David: Alright guys, welcome back to the Discount Property Investor podcast. This is your host David Dodge.

Mike: Mike Slane.

David: With us is Mike Slane. Hey Mike, how are ya this morning?

Mike: Doing good, man. How are you doing?

David: I'm well, I'm well. We are visited today with two of my friends, our friends here in St Louis. These guys are doing something really cool with real estate association REIA's. We wanted to have them on to do a quick short episode with them this morning. Talk a little bit about what they are doing. I just went to one of their events the other night. So many great people in the room, done a ton of networking. I have done so many deals from going to REIA's and networking events.

Mike: Absolutely.

David: There is so much power. We have done some podcasts in the past about REIA's, but today we are jumping back in, we are talking with some local experts. So I want to introduce my two guests. Jason, I am going to screw up your last name, Licavoli?

Jason: Licavoli.

David: And Patrick Vincent. So two local experts here on the podcast. Welcome guys, how are we doing this morning.

Jason: Thank you for having us, this is exciting, man.

Patrick: Doing fantastic, thank you guys for having us.

David: Hell yeah! Absolutely, absolutely. So tell us a little bit about what you guys are doing. I know you guys have multiple REIA's that you are running, you have this network that is doing other things. Give us the quick and short on what you are doing with the REIA's here in town, we're interested.

Jason: I am a big fan of REIA clubs. I run my whole business through my network, right? My network is my net worth. I started my own club in Jefferson County last year, it was great. It took off, caught fire, got guys doing all kinds of stuff which is exciting.

David: -- if you're not from St Louis, it's a southern-- suburb of the St Louis area. It is St Louis County-- no, Jefferson Count, I'm sorry. Just south, but it is a big County, and we do a lot of deals down there.

Jason: In Jefferson County, it's a little bit country.

David: That's right.

Jason: Patrick and I have known each other for a long time. I said, hey I want to do a REIA club in the city. We locked on, we decided to make it something really special.

Patrick: We said, hey what about the other guys that have fantastic clubs here in St Louis? We just know the day after the REIA club is the most exciting day. People are pumped, they want to do the thing, by the time the next month comes, you kind of go down a little bit, you are not as excited. We wanted to do something every week. Obviously we have real jobs, so we couldn't do it every week. We went to all the other clubs and said, hey do you guys want to join this new thing that we are doing?

David: What is the new thing you're doing? Tell us more.

Jason: Well we are taking a collaborative approach to real estate investing, right? I think there are enough good guys in this business such as yourself, right? That will pour into other people and will help other people. So the new guy needs to learn, but he also needs to rub shoulders, and rub elbows with the guys that are doing deals. You can leverage other people's networks. Having everybody get together once a month in a room is very powerful. But once a month is not enough. We said, hey there are guys doing cool stuff all over town. What if you have one membership that allows you to go to all of those groups? Now you can plug in weekly, then you are diversifying your network with all these different parts of town. There is a group at St Charles, there is a group out in West County, now we have one in the city and one in Jefferson County. We are spread throughout the city. If you are a St Charles guy, you can plug into St Charles. Come to a couple of our other meetings and meet some people-- I mean JV a deal with someone in the city because you want to do city deals. That is my contention--.

Patrick: That was the focus, we wanted to build the best community possible. All my friends are real estate guys. I actually met you guys at another local club. I got to know both of you. Started doing things together. We just realized there is so much power in the interacting of people going to the clubs. How can we change how people do the clubs? We got tired of-- it seems you go there, sit for 90 minutes. A lot of times they are trying to sell you something at the end. We were just not fans of that. Not for education for real estate, because we are talking about it, that's what we are in the room for, get the education that way. People-- if there is money people should put it towards-- we are not a fan of not paying for stuff. We just wanted to do the REIA's totally different.

David: That's really cool.

Mike: I absolutely love that. I love that you coordinated with some of the other groups. I didn't realize that. I know you Jason had the one in South County or Jefferson County.

David: We both screwed that up.

Mike: We are clearly not Jefferson County.

Jason: Now you know me and my hundred people in Jefferson County, so now you plug into that network with one phone call, see?

Patrick: -- normally you're like, I don't know, now we have people that can help us.

Mike: Cool.

David: Yeah.

Mike: I was just about to say though, I love that you got with the other REIA's in town, and tried to co-ordinate a schedule so that there is something once a week. That's huge, I love that.

David: Absolutely. I have to hand it to you, man. You said earlier that you don't like when people are going and they are spending a ton of money on this education, however there is value in paying to be part of a club. We are talking about paying a little bit of money in a club, whereas a lot of these educational products are 10-20-- I know some people that have spent upwards of 50-60 grand for one program. I have spent six figures on real estate education, that's over ten years, guys. I have gotten value from everything that I've done. The way I actually met Patrick was he was working for one of the real estate clubs. This is probably four and half five years ago give or take. He was doing this thing in the evening called Buy Houses Not Courses. It was just like an extension of the club. That was one of the first times I met Patrick, it was great. His message was clear. Don't go spend 30 grand on a product to teach you how to buy something you can take that 30 grand and actually go buy. In our market, in St Louis-- I can pick up a turn key rental property for 30 grand. We just did it yesterday, we got a good deal on one, going to be a turnkey rental for 30 grand, absolutely, 100%. Not all of them are great, but you learn so much more on that experience than you would on just buying a bunch of education. I love that. I want to say, Patrick, thanks for helping me out four and a half years ago when I was just getting into the business, man.

