S2 E26 | Dream Chasers: Turning Passion into Profit with Melissa Horne - Happy Hour Holidaze

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sean Febre & Manny Febr (00:00):
Welcome to Happy Hour Holidays, your
go-to podcast for business,entrepreneurship and life
stories.
We want you to go out there andfulfill your dream.
Go out there and think aboutsomething that you really love
to do and make it happen,Because if you love doing it,
you're going to put 125% into it.
I'm your host every single weekManny Fresh, we got the resume,

(00:20):
Sean Fabre and in studio todaywe got our special guest,
Melissa Horn.
She is a broker for Remax andthen she also is a digital
marketer.
So glad to have you on, Melissa, Thank you so much for having
me.

Melissa Horne (00:33):
I feel blessed to be here.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre (00:34):
I just love the accent because I love
who you are.

I'm like that hustle and bustle.

Tell us a little bit about your
background and how you got intodigital content creation and
marketing.
How did you get into that field?

So I've always been a marketer.

And where?
From New York are you?
So I'm from Queens.

I'm a Queens kid.
I grew up in the boroughs.
I didn't get my driver'slicense until I was 21.
Because I was no, because youtook the train everywhere.
You don't need it right, youdon't need it, right, you didn't
need it, yeah.
And then I got a car when I waslike 24 after that, and I
proceeded to get 93 parkingtickets.
Well, that's why it's better togo public transportation and

(01:13):
then it was in an auto cocoon inmy grandfather's driveway for
like two years and I went backto the train.
So I drive, effectively drivelike a girl.
Yeah, that's exactly whathappened, but I'm from Queens.

(01:33):
I grew up there.
I moved a lot within Queenswhen I was a kid.
I always was that kid that hada ton of potential and I wasn't
sure when it was going to comeout.
And I finally came out when Idiscovered that real estate,
just like you said, is what Iwanted to do and where I was
going to thrive the most.
I was a bartender and anightclub manager for many years
before that, so I've alwaysbeen in some aspect of marketing
, and marketing truly isconversations, communication,

(01:55):
relationships, and if you knowhow to maximize that, especially
on a digital realm right now,you are just destined for
success.

You are also a business owner.
Do you want to talk about thatbusiness or not really?

Yes and no, so I've done a lot of things.
So I was going to go to lawschool.
I got pregnant when I was 29years old.
I couldn't be an effectivemother and a nightclub manager
at that point.

So I had to figure out.

What am I going to do?

from here.

So I went back to college as an adult and and
thank God I did I would havenever done it the traditional
way.
It would have never, ever, everhappened.
All my professors were like myage.
I went to the city universityin New York instead of Staten.

Island .

Right.
So all the kids are 18.
And then the professors were myage, in their thirties.
I was like I'll get these kids,but I get you.
And when I found out, what washappening is every class I went
into and everything that I wasexperiencing in the course
content would be something Icould immediately apply to my
life, which happens in businesstoo, when you're a business

(03:01):
owner, as you're developing yourskills and you're learning
stuff.
But up until that point, I wasjust managing nightclubs and
bartending, which was greatbecause I learned how to talk to
anybody.
I learned how to influence whatI needed.
I mean, there's nothing morethan 5 am drunk in downtown that
you really learn the depths ofhumanity okay, how and how to

(03:22):
control them and get them out ofyour club and get them in your
club.

Sean Febre & Manny Feb (03:26):
whatever you need to do, Do you open
that?

late 5 am.
Yes, so bars are open until 4am in New York.
Last call is 10 to 4.
The places that I worked youwould mostly have the staff
ordering four hours of drinks at10 to 4 in the morning so that
we can stay and then move to anafter hours.
Yeah, so our kitchen was openuntil 5 am so we would have a

(03:49):
lot of people leaving the barscome in, so we had a really
strong hour.
That 4 to 5 on Friday andSaturday nights, yes, so all
walks of life.
Downtown Manhattan is the hub ofthe universe.

That's where it was too.
Oh wow, yes.

So it was the Comedy cellar on McDougal Street
.
They still have the best showsin all of Manhattan.

Is that by like Central Park?
No?

that's downtown.
So Central Park is upperMidtown, like 59th Street, and
then downtown is really anythingunder 14th Street, and this was
in the village.
So we were by West 4th Street.
So all of the icons the nextdoor was Cafe Wah.
Like Dylan Hendricks, like allthe 60s beatnecks, all hung out
in the village.
The owner of my club was MannyDorman.

(04:31):
His son, now Noam Dorman, ownsit and they are probably two of
the most creative, influentialbusinessmen and to learn from
them was probably my firstcourse in real life.
Like what you can build Empire.
They have built an empire downthere.
Every comedian that you knownow that's famous came up in the

(04:51):
Comedy Cellar Kevin Hart, oh myGod, I can't, even when I was
there.

That's their club, the Comedy Cellar.

That's where they came up.
So yeah, absolutely Any guysthat are showcasing to get to
that level start in these NewYork clubs and they do sets
through the whole weekend andduring the week and they run
from club to club to club, agentscout from there and they move
up and become these icons inacting and comedy.

(05:20):
It's pretty amazing.

I always like to ask why Florida?
Why did you decide to move toFlorida?

I came kicking and screaming kiddo.

Like.
This was not on my list.
It wasn't your choice.

Yeah, it was not my choice, so that goes to the
second business.
So at the time before I got myreal estate license, I was
actually I just moved to Philly.
My father passed away.
My mother had already.
I was the last one left in NewYork.
My mom moved to Jersey, mybrother moved to Pennsylvania
and my dad passed away and I wasthe last one left in New York.

(05:52):
I was already going to thecollege of Staten Island, which
is really like the armpit of NewJersey.
Staten Island, like everybodygoes Brooklyn, staten Island,
jersey and everyone from Queensgoes to Long Island, right.
So it's just migration out ofthe city are those two
directions?
And in Staten Island I wascloser to get to my mom and my
brother.

(06:12):
If I moved to Philadelphia,which was a city, I couldn't.
My mom's in the sticks and mybrother's in the sticks and I
wasn't ready for that yet.
So I was like, all right, if Imove to Philly I'm closer to
them, I could still get back toStaten Island to finish my
classes.
I only had two years left atthat time.
It was a lot of driving when Imade that move and I wanted to

(06:33):
go to law school.
So as an adult who wants to gointo debt for $300,000.

Nobody , unless you're buying a piece
of property.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

So I still was like where do I want to go?
What do I want to do?
I reconnected with an oldfriend that we started dating
and he was still in New York andhe moved to Philly and he said
we can't live here.
I left Queens so I don't haveto live like a cockroach.

Like now you have me here.
I can't live here, I left.

Queen, so I don't have to live like a cockroach
Like now.
You have me here.
I can't even get a big Ramtruck and you had to like,
really like, stick into parkingsupplies Like I can't even park
my truck here and they call itcockroach.

And he sounds like that, like imagine
like Joe Pesci yeah.
Like same height too.

Yes, tim yes.
Timmy and I are the same height.
He's got one eye.
He's got half a bald head, bigbelly.
You can't see his feet.
Yeah, I wouldn't have pickedhim out from a crowd, but I was
totally in love with him.
I still love him.
He's still my best friend.
We're not together anymore.
I still love him.
He's a great dad.

(07:41):
But he definitely, yeah, backto New York.
But he didn't want to go backto Queens, he wanted to go to
Long Island.
And he's like well, if you wantto stay together, you have to
rent this house and we'll moveback to New York.
And I was like ew, no, like ugh, I don't want to go to Long
Island.
Like at least, let's go backinto the city.
Like the whole thing was forasking me to move to the sticks

(08:03):
of Long Island.
He's like you, you're actinglike I'm asking you to go to the
moon.
I'm asking you to come home,like just come home, and I was
like, fine, I'm in love, I'll goanywhere.
And then part two of the askwas well, you know you're not
going to stay and go to lawschool, right?
And I'm like, yeah, no, I stillwant to go to law school, I'll
find something, I'll go into thecity.

(08:24):
I wanted to go to Columbia.
That was second choice.
Columbia is an Ivy League lawschool.
So if I didn't get a scholarship, there was no law school really
in the future, because I wasn'tallowed to.
Well, I wasn't allowed.
Not that I wasn't allowed, Ididn't want to take out that
kind of student loan.
I already had student loansfrom undergrad.
So there was still.
Even though it was a cityuniversity, it was still

(08:45):
significant as an adult.
So you did get your bachelor'sdegree, I went back and I got my
bachelor's, and that's what.

I was doing and what was it in?

Marketing and English creative writing.
Oh that makes sense.
Yeah, so I had a dual degree.
I was able to.
I had no idea I was smart.
I know I keep going indifferent tangents.
I was the epitome of a queen'skid right.
I bounced at clubs.
I bounced two clubs.
I didn't like I wasn't thebouncer.

