May 8, 2025 • 48 mins
Takeaways
Real estate investing is about building a legacy.
Mentorship is crucial for success in real estate.
Creative financing can solve complex property issues.
Work-life balance is essential for mental health.
Building a strong team culture reduces turnover.
New investors should partner with experienced ones.
Understanding market trends is key to making informed decisions.
Creative deals can provide win-win solutions for sellers.
Investing in education and networking is vital.
Real estate is a people business, both externally and internally.
Summary
In this episode of the RealPropPro podcast, host Ian Dietler interviews Mitch Craighead, owner of Joe Home Buyer Sacramento. They discuss Mitch's journey from bartending to real estate investing, the importance of mentorship, and the strategies that have led to his success in the industry. Mitch shares insights on creative financing, building a strong team culture, and the significance of work-life balance. The conversation also touches on market predictions and advice for new investors looking to break into real estate.
Sound Bites
"Building a strong team culture reduces turnover."
"Investing in education and networking is vital."
"Real estate investing is about building a legacy."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to RealPropPro Podcast
02:25 Meet Mitch Craighead: A Journey in Real Estate
03:42 Early Life and Career Path
06:30 Transitioning to Real Estate Management
09:30 The Spark of Interest in Real Estate Investing
12:00 Finding the Right Mentorship
13:25 The Leap into Entrepreneurship
15:01 Work-Life Balance in Real Estate
17:40 Building a Strong Team
21:10 Hiring the Right People
25:04 The Success of Noah: A Case Study
27:28 Breaking into Real Estate Investing
30:41 The Importance of Networking and Mentorship
32:51 Providing Value as a New Investor
34:28 Creative Financing Strategies
41:15 Market Predictions and Economic Insights
49:04 Building a Legacy in Real Estate
52:48 New Chapter
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Real Prop Pro podcast, where strategy,
innovation, and wealth converge to redefine real estate
investing. Hello and welcome to the Real
Prop Pro podcast. I'm your host Ian Dietler, Fix
(00:23):
and Flipper and multi family investor based out of
Sacramento, CA. Every episode we dive deep with
real investors, entrepreneurs and thought leaders who are out
there doing real deals and building wealth.
At Real Prop Pro, we help peoplelearn and master real world
investing strategies like fix and Flips, tax deed and tax lien
(00:47):
investing, creative financing, multifamily and so much more.
If you want the tools, training and community, please check out
realproppro.com for some free resources.
Today's guest is Mitch Craighead, owner of Joe
Homebuyer, Sacramento real estate investment company that
purchases properties through traditional and creative
(01:10):
strategies. Mitch has built a thriving
operation and today he will be digging into his personal
journey, the mindset it takes tosucceed in real estate, and how
his team consistently pulls off amazing creative financing
deals. Mitch, thank you for being on
the show. Ian, it's a pleasure to be here.
(01:32):
Thank you for the invite. Any chance I get to share what
I've learned through my, throughmy experiences?
I, I, I'm really passionate about helping others and it's
always great sitting down and and just riffing with you
anytime. I like to start to talk about
people's life kind of growing up.
So where, where were you born in?
(01:52):
Like where did you grow up? Yeah, awesome.
I grew up. So we're in Sacramento here
right now. I grew up not far from here in
the Bay Area on the peninsula just South of San Francisco town
called Millbrae. I went through high school
there. Great place to grow up.
I did a lot of, did a lot of hada lot of experiences in San
(02:14):
Francisco and up and down the peninsula growing up,
skateboarding, playing sports, soccer, It was a it was a, it
was a nice childhood. I went on to go to college at
San Diego State University and after college I moved back back
homeish into San Francisco and spent the better part of my 20s
in in like the North Beach and financial districts of of San
(02:38):
Francisco. Sounds great, where did did you
have any W2 jobs? Like what?
What did it look like? Kind of working like jobs.
Yeah, yeah. So, so moving back to San
Francisco, I was actually, I'd spend a lot of time while in
college bartending and I came upto to bartend in San Francisco.
(03:00):
I became a bar manager for, for the bar that I was working at.
And shortly thereafter, the, theowner of the bar actually
announced that he was, he was ready to retire.
So that was my first launch intoentrepreneurship actually was me
and a friend of mine working to,to, to purchase a bar and kind
(03:21):
of buy ourselves our jobs for the next few years.
And that was a great experience for me when I started my family,
I started my family about 18 years ago.
That was around 2008, OK. And the moment I started my
(03:41):
family, I, I knew I was spendingtoo many late nights and it
just, I wanted a healthier atmosphere for my family.
So I actually took one of my first WT jobs for the property
management company. And that property management
technique called the Irvine Company was managing a small for
them apartment building 155 minutes and and kind of moved up
(04:08):
pretty quickly with that company.
My next task about a year later was to manage a 350 unit
building in San Jose. So I moved my family to San Jose
and I spent the next five years or so in San Jose climbing the
corporate ladder there. Eventually I became a regional
manager for a major property management company.
(04:29):
I moved to another property management company, was a
regional manager there. So so I do have been real estate
related as well. But yeah, for about for about 12
years or so actually, yeah, about 1213 years.
I was a professional property manager.
That's a great experience. Can you talk a little bit about
(04:52):
how that got you into real estate?
I mean, obviously you're not investing at that point, but
you're seeing what other investors are doing and what
type of money they're making. Can you talk about how that
maybe sparked a little bit of interest into real estate
investing for you? Yeah, absolutely.
Even as a on site property manager for the Irvine Company,
(05:14):
I was preparing financials on a monthly basis for, for senior
leadership and looking at the bottom line of what these what
these buildings were producing. And, and there were some, you
know, some wide eyes around them, especially at a young age
when, when I was, you know, making a, a decent salary, but
(05:35):
seeing the potential of what these buildings can produce was
very eye opening. It was then when I actually
first started kind of diving down the, the YouTube university
rabbit hole with regards to realestate investing, wholesale real
estate, creative finance, and then start scratching the
(05:55):
surface there actually went so far as to, you know, in the
evenings writing, writing letters to homeowners at the
kitchen table. Me and my wife, we would do
twenty of those per night, get those in the mail and get the
phone ring for, for property owners that that may have some
stress or willingness to sell a property to us for either
(06:17):
wholesale purposes or buy and hold purposes.
So, so even in the infancy of my, my climbing the corporate
ladder, I'd be, I had an interest in real estate
investing and really that was myentrepreneurial spirit just kind
of and I'm still brewing, still brewing because because it's
(06:37):
really strong with me and working that W2 it and climbing
that ladder. It was painful.
It was, it was secure. Sometimes like I, I, I did
experience a layoff that was that just felt devastating when
when downsizing happens, layoffscan really, really turn your
(06:59):
world upside down. But but overall, you know, the
benefits and the steady paycheckand all of that it get comfort
while I was growing my family and building my family, building
that foundation. But and the skills that I was
learning and professional property management through
(07:21):
these tremendous structures thatother leaders have put in place
gave me the foundation to be able to lead my own team later.
So, but that being said, back toyour original question, again,
looking at the numbers and looking at, you know, really the
financials on, on the projects that I was managing, yes, it
opened my eyes wide open to the potential of, you know, of, of
(07:45):
what holding a real estate can do.
And then, you know, creative finance because I, I took part
in acquisitions of smaller buildings as well.
And it was almost always a contingency of, of creative
finance in those deals and started started learning, you
know, pretty early on. That sounds like when you're
starting to learn what a seller carry is, lease options, master
(08:09):
leases, all those types of things.
So that's really cool that you had that exposure you had that
you got to see behind the scenesof what these bigger companies
are doing. So it's really cool that you had
that. So take us back to where you and
your wife are just getting started.
You know, you're starting the family, you're starting to get
(08:30):
into real estate. How did that kind of develop?
And then how did that eventuallylead you to purchasing the Joe
Homebuyer franchise? Yeah, great.
So I mentioned that I had scratched the surface on real
estate investing, was getting the phone ringing with
potentially motivated sellers and things.
And, and like so many other young investors, things kind of
(08:52):
fizzled out a little bit there kind of fizzled out because I
didn't, I didn't know at the time, but there was something
missing or something missing. I had YouTube University myself
to death. And well, I've seen and heard a
lot of other people do this on, on camera and listen to a lot of
calls and things like, I don't know why it's not happening for
(09:15):
me. It must be just a flu.
This is just, you know, maybe there was something in the back
of my head thought this was justanother get rich quick scam kind
of thing. That's or just everywhere,
right. So so that kind of fizzled out
for me. But the one thing that I didn't
know at that time was that what I didn't have that was a good
(09:36):
mentor and good trait. OK, I was you can, you can watch
YouTube all you want and listen to as many podcasts as you want,
but without the specific direction of people who have
actually done deals and hold your hand through those and come
in and maybe even joint venture with you.
