Episode #73: Flipping Homes & Holding Paper with Nick Disney

[00:00:00] I used to watch a bunch of real estate shows. There was a guy down in San Antonio, Armando, that used to do that. You ever see him or come in contact as he's flipping houses? I met him once. He stuck an axe in my house. Whoa! True story. Tell us that one. We had a house and I bought it and it was a terrible, terrible property. It's like the worst house. And I was like, man, we just need to sell it. Like, we'll just sell it as a fixer up or somebody wants to put on the MLS.

[00:00:29] It's listed. The front door is open and there's a white pickup in front. Okay, somebody's looking at the house or something. Right? No big deal. So, you know, I'm making some calls and just doing some things. Let them finish up doing the thing. I'm not getting rubbed. Get off the phone. I go walking up there and the truck's full of these guys and they're like, hey, how's it going? And there's a couple guys in the front, a couple guys in the back and they're nice. I'm like, hey guys, were you looking at the house? Are you done? I closed it because it had been a while and the door's just on. Oh yeah, hey, man, sorry about that. You know, my name's...

[00:00:59] I'm like, oh, yeah. So I recognize them. I'm like, okay, cool. Like, hey, sorry about that. And it's like pointing and I turn around and literally there's like an axe in the house. And I'm like, oh my gosh. Who brings an axe? Sorry, I didn't mean to put the axe in the wall. Why is this a situation that we're even discussing right now? And I'm like, okay. And they're like, man, we were just filming some content and here, you know, I'm sorry.

[00:01:26] I'm like, look at these guys. Like, are we all... They got like the full camera, like the full on camera. I'm like, are we serious right now? Welcome to the podcast dedicated to real estate, insurance and building your business. Join us as we take you along our own business building journeys with additional wisdom from our network of local and national experts.

[00:01:54] Welcome to Bricks and Risk. This episode is brought to you by Premium Finance Brokerage. Premium Finance Brokerage offers a high touch, specialized lending experience coupled with cutting edge technology. Stuart and his team can be reached at premiumfinancebrokerage.com or at 866-381-6501.

[00:02:24] Sean, you've been partnered with Stuart for years. Why is that valuable to you and your business? Stuart and his team, they have a tagline that says, Global Reach, Local Touch. And that really sums up the best parts of PFB. They have access to all the banking options that's going to get you the best rate, but the Local Touch, which is customer service for our agency,

[00:02:48] they're going to go above and beyond and offer that white glove service that you're not going to get anywhere else. I love it. You want to reach out to Stuart? Information below. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Bricks and Risk. I'm Tim Garrity. And I'm Sean Mooney.

[00:03:18] Today, Sean, we have an out-of-towner. We have a Texas boy. We have Nick Disney, the founder of Sell My San Antonio House. How are you doing today, Nick? I'm doing fantastic, guys. I appreciate you having me. Yeah, welcome on in. Appreciate you being on. So a little background on Nick. Nick Disney is a real estate investor in San Antonio, and he runs a family business.

[00:03:40] He's been investing in San Antonio and South Texas for the last 15 years and specializes in single-family real estate investments. Nick also has experience with rentals, owner financing, wholesaling, and fix and flips. The focus of Sell My San Antonio House is creating tenant-free cash flow with mortgage notes. Nick believes in treating people with the same respect that he would like to be treated and focuses on providing a great experience throughout the home selling process.

[00:04:10] All right. So one interesting thing that you mentioned that we were briefly discussing is that you want to create mortgage notes, own mortgage notes as a form of investment. Why don't you tell our listeners and watchers what that is and what that's all about? Absolutely. So if you're holding the mortgage note, you're basically the bank. But the idea is to create monthly cash flow.

[00:04:34] A lot of people get into real estate investing, and maybe it's through rental property or however they get there, and they think, oh, man, I want this passive income and this monthly cash flow. That's my goal, right? And it was mine as well. Still is my goal. Still growing. But a lot of people try to do that through rental property. And while rental property is great, it is not always the best thing for a predictable monthly cash flow. Where mortgage notes, you just collect the payment.

[00:05:04] Someone else owns the property. You can hold the note. It cash flows. It's very predictable. And it can be very profitable and a great way to be invested in real estate. A lot more passive. Anybody that's owned rental property for a long time knows that that passive investing isn't exactly passive. It's a great way to do it passively. Long-term investments, and they've worked really well for us. Awesome. That's really interesting.

[00:05:29] So for our listeners and watchers that are completely unfamiliar, basically what you're doing is that we had talked about if you fix up a property, you buy a home from someone, you put the work in, so now it's a beautifully rehabilitated home, and you sell it to someone else, that would be a flip. But on top of that, you're also saying, would you like to get your mortgage through me? So more or less, you're acting as a bank. How'd that come to be?

[00:05:56] You know, I had already been investing for a while, flipping houses, had some rental property. And one place that we found a lot of success overall in owner finance is in more standard blue-collar neighborhood. The price points of houses are a little lower. It's not where I owned rentals at the time, but I would find good deals. And I would sell them, or I would wholesale them off, or I was just flipping and selling them.

