March 26, 2025 • 25 mins
Mark Whitten: AI Secrets for Profitable Deals, Top Investment Spots, Finding Motivated Sellers+More
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up his way up at Angela Yee, and it's
time to talk about one of my favorite topics and
one of Mark Whitten's favorite topics, real estate.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Absolutely, what's going on? How y'all doing out there?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well, first of all, it's good to see you. It's
been years. Seven yeah, seven years. We had you on
the Breakfast Club twice.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah twice, I believe, Yeah, yeah twice.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And you were actually one of the first people I've
heard talk about wholesaling.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, yep, wholesale.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
And that's how I got started in real estate, and
I think that, you know, that's how everybody should get
started in real estate, because not only was I able
to make a lot of money doing it, but I also,
you know, was able to build my network like that,
which eventually led to me being a landlord as well,
you know, just like building wealth with real estate. So yeah,
and let me say this too while I'm at it,
because it's been on my mind before, you know, before
(00:47):
this interview started. That's want everybody know, like, don't get discouraged,
like I know right now, there's a lot of uncertainty
in the economy with like the new administration and everything
like that, but just know that there is ways out
here that you can make money without using none of
your cab, your credit. It just takes a specialized knowledge
to be able to be like what I like to
call a skilled equity hunter. Right, that's just finding equity.
(01:07):
So what is equity? Right, that's the difference between the
debt on the property and the value. And if you
can find someone who's motivated to sell a property, you
can put yourself in a position of equity and be
able to use other people's money to get paid without
using none of your cash or credit.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And there's a lot of people motivated to sell right now.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, absolutely, it's just a matter of approaching them the
right way because I think even if I think about
my parents, right, they're not like experienced at real estate.
My mom got her house because my grandfather moved back
to the West Indies and gave my mom the house.
It was a two family house and flat bush, right,
And then eventually they sold that house and we moved
(01:44):
to New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
That's the only real estate transaction they've ever done.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So really, the only house my parents ever bought was
the one that they got the money from the house
my grandfather left them and then they went and purchased
another home and that's it. They've been there ever since,
you know. And so imagine like there's a lot.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Of people like that.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
There's a lot of people that may have had a
house that was passed down to them, and they may
not even understand how all of this works.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
So let's just say, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Somebody, let's start from, how would you find somebody that's
motivated to sell?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
How would you even know?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Okay, so I'm actually using artificial intelligence right now. It's
like a revolutionary way of finding what I like to
call motivated sellers. Right Like we talked about people will
motivated the selling house, and it's a lot of different ways. Well,
I would say, in particular right now, one of the
best ways that you're going to see coming up is
pre foreclosures. Like you know, unfortunately, you know, people are,
like I said, with the uncertainty and the economy right now,
(02:35):
it's going to be you know, just people in situations
where they're going to have to let their houses go,
and that's going to be you know, it's unfortunate, but
it's an opportunity for real estate investors to establish, like
I said earlier, stake and some equity and be able
to get paid. But you got other ways too, Like
you just mentioned like inherited houses. Those are people that
in probate. You know, somebody passes away and here is
a house. They don't want nothing to do with the property.
(02:57):
They don't want to be investors or anything.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
So they don't want to have to pay tax on it.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
They don't want to maintain it, worry about it, deal
with squatters.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, they don't want to have to do any of that, right,
So that's another way. And then you got people who
are like behind on their taxes what's called like delinquent
tax seal properties because of course, you know, you never
own a property, even if you own it free and
clear with no mortgage, you still got to pay property taxes.
And if you don't pay those property taxes, you're going
to lose it to the city or the county or whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
So that's another opportunity for real estate investors to find
motivated sellers, well, motivate to sell just for that reason
because they rather get something than get nothing, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Right, or oh yeah, or even own money. And that's
something that's public information, right, Like you can get all
of this, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You can. You can get all of it online. You
just got to be resourceful.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
It's interesting you talked about property taxes because I saw
that the governor Ron de Santis in Florida was saying
one of the things that he plans to do is
get rid of property tax You feel like that's something
that's feasible because property taxes do fund a lot of things,
so I don't know where that money comes.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
From for.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So you said he's trying to get rid of property Hey.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I'm gonna tell you. Let me look at it. I
don't want to missquote.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
But I saw this article where you know DeSantis because
I also feel like politicians just say anything when they're
about to, you know, run for office again too, so
they can say anything. Whether or not it can happen
is a whole nother thing. But yes, he wants to
reduce or eliminate property taxes, and he talked about this
during his State of the State address. He basically said,
(04:29):
let me see. Yeah, he and other Republicans have recently
floated around the idea of eliminating or reducing local government
property taxes, and he's been expecting support for this issue,
and they would need to approve a proposal to go
on the twenty twenty sixth ballot.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Did he say why at all he wants to do
it or.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
What I mean?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I think in general people complain about property taxes. You know,
like you said, you never really own a property because
of the property taxes. So I think for him that's
probably a hot button issue.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh so he could get his votes.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Taxpayers need belief.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
You buy a home, you pay off the mortgage, and
yet you still have to write a check to the
government every year just for the privilege of living on
your own private property. Is the property yours or are
you just renting it from the government.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I mean, I think if he can make that happen,
that would be great. I mean I'd be happy. I
think all homeowners and people own property would be happy.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
About that because you know what would happen then, though?
Because what those what do property taxes fund?
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Right?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
It funds things in the community, right, So then how
would that be funded? Because what's going to happen? You know,
it funds schools, police, firefighters, sanitation workers, all these other
essential things.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I don't know, I don't know what he we can
say we don't.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Want it, But then.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Then things start happening, and it's like not to get
all into, you know, into politics, as I try to
stay it, you know, out of politics and stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But it's kind of like the.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Same thing going on now, which is with the whole administration,
all these things that they doing. People like I said,
you know, I'm hearing stuff like people losing their food stamps,
people losing Social Security, they saying, I know, some Federals,
people losing their jobs.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
A whole, and people that trickle down effect of that
is not just someone lost their job. Now somebody loses
their job, that's another person who can't afford to pay
for something in these communities, and that's it. Just it's
a whole trickle down effect. And now how I'm supposed
to support myself because not only did you eliminate my job,
but you also eliminated any support I could get from
the government to feed my family.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Even like Medicaid. They talking about getting rid of that.