So that my whole life from when I
was 15,.

16 years old was, like you know, hit the clubs,
go to the parties.
Naturally, I got myself a jobwhere it was a party every
single night.
I didn't until I got pregnantwith my son and had my child at
29, three months before my 30thbirthday, I had never changed a
diaper.
I didn't have friends with kids.

(09:38):
Like it was very now.
I was in charge of feeding andcaring for a human being, which
was well.
I hardly cared for myself.
You know, I got home, Irehydrated, I went back out Like
that was, that was it.
So it was a very different lifeto be a mother, and when I
realized that I wasn't going tolaw school and I wasn't going to

(09:58):
do my whole life the way it was, I'm almost forgot.
There's like four differentlifetimes, guys, four different
lifetimes in Melissa, and everysingle one was a big growth
thing.
So part two that's where I wasgetting at was now I'm not going
to law school.
I had a measly $35,000 in mysavings, like everything I had
at 35 years old was that myhouse in Philly, which I was

(10:21):
able to get, you know, from hardwork and bustling up until that
point.

Like you had bought that house.

I bought that house and then um, and then he
wanted to open a dumpstercompany and he said Now dumpster
truck or just dumpsters.
Dumpsters and roll off trucks.

Those are great.
I mean it's a great business.
I mean here in Florida it's agreat business Like they just
put the dumpster in front of ahouse.
Yeah, and they fill them up.
Yeah, and they fill them up.

So yes, it's in New York, though, and I learned
the difference.
I think it's different now.
It's been many years Like wecame, we left, we didn't lose
the company.
We sold the company in 2017.
Hill said I hear that it's ablessing, but that's where we
disagree on that business.
So it was very expensive in NewYork, especially in Long Island

(11:10):
, when we grew out ofowner-operator, so we started
with the one trunk and fivedumpsters which was all of that
$35,000 for one truck.

That kind of sounds like a deal for
just $35,000.

Okay, you and Tim , you'd be best friends.

Yes, because you were able to get a
truck and five dumpsters.

Yes, yes, but then you have to get the
business, and then you have toget the licensing, and then
that's the other stuff ohlicensing.
You need every town.
Now this goes back to yourquestion earlier.
Long Island operates incounties also, so there's Nassau
and Suffolk County and theninside each county is a
municipality and eachmunicipality has its own local

(11:53):
government.
So there's no executivegovernment Each one has.
So each municipality requiredits own license, its own
taxation, its own blah, blah,blah.
Now New York City the fiveboroughs had Giuliani at one
time that implemented his fightagainst the mob at the time that

(12:15):
he was there was huge.
But what he did was hedeveloped something called the
BIC I think it's, if I remembercorrectly, business Integrity
Commission which basically tookthe powers of the mob and put it
in the city.
Basically, you pay us and youget to operate here through the
city, right?
The BIC license was over$30,000 a year at the time.

(12:37):
So then once you take onemployees you also have the
employment tax.
So just to operate with, thelicensing was close to $100,000
a year.

That's before you can even do anything
.

Yes, and then you have to.
You know workman's comp.
And then now Timmy wasowner-operator for a while, so
we were able until we grew.
But once you grow we can't justrun one truck and every truck
you have.
You have to have a driver.
And we're also non-union andunion drivers get paid $250 an
hour a day or whatever it was atthe time it was.

(13:10):
It was hard to get a driverthat was good and diligent when
he could have a union job, whichmeant we get the scrap of the
earth for our drivers.

That you know because union jobs,
they get pensions at the end ofit.
They get everything and youcan't why work for you know.

So we would get the guys it really incentivized
employees to screw off smallbusinesses in New York it sounds
like it was very, and then youhad the component that I
probably shouldn't even talkabout.
But there's a component thatthere are businesses that don't
like the small businesses tocome up, so there's a lot of

(13:49):
anger there and a lot ofcontracts you couldn't get Like
it was really impossible to now.
Even in I would find creativethings.
This is where my marketingwould come in.
So roof rips were a greatsource of income because we
weren't roofers but the roofersor the contractors would hire us
to rip the roof off before theroofers came.

(14:10):
So that, but that was a reallyheavy dumpster.
That was also the differencewith Florida and New York.
It costs retarded money per tonto dump, depending on what was
in there for the landfills inNew York.

Oh, because you guys pick it up and
you have to dump it.

Yeah, and you have to pay for the landfills in
New York.
Oh, because you guys pick it upand you have to dump it.
Yeah, and you have to pay forthe dump here.
Well, in my county, when wewere thinking about doing it
here at that time, the dumpswere free, depending on where
you lived and what you weredumping.
Well, roofing material was….

Are we talking like shingles, tar
paper?
Yeah, not the plywood.

No, just this, because that had to be separate.
So that would be a huge cost.
So we built that in the costfor the dumpster.
Instead of charging perdumpster we would charge per
roof rip and we knew what thecost would be to dump and we'd
make money.
Well then I found this place inMount Vernon that was taking
recycled roof stuff right andthey were turning it into
asphalt to do the streets.

(15:01):
And I was like all we got to dois get these dumpsters to Mount
Vernon, new Jersey, and if wecan get it there, we're going to
get paid for our dumps.
Not only are we going to makethe money from the rip, we just
have to figure out what the costis to get to Jersey, and then
we can get more money for theserips.

Damn, that's fucking smart.

Yeah, to pay to drive through the city for the.

BIC, not even if you, because I
thought so even if you're notdoing business in New York and
you're just driving through NewYork, yes, yes, If you didn't
have the numbers on your trucksaying that you had the license
and you got pulled over.

now you got a ticket with the DOC.

This sounds counterproductive for any
business.

For trucking yes, Well, shit yeah.
In my opinion, yes, so, andthen you know as we grew how
much would they pay you anywaysfor the, for the?
Asphalt?

I don't remember that was so many
years ago.
It was it.
Was it significant enough to itwas?

significant enough to try, but not
significant enough.
To get the licensing.
We need to go through the citybecause so then you drive around
it.
You can't drive around.
It's surrounded by water, allthat.
They're surrounded by water andall that.
So you have to go through.
You have to go over two bridgesto get to from Long Island to
New Jersey, so it was or atunnel which you couldn't really
go.
It was, it was too much and Iwas getting exhausted.

(16:16):
And what was happening is Timwas grow, grow, grow and such a
great salesman and such anatural connector and something
that he loved the trucks.
What was happening to me is Iwas hating the truck.
Now I'm hating the truck.
I hate this.
This is awful.
We painted.
Then he wanted to get into thegarbage so I was like, all right
, how are we going to make thisgarbage truck fun?

(16:36):
Painted the garbage truck pinkand we did a campaign called
Real Men Wear Pink and wecollected, because that was
another way to make money called.
Real Men Wear Pink.
And we collected because thatwas another way to make money.
If you collected cardboard andrecyclables, you can get paid to
bring that.
So I dedicated the whole truckto collecting recyclables so we
could try to get money in fromthat with this big giant pink
truck that was driving aroundLong Island.

(16:58):
It was great, but there was onlyso many fun things you could do
because we had older trucks andthen it would get cold.
And then everybody's in theyard at five o'clock in the
morning with air torches tryingto get the air brakes to work
and all yeah.
So it became more and more of a.
I hate this.
I hate you.
You know, then you would haveto change like dumpster diving

(17:23):
Right, like that was not lawschool dumpster diving.
If they put the wrong shit inthe box, you had to go into the
box and separate it, Like otherbigger companies could dump them
out and had people that woulddo it or a machine that would do
it.
Small companies don't have that.
Small companies have Melissaand a six-year-old kid dumping
in the dumpsters, pulling thisout, putting this and that
Dumpsters, pulling this out,putting this in that.
And if you have the wrong likeif they decide to dump your box

(17:46):
at the yard to check it and yougot the wrong stuff in it you go
like a gump wrapper in aconstruction debris box is like
a no-no.
And if you had anything in busyareas and people are, you know,
walking past and they dumptheir water bottle in there, or
the garbage from their car orwhatever.
I didn't even think about that.
All of a sudden it's notconstruction debris anymore and

(18:08):
if they can see it or they askyou to dump it.
Now you have this big, hugeexpense and things like that
started happening.
Um, so I said I'm out, notdoing this anymore.
You have fun with your company.

You said out completely like out
relationship out and well likekind of got to that.
That's what it sounds likeright, yeah.

Well, we eventually got back together and
had a BB.
But at that point when thesauce was hot.
We were like, oh no, I hate you, I hate the truck, I hate all
of it, and it was two years ofbad.

And in that two years yeah but you
were making money.