[00:06:24] And while that is good, you do get that chunk of cash, which always helps a business. I met some guys who were financing them. And so I saw my real goal was like, how much monthly cash flow could I get? Could I hold? Because I knew if I got enough, it really does really set you free, right? You don't have to go flip another house if it comes every month. And so they taught me about how they were financing the houses out and that people would just make the payment.

[00:06:52] And so you put the right person in the right property, they're more than happy to make their mortgage payment. Most people are. And it's very predictable. It's very long-term. And once you set them up, mortgage don'ts done well. Once they're set up, the people are paying. There's not a lot to do. But like, yeah, wait, you don't, you don't replace a dishwasher or fix a broken window or it's like, what do you want? It's clogged. It's your, it's your, it's your toilet, guys.

[00:07:21] You know, here's the next question. So your website states that your mission is to help as many people as you can sell their house quickly and easily. Your commitment to compassion, empathy, and professionalism helps you do the best for your clients, regardless of their situation. So I got, I got three parts to this question. Mooney's going to kill me, but this is what we're doing. So here's my first question based on that. Are you buying the house for just the note or are you also buying either to fix and hold or fix and flip?

[00:07:52] The, we're not buying any more to keep his rentals now. So we're buying that house either to, we do very, very few flips. We'll either turn it around and wholetail it or the primary, we're pretty much going to make a mortgage note out of it most of the time. As long as it fits, not every house is, is a good one to, for our owner finance model. But if it fits, we're going to look to owner finance it. We're going to help you. I mean, I bought a lot of houses and there's so many good people out there that just need to sell their house.

[00:08:21] If it needs repairs, if they're behind a pay, they're stuck. They may have made some mistakes, but they're really good people. And they, but they just need to get this, this weight of this house off their shoulders. So I like the people. I enjoy it. People are happy when we will come in and pay cash and buy their house. It's good. You know, Nick, do you get any squirrely looks when, you know, you're trying to introduce that topic of, hey, we'll be the bank. You just pay me.

[00:08:49] Like, like, how does that? It's not normal. No, no one usually says that. So yeah, to your point, like, does anyone ever look at you and be like, well, what do you mean? Like, are you trying to rip me off? Like, I'm going to pay you. Like, does that, uh, does that come up? No, not really. Right. Because the, we, we've already bought the house. So when we bought it, you know, we pay cash, we bought it. We own this thing. We own this house.

[00:09:14] By the time we, at the point where we sell it, we, we would own it free and clear so that we could have a first position lien when we make that new mortgage. Yeah. But there's a lot of people. And you have to think about who, who is our typical owner finance buyer. Yeah. They make plenty of money, um, but they don't have a lot of established credit. They don't fit in the credit system.

[00:09:38] That does not mean that they have bad credit, but we get a lot of people who don't have a credit card, do not have one paid cash for the truck. They don't have established credit in there, but they've saved a good amount for a down payment. Like, man, I'd like to live in that neighborhood. My buddies live in that neighborhood. I cannot go to the bank and get financed. Yeah. I can make payments to you. I don't have to pay all this at once. Yeah. I'll do that. And have a good income. Right. So like no credit, good income.

[00:10:08] You know, I can, I can make this payment every month. Do you know, do you know what this reminds me of? So we just had an interview recently with a guy, uh, Evan Siegel. What's up, Ev? And he runs a commercial financing brokerage. But before he started his own brokerage, he worked for a company that was basically giving non-traditional financing to business owners. So like someone wants to open up like a pizza shop or like a taco shop or whatever. And they're like, Hey, uh, I don't have any credit.

[00:10:36] Like, I just don't, I run my life with cash. You know, I just don't really, I bought my car with cash. I don't have any student loans. I don't own a home yet. So like, they don't have any well-established credit. Therefore they don't have a score. So you're kind of finding a need within your community where there are people in your community, like you said, make plenty of money. Maybe they own businesses or they're just, you know, they're just hustling and working hard and saving their money. And they're like, I want to buy a house. But every bank I've talked to said no.

[00:11:06] So now not only are you giving them like a house that you put your blood, sweat and tears into, because when you rehab a home as we do, like it is a ton of work. Like it could be, it could be a three month process. It could be a year long process, depending on like permitting and certain things with the home. And so you're like, I want to give you a good home. And I want to give you that opportunity to own a home through my financing. It's almost like I would credit it to seller financing.

[00:11:36] You know, someone owns a home free and clear. You know, let's say it's like some of my grandparents age and they have no mortgage on it and they want to sell the home to me. And I say, would you, would you hold the note? Would you hold the paper so that I can buy this thing? And then I'll pay you money every month and you make money off the interest. And a lot of times sellers will be like, oh yeah, like if the relationship's there, I would do that. You're just doing it on a level where it's like you understand your community, you understand your buyer.

[00:12:03] And you're like, hey, I want to offer this out there because there are some people who will want to do this based on what you just told us. So I think that's super interesting. Yeah, I appreciate it. No, it's, it's, it's just like that, right? We are seller financing it. They're like, hey, I'd love to buy this. But you know, our typical home sale is less than 200,000 on our owner finance product, you know, and based on where our market's at. But it's a lot harder for them to save up to get $200,000 saved versus a large down payment, you know?