(09:56):
And it's really, really hard to get that first deal done.
A lot of things unlock after getting one deal done, but it
takes a while to get there. You have to get that first deal
done first, right? So my wife and I, you know, like
I said, we were, we were happy with my W2 in a lot of ways till
I experienced the layoff for I was like, you know what, this
(10:19):
secure job, it's not as secure as everyone makes it out to be,
right? Like even even a good performer
for a company can still lose their job overnight and could be
back to square a lot. How is that all that different
from entrepreneurship, right? So some I got into the Joe
(10:44):
Homebuyer franchise group through my business partner.
My business partner has been doing real estate investing in
another state in Utah for 15 years and he had been successful
at it. The entrepreneur Rd. flipping
properties, buying creative finance, all that stuff.
And, and he brought up to me oneday when I was working my W2 job
(11:08):
and pretty miserable at the end of it.
And he said, you know what, you would be really good at this.
You'd be really good at this. Some people that I know have
created this franchise group. It's essentially a business in
the box for real estate wholesaling, real estate
investing, create a finance and they are the coaching and
mentorship you might need. That was four years ago.
(11:30):
That was four years ago when I left my job, burnt the ships,
and went into real estate investing training by buying a
real estate real estate investing franchise.
So that was kind of the progression.
The entrepreneurial drive with me just kept growing larger and
(11:52):
larger, and my love for the W2 kept shrinking to a boiling
point where you know what, let'smake a change, let's roll the
dice, let's see where this goes.We can do it.
My wife works as well and, and she makes pretty good money.
So we were able to, we were ableto work it out so that I can buy
a franchise, she can help support the family while I get
(12:15):
the business off the ground and the rest is history.
We're four years down the line and we have a thriving business
and then and a good team put together and and we're glad we
did it. I can't believe that you only
had this business for four years.
That's insane. If you guys have seen how much
growth this man has done and hiscompany has done, it would just
(12:36):
blow your mind. It's it's something more like a,
a, a company that's been around for like 10 years would have the
type of numbers and growth that you guys have.
So kudos to you. Great, great work on all that
you're doing. I cannot believe it's only been
four years. Thank you, Ian.
It also feels like it was yesterday when I opened this
(12:57):
business, but I look around me and sometimes I pinch myself and
you know, it's a it's been a crazy ride, but it does
absolutely to me, it feels like yesterday that I opened the
business, but the, the knowledgeand the growth that I've made
with me and every team member onmy team is it does feel like
(13:18):
decades of education and experience a lot of it because
there are no two days are the same in this business.
You know, we are, we are aggressively solving people's
problems on a daily basis, whether that's their creative
finance, cash purchases, rehabbing properties.
(13:41):
It's there are no two days of saying and it just makes time
fly. And it's a it's a beautiful
thing, as long as you're able toslow yourself down with your
family and smell the roses and make sure it doesn't fly by by
working too much. Yeah, that's great.
That work life balance is so important not only for family,
but I mean, mental health I think is also really important
(14:03):
in our industry. You know, it can be very
stressful at times. We have to deal with some very
tough things, tough situations with sellers and just, you know,
I think it's just really important to really take care of
yourself, take care of, you know, your mindset and your just
(14:24):
overall mental health because itis really important in this
industry. I could not agree more.
And you know, having a work lifeand mental health balance is
something that I can make a point of because a lot of people
will kind of pair your work lifebalance to your your work and
family balance. And that is that's really
(14:48):
important. But yourself care is really
important as well. You know, a couple of things
that I do to to help nurture my mental health or I'm a big
mountain biker and getting out on, on the trail, you know, two
or three times a week and spending an hour and a half with
myself in nature, get my physical health on, get my
(15:10):
mental health on. I will tell you that I've come
up with the best ideas and the best solutions for problems in
my business, not here in this office, but out there on the
trail. That's great.
I love to hear that. I just love being out in nature
as well. My wife and I, we love to hike
and get out of town and and go to really cool places and stuff
(15:30):
like that. So I think it is really
important to get out kind of reset even, you know, maybe you
can't do a full vacation, but ifyou could do a weekend out in
nature or just a weekend of justlike not worried about work and
all the day-to-day stuff, I think is really important.
Earlier you were talking about team.
Can you talk about how you've grown your team?
(15:54):
Can you talk about how things started and then kind of where
they're at today? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So I the way my team is set up right now, I actually have an
open position. I'm actively looking to hire
someone in like an administrative assistant for our
office and for myself, but we have two acquisition managers in
(16:15):
our real estate investing company and a dispositions
manager. OK.
So that's how my team is structured right now,
essentially a team of four plus me as the general manager.
So, so as a complete team, it would be 5 and everybody has a
virtual assistant to support them.
So sometimes that comes in the form of somebody who just does
administrative tasks or projectsor somebody that there's cold
(16:39):
calling or leave follow up and things like that.
But most of those additional team members are located,
they're based out of the country.
So really, you know, we have a team of five flexing up to a
team of 10, if you count our virtual assistants.
And then we consider them team members 100%.
We treat them like team members,like they're like they're here
(16:59):
with us. Even though they work remotely,
they, they work really hard and for us and with us and
understand our culture. And Speaking of cultures, one of
the most important things that we've developed to be able to
have a strong team and keep a strong team with the real estate
investing company. Turnover is very, very common.
Very, very common. When I say 2 acquisition
(17:21):
managers, that position oftentimes A turnover every
year, every year you're looking,you have a, it's an outside
sales position essentially. And, and oftentimes people will
learn what you teach them. They will move on as quickly as
they can because kind of like mewhen I was working for apartment
(17:42):
management companies and lookingat those big numbers at the
bottom, say, wow, I should be doing, I'm going to go chase
that, right? So, so having a really strong
culture and connections within the team and valuing team
members, expressing your appreciation, doing team
retreats and you know things to,to bring your team together and,
(18:05):
and want to be there. It's one of the keys to success
and, and growing A-Team, but most importantly, keeping
A-Team. And you know, we, we have
morning meetings every day and there's always laughter and
there's always solving problems on those calls.
Yeah, luckily I was able to be apart of one of your team
meetings as we're kind of in a mastermind together and I got to
(18:26):
come and see how you guys work. So I can attest that you guys
keep it fun and light and have agreat time, but still get the
work done. So that's really wonderful that
you have that culture, you have you you really focus on keeping
your employees happy, making sure they they have all the
things that they need and that they're fully supported.
(18:47):
Yeah, absolutely. And that's, you know, that's one
of the secrets and it shouldn't be a secret to anybody, but for
some, for some entrepreneurs, it's really hard to develop that
it's all business all the time. That's where you have that
turnover, that's where you're going to have that annual
turnover. I have two acquisition managers
1's been with me for nearly three years, another going on
(19:09):
two years and my my first hire, our dispositions manager Noah,
he's been with me for 3 1/2 years, 3 1/2 years.
So he was my first hire about six months in the the inception
of my business and very little turnover.
And, and that's something to really be proud of as an
(19:30):
entrepreneur, but it's one of the biggest messages that I
would give other entrepreneurs, especially if looking to, to
grow a real estate investing company.
Focus on the culture, focus on the culture, focus on the
people. Not only is it a people business
when we're out there trying to help families to have a
distressed situation or a problem that you can solve, but
it's a people business internally, right?
(19:51):
So if you focus your entire business around people, letting
them follow up. Can you talk about hiring that
first person? What was kind of going through
your head while? Deciding to add that first
person, can you talk about how how you worked through that in
your head? Yeah, sure.
(20:12):
So when deciding who to hire is your first hire, I encourage an
entrepreneur to look at themselves in the mirror 1st and
identify what they're really good at and what they bring to
the company that they they can bring better than anybody else.
(20:32):
And they hire around that. They hire the people that that
can support that role. For me, it was acquisitions.
I, I looked in the mirror and said, I'm really great at
getting in front of people, identifying a problem that I can
solve for them and putting a deal together.
(20:53):
That is a win win. OK.
Now all at the back ends of the maybe selling of properties, the
administrative part, the keepingthe marketing going, pulling
lists and ordering the mailers and all that kind of stuff.
I'm sorry, that does not fill myheart.
(21:15):
It just doesn't fill my heart. Yeah.
So, so I look in the mirror and say, well, you're our
acquisition manager and you needto hire somebody who can handle
the administrative part. I was really lucky in that I
didn't have to post for this first, second, third or fourth
hires. I've never posted Indeed job
(21:37):
posting. Everybody it's ever been on my
team has come through my network.
So I was introduced to to to my disposition manager, Noah, who
are a really good friend of minewho is a member of private Golf
Club that overheard Noah talkingabout wanting to get into real
(21:57):
estate investor. And he said, you know what, I
think my friend does that professionally.