You and you know a lot of people with like
mental health programs, like drug rehab, drug treatment programs and
stuff like that that's funded by medicaid. I believe, like
like you said, it's a trickle down effect. And I
think it's going to lead to like more crime. Honestly, Like,
you know, people try and feed their kids and now
don't got no food stamps.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
What you think they're gonna do. They gonna try to
get it any way they.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Can, you know, And I think we can't afford to
not watch what's going on and pay attention and be
involved because there are elections coming up and we all
know we do at a certain time have to be like, Okay,
we got to make sure we get out and vote
and make sure we also hold these politicians accountable, you know,
for what it is that they said they're going to do.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Trump is doing everything he said he was going to do.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
People didn't understand how I see a lot of people
now it's a whole thing of people who voted for
him that are like, what did I do?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
You know, I lost my job.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It wasn't supposed to be me, It was supposed to
be them, right right, you know, that was affected by
this and another thing people talk about since we were
talking about real estate, one other issue that's come up
is also with you know, deportation and people being scared
about what could potentially happen even if they're here legally
you know, people are nervous, and we all know that
(07:28):
in the field of home renovations and all of that.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
You know, there's a.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Lot of people that are skilled workers that come and
do these jobs that are now not even showing up
to work. I've seen a lot of developers and property
owners having issues with that, Like none of them know
people showed up to come to work because they're nervous.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, it's crazy. It's like it's crazy times. I feel
like we're going into just like I said when we
first started talking, just the uncertainty you know of it all.
But I'm just here to let everybody know, like there
is a way, you know, in real estate specifically where
you can get out here and make money without using
your cash or credit, you know, just by being what
I call a skilled equity hunter, finding people who are
(08:07):
motivated to sell a properties and taking a stake in
that equity. So, like I was saying earlier, I'm using
artificial intelligence now to like find these people.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So I have software actually.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
So we can talk about Is it your own software?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yes, yep, it's own.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Talk to me about that. That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah, So pretty much what it does is it uses
like machine learning and a genetic algorithm to like score
each property between like zero to a thousand. Right, that's
what the AI does. So the higher the score is,
the higher the propensity for the person to be motivated
to sell a property pretty much. And it has data
on every property in America, so it don't matter where
(08:42):
you're at, you can find people that are motivate the
Selle houses using AI. But it not just does that,
like it analyzes the deals for you because of course,
you know, you got to know you know what type
of offer to make on a property before you can
establish that that stake and that equity. So that way
you can get out here and make money using other
people's money without using yours. In fact, I got a
still to shout out to Shrika in Baltimore. She's making
(09:02):
twenty three thousand dollars on a property next week. Is
a short sale. And the short sales pretty much when
a bank is willing to accept less for a Houston
what's old on it to just to get rid of
it to avoid foreclosure. Oftentimes they'll even get a give
the seller an incentive to go through with it, just
because you know, if the seller don't go through it,
the short sale, then they can't do it, and the
bank don't banks make money off their money. They're not
(09:22):
in the business of real estate. They're in the business
of like interests, making money off their money.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
They want you to have that mortgage for as long
as POSSI absolutely at the highest interest rate you can.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
And that's pretty much the game really at the top,
you know what I mean, just making money off your money, right.
So so yeah, I mean it's just a lot of
opportunity out there, you know, if you're willing to, you know,
get out here and explore, you know, explore these opportunities.
And that's one of the main reasons why I came
on the showers to let everybody know, like, hey, you know,
there's a lot of uncertainty going on right now in
the economy, but if.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You real estate.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
In fact, let me say this, I've been doing this
now since two thousand and nine, right and you know
we had the crash, I mean, just gotten the game
back then. You know, when the house and bubble happened,
it was a lot of bank owned properties. People was
flipping those getting a lot of money. But in my opinion,
I think this is one of the actual best times
to get into real estate because of the uncertainty of
(10:13):
what's going on.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Right, Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
When things get like this, it provides opportunities for certain
people who are prepared to go out there and take
advantage of it. And I know some people may think
of it as like, okay, is this predatory, like looking
for people who are trying to but it also is
something that could be.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
A relief for somebody.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
It helps people, you know, because recently it's somebody that
used to work one of my businesses. She reached out
to me because her mom was having issues with the
property their grandmother had left it. You know, there was
a couple of family members involved in it, and somebody
was harassing her because people will harass you like to sell.
And she was just like, what, I don't know what
to do, Like there's a lot of money, Oh, there's
(10:50):
a water bill that's due, there's like all these different
things that are backed up, and it's something it was
causing her mother so much stress, and we all know
stress could be it.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Leads to diseases that are like heart disease, that's.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
The number one killer right absolutely globally, and so for
her it was a relief to be able to be like,
let me just get this. I'm not going to make
where you know some people will tell you, oh, this
is worth X, Y and Z.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
She was like, look, I just.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Want to not have to worry about this anymore. Make
the money that I can make. The houses in distress.
You know, there's a lot of money owed on it.
I just want to get it off my hands. And
she did, and she's so much more relief now. She's like, Okay,
I just want to make sure I do She called
me like, I just want to make sure I do
my taxes, right. Do you have an account you can
refer me to to make sure that when you know,
the mom claims the taxes on it, she's she's doing
(11:33):
it in a way that she.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Can protect herself and as much as possible.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, no, absolutely, And I would say just the you know,
the piggyback off of that, you know, when like, for example,
the lady, well the dal I'm telling you about with
my students, make the twenty three thousand, right, the lady's
getting to incentive from the bank. So she's getting money, right,
you know, just to be able to go through with it.
Not only is she getting paid to go through with it, right,
but she's also going to avoid foreclosure, right, So you're
(11:56):
actually helping people.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, you know, I just want to make sure we
stress that too, because it's not like taking advantage of people,
but it's taking advantage of a situation that can be
a win win for everything everybody.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And that's not the only way.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
That's not the only reason why I'm saying like now
is the best time to get involved in real estate,
because there's plenty of other ways. Let me put it
to you like this, right, all right, with the uncertainty
in economy right now, I mean, let's just be real
for a while now, right, people are people hurting out there,
like you know what I mean, people a lot of
people living paycheck to paycheck. It ain't like it used
to be back during the pandemic and all that stuff
that's going on. Right, So if somebody does come up
(12:28):
on a property, you know, say, because we talked about
probate earlier, right, you know, the court process in which
someone inherits a property and they may just want to
get rid of it.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Right, people are looking for money. So people are more.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Just in general, just motivated to sell their properties, right,
Whether it be. You know, they're just like an absentee owner.
