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David: Alright guys welcome back to another episode of the discount property investor podcast. I am your host David Dodge and today I actually have the honor of bringing in a good friend, a guy that's been working with me for the last couple years doing acquisitions, Travis Wakefield. Travis what's up bro?

Travis: Good morning.

David: How are you man?

Travis: Living the dream man, living the dream.

David: You don't usually come in the office and literally I just saw you in the hall and I'm like I grabbed him and I said we're recording a quick podcast bro, come in here.

Travis: Right.

David: You're here to pick up a check though right?

Travis: Picking up a check.

David: Nice, what- why? What'd you do?

Travis: We wholesaled a deal together in Overland I think it was and I think we made decent amount of money over there on that one.

David: Nice bro, what was the gross profit on it like?

Travis: I wanna say it was 17, 16, 17, something like that.

David: 16 or 17 thousand wholesaling.

Travis: Yeah.

David: Hell yeah man. And you got an appointment today?

Travis: Yeah headed down in South City, gonna meet with a guy that we've been talking to together for a few years now and try to get that one signed, sealed and delivered.

David: A few years now.

Travis: Yeah, I think 2019 is when we started talking with this guy, before coronavirus.

David: Man I want that to set in for a second. Anybody that's listening, few years now. Travis is going to meet a guy at a property that we've been talking to for a few years now. Most people would stop after like 2 or 3 follow-ups Travis.

Travis: That's why we use CRM's and you know, sometimes these things take off right away but my experience has been that the good ones come with good follow up.

David: Absolutely they do, absolutely. If you don't follow up on your deals and your leads, you're not gonna convert. Follow up is probably the most underestimated thing that we all have and can do but most people they don't do it man.

Travis: Right.

David: It's just unbelievable.

Travis: Well it can be tedious.

David: It can be tedious. That's awesome. Dude you have grown as an investor like crazy in just the last like 2 or 3 years. I've probably known you for 7, 8.

Travis: Yeah something like that.

David: It's been a minute bro for sure.

Travis: Yeah.

David: Tell me about some of these BRRRR deals you're doing man.

Travis: Yeah so you know I make my living- have made my living wholesaling for a while and when I started working with you guys, I started picking up on things and one thing about working with you guys and doing acquisitions for the company, it has pretty much forced me to learn for the sake of knowing what to be chasing for you and Mike, how these things were working and what the process was and what the exit strategy would be. And as I began to learn that, I thought you know I can do this.

David: I can do this.

Travis: Right.

David: Everybody can do this man.

Travis: Yeah.

David: This isn't rocket science. But that's great.

Travis: Yeah so basically followed the lead that you guys set in place and started doing some BRRRR deals a couple of years ago, 2020 I think it was.

David: Isn't it amazing how the skills that we learn when it comes to marketing and running appointments and following up and making offers of course, all these skills that we gain from the wholesaling business just give us like rocket fuel whenever we're trying to acquire rentals because there's no better way to make money in real estate than buying it at a discount.

Travis: Sure.

David: Hence the name of this podcast.

Travis: Right.

David: Discount property investor. That's what wholesaling does, it teaches you how to get in but it also makes 17, 18 thousand dollar pay days like we had last Friday.

Travis: Right.

David: Right and you're here to pick up your check, it's amazing, I'm so happy to see you man. But having those skills then translates into being able to be a landlord and using the BRRRR method. So you said you had 3 properties man?

Travis: Well I've got a partner down in my market that I'm working with and he and I together own just under a dozen however I believe we have 4 of them up running cash flowing at this point in time.

David: Dude last time I talked to you, you had 3, now you have a dozen.

Travis: Right.

David: And you have 4 of them rented.

Travis: Sure.

David: Hell yeah man. So are you BRRRR method-ing these or- is that the plan or- walk me through the typical one, like what's the process?

Travis: So yeah basically you know, we try to buy them at a discount and we- generally they're a value add situation where they're gonna need some sort of work. The first few of them, what we did is we did some work on the properties and then we turned around and leveraged them on a line of credit with a local lender so we have that line of credit that we're generally you know, either maxed out or have totally available to us and what we're doing is we're basically using that line of credit to purchase properties as needed, fix the property and then refinance or sell. A few of the property- I think 2 or 3 of the properties now we've actually fixed and sold.