Patrick: I love that it happens. I get to see people who said-- it has been my mindset from the very beginning, that's why the title is Buy Houses Not Courses. Everyone can do this business, everyone is involved in real estate one way or another. You might as well turn a profit, because you are going to live in real estate in some way.

David: Absolutely. So you started the Jefferson County club, Jason. How many meetings have you guys had? That's relatively new, right?

Jason: It's been a year.

David: The city REIA, that is like brand new, right? You have only had a couple, am I wrong?

Jason: Two days ago was our second meeting.

David: I missed the first one, made the second one, looking forward to more of those, man. You had an amazing event space, and actually a much bigger group than I had anticipated. So great work on that, guys. Both of you guys, great work on that.

Jason: Thank you, it was much larger than we anticipated.

Patrick: 120 people between the last two weeks. We are proud of that because that means 350 people are hearing the message of community, just come down here an join us. We are big on giving the product away that we are paying for anyways. You do need some of the products, you need CRM's, you need phone systems, you need those things. A lot of people are not in the position to do that. We wanted to solve that problem to get people started. That is exactly what we do. We roll out and say, here is our business, this is how we do it, come join us. All you have to do is plug in-- i mean it is $97 for a year to come to all of our events, all of our stuff. If you don't have 97 then you are not there yet anyway.

David: Let me double check real quick. Did you say 97 a month or a year?

Jason: The whole year.

Mike: That's unbelievable!

David: That's a good price, guys.

Jason: My goal is to JV with people, right? You could learn and learn, but until you do a deal, you ain't gonna learn shit. So if we do a deal together, you are going to learn-- you don't have to be with me, I am--.

David: Four REIA's, for 97 a year and I don't know if I should be talking about it--.

Mike: What else have we got in this?

David: But at the meeting you guys promised some App access, is that something you guys are still doing?

Patrick: For your listeners absolutely, we would absolutely do that.

David: Cool! I'm excited about that. That's the driving for dollars app.

Patrick: It's the driving for dollars app. It does all the stuff we used to do, things I used to talk about. You have to drive around--.

David: -- I'm not good at like writing down the address and taking it back anywhere. I usually pull up and knock on the door, or I will send a picture over to one of the VA's to skip, but it's all one offs. I am super excited about getting the app, because I want to buy all my neighbor's houses, those are people I don't really want to talk to.

Patrick: With two buttons you can text and send a postcard by sending two buttons.

David: Yeah that's pretty cool. That's super cool. Wow guys, I didn't realize it was 97 a year, I thought it was 97 a month. Even at 97 a month that is still quite a bit of value.

Mike: Yeah and you get access to all four of the REIA's. Yeah that's unbelievable, a year.

David: You guys have sold me. I'm sold. If you are a St Louis person and you a listener here or a viewer here in St Louis. Where can we send everybody to go sign up so they can get access to not only the app but all four of these awesome REIA's? Where would they go?

Patrick: Right now the best place to go is FlippingSTL.com, but honestly reach out to us personally. We don't just want to take everybody on that thinks they want to do it. We want to make sure you are prepared for what this is. This is hard work, it's not physically hard, but you have to go hustle, we do not provide the hustle. We will tell you where to focus your hustle, but we don't do that part. I'm happy to give my phone number away. You can reach out to Jason at FlippingSTL. We will send you all the information.

David: No problem, we will throw it into the show notes, guys, that's great. I definitely want--.

Patrick: If people want a link directly to do that, I will send you that for the show notes.

David: Send me that too, absolutely. We have a lot of listeners here in St Louis that would definitely be interested. I need to go to more REIA's. When I first started I was going to every one. I met so many great people, then I got busy and haven't gone. But I am loving it, I am getting back into the REIA's.

Jason: Imagine this, you are at the meeting two days ago, right?

David: I was.

Jason: Don't you pick up a vibe in the room? You can not do that digitally. In the room you pick up the momentum, the excitement. I mean, that is the power of the REIA club, is being in that room with a bunch of different people all focused on one thing, and that's making money, making the world better, solving people's problems. That feels good.

David: You're absolutely right. It's crazy, last year and the year 2018, Mike and I, our company, we purchased 98 houses. That is not 98 transactions.

Jason: 98 houses.

David: We did well over 150 transactions last year.

Jason: That's awesome.

David: 23 of those houses that we purchased were from other people in St Louis that we essentially JV'd with. They wholesaled us a deal, we joint ventured with them to get the deal or help sell that deal after we bought it. So 23 of those deals came from joint venture people just locally. Actually some of them were not even local, they just joint ventured with us.

Jason: Isn't that awesome?

Patrick: We think that's the future of the business.