You know, somebody who owns a house but they don't
live in it. And why would somebody be motivated if
they own house or they don't live in it, right,
because the house could be sitting there vacant, right, And
if it's sitting there vacant, right, then they're paying property taxes,
remnicible bills like water bills.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
And stuff like that. The house could be detail.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Terier rating so they got you know, maintenance costs there,
or they cannot be paying the property taxes and being
jeopardy of losing the property.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Or you could have people that are you know, it's
nerve wracking to not be somewhere to know that, like
I have a property sitting here because somebody like break in.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Could they do this? Are they gonna yeh squadquat us?
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Or you can have tenants in a property who's not
paying the rent right or just yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah you know because I think, yeah, we can't ever
talk about it, but yes, I think real estate for
me because just like you, I haven't invested in as
much as you have. But you know the things that
I've done have been things that have made me feel
more secure and stable about my future. But there's definitely
times that things don't go right.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Oh yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
That's why, Like, that's why I love the whole idea
of being able to get in the game without using
none of your cash or credit and just being, like
I said, a skilled equity hunter, because you can make
a lot of money doing that and you can basically
like not have to deal with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So this is basically finding a property and then selling
that contract to wholesaling pretty much.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
So you know, I like I try to like get
away from that idea of it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I break it down for people who are like, well,
what do you mean? No, you know, being an equity hunter?
Speaker 4 (14:15):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So? So like all right, so all right, I'm glad
you asked me that. Right.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I want you all to look at it like this.
Everybody that's listening, look at it like this. If y'all
can watch me, I mean, if y'all see me, I'm
looking I'm talking to you and Angela, right, So.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, so look at it like this.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Right, Let's say you're sitting at home wherever you at,
you watching this and you're like, man, I want to
make some money like I need. I'm looking for a
way out or another way of doing it. Right, this
is what I want you to know. All Right, there's
millions of properties in America right A lot of those
properties are owned by individual people. Right now, what you
want to do is now keep in mind, you don't
need none of your cash, knowing your credit, none of that.
(14:51):
All you got to do is have a specialized knowledge
to get out here and be able to find these
people who are potentially motivated to sell it properties. And
we talked about this earlier, right, will make somebody motivated. Say,
it's like the absentee owner that we just talked about
that just got say, you know, a vacant property just
sitting there and they losing money because they're paying property taxes,
water bills, all that stuff. They just want to get
rid of it. Right, if you're able to be able
(15:13):
to find these people. And the good thing about it
is now, especially you know with the AI software that
I have, it's literally you can find these people anywhere
in America with a push of a button, right, using
artificial intelligence to find them.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
If you can find these people, all you have to
do is be able to have the specialized knowledge to
be able to analyze this deal, which the software does
that too, right, So that way you can make an
offer on the property. Now, well, of course you got
to get in touch with the seller. I mean, the
software does all this stuff for you pretty much.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Oh, get in touch with the seller to everything. Yeah,
and then a personal email.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, well like postcards or actually cansing the emails because
we got we have a skip trace tool too where
you can get people's phone numbers, email addresses, everything you
need to get in touch with these people.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So anyway, so you say, say, for example, I log
into the site, right, I'm like, all, I want to
use AI to find properties, and say, Baltimore, That's that's
my market, That's where I'm from, right, shouting to Baltimore, right,
shout out.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
In my city. T Right, you hit it too, and
to do and all that. Right.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
So anyway, let's just say I go in there and
I'm like, okay, I want to use AI in this
zip code right to find people who are let's say
absenty owners. As we be talking about it, right, you
put a list together, boom, push you a button you
can send out postcards, right, and then people just start
calling you back. All right, So once the people start
to remember y'all know your cash, your credit, nothing like that,
do this. Everything I'm telling you is pretty much how
(16:28):
it go down, right, So you send out the postcard,
somebody call you back, Hey, you sent me a postcard
about my property at you know, one, two three Main
Street something like that. So then you're gonna go through
your script, which is all in the software, right, all
that for you. You go through your script, and then
you gotta find out okay, like you're gonna ask certain
questions like how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, stuff like that,
because then you got to be able to analyze the
property so you can make an off on It's called
an investor formula, right, and that's sixty five percent of
(16:50):
the after apair of value, right minus the repairs once
you figured out, you know how much an investor will
pay for the property.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
So anyway, in the software you can analyze the deal.
You're pulling the comps or the comparable sales, and pretty
much what you do is you gotta find three to
four the highest sold houses that are similar to the
one that you're trying to get that are sold within
the last six months, within six blocks or a half
a mile of the property that you're trying to you know,
make some money on.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Right. So once you find that out, you add.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Those properties up and you divide it by that number
you get the average. Say say that average is one
hundred thousand, You take sixty five percent of that, Then
you got sixty five thousand. Then you minus the repairs.
The cool thing about the AI software is most people
don't understand how to estimate repairs. Like even like when
I first got in the real estate, I would go
in basements cause it's like a lot of basements in Baltimore,
you know where I'm from. And I didn't know the
difference between a gas line and the water line, right,
(17:36):
I just didn't know. But the good thing with the
software is that literally with the push of a button,
all you got to do is say, all right, it
needs a new roof. Like you look, say water's coming in,
Oh need a new roof. All that kitchen is, oh
need a new kitchen. You just put it in new kitchen,
new roof. It'll spit out the amount of repairs that
it takes. So once you get that, you can plug
it in your formula, and then you know how much
to offer the seller, right, So then you make the
seller out off of right, Let's say you make the
(17:57):
seller offer for say one hundred thousands something like that, right,
and then you establish that equitable interest, right, So now
you have what's called equitable interest in the property. You know,
once you do a contract with the seller, all right,
Once you do that, once you do a contract with
the seller, you can go right in the software and
you can find cash bias, like literally people who are
paying cash for houses in those areas using the AI software.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
So once you do that, you just you just mash
them up. You use to investor's money or the cash
the cash bias money for you to be able to
profit in the middle. And that's how my student Sharika
shout out Agains shout to Sharika. That's how she's profiting
the twenty three thousand dollars she's closing next week.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
On that deal.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
That's a good feeling, yeah, And really what it is
is some people it's kind of like using a realtor
right that finds you, but not in a realtor, but
just saying like the reason that you pay that money
is because maybe you're not going to be the one
that's going to go through the steps to find these
good deals.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
But somebody who has the cash ready to buy something.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
It's still a good deal, yeah right, that you're presenting
to them, but they didn't have to go through the
steps to find it, to make an offer to you know,
figure out all of those things.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I mean, it changed my life life real estate. Honestly,
it changed my life. And some people say, you know,
if you save your money, it'll save you. I like
to also say, if you save your real estate, that'll
save you too, you know what I mean. So everybody
out there that's listening, I highly encourage you, if y'all
looking at me, I highly encourage you to get involved
in real estate because you don't need none of your
(19:20):
cash or credit to do this. All you need is
a specialize excuse me, specialized knowledge to get out here
and make these deals and get them done, and then
you can work your way up to being a landlord
and start building wealth with real estate.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
And you've been doing this for sixteen years.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah yeah, I remember it was your guy mother that
actually got you in.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Yeah, Valerie, Yeah, yeah, that's Valerie.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Yeah, also too, a guy went to college with He
helped me a little bit to get started in the beginning,
So yeah, shout out to him.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
And it's been quite as journey.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You've been through some ups and downs when it comes
to watching what's happening in the market.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So if anybody knows what it's.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Like, yeah, yeah I do.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And like I said, you know, when I first got in,
it was doing the you know, the recession and all
of that stuff, and you know, it was a good time.