[00:12:33] But if somebody brings say $25,000 that they have worked hard for their job, puts that down, you look at it, you're like, okay, yeah, we don't have any bad credit here, but you don't have a credit card. You don't have student loans. You don't have a truck payment. Wait a minute. Not always, but very often when we run it, their only fixed debt is our house payment that they're going to have. They don't have it. You make plenty of money here at your job. Typically they are a business owner, contractor, a restaurant or things like that.

[00:13:04] Man, if, if you took credit score off the table, you're going to take that guy or you're going to take the guy who just graduated from college and put two and a half percent down three credit cards, you know? 100K in student loans and, uh, and a 30K a year job. Yeah. I'm just saying, which person you got more faith in? I'm going to take my guy. Yeah. You know? Um, that's really cool. And so it works out well and they're happy to make their payments. Um, and they're happy to get their own, their own, their home. You know, I'm not, we do make money.

[00:13:34] I'm curious, Nick, uh, where your business comes from. You said you do a lot of marketing. Um, is, is it all marketing? I imagine there's a lot of like word of mouth, like, oh, you just got that new house. How'd you get it? Oh, I got it with Nick. He did this. Oh, you got to talk to him too. Can you talk us through like where your new deals are coming through and kind of the marketing aspect of where you're trying to drive new business and then the relationships of helping

[00:14:03] people that you helped and on, on that as well. Absolutely. So the, the first part of our business is a lot of marketing as far as looking to buy houses, cash for houses. We buy houses, you know, cause we have to let people know that we're there and we'll purchase that house. And so that is a lot of online marketing, direct mail. And then we have been around for a long time. So we do get quite a few referrals or people that have assigned properties to us in the past, et cetera. Um, the second part is a lot of what you say.

[00:14:32] If you give someone a quality home and you've allowed them to own it, they know someone else in that situation or their cousin or their brother. And it happens to us all the time. Hey, I know you sold me this house. If you get another one around here, my, my brother wants to buy a house. He's in the exact same situation as me. Um, yeah, no problem. It, you know, you tend and tend to have a lot of success when one family member refers to another one.

[00:14:59] Um, and so a lot like that, um, we will sell a lot of them with just the sign in the yard. Yeah. Because what happens is who do you want to live next to you? Your friends, your buddies, you know, your family. And so someone else will call, Hey, so-and-so is looking for a house. It says that you will own or finance it. And so we get a lot of people like that. And then there's some, there's also like Facebook marketplace and things like that, where we'll

[00:15:26] put the properties out there to general, but, um, ton of referrals and a lot. I mean, do not underestimate the sign in the yard and some signs just around the neighborhood because people want their friends to live by them. Well, I guess too, you might get calls like that property doesn't work or that property just sold. Hey, can you go find me a house? Like, like we saw your sign. Can you do that for me? We do get that call. We can't go find you a particular property. You have to choose from ours, but that does happen where they come.

[00:15:55] Um, Hey, this one's not the right fit. I really need a three bedroom, a little bit more square footage, whatever the situation is. But Hey, I've got everything else looks great. If you find one in there and we'll just, when we're going to have something that fits that criteria, we'll call them up and be like, Hey, this is what we have. You want to come take a look? Nice. Yeah. That's funny. It reminds me of an old saying in real estate. Some people that I meet in this business who've been doing it for a long time, they'll

[00:16:21] say list to last, meaning listings are the key to having a lasting career in residential real estate, but also listings lead to leads. Meaning you put a sign up on the street, you got the right message on there. You know, you have a reputation now, like people know who you are. You have referrals, you have reviews, you have clients and someone drives by that thing. I mean, that's, that's a listing that leads to another opportunity to either sell another

[00:16:50] house and or do the seller financing. All right. So here's the second part of my question was, how did you get into this business? I would, I was originally overall just real estate investing. I just wanted something that I could do on the side of my part-time job. I wanted more or something else. And, you know, I read some books, I learned about cashflow because no one taught, I knew nothing. And I was like, wait a minute, like buy something that's going to pay me every month. And this was a long journey.

[00:17:20] Wait, what was your job before real estate? What were you doing? I was in sales, sales, I was on the pharmaceutical side, vaccine sales, kind of in that, that whole space in there. And I was like, okay, this did make sense, right? You buy an asset or pay you. And I was going to say, I just need to own all these rental properties. And I did, I bought quite a few. We still have some and I'm not anti-rental. They, they work, they work for a long time.

[00:17:49] But when I learned about what I really wanted was the passive income, the notes are way more passive. Yes. Um, and so I, I ended up with some, some properties that weren't going to make a good rental, weren't really a good flip product, but like these other guys were buying them and their seller finance them. And I was like, nah, it's not a good idea. It's not for me. And they explained it to me and they explained the numbers. And I was like, well, maybe, maybe I'm not as smart as I think I am. Let me take a look at this guys.