He's got a young company, but he's a rock star.
And Noah said that's exactly whoI'm looking for.
I want to be mentored. I want to see if the business is
for me. And Noah was told by by somebody
very wise and I agree with this,to go, to go and find that
(22:21):
person for Noah to come and findme and to offer his services for
free for a period of time. Did that work for a young
entrepreneur like me trying to get a business off the ground?
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
So for the 1st 90 days, Noah continued working at the Golf
Club and he worked for me part time, 20 hours a week.
(22:43):
I've given commissions on any deals that I closed, but no base
salary, anything like that for the 1st 90 days for him to get
his feet wet, see whether real estate investing was for him,
whether he wanted to do it on his own or whether he was more
comfortable working in the business for, for a company like
ours. And, and I was lucky enough for
him to say, I would like to continue my education with you
(23:06):
after those 90 days. And I said I would love for you
to become an official team member and base salary plus
commissions for a then 19 year old man, young man.
And, and now, you know, we have a 23 year old man that has more
real estate investing experienceand most of the 60 year old
(23:29):
adults that I that, that work inthis business full time.
So I'm, I'm really proud of, of who we've been able to develop
in NOAA. And he's a, he's become a
tremendous asset to the company through the year.
So that's, I know it was a little bit long winded, but
that's the story of my first hire and where that person is
today. And now that person, you know
(23:51):
that this year that person will make over six figures as a 23
year old and, and be doing what he enjoys doing and what, where
what he, you know, he was in YouTube University, probably
TikTok University for him, right, TikTok University and
followed his dream a little bit and scratched the surface there.
(24:13):
Now that he's doing what he loves every day.
So it's a great story. Yeah.
And as I know, he gets to work remotely as well, correct?
That's right, that's right. So I first brought Noah on when
he was a Sacramento area resident.
And at one point he said he toldme one day, except, you know,
I'd like to spread my wings. Some of my friends who work in
(24:33):
golf also migrating down to Phoenix area.
And, and with the, you know, I mean, it's more about the
culture, right? Like, I feel like Noah's
position will will moving to a remote status.
Will it affect our team? Yes, it will.
It'll affect it negatively, but also the value this person
(24:56):
brings on a daily basis and our love for this team member and
watching him grow and flourish. Like why not give it a try?
So it's been over 2 years that he's lived in Phoenix and we're
able to make that work and make it work as a team more, more
reason that people just know that we're, you know, we're here
(25:16):
for one another. And you know, it's, it's
important to try to accommodate when an employee comes to you
and they say, I think I need to move.
The hardest decision I have to make around moving is leaving
this company if I do. So kind of switching gears a
little bit, can you talk to someof the younger listeners, maybe
(25:43):
the the newer real estate investors, the people that want
to get into real estate? I feel like your company's
really good at wholesaling and creative deals.
Can you talk about ways that newpeople can break in?
You kind of talked about YouTubeUniversity and how that was
working for you. And then you you got into this
(26:06):
more structured approach. Can you talk to some of the
newer investors on how to get started?
Yeah, such a great topic, Ian. Thanks for asking about it
because as a real estate investor who's done both, I've
done the YouTube university and then tried to make cold calls
and mail on my own and try to figure things out and just kind
(26:27):
of, you know what they might call failing forward, but
without the right mentorship, right?
I've done that. And then and then I and then I
purchased a business in box where I am every, every step of
the process is provided to me. And then the coach and the
mentoring every step of the way is there to a new investor who's
(26:48):
considering going the YouTube university route or TikTok
university or whatever, whateverthat you know, the modern term
for it is today. The best way to get your first
deal or get into this business is to do deals with people who
have done deals. OK, me and my team, we are
(27:09):
committed to helping new investors, even get them get
their first or next deal. We help experienced investors
have a renegotiate a deal that they have with the seller that's
just not working. It's not penciling, OK?
It's a deal that's been in contract.
There's a due diligence period. It doesn't seem to be penciling.
We have jumped in plenty of times, renegotiated, worked
(27:32):
through a solution and I've beenable to help, you know, either
sell that property, buy it ourselves or or help wholesale
it. So for newer people, highly
encouraged do deals with people who have done deals in the past
and you'll get millions and millions of dollars of value and
growth out of that as opposed totrying to hold on to that deal
(27:55):
because it's yours and just yours and then not be able to
sell it or I, I put it under contract too high or whatever it
may be. Now it's the people that have
done a lot of deals that can make a non deal a deal every
day. On the other hand, I'm also the
president of Norcal Real Estate Investing Association.
Getting involved in with groups like that, If you're serious
(28:17):
about, if you're really serious about real estate education,
there's no better place than to get around people who are doing
deals and continue the conversation.
Get your training from there andyou'll have access to people
like me, the people like my acquisition managers and
disposition managers to bounce ideas off of or come with a
(28:37):
problem that needs solving. That's that's another great way
to to, to to hedge against failure in this business is to
join a local area where you can get the support that you need on
a daily basis. That's good advice.
I really like that because that's kind of how I got my
start. I had realized that I wanted to
(28:58):
get into real estate investing and one day I just walked into a
room and there is several older gentlemen in a room is a
Sacramento 1031 exchange group. And I didn't know what I was
doing. I just found it online, walked
in and I was like, what am I doing here?
(29:18):
But that really kind of meeting those people and and talking
with them and figuring out what they're doing, what's working
for them, what's not, what theirview of the market is, all of
those things just really help somuch.
So I can't agree with you more that it's super important to get
in front of people that that areexperienced and have done deals
(29:40):
in your market or markets that you want to work in.
So I think that's really important.
One thing that you had also mentioned is trying to figure
out ways to provide value for investors.
So how could What are some ways that a newer investor can
provide value to a more experienced investor?
(30:01):
Maybe a mentor? Yeah, absolutely.
I can give you an example today,actually, we're working with an
investor who is, who's done a couple of deals, but but they're
interested in like partnering with us on whatever they can.
OK, We gave, we gave this investor a list of doors to go
(30:26):
out there and knock investors that are potential sellers that
might have some distress in their lives.
This person said, yes, absolutely, I will do it.
You know, knock those doors. Actually as of as of today, I
think we're expecting signatureson an agreement, one of those
(30:52):
knock doors to save to, to solvesomebody's big problem.
It's a probate problem. It's a squatter occupied problem
that they absolutely can't and don't want to deal with.
And that deal because that investor reached out to us and
said, is there anything that I can do to help you guys in your
(31:13):
business? That investor is a team member
of ours for as long as he wants to be.
If he wants to knock doors that we ask him to knock, he goes out
there and he brings the lead ourway and we go ahead and close
them. He's a, he's a 5050 partner on
that deal. By my estimate, he'll likely be
about a $50,000 deal. OK, so I know it sounds, it
(31:38):
sounds simple, but it's not easy, you know, walking up to a
stranger's door and knocking on it and asking them if they might
consider an offer on their property, if they know anybody
who might be willing to sell in that neighborhood.
It's not for everybody. It's just not for everybody.
But there are various tasks thatpeople can help and investor
(32:00):
like, like me and my team with if they wanted to come and get
some experience. We've had open arms for people
who want to come and learn from us.
It just takes certain levels of commitment and certain
personality types. You have to be a great culture
fit to to become any type of team member on a on a team like
ours because we value it so heavily.
(32:22):
Now you work on a lot of creative deals.
Can you get into maybe some pastdeals or some some creative ways
that maybe a cash purchase wasn't the way to go for that
particular situation? Can you talk about how you got
into more of a creative deal andand how that turned out?
(32:46):
Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to give you an example
of maybe a deal, a little deal right down, if that would be, if
that'll work. All right.
Well, actually today I'm receiving a, a $40,000 down
payment on a property that I purchased for $20,000 down.
(33:09):
OK. The way this shook out is we
went to, to a property out of the area in Copperopolis
actually. And we, we, it, it started as a,
you know, maybe a, will a cash deal work for you?
Guess what there's too much owedon the mortgage for for a cash
deal to work to help this lady who's firefighter husband who
(33:33):
just passed away and she wants to move back and be closer with
her parents in Oregon. She wants to do it right away.
So we're like, how can we help you?
Like there's not enough meat on the bone.
There's not enough spread for this to be like a cash deal.
Property didn't need that much work.
(33:57):
Maybe, maybe we can take over your loan payments.
You can always pay a little bit more by taking over your loan
payments while we do the rehab. Then we can either hold on to
the loan, you're going to transfer title to us, but you're
going to keep that loan in placeand we'll continue paying it.
That's called subject to seller finance and it's subject to
(34:21):
purchasing the property subject to the existing financing.
So we give her $20,000 if she wanted to sell that property on
the market, probably would have had to write a $10,000 check to
to sell that property. But she didn't have me gave her
a $20,000 check because we're buying a 2.65% loan along with
(34:43):
that property purchase. Right?