You know, people say it's the best time to get
and it was. It was a lot of bank owned properties.
It's a lot of people that was I mean, unfortunately,
like we talked about going to foreclose up foreclosure, so
you know, they say like, and I want to say,
it's the best way I can, but they say, like
when it's blood on the street, like that's the best
(20:16):
time to get in, you know what I mean. And
that's what was going on back then. And I'm not
saying it's blood on the street right now. I'm just
saying that, you know, with the uncertainty that's happening in
the economy, with everything that's going on, I'm telling you,
right now. Now is the time where you want to
really start learning about this business and get into.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
It, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And you don't, like I said, you don't need your
own money. You don't you know what I'm saying. You
use other people's money.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
So where do you think are some good places like
that have been yeah for you personally right And we're
not telling people what to do, but what has been
good for you? And if you were doing some deals
right now, what would you be looking at?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Like?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Geographically yeah, I like I would say, actually, I'll stick
We're in New York right now.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
So like for all the New York.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
People, I would say Buffalo, Syracuse, Roger they're all good places. Cincinnati, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio,
Baltimore's good, Jacksonville, Florida, all those are good artists. Even
down in Texas like Houston, places like that.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
And how do people do research to find that out?
Like let's say somebody, because we always stress you don't
have to invest where you're at.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
New York City is an expensive place.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
If you're getting started in real estate, you know that's
New York is not the easiest place to get started.
But you can get started in other places like I know,
I did buy my first house in New York, but
investment wise, it was in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Okay, yeah, oh congratulations too. Because I saw that online,
I was like, that was dope. It was like a
big apartment buildings.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Yeah, there's thirty unit building.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And listen again, like I was saying before, real estate
does have some makeups a lot of times. And we
were in the building was in a lie tech and
so we had to get out of this deal. So
we actually can't even move anybody in until next month,
you know, But once we do, it to be fine.
But that's just an example of how you need to
make sure you have reserves because we've been having to
pay for everything, you know, out of pocket until then.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
If we were to.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Put everything we had into that, we wouldn't. I don't
know how we would have been able to keep it
afloat until then. But once we do, we'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, I would say to answer your question, I would say, I, man,
you can always go online and google, like say, for example,
like what are the best places to invest?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You can kind of start right there. What I like
to tell my students and see what.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
It says I'm asking I want to see.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
What I like to tell my students is to kind
of just like look at like, say you do that
right and you find an area, right, I say, just
look at where all the cash sales are happening in
that right. And that's another benefit of having the AI software.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Because what is the software called.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It's called AI real Estate Soft And actually, anybody interested
you can go to real Estate Money Club dot com
and it's all there for you.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Okay, good because this AI has changed the game for people.
Let me tell you when people like, yeah, I could
pull a concert, you could do it like that instead
of having it all that groundwork.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
In fact, what I'll do is I'll give you a
six month subscription on me.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I give you a year.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
A matter of fact, anybody didn't need knowing put some
times for y'all. All right, So here it says Raleigh, Charlotte, Austin, Orlando, Boise, Idaho, Columbus, Ohio, Vegas, Tampa, Phoenix, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Denver,
San Antonio, Seattle, Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Florida, Nashville,
(23:20):
and Georgia.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Yeah, there's a lot of places.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, yeah, So I mean, you know, and and another
thing too is that's good about the software is that
you can do this virtually, like I said when I'm
talking about, you know, flipping houses without using all your
cash or credit, using other people's money. Say, for example,
you in Brooklyn, right, let's say you feel like, all right, man,
I want to do deals in Tampa. You just mentioned Tampa, right,
You can do deals virtually, right, so you don't have
(23:45):
to actually be there.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Like you can do all my closings have been online.
Like everything I've had to do online.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That pandemic really made a lot of people have to
upgrade to doing things virtually because we were so used
to having to sit down with pages and pages and
pages you know, thik booklets to have to sign.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
But now we can just all get online and do it.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah, get online. Yeah, my last closing, same thing, did
it online. So yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Well, Mark, it's always a pleasure to talk to you,
and we got to make sure we keep more in
contact with everything that's going on. But you know, again,
for me, you know, I do wealth Wednesdays, and real
estate is something that is near and dear to my heart,
something that I believe in. But I also always want
to make sure that people are only doing things with
credible people, you know, who can be trusted, learning from that,
learning from other people's examples. Like I said, you've been
(24:29):
doing this. Oh you have a lot of students. Yeah, yeah,
that can attest to that.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
One thing about me is, yeah, I've been. If you
go on world Star, right, you can go on world
Star hip Hop and type my name and Mark Whitten.
I mean you'll see me, you know, doing videos at
title companies. That's where you get your check. You know,
you'll see me with my students back in like twenty twelve,
right on YouTube back then. So been, I've been doing
this for a real long time.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
We better not see no other type of world Star videos.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
All real estate, all real estate stuff, all real estate.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
All right, well again at Mark flips Houses. Make sure
y'all check him out, and you know we'll keep it going.