[00:18:18] And, um, I did the, I did the first few. And if you put the right person in with right product in the right person and you set them up, they just make their payments. They just consistently make their payment. I was like, I don't, I don't really do anything. Someone's just going to be a payment, you know, and you can quickly, it's not all candy canes and unicorns, right? There's obviously some headaches in any business, but you can quickly figure out, well, if I've got these steady payments, well, how many of those payments do I need to reach this goal? How many of those payments do I need to reach this goal?

[00:18:45] It's really, it's really much more predictable without the things that I had. Like I had turnover for the rentals. I had the calls for the rentals that you're going to get real estate taxes, insurance for the house, all these things that you are part of that impact your numbers and impact your passivity. I don't even know if that's a word, but, um, you know, so we recently, we recently had Nick Giganti on our podcast, uh, who's a commercial real estate guy.

[00:19:13] And one of the things he mentioned was you have to be around to be around was kind of like his quote. And I heard you talking one time and they were like, where'd you get into this or who'd you get? And I think you referenced one point that you were, uh, guys that you had breakfast with, uh, turned you onto it or got you some deals. And then another time was like, I think a plumber you had mentioned or something, um, that kind of got you into it. Um, talk to us a little bit about that.

[00:19:40] Cause I imagine at that time when you were getting started, you kind of had to talk to people that were in the business and like, you know, this is what I'm thinking of. And this is what I want to get into. You talked to a little bit about that, about kind of putting your foot in there and just kind of like keep saying it and until it happened and being committed to it. Um, like when I first started getting into real estate investing, um, that was, um, in my head, I was completely committed.

[00:20:08] Um, I was much more naive than I am now. And you know, you, you don't know what you don't know. Um, and so I met a lot of people that had done it or, um, and of course also there was a group of us sitting around talking about how we're going to do it. None of us knew anything more than the other one. So I didn't get us too far. But, um, the, um, I met some people that had done it. They'd had some success. I'm like, man, these people aren't any smarter than me, but just, I was absolutely committed

[00:20:34] that, um, I am going to buy these investment properties. And if it ruins my entire financial future, um, this is happening. Uh, it didn't happen. Uh, I didn't ruin it. So that was good. Um, but I think, um, putting yourself around the right people, putting yourself, putting yourself around people who have done what you want to do. I wish I would have done more of that sooner and be able to find more of those sooner.

[00:21:04] And, um, everybody says add value, but really add value to those people because people that I was able to add value to their business have taught me so much more in such a shorter time than I would have learned. If I could go back to day one, I would have, I would have given these guys the properties because what they taught me, what, what you don't know as you're reading the books or watching,

[00:21:30] you know, YouTube and all that is these guys have seen it for years, for decades, some of them and what they teach you. Those, I mean, I've made more money off those lessons than any other thing I can possibly think of. Um, get around them, add value. It's so worth it. One thing I've heard before, before I get to the third part of my question that Mr. Mooney just won't allow me to do, which is completely fine. Chapter number three. Yeah. Like, like an hour and a half later, I'll get to it.

[00:22:00] Um, is that, um, I was listening to a podcast and, uh, I forget the name of the guy I was listening to, but he was talking about, you know, once you do well in business and you have all this money and you have all these assets, you have everything that you need. Like what do people that high up that are doing that well in life when they're networking with other people similar to them? What's the one commodity that they exchange between one another that they don't already have? Because if they're all wealthy and they all have money and they all have what they need,

[00:22:29] what can they glean from each other? What's the valuable thing they can get? And it's wisdom. So literally that's the commodity that they trade at the high level, at the experience level, because even though these people have everything they need, they can always learn something new from someone who has done something different or in a different way. And then when they get that nugget, they're like, you know what? Like that's super valuable. Thank you for sharing that with me.

[00:22:56] And now I'm going to go apply that either to my life or to my business or whatever it is. And so the third part of my question was, uh, in that state, my red, you're committed to compassion, empathy, and professionalism. So it's really, why have your clients found value with the way that you do business? Like, what is it about the way you run your business that your clients, you know, either tell you in a review or tell you face to face? It's, it's the way you treat them and the way you make them feel.

[00:23:23] Um, I, we've never one time had to beat somebody up about their house or their situation, not one time about their house or situation, whether it, some of it is self-inflicted or not. Right. They're already in a bad spot, right? You do not have to beat them up about that. And some of them aren't in a bad spot and just want to, um, treat them the way you want to be treated. I know a lot of people will say that, but be compassionate, listen to people. People will tell you what the real problem is.

[00:23:52] It's usually not just the dollar amount or the dollar amount, like you're going to pay for the house. And I think, um, spending time listening to them, trying to see if you can really solve their problem. People know when you're being authentic or not. And people will, people are drawn towards someone who's authentic and that's not always the easiest thing to be, or the easiest thing to put forward, you know, in business.