I'm assuming we money, I'm assuming we would
make money and then make nomoney.
It was like feast or famine andthe roller coaster.
I couldn't find and he couldn'tfind.
Certainly not together could wefind the wave that was
successful.
There were a lot of othersmaller companies that were very

(19:03):
competitive.
So you would be going in formultiple bids for these
contractors who of course wantedthe lowest price.
Then there were companies thatweren't like.
When you were here, it was easyto get the work and make it
maintained because your billsweren't here yet, right.
And then as you grow and your,your, your overhead gets higher.

(19:23):
You can't take those smallerjobs at that same price anymore.
And now these new companies arecoming in and you'd get
underbid, right, and everybody.
So it was a constantrollercoaster of seeing we got
stuck in that middle of.
You know, if we grow we're notgoing to eat and if we go down

(19:45):
we're not going to be able togrow, and we couldn't get out of
that spot.

And because what was your yearly
revenue?
If you don't mind sharing, yeah.

It never operated .
It would be monthly good andthen yearly loss.

Was it over a million dollars in
revenue?

No, not where we got with that company and that's
where I was getting sick.
We would be so close and thenthe tickets would come in and
then the bills for themunicipalities would come in and
I was really—.

Well, I'm talking about just revenue,
not profit, just revenue.

I'd say it was about 40,000 a month.

So that's not yeah that's not.

It wasn't worth see what I'm saying.
So, it wasn't worth it for theheadache, and Timmy and I had
very different visions, so wecouldn't even get it together to
get to something that amazingRight, and I hated it.
I hated it.
So, without one piece of thepuzzle, it wasn't.

You were probably working like
fucking 120 hours a week.

I was still.
I went back to a bar to bartendon the weekends so that I can,
you know, make sure everythingwas running smooth.
So, yes, the relationship ended, the company ended.
Melissa Wynn got her realestate license.

That's the end of the story, but not
in New York, though.
In New York oh okay, and youalso mentioned another guy,
vinny Vinny.

Yes, that's what happened.
So I got my real estate licenseand I thought all of these
contractors that I built arelationship with with the
dumpsters were going to use meas their realtor.
And they were like oh no, youare the dumpster girl.
We have the realtor girl overhere.
She knows asset managers, sheknows how to find the properties
that we want to flip All thethings I didn't think about,

(21:34):
because you don't really have todo a lot to get your real
estate license right.
You just show up in the classand they teach you stuff you
never need for your business.
So I was like, all right, I'mjust going to find the company
that has the best split.
I'm going to get all thesecontractors, I'm going to, you
know, get us back on our feet.
Timmy's going to go over thereand die with his truck and
everything's going to be fine.
And my contractors are all likeno, you don't know enough, you

(21:56):
don't have the contacts.
You don't have any of this thatwe need.

We can't use you, and so now hold
that thought right there,Melissa.
When we get back with HappyHour Holidays, we'll continue
the fascinating story withMelissa Horn.
I'm enjoying myself.
Make sure you like, comment andsubscribe.
We'll be right back.
And we're back with Happy HourHolidays and we're really
fascinated with the Melissa hornstory over here.
I am fucking loving it.

So it's a rollercoaster, but it's so damn
entertaining.

And we were just getting to the point,
Melissa, where, okay, you gotyour real estate license.
You're thinking, all right, I'mgoing to get all these
contractors, they're going touse me.
And then all of a sudden,you're like what the fuck?

No sudden you're like what the fuck?
No, they're like nope, it's notgonna happen.
So um, there was this guy whowas was interested in probably
and possibly partnering for acontracting company.

Um, there was a contractor.

You're talking like a gc so he was a general
contractor out in long island.
He, he knew about me from thedumpster company.
He knew that I had just gottenmy real estate license.
He knew and again, just likekind of like the reason why I'm
starting to put myself out theremore.
It's time, for I was ready forthe change.
I wasn't exactly sure of thedirection.

(23:10):
I know I'm like I'm like, I'mlike I'm a squirreler, right,
like let's do this, let's dothis, let's do this.
And then I, after I pile allthe shit on me, I'm like, okay,
now I need to make a decision onwhat direction is going to be
the most sick.
So sometimes you make gooddecisions, sometimes you make
bad decisions.
Well, this decision to sit inthis room with this guy who
called himself Uncle John, to bepart bad decision when I got

(23:35):
there.
So I quickly realized that theperson likely was not interested
in partnering with me.
He was more interested ingetting a name on his company so
he could file for WBO, which isa women-owned business.
Right, and basically he waslooking for somebody stupid that

(23:56):
was going to put their name onsomething and really not.

But not Melissa.

Yeah, I was like yeah, I don't know if this is.
Thanks, uncle John.
I should have known he was likecall me Uncle John.
You know that it was going to besome kind of craziness.
However, during this meeting, aman came in to meet with him
for a real estate deal whosename was Vinnie Martino and
Vinnie for a real estate dealwhose name was Vinny Martino and
Vinny got like the tail end ofthe conversation with me and

(24:22):
Uncle John and you know when I'mthanking him but no thanking
him, and like I'm a real estateagent and I'm going to really
concentrate on that and I'd loveto do business with you in that
capacity at any time.
So this Vinny goes, so you're areal estate agent.
And I said I am, I'm licensed,I'm with ABC Company and I'm

(24:43):
ready to go.
And he's like well, tell me howyou market yourself.
And I'm a brand new agent, okay, and I only know what to
regurgitate.
And I got my CRM and I madethese pretty flyers and I put
everybody I know into this CRMand I'm sending them emails and
I'm knocking on their doors anddoing all that stuff that they

(25:03):
tell you to do.
And Vinny's just going, okay,all right, so what?
Have you written a contract yet?
And I was like, no, not yet.
You know, I'm just I'm stillgetting it Okay.
So when you get the contract,what are you going to do?
I think of that part Like whatthe fuck am I going to do?
I was like I'll figure it out.
You know, I got this greatbrokerage behind me.

(25:25):
If they trained you how towrite a contract, do you know
how to write an offer, did they?
No, no, they don't tell you anyof that.
In real estate class, theydon't.
They don't tell you anythingwhen you do the real estate
class.

It's like some of the on job duties.
I mean, you get a contract andyou're like what the hell is
this?
Yeah, I'm like what do?

I know, but I feel still like you can't.
Even when you're getting askeddirect questions and you don't
have an answer, like now, I feelstupid.
I'm like and he's smiling, he'sall smug Like he knows, I don't
know the answer.
I'm like, oh, I gotta get outof here.

I'm gonna go.

And he's like why don't you give me your number?
I think we can talk aboutgetting something going for you.
And first I'm like I'm excitedbut I feel stupid.
I don't know how you guys are.

And this is in Long Island.

This is in Long Island right, and now I'm
feeling my confidence is hurt,so I'm like I just got to get
out of this room right now.
So I gave him my number, Ididn't take his number and I ran
out, and then he called me acouple of days later and he's
like hey, you know, this isVinny.
We met at John's house and I'dreally love to talk to you about

(26:31):
coming to work with me in realestate.
And I was like now I'mconfident again because I'm
behind the phone.
I am not in space.
So I'm like I'm good, I got ittogether.
You know I'm working on all mystuff and he started asking me
the questions again.
But now you're a little tougherright when you're behind a
phone or a keyboard.
So I'm like, yeah, no, I'm good,I got the screen split.

(26:53):
I mean, why would I go workunder somebody else?
And that's when he said to mehe said, yeah, well, you really
didn't write a contract yet,right.
And I was like, no, he goes.
You know, 0% of 0 is still 0,right.
And that's when he startedcalling me horn.
He's all he calls me horn andhe goes horn Now that he loves
me and knows me.
That's where it went to.
It's the most ridiculous allthe way down.

(27:19):
So anyway, he's like 0% of zerois still zero.
How long are you going to dothis?
Now, he didn't know too muchabout me, but I was like how
long am I going to do this?
Like I'm almost shit out ofmoney, like I had my house in
Philly rented.
The company's tanking even more.
Me and Timmy are fighting.
I'm getting ready to move out.
Like there's really like I'malmost dead and stinking right.

(27:40):
Of course I'm not going to saythat to him, but I'm like what
am I going to do?
I don't want to work for thisguy, but how do I connect with
him and make something out ofnothing?

Was he like much older than you, or
something?

No, he's the same age as me.
You're older than him, I'm notreally sure, but I'm definitely
better looking than him.

Vinny Martinez Sounds like a fucking
name from a movie too.
I feel like an Italian mom,he's the best.

We have the best team.
Vinny, I adore you, you're thebest mentor and I still give you
all the props for making me whoI am Always.
But very funny.
So I said no and he continuedto call me Second time.

right, that's the second time I said
no.

He called me every single Sunday with his
Fizbo's and prospected me.
He said the same thing Like Ibecame a script for him.

So what do you do?
Give you the Fizbo's and thensaid hey, close them, close them
, close them close them.

