Mastering Real Estate with Systems and Processes

In this episode of the Real Estate Game Changers show, is Stephanie Betters from Charlotte, North Carolina. Stephanie shares her journey from buying her first foreclosed home in 2007 to building a multifaceted real estate business, including flipping, renting, and wholesaling properties. 

Episode Transcript

Mike (00:00):
All right, everyone.

(00:00):
Welcome to the Real Estate GameChangers show.
I'm your host, Mike McKay, basedin Jacksonville, Florida.
And each and every week we dothis show with people who are
changing the game of real estateall over the country.
And it is a live show, everyone.
So if you have any comments,please Or questions, please put
them in the comments for ourguests to answer.
If anyone is in the Jacksonvillemarket and you're in sales and

(00:23):
you're thinking about gettinginto real estate, uh, we are
looking for some more teammembers for our acquisitions
team.
Um, so if that sounds like yousend me a DM on Instagram and
let's talk this week on theshow, we have Stephanie betters,
Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Stephanie (00:38):
Thank you for having me.
Can I say the same forCharlotte, North Carolina?
We got some good clothes here inCharlotte.
I'm always looking.

Mike (00:46):
I like it.
So for the people who don't knowyou, could you tell us a little
bit about how you got into thereal estate business and how
that's led you to where you aretoday?

Stephanie (00:58):
So, uh, our journey, I'll try to be brief because I
feel like I can get along withit.
It's quite a winding road, anadventure.
Um, but we, my husband and I,uh, graduated undergrad in 2007
and fresh, fresh, uh,professionals.
I was a nurse.
He was an x ray tech at thetime.
We had both gone to school.
He was, uh, going to looking fora PA school, uh, application,

(01:21):
applicant at that point.
And we had no money and we had aton of debt and in 07 It was a
really good idea to buy aforeclosed house.
Like that was the cool thing todo Uh, so he convinced me to do
this I mean basically you seethat you just buy a foreclosed
house and you make money, right?
So he's like we'll just buy oneUh, so we bought one in 07 and
we did a live in renovation andThank God, we sold it right

(01:43):
before the crash, right before,and then we ended up going to
grad school after that for a fewyears.
But that was the first forayinto it, it's like, okay, we,
we, uh, we can do this, we canmake money in real estate.
And the idea for us was alwaysto do this as an additional, um,
way of making money, like, youknow, some passive income and
buy some rentals at one point.

(02:04):
So very long story short, wewent to grad school, we
graduated.
I'm a nurse practitioner.
He's a physician assistant.
We get our dream jobs.
We're doing our thing.
We've got great W2 jobs.
We had a bunch of babies.
We have three and, you know, itbecame clear, like, okay, like,
are we going to do this?
You know, we moved to Charlottespecifically for the real estate
market and the job market wasgood.
So in 2014, we were kind ofrebooted, uh, after having some

(02:28):
kids and getting settled and.
Taking a home equity loan ofcredit out on our primary
residence.
We decided to go out and try tobuy some rentals.
And that went, that went well.
It was hard.
We probably made a hundredoffers before we got our first,
uh, offer accepted.
Uh, but we, we started buying,um, buying rentals and then we
found, Oh, we can't buy rentalswith traditional financing

(02:49):
because we run out too quickly.
Like there goes up 20, 000 forthe down payment plus renovation
to get it, you know, tenantready or what have you.
So we decided, okay, maybe weneed to start flipping again so
we can grab some active incomefrom that and reinvest it with
rentals.
So that started rolling and thenwe all of a sudden had three,
four active flips and we, ourteams were backed out, backed

(03:10):
up, and we were working fulltime, had little children, like
we can't keep up with this pace.
We've got to hire people to helpus.
And, uh, what's this wholesalingthing that people are talking
about?
Maybe we should try that too.
So, uh, we started wholesalingbecause our, our own crews were
really busy.
We didn't want to stop this.
Marketing momentum.

(03:30):
We finally got, so we were, wewere buying rentals.
We were fixing and flipping.
We were wholesaling.
And, uh, in, uh, 2018 we mergedwith a local friend of ours who
was doing new build constructionand then we added a fourth leg
to the stool.
Now we're there.
So we've, we've kind of done thegamut, um, in real estate and

(03:53):
had built a, built a pretty bigteam, but that's kind of a
quick, uh, Story of how we gotinto it and all the different
stages of, of real, of our realestate, uh, exit strategies.

Mike (04:04):
Gotcha.
So when you were doing your ownflips, were you actually
marketing for your own deals aswell?
Hmm.

Stephanie (04:11):
So we made a bunch of offers on MLS and, uh, then we,
we tried to get, we, we, wesigned up for that HUD website
where you can get HUD homes.
Um, and that's how we actuallygot our first deal, uh, was from
the HUD website and then onefrom MLS and we bought a rental
off MLS.
And then there was, we couldnever really find another deal
on MLS ever again, to be honest.

(04:33):
So our first true marketingchannel was Every Door, Direct
Mail, you know, where the postoffice would pick a route.
So we knew neighborhoods reallywell in Charlotte and we said,
okay, this is a goodneighborhood.
All these houses need about thesame type of renovation.
So let's buy in there.
We want to hold in thereeventually too.
And so we would just mail thatwhole postal route.

(04:54):
And, uh, then we got our nextset of deals from that.

Mike (04:58):
Gotcha.
And at that point, you weren'tyet wholesaling.
You kind of put in wholesalingafter when you kind of had too
many deals to for your amount ofconstruction.

Stephanie (05:07):
Exactly.

Mike (05:09):
Gotcha.
And then, like, what are somechallenges that as you were
growing?
These businesses you, you, youfaced along the way as you
started adding, let's talk aboutadding the wholesale line.
Like what were some challengesfed in the wholesale line of
business?

Stephanie (05:22):
Um, well, we had to now build a, build a network of
other investors and kind of getout there a little bit more.
Um, so we started going to Ria'sand, and meeting other people
and deciding, you know, figuringout who else is transacting in
our area.
Uh, and this is in, you know,14, 15.
So long before we had onlinetools like investor lift, for

(05:43):
example, to try to establish anetwork.
So we would go to Ria's and thenwe had, we also would go to
auctions and we still do thatactually today.
We go to auctions, was biddingon auction property and go make
some friends there and say, Hey,I, you know, I've got a deal.
Would you want this one?
You know, there's better dealson what's happening here in the
auction.
Yeah.
We made a lot of really greatconnections that way.

(06:04):
Um, but I would say, so that wasa big one.
Transitioning into wholesalingis getting a good, uh, getting a
good network.
So that was a new piece.
And then the transactionmanagement all of a sudden made
more transactions.
We had to hire a transactioncoordinator to help keep the
homeowner on the line, keep thebuyer on the line, uh, make sure
everything's moving forward.
Just that volume increase.

(06:24):
Um, created a differentchallenge, you know,

Mike (06:28):
Yeah.

Stephanie (06:28):
receiving offers, how do we price?
Do we take the first offer thatwe get that's asking price?
Do we let it be bid up?
I think we still have all thosesame questions, but, uh, we had
them for the first time then,you know, and tried to have to
try to figure out how, how to,how do we make margin on this
and what's acceptable.
And, you know,

Mike (06:49):
I was going to ask when you said that, what is your,
what is your strategy in thiscurrent market wholesaling?
Is it, I take the first askingprice off or is it, am I trying
to bid it up?
Gotcha.