[00:24:16] And so I think that, and then, you know, when we look to sell things, we found a niche where we've got really, really good people. All they want to do is own their own home and don't have that opportunity most of the time. And so, I mean, we do make good money by doing this. So I don't feel like I'm just a saint or anything like that, but man, when you give somebody a chance to buy their first home and they felt like they could never buy a house

[00:24:44] and like the husband comes, the wife comes, the kids come to closing and everybody's super happy. That's the worst things we could do to make money. That's an unbelievable thing. I mean, you know, like, like they might've been looking to buy a home for five years or six years, could never get it done. Come across you in this program and you're like, yep, we can make it happen. Here you go. Here's the keys. I mean, it's life-changing stuff.

[00:25:09] So it must be, it must be awesome and impactful for you to kind of see this and go through it and time over time, make that happen for families. It's, it's, it's a lot of fun because they're so happy and somebody's that happy. I mean, they're, I won't have to worry about the investment. They're going to do everything they can to pay the bill. Yeah. Like it's not, it's not even an issue. Um, so yeah, but it's tons of fun. I would agree with that.

[00:25:35] Residential real estate, because I've been doing this, I've been in real estate sales and brokerage building and flipping real estate for about 15 years. And I was in the mortgage business for about eight years before that. And one thing I have personally always enjoyed about residential real estate is, is the ability to help people is the emotional impact, the life-changing family, or if you're a single person, single person with a dog, it doesn't matter. That's your family.

[00:26:02] Like being able to change people's lives through becoming a homeowner. Cause what's the number one wealth builder in the U S year after year is owning real estate. And if someone in your market wants to buy a sub 200 K house and they're a contractor, guess what? They're a business owner. They're an entrepreneur. That's why this country exists is you can come here and be no one with no education. You can't even speak the language and you can start a business, build a business and attain

[00:26:31] wealth, which is great. So you are not only helping those kinds of people aspiring to the American dream, which is the either own a business, own a home or both, but you're also like making it a great experience for them because, you know, even if someone comes to me and says, Hey, Tim, want to go buy one, two, three main street and it's going to change their life. And they get their loan through the bank. I am helping them.

[00:26:55] But you're actually, you're like making the dream happen for a segment of the market because they can't otherwise go to banks and get that kind of loan. And even if they could, like, let's say they went to someone in private financing or hard money and they're like, Hey, I want to be a homeowner. What are the terms? They're like, okay, there's going to be three or four points on that thing. Your interest rate is going to be 15% and it's a five year balloon.

[00:27:21] So I'm not going anywhere past five years with you without you either refinancing with another bank or paying me off. And who's that going to work for? I mean, for you, when you do your seller financing, is there a particular type of loan that you do as a different kinds of loans? Talk about that a little bit. No. So we will set them up on, uh, it's very similar, like traditional long-term financing, 15, 20 or 30 year mortgage.

[00:27:47] Um, they have to have the income to qualify before we'll let them do the 15 because, um, most of the time we're setting up people with a 30 year and then we'll show them, Hey, look, if you may want, you know, everybody's seen it. You make one extra payment per year. It's going to reduce your mortgage. Like eight years is all you got to do. We put no prepayment penalties and we put no balloons. The idea is not to set them up to fail. The idea is like, if we set them up for success, they're going to pass.

[00:28:14] And if they just pay us every month, we'll make plenty of money and we're doing fine. Right. And so we'll run everybody through an arm below residential mortgage loan originator. I know you guys know, but not, not everybody does. So they get initial disclosures. They get final disclosures. It's a legit mortgage, um, set up. We have everybody close at title. They have to close to the title company. You know, it's recorded with the County. It really is legitimately. We're just, you know, we're just holding the note. But it's awesome.

[00:28:44] It's like, Nick is literally like the first person I've ever met that does this for a living. Besides like, besides like, besides the Jared Ponces of the world and direct mortgage loan company. What's up, Jared? And then, you know, they, they make their own loans. And then also even Ian Walsh at hard money bankers. What's up, Ian? Um, he does the same thing where he's, you know, they're creating. Yeah, but more times than not, they're not.

[00:29:12] Nick's relationship is a little different because Nick is like, you're going to be with me for the next 15, 20, 30 years. Right? Like Jared and those guys are like, Hey, we'll give you the money. We'll set you up. Six months, 12 months, 18 months. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's true. It's, uh, Nick's. He's in it for the long term, man. Nick's married to him. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, who's your mortgage with? It's with Nick Bank. Familiar with Nick Bank? They're like, yeah. You know Nick Bank.

[00:29:42] Hey everyone. This is Tim. Your favorite Bricks and Risk co-host. But don't tell Sean.

[00:30:16] Here's another one for you, Nick. So when we asked you, what do you love most about what you do? You said you get to help people every single week by solving their problems and get paid while doing so, which is awesome. Why does that drive you? It's fun. You know, like, I mean, I'm driven to be successful. Like, I don't hide that. But there's ways you can be successful that are a lot better than some other ways, you know, in my opinion.

[00:30:43] When we buy houses from people, like, we are buying a house. We're buying a problem. We're buying a discount. I don't, we're not hiding that. Everyone knows that. But you get to solve people's problems. I get lots of hugs and reviews and notes and texts later about how we took that burden. That burden just happened to be in a house, right, off of people.