He would be calling his Fizbo's because he
was a prospector and a topproducing real estate agent and
I didn't realize until muchlater that his Sunday call time
was calling Fizbo's and I gotinto the Fizbo list so while he
was trying to get his listings Iwas on that list.

And he would call me every Sunday, as
if I were a Fizbo, to try toclose me and come work for him.
And for those of you who do notknow, fizbo is for sale by
owner.

Yes, yes.
So, um, he was training mewithout training me at that
point.
And finally, after about, I'dsay, probably six months, I
finally agreed to go meet him.
And and you know how he got meto go meet him.
Damn, six months, yeah, and Iwas at him one night.

Talk about a persistent fellow.

Very persistent.
All the lessons I got from himis everything it takes to be a
phenomenal entrepreneur period.
Vinny is now in construction.
Vinny is now in constructionand he is a top remodeler in
Long Island and has translatedhis skills and his consistency

(29:44):
and persistency into hiscontracting and has moved out of
real estate and he makes thesebeautiful, beautiful remodels
all over Long Island now.
But how he got me to finallymeet him?
Because he was getting to knowme and getting to understand my
needs and my.

He was selling me you know what I mean
?
That sounded like it was alittle bit more than just a
professional not at all.
No, it's what he wanted, is allI'm saying no, no, not, I
promise you not at all no, he's,he was a happily married man.

You know, I asked him that many years later, but
not in that way.
I said why did you botherchasing me for so long?
He told me because I knew youhad talent and I knew for what I
wanted to do.
I needed you to get me for mynext spot.
And he because when I calledhim crying, that's how I even I

(30:33):
couldn't find an assistant.
I'm like I can't get anassistant to stay.
Nobody wants to work,everybody's an asshole.
I'm like I can't get anassistant to stay.
Nobody wants to work,everybody's an asshole.
I don't understand why did youbother me for so long?
He's like cause you had talent,he goes and I knew for where I
wanted to go.
He wanted to build a team.
He wanted to become a you know,a recognized team in accolades
in this marketplace.
He wanted to break into theHamptons market, which is big

(30:55):
money.
He wanted to start thisconstruction company, always as
a secondary business, not movingout of real estate.
He wanted to take everythingthat he grew in real estate and
make it bigger and he felt frommeeting me that one time in
Uncle John's kitchen that I wasthe person that was going to do
this for him.
And then he proceeded to tellme, when I asked him, that

(31:18):
whoever you find when they havetalent, they're going to leave
you.
So I knew you were going toleave me.
So I had a limited time to getwhat I needed out of you, to get
my business where it wanted tobe, before you realized you were
great and left.

He's a smart guy, yeah.

And I was eyeopening because I'm still
waiting for this invisibleassistant to show up and help me
, and then outgrow me and thenleave me, and I would be the
next level.

But I haven't found her yet.

But yeah, it wasn't anything funny, it was
true belief.
But that's how far I've come.
Right, I didn't see that talentin me, I didn't have that
confidence in me and it took himto discover it.
And my nose is running, I'msorry.

No, no , no, it's fine.
You want me to get you a tissue?
No, I'm okay.

It took.
Let me take a second and goback to that thought, yeah, I
need a tissue.

We'll step out real quick, sorry.

Oh my God, I've never had allergies before, and
now they just came.

I love the bull yeah, bullish stock
market.

Yes, and then you got the Monopoly man behind you
.
That's pretty sick.
I like him With the machine gun.
Oh, thank you, perfect.

Yeah, because he's running monopolies
and killing some people.
She was talking about thesix-month.

Six months of calling.
Yeah, the call.
But then when he got, so I'mgoing to get up to so when he
got me back to the future.
I forgot where I was the talent.
So, yeah, I'm still waiting formy invisible assistant that's
going to come and have talentand then leave.
Well, with Vinny, he finallygot me to meet him because he

(33:04):
said just come meet me.
We won't even talk about itanymore.
I want to show you something.
You know the Juicy House fromthe Biggie video and I was like,
yeah, the song Juicy, wherethey're all, his first hit
they're all in the pool.

It the song Juicy, where they're all
his first hit they're all in thepool and it's telling.
It was all a dream.

I used to dream, yes well, he had the listing for
the Juicy House and he calledme and he's like do you want to
see the Juicy House?
I was like yeah, and I was he'slike, well, I want.
I want to hear your ideas onhow you would market this house,
because they adjust.
You know, they're renovating it, they want to add a staircase.

(33:41):
I know you're not interested inworking with me, but I think
you have some really goodmarketing ideas.
Let's go walk the house.
I'll show you what we're doingto it and tell me what you would
do.
And I was like you have this big, giant catwalk because you only
see like the outside, from thevideo.
And I had this big, long, giantcatwalk when you only see like
the outside, from the video.
And I had this big, long, giantcatwalk when you walked in and
I'm like we're gonna do pop-upstores for all hip-hop designers

(34:03):
up here.
We're gonna get every b-listartist that's just starting to,
you know, record and geteverything.
We're gonna get them all hereand we're gonna make it like a
talent showcase.
So we'll get anybody we can see.
If we can get biggie Skies oranybody from Puffy at that time,
you know that's a whole notherthing.
Anybody we can get.

She went to a white party.

Yeah, like anything, I wasn't at one of
those parties, but anything wecan get to get the music guys in
here that want to touchsomething Biggie touched.

And then we'll get all of the
producers to come walk throughthe house.
What year?

was this, this was 2015.

Oh shit Recently.

Yeah, so it was, but which is long past.
You know the song coming out.

Yeah, but why?

not bank on that.
You know what I mean.
And then there were the realestate parts of the house that
was spectacular.
The gentleman that designed it,the architect, is.
You know, he was a sort I don'tremember his name, sorry, but
he was a sort after architect.
And part of the deal of thesale is that the footprint of
the house really couldn't bechanged because this was like
his baby.
It was in the highest part ofnot Amagansett like Sag Harbor,

(35:10):
I forgot what part of LongIsland, but where it was.
It was on the top of the hillso you could see a lot of the
water both on the Long IslandSound and the Atlantic.
I mean, there were a lot ofspectacular things about this
million dollar Hamptons property.
Gosh, she makes me want to buyit.
It was spectacular and just forthe experience and that he
promised he wasn't going to tryto make me go work for him again

(35:31):
.
I went Well, it was snowing andwe wound up in a ditch and we
went to a restaurant to cool off, not be freezing, and we
started talking and at thatpoint he was a very smart
businessman.
What happened in retrospect iswe were able to build rapport.

(35:54):
I wasn't on the defense aboutnot going to work to him.
We were sharing ideas aboutthis house.
He was talking to me more aboutwhat his vision was for his
company and who he needed for agood fit.
It wasn't about me anymore, itwas about who this broker at the
time.
He, he.
Well, he was with Douglaselement.
So what that means when youhave a broker's license and

(36:16):
versus an, an associate'slicense, a salesperson's license
.
Basically, you took an extracourse, right you?

learned how to learn some business
stuff.

What the benefit… ?

Like I'm just trying to figure out
what he was.

He owned his team .

His team.
So he was a real estate agentwith a team.

He was a real estate agent building a team at
the time.

He met me and he wanted you on his
team.

He wanted me on his team as his marketing
director and his buyer's agentand his vision and this was all
foreign to me when he was,because I didn't understand how
it worked.
Like you asked me earlier why Ididn't want to just be a broker
myself, because camera oh sorry, um, because the liability is
so great with the people.

(37:00):
The broker's license is reallyoverseeing all the other
licenses.

So if I hire somebody, but if you own
a team, and you own a team as areal estate agent, the broker is
the one that takes all theliability, not the real estate
agent leader.

So why would you open a brokerage?

Only for the commission split.
Yeah, so you don't have to payyour broker any money.
But there's so many ways thatyou can, unless you have a cap
and you're okay with saying likeKW does $21,000.
Once you cap out, they don'ttake any more right.

And it's a business decision based on what
you negotiate in every instancewith your broker.
Um, there's, yeah, there's alot of things like I'm comfy,
I'm comfy, was he still?

letting you um try to close your own
deals for while you were alsomarketing director.

Yes, so he, yes, but there were, there, were.
It grew, we grew together Likehe had a vision and then always
with every business, right, youhave a vision and then you adapt
to make it work best.
So I came in as the marketingdirector and buyer's agent.
Right, there were certain hoursthat I had to dedicate to
marketing, making the phone ring, making sure that our brand was

(38:11):
being, you know, seen.
He would do agent attraction.
He had a transactioncoordinator at the time who was
also doing sales.
So really, when I came on, itwas Adrian, vinny and I, then
Elena came on and then Vinnyjust did his thing and we did
our thing and my job was makethe phone ring.
Here's the budget Figure outwhat works, make the phone ring

(38:34):
and sell as much as you can, butmake sure you're here to do the
marketing.

What was the budget?
By the way, if you don't mindme asking.