David: Nice.

Travis: Just based off how the market is and having that opportunity there but yeah so we've got 4 of them that are up and running and rented out and then we've got obviously a few that are sitting vacant and being worked on or waiting to be worked on.

David: I love it man, you got a lot of things going. So let's back up though, how did you get this line of credit? Like did you- like how did you get the first property or two? What'd you do to be able to have the line? Was this on existing assets that you and your partner had?

Travis: No.

David: No, no?

Travis: So uh-

David: Whoa, how? How did you do this man? Everybody listening is gonna wanna know because they probably don't have existing assets either man.

Travis: Yeah.

David: We don't usually start this business or are born with a bunch of assets and capital.

Travis: Right, sure.

David: So what did you do? How did you do it with nothing like essentially to begin with? Now you did have a skill-

Travis: Sure.

David: -of buying deals and a great one, that's why I love working with you right?

Travis: Yeah.

David: But yeah go ahead.

Travis: Ditto. Yeah so basically you know, I was able to wholesale a few deals, put some money in the bank, and then my partner and I both met up and decided- we've- I've actually spotted a house that was on the MLS.

David: Hell yeah.

Travis: And-

David: Which is rare.

Travis: Yeah it was on the MLS, it was a little one bed one bath house, we were able to kind of steal it for lack of a better term and we were able to take that one and do a little bit of work to it and then we leveraged that one to buy the next house that was a 3-1, leveraged the first house, bought the second house.

David: So you guys bought the first one with the cash.

Travis: With our own cash.

David: But it was resourced- it was pooled?

Travis: Right yeah.

David: Yeah, which is great, that's how I did my first couple too man.

Travis: Did a little work to it, used that as leverage with the bank.

David: And then did you rent it out-

Travis: Yeah right yeah.

David: -and refinanced. So you BRRRR-ed it.

Travis: Well we didn't refinance it to begin with, we put somebody in it and then put that up as collateral to buy the second property which was a good deal.

David: Which essentially you used financing on it though, you didn't refinance it and take out a long term loan but used the collateral.

Travis: Sure.

David: Yeah so essentially it's still a finance play.

Travis: Right.

David: Absolutely. Love it.

Travis: So we flipped that second one and basically doubled our money then obviously released when we sold that second one to the owner occupant buyer that released the lien that was on the first property so now we own that one free and clear at this point and we have 40, 50 thousand dollars cash which we then parlayed into buying a couple other ones at really good prices which we did some work on and then at that point rather than just refinancing them, we went to a lender and said hey let's get these things appraised and we will use these as collateral on a line of credit so you know, that's basically where we got our start at. Now we're using that line of credit to buy new assets and to utilize for the resources to do the improvements.

David: You are crushing it bro, keep it up.

Travis: Just following your lead.

David: I love seeing you grow as an investor so let's talk about couple things here. You got a dozen of these, some of them are rented, some of them you're working on, some of them you're gonna sell, some of them you're gonna keep. I love it, that's what I do, pivot, right? Like as your business maybe needs capital, you can sell some off and then you can pay some off as you're doing deals and selling them. You know, it's really good to have a couple things in the pipeline. Of the dozen deals, just from the hip, where did you find these deals from? Was they- Are they- you had mentioned one on the market which is rare, right?

Travis: Right.

David: You're an agent as well which helps you talk to other agents, you have some experience, but where did the other you know, 11 or so of these deals come from?

Travis: I think we actually own like 8 or 9, so when I say a dozen, it's just under a dozen but uh.

David: Yeah call it a dozen man

Travis: So yeah we you know just marketing the same way we would for wholesaling however instead of selling them off, we've just started keeping them, you know? And then we bought- I'm trying to think, we bought a package with a couple of friends down in our market and we basically wholesaled a couple of those off to them, I think it was one of them, sorry my brain is foggy. We wholesaled one of those off to them at a higher price which basically covered the majority. We bought two properties and basically-

David: Sold one off and got one for free.

Travis: Sold one off and got one almost for free.

David: Look at that.

Travis: You said it much better than I was trying to say.

David: No worries.