So that that's what I'm talking about when I say how can we find
a wing wing for this person. She just lost her husband.
She wants to move closer to family.
She has to write a $10,000 checkif she were to list her property
on the MLS. The property has a bunch of dry
rock damage. She can't afford to get a
Section 1 clearance to to even sell that property and write a
(35:07):
$10,000 check. She's in a major bind.
She's in a major bind. How can, how can we help her?
Well, listen, stay, you write mea $10,000 check.
I'm going to write me a $20,000 check.
I'm going to do a light rehab onthis property.
But hey, listen, in order to make that happen, I need to be
able to make you loan payments all the way through the life for
a while, OK, You're going to transfer title to me.
(35:30):
The loan stays in place. I make those payments done deal,
done deal. Today I have I have a an end
buyer. So somebody that I am selling
this property to sell a finance on a wrap.
I'm taking $40,000 down payment.OK, So you can do the math and
put you know $10,000 into this property that's 30,000 total I
(35:55):
have into the property ish and some closing costs and things,
but I'm taking a, a $40,000 downpayment.
So I'm actually you know nettingabout around 10.
And then when I sell this when as I'm selling this to our our
end buyer, I'm selling it as me seller financing it.
(36:17):
So I'm selling a mortgage payment where I pay $1500 a
month for that, for that, you know, three percentage loan,
right? And I'm selling it at 7%.
So that $1500 payment that I'm paying, I have my payment being
received by my seller finance purchaser and that seller
(36:40):
finance purchaser is paying me 2700 per month, 2700.
So now we're looking at, we're looking at about a $1200 a month
cash flow situation for basically the next 27 years,
over the next 27 years. So I, we were able to create a
(37:01):
win, win between US and the seller of the property.
This person that I'm selling it to doesn't qualify for a bank
loan. We're giving them modern
interest rates with no bank involved and they're putting
down, you know, 10% down and, and I'm the bank instead of
them. Our seller is kind of my bank
(37:24):
and there are no banks involved in any of these transactions.
Our seller gets a win win. The company here gets a win, win
and, and there's a win win with the end buyer.
And like opportunities like that, they're all around us, but
they need to be creative. You have to, you have to get
the, the education before you can go out there and say, Oh my
(37:47):
gosh, a cash deal doesn't work here.
I'm sorry, lady, you're screwed.Like plan to list this property
and write a $10,000 check at theclose investor.
That's what almost every of an investor is going to have to
tell her, right? And instead we created this
beautiful story for a lot of people through creative
financing. And, and you know, the, the
(38:08):
great thing about cash flowing over $1000 a month is that it
feels like a rental, right? But at the end of the, the, the
lifespan of the loan, the end buyer get this property.
All right. So we made a little bit on
buying and buying it and then taking a down payment, yes.
(38:29):
And we made $1000 a month in thenext 27 years, yes, unless they
refinance out or something and then we'll probably make a chunk
of change at that point. But but the biggest wins here
are for the seller and for the end buyer.
Those people need it, Somebody who has creative finance
knowledge to come and save theirday.
(38:49):
They needed someone to come in and get creative, do things
legally, completely above board and and be respectful of like
the loan in place, be respectfulof of everybody's situation
without judgement and put something together workshop.
So we've been able to do that for a lot of different families.
Kind of along this the creative financing, I've kind of been
(39:12):
told that as interest rates go up, it's makes more sense to do
more creative financing stuff. Do you agree with that?
Yeah, I do. I do.
I mean, there are a lot of loansfrom when interest rates had
dipped really low for a period of a year and a half or so
where, you know, during COVID, interest rates got down to, you
(39:34):
know, in the twos. I know somebody who has an
interest rate under 1% and, and there are a lot of loans there.
And when somebody sells their property with a loan like that
in place, it's kind of sad in myopinion.
It's kind of sad because like, you know, my, I mean, my, my
(39:55):
primary residence is a great example, right?
I refinanced into a really greatinterest rate during COVID.
I will never sell that property.If it were at a 6% interest
rate, I would probably sell the property at one point.
You know, especially here in California we're looking at.
You know, in my opinion anyway, I don't want to get into too
(40:17):
much speculation, but we're in we're in May of 2025.
And as a result of how much appreciation California and a
lot of the country has experienced in a short amount of
time during and shortly after COVID, I see maybe appreciation
slowed down quite a bit for the next few years.
(40:37):
And as a result, I know a lot oflot of buy and hold investors
willing to let go of their properties right now for that
reason, because as a as a real estate investor in California,
you bank on the appreciation, not necessarily on the cash
flow. In a lot of cases, it's hard to
cash flow here because the land value is so expensive right in.
Absolutely. So if you can't see any
appreciation over the next few years, what are you doing and
(41:01):
what are you doing with that property?
Is it going to be more of a headache than anything?
So I didn't mean to get off on atangent there, but but yeah,
that's, that's some of my thought process.
The the loans with great interest rates and people not
necessarily like wanting to sell.
The people that want to sell cango ahead and want to sell all
they want. Those typically aren't the the
(41:24):
people that my real estate investment company are
servicing. The people that my real estate
investment company are servicingare people that need to sell and
they have a problem, a reason why putting it on the the
property, on the MLS with an agent.
It doesn't make sense whether there's a time sensitivity or a
situation like, you know, MaggieBragg in Copperopolis where her
(41:46):
husband just passed away, her kids just finished school.
She's out of here and she she needs to get something done and
she can't write a check to sell her property.
OK. We're providing services and a
resource for people who need to sell, not necessarily kind of
want to sell, right. And, and with, with properties
(42:07):
with great rates like that, always open to talking about a
solution that can help them. And yeah, they're they're more
fruitful today than they ever have been because of the delta
and where interest rates were towhere they are today.
You and I had both attended DealChamps and during that, that was
(42:28):
Central Valley Real Estate Conference put on by the Deal
Champs. Great event, can't say enough
about those guys. Wonderful people, wonderful
educators, wonderful business owners.
During that event we had heard acouple people kind of predict a
(42:49):
little bit about the market. I don't want to go too deep into
it, but which we had heard several times that in 2025, this
year quarters three and four were going to be just a great
time for real estate investors. Do you agree with that
(43:10):
assessment and and what are you kind of forecasting the rest of
this year may be going into 2026?
Yeah, us being in early May of 2025 as we're as we're filming
this and like everybody seems tohave an opinion and some form of
speculation on what the market'sgoing to do for the rest of the
year. Our president has just slammed
(43:33):
down some pretty heavy tariffs on on pretty much every country
in the world. And there's a, there's, it's
unknown as to whether these negotiations are going to go
anywhere or, or any type of any type of certainty is going to
come back in any reasonable amount of time.
(43:54):
And so I am choosing to wait andsee what happens as opposed to,
you know, the times where I, I speculated that things were
going to be really good at any given, you know, given time,
then I've almost never been ableto accurately predict anything,
(44:16):
especially over the last few years.
You know, during COVID in June of 2022 when interest rates
doubled overnight. OK, I didn't see that coming.
I bought, I bought 3 flips in April of 2022.
I bought 3 properties. Luckily, I had enough spread to
not lose on any one of those three.
(44:37):
I sold them by the end of the summer that same year and I was
able to, I was able to get those3 without, you know, going into
the red on any of them. Most, you know, just about every
property that I, that I buy, I have enough spread for terrible
things to happen. Doubling interest rates.
Wow, that's, that's a lot that can go wrong.
That's pretty much the worst case scenario when you're, when
(45:00):
you're a flipper. But, you know, I've learned not
to speculate as much, but keep my eye on what is happening
today. Do that every day.
Yeah. That being said, in so far this
year with all of the uncertaintyin the world and in the in the
(45:21):
real estate world specifically, it's been a, it's been a very
interesting first part of the year, very interesting first
quarter when the tariff situation was laid upon America.
We have, we have a lot of peoplejust freezing, just freezing.
Do I think that people are goingto remain frozen for the
(45:41):
remainder of the year? I don't.
I don't. That doesn't make sense to me.
OK, Even if the tariffs negotiations don't get resolved,
I believe that people will startto treat things as a new norm as
opposed to picturing worst case scenario or things getting much,
much worse if things aren't resolved and things stay status
(46:02):
quo from where we are today. That's great insight.
I really appreciate that. And I'm with you.
It's it's never a smart idea to try to predict where the
market's going to go. I know I'm I was with you and
far as so far as Kovid came. So once covered kind of hit, I
thought the market was going to tank and it actually turned out
(46:24):
that the market went way up and prices skyrocketed.
So got lucky on, on that becausethat's when I started investing
was 2019. That's when I did my first flip
and I, I just thought it was going to be over.