Thank you so much for coming, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Well
What's up his way up at Angela Yee, and it's
time to talk about one of my favorite topics and
one of Mark Whitten's favorite topics, real estate.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Absolutely, what's going on? How y'all doing out there?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well, first of all, it's good to see you. It's
been years. Seven yeah, seven years. We had you on
the Breakfast Club twice.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yeah twice, I believe, Yeah, yeah twice.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And you were actually one of the first people I've
heard talk about wholesaling.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, yep, wholesale.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
And that's how I got started in real estate, and
I think that, you know, that's how everybody should get
started in real estate, because not only was I able
to make a lot of money doing it, but I also,
you know, was able to build my network like that,
which eventually led to me being a landlord as well,
you know, just like building wealth with real estate. So yeah,
and let me say this too while I'm at it,
because it's been on my mind before, you know, before
(00:47):
this interview started. That's want everybody know, like, don't get discouraged,
like I know right now, there's a lot of uncertainty
in the economy with like the new administration and everything
like that, but just know that there is ways out
here that you can make money without using none of
your cab, your credit. It just takes a specialized knowledge
to be able to be like what I like to
call a skilled equity hunter. Right, that's just finding equity.
(01:07):
So what is equity? Right, that's the difference between the
debt on the property and the value. And if you
can find someone who's motivated to sell a property, you
can put yourself in a position of equity and be
able to use other people's money to get paid without
using none of your cash or credit.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And there's a lot of people motivated to sell right now.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, absolutely, it's just a matter of approaching them the
right way because I think even if I think about
my parents, right, they're not like experienced at real estate.
My mom got her house because my grandfather moved back
to the West Indies and gave my mom the house.
It was a two family house and flat bush, right,
And then eventually they sold that house and we moved
(01:44):
to New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
That's the only real estate transaction they've ever done.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
So really, the only house my parents ever bought was
the one that they got the money from the house
my grandfather left them and then they went and purchased
another home and that's it. They've been there ever since,
you know. And so imagine like there's a lot.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Of people like that.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
There's a lot of people that may have had a
house that was passed down to them, and they may
not even understand how all of this works.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
So let's just say, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Somebody, let's start from, how would you find somebody that's
motivated to sell?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
How would you even know?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Okay, so I'm actually using artificial intelligence right now. It's
like a revolutionary way of finding what I like to
call motivated sellers. Right Like we talked about people will
motivated the selling house, and it's a lot of different ways. Well,
I would say, in particular right now, one of the
best ways that you're going to see coming up is
pre foreclosures. Like you know, unfortunately, you know, people are,
like I said, with the uncertainty and the economy right now,
(02:35):
it's going to be you know, just people in situations
where they're going to have to let their houses go,
and that's going to be you know, it's unfortunate, but
it's an opportunity for real estate investors to establish, like
I said earlier, stake and some equity and be able
to get paid. But you got other ways too, Like
you just mentioned like inherited houses. Those are people that
in probate. You know, somebody passes away and here is
a house. They don't want nothing to do with the property.
(02:57):
They don't want to be investors or anything.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
So they don't want to have to pay tax on it.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
They don't want to maintain it, worry about it, deal
with squatters.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Yeah, they don't want to have to do any of that, right,
So that's another way. And then you got people who
are like behind on their taxes what's called like delinquent
tax seal properties because of course, you know, you never
own a property, even if you own it free and
clear with no mortgage, you still got to pay property taxes.
And if you don't pay those property taxes, you're going
to lose it to the city or the county or whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
So that's another opportunity for real estate investors to find
motivated sellers, well, motivate to sell just for that reason
because they rather get something than get nothing, you know.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Right, or oh yeah, or even own money. And that's
something that's public information, right, Like you can get all
of this, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You can. You can get all of it online. You
just got to be resourceful.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
It's interesting you talked about property taxes because I saw
that the governor Ron de Santis in Florida was saying
one of the things that he plans to do is
get rid of property tax You feel like that's something
that's feasible because property taxes do fund a lot of things,
so I don't know where that money comes.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
From for.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
So you said he's trying to get rid of property Hey.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
I'm gonna tell you. Let me look at it. I
don't want to missquote.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
But I saw this article where you know DeSantis because
I also feel like politicians just say anything when they're
about to, you know, run for office again too, so
they can say anything. Whether or not it can happen
is a whole nother thing. But yes, he wants to
reduce or eliminate property taxes, and he talked about this
during his State of the State address. He basically said,
(04:29):
let me see. Yeah, he and other Republicans have recently
floated around the idea of eliminating or reducing local government
property taxes, and he's been expecting support for this issue,
and they would need to approve a proposal to go
on the twenty twenty sixth ballot.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Did he say why at all he wants to do
it or.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
What I mean?
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I think in general people complain about property taxes. You know,
like you said, you never really own a property because
of the property taxes. So I think for him that's
probably a hot button issue.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Oh so he could get his votes.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Taxpayers need belief.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
You buy a home, you pay off the mortgage, and
yet you still have to write a check to the
government every year just for the privilege of living on
your own private property. Is the property yours or are
you just renting it from the government.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
I mean, I think if he can make that happen,
that would be great. I mean I'd be happy. I
think all homeowners and people own property would be happy.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
About that because you know what would happen then, though?
Because what those what do property taxes fund?
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Right?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
It funds things in the community, right, So then how
would that be funded? Because what's going to happen? You know,
it funds schools, police, firefighters, sanitation workers, all these other
essential things.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
I don't know, I don't know what he we can
say we don't.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Want it, But then.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Then things start happening, and it's like not to get
all into, you know, into politics, as I try to
stay it, you know, out of politics and stuff.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But it's kind of like the.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Same thing going on now, which is with the whole administration,
all these things that they doing. People like I said,
you know, I'm hearing stuff like people losing their food stamps,
people losing Social Security, they saying, I know, some Federals,
people losing their jobs.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
A whole, and people that trickle down effect of that
is not just someone lost their job. Now somebody loses
their job, that's another person who can't afford to pay
for something in these communities, and that's it. Just it's
a whole trickle down effect. And now how I'm supposed
to support myself because not only did you eliminate my job,
but you also eliminated any support I could get from
the government to feed my family.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Even like Medicaid. They talking about getting rid of that.