[00:31:03] And then when we can turn that around and not all of them, but like we talked about, the vast majority of our sales are to families. And the families come in and buy this home. And they probably either didn't think they could buy a home or only thought if they saved, you know, for the next 20 years to get the full payment, could they buy a home or whatever they thought. And now they get to own the home. I mean, this is a huge deal for them to be able to do it.

[00:31:32] It's great, right? It's awesome. It is. And, you know, we get to make money while we're doing it. And, you know, we get to help other people because obviously we have other investors, et cetera. So we can help them make money, which always makes them happy. So there's a lot of really good parts of the business. All right. I'm going to drop a Mooney question here real quick because Mooney likes to get down and dirty in the details. All right. So the first time that you did this, you bought a house.

[00:32:01] I'm assuming you would probably have to buy it through cash, through your own money so that you would own it free and clear. This one I did. The first one I did. Yep. You put the money in to rehab it. So now you're putting out cash for that. You're paying workers. You're getting it ready to go. And you're giving that first seller financing loan. Yep. What was that feeling like when you did that for the first time? Because it's way like here's I'm going to give the flip side.

[00:32:27] We flip homes when you flip homes and someone buys and gets their loan through someone else. It's like, you know, you're done. Call me if you need anything. There's no warranty. Like, I'm not your bank. Like, I'll see if I see you. But now they got to pay you every month. What was that feeling like? So I got super spoiled out of the gate. But I remember the house. And I remember the closing because, you know, obviously the team was non-existent at the time. But I bought the house and cleaned it up.

[00:32:58] And someone helped me sell it. They knew more about it. And he's like, okay, I'll help you with this one. I'll help you with the first one. Get you through it. And they were Spanish speaking. The buyers were Spanish speaking. And, you know, my Spanish is not stellar. And they were there. And I'm like, yeah, I want to go to the closing. And, you know, all these parts. And I show up. True story. Dad's there. The mom's there. And kids are there. And the lady is crying. And I literally am like, hey, man.

[00:33:26] Like, I thought, like, the deal's falling through. She's mad or she's sad or something. And I'm like, hey, we're good. What's going on, man? And he's, like, laughing at me. He's like, no, man. She's just happy because they own this home. True story. Right? I'm like, yeah. And you're like, okay. All right. All right. Good. Heart attack averted. Like. What a great guy. I know. I was. And I was like, man, that's awesome. I have not heard a word from them since. Wow. We set them up. So the payments don't go to me.

[00:33:55] They go through a third-party servicer. The servicer. And we have everybody escrow over taxes and insurance. So they'll pay the servicer. Very cool. The servicer will hold those accounts. And then they save me. Yep. And years and years and years and years. I've never heard a single word. But they just pay. I don't even check. Yeah. You know? That's awesome. So, Nick, you're down that way down in San Antonio. I used to watch a bunch of real estate shows.

[00:34:25] Deep in the heart of Texas. There was some guys up in Boston that I used to watch. Those two guys. I think they're brothers or something. Oh, yeah. There was a guy down in San Antonio, Armando, that used to do that. You ever come into. You ever see him or come in contact as he's flipping houses or doing construction? Big A. I met him once. We did not talk that much. I met him once. He stuck an axe in my house. Whoa.

[00:34:55] True story. Really? Oh, tell us that one. Jeez. So, I. Everything's bigger in Texas. Right. No, we had a house. And I bought it. And it was a terrible, terrible property. It's like the worst house. And I was like, man, we just need to sell it. Like, we'll just sell it as a fixer up or somebody wants to put on the MLS. It's listed. But at the time, I think it was the cheapest house listed in San Antonio for a while.

[00:35:24] Like, this probably is terrible. Yeah. Like, you still got to go by. You got to check. You know, you know. And I drive by and like the front door is open. And there's a white pickup in front. Okay. Somebody's looking at the house or something. Yeah. Right. No big deal. So, you know, I'm making some calls and just doing some things. Let them finish up doing the thing. I'm not getting in front. Nothing's really happening. But the door's open. And I'm like, dude, what is going on here? Right. So, I'm like, hey, you know, get off the phone. I go walking up there. And the truck's full of these guys.

[00:35:54] And I had watched all the shows, too. Oh, yeah. Right. I mean. Great show. Flip this house. And I'm going up there. And I'm like, they're like, hey, how's it going? And there's a couple guys in the front, a couple guys in the back. And they're nice. And I'm like, hey, guys, were you looking at the house? Are you done? Are you closing? Because it's been a while. The door's just open. Oh, yeah. Hey, man. Sorry about that. You know. My name's. I'm like, oh, yeah. So, I recognize them. I'm like, okay, cool.

[00:36:22] Like, hey, sorry about that. And it's like pointing. And I turn around. And literally, there's like an ax in the house. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. What? Who brings an ax? Sorry. I didn't mean to put the ax in the wall. Like, why is this a situation that we're even discussing right now? And I'm like, okay. And they're like, man, we were just filming some content. And we're here. You know. I'm sorry. I'm like, look at these guys. Like, are we all. They got like the full camera. Like, the full on camera.