Like I was like, here we go. I finally got into fixing
flipping. I got my first deal, getting
ready to sell this thing and a global pandemic hits.
(46:46):
Luckily, it turned out well. We actually made more than
expected. So that's a little bit
interesting. So Mitch, thank you for being
here. There's so many good things that
you have to talk about. And if there's anything about
Mitch's journey that we should take away from today is that it
reminds us that real estate investing is bigger than
(47:09):
flipping contracts or closing deals.
It's about building something that outlives us.
It's about creating a business that provides for you, your
family, and the people you care about.
Even if tomorrow doesn't go the way that you planned, make sure
to do the best you can to build for the future and build a
(47:31):
legacy. The cash flow you build today,
the systems that you put in place, the people that you help
today, they're all part of that legacy.
If you're serious about real estate investing, about business
and about life, don't just buildto survive.
Build, protect and build to last.
(47:52):
Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next time.
Welcome to the Real Prop Pro podcast, where strategy,
innovation, and wealth converge to redefine real estate
investing. Hello and welcome to the Real
Prop Pro podcast. I'm your host Ian Dietler, Fix
(00:23):
and Flipper and multi family investor based out of
Sacramento, CA. Every episode we dive deep with
real investors, entrepreneurs and thought leaders who are out
there doing real deals and building wealth.
At Real Prop Pro, we help peoplelearn and master real world
investing strategies like fix and Flips, tax deed and tax lien
(00:47):
investing, creative financing, multifamily and so much more.
If you want the tools, training and community, please check out
realproppro.com for some free resources.
Today's guest is Mitch Craighead, owner of Joe
Homebuyer, Sacramento real estate investment company that
purchases properties through traditional and creative
(01:10):
strategies. Mitch has built a thriving
operation and today he will be digging into his personal
journey, the mindset it takes tosucceed in real estate, and how
his team consistently pulls off amazing creative financing
deals. Mitch, thank you for being on
the show. Ian, it's a pleasure to be here.
(01:32):
Thank you for the invite. Any chance I get to share what
I've learned through my, throughmy experiences?
I, I, I'm really passionate about helping others and it's
always great sitting down and and just riffing with you
anytime. I like to start to talk about
people's life kind of growing up.
So where, where were you born in?
(01:52):
Like where did you grow up? Yeah, awesome.
I grew up. So we're in Sacramento here
right now. I grew up not far from here in
the Bay Area on the peninsula just South of San Francisco town
called Millbrae. I went through high school
there. Great place to grow up.
I did a lot of, did a lot of hada lot of experiences in San
(02:14):
Francisco and up and down the peninsula growing up,
skateboarding, playing sports, soccer, It was a it was a, it
was a nice childhood. I went on to go to college at
San Diego State University and after college I moved back back
homeish into San Francisco and spent the better part of my 20s
in in like the North Beach and financial districts of of San
(02:38):
Francisco. Sounds great, where did did you
have any W2 jobs? Like what?
What did it look like? Kind of working like jobs.
Yeah, yeah. So, so moving back to San
Francisco, I was actually, I'd spend a lot of time while in
college bartending and I came upto to bartend in San Francisco.
(03:00):
I became a bar manager for, for the bar that I was working at.
And shortly thereafter, the, theowner of the bar actually
announced that he was, he was ready to retire.
So that was my first launch intoentrepreneurship actually was me
and a friend of mine working to,to, to purchase a bar and kind
(03:21):
of buy ourselves our jobs for the next few years.
And that was a great experience for me when I started my family,
I started my family about 18 years ago.
That was around 2008, OK. And the moment I started my
(03:41):
family, I, I knew I was spendingtoo many late nights and it
just, I wanted a healthier atmosphere for my family.
So I actually took one of my first WT jobs for the property
management company. And that property management
technique called the Irvine Company was managing a small for
them apartment building 155 minutes and and kind of moved up
(04:08):
pretty quickly with that company.
My next task about a year later was to manage a 350 unit
building in San Jose. So I moved my family to San Jose
and I spent the next five years or so in San Jose climbing the
corporate ladder there. Eventually I became a regional
manager for a major property management company.
(04:29):
I moved to another property management company, was a
regional manager there. So so I do have been real estate
related as well. But yeah, for about for about 12
years or so actually, yeah, about 1213 years.
I was a professional property manager.
That's a great experience. Can you talk a little bit about
(04:52):
how that got you into real estate?
I mean, obviously you're not investing at that point, but
you're seeing what other investors are doing and what
type of money they're making. Can you talk about how that
maybe sparked a little bit of interest into real estate
investing for you? Yeah, absolutely.
Even as a on site property manager for the Irvine Company,
(05:14):
I was preparing financials on a monthly basis for, for senior
leadership and looking at the bottom line of what these what
these buildings were producing. And, and there were some, you
know, some wide eyes around them, especially at a young age
when, when I was, you know, making a, a decent salary, but
(05:35):
seeing the potential of what these buildings can produce was
very eye opening. It was then when I actually
first started kind of diving down the, the YouTube university
rabbit hole with regards to realestate investing, wholesale real
estate, creative finance, and then start scratching the
(05:55):
surface there actually went so far as to, you know, in the
evenings writing, writing letters to homeowners at the
kitchen table. Me and my wife, we would do
twenty of those per night, get those in the mail and get the
phone ring for, for property owners that that may have some
stress or willingness to sell a property to us for either
(06:17):
wholesale purposes or buy and hold purposes.
So, so even in the infancy of my, my climbing the corporate
ladder, I'd be, I had an interest in real estate
investing and really that was myentrepreneurial spirit just kind
of and I'm still brewing, still brewing because because it's
(06:37):
really strong with me and working that W2 it and climbing
that ladder. It was painful.
It was, it was secure. Sometimes like I, I, I did
experience a layoff that was that just felt devastating when
when downsizing happens, layoffscan really, really turn your
(06:59):
world upside down. But but overall, you know, the
benefits and the steady paycheckand all of that it get comfort
while I was growing my family and building my family, building
that foundation. But and the skills that I was
learning and professional property management through
(07:21):
these tremendous structures thatother leaders have put in place
gave me the foundation to be able to lead my own team later.
So, but that being said, back toyour original question, again,
looking at the numbers and looking at, you know, really the
financials on, on the projects that I was managing, yes, it
opened my eyes wide open to the potential of, you know, of, of
(07:45):
what holding a real estate can do.
And then, you know, creative finance because I, I took part
in acquisitions of smaller buildings as well.
And it was almost always a contingency of, of creative
finance in those deals and started started learning, you
know, pretty early on. That sounds like when you're
starting to learn what a seller carry is, lease options, master
(08:09):
leases, all those types of things.
So that's really cool that you had that exposure you had that
you got to see behind the scenesof what these bigger companies
are doing. So it's really cool that you had
that. So take us back to where you and
your wife are just getting started.
You know, you're starting the family, you're starting to get
(08:30):
into real estate. How did that kind of develop?
And then how did that eventuallylead you to purchasing the Joe
Homebuyer franchise? Yeah, great.
So I mentioned that I had scratched the surface on real
estate investing, was getting the phone ringing with
potentially motivated sellers and things.
And, and like so many other young investors, things kind of
(08:52):
fizzled out a little bit there kind of fizzled out because I
didn't, I didn't know at the time, but there was something
missing or something missing. I had YouTube University myself
to death. And well, I've seen and heard a
lot of other people do this on, on camera and listen to a lot of
calls and things like, I don't know why it's not happening for
(09:15):
me. It must be just a flu.
This is just, you know, maybe there was something in the back
of my head thought this was justanother get rich quick scam kind
of thing. That's or just everywhere,
right. So so that kind of fizzled out
for me. But the one thing that I didn't
know at that time was that what I didn't have that was a good
(09:36):
mentor and good trait. OK, I was you can, you can watch
YouTube all you want and listen to as many podcasts as you want,
but without the specific direction of people who have
actually done deals and hold your hand through those and come
in and maybe even joint venture with you.
(09:56):
And it's really, really hard to get that first deal done.
A lot of things unlock after getting one deal done, but it
takes a while to get there. You have to get that first deal
done first, right? So my wife and I, you know, like
I said, we were, we were happy with my W2 in a lot of ways till
I experienced the layoff for I was like, you know what, this
(10:19):
secure job, it's not as secure as everyone makes it out to be,
right? Like even even a good performer
for a company can still lose their job overnight and could be
back to square a lot. How is that all that different
from entrepreneurship, right? So some I got into the Joe
(10:44):
Homebuyer franchise group through my business partner.
My business partner has been doing real estate investing in
another state in Utah for 15 years and he had been successful
at it. The entrepreneur Rd. flipping
properties, buying creative finance, all that stuff.
And, and he brought up to me oneday when I was working my W2 job
(11:08):
and pretty miserable at the end of it.