You and you know a lot of people with like
mental health programs, like drug rehab, drug treatment programs and
stuff like that that's funded by medicaid. I believe, like
like you said, it's a trickle down effect. And I
think it's going to lead to like more crime. Honestly, Like,
you know, people try and feed their kids and now
don't got no food stamps.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
What you think they're gonna do. They gonna try to
get it any way they.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Can, you know, And I think we can't afford to
not watch what's going on and pay attention and be
involved because there are elections coming up and we all
know we do at a certain time have to be like, Okay,
we got to make sure we get out and vote
and make sure we also hold these politicians accountable, you know,
for what it is that they said they're going to do.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Trump is doing everything he said he was going to do.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
People didn't understand how I see a lot of people
now it's a whole thing of people who voted for
him that are like, what did I do?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
You know, I lost my job.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It wasn't supposed to be me, It was supposed to
be them, right right, you know, that was affected by
this and another thing people talk about since we were
talking about real estate, one other issue that's come up
is also with you know, deportation and people being scared
about what could potentially happen even if they're here legally
you know, people are nervous, and we all know that
(07:28):
in the field of home renovations and all of that.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
You know, there's a.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Lot of people that are skilled workers that come and
do these jobs that are now not even showing up
to work. I've seen a lot of developers and property
owners having issues with that, Like none of them know
people showed up to come to work because they're nervous.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, it's crazy. It's like it's crazy times. I feel
like we're going into just like I said when we
first started talking, just the uncertainty you know of it all.
But I'm just here to let everybody know, like there
is a way, you know, in real estate specifically where
you can get out here and make money without using
your cash or credit, you know, just by being what
I call a skilled equity hunter, finding people who are
(08:07):
motivated to sell a properties and taking a stake in
that equity. So, like I was saying earlier, I'm using
artificial intelligence now to like find these people.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So I have software actually.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
So we can talk about Is it your own software?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yes, yep, it's own.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Talk to me about that. That's interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah, So pretty much what it does is it uses
like machine learning and a genetic algorithm to like score
each property between like zero to a thousand. Right, that's
what the AI does. So the higher the score is,
the higher the propensity for the person to be motivated
to sell a property pretty much. And it has data
on every property in America, so it don't matter where
(08:42):
you're at, you can find people that are motivate the
Selle houses using AI. But it not just does that,
like it analyzes the deals for you because of course,
you know, you got to know you know what type
of offer to make on a property before you can
establish that that stake and that equity. So that way
you can get out here and make money using other
people's money without using yours. In fact, I got a
still to shout out to Shrika in Baltimore. She's making
(09:02):
twenty three thousand dollars on a property next week. Is
a short sale. And the short sales pretty much when
a bank is willing to accept less for a Houston
what's old on it to just to get rid of
it to avoid foreclosure. Oftentimes they'll even get a give
the seller an incentive to go through with it, just
because you know, if the seller don't go through it,
the short sale, then they can't do it, and the
bank don't banks make money off their money. They're not
(09:22):
in the business of real estate. They're in the business
of like interests, making money off their money.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
They want you to have that mortgage for as long
as POSSI absolutely at the highest interest rate you can.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
And that's pretty much the game really at the top,
you know what I mean, just making money off your money, right.
So so yeah, I mean it's just a lot of
opportunity out there, you know, if you're willing to, you know,
get out here and explore, you know, explore these opportunities.
And that's one of the main reasons why I came
on the showers to let everybody know, like, hey, you know,
there's a lot of uncertainty going on right now in
the economy, but if.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You real estate.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
In fact, let me say this, I've been doing this
now since two thousand and nine, right and you know
we had the crash, I mean, just gotten the game
back then. You know, when the house and bubble happened,
it was a lot of bank owned properties. People was
flipping those getting a lot of money. But in my opinion,
I think this is one of the actual best times
to get into real estate because of the uncertainty of
(10:13):
what's going on.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Right, Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
When things get like this, it provides opportunities for certain
people who are prepared to go out there and take
advantage of it. And I know some people may think
of it as like, okay, is this predatory, like looking
for people who are trying to but it also is
something that could be.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
A relief for somebody.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
It helps people, you know, because recently it's somebody that
used to work one of my businesses. She reached out
to me because her mom was having issues with the
property their grandmother had left it. You know, there was
a couple of family members involved in it, and somebody
was harassing her because people will harass you like to sell.
And she was just like, what, I don't know what
to do, Like there's a lot of money, Oh, there's
(10:50):
a water bill that's due, there's like all these different
things that are backed up, and it's something it was
causing her mother so much stress, and we all know
stress could be it.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
Leads to diseases that are like heart disease, that's.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
The number one killer right absolutely globally, and so for
her it was a relief to be able to be like,
let me just get this. I'm not going to make
where you know some people will tell you, oh, this
is worth X, Y and Z.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
She was like, look, I just.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Want to not have to worry about this anymore. Make
the money that I can make. The houses in distress.
You know, there's a lot of money owed on it.
I just want to get it off my hands. And
she did, and she's so much more relief now. She's like, Okay,
I just want to make sure I do She called
me like, I just want to make sure I do
my taxes, right. Do you have an account you can
refer me to to make sure that when you know,
the mom claims the taxes on it, she's she's doing
(11:33):
it in a way that she.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
Can protect herself and as much as possible.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, no, absolutely, And I would say just the you know,
the piggyback off of that, you know, when like, for example,
the lady, well the dal I'm telling you about with
my students, make the twenty three thousand, right, the lady's
getting to incentive from the bank. So she's getting money, right,
you know, just to be able to go through with it.
Not only is she getting paid to go through with it, right,
but she's also going to avoid foreclosure, right, So you're
(11:56):
actually helping people.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, you know, I just want to make sure we
stress that too, because it's not like taking advantage of people,
but it's taking advantage of a situation that can be
a win win for everything everybody.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And that's not the only way.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
That's not the only reason why I'm saying like now
is the best time to get involved in real estate,
because there's plenty of other ways. Let me put it
to you like this, right, all right, with the uncertainty
in economy right now, I mean, let's just be real
for a while now, right, people are people hurting out there,
like you know what I mean, people a lot of
people living paycheck to paycheck. It ain't like it used
to be back during the pandemic and all that stuff
that's going on. Right, So if somebody does come up
(12:28):
on a property, you know, say, because we talked about
probate earlier, right, you know, the court process in which
someone inherits a property and they may just want to
get rid of it.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Right, people are looking for money. So people are more.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Just in general, just motivated to sell their properties, right,
Whether it be. You know, they're just like an absentee owner.