David: 80% of those people I had either met at REIA in the past, or I had definitely known of them going to REIA's. There is so much value in going there. When we went last night, at the table I was sitting at with, or two nights ago, there is a hard money lender sitting across from me and doesn't even have an application. He says, make me a deal I will fund it. You come in that room, all of a sudden all your funding issues are gone, right? If you are looking to do rehabs, I was there so I can help you find a deal, but there are 20 other wholesalers in that room who can help you guys find deals, right? If you want to learn how to wholesale. I was even giving away books when I was there last time.

Jason: I know that was awesome.

David: Everybody that goes, even if you're a newbie or if you're a veteran, there is value to be had. Wouldn't you agree with that, Mike?

Mike: 100%. David was saying he needs to get out there again, he went last time. I think it was on both of our rocks for the quarter to get out to more network events. Very excited to start joining you guys and looking forward to it.

David: Absolutely.

Patrick: -- because we connected all these people, the next thing we wanted to tackle was buying power.

David: Let's talk about that, guys. I almost forgot. That is one of the best parts.

Patrick: Not to get too crazy into it. But, the long and short of it is, if you are not doing 50-100 homes a year, you can't buy stuff at the prices we buy it for. Since it is very difficult to get to that level, we are offering our pricing. I didn't want to get into-- let's mark it up to this price or that price. That is not the business I want to be in. We just have a co-op, you join the co-op, you get to buy all your properties at price, also get incredible discounts from HomeDepo, we can get your 23% off everything at HomeDepo.

David: 23%--.

Patrick: Cabinets and flooring, we are working with another granite company. We have got pricing as low as $5 a foot for granite. We have a lot of really cool things coming. You get all of that stuff when you join. We are very excited about that as well.

Jason: I have been doing this business 15 years, right? I go to the same HomeDepo I have always gone to. Now as a unit, we are spending a million dollars a year. As a unit they will roll out the red carpet for me. -- giving me deeper discount than I have ever gotten before, all because everyone is buying under one account. It is the most phenomenal thing. That is the power of bringing people together, having a network that is supporting one another, absolutely amazing.

Patrick: As deals get tighter and tighter, saving thousands of dollars on product will make a deal--.

David: That's such a great point. We do a lot of podcasts with people from out of our neighborhood essentially. From what I've seen, the wholesale fees in St Louis on average are anywhere from a third to a half of what some of these other people and other markets are getting. Just to kind of repeat what you guys were saying, sometimes deals get tight. If you can save a couple of nickels here, a couple of nickels there on maybe materials, or something else that is going to help you with that project, it will help increase--.

Patrick: It's not a couple of nickels, it is literally 50% off kitchens.

David: Wow.

Patrick: The savings go directly into your pocket.

David: That's awesome.

Mike: Kitchens are one of the biggest expenses too.

David: I know, that's crazy.

Jason: Check this out, when you rehab a house and you are going to spend 30 grand on that rehab, and you save money on material, but then you leverage out contractor list. You have vetted contractors that are not going to screw you--.

David: That's a huge problem for people that don't have their own people. How do I know who to hire? Who do I call, Dave? I get that question everyday. I need to do my kitchen, will you do it? No I'm sorry I don't do kitchens, I flip houses. But, you can call this guy I hire to do kitchens. If you guys can provide that list to people of different contractors to do different things, that simplifies the process even more when you go to these meetings.

Patrick: It's called the contractor's registry. You can go there now, it's on Facebook, it's free, it doesn't cost you anything. They are vetted contractors. The Contractor's registry on Facebook.

David: We are going to have a lot of show notes, guys, because I need you to send me all this stuff. We don't have time to go through everything, but send it over. The listeners and viewers are going to love it. Send us information about the two REIA's you guys run, send us information how not only how to join those two but all four for one year price of under a hundred bucks, which is crazy cheap.

Mike: That is crazy cheap.

David: I want that app, I literally want to start using it today. Send me directly send me information on how I can sign up right now, because you guys have just sold me. I was already sold but I'm ready to pay. Yes, send us information on how people can reach out to you guys directly if they are St Louis people, or if they are just in another market and they want to maybe copy what-- we are all about giving back. If somebody else out there is in a market similar to St Louis, and they have seven REIA's and they can't decide which one they want to go to, maybe they can put together some sort of alliance, very similar to what you guys have done, because there is a tremendous amount of value there.

Jason: Absolutely. One thing for the people not from St Louis that they can take away from this interview, [00:18:50.02 - inaudible] all the REIA Clubs. You can go to one REIA club, right? Find the wholesalers, get some deals. Go to another REIA club, talk to the landlords and the flippers and just put deals together. You could make six figures this year, for your audience, you could make six figures this year.

Patrick: All you got to do is listen.

David: Man, isn't that crazy? And that's just in our market. You can do this anywhere and everywhere really. So cool. Well guys thank you for coming on, thanks for sharing. I have had the pleasure of working with you guys and coming to your clubs. I can't wait to go to the next one. I can't wait to get--. That would be cool. Otherwise, send us everything that you need to send out in our show notes. It has been a pleasure.

Patrick: Thanks guys, we appreciate the time.

Jason: Yeah, man. I know there are a lot of things we could be doing, so I appreciate it.

David: Alright guys, until next time. Signing off.

Jason: Thanks, fellas.