Stephanie (06:58):
If we get our asking price offer, that's what we
take.
Especially if that asking priceoffers with somebody we know and
have transacted with before.
That's definitely a lesson I'velearned is establish good
relationships with other peoplebecause that reputation goes a
very long way.
So when we have a knownrelationship with a buyer and
they give us an asking priceoffer, for the most part, we

(07:20):
accept that.
If it's somebody we don't know,then we're going to do a little
bit more vetting andconsideration, right?
Like, Hey, who are you and, uh,have you seen the property and
things like that?

Mike (07:32):
are you, are you using some of these newer tools now,
like investor lift to, to findyour buyers or have you guys
just built up a list over theyears?

Stephanie (07:40):
No, we don't.
Uh, we've built up a list.
No, we always are adding newbuyers and monitoring who's
transacting in the area.
So we'll probably a hundred newbuyers a month just by scraping
and meeting new people, etcetera.
But we have a pretty largedatabase now.

Mike (07:56):
Gotcha.
Okay.
And then I know we're talking alittle bit offline about how a
big part of allowing you guys tobe able to scale has been some
systems that you guys have builtout.

Stephanie (08:07):
Yeah.

Mike (08:08):
You want to talk about maybe some systems that you've
built early on and even all theand then maybe pick a couple
that you've built up to eventoday.

Stephanie (08:17):
Yeah.
So really creating process andhaving a repeatable system has
been a really big part of ourjourney.
Um, I am, I'm operations mindedand, and I like systems.
Um, and one of the, one of theproblems we had is trying to
figure out what works.
You know, so that was one ofthe, the biggest problems
besides maybe figuring out whatto offer, but what, what works

(08:40):
as far as marketing goes is thenext big problem.
Um, and so what we struggledwith in the beginning was things
like phone metrics, like howmany phone calls do we need to
make or how many conversationsdo we need to have?
And how do we, how do we setappointments and confirm
appointments and follow up withpeople that know show and things
like that?
So all that kind of broke, ifyou will, or didn't wasn't

(09:01):
established in the verybeginning.
And I got, you know, I got a lotof momentum and trying to solve
problems like that step by stepand understand and understanding
what, how, how systems affectthe bottom line.
Right.
So we started becoming more andmore efficient and, and, and
knowing what the number game is.
And for example, you know, likeif I know I have to make a

(09:22):
hundred calls to set anappointment when I'm, when I've
gotten my 88th or my 90th, no, Iknow I just need to get to a
hundred.
So I'm okay.
So it kind of helps with someconsistency to understand your
pipeline and the same throughkind of downstream.
Like how many appointments do Ineed to set so that I get the
appropriate number of attendedappointments?
Because there's always, there'salways cancellations or no
shows, right?

(09:43):
And then on appointment, whatpercentage of the time am I
making an offer?
That's not a hundred percent ofthe time.
Maybe we may feel like it, butif we don't know those true
numbers, then we, we don't trulyknow how effective we are.
Um, just as an aside there.
I think us as entrepreneurs, wewere kind of emotional and

(10:04):
instinctual type of people.
And we can sometimes feel likewe know what the answer is like,
Oh, this, no, this works.
This marketing channel works.
You're like, no, I made moreoffers than that when you
potentially didn't.
So having, having a system whereyou can actually track these
numbers and literally, I knowthat your title is game
changers, but that was the gamechanger.
Understand what I call ourpipeline velocity from, from

(10:29):
marketing channel all the waythrough to transactions.
And there are these kinds ofkey, key handoff points along
the way that once you understandit becomes, A system that you
can then manipulate, you know,so just as an example, the, the
number of leads that come in,what percentage of those are

(10:49):
qualified of your qualifiedleads, what percentage of those
have appointments and then haveattended appointments and then
have offers made and then haveoffers accepted and have Trent
contract, you know, thatcontract actually closed.
There's only a handful or so ofthose key touch points.
Um, to, to really measure andunderstand, and then when you
can measure and understand thatif there is a conversion

(11:11):
percentage, for example, thatisn't good, for example, you're
not getting enough deals, youcan kind of go back and look at
your pipeline and figure out,okay, it's not that our leads
aren't qualified, it's that wedidn't make an appropriate
number of offers.
So why aren't offers?
Is it because of we're notattending the appointment?
Is it because it's not aqualified lead?

(11:31):
Really?
You know, what is it?
Right.
And then, and then I think it'seasier to solve.
All the problems that happen in,in our, in our businesses,
instead of we just need moredeals, we just need to spend
more money on marketing.
You know, like it's almost likethat's our, our natural
instinct, more leads.
But if you look at your wholesystem and your whole pipeline

(11:51):
and how things progress throughit, you can really understand
where to focus.
And then you don't have to spendthat much money on marketing
potentially.
And, kind of spoiler alert, it'salmost never marketing's fault.
You know, like it's almostalways our own operation and our
own stewardship of the leadsthat we got in our system and

(12:12):
our follow up and stuff likethat.
I've, I've been able to save alot of money in marketing
because I've understand,understood that.
And then I can, we canmanipulate those numbers and
create a deal.
Like it's kind of all math atthat point, you know?

Mike (12:28):
What are you trying to discover?
Because you've got like themetric that's, you know,
appointments attended versusbooked, right?
So you're going to try and seehow many hold.
But then you said you've gotanother metric after that.
That's.
Like offers made, because so yousaid sometimes you don't always
make one.
So what are you trying to figureout with that offers made
metric?
They're like, what would youadjust based on that?

Stephanie (12:50):
So if.
First of all, there is this, ifyou're on an appointment with a
seller, there's a lot of focuson establishing rapport, right?
So you're there and you'rewalking through the house or
it's a phone call and like,you're trying to understand pain
and uncover pain and connectwith them so that they can tell
you what's actually hurting.
Right.
And you can have an entireappointment there and then get

(13:12):
to the point where you're about,like where you have to start
talking numbers.
And people and some people willsay, okay, let me get back to
you.
I'm gonna go run my numbers andthen i'll call you with an offer
right or

Mike (13:23):
salesperson would say that.

Stephanie (13:24):
salesperson or The the homeowner may say something
like well i'm shopping around.
I don't you know When you askthem, what do you want for the
property?
And you're like, well, I don'tknow, make, make me an offer.
And there's kind of this, likethis, it's a little bit of
controversial.
I have, I have arguments withothers about this all the time.
We're like, oh, you're shoppingaround.
You're not motivated.
You don't have a number.
I'm not going to make a numberfirst.
So you never like get into thepoint where you're talking

(13:47):
numbers with the, with the cell,with the homeowner, you know
what I mean?
Uh, So in my opinion, if youdon't get to that part of the
appointment where you'restarting to talk numbers and
even, even if you're the firstone to say something like you
got to give somebody a range toget them talking about numbers
or expectations or then it's nottruly a completed appointment.
Like it's, you haven't completedthe sales process, you've

(14:10):
attended the appointment andthere's value, right?
But if you didn't get to thatpart where you're like, I'm,
I'm, I can offer 200, 000.
I'm paraphrasing, never say itlike that, but if you don't get
to that point, then youobviously can't get a deal.
So it may, it kind of forces youto examine your sales process.
You may not make an offer ahundred percent of the time.