Travis: But I think that house, we ended up paying like 20 grand for and had appraised immediately at like 90 grand or something like that so we were like 20 grand-

David: Man, creative.

Travis: Yeah.

David: You guys are getting creative, you're making magic happen but-

Travis: We have to be when you're poor. [Both laugh]

David: But you know what though? You're doing great, you're doing awesome. You guys have about a dozen properties, half of them are rented essentially. So let's talk about the rented ones, how many of the rented ones are paid off? One of the four it sounds like or maybe even more than that?

Travis: Yeah well we have a few of them leveraged with a line of credit then we have a bunch of our own cash out there as well as we have a hard money loan with-

David: So you're getting creative, that's awesome.

Travis: -with a hard money lender.

David: I love leverage.

Travis: Yeah so you know, we're leveraging our resources and our capital as much as possible without- with being cognizant of not becoming overleveraged which you know-

David: Absolutely.

Travis: -can happen if you don't- I've seen it happen, I'm sure you've seen it happen to other people.

David: Oh yeah.

Travis: And so you always wanna be you know, on the lookout to make sure that you're not overextending yourself which is what we try to do.

David: I love it man. Let's talk cash flow. You got 4 properties rented, these are assets now. What's the definition of an asset? You know the definition of an asset.

Travis: Putting money in your pocket on a monthly basis.

David: Yes. You got 4 of them, dude that's amazing. So what's the average cash flow for each of those? Just the average.

Travis: Around- I think on average our properties are rented at about 7, 8 hundred a month, something like that.

David: And what's the amount that you have to pay out?

Travis: Right now it's pretty- it's pretty low because-

David: 3, 4 hundred?

Travis: Yeah something like that.

David: So your cash flow is maybe 400 bucks a property?

Travis: Right.

David: And you have 4 of them?

Travis: And it depends yeah just depends on a month to month basis about you know, where our money is at and how we're leveraging it obviously. If we're in a situation where we've just sold off like here hopefully in the next month or so, we're gonna sell off one of our rehabs which is gonna-

David: Free up capital.

Travis: Free up some capital and-

David: Reduce your debt.

Travis: And reduce the debt.

David: Increase your income.

Travis: And increase the income.

David: Dude you're a pro.

Travis: You said it very well.

David: You're a pro man, you are a pro.

Travis: I'm searching for the way to explain this stuff and you're helping me out.

David: Well I- that's always the goal man, I wanna help as many people as I can. You're doing great, you're around a lot, you're seeing it firsthand and you don't really even ask that many questions man, you just hit the road running, I love it. You're a go getter.

Travis: Yeah I try to pay attention man.

David: Pay attention, listen to the people that are actually doing things, not people that are just talking about things. If you- I've watched you and Mike and what you were doing and how you were interacting with- and the way that you were um you know, just acting in this business on a day to day basis and-

David: We're not that smart either man, it's just consistency.

Travis: I'm really not so. [Both laugh]

David: You know like I don't ever try to be- act like I'm the smartest guy in the room at all like you know? But what I do know is that I'm not going away. I'm consistent, I'm persistent and here's another thing Trav, you and I share this trait, we're not afraid to fail.

Travis: It sucks but it's part of life.

David: It sucks but it's part of it.

Travis: Yeah.

David: You can't get to success without some failure mixed in there, like failure plus failure plus failure plus failure plus maybe even 100 more failures, it's gonna equal success if you don't stop but if you quit after the first time you fail, you probably wouldn't even be flipping houses right now, you probably wouldn't be- wouldn't have 4 cash flowing rentals making almost 2000 a month. 400 times 4 is $1600.

Travis: Right.

David: And that's passive income. That's amazing.

Travis: I think where we're at right now is I was tallying it up last night, we have about 3100 coming in and we have about- we have one mortgage with the bank that goes out that's at like 700 or something like that so we're actually cash flowing pretty well at this point in time.

David: Depending on how much is pulled off that line.

Travis: Right yeah.

David: But that line is power.

Travis: Yeah.

David: That line is opportunity, that line is the ability to make an offer with confidence knowing you can close.

Travis: Sure.

