If you're needing to get a virtual assistant in place and I'm assigned to people that get ahold of me. And by the way, if you're also interested in working with us in the Atlanta market, I have a massive team here in Atlanta. We are a true powerhouse. We are just the most unique brokerage there exists. Truly. I get told this all the time by colleagues I admire, so now I'm like, oh, we are. Okay, cool. Anyway, so if you really want to work with a great group in Atlanta, same way to contact me, just go through my RIVA Global connection. So you can go to amyvaglobal.com or go to thinkreva.com and go ahead and schedule a strategy session when it comes to getting a VA in place.

Perfect. Yeah, guys and gals out there, if you're listening to this or watching this or on our national radio station network as well too, guys and gals, Amy and her team are a powerhouse. Not a better perfect name to identify and classify what she does and her team does. And not only for their clients, their investors and a whole variety of people they're helping out there. So take the opportunity and reach out to her. We'll have the contact information below in the show notes as well too, but otherwise it's amyvaglobal.com correct? Was it.com right? Perfect. Very well. Amy, thank you so much for coming on the Nook Closer, sharing your insight, your guidance, your counsel in the market and what's going on and advice for other investors out there.

No, thank you so much for having me. Truly, it's an honor. I'm very glad to be here. Thank you.

All right, guys, that's going to wrap it up for this episode of the Note Closer show. Go out, do like Amy was mentioning. Find a real estate niche that identifies your passions, your long term goals and then go find a coach. Go find somebody that can help you get there who aligns with where you want to go. You don't need another friend. You need somebody who's not going to pull the punches, not going to blow smoke and then go take the action. Give it time for your investment to put roots in, to grow. And you'll be a lot happier in the long run versus bouncing and bouncing and bouncing like Tigger does. All over the place, everybody. So go out, take some action, buddy, and we'll see you all at the top. Bye.

Sam.