(14:32):
That's okay.
I expect our sales folks to makean offer at least 80 percent of
the time.
So sometimes you'll be like, Ican't help you.
Like, first of all, I, you know,you, you, you owe too much or
whatever it is that you, thatit's not the right, it's a
retail house and it's ready tobe listed on the market.
And you're there like, This isnot the right fit, right?

(14:53):
So it's okay that you're not theright fit, but you should be
making offer 80 percent of thetime.
And when looking at a metriclike that, it makes you be
really honest about if you'vegot to that point where you're
talking numbers and when you'rethe salesperson and you're out
there making it, like, you knowthat when you're managing a team
of people, it's, it's misleadingthe number of appointments that

(15:14):
you have, like you're justseeing a metric, like, Oh, we
had 50 appointments.
Why didn't we get any deals?
Well, diving in a little deeper.
Oh, we didn't make an offer.
Right.
I'm trying to explain that assuccinctly as possible, but
you'd be surprised at how big ofa problem that is,

Mike (15:31):
And, um, is it, when you say like, make an offer, is it
that they've gotten down to likethe exact dollar or is it even
that they've talked like talknumbers with the seller?
Like got given them talknumbers,

Stephanie (15:44):
even if it's a rank, like if, if

Mike (15:46):
okay,

Stephanie (15:47):
if you get to a point, you're like, well, what
can you, what, what, you know,what, what do you want for the
property?
Like, what are you, what are youtrying to do?
You know?
And they say, well, I don'tknow.
I'm like, well, I'm in theballpark.
I'm going to be in like the lowtwo hundreds and they're like,
get out of my house.
That still counts as an offer.
You know, because especiallysome of the more challenging

(16:07):
homeowners.
The quickest way to get them tostart to give you their number
is for you to say a number,right?
Like you just anchor them andstart the conversation, but you
didn't really engage in a salesprocess until you got to that
piece.
And if I could argue evenfurther, I don't think the sales
process has even started untilyou've gotten a no until they've

(16:28):
said, no, that's too low.
That's truly where the salesprocess starts, you know,
anyway, it's just kind of takinga harder look at that.
And then you're judging.
Your contract conversion ratiobased on the number of offers
that you make, not necessarilybased on the number of
appointments.
So I made 20 offers and I closedthree of them.

(16:49):
Okay.
Versus I, you know, I went on 30appointments and got one deal.
Well, maybe those appointments,you never talked to sales.
Like we only, we only couldcount conversions from that
offer being made.
You know what I'm saying?
Cause what if 20 percent of themweren't even qualified?
Right.

Mike (17:05):
sure.
Yeah.
I kind of can eliminate one ofthose ones too, that maybe it
shouldn't have even been set.
By who's ever setting them inthe first place.

Stephanie (17:11):
Exactly.
Or if it's acceptable that only80 percent of them, 80 percent
of the appointments, Should getan offer, then you've kind of
falsely blamed your acquisitionrep for their conversion ratio
when it was truly a normal onefrom based on the offers that
you made, you know,

Mike (17:28):
Yeah.
And then in your market, whatare you looking for as a
conversion rate number from theoffer made to a contract sign?
Not necessarily closed, butsigned.

Stephanie (17:38):
goal is 20 percent from offer made to contract
signed.
Um, and that, I think that doeshave some ability to, to be
variable.
Like I think 25 percent is goldstandard, gold, gold, gold
standard.
And it's hard to operate at that25 percent consistently all the
time.
Um, and I've seen a range tostill be very viable, like 15%.

(17:59):
And not because you can, you canget a really great large margin,
especially wholesaling, youknow, uh, that it's great that
you, that you, uh, areconverting a 15 percent of every
one of your deals, you'regetting 40 K off of, you know,
so I think everybody has alittle bit of a, some
flexibility on what.
Viability looks like for offerpercentage accepted.

(18:20):
I have, I will say, you know,looking at lots of data from
companies I work with across theU S it has never been viable if
you are 11 percent or less, thatseems to be like the death
sentence.
Like if you are

Mike (18:34):
I can do that.
Yeah.

Stephanie (18:35):
offer accepted from, you know, offer, offer accepted
percentage, everybody struggleswith profitability.
You know, if you're marketing,if you're not marketing, I
guess, I guess it doesn't matterif you're not, if you don't have
any skin in the game, but ifyou're spending money and you're
paying people to go out and dostuff, you have to be above 11
percent for viability.
All

Mike (18:55):
Yeah.
What other metrics besides thatkind of like the funnel, right?
The funnel, I call them thefunnel metrics, which is from
the top to the bottom.
What other metrics are youlooking at for your sales team
specifically?

Stephanie (19:06):
right.
Let me see if I can get them allchopped my head.
So from lead from a brand newopted in lead being qualified,
that should be between 30percent and 50 percent

Mike (19:18):
Is that no matter what, what the lead source or

Stephanie (19:20):
Yes, a blended rate.
It should be 30 to 50 percent.
If it's too low or too high,there's a problem, generally.

Mike (19:28):
Mm hmm.

Stephanie (19:29):
You're over qualifying or you're under
qualifying, right?
So you want 30 to 50 percent asthat range.
And then the number of thosequalified leads that get an
appointment scheduled should be,or attended, should be 90
percent.

Mike (19:44):
The number of those leads that get an appointment
scheduled is 90%.
Okay.

Stephanie (19:48):
Qualified now, 90 percent of those should get an
appointment.
And the reason why there's alittle margin there is sometimes
people no show or cancel andyou're like in this loop of
rescheduling and, and they'rekind of hotter follow up, but
there is a percentage of peoplethat just like you set an
appointment and then they ghost,right?
So 90 percent is, is, is great.
And then of the appointment, um,set to appointment attended,

(20:10):
that should be at least 75%,okay?
And then the number of offersshould be at least 80 percent on
appointments.
And then 20 percent of offeraccepted, and then you should be
closing, if you're wholesaling,if you've got a contract signed,
you should be closing that over70 percent of the time.
So everyone talks about how manydeals do you get, how many deals

(20:32):
you get, you know, and there'sthis kind of like omni, like
what percentage of these dealsactually close 70 percent of
those deals that you sign shouldclose.
Which means that that's asignificant margin of error,
like it could be title issues,it could be buyer issues, it
could be homeowner issues,right?
Like 30 percent of those thingsnot closing is totally
reasonable and totally normal.

(20:54):
Um, but you should, you shouldaim for, for 70 percent of those
contracts you sign to close.
And I, I see a lot of peoplehover between 50 and 70%.

Mike (21:03):
Mm hmm.

Stephanie (21:04):
On their exit strategies,

Mike (21:07):
What's typically the problem that you see?
The biggest problem when they'reat 50.

Stephanie (21:12):
if they're wholesaling their disposal
strategy, you know, like theirbuyers list, having a good
buyer's list that's diverse,that can pay enough, that
everybody can make money.
Um, or people only having oneexit strategy, like maybe
they're only flipping andsomething comes up in inspection
and how it's a deal killer forthem, um, title issues are also
a huge part of this where wedeal with messy deals, so

(21:34):
there's, there's generallysurprises that happen like, Oh,
you have an IRS lien for ahundred thousand dollars.
Well, that kind of blew up thedeal because I'm not paying that
1, 000 plus your mortgage orwhatever.
So, so I think there's asignificant portion of them too,
that just have really hairytitle issues that take either
time to, to, to cure or theykill the deal.