You know, somebody who owns a house but they don't
live in it. And why would somebody be motivated if
they own house or they don't live in it, right,
because the house could be sitting there vacant, right, And
if it's sitting there vacant, right, then they're paying property taxes,
remnicible bills like water bills.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
And stuff like that. The house could be detail.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Terier rating so they got you know, maintenance costs there,
or they cannot be paying the property taxes and being
jeopardy of losing the property.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Or you could have people that are you know, it's
nerve wracking to not be somewhere to know that, like
I have a property sitting here because somebody like break in.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
Could they do this? Are they gonna yeh squadquat us?
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Or you can have tenants in a property who's not
paying the rent right or just yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah you know because I think, yeah, we can't ever
talk about it, but yes, I think real estate for
me because just like you, I haven't invested in as
much as you have. But you know the things that
I've done have been things that have made me feel
more secure and stable about my future. But there's definitely
times that things don't go right.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Oh yeah, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
That's why, Like, that's why I love the whole idea
of being able to get in the game without using
none of your cash or credit and just being, like
I said, a skilled equity hunter, because you can make
a lot of money doing that and you can basically
like not have to deal with that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
So this is basically finding a property and then selling
that contract to wholesaling pretty much.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
So you know, I like I try to like get
away from that idea of it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I break it down for people who are like, well,
what do you mean? No, you know, being an equity hunter?
Speaker 4 (14:15):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
So? So like all right, so all right, I'm glad
you asked me that. Right.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
I want you all to look at it like this.
Everybody that's listening, look at it like this. If y'all
can watch me, I mean, if y'all see me, I'm
looking I'm talking to you and Angela, right, So.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, so look at it like this.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Right, Let's say you're sitting at home wherever you at,
you watching this and you're like, man, I want to
make some money like I need. I'm looking for a
way out or another way of doing it. Right, this
is what I want you to know. All Right, there's
millions of properties in America right A lot of those
properties are owned by individual people. Right now, what you
want to do is now keep in mind, you don't
need none of your cash, knowing your credit, none of that.
(14:51):
All you got to do is have a specialized knowledge
to get out here and be able to find these
people who are potentially motivated to sell it properties. And
we talked about this earlier, right, will make somebody motivated. Say,
it's like the absentee owner that we just talked about
that just got say, you know, a vacant property just
sitting there and they losing money because they're paying property taxes,
water bills, all that stuff. They just want to get
rid of it. Right, if you're able to be able
(15:13):
to find these people. And the good thing about it
is now, especially you know with the AI software that
I have, it's literally you can find these people anywhere
in America with a push of a button, right, using
artificial intelligence to find them.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
If you can find these people, all you have to
do is be able to have the specialized knowledge to
be able to analyze this deal, which the software does
that too, right, So that way you can make an
offer on the property. Now, well, of course you got
to get in touch with the seller. I mean, the
software does all this stuff for you pretty much.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Oh, get in touch with the seller to everything. Yeah,
and then a personal email.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Yeah, well like postcards or actually cansing the emails because
we got we have a skip trace tool too where
you can get people's phone numbers, email addresses, everything you
need to get in touch with these people.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
So anyway, so you say, say, for example, I log
into the site, right, I'm like, all, I want to
use AI to find properties, and say, Baltimore, That's that's
my market, That's where I'm from, right, shouting to Baltimore, right,
shout out.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
In my city. T Right, you hit it too, and
to do and all that. Right.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
So anyway, let's just say I go in there and
I'm like, okay, I want to use AI in this
zip code right to find people who are let's say
absenty owners. As we be talking about it, right, you
put a list together, boom, push you a button you
can send out postcards, right, and then people just start
calling you back. All right, So once the people start
to remember y'all know your cash, your credit, nothing like that,
do this. Everything I'm telling you is pretty much how
(16:28):
it go down, right, So you send out the postcard,
somebody call you back, Hey, you sent me a postcard
about my property at you know, one, two three Main
Street something like that. So then you're gonna go through
your script, which is all in the software, right, all
that for you. You go through your script, and then
you gotta find out okay, like you're gonna ask certain
questions like how many bedrooms, how many bathrooms, stuff like that,
because then you got to be able to analyze the
property so you can make an off on It's called
an investor formula, right, and that's sixty five percent of
(16:50):
the after apair of value, right minus the repairs once
you figured out, you know how much an investor will
pay for the property.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
So anyway, in the software you can analyze the deal.
You're pulling the comps or the comparable sales, and pretty
much what you do is you gotta find three to
four the highest sold houses that are similar to the
one that you're trying to get that are sold within
the last six months, within six blocks or a half
a mile of the property that you're trying to you know,
make some money on.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Right. So once you find that out, you add.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Those properties up and you divide it by that number
you get the average. Say say that average is one
hundred thousand, You take sixty five percent of that, Then
you got sixty five thousand. Then you minus the repairs.
The cool thing about the AI software is most people
don't understand how to estimate repairs. Like even like when
I first got in the real estate, I would go
in basements cause it's like a lot of basements in Baltimore,
you know where I'm from. And I didn't know the
difference between a gas line and the water line, right,
(17:36):
I just didn't know. But the good thing with the
software is that literally with the push of a button,
all you got to do is say, all right, it
needs a new roof. Like you look, say water's coming in,
Oh need a new roof. All that kitchen is, oh
need a new kitchen. You just put it in new kitchen,
new roof. It'll spit out the amount of repairs that
it takes. So once you get that, you can plug
it in your formula, and then you know how much
to offer the seller, right, So then you make the
seller out off of right, Let's say you make the
(17:57):
seller offer for say one hundred thousands something like that, right,
and then you establish that equitable interest, right, So now
you have what's called equitable interest in the property. You know,
once you do a contract with the seller, all right,
Once you do that, once you do a contract with
the seller, you can go right in the software and
you can find cash bias, like literally people who are
paying cash for houses in those areas using the AI software.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
So once you do that, you just you just mash
them up. You use to investor's money or the cash
the cash bias money for you to be able to
profit in the middle. And that's how my student Sharika
shout out Agains shout to Sharika. That's how she's profiting
the twenty three thousand dollars she's closing next week.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
On that deal.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
That's a good feeling, yeah, And really what it is
is some people it's kind of like using a realtor
right that finds you, but not in a realtor, but
just saying like the reason that you pay that money
is because maybe you're not going to be the one
that's going to go through the steps to find these
good deals.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
But somebody who has the cash ready to buy something.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
It's still a good deal, yeah right, that you're presenting
to them, but they didn't have to go through the
steps to find it, to make an offer to you know,
figure out all of those things.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I mean, it changed my life life real estate. Honestly,
it changed my life. And some people say, you know,
if you save your money, it'll save you. I like
to also say, if you save your real estate, that'll
save you too, you know what I mean. So everybody
out there that's listening, I highly encourage you, if y'all
looking at me, I highly encourage you to get involved
in real estate because you don't need none of your
(19:20):
cash or credit to do this. All you need is
a specialize excuse me, specialized knowledge to get out here
and make these deals and get them done, and then
you can work your way up to being a landlord
and start building wealth with real estate.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
And you've been doing this for sixteen years.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah yeah, I remember it was your guy mother that
actually got you in.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
Yeah, Valerie, Yeah, yeah, that's Valerie.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Yeah, also too, a guy went to college with He
helped me a little bit to get started in the beginning,
So yeah, shout out to him.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
And it's been quite as journey.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You've been through some ups and downs when it comes
to watching what's happening in the market.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So if anybody knows what it's.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Like, yeah, yeah I do.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And like I said, you know, when I first got in,
it was doing the you know, the recession and all
of that stuff, and you know, it was a good time.