And he said, you know what, you would be really good at this.
You'd be really good at this. Some people that I know have
created this franchise group. It's essentially a business in
the box for real estate wholesaling, real estate
investing, create a finance and they are the coaching and
mentorship you might need. That was four years ago.
(11:30):
That was four years ago when I left my job, burnt the ships,
and went into real estate investing training by buying a
real estate real estate investing franchise.
So that was kind of the progression.
The entrepreneurial drive with me just kept growing larger and
(11:52):
larger, and my love for the W2 kept shrinking to a boiling
point where you know what, let'smake a change, let's roll the
dice, let's see where this goes.We can do it.
My wife works as well and, and she makes pretty good money.
So we were able to, we were ableto work it out so that I can buy
a franchise, she can help support the family while I get
(12:15):
the business off the ground and the rest is history.
We're four years down the line and we have a thriving business
and then and a good team put together and and we're glad we
did it. I can't believe that you only
had this business for four years.
That's insane. If you guys have seen how much
growth this man has done and hiscompany has done, it would just
(12:36):
blow your mind. It's it's something more like a,
a, a company that's been around for like 10 years would have the
type of numbers and growth that you guys have.
So kudos to you. Great, great work on all that
you're doing. I cannot believe it's only been
four years. Thank you, Ian.
It also feels like it was yesterday when I opened this
(12:57):
business, but I look around me and sometimes I pinch myself and
you know, it's a it's been a crazy ride, but it does
absolutely to me, it feels like yesterday that I opened the
business, but the, the knowledgeand the growth that I've made
with me and every team member onmy team is it does feel like
(13:18):
decades of education and experience a lot of it because
there are no two days are the same in this business.
You know, we are, we are aggressively solving people's
problems on a daily basis, whether that's their creative
finance, cash purchases, rehabbing properties.
(13:41):
It's there are no two days of saying and it just makes time
fly. And it's a it's a beautiful
thing, as long as you're able toslow yourself down with your
family and smell the roses and make sure it doesn't fly by by
working too much. Yeah, that's great.
That work life balance is so important not only for family,
but I mean, mental health I think is also really important
(14:03):
in our industry. You know, it can be very
stressful at times. We have to deal with some very
tough things, tough situations with sellers and just, you know,
I think it's just really important to really take care of
yourself, take care of, you know, your mindset and your just
(14:24):
overall mental health because itis really important in this
industry. I could not agree more.
And you know, having a work lifeand mental health balance is
something that I can make a point of because a lot of people
will kind of pair your work lifebalance to your your work and
family balance. And that is that's really
(14:48):
important. But yourself care is really
important as well. You know, a couple of things
that I do to to help nurture my mental health or I'm a big
mountain biker and getting out on, on the trail, you know, two
or three times a week and spending an hour and a half with
myself in nature, get my physical health on, get my
(15:10):
mental health on. I will tell you that I've come
up with the best ideas and the best solutions for problems in
my business, not here in this office, but out there on the
trail. That's great.
I love to hear that. I just love being out in nature
as well. My wife and I, we love to hike
and get out of town and and go to really cool places and stuff
(15:30):
like that. So I think it is really
important to get out kind of reset even, you know, maybe you
can't do a full vacation, but ifyou could do a weekend out in
nature or just a weekend of justlike not worried about work and
all the day-to-day stuff, I think is really important.
Earlier you were talking about team.
Can you talk about how you've grown your team?
(15:54):
Can you talk about how things started and then kind of where
they're at today? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So I the way my team is set up right now, I actually have an
open position. I'm actively looking to hire
someone in like an administrative assistant for our
office and for myself, but we have two acquisition managers in
(16:15):
our real estate investing company and a dispositions
manager. OK.
So that's how my team is structured right now,
essentially a team of four plus me as the general manager.
So, so as a complete team, it would be 5 and everybody has a
virtual assistant to support them.
So sometimes that comes in the form of somebody who just does
administrative tasks or projectsor somebody that there's cold
(16:39):
calling or leave follow up and things like that.
But most of those additional team members are located,
they're based out of the country.
So really, you know, we have a team of five flexing up to a
team of 10, if you count our virtual assistants.
And then we consider them team members 100%.
We treat them like team members,like they're like they're here
(16:59):
with us. Even though they work remotely,
they, they work really hard and for us and with us and
understand our culture. And Speaking of cultures, one of
the most important things that we've developed to be able to
have a strong team and keep a strong team with the real estate
investing company. Turnover is very, very common.
Very, very common. When I say 2 acquisition
(17:21):
managers, that position oftentimes A turnover every
year, every year you're looking,you have a, it's an outside
sales position essentially. And, and oftentimes people will
learn what you teach them. They will move on as quickly as
they can because kind of like mewhen I was working for apartment
(17:42):
management companies and lookingat those big numbers at the
bottom, say, wow, I should be doing, I'm going to go chase
that, right? So, so having a really strong
culture and connections within the team and valuing team
members, expressing your appreciation, doing team
retreats and you know things to,to bring your team together and,
(18:05):
and want to be there. It's one of the keys to success
and, and growing A-Team, but most importantly, keeping
A-Team. And you know, we, we have
morning meetings every day and there's always laughter and
there's always solving problems on those calls.
Yeah, luckily I was able to be apart of one of your team
meetings as we're kind of in a mastermind together and I got to
(18:26):
come and see how you guys work. So I can attest that you guys
keep it fun and light and have agreat time, but still get the
work done. So that's really wonderful that
you have that culture, you have you you really focus on keeping
your employees happy, making sure they they have all the
things that they need and that they're fully supported.
(18:47):
Yeah, absolutely. And that's, you know, that's one
of the secrets and it shouldn't be a secret to anybody, but for
some, for some entrepreneurs, it's really hard to develop that
it's all business all the time. That's where you have that
turnover, that's where you're going to have that annual
turnover. I have two acquisition managers
1's been with me for nearly three years, another going on
(19:09):
two years and my my first hire, our dispositions manager Noah,
he's been with me for 3 1/2 years, 3 1/2 years.
So he was my first hire about six months in the the inception
of my business and very little turnover.
And, and that's something to really be proud of as an
(19:30):
entrepreneur, but it's one of the biggest messages that I
would give other entrepreneurs, especially if looking to, to
grow a real estate investing company.
Focus on the culture, focus on the culture, focus on the
people. Not only is it a people business
when we're out there trying to help families to have a
distressed situation or a problem that you can solve, but
it's a people business internally, right?
(19:51):
So if you focus your entire business around people, letting
them follow up. Can you talk about hiring that
first person? What was kind of going through
your head while? Deciding to add that first
person, can you talk about how how you worked through that in
your head? Yeah, sure.
(20:12):
So when deciding who to hire is your first hire, I encourage an
entrepreneur to look at themselves in the mirror 1st and
identify what they're really good at and what they bring to
the company that they they can bring better than anybody else.
(20:32):
And they hire around that. They hire the people that that
can support that role. For me, it was acquisitions.
I, I looked in the mirror and said, I'm really great at
getting in front of people, identifying a problem that I can
solve for them and putting a deal together.
(20:53):
That is a win win. OK.
Now all at the back ends of the maybe selling of properties, the
administrative part, the keepingthe marketing going, pulling
lists and ordering the mailers and all that kind of stuff.
I'm sorry, that does not fill myheart.
(21:15):
It just doesn't fill my heart. Yeah.
So, so I look in the mirror and say, well, you're our
acquisition manager and you needto hire somebody who can handle
the administrative part. I was really lucky in that I
didn't have to post for this first, second, third or fourth
hires. I've never posted Indeed job
(21:37):
posting. Everybody it's ever been on my
team has come through my network.
So I was introduced to to to my disposition manager, Noah, who
are a really good friend of minewho is a member of private Golf
Club that overheard Noah talkingabout wanting to get into real
(21:57):
estate investor. And he said, you know what, I
think my friend does that professionally.
He's got a young company, but he's a rock star.
And Noah said that's exactly whoI'm looking for.
I want to be mentored. I want to see if the business is
for me. And Noah was told by by somebody
very wise and I agree with this,to go, to go and find that
(22:21):
person for Noah to come and findme and to offer his services for
free for a period of time. Did that work for a young
entrepreneur like me trying to get a business off the ground?
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
So for the 1st 90 days, Noah continued working at the Golf
Club and he worked for me part time, 20 hours a week.
(22:43):
I've given commissions on any deals that I closed, but no base
salary, anything like that for the 1st 90 days for him to get
his feet wet, see whether real estate investing was for him,
whether he wanted to do it on his own or whether he was more
comfortable working in the business for, for a company like
ours. And, and I was lucky enough for
him to say, I would like to continue my education with you
(23:06):
after those 90 days. And I said I would love for you
to become an official team member and base salary plus
commissions for a then 19 year old man, young man.