Mike (21:56):
Yeah.
If like when you're running yoursales team outside of those
conversion metrics along theway, are you looking at any
other like key numbers daily orweekly?

Stephanie (22:06):
So when analyzing the sales team, I think that the
most relevant metric is toestablish is to measure how well
they do on the appointment.
Like, did they prepare for theappointment?
Did they arrive at thatappointment either in person or
on the phone with anunderstanding of the value of
the property and potentialrepairs?

(22:27):
Like, I don't care if it'sballpark, like, Oh, it's a 1970s
house.
It's probably gonna need 20, 30,000 worth of repairs or
understanding the comps, right?
Like we gotta be prepared forthe appointment when you show
up.
So we owe that based on people,their notes.
Did you update your notes beforeyou went?
Do you have, or if you don'tcatch it before they go on
appointment, did you have any ofthose numbers documented?

(22:50):
Like at all, do you have compsand offer?
And what's your maximumallowable offer on this
property?
If you don't know that going outto the property, and at least
enough that you can do somequick math, like, oh, it's not
20, 000, it's, you know, 10, 000or it's 50, 000.
You're never going to be able tolike be snappy enough on that
appointment to, to lock it up atthe time.
So preparation is a big thingthat we, that we measure.

(23:10):
The next one is rapport.
And you can tell by I've beenable to establish rapport if
they have pain points.
uncovered.
Like, why are we here today?
Why are you selling, you know,and we can either review those
appointments one on one with,with acquisitions or they're,
we're reading their notes andseeing that they were able to
establish rapport.

(23:32):
Um, other things are like, wereyou able to negotiate on the
property?
Like, did you give a number?
Did you make an offer and thenwhat were the steps for this
transaction or for thisopportunity?
You know, if you know thosethings, generally that was a
successful appointment.
And I think looking at salesappointments like that has been
really helpful because otherwiseyou're judging the sales team

(23:55):
based on the number of contractsthat they got signed instead of
the skill or tactic that they'redoing.
And the idea is if you get goodat the skill and the tactic, you
get the contracts.
But when you're hiring a team,it's very difficult to teach
that if you're not aware of it.
Like, how do I set myself up forsuccess?
What is considered a successfulappointment?
It's not just that you get thecontract signed.

(24:17):
Obviously that's ideal, but youcan still have an extremely
successful appointment.
If you did all those things andyou're more likely to get the
contract and follow up or nextweek or whatever it is, right?
Like depending on the situation,you can still have a successful
appointment.
So if you train your sales teamto do those.
Things on the appointment thecontracts will come because
you've done it properly beenprepared You've established

(24:39):
rapport.
You've been able to negotiate onthat call get to numbers.
You know what next steps are Soif this homeowner is like, I
don't know.
I don't know you talked to mysister.
Okay, let's do this Let's callyour sister.
Oh, I can't call her.
Okay, let's do this.
I'm gonna call you tomorrow OrI'll come back tomorrow or let's
call you, whatever, like you'veestablished, like, you know, and
you've tried to set up the nextsteps for that appointment.

(24:59):
Now you've trained thatsalesperson appropriately.
They're going to be moresuccessful.

Mike (25:05):
How are you handling the issue of sometimes salespeople
not updating systems becausethat's sometimes

Stephanie (25:11):
classic problem.

Mike (25:12):
problem.
Yeah.

Stephanie (25:14):
Yeah.
It's like the aid salespeoplecomplaining about leads and not
updating notes is I think we'llbe talking about that till the
dawn of time.
Uh, I think, I think the onlyreal way to get compliance is
like, if you didn't document it,it didn't happen and you can't
get paid unless stuff happens.
Right.
So you got to put that stuff in,like, or, or we can't hand it

(25:35):
off.
So you get a deal signed, butwe, you don't have any of your
handoff stuff documented.
Like we're not even gonna try todispose of this deal until you
have your stuff done.
We can't do the next thing well,if you didn't do this thing.
So, and then I think alsoallowing them to buy into the
why, right?
Like take the three seconds anddo it because it helps our
automation or it helps us helpyou.

(25:56):
You're like, now someone canpick up from behind you when
you're on another appointment.
Our, our lead manager can callSally and follow up and say, Hey
Sally, did you talk to yoursister?
You know, Joe said so many nicethings about you and it sounded
like your sister was, you know,concerned that now you can pick
up the relationship and the factthat you can actually have a
higher chance of getting a dealdone.
So it's a little bit of, alittle bit of carrot, a little

(26:18):
bit of stick.
I don't know.

Mike (26:21):
Yeah.

Stephanie (26:22):
you need to buy in that.
It's important.
I think, right.
I'd take every anywhere.

Mike (26:27):
Yeah.
Absolutely.
What were some other kind ofinflection points as you were
building your business that youdecided?
Okay, like I'm going tosystemize this thing next.

Stephanie (26:38):
Um, I think a big inflection point was having more
marketing channels and trying tomanage multiple marketing
channels.
Um, so at any given time we havefive to 10, you know, there's
always one ebbing and flowing.
But, um, if you're wanting toscale your business, you truly
need to have many differentmarketing channels and you have

(26:59):
to do them really well.
So you've got to start with one,master it, get to that 30 to 50
percent conversion, right?
Like control that swim lanes,controllables, um, and then move
on to the next one, one by one,you know, making sure that when
you're adding marketing channelsthat you accounted for the
runway of each one, there is nomagic pill.

(27:21):
Like you're not going to buy alead source.
And then all of a sudden amillion dollars gets deposited
in your bank.
And you know, you're going tobuy a lead source and you're
going to figure out that whatthat lead is like.
Like for example, Facebook leadsbehave differently than website
leads behave differently than aninbound phone call from a direct
mail piece.
So your team has to kind ofunderstand that and understand

(27:42):
the conversion and all that.
And then it's going to takeprobably a whole quarter for you
to realize consistent revenue.
Like after, or after a quarterrevenue is starting to be
consistent.
I think that, you know, thebusiness being emotional and all
in and like kind of scary if wedon't know those things, then

(28:04):
we're like, we tend to make likejerk reactions.
It's not working.
Turn it off.
Oh my gosh, we just spent 10,000.
Like it's not working.
So understanding some of thosenumbers and that having the
expectation of how long it'sgoing to take for that cash
conversion cycle, I think canalso help us stay cool and like
stay in the game.
Don't move.
Just let the.
Let it work, let it cook, youknow, uh, before shifting gears

(28:25):
again or, or, or turningsomething off.
So I think normalizing how longit takes and adding multiple
channels over time is what helpsscale.
Because even if you have a greatmarketing channel, for whatever
reason, it's ebbing and flowing,right?
Like you can be consistent andyou just have a month where it's
slower.
Like this month, Facebook wasamazing.

(28:46):
And then last month direct mailwas, and we didn't do anything
different.
So it's kind of what it is, youknow, so you just have to be
able to stay consistent and likemaster each channel and roll it
out in a way that you can keepyour, keep saying,

Mike (28:59):
Sure.
Yeah.
How are you, because I know yousaid that 30 to 50% you want 30,
I think you said 30 to 50% ofyour, I guess you call'em, I
dunno what you call'em, we call'em raw leads, and then you
think qualified is the next stepfor you guys, at least.
How do you make that work for achannel that's like an outbound
marketing channel?
Something like cold calling?