David: Because you have the ability to get the capital without having to go ask somebody for it or build a relationship with somebody for it or whatever it may be. You have that- you have that there, that's amazing man, that's awesome.

Travis: Yeah and I just wanna reiterate that the main thing that I've learned- the main things that I've learned doing this business and in life is build relationships with people and don't make promises that you can't keep, keep the promises that you make and stay humble and be a good student for the right teachers and that's basically my algorithm.

David: You live by all those things that you said and those were-

Travis: I haven't always but I've learned the hard way to live by those things.

David: Nah man but having integrity is one of your- one of your greatest things.

Travis: Sure [inaudible].

David: But really one of your greatest business, trying to think of the right word here but like one of the best things that that I would associate Travis with is his ability to follow up. You know a lot of people they get deflated when the seller says no or they say stop calling me or they say go kick a rock.

Travis: Right.

David: Travis is like okay you have a better day hopefully. You always kill them with kindness, you always turn it around like man that guy wasn't having the best day hopefully at least you know, he can cheer up right? You always have such a positive attitude but you are persistent man. You are getting ready to go look at a property that I've already looked at.

Travis: A couple of years ago.

David: But it was 2 years-

Travis: 2 or 3 years ago yeah.

David: -maybe even 3 years ago. You have continued to follow up with this seller. You live how far away from where we're at right now?

Travis: About an hour.

David: You live an hour south.

Travis: Yeah.

David: And the guy that owns the property that you are meeting there lives where?

Travis: Same place I do.

David: So you both are driving an hour to meet?

Travis: Right, right.

David: What time are you meeting him at?

Travis: In about 20 minutes.

David: Okay cool well we'll wrap up here. We'll wrap up in 2.

Travis: It's all good.

David: We'll wrap up in 2 . But man your level of consistency, your ability to be persistent is what drives results, right? Cause and effect, very simple and you are crushing it because of that. So if anybody is listening right now and you want success, you don't have it, you're on the brink of it, you've been trying, take some tips from Travis, follow up. The average deal Travis, this is- this is- for me and you this doesn't seem crazy but for a lot of people that are listening they're gonna be like what? The average deal that hits our CRM which is basically a lead, from the time that it hits to the time that we're able to get that property under contract is 4 to 6 months.

Travis: Wow.

David: That's the average, it's 7 years of data, 700 plus deals and you've been a part of probably 2 or 3 hundred of those, maybe more, tons and tons of deals on your end. 4 to 6 months. So think about it this way: it gets skewed when one comes in today and we get it under contract.

Travis: Right.

David: But it also gets skewed when we have a lead that's 4 years old or 5 years old. The one you're going to look at today is at least 3 years old.

Travis: Yes, it's an oldie but goody.

David: And it needed a bunch of work when I walked through it, be careful going up those stairs I remember the house like yesterday.

Travis: Sure.

David: There's a hole in the stairs about the size of a-

Travis: It's probably bigger now.

David: Yeah 6 feet whole, you have to jump across these things but it's kind of cool in a way. But that's great man, your consistency is crushing it. To anybody that's listening or viewing, give them some words of advice and then we're going to wrap up man. If they're new, you know what would you tell- how about this, what would you tell Travis 5 years ago to get you where you are now in 3 to 6 months versus 5 years? What would be the thing you would tell yourself? That's gonna be powerful.

Travis: Talk less, listen more, attempt to find ways to help people actually fix their issues or their problems, be a problem solver as opposed to attempting to fit their needs in your box and like I said just you know, don't make promises you can't keep, keep the promises that you make and be willing to go through the rough times that come with being in a commission based business and then get out of the- get out of the commission based part as much as possible as soon as you can.

David: By doing what?

Travis: By stockpiling- stockpiling assets that put money in your pocket on a monthly basis.

David: Man I love it, you nailed it. Guys take some advice from Travis, he is crushing it. Thanks for listening, until next time. Signing off. Thanks for listening to the discount property investor podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and subscribe to help us reach a wider audience to jump-start your real estate investing career, visit freewholesalecourse.com- the most complete free course on wholesaling real estate ever. We would also appreciate it if you left us a review on iTunes or Stitcher. Thank you in advance for your support and remember you make your money when you buy, you get paid when you sell. Now let's go build some wealth.