You know, people say it's the best time to get
and it was. It was a lot of bank owned properties.
It's a lot of people that was I mean, unfortunately,
like we talked about going to foreclose up foreclosure, so
you know, they say like, and I want to say,
it's the best way I can, but they say, like
when it's blood on the street, like that's the best
(20:16):
time to get in, you know what I mean. And
that's what was going on back then. And I'm not
saying it's blood on the street right now. I'm just
saying that, you know, with the uncertainty that's happening in
the economy, with everything that's going on, I'm telling you,
right now. Now is the time where you want to
really start learning about this business and get into.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
It, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And you don't, like I said, you don't need your
own money. You don't you know what I'm saying. You
use other people's money.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
So where do you think are some good places like
that have been yeah for you personally right And we're
not telling people what to do, but what has been
good for you? And if you were doing some deals
right now, what would you be looking at?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
You?
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Like?
Speaker 3 (20:49):
Geographically yeah, I like I would say, actually, I'll stick
We're in New York right now.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
So like for all the New York.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
People, I would say Buffalo, Syracuse, Roger they're all good places. Cincinnati, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio,
Baltimore's good, Jacksonville, Florida, all those are good artists. Even
down in Texas like Houston, places like that.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
And how do people do research to find that out?
Like let's say somebody, because we always stress you don't
have to invest where you're at.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
New York City is an expensive place.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
If you're getting started in real estate, you know that's
New York is not the easiest place to get started.
But you can get started in other places like I know,
I did buy my first house in New York, but
investment wise, it was in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Okay, yeah, oh congratulations too. Because I saw that online,
I was like, that was dope. It was like a
big apartment buildings.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Yeah, there's thirty unit building.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
And listen again, like I was saying before, real estate
does have some makeups a lot of times. And we
were in the building was in a lie tech and
so we had to get out of this deal. So
we actually can't even move anybody in until next month,
you know, But once we do, it to be fine.
But that's just an example of how you need to
make sure you have reserves because we've been having to
pay for everything, you know, out of pocket until then.
Speaker 4 (22:00):
If we were to.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Put everything we had into that, we wouldn't. I don't
know how we would have been able to keep it
afloat until then. But once we do, we'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, I would say to answer your question, I would say, I, man,
you can always go online and google, like say, for example,
like what are the best places to invest?
Speaker 2 (22:16):
You can kind of start right there. What I like
to tell my students and see what.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
It says I'm asking I want to see.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
What I like to tell my students is to kind
of just like look at like, say you do that
right and you find an area, right, I say, just
look at where all the cash sales are happening in
that right. And that's another benefit of having the AI software.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Because what is the software called.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It's called AI real Estate Soft And actually, anybody interested
you can go to real Estate Money Club dot com
and it's all there for you.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Okay, good because this AI has changed the game for people.
Let me tell you when people like, yeah, I could
pull a concert, you could do it like that instead
of having it all that groundwork.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
In fact, what I'll do is I'll give you a
six month subscription on me.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I give you a year.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
A matter of fact, anybody didn't need knowing put some
times for y'all. All right, So here it says Raleigh, Charlotte, Austin, Orlando, Boise, Idaho, Columbus, Ohio, Vegas, Tampa, Phoenix, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Denver,
San Antonio, Seattle, Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Florida, Nashville,
(23:20):
and Georgia.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Yeah, there's a lot of places.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, yeah, So I mean, you know, and and another
thing too is that's good about the software is that
you can do this virtually, like I said when I'm
talking about, you know, flipping houses without using all your
cash or credit, using other people's money. Say, for example,
you in Brooklyn, right, let's say you feel like, all right, man,
I want to do deals in Tampa. You just mentioned Tampa, right,
You can do deals virtually, right, so you don't have
(23:45):
to actually be there.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Like you can do all my closings have been online.
Like everything I've had to do online.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
That pandemic really made a lot of people have to
upgrade to doing things virtually because we were so used
to having to sit down with pages and pages and
pages you know, thik booklets to have to sign.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
But now we can just all get online and do it.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah, get online. Yeah, my last closing, same thing, did
it online. So yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Well, Mark, it's always a pleasure to talk to you,
and we got to make sure we keep more in
contact with everything that's going on. But you know, again,
for me, you know, I do wealth Wednesdays, and real
estate is something that is near and dear to my heart,
something that I believe in. But I also always want
to make sure that people are only doing things with
credible people, you know, who can be trusted, learning from that,
learning from other people's examples. Like I said, you've been
(24:29):
doing this. Oh you have a lot of students. Yeah, yeah,
that can attest to that.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
One thing about me is, yeah, I've been. If you
go on world Star, right, you can go on world
Star hip Hop and type my name and Mark Whitten.
I mean you'll see me, you know, doing videos at
title companies. That's where you get your check. You know,
you'll see me with my students back in like twenty twelve,
right on YouTube back then. So been, I've been doing
this for a real long time.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
We better not see no other type of world Star videos.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
All real estate, all real estate stuff, all real estate.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
All right, well again at Mark flips Houses. Make sure
y'all check him out, and you know we'll keep it going.
Thank you so much for coming, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Well
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