Stephanie (29:20):
sure.
So

Mike (29:21):
you, yeah.

Stephanie (29:22):
what we would call a lead in a cold call scenario is
that somebody said, yes, theywould want an offer.

Mike (29:28):
Okay.

Stephanie (29:29):
So it was an opt in to some degree.
So it's not a prospect, like youbought a list.
Um, of people who might have aproperty to sell, but somebody
who opted in to learning more,either by saying yes to a cold
caller or filling out a form orcalling you off direct mail,
whatever it is that opt in iswhat we qualify as a lead.
What we call a lead and then itbecomes.

Mike (29:52):
I guess the part that I'm trying to figure out is how
would you get set up your coldcalling so that 30 to 50 percent
of those end up making it over?
Because we found at least, andmaybe there's something that we
can improve is that, you know,our outbound lead sources are
way less qualified leads thanour inbound lead sources.

Stephanie (30:11):
Yeah.
And that's why I think thatblended rate kind of covers that
30 to 50%.
Outbound is going to be around30%.
Like that's going to be whereinbound is going to be closer to
that 50%.
I will say a little exception tothat has I've seen as to be TV.
TV creates a lot of phone calls,not necessarily all qualified.

(30:31):
Think that, uh, TV would becloser to 50%, but it's closer
to the 30%.
But I think, you know, if youaren't getting 30 percent for
your cold call leads, I would,you know, examine your list for
sure.
Um, but also don'tunderestimate, uh, that, that
they are actually motivated.

(30:51):
I think it's really easy for ahomeowner to say like, well, you
called me, I don't know, maybeI'll sell and like act tough on
the phone.
But once you get out there inperson, like they're a hoarder
and their wife is a mess, youknow?
So generally, if a, if even ifit's an outbound lead, if
they're willing to go on anappointment and have us go out
there, we go ahead, we qualifyit and we go out on the

(31:12):
appointment.
Like if we're looking to selllike in the next six months, six
to 12 months, we're going We'llstill go out on an appointment
or set a call with a acquisitionrep.
And I, I will tell you, thereare so many times where we're
surprised.
We're like, thank God we came tothis appointment because they
play it so cool.
You know,

Mike (31:30):
So.
Is that kind of your, uh,qualification criteria if they
want to sell in the next sixmonths

Stephanie (31:36):
so they have, they have to be in an area that we
buy.
Obviously, um, they, uh, theyhave to have some motivation to
sell.
Besides I want an offer, likegive me a million bucks.
Like that's not a motivation.
Like I want to sell because I'mdownsizing.
I want to sell because I needrepairs.
I want to sell because I'm, youknow, I need the finance.

(31:58):
What, like they need to have areason to sell, like not, I want
to save money on commission.
Like they have to have a reasonto sell within the next 12, six
to 12 months.
Then we'll go out and we callthat qualified.

Mike (32:11):
out there?
Wow.
Okay.
That's interesting.
Cause yeah, some people have away stricter and some people
have a way looser and it'sinteresting to kind of see the
different ways it's set up.

Stephanie (32:22):
I find people to be the most strict when it's them
going on the appointment.

Mike (32:26):
Well, sure.
Yeah.

Stephanie (32:27):
Right.
Really?
Well, I'm busy.
But if you, if you just, ifyou're imagining it from the
team perspective and like, youjust need at bats, then you're
going to want to go on anybodywho is reasonable to go out on,
you know, regardless on how coolthey sound on the phone,

Mike (32:42):
Are you, is your team split?
I know you mentioned leadmanagers.
Is your team split where you'vegot lead manager setting
appointments for acquisitions oris acquisitions setting their
appointments and lead managersare just following up?
If acquisitions is overwhelmed.

Stephanie (32:56):
lead manager, set appointments

Mike (32:58):
I said,

Stephanie (33:01):
from start to finish.
It's the best way to control thelead management is.
Okay, go ahead.

Mike (33:13):
I was just curious, I think you're about to say, well,
I was curious why, why that'syour stance on it.
Curious to hear.

Stephanie (33:19):
Lead managers are operations type of people.
They're detailed people thatthey follow rules.
Right.
Like I'm going to call the newlead right away.
I'm going to, like, I'm going todo these things to qualify the
lead.
Acquisitions is they're rulebenders.
No, does not mean no.
Right.
Like they don't follow processnaturalist.
And that's a beautiful thing.

(33:40):
Like, thank God for them becausethat's how deals get done.
Right.
So if you primarily keep anacquisition person in a lead
management seat, the processwill suffer.
It's, it's, it's.
Essentially a guarantee.
Now there are always unicornsout there for sure.
And especially if you're thebusiness owner doing it, there's
some difference there, but ifyou have a team, you're going to

(34:01):
want the, the process is whatwins like 99 percent of the
time, follow up process anddoing, doing the same things the
same way.
Is what actually wins in thelong run.
Now, if you have a supermotivated person, is it the most
ideal scenario for them toimmediately talk to a person who
can help walk them through thatdeal?

(34:22):
Yes, absolutely.
But that only happens at besthalf of the time, right?
So other half of the time, halfto 70 percent of the time,
right?
If we use that qualificationmetric, they're not somebody
who's motivated right now.
So now you've inundated youracquisition rep with stuff
that's not hot right now andthey're busy doing that instead

(34:43):
of busy having conversationswith people who are qualified
or, or on appointment andtalking deals.
So you've like bogged them downwith that.
And another thing, another stepthere is like that gets in your
head, right?
Then you're like, it messes withyour mojo to talk to people like
that while you're not motivated.
Okay.
Like you need to be like, youneed to say like on the hot
street, you know what I mean?

(35:05):
You know how it gets in yourhead when you talk to five, 10
people and they all tell you,no, and it's like, you're like,
damn, I'm wasting my time.
Right?
Like, as soon as you get intothat mindset, you're not going
to close as many deals.
So I, I feel obviously verystrongly about this, but my, my
best advice to people startingoff is, is get lead management,
especially if you're a one ortwo man shop or a woman shop,

(35:26):
like you need help with thatprocess and just like help
people set you up for people whoare actually qualified because
when you feel like you'rewinning, you win more.

Mike (35:37):
Yeah.
Are you doing, does your leadmanagement, is that US based or
you do that overseas?

Stephanie (35:43):
I've done both and I have never found somebody U.
S.
based to outperform our offshorepeople.
But I think that might be alittle unique to us.
We, we have, um, a lead managerthat's been with us for eight
years.
He's amazing.
He's amazing.
Um, and no one has been able tooutperform him.

(36:03):
So we, uh, we've hired a coupleof his friends now.
And like now we have a wholelittle team in the Philippines
that I've got to visit one ofthese days.
But, uh, they do a great job andthey establish great rapport and
they have great handoff betweenour lead managers and our
acquisition reps and ouracquisition reps are all
stateside.
But I think what helps them besuccessful there is obviously
the process, but also thehandoff.