When we started, the budget was only, I think,
$2,500.
By the time I left, the budgetwas up to $10,000.

Which goes to show you guys out there
that you have to spend money tomake money 100%, yeah, 100%.

And when I moved to Florida, and when you say
$10,000, you mean per month,yeah, per month, that's $120,000
right there to generate morevolume in real estate sales, yes
, and in the scheme of realestate, bigger teams.
And this was before the wholecontent.
Digital marketing,pay-per-click became big, right

(39:16):
Well, no, this is like 2015.

2015, 2016.

So it wasn't like that.
There are teams today, big topproducing teams that exceed
$200,000 a month in their budget.
That's not my trajectory.
I'm not that I don't want to.

Not yet.
Not yet, melissa, not in the.

I love real estate but I see Melissa's
future in multifamilysyndication deals.
I want to do more commercialthan residential and that's
where I'm spending my time togrow right now in skill set
Residential real estate.
I wanted to build a team, Iwanted to build it out to get.

(39:56):
I studied all those people.
I think they're phenomenal, butI'm not willing at this point.
You're right.
Maybe in the future I won't.
I'll never say never because,things change.
You're absolutely right.
I'm taking it back now, butthere's, I am not willing to
take out of my production to bean effective yeah, and if my
name is attached to it, I wantto make sure my team has the

(40:19):
same values and goals and and towork with the same integrity
that I work with, and I have yetto meet people that are willing
to do that outside of their ownbusiness.
I have very talented associates, but they're not.
They're doing their thing,they're not trying to partner.

So we're still in New York right
now.

We're still in Long Island, still in New York,
you still haven't left Vinny.
No.

I think you were getting to that
part, yeah, so then I left Vinny.

So me and Vinny built this beautiful magic.
Vinny built, I helped buildthis big magical team and then I
got pregnant again the secondtime, 11 years later.
Don't do that.
Was it still the same?

guy Timmy.
Timmy has raised my first son.

No, it was Timmy.
My first child is not Timmy'sbiological son, but Timmy
adopted him and Timmy is hisfather.

Oh, good man.

Yeah, he's amazing.
Even with all the bullshit,timmy is an amazing dad and a
great partner for somebody else.
And our second child together Igot pregnant.
Vinny was heartbroken that Ineeded a maternity leave, so

(41:33):
what he did was is he gave methe big office so I can come in
with the baby and only take twoweeks off, and he would take the
little office and he made amock nursery for me to come back
to work with my newborn child.
And then Timmy decided notVinny, timmy decided he wanted
to go to Florida and it was avery right now.
So we had friends in BrevardCounty that we would go visit at

(41:54):
Easter time and it was comingup in Easter 2017.
It was the year that Easter wasreally late in, like April, like
end of March, beginning ofApril and we went down for
Easter and at Easter dinner hegot offered a job and the he
needed.
He needed to be moved by June5th and it was already mid-April
.
So he still had the trucks, Ihad my real estate stuff going

(42:18):
on and he's like I'm going totake the job, we're going to
Florida, and I'm like, oh fuck,no, we're not.
I was like I don't even knowwhere it is.
I don't have a license there.
I just was, you know, breakinginto a bigger market in Long
Island.
That was a higher price point.
I'm like I'm on fire right now.
Like you, I can't leave mybusiness.
I just built this in the lastthree years and, um, he got the

(42:40):
job and he went and I got tosell the trucks, keep my
business with a five month oldbaby.
It was fucking fantastic, but Ididn't want to come.

I didn't want to come.
And when we get back with happyhour holidays, we'll continue
the melissa horn story.
We're loving it.
Like comment.
Subscribe.
All right guys.
Welcome back to happy hourholidays with the melissa horn
story.
That's been freaking intriguingas hell.
And now they're coming down tothe place that I call paradise,
but she would have rather beenin new york, for sure.
100 so now.

(43:11):
So now timmy's taking takingthe job in Florida and you're
selling off all the assets forthe business and about to make
the transition.

Yes.
So I'm about to make thetransition.
We're getting rid of all thetrucks.
Timmy started his job.
He he got to get a Cocoa beachcondo with my dog.
He got to take the dog and beon the beach and he's whining
about how he misses us.
I was like, shit, give me mydog back, man, you stay down

(43:40):
there.
So we did fly down for Father'sDay so I could see my dog and
he could see his boys.
And then reality hit because Ihadn't come down.
So he came June Father's Day ismid-June and I was like, oh my
God, what am I going to do here?
Like my license is in New York,it's not a reciprocal state in

(44:03):
Florida.
Yeah, so I had to do, andthat's why I got my broker's
license, because I had theoption to do a broker or
salesperson in Florida with myyou know what I've completed in
New York.
And I was like, well, I'm justgoing to take my broker's
license because otherwise Iwould have had to wait two years
to reestablish my sales, to doanother broker class.

(44:23):
So that was the smartest thingthat I did for the move.
I started shopping brokers whoI wanted to work for and be
associated with, because DouglasElliman was not north.
I don't even think they stillare north of Jupiter and that's
who I was with in New York and Ididn't know that I wanted to be
with Douglas Elliman, becausereally I was with Vinny and I've

(44:47):
never maybe four or five timesactually went into the Douglas
Elliman office.
We had a satellite office.
We functioned.
Every our marketing was prettyyou know what's the right word.
We used what we had to ofDouglas Elliman, but we had our
own logos, we had our ownmarketing systems, our own

(45:07):
branding, our own branding, andwe also had our own systems, and
that's something that I reallytook from Vinny when I started
my own business here as a soloagent.
I don't use anything mybrokerage gives me as far as the
CRM or their marketing, I'vedeveloped all my own and I just
follow the rules of what mybroker information has to be on

(45:28):
my marketing.

It's not necessary.
I mean the broker is just thereto hang your license after that
run wild Yep and that's it.
So why couldn't you just branch?
What'd you call it, douglas,elliman, elliman?
Why couldn't you just open asecondary office where you were
the leader of it and still beunder Vinny?

We probably could have done something like that.
My breakup with the Martinoteam wasn't as clean as I wanted
it to be my breakup with theMartino team wasn't as clean as
I wanted it to be.
He was very, very gracious ingetting me back to the office
when Donnie was, and this wasonly five months after.
So now I was pregnant fornearly a year.
I only took a couple of weeksoff so he would give me the big

(46:07):
office, and now I'm telling himI'm leaving.
You know what I mean?
It wasn't Not your fault.

Yeah, not my fault.

Yeah, not my fault, but it wasn't timing for
everybody else.
It wasn't timing for me.
I didn't want to go, you knowlike to me, but it was the right
move for our family, for himgiving up that company that he
wanted to save so badly, sobadly.

(46:36):
I couldn't ever ask anybody,especially the father of my
child, to go work for acompetitor or a client or, you
know, basically put his tailbetween his legs when he had
this great opportunity Like hegot a great opportunity with
this company.

What was it, by the way?
The opportunity.

Construction manager with the builder in
Central Florida.

So he For a residential builder
Residential builder Residentialthat's huge.

Yeah, it's huge, huge.
From where he was coming fromat our age, you know he always
wanted to be in Florida.
It was the right thing to do.
You know I can get my licenseanywhere and the cost of living
in central Florida is so muchless than the cost of living in
New York.
I could fly up.
I could probably see my motherand my brother more.
This was my logic.
In two hours I could be on aplane ride with an hour on

(47:20):
either end.
So within four hours I don'thave to drive and I could be at
my mother or my brother, when itwould take five hours in
traffic to get from Long Islandto New Jersey.
You should move, not evenkidding.
So why?
Yeah, and I could fly up moreoften.
I was only seeing them onholidays anyway, you know.
So it just it was silly not totry to make it work.

(47:42):
Well then I got here and I waslike where the fuck did you get
me?

I was like there's giant oak trees.
You said Cocoa Beach, right.

Well, that's where he was staying, that's not
where we were living.
It was, you know, vieira.
So Melbourne, vero Beach, no,vieira is in Melbourne and it's
one of the top 10 PUDs in thenation.
Vieira Builders has more moneythan God, which I've learned now
to piggyback off theirmarketing.

(48:11):
It's a plans unit development.
So Vieira Builders owns likemassive lands well out of just
Brevard County into centralFlorida and they have built all
these really beautiful high-endsubdivisions through the
Melbourne area.
And the deal was for my olderson because they moved him so

(48:32):
much in his 11 years up to thatpoint that if you're going to
make me move to Florida, I wantto know that we're not going to
move out of the same area, thatI can go through the junior high
school and high school with allthe same kids.
And I owed him that becausebefore Timmy and during Timmy
there was a lot of turmoil and alot of moving.
Donnie was only five months old, like I said, when we got here,

(48:58):
and that would keep Donnieestablished at least through the
beginning of elementary A-plusschools in a cushy neighborhood
you know it's very soccer mom,very not my style.
But you know that's.
I had to give too right, so Icouldn't be like.
What do you mean?
I can never go on the chain, Ican't go to the city.
I couldn't be a crybaby,because I needed to be part of
the family.