And, and now, you know, we have a 23 year old man that has more
real estate investing experienceand most of the 60 year old
(23:29):
adults that I that, that work inthis business full time.
So I'm, I'm really proud of, of who we've been able to develop
in NOAA. And he's a, he's become a
tremendous asset to the company through the year.
So that's, I know it was a little bit long winded, but
that's the story of my first hire and where that person is
today. And now that person, you know
(23:51):
that this year that person will make over six figures as a 23
year old and, and be doing what he enjoys doing and what, where
what he, you know, he was in YouTube University, probably
TikTok University for him, right, TikTok University and
followed his dream a little bit and scratched the surface there.
(24:13):
Now that he's doing what he loves every day.
So it's a great story. Yeah.
And as I know, he gets to work remotely as well, correct?
That's right, that's right. So I first brought Noah on when
he was a Sacramento area resident.
And at one point he said he toldme one day, except, you know,
I'd like to spread my wings. Some of my friends who work in
(24:33):
golf also migrating down to Phoenix area.
And, and with the, you know, I mean, it's more about the
culture, right? Like, I feel like Noah's
position will will moving to a remote status.
Will it affect our team? Yes, it will.
It'll affect it negatively, but also the value this person
(24:56):
brings on a daily basis and our love for this team member and
watching him grow and flourish. Like why not give it a try?
So it's been over 2 years that he's lived in Phoenix and we're
able to make that work and make it work as a team more, more
reason that people just know that we're, you know, we're here
(25:16):
for one another. And you know, it's, it's
important to try to accommodate when an employee comes to you
and they say, I think I need to move.
The hardest decision I have to make around moving is leaving
this company if I do. So kind of switching gears a
little bit, can you talk to someof the younger listeners, maybe
(25:43):
the the newer real estate investors, the people that want
to get into real estate? I feel like your company's
really good at wholesaling and creative deals.
Can you talk about ways that newpeople can break in?
You kind of talked about YouTubeUniversity and how that was
working for you. And then you you got into this
(26:06):
more structured approach. Can you talk to some of the
newer investors on how to get started?
Yeah, such a great topic, Ian. Thanks for asking about it
because as a real estate investor who's done both, I've
done the YouTube university and then tried to make cold calls
and mail on my own and try to figure things out and just kind
(26:27):
of, you know what they might call failing forward, but
without the right mentorship, right?
I've done that. And then and then I and then I
purchased a business in box where I am every, every step of
the process is provided to me. And then the coach and the
mentoring every step of the way is there to a new investor who's
(26:48):
considering going the YouTube university route or TikTok
university or whatever, whateverthat you know, the modern term
for it is today. The best way to get your first
deal or get into this business is to do deals with people who
have done deals. OK, me and my team, we are
(27:09):
committed to helping new investors, even get them get
their first or next deal. We help experienced investors
have a renegotiate a deal that they have with the seller that's
just not working. It's not penciling, OK?
It's a deal that's been in contract.
There's a due diligence period. It doesn't seem to be penciling.
We have jumped in plenty of times, renegotiated, worked
(27:32):
through a solution and I've beenable to help, you know, either
sell that property, buy it ourselves or or help wholesale
it. So for newer people, highly
encouraged do deals with people who have done deals in the past
and you'll get millions and millions of dollars of value and
growth out of that as opposed totrying to hold on to that deal
(27:55):
because it's yours and just yours and then not be able to
sell it or I, I put it under contract too high or whatever it
may be. Now it's the people that have
done a lot of deals that can make a non deal a deal every
day. On the other hand, I'm also the
president of Norcal Real Estate Investing Association.
Getting involved in with groups like that, If you're serious
(28:17):
about, if you're really serious about real estate education,
there's no better place than to get around people who are doing
deals and continue the conversation.
Get your training from there andyou'll have access to people
like me, the people like my acquisition managers and
disposition managers to bounce ideas off of or come with a
(28:37):
problem that needs solving. That's that's another great way
to to, to to hedge against failure in this business is to
join a local area where you can get the support that you need on
a daily basis. That's good advice.
I really like that because that's kind of how I got my
start. I had realized that I wanted to
(28:58):
get into real estate investing and one day I just walked into a
room and there is several older gentlemen in a room is a
Sacramento 1031 exchange group. And I didn't know what I was
doing. I just found it online, walked
in and I was like, what am I doing here?
(29:18):
But that really kind of meeting those people and and talking
with them and figuring out what they're doing, what's working
for them, what's not, what theirview of the market is, all of
those things just really help somuch.
So I can't agree with you more that it's super important to get
in front of people that that areexperienced and have done deals
(29:40):
in your market or markets that you want to work in.
So I think that's really important.
One thing that you had also mentioned is trying to figure
out ways to provide value for investors.
So how could What are some ways that a newer investor can
provide value to a more experienced investor?
(30:01):
Maybe a mentor? Yeah, absolutely.
I can give you an example today,actually, we're working with an
investor who is, who's done a couple of deals, but but they're
interested in like partnering with us on whatever they can.
OK, We gave, we gave this investor a list of doors to go
(30:26):
out there and knock investors that are potential sellers that
might have some distress in their lives.
This person said, yes, absolutely, I will do it.
You know, knock those doors. Actually as of as of today, I
think we're expecting signatureson an agreement, one of those
(30:52):
knock doors to save to, to solvesomebody's big problem.
It's a probate problem. It's a squatter occupied problem
that they absolutely can't and don't want to deal with.
And that deal because that investor reached out to us and
said, is there anything that I can do to help you guys in your
(31:13):
business? That investor is a team member
of ours for as long as he wants to be.
If he wants to knock doors that we ask him to knock, he goes out
there and he brings the lead ourway and we go ahead and close
them. He's a, he's a 5050 partner on
that deal. By my estimate, he'll likely be
about a $50,000 deal. OK, so I know it sounds, it
(31:38):
sounds simple, but it's not easy, you know, walking up to a
stranger's door and knocking on it and asking them if they might
consider an offer on their property, if they know anybody
who might be willing to sell in that neighborhood.
It's not for everybody. It's just not for everybody.
But there are various tasks thatpeople can help and investor
(32:00):
like, like me and my team with if they wanted to come and get
some experience. We've had open arms for people
who want to come and learn from us.
It just takes certain levels of commitment and certain
personality types. You have to be a great culture
fit to to become any type of team member on a on a team like
ours because we value it so heavily.
(32:22):
Now you work on a lot of creative deals.
Can you get into maybe some pastdeals or some some creative ways
that maybe a cash purchase wasn't the way to go for that
particular situation? Can you talk about how you got
into more of a creative deal andand how that turned out?
(32:46):
Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to give you an example
of maybe a deal, a little deal right down, if that would be, if
that'll work. All right.
Well, actually today I'm receiving a, a $40,000 down
payment on a property that I purchased for $20,000 down.
(33:09):
OK. The way this shook out is we
went to, to a property out of the area in Copperopolis
actually. And we, we, it, it started as a,
you know, maybe a, will a cash deal work for you?
Guess what there's too much owedon the mortgage for for a cash
deal to work to help this lady who's firefighter husband who
(33:33):
just passed away and she wants to move back and be closer with
her parents in Oregon. She wants to do it right away.
So we're like, how can we help you?
Like there's not enough meat on the bone.
There's not enough spread for this to be like a cash deal.
Property didn't need that much work.
(33:57):
Maybe, maybe we can take over your loan payments.
You can always pay a little bit more by taking over your loan
payments while we do the rehab. Then we can either hold on to
the loan, you're going to transfer title to us, but you're
going to keep that loan in placeand we'll continue paying it.
That's called subject to seller finance and it's subject to
(34:21):
purchasing the property subject to the existing financing.
So we give her $20,000 if she wanted to sell that property on
the market, probably would have had to write a $10,000 check to
to sell that property. But she didn't have me gave her
a $20,000 check because we're buying a 2.65% loan along with
(34:43):
that property purchase. Right?
So that that's what I'm talking about when I say how can we find
a wing wing for this person. She just lost her husband.
She wants to move closer to family.
She has to write a $10,000 checkif she were to list her property
on the MLS. The property has a bunch of dry
rock damage. She can't afford to get a
Section 1 clearance to to even sell that property and write a
(35:07):
$10,000 check. She's in a major bind.
She's in a major bind. How can, how can we help her?
Well, listen, stay, you write mea $10,000 check.
I'm going to write me a $20,000 check.
I'm going to do a light rehab onthis property.
But hey, listen, in order to make that happen, I need to be
able to make you loan payments all the way through the life for
a while, OK, You're going to transfer title to me.
(35:30):
The loan stays in place. I make those payments done deal,
done deal. Today I have I have a an end
buyer. So somebody that I am selling
this property to sell a finance on a wrap.