(36:25):
So, for example, if I'm the leadmanager, I take the call, I'm
like, Okay, Sally, you, alright,you know who you need to talk
to?
You need to talk to Mike.
Mike, Mike has lived in thistown his whole life.
He's super nice.
He's got such a sweet family.
I'm going to set him up with younext.
He's going to really be able tohelp you.
Right.
And like you hand that off toyou and then you put it on
there.
Like, Stephanie had such nicethings to say about you.

(36:47):
It sounds like, you know, you'regoing, you're downsizing and you
know, she got some notes hereabout about your house being
three bed, two bath, 1500 squarefeet.
I see what she wrote.
It sounds like a good fit.
Tell me what's going on.
You know, like when you havethis handoff like that, it
doesn't matter where they are.
They feel like it's a team.
And that handoff doesn't becomenegative.
It becomes like, Oh great.

(37:08):
She's putting me in touch with aperson I really need to talk to.
I'm like, I'm being heard.
I'm being taken care of.
Right.
And like, my guy sounds realnice.
Like, you know, and you make youjust like you were when you're
in the house walking through andlike, you see a picture or you
have a grandma, Oh my grandma,you know, like you, you do the
same thing when you're talkingto somebody on the phone, right?
Like, Oh, your name is Sally.
That's my mom's name.

(37:30):
Like, Oh, that's Mike's mom'sname, or that's his daughter's
name.
Like whatever, like little teenylittle personal things can
really help make that connectionand that handoff a very
positive, a very positiveinteraction instead of like a,
I'm on Verizon and Verizontransferred me to another
department.
You know what I mean?

Mike (37:48):
Yeah.

Stephanie (37:48):
where, you know, so that was a long winded answer
for your question of the, of,you know, VAs and offshore
folks, but they can truly bejust as, just as good.
It depends a little bit on, onyour process and your team and
your philosophy.
I think that people feel verystrongly about having us based
folks too.
We've been really successfulwith our offshore people and

(38:11):
they've stayed with us for solong that we truly do all know
each other and have a verylongstanding relationship.
And then when they go and followup, like you'll go on the
appointment.
And then a year later, you know,my, my, uh, lead manager will
call you, like, Hey, myStephanie came out.
I.
How'd it go?
It was, can you believe it was ayear ago?
It's me again.
I'm calling you, you know, likethey, they, uh, you know, they,

(38:32):
it keeps that relationship.

Mike (38:34):
Yeah.

Stephanie (38:35):
You can say that when you're done the appointment,
maybe you don't get a deal.
I was like, okay, well,Stephanie's going to,
Stephanie's going to call andfollow up with you too.
I'm going to tell her all aboutthis.
And they, you know, they feelthat it's a team.

Mike (38:45):
Yeah.
What are the characteristicsthat you're looking for when
you're hiring a lead managerversus hiring an acquisitions
person?
Obviously someone's going tofollow the process, which you
already said, but besides that

Stephanie (38:57):
The manager is definitely a default process.
Do you know the predictiveindex?
Have you heard of that?
Okay.

Mike (39:03):
well.
Yeah.

Stephanie (39:04):
I love XPI is the best.
Um, so promoters I think are thebest in that lead management
seat.
Matt is like a chatty Kathy, youknow, like who will can talk to
a wall, uh, but follow processand truly care and feel, you
know, and feel like they can,can, can elude that over, over
the phone.
There are certain people who cando that.

(39:24):
When you interview, you know,because they get you talking
about yourself and you're like,what are we, what are we doing?
Why am I talking about myself inthis interview?
You know, they can kind of getthat out of you.
Naturally.
And then acquisition reps, um,also a little bit of a
controversial feeling, butMavericks, I have found not do
well long term, um, in sales.

(39:46):
I prefer captains.
I think captain is probably myfavorite profile, uh, for
acquisitions, but somebody whocan follow process and be
consistent and not, you know,cut bait when things are hard
and follow a process and like dothings consistently still they
have to like, no can't mean no.
So that's why I still want thathigh a.

(40:08):
And somebody who can connectquickly and make decisions.
And it quite frankly, foracquisitions, I'm looking more
for a high cog score thannecessarily a perfect fit, uh,
for profile.
Although I captain is myfavorite.
Um, if they have a really highcause for they're generally
quick learners and can adaptquickly and, and, uh, and be

(40:29):
quick starts, but if I had topick my perfect one, it would be
a captain with a high cog score.

Mike (40:36):
you who don't know what the cog score is on PI, could
you just share what that is?

Stephanie (40:40):
So it's essentially, it's like a, kind of like an IQ
test in a way.
They give you a bunch ofpatterns and it's a measurement
of how quickly you learn.
It's not truly a measurement ofhow smart you are, what your IQ
is, but it's how quickly can youidentify patterns during this
test.
And, uh, that's what this, whatthis business is.

(41:00):
Right.
Like you gotta, you gotta learnquick,

Mike (41:03):
What, what's the number that you're looking for, for
acquisitions for a cog score

Stephanie (41:08):
no lower than two 40, 300,

Mike (41:14):
for sure.
Um, So, I mean, I, I liketalking about the system stuff.
It's obviously your passion.
What, like, as you've beendeveloping, you know, obviously
left, how long has left namebeen around for at this point,

Stephanie (41:28):
almost four, four and a half years, almost five years.

Mike (41:31):
what are the more recent things that you've decided to
tackle as like, okay, this isthe next problem we're going to
tackle and turn into a processand a system.

Stephanie (41:39):
I get really excited about this.
So nerd alert, just, uh, so thenext big thing that we're
rolling out is AI, uh, and, andpredictions.
And this is very, very, youknow, hot topic, but we've been
building it for a couple ofyears and now it's very fancy to
talk about.
So look at us, we're right ontrend.
Um, but basically, uh, we havethis.

(42:00):
It's this tool that integratesinto your CRM and tells you all
of your market insights and alsoauto updates your CRM when
properties sell.
So let's say you've been inbusiness a while, you have 10,
000 leads in your system ormaybe 3000 leads, whatever, you
have a bunch of leads in thesystem and a certain percent of
them sell and you don'tnecessarily know that they sell

(42:23):
until you've talked to them andthey tell you, I sold my house.
So we have an auto updating theproperties that sold and logging
how much it sold for and whobought it.
So that's kind of like thisfirst piece of our tool and the
kind of thesis there is Like I'ma I'm a human being who can make
a hundred phone calls a day likethat and that's my max, right?

(42:46):
Maybe it's more if you have adialer or whatever.
I can make a hundred phone callsa day And that's my eight hour
day.
Like, I don't want to callpeople who already sold their
house.
Like that seems to be low, lowhanging fruit.
So like clean up the system,deal with that.
And, but then that also producea lot of really interesting
insights.
And then you can measure, Oh, Ioffered 200 for this house.
It's sold out from under me.

(43:06):
It was in my system and followupand they sold for two 10.
I could have just offered two10, right.
For this property.
And then you see who bought itlike, Oh, you know, Joe Schmo
LLC paid more.
Is that a buyer?
I need to know who that buyer isbecause I'm going to go look for
properties just like that.
And then the next time this onecomes along, I'm going to offer
a little more, cause I know he'sgoing to pay more or that
company's going to pay more.