Well, you can still go on a train.

Yeah, the two-two .
Bright line, bright line, itdoesn't even stop, it goes right
through my county.

It doesn't stop there.

Oh really no, it stops in Orlando and Miami.

They need, they're talking about it,
and it goes all the way up toNew York, if I'm not mistaken.

Well, I did the auto train coming down because I
wasn't going to drive my prettycar all that way with a newborn
baby and half of what we ownthat I wouldn't put in the
moving truck.
So that was really cool to dothe auto train down to Sanford
with Donnie.
That was really good.
Actually, it was really thebest experience.

How long was it?

It was like 18 hours.
You get on in Virginia and thenyou get up in Sanford and that
was just an hour drive, but theyput the car in its own car,
like the car in a train car, andthen you it's like old
fashioned with little curtainsand stuff, and yeah it was
pretty cool.
It's like an actual train,though, right yeah, no it's like
a wild wild west trip Like Inever.
The subway trains and Amtrakare very different, so it was

(50:17):
like a real choo-choo, I'mtelling you.
It had curtains and all thisstuff and the baby was.
Donnie was a really good babyand he would like goo-goo and
ga-ga-ing and all the peoplewanted to hang out with him.
I didn't even get one of the bedtrains.
I mean, the seats were so big Ithought maybe I made a mistake.
And then I saw there was, itwasn't crowded, it was, it was
great.
We you know it was.
It was really comfy and a goodexperience.

(50:38):
So yay for the auto chain.
I think is by Amtrak, but um sowe rented a house, I went and
got my license, I've got mybroker license.

Had you sold the house in Philly at
this point, or you still had itas a?

rental.
I sold it.
I sold it before we left.
It was a rental for only acouple of years.
I actually sold it in thelittle break me and Timmy had so
that I could move out of thathouse.
And then, yeah, and I got mysavings back together and all
that good stuff.
It was sad to break up withthat house, though I really
loved that house.

(51:12):
So then you decided to join.
Remax.
I decided to join Remax.

That was the first one that you found
down here.

It was the first one that had a great market
share.
What I found I don't know howit is in Tampa, but in Melbourne
in my MLS, there's 6,500 agents.
A lot of them are broker owners.
There is real no distinctivemarket share with how many
agents there were.
And that's what I was looking.
I was looking for the brandingof a big company to build myself

(51:39):
until I built my own brand.
Yeah, and there's five Remaxesin my area.
Remax Elite is the one that Ichose and because they had the
most market share from what Icould see from signs.
So I spoke with KW, I spokewith MyRemax and I spoke with….

Cowell Banker.

No, did you ever think about Premier?

Sean Febre & Manny Fe (52:01):
Sotheby's .

No, no, mm-mm, there was….
And, like I said, I was underVinny for so long.
I never had to interview likethat.
My deal with Vinny was the dealthat I wanted at that time.
I've never spoke to somebody inDouglas Elliman.
My deal was with Vinny and mylicense was held by Douglas
Elliman, so this was a whole newshop for me.

(52:25):
Right, like what, do I ask?
What is a good split?
What am I looking for?
And at the time, the brand wasmost important because I knew
where I wanted to go.
And then my broker is amazing.
She's one of my best friends.
Now I was able to, I'm verycomfortable with my business and

(52:49):
I'm a top producing agent, so Isuspect that they don't want to
lose me either.
And and it's a good place whileI'm a top producing agent, so I
suspect they don't want to loseme either, and it's a good place
while I'm figuring out whereMelissa wants to take a business
next.

We were actually talking about this
outside.
Where does Melissa want to takeit next?
And you said multifamilysyndication.
Yes, can we get a little bitmore shed on that?
What exactly is it for theviewers out there that don't
know what that means?
Absolutely I see Grant Cardonealways talking about the
syndications.

Yes, so Grant Cardone's model is different
than the model that I want tofollow.
I'm working with the WarriorProgram, which is Rod Khleif and
he's out of Sarasota.
It's about 2,500 people in thisgroup.
It's pretty awesome.
Look up the Warrior Program andwhat I'm learning is so you

(53:41):
don't necessarily have to be areal estate agent.
You need to want to invest andyou need to know how to
underwrite deals and find valueads.
So what I'm looking for andthen the-.

And buy value ads ads.

So what I'm looking for and then the value
ads meaning is finding inapartment complex or commercial
residential.
Specifically, anything overfive units is commercial
residential.
I'm looking for anythingbetween 50 and a hundred units.
That needs value ads, meaningthat the driveways need to be
fixed up and painted and maybeassign a parking spot to each
unit so that you can add valueto the rent, Maybe adding a pet

(54:19):
policy where you can have onepet at rent for $25.
Maybe there's plumbing and eachunit could be added with
washers and dryers, and thereyou're maximizing the rent.
But you need to be specific inthe area that you're looking for
.
What is the maximum rent thatthese areas are going to hold?
Are there jobs in the area?
Are there big ticket stores?

(54:40):
Is there a Starbucks, Likewhere?
What?
What is in the area that'sbringing people that they're
going to pay top dollar and whatdo you need to do to improve
this unit to get that top dollar?
And each deal is going to have alimited partnership and a
general partnership and thelimited partnership at the legs
of the deal that puts ittogether A construction team, a
property management team, anasset management team and

(55:01):
they're running day-to-dayoperations to put this deal
together and put the value addsin it, and then you have the GP.
So the LP team is raisingcapital for the GP.
That are the investors thatcome in to put this money in, to
acquire the property, workthrough the loan process and
then you have a pro forma thatyou are going.
When are you going to sell this?
When is it going to maximizehis money to sell it, to take,

(55:22):
to cash out, to go to the nextdeal, which is typically around
five years?
Now, in five years, if it'sperforming fantastic, you're
going to hold on to it, but inthe meantime you're finding more
and more deals.

And a low vacancy rate is going to
also add to that right.

Well, you want a higher vacancy rate.
I think that if you're at 90%,a low, I'm sorry, low, sorry.
Yeah, okay, you want 90%occupancy, sorry, no no, I think
, for the best loan products,and I'm still learning all this
you want at least 90% occupancyin order to get the best loan

(55:56):
products available.

For someone to purchase.

To purchase From you.

From the group.

Or for us to purchase, to even get the value
add and then to sell it.
Yes, oh okay, yeah, and then tosell it.
You want it to be.

Well, actually to me it makes more
sense that the property isvacant more than, like, say, 50%
I know that's an extreme numberfor you to get a better deal on
the property, right.

Well, it would depend, like if it's in disarray
right and it needs a roof andit needs this and it needs that,
which means you've got toinvest more money into the
repairs of the property.
But if there's no I've, I've.
I'm still learning this, butfrom what I've, what I've been
researching and the people thatI'm networking with, I'm finding
that it's been I've heard itboth ways right.
I heard one story recently thatif you had you know you want to

(56:46):
do all these value addsinterior that having it vacant
to have the value adds done havethe people in, that that might
be better.
The example, I think, was thatit was a socioeconomically
stressed area and they wanted todo these value ads with all the
jobs that were coming in, thatthey could raise the rents and
having it vacant actually workedmore vacant had it worked to

(57:09):
their benefit because you didn'thave the riffraff still living
in the building.
So if you're trying to do allthese improvements, but there's
people, with a different mindsetliving there that might not
invite people with a bettermindset to come in.
So you have, I think, each.
So it's case by case, each caseby case, and I think it's

(57:31):
really important to walk theseareas, not just identify the
deal, but walk the community,walk the building, meet the
residents.
What do they like about it?
What do they not like about?

it Well, even the surrounding areas
too right.

Yeah, because you couldn't possibly do all these
value adds.
But is somebody still going tolive there?
Yeah, like they're going tohave to really love where they
live, and like the other peoplethat live there in order to stay
.
So there's a lot of workingparts and there's so much I'm
learning.
So it's, I haven't been in adeal yet, but I'm looking for a

(58:01):
deal.
There are a lot of people thatI've been talking to that are
willing to put in capital, andthe easiest ways I'm finding
into a deal is to identify thedeal or have the capital.
So I'm getting closer andcloser.

So we are going to pin this and talk
to me in six months because mygoal is that in the next six
months I will be in asyndication deal.
Well, what's the for an outsideinvestor?
What's the minimum capitalrequirement of investment if
they want to be in a deal like?

this, I would imagine $50,000, because with
the syndication deal it isregulated by the SEC, so you
have to be an accreditedinvestor and can only have a
certain amount of unaccreditedinvestors, as I understand.
I think with $50,000, you canget in a deal.