I'm taking $40,000 down payment.OK, So you can do the math and
put you know $10,000 into this property that's 30,000 total I
(35:55):
have into the property ish and some closing costs and things,
but I'm taking a, a $40,000 downpayment.
So I'm actually you know nettingabout around 10.
And then when I sell this when as I'm selling this to our our
end buyer, I'm selling it as me seller financing it.
(36:17):
So I'm selling a mortgage payment where I pay $1500 a
month for that, for that, you know, three percentage loan,
right? And I'm selling it at 7%.
So that $1500 payment that I'm paying, I have my payment being
received by my seller finance purchaser and that seller
(36:40):
finance purchaser is paying me 2700 per month, 2700.
So now we're looking at, we're looking at about a $1200 a month
cash flow situation for basically the next 27 years,
over the next 27 years. So I, we were able to create a
(37:01):
win, win between US and the seller of the property.
This person that I'm selling it to doesn't qualify for a bank
loan. We're giving them modern
interest rates with no bank involved and they're putting
down, you know, 10% down and, and I'm the bank instead of
them. Our seller is kind of my bank
(37:24):
and there are no banks involved in any of these transactions.
Our seller gets a win win. The company here gets a win, win
and, and there's a win win with the end buyer.
And like opportunities like that, they're all around us, but
they need to be creative. You have to, you have to get
the, the education before you can go out there and say, Oh my
(37:47):
gosh, a cash deal doesn't work here.
I'm sorry, lady, you're screwed.Like plan to list this property
and write a $10,000 check at theclose investor.
That's what almost every of an investor is going to have to
tell her, right? And instead we created this
beautiful story for a lot of people through creative
financing. And, and you know, the, the
(38:08):
great thing about cash flowing over $1000 a month is that it
feels like a rental, right? But at the end of the, the, the
lifespan of the loan, the end buyer get this property.
All right. So we made a little bit on
buying and buying it and then taking a down payment, yes.
(38:29):
And we made $1000 a month in thenext 27 years, yes, unless they
refinance out or something and then we'll probably make a chunk
of change at that point. But but the biggest wins here
are for the seller and for the end buyer.
Those people need it, Somebody who has creative finance
knowledge to come and save theirday.
(38:49):
They needed someone to come in and get creative, do things
legally, completely above board and and be respectful of like
the loan in place, be respectfulof of everybody's situation
without judgement and put something together workshop.
So we've been able to do that for a lot of different families.
Kind of along this the creative financing, I've kind of been
(39:12):
told that as interest rates go up, it's makes more sense to do
more creative financing stuff. Do you agree with that?
Yeah, I do. I do.
I mean, there are a lot of loansfrom when interest rates had
dipped really low for a period of a year and a half or so
where, you know, during COVID, interest rates got down to, you
(39:34):
know, in the twos. I know somebody who has an
interest rate under 1% and, and there are a lot of loans there.
And when somebody sells their property with a loan like that
in place, it's kind of sad in myopinion.
It's kind of sad because like, you know, my, I mean, my, my
(39:55):
primary residence is a great example, right?
I refinanced into a really greatinterest rate during COVID.
I will never sell that property.If it were at a 6% interest
rate, I would probably sell the property at one point.
You know, especially here in California we're looking at.
You know, in my opinion anyway, I don't want to get into too
(40:17):
much speculation, but we're in we're in May of 2025.
And as a result of how much appreciation California and a
lot of the country has experienced in a short amount of
time during and shortly after COVID, I see maybe appreciation
slowed down quite a bit for the next few years.
(40:37):
And as a result, I know a lot oflot of buy and hold investors
willing to let go of their properties right now for that
reason, because as a as a real estate investor in California,
you bank on the appreciation, not necessarily on the cash
flow. In a lot of cases, it's hard to
cash flow here because the land value is so expensive right in.
Absolutely. So if you can't see any
appreciation over the next few years, what are you doing and
(41:01):
what are you doing with that property?
Is it going to be more of a headache than anything?
So I didn't mean to get off on atangent there, but but yeah,
that's, that's some of my thought process.
The the loans with great interest rates and people not
necessarily like wanting to sell.
The people that want to sell cango ahead and want to sell all
they want. Those typically aren't the the
(41:24):
people that my real estate investment company are
servicing. The people that my real estate
investment company are servicingare people that need to sell and
they have a problem, a reason why putting it on the the
property, on the MLS with an agent.
It doesn't make sense whether there's a time sensitivity or a
situation like, you know, MaggieBragg in Copperopolis where her
(41:46):
husband just passed away, her kids just finished school.
She's out of here and she she needs to get something done and
she can't write a check to sell her property.
OK. We're providing services and a
resource for people who need to sell, not necessarily kind of
want to sell, right. And, and with, with properties
(42:07):
with great rates like that, always open to talking about a
solution that can help them. And yeah, they're they're more
fruitful today than they ever have been because of the delta
and where interest rates were towhere they are today.
You and I had both attended DealChamps and during that, that was
(42:28):
Central Valley Real Estate Conference put on by the Deal
Champs. Great event, can't say enough
about those guys. Wonderful people, wonderful
educators, wonderful business owners.
During that event we had heard acouple people kind of predict a
(42:49):
little bit about the market. I don't want to go too deep into
it, but which we had heard several times that in 2025, this
year quarters three and four were going to be just a great
time for real estate investors. Do you agree with that
(43:10):
assessment and and what are you kind of forecasting the rest of
this year may be going into 2026?
Yeah, us being in early May of 2025 as we're as we're filming
this and like everybody seems tohave an opinion and some form of
speculation on what the market'sgoing to do for the rest of the
year. Our president has just slammed
(43:33):
down some pretty heavy tariffs on on pretty much every country
in the world. And there's a, there's, it's
unknown as to whether these negotiations are going to go
anywhere or, or any type of any type of certainty is going to
come back in any reasonable amount of time.
(43:54):
And so I am choosing to wait andsee what happens as opposed to,
you know, the times where I, I speculated that things were
going to be really good at any given, you know, given time,
then I've almost never been ableto accurately predict anything,
(44:16):
especially over the last few years.
You know, during COVID in June of 2022 when interest rates
doubled overnight. OK, I didn't see that coming.
I bought, I bought 3 flips in April of 2022.
I bought 3 properties. Luckily, I had enough spread to
not lose on any one of those three.
(44:37):
I sold them by the end of the summer that same year and I was
able to, I was able to get those3 without, you know, going into
the red on any of them. Most, you know, just about every
property that I, that I buy, I have enough spread for terrible
things to happen. Doubling interest rates.
Wow, that's, that's a lot that can go wrong.
That's pretty much the worst case scenario when you're, when
(45:00):
you're a flipper. But, you know, I've learned not
to speculate as much, but keep my eye on what is happening
today. Do that every day.
Yeah. That being said, in so far this
year with all of the uncertaintyin the world and in the in the
(45:21):
real estate world specifically, it's been a, it's been a very
interesting first part of the year, very interesting first
quarter when the tariff situation was laid upon America.
We have, we have a lot of peoplejust freezing, just freezing.
Do I think that people are goingto remain frozen for the
(45:41):
remainder of the year? I don't.
I don't. That doesn't make sense to me.
OK, Even if the tariffs negotiations don't get resolved,
I believe that people will startto treat things as a new norm as
opposed to picturing worst case scenario or things getting much,
much worse if things aren't resolved and things stay status
(46:02):
quo from where we are today. That's great insight.
I really appreciate that. And I'm with you.
It's it's never a smart idea to try to predict where the
market's going to go. I know I'm I was with you and
far as so far as Kovid came. So once covered kind of hit, I
thought the market was going to tank and it actually turned out
(46:24):
that the market went way up and prices skyrocketed.
So got lucky on, on that becausethat's when I started investing
was 2019. That's when I did my first flip
and I, I just thought it was going to be over.
Like I was like, here we go. I finally got into fixing
flipping. I got my first deal, getting
ready to sell this thing and a global pandemic hits.
(46:46):
Luckily, it turned out well. We actually made more than
expected. So that's a little bit
interesting. So Mitch, thank you for being
here. There's so many good things that
you have to talk about. And if there's anything about
Mitch's journey that we should take away from today is that it
reminds us that real estate investing is bigger than
(47:09):
flipping contracts or closing deals.
It's about building something that outlives us.
It's about creating a business that provides for you, your
family, and the people you care about.
Even if tomorrow doesn't go the way that you planned, make sure
to do the best you can to build for the future and build a
(47:31):
legacy. The cash flow you build today,
the systems that you put in place, the people that you help
today, they're all part of that legacy.
If you're serious about real estate investing, about business
and about life, don't just buildto survive.
Build, protect and build to last.
(47:52):
Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next time.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com