(43:27):
Right.
So that even just that one piececreates some insights.
And then the second phase, whichis in development right now,
won't be live until January.
And that's your databaseenrichment.
So you have all these leads inyour system, but there's all
these events happening to yourhomeowner.
So just as an aside, there'sthree kind of buckets.
There's property information,that's public data about

(43:48):
property.
There's public data aboutmortgage, like what the mortgage
is on this property, how muchequity you have and who's on,
who's on the mortgage, likehomeowner wise.
And then you have event data.
So foreclosures, evictions,probate, divorce, bad credit,
all that stuff, right?
There's a, there's events thathappen to our homeowners.
So our system is going to enrichthe database with those events

(44:12):
that you may not otherwise knowof.
And the idea with this is nowthis can give us better lead
scoring and betterprioritization of the people we
should talk to.
Let's take a quick step back.
We all believe the most valuablelead in our system is the one
that just came in.
Drop everything! The lead camein! Call him! Call him! Like, we

(44:35):
gotta call him in five minutes!Right?
That's the most, that's the mostvaluable lead, but is it more
valuable?
First of all, we don't know whothey are, right.
Or like what, why they're optingin.
Is that one more valuable thanthe person that just, that is 30
days, 60 days late on amortgage, and they just filed
eviction for the tenant in thatproperty, but maybe I know that,

(44:56):
right.
It's like the system will updateit and show you that that is
probably a more valuable lead.
Then the abyss of leads that youdon't know more about, right?
Is that person like you've everfiled eviction on a tenant?
Like you've had enough,especially if you're late on the
morning.
Right.
So all that event data is we areaggregating.
Some of it is publicinformation.

(45:18):
Some of it is fragmented, like.
Maybe there's a, maybe there isa probate, but we don't know if
they've owned a property or not.
So we have all these, um,scrapers out there gathering and
re and like reconstituting allthe information into one data
stream.
So I can tell you, you know,something valuable and then it's
just going to automatically feedinto your CRM and update stuff

(45:38):
every day you get a hot list.
Like these are the top 50 peopleto call.
So yes, for sure.
Call your brand new leads.
Don't not call your brand newlead.
I, that's still super important.
All the PC providers out there.
I still believe we have speed tolead is very important.
Um, but I want my, who are the50 people I need to talk to
today?

(46:00):
I don't want to just talk tosomebody because I have a follow
up task and I.
Talk to them 30 days ago.
And like, I've got to call themto follow up.
Like I want to talk to thepeople who've been enriched.
Right.
And so it's cool to have thislive data stream come in and do
that for the entire database.
So let's say often on yourwebsite or they call off a
direct mail piece and you don'tknow any, any better, but now

(46:20):
all of a sudden, you know, that.
You know, they're getting adivorce or what have you, or
they got their water turned off.
Now you have these insightsabout homeowners and it's more
likely that you can transactwith them.
So that's that second piece.
And then the third piece, whichwill be available in March,
hopefully, I'm not going to jinxit, is, uh, the buyer
prediction.
So we have all this public data.
Now we have all the buyers outthere that are, you know, from

(46:43):
the sale data that we have, andwe have all our own internal
documentation left.
Maybe we call them interestedbuyers.
So we have, you know, for everyproperty that you try a dispo,
we probably get somewherebetween five and 10 offers.
That's all proprietary to me.
I know what you're offeringbecause you told me, but what's
going to record for public datais one person who, and for what

(47:03):
they bought it for.
So basically it's taking thepublic record and then all of
your internal information andpredicting who's going to buy it
and for how much.
So that when you go to anappointment, you're not like
just pulling comps, you'repulling actual data of people
who are buying.
So like, guess what?
These are 300 people who willbuy this property between two,
two 20 and two 40.

(47:24):
Now I feel real confident goingout there and understanding what
I can offer that homeowner.
So that's this big, big, it'scalled left main genius and
it's, The, the first releasesand on September 16th, so it's
super close and uh, it's a, it'sa, I think it's going to be a
game changer.
I think it's going to be thestandard from this point forward
is how we operationalize data.

(47:45):
I think that's what it's goingto take to be

Mike (47:49):
How do you, um, factor in, because, you know, let's say,
you know, you sell a property,you wholesale a property to
someone.
You know, typically you're onlyseeing on the closing, the
public records, what thepurchase price was and not the
assignment fee.
Like I could buy a property for140, wholesale it for 180, but
public records show that whoeverI wholesaled it to bought it for

(48:11):
180.
How do you kind of get aroundthat when you're looking at that
kind of data?

Stephanie (48:16):
You're not going to know it unless it's your own
data, you know, that's a, that'sa wholesaling.
There's no chain of title, youknow, so there is no way for
people to know that unless youdid it.
You know, and that's why it'simportant to have like this data
set being collected by your ownbusiness, because fast forward a
year, two years, 10 years, youhave an org, you have a system

(48:38):
that has invaluable informationthat no one else can have, and
it makes your company valuable.
You know, we all want to buildbusinesses that make money, but
we also want to build businessesthat are valuable.
And the only real way to do thatis to have a data set that can
be leveraged.
Otherwise, we're just thistransactional business.
We're only as good as our nextdeal.

(49:00):
And like, you know, we don'thave like the business itself,
especially if all you're doingis, is wholesaling, like the
business itself doesn't real hadoesn't have real value.
But if you have a data set,that's completely your IP.
And it's enriched with all thepublic stuff.
That's really just a commodityat this point.
Like everybody has it, but it'senriched.
Now you have something extremelyunique and extremely valuable.

(49:23):
You know what I mean?

Mike (49:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
So you're taking, yeah.
So you're making sure yourteam's putting in all the offers
they're getting so that you cankind of, can look back on that
as well.
And at least the ones you sold,you know what they really sold
for.

Stephanie (49:36):
exactly.
And what's more valuable too, isnot necessarily how much I made,
but how much, what the offerrange is, because now I take
that information.
I can go make more, right?
Like, cause I know what, what Ican predict what it will sell
for.
So now I know make my margin.
So over time you should makemore per deal.

(49:56):
Because you have a betterunderstanding of what things can
sell for instead of like, well,we'll mark it up 20 K and send
it out and see what we get, youknow, like some of it is a
little bit like, you know what Imean?
If you had that piece of theequation, you can go and just do
the math, you know, for your,for your data set.

(50:17):
So it's, obviously it'simportant how much you're making
per transaction, but that datapoint, I don't think is as
important as what offers you'rereceiving from buyers.
You know what I'm saying?

Mike (50:29):
What have you changed in your business?
Over the course of the last,let's call it 18 to 20 months,
is at least in Florida, asthings have greatly shifted in
the market.
Mm-Hmm.

Stephanie (50:43):
The way we, so we buy a lot of vacant land.
So personally, the way we lookat land has changed.
So for example, we classically,you know, since 18 have bought
infill lots.
And try to make the math workwith our spec homes that we
built.
So we, we bought, we build likeentry level homes, first time
home buyer type price point.

(51:04):
So way less than the medianmedian sales price in Charlotte
and Jacksonville is a supersimilar market.
Uh, so we probably have similarprice points and like homeowner
activity.
Um, but because first time homebuyers have gotten squeezed,
probably the hardest withinterest rates going up and like
the affordability of the, of thehouse.
They're, they're renting alittle bit more.

(51:25):
So we've had to go, go afterlarger development lots and had
to build it a little bit biggerscale than our infill lots to
make the numbers work.
Um, there's a little bit moreinfluence you can make in a
neighborhood when you havemultiple properties and things
like that.
So that's a big shift that'shappened really since.
Since last summer, you know whatI mean?