And how long would that person that
invests said $50,000 expect toreturn on their investment?
Around five years.
About five years when the groupdecides to sell the property
yes, and what's their ROI onthat?
Around five years, about fiveyears, when the group decides to
sell the property?

Yes, I think that-.

And what's their ROI on that?
Are they looking at 20% or arethey looking at more?

I don't think it's that high.
Again, I'm not up to that partyet, but I no, but this is just
ballparking, ballparking.
I imagine that there would besomething between 7% to 10%.
Yeah, so from what I listen, ithappens every day and people
put their money in it.
They're making bucket loads ofmoney, so the return is
definitely there if the deal isright.
So that's.

(59:19):
I'm also very careful.
I don't like to get myself intoanything if I don't have a full
understanding and at this pointI don't have a full
understanding yet, but I'mlearning every day.
My goal is to understand how tounderwrite a deal.
So where I'm concentrating mynetworking efforts right now is

(59:40):
to find the people in this groupthat I joined that know how to
bulletproof, underwrite a dealand teach me how to do it.
So I've picked and we weretalking outside about it also my
area is a growing area.

Asset management right.

Yeah, but there's not a lot of multifamily
opportunities in my backyard, sowhat I'm doing is I'm taking
those deals and practicing right.
Okay, well, let me underwritethis.
I'm throwing shit at the wall.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre (01:00:08):
I'm throwing shit at the wall what's
going to stick?
Until I figure it out.

Melissa Horne (01:00:12):
And that's why give me six months.
I promise you, I will know andI will have my fingers in it.

Now also outside um.
You mentioned a lot of areas,but there's one area you did not
mention, and that was Miami,for Lauderdale and you.
You said something that youknow resonates with.
What those uh people in thatarea are are experiencing is
just an inundation of investmentthat drives the cost up, right?

(01:00:37):
Is that the reason?

I have so many just on my residential, my
business, my current business.
A good portion of my people aremoving out of Miami.
They're moving out of SouthFlorida.
They're coming to me.
In fact, I've worked with a lotof trades so I had a plumber
that was looking for threeproperties that had a huge,
booming business in Miami, fortLauderdale.

(01:00:59):
I said what are you going to dowith your business?
He's like I'm going to dump it.
I'm going to make so much moneyselling that business.
I went there 50 years older man.
I went there 50 years ago.
I started with just me.
I built this 50 employeeplumbing company right now and I
watched this grow and I knowBavard is next.
So I'm going to start overright here with a small little

(01:01:20):
company.
Start building my employees,let my kids take it over.
I'm going to just buy a coupleof properties now because it's
coming to you.
I mean 50 years from now, but Isee the growth just from 2017.
Years from now, but I see thegrowth just from 2017.
Half of the Vieira area that Iwas talking to you about was not
built in 2017.
There's 30 years left ofplanned building still just in

(01:01:42):
that north part of my countyPalm Bay.
The south part of my county isnon-HOA.
It's all scattered lots.
All the builders from Miami arebuying it now.
Just last year there wereinvestors having the houses
built from these builders andthen selling them resale, but as
a brand new build in Palm Bay.
All those builders now havemodel homes there.

(01:02:03):
They're like why are webuilding for these other guys to
sell our product for $40,000more when we can just maximize
put 25 houses there and justVernon and Sharon?

Sean Febre & Manny Febr (01:02:14):
they're all coming and they're
beautiful, and I think thebiggest thing with Florida, too,
was in 2020, when COVID hit.
It accelerated our market byprobably maybe 15 years, because
we were looking at houses at$255,000 and now they're at
$450,000, $500,000 already andthat's in a short period of time
, probably about four years.

(01:02:34):
Yeah, so it priced out a lot ofpeople, people that are in the
middle class class.
It priced them completely out.
Everybody from up north camewith cash and they said waive
the appraisal, waive theinspection, I'm paying it yeah
and that's what happened withthe real estate.

A lot of those people.
A lot of sight unseen.
Yeah, a lot of sight unseen.
I bought my house sight unseendid you really?

yeah, because I couldn't, fucking bro,
I fucking Bro, I'd walk inthere, walk the house, and it
was like, okay, here's the offer.
And then, oh yeah, we alreadyhave 10 offers.
So as soon as the house came onthe market, I was like Rammus
put in an offer right now, rightnow, yep, you haven't even seen
it.
I was like I saw the pictures Idon't give of your house.

(01:03:20):
Yeah, I got it, you're lucky.
See a lot of people.
That was in 2021.
Uh, the offer was accepted.

April 1st.
Closed.
May 1st in 2021, good for you.

For mine in 2022, I still paid over
and I still had I felt I feltlike the market really cooled
off 2021, like I came towardsmay or june 2020 or was it 2022?

march, it was like 2022?
March May, it was like 2022.

It was 22 or two, that's when the
interest rates changed.

I know because I locked in on the last day before
they went to five and a half.

Oh shit, Yep.

And I got a 4.25.

That's fucking good yeah.

And I'm one of the people.
There's two things happening.
I'm seeing in that realm somany people that bought, like
you, sight unseen, between 2020and the end of first quarter in
2022, they don't love their home.
They had to get a home and theyhad to put an offer sight
unseen or they had to go overask.
They were fighting against 25offers and now they're like I

(01:04:11):
don't like this house.

And they're also down 20 or 30% on
their value from when theybought it.

Yeah, and they're also down 20 or 30% on their
value from when they bought it?
Yeah, Maybe more than or Iwouldn't say everyone.
It depends it's in pockets.
I do hate my house though Idon't like it.

You just said you loved it.
No, I never said I loved it.
I bought that house just to buyit, so I could have real estate
.
That was it.

Yeah, well, that's two things are happening.

One.
Two things are happening.
One my wife loves the houseHappy wife, happy life.

The people that are selling.
Now there are two, two people,two groups of people I'm finding
either they can't sell becausethey have a two or 3% interest
rate and they hate their house,but they can't move up, they
can't change.
So they're most of them are notin a position to move right now
and they have to wait untilthey find that sweet spot where
that free money that'sessentially free money can

(01:05:03):
become portfolio property forthem and they can get another
property and offset it um andthat's, that's, that's my advice
for all those people.
Then you have the people thatare like I just needed to get
here.
I needed to get out of new york, cal, california, wherever the
heck they came from, right,because everybody was like a
political refugee, also duringCOVID.
So they just bought becausethey needed out.

(01:05:23):
And now they are eithersuffering where they overbought
Right they're 50,000 to 100,000,even in some cases over ask and
when the market evened out forthe loans that they didn't have
the cash to waive the appraisalor put the cash in.
They have to wait out thatmoney and they're not willing to

(01:05:43):
lose it.
So, um, we have a lot ofinventory right now, but I
suspect that we may have anotherinventory problem when, when
the people that can't move can'tmove and it's time for them to
move, which is going to come upin the next four years.

I like it, yeah, and then when we get
back we'll do final words withMelissa and really appreciate
having you on just to see whatkind of education and motivation
you can give the audience.

Absolutely.

And then one last thing a prediction
on the real estate market.
Quick one, all right.
So we're back with happy hour,holidays and we got the the
expert, melissa horn, over hereand she's going to give us a
little prediction on the realestate market and then we'll get
our final words to educate ormotivate you.
Whatever she decides to do,what do you think Melissa is
going to go on?
Let's just say, moving on fromsecond quarter all the way to

(01:06:33):
the fourth quarter, what are welooking at as far as the real
estate market?

I personally do not think it, not think interest
rates are going down.
I don't think we're going tosee that.
I don't see how it doesn't makesense to me.
I personally think the guy whois like one day, hmm, let's make
the interest rates 2%, 3%, Ithink that guy should be fired,
like why it flooded our marketPeople.

(01:07:00):
They can't afford to move upnaturally.
So now, when all these lifethings happen the diapers, the
diamonds, the divorce dumpsters,when all the D's happen where
are these people going to go?
The natural time for them tomove?
It's going to be impossible forthem to do it.
It's going to be impossible forthem to do it.
Very few people are going to bein the position, based on a
salaried income, to be able tomove on and keep that house as a

(01:07:23):
portfolio house that they havefor 2% or 3%, which I hope the
whole world can do.
I hope that you find a way.
Find a way.
If you rent it out, right, yeah,rent it out and you can move up
to the next house.
Don't worry about the industry.
You're going to build it inlong-term equity.
Just go on, make it a long-termwealth move for you.
I think there's a lot of peoplethat are not happy with their

(01:07:47):
houses that they bought in thoseyears also, but if they have
the flexibility of financialstability, they can move up.
I think there is so muchinventory there is more and I
think it's making buyers move up.
I think there is so much, somuch inventory there is more and
I think it's making buyers moveslowly.
I have six buyers right now thatit's not the same fear, right?
We're trained to get them offthe fence, to influence them, to

(01:08:10):
understand the best decisionfor them.
Not manipulate, but just askthe questions that they haven't
thought about so that they candecide what's best for them and
their family.
There are so many choices.
They are paralyzed indecision-making and I don't see
I just see more and more housescoming on the market, but I also

(01:08:31):
see them staying on the marketbecause the pricing two things
are happening.
They're pricing well above whatthe market can bear because the
sellers haven't becomerealistic yet in the
expectations that we are not inthat market anymore.
There are too many choices, butI don't think that they're all
priced badly, that's what Ithink too.