[00:36:52] I'm like, are we serious right now? And I'm like, you know. Who does? I'm like, you can't really hurt this house. Okay. Yeah. It is like. But I'm like, who does that? I'm like, who brings that? You know. You guys. What am I locking up when you leave? I don't even know what to say. Right. Do you have like a leather case for that ax so no one loses a finger? Yeah. I mean, they were super polite. But I was like. So that was it. Like, hey. Thanks for. See you later. Thank you. It was kind of like.

[00:37:21] Well, I was kind of a little like. Like, how did we even get here, guys? I don't know. From my point of view. I'm like. Wouldn't you ask permission? Like. Yeah. Hey, Nick. You got this house. Even if it is a house that needs a lot of work. You don't just go throwing axes at other people's houses. Even if it is for TV. And. No. I wasn't like super upset about it. Yeah. Because I was just like. Don't found it. How did this go through your head? Like, man, we'll just find a couple of junkers here and go film.

[00:37:50] And I mean. Had they asked me, I would have been like. Sure. Go for it. Film your content. Have fun. But then when I get there. And like. Hey, sorry. And I look up and there's an axe in it. I'm like. Weird. Why was this a situation? Yeah. For some reason, I'm not shocked. Yeah. He was. He was quite the character. I haven't seen him in a while. But I have to look him up. He was made for TV. Like. He was. Like. Yeah. He had that vibe. Yeah. Like. Presence. I'm going to. You know. If I'm on camera, I need to like. Yeah. I need to bring an axe. Entertain. Nice. All right. Cool.

[00:38:19] Here's another one for you. So biggest struggle. It's one of the questions we ask. And you said building the right team. Making sure you can always support and provide for them. Why has that been a struggle for you? I think is. As you grow. Any business. You can't do it all yourself. Okay. So you start hire. You know. You hire people. And it's. You learn as you go along. How to hire the right people. Good people. We have great. We have some great. Great people now. But as you're growing the business.

[00:38:49] You're going to hire different people. You have to be willing to fire different people. Which is hard. Because sometimes they're not. They're not bad people. They're just not a good fit. And. They may be really nice people. They may want that money. They may need that money. But it's not. It doesn't work for the business. It doesn't work in the role. And so finding people. Putting the right person in the right seat. Is hard. And it takes a long time. To learn. And some of them. You get to know them. And.

[00:39:19] I mean. I kept one VA for an extra like four years. It wasn't super expensive. But she worked for me for a long time. I knew for years. This was not the right fit. But I was just like. Man. She really needs this money. And. I kept paying her. And that's not the right way. To run your business. Right. And then. You know. When you do. When you do have more people. And people that just work for you. You have to produce as a company. Because that.

[00:39:49] Pays their salary. And then that salary. Pays for their groceries. And their family. And their. So. You know. There's a lot of pressure. That goes along with that. It's not all. It's not all easy. And fantastic. When you're running a business. How did you figure that out Nick? I mean. You were in sales. Right. And then you transitioned over. Doing real estate. And investing. Like. Is there anything that you did. Along the way. To kind of. Either work with a mentor.

[00:40:18] Or a sales coach. Or anything like that. That kind of gave you that. Ability. To handle a team. And build a team. And do that. Or was it just you on your own. Kind of like. Learning. And adapting. Ball on your face. Kind of mentality. Yeah. How did that go? I think it's probably a combination. You know. Even. I. I had a lot of great mentors. Even through. Like when I was in corporate. And there's. There's. Also. There's the great ones. The people like. Man. That lady.

[00:40:49] There's a lady named Colleen. That taught me so much about how to treat people. And the way that she treated me. And the way that she helped me. I learned so much from. About how to treat. You know. People that are. You know. Your employees. And there's also the people that. You're like. I cannot stand this guy. I will never ever. My whole life. Talk or treat someone like that. Yeah. And. So. A lot of those lessons. I learned. Positive and negative. From other people. And. I think.

[00:41:19] In general. I like people. Any good salesperson does. And. But. You can treat people well. And still. Not. Be taken advantage of. And not be pushed around. And I think. You learn that balance. Through time. And then. And sometimes you fall on your face. You know. I've definitely hired people. That were bad choices. And I made that choice. And it was like. Man. I missed that one. Yeah. And. And you learn. Hey. What did I miss? What did I not see through that process.

[00:41:49] That I should see in. I would not do this again. So. Really. It was. It was a combination. But. Yeah. A lot of it. I learned from other people. As far as how you want to treat people. But. Yeah. That's a lot in life. Is like. I remember working for certain employers. Where I'm like. Man. I would. I would never do that to someone. So. I think it is kind of a combination. Of both. Of people you look up to. Kind of do it the right way. Kind of. Adopt that. And then some other ways. The opposite.

[00:42:19] I thought it was interesting too. That he was sharing that story. About that employee. That just wasn't a good fit. But continued to. To pay him or her. And. And that's a hard position to be in. I ran a brokerage for almost 10 years. You know. At one point. We probably had about eight employees. And we had about 45. Real estate agents. Running around. In the city of Philadelphia. And. Not with taxes. And. There were a couple people. We had to fire from some. Administrative and operational roles.