(51:48):
Um, personally, and, uh, theother thing I'll say is just
continued obsession with data.
Like that doesn't lie.
Like if I know what the numbersare, I can figure stuff out.
You know, um, I can, I canunderstand if I understand my
pipeline and what changed mypipeline, I can pivot.
So it's such a nerdy answer, butI really believe that data is

(52:09):
going to be this, one of thesingle most important factors
that we have in our business.
It's either it's our own dataand understanding that or
external data and what does thatmean for my business?
Like you've got to know what'shappening in your business and
around you to make gooddecisions.
And it's just, it's such adifficult game.
It's so hard to keep your mindsright.

(52:30):
And like, we all have bad weeks,get punched in the face a
million times and we're like,how do we do this?
You know, I get a lot of comfortin, in having information and
having numbers that I canNumbers that I can understand.
So I can make good decisionsunder pressure when things are
hard and when the marketchanges, like obviously we don't

(52:51):
have control, but we feel alittle bit more in control when
we at least under, so I think asthe market continues to be
volatile and we don't knowwhat's going to happen with
interest rates and things, theonly real way to stay
competitive is by continuing tomake wise decisions and not lose
our shirt, right.
Not over leveraging or, youknow, blowing up our pipelines.

(53:12):
We locked everything up toohigh.
Right.
You gotta understand thesethings in order to stay in the
game and stay sane.

Mike (53:18):
Yeah.
What have you changed on theacquisition side for like single
family home in your business?

Stephanie (53:26):
Just the price.
I mean, in the glory days of 22,early 22 and part of 23, we
were, we were locking up at 90percent ARV and selling for 105.
We could, we would, we wouldsell basically above, above
retail price to some of ourbuyers.
It was amazing.

(53:47):
And now we're, we're back downthat like.
75 ish range, 80 percent Navy,uh, of, uh, offered, you know,
value therapy.

Mike (53:57):
Is what you're selling to your buyers at or what you have
to offer at

Stephanie (54:00):
We're buying, yeah.
And then we're selling it like85 ish, maybe 90, if it's a
hedge fund deal, you know, um,but, oh yeah, there's so much,
but so much less.
I mean, we went from, you know,1500 transactions a month in a
single county, MecklenburgCounty in Charlotte to a little

(54:21):
over 1100.
Like that's a huge, that's ahuge change from then to now.
It was probably higher, uh,early 22, but the volume in
general is down andinstitutional buyers are still a
big part of the percentage ofdeals being done.
Uh, I actually just pullednumbers on the percentage of
deals.
Happening right now that ourhome, like traditional homeowner

(54:43):
deals or institutional andinstitutional houses, like you
and me, like, you know,investment companies and rates
30%.
Of transactions are done by likeone in three are done.
Not that long ago, it was one ineight, like that curve has gone
up.

(55:03):
So what that means is likevolume changes.
If those folks are like, well,we're going to hold for a
minute, you know?
Uh, so it's been, it's beeninteresting, but they'll buy
higher.
It's just a matter of.
How much volume they'll take orwhat their current performer
will let them do and things likethat.

Mike (55:21):
Yeah.

Stephanie (55:22):
it's

Mike (55:22):
about.

Stephanie (55:22):
why many of them are out there now, you

Mike (55:26):
have you changed there?
I mean, obviously the numbers ofwhat you're selling at, but the
strategy I'm sure has changed.

Stephanie (55:33):
know, kind of the core tenants of always have,
have stayed the same, likebuilding relationships and
finding new folks and going toRia's and going to auctions and
paying attention to who'stransacting and understanding
what's happening in yourbusiness, like having true
relationships with our buyers.
You know, like understandingtruly what it is that they're
looking for and how much theycan pay.

(55:54):
We've been doing that foreverand that's always been
important, you know?
So I don't think a huge changein Dispo, um, I've seen, I've
seen our buyers less doing lessshort term rentals.
Um, there was a boom in a lotmore short term rentals, so that
one seems to be on the not as,not as hot anymore.

(56:14):
A lot more buy and hold, um,people transaction, transacting
right now.
But, you know, personally, we'vealways had, you know, kind of a
diverse list of people doinglots of different things.
So that's helped, but now I knowthat, you know, because we've
had relationships with people.
So we can kind of gauge thatwhen we're acquiring property,
like who's going to be our buyerand have a little bit of a head

(56:35):
start on Dispo, but

Mike (56:38):
Yeah, it makes sense.
We're, uh, getting close to theend here and there's always two
questions.

Stephanie (56:44):
I realized,

Mike (56:46):
Uh, first question I always ask is kind of fun is
what is the craziest or mostuncomfortable situation that you
have ever experienced in a realestate deal?

Stephanie (56:56):
uh, I think what people have in their house is
always interesting.
Uh, I've seen some very awkwardbedrooms.
And you're like, why am I inthis, in this house?
This is awful.
Like from mirrors to like toys.
And you're like trying to walkaround with this homeowner.
And you're like, Oh my God.

(57:17):
To, uh, I don't know people likehoarder hoarder houses always
are wild to me, like floor toceiling and you can't walk the
house.
Those are always.
And like the smell.
Oh my gosh.
I think those are the type ofthings that are like the wildest
Thing that ever happened to melike being in these people's
homes and seeing the craziness

Mike (57:36):
Sure, yeah, we've had a few of those.
Silence.
So last question I always liketo ask is, um, the newer people
listening to the show is, uh, ifyou could go back in time, give
yourself one piece of advicewhen you were looking for that
first deal, knowing what, youknow, now, what would you tell

(57:56):
yourself?
Hmm.

Stephanie (58:02):
and start raising earlier I was real kind of
bashful to share with My friendsand family like well, I guess
not my family, but maybe somefriends and like what I was
doing and My work connections,cause I worked full time in the
hospital until only a few yearsago.
Uh, and I didn't want to liketell my colleagues, right.

(58:22):
You're like, I don't want anyoneto crush my dreams.
But what I found was the more Italked about it, really how
interested people are.
And I'm like, I want to do thattoo.
You know, I feel like theAmerican dream is, is buying
real estate and buying arestaurant.
So it is interesting what you'redoing.
So talk about it more and you'dbe really surprised how many
people come out of the woodworkand want to, and want to be

(58:44):
involved with you.
And also there's a segment ofpeople who just want to watch
for a while.
They wanna see you for a year,do something or two years do
something.
So if you talk to them earlierabout it, then they can actually
watch you and then they'llparticipate later.
Be like, you know what?
I've been watching you onFacebook for two years.
I wanna be in, you know, like,how do I get involved?
Um, so don't underestimate yourpersonal network and, and, and

(59:07):
talking about it.

Mike (59:08):
Yeah, I think that's a great piece of advice.
Um, if people wanted to reachout to you after the show, if
they had questions, maybethey're interested in learning
more about left main.
How can they go about getting intouch with you?

Stephanie (59:20):
You can DM me on Instagram at Steph Betters is
always good.
Or email me Stephanie at leftmaini com or go to the website
left main rei com.

Mike (59:30):
Okay.
Well, awesome.
Thanks for being on the show.
Stephanie.

Stephanie (59:33):
Thank you for having me.
That was fun.