(01:08:51):
I think that if they're in arush and they have to move, they
have no choice but to fire,sale a house because of whatever
the circumstances are.
But I don't think that'sreflective of what's happening
in the market.
I think the buyers are takinglonger to make a decision.
I think that the financialstress on some of these buyers
because the interest rates arefluctuating so much I don't find

(01:09:12):
that the interest rates beinghigher than they were is the
problem.
I think that they'refluctuating so much that it's
making deals cancel.
They want the house.
They're not like I'm just notbuying the house, I don't like
the house anymore.
They get bumped out of theirfinancing and then the house
goes back on the market.
And then there's thestigmatized oh there's something

(01:09:32):
must be wrong with the house,it's back on the market.
I have to tell you, nine out often houses are not coming back
on the market because of aproblem with the house.
It's a problem with thefinancing.

Buyer financing falling through is the
biggest thing I've seen on theMLS, consistently right now.
So naturally what you're sayingis that the homes are going to
drop in value.

They're not going to sell Only for the people
that really need to sell it.

They're not going to sell, Only for the
people that really need to sellit.
If you don't need to sell it,they're either going to take it
off, stand their ground and hopethat the interest rates fall
down and possibly get it built.

I think in my marketplace we're seeing it in
pockets.
I'm seeing neighborhoods.
There's one neighborhood inparticular.
It's a $500,000 neighborhoodthat easily a year ago I could
have sold anything in there thatwas in good condition between
five and five 50 today Withinlike seven days.
With it.

(01:10:25):
Let's see, even with the marketchange within 30 days, which is
still really right now.

The average days on market is like
180.

I think in my market it goes between 90 and,
and with the condos, thebeachside condos are well over a
hundred, but for the singlefamily homes mainland, we're
seeing around 90 days.
Um, this one neighborhood I'mtalking about, though we're
probably at like 435, 450 rightnow makes no sense.
And then you have saturated newconstruction markets.

(01:10:53):
Anything that is built in thelast two years that is in a
development that the builderstill has other phases to go,
you cannot sell that house.
You are there between five andseven years.
You cannot unless you'rewilling to take a loss.
The builders are offering rightbuy downs, closing costs.
You need to take just $25,000off, whatever your house is

(01:11:14):
valued at right now, if you wanta buyer to walk through the
door.

Because you're not going to be able to
compete with a new house.
You're not going to be able tocompete, I mean even though,
when it comes to newconstruction, you don't get
light fixtures, you lose a lot.
You don't have washer and dryerrefrigerator.
You might think that you'regetting a better deal and that's
because of the rate buy down.
That's really yeah.

It's huge.
So there are areas in my countythat are just plentiful with
new construction.

Any of those resale sellers are going
to have a very difficult time,and yes, if they choose to sell
because they have to sell andthey have to lower their price
to that number.
It's going to affect them.
But you also see, what newconstruction builders are doing
is they're offering a lot ofbuyer credits towards things
that you know maybe they didn'ttypically do, and I think it's

(01:12:00):
unrealistic for some sellers tothink their house is worth as
much as they thought it could beat this point in time.
And hey, listen, if you bought,like 2018, and you went through
2020 and the price of your homeincreased substantially, don't
think your house is worth whatit was in 2020.
Understand that it's probably$100,000 or $200,000, if you're

(01:12:22):
talking about million-dollarhomes, $100,000 or $200,000
cheaper than what it was, yes,but I still think I agree with
Melissa People are still pricingtheir houses on what the
comparables are.
But as picky as the buyers areright now, if it's one thing
they're going nah, not going todo it, yeah, because it's their
market.

It certainly is a buyer's market and I was taught
in the beginning of my career10 years ago that a buyer's
market is six months ofinventory.
I don't think that is so.
I think a buyer's market inthis decade is three months of
inventory.
I've been in Florida since 2017.
There has never been morepre-COVID more than three months

(01:13:03):
of inventory in my market, ever, and now we're close to four
months and I'm seeing it.
I'm seeing it with my buyers.
I am a very good agent, I'mskills-based and they just have
too many choices.
If there's one thing wrong withthe house, we are waiting for
the house to come up, becausenext week there's going to be
another 20 to choose from, andthat has never happened since

(01:13:25):
I've been here in 2017.
So there and I don't think thatthe economists and the people
nobody's seen this marketSeasons.
It was still different, though,it wasn't?

you had a lot of inventory you
couldn't get rid of a house backthen you couldn't get rid of a
house and everybody was upsidedown.

But we're we're having our inventory problem is
not based on subprime lendingcausing it.
It's a very different cause now.
So there are so many checks andbalances and lending which is
why we're seeing so many housescome back on the market because
you can't even a bank loan rightnow is like a pain in the ass
to get through.
There's so much.

(01:14:03):
It is so much work to get allthe documentation for a loan to
get to the closing table in 30days or less and it's still
happening.
But you need to really haveyour ducks in a row.
You know I have a couple ofmiracle worker lentils, but they
bust their ass to get to theclosing table to make it work
for the people that have alittle kind of hiccups that you

(01:14:24):
have to share those with us.

Yeah man, I really appreciate you
coming on.
Melissa.
It's been fantastic.
What's your final words thatyou have to an audience?
I mean you, you, I mean youwent through New York, went
through the ringer, didbusinesses and now became a
really successful broker doingmany, many more things.
And I'm sure Melissa Horne'sstory is only begun.

Yeah, that's it.
That's the message that I wanteverybody, everybody, to know
your story every day has justbegun.
You're just beginning.
Every day is a brand newbeginning.
There is nothing you can't do.
There is nothing I can't do.
I wish and this is a big thingfor me with my children, I want

(01:15:10):
them to know every single daythat they can do anything that
they want to do.
You just have to decide to doit, and I just wish that I have
to decide to do it, and I justwish that I decided earlier to
just do it.
I wouldn't be me if I didn'tfollow the path that I did, but
when I made that choice to goback to school, when my first
son was born and I opened myeyes to there's so much more I

(01:15:38):
can do?

I'm not saying, go have a baby, but
find something.

Find something that makes you know your worth.
That's it.
That's all you have to do Now.
I know my worth now, and nobodywill ever take that away from
me, but it took me years torealize that I had talent.

And that.
Vinnie Martino if you didn'tbother me, man.
Yeah, that's that Queensounding right there, yeah
that's it, just do it.

Just do it.
Inspired action man.
Take one step and you'll find.
Do you know, the movie BetterOff Dead.
That's it.
That's my quote In the 80s,with okay, because I'm an old
bitch guys.
There's a movie called BetterOff Dead.
That's it.
That's my quote In the 80s,with okay, because I'm an old
bitch guys.
There's a movie called BetterOff Dead and it's John Cusack
and he tries all these ways tolike kill himself because his
girlfriend broke up with him.
It's a comedy, it's reallyfunny.

(01:16:27):
And then he meets this hotFrench girl that lives next door
and she fixes a car for him andhe's like you fixed my car, and
she's like you fixed my car,and she's like you'll find
success suits you.
Just one piece of success willbuild your confidence and like
throws in the keys to thisCamaro that's been sitting in an
auto cocoon for like ever infront of his house and I'm like
that's it.
Just that one thing.

(01:16:48):
You need one little tiny pieceof success and you will find
that it suits you and just ridethe wave and don't stop, and
it's just momentum, that's itand just ride the wave and don't
stop and it's just momentum.

I like that.
I fucking love it.
Melissa, it's been awesome manhaving you on.
I really appreciate you drivingall the way to Melbourne.
I mean to Tampa, fucking messedup on there.
Reverse that, but no, we reallyappreciate you.
Your story was awesome.
We're really excited to releasethis episode and once you guys
see it, it's going to befantastic.
Was awesome.
We're really excited to releasethis episode and once you guys

(01:17:19):
see it, it's going to befantastic.
Thank you to all the fans thattune into us and watch our
podcast and listen to us onSpotify and YouTube and
everything like that.
And if you want to be a guest?
Hit us up.
Yeah, we're going to continueto grow this.
We want to inspire and bringmotivation to you so you can
make your dreams come true.
Happy Hour Holidays is going tocontinue doing this.
Peace out.

All Episodes

S2 E26 | Dream Chasers: Turning Passion into Profit with Melissa Horne

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S2 E26 | Dream Chasers: Turning Passion into Profit with Melissa Horne