[00:42:49] Where I knew. It wasn't going to be good for them. Meaning. That they were like. You know. Paycheck to paycheck. And. You know. What are they going to do. If they don't have this job. And. You know. Unfortunately. In that scenario. You really have to do what's best. For the business. Because. You're trying to grow something. So that. Lots of people can thrive. Not only your clients. Who are buying these homes. And getting financing through you. But also your employees. Because. If someone's dragging down the ship.

[00:43:19] Like the whole ship's going to go down. If you have the right person in place. Like. I've just heard the expression before. That you know. Toxic. Or cancerous. Like. You know. People can be like that. In organizations. Where. They're really only thinking about themselves. They're not thinking about the other people. They're not thinking about the business. And as hard as it is to make that decision. It's usually the right decision. And it's going to help more people. Than it hurts. So. Appreciate you sharing that. I agree with you.

[00:43:49] So. Here we go. Tip for our listeners and watchers. You had said. Have specific goals. Know your why. And make sure you have a clearly defined plan. To accomplish those goals. Which is. Music to my ears. Why have. Setting goals. And having purpose. Worked for you. I think. Setting goals. Everybody's heard it. You have to have them. And you have to be. Specific about what you were going after. Long term.

[00:44:18] Medium. Short term. And today. You have to know. What you're getting up and going. To do. And then. The why you're doing them. Is critical. Because. Owning a business. Everything's hard. Being an employee is hard. Everything is hard. And there are going to be days. When you get beat up. It's no different on my side. Than it is on yours. Or anybody else's. If you can go back. To why you actually started. Going down there. It will push you through them.

[00:44:47] And the grass is greener. On the other side. Like there is a light. At the end of the tunnel. But you have to have a reason. To push through. And every. You know. Your why is going to be different. Than mine. But. Having that. And having those goals. That are going to make a difference. That are specific to you. And your purpose. Are huge. In being successful. Awesome. Great advice. And your quote. Was excellent. I've never heard this one before. So. I am not a product. Of my circumstances. I am a product.

[00:45:17] Of my decisions. By Stephen Covey. Why did that quote. Resonate with you. It's a good one. I love it. Because. Everybody has a reason. Why they can't be successful. Oh well. I'm from here. Or I'm from there. Or my dad did this. Or we grew up like this. Or. If only. Tim had of. Got. Gotten this one thing in. That everything would be different. No. Right. Those things happen to everyone. They happen to me. They happen to you. It is not that. It is.

[00:45:46] What decisions did you make? Did you make the decision. To make the extra phone call? Did you make the decision. To hit the snooze button. Seven times today. Oh. I don't want to get up early. Okay. But you made a decision. To sleep. And somebody else. Made a decision. Not to sleep. And make the extra call. To go the extra mile. To work harder. Those are all decisions. We can all make. All of the time. And I think. You got to focus on those. And what you can do. Too many people. We'll focus on what happened to them.

[00:46:16] And let that be the reason. That they are over there. It's a limiting factor. When you. When you always have. A reason as to why it. Didn't happen. Or it won't happen. You're limiting yourself. You know. Absolutely. When. When you have this mindset. That. My decisions. My work. Is going to be. The determining factor. Of where I end up. That's unlimited. I mean. There's. The sky's the limit. When you.

[00:46:45] When you turn that on. And flip that switch. To. To really. Be responsible. To take a hold of. What your future is going to be. If it's always an excuse. You're. You can't. Reach your full potential. Totally agree. It's impossible. Totally agree. Awesome. Dude. Really. Really amazing discussion. Appreciate you. Reaching out to us. All the way from Texas. Hopefully.

[00:47:15] We meet someone else. In your network too. At some point. We can speak to someone else. Down there. But before we shut it down. Why don't you tell. Our audience. More about you. And where to learn more about. Everything you got going on. Absolutely. So. Sell. Sell. My. That's our main. Website. But if somebody. If I don't know you. I. We can't work together. Right. So. You can contact me through there. Send me an email. It's Nick. N-I-C-K. At. It's the website. Sell. My. San Antonio. Dot com.

[00:47:45] And we're on Instagram a lot. You know. Real estate. Underscore Nick. And then the number one. But. I found a lot of people. That I've been able to work with. That people are curious about. Mortgage notes. Creating mortgage notes. Buying mortgage notes. How that part works. Is passive. Or that compared to rentals. Or anything like that. I really. Really love this stuff. So. Happy to connect with anybody. And see. How we can help each other. Awesome. Fantastic. Thanks again Nick. Yeah. Thank you guys. I appreciate it. That's all we have for this one folks.

[00:48:14] Thank you for tuning in again. To another episode of Bricks and Risk. See you soon. Thank you for joining us. On another episode of Bricks and Risk. Our goal is that you walk away. With one or two valuable nuggets. And we greatly appreciate you sharing your time with us today. You can find all B&R episodes on Spotify. Apple Music. YouTube. And anywhere else you get your podcast content. Until next time. Keep learning. And keep growing.

[00:48:44] Bye.