Gavin: Hey, guys, how are you doing, Gavin Timms with REI Network. Back with another episode, super cool guests to my favorite people. Before I introduce them, I just want to give you a quick giveaway. We just completed, as I’ve talked about in the podcast, our deal in Maui. I’m going to put together a case study on how we found the deal, exactly the numbers, how it all worked. So make sure you go to REINetwork.com/maui. REINetwork.com/maui. And get involved. Also, if you watch videos on YouTube, go to make sure you like and subscribe. Same on the podcast, REI Network with GavinTimms and you’ll get my other shows there as well. Right. Two of my favorite people, Steve and Coco guys. How are we? 

Steve: Doing good. Doing good. Yes. Sunshine and 70-degree weather. But other than that, doing good. 

Gavin: And that’s what it is here right now is with record in the seventy-two today. Oh yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Well I appreciate you coming back on. It’s always good to have someone bring you up the day and said when are you going to get Steve and his wife back home because they seem to have a good laugh when they watched our last one. And that was good. 

Steve: Serious type guy. Gavin, how could that happen? Exactly. 

Gavin: And he’s actually really funny because I wish I could have started the podcast 50 minutes ago. He was trying to actually get him to zoom. Right. Which is good because we’re going to come on to that. Right. In terms of you guys do a lot of deals. You’re successful, been working together now for a few years. And it just goes to show, you know, technology is not the strongest thing, but you still got things done. So it’s no excuses, right? We’ve helped you get things in place. The VAs. We’re going to talk about that. How that’s working for you. But I think the cool thing is, is that when we talk about systems, people that haven’t got a technology level kind of get stressed out saying when I can’t operate the computer and I can’t do this and I can’t do that. And that’s more important why you need systems, in my opinion. So people are doing all that for you. So, again, you guys can focus on making money. So we’re going to cover all that. But let’s start with House. How are you both I mean, how is two thousand twenty what’s going on in the in the Zimmer household? 

Steve: 2020 was better than twenty nineteen. Even with the covid. I felt like we got our feet underneath ourselves. So 2020 was I mean I built a couple, three good teams and I’m working on a fourth and fifth as we speak. So right now I like it was a lot better than ’19. Yeah. 

Coco: And 2021 is going to be even better. 

Steve: So 2021 is our year that we plan on accomplishing quite a bit more than we did last year. I think, I think we finally. How do I put it? It’s like we got it. Does that make sense. Absolutely. 

Coco: The light bulb went off. 

Gavin: Yeah. Good. Yeah. I’m willing to talk about that because I mean you’ve got a great opener to the year. You got five contracts last week. You got one while I was on the phone with you earlier today. So very impressive. And I want to talk about the process where the thing that we originally built on small scale, I think from my input in terms of what I see, is that you can take this model now and all you’re doing is duplicate in other markets or other areas within the state. Right. Would you say that’s fair? Yes. OK, and would you say that it’s fair that once you have that foundation in place and understand what you need to build next and what you need in each location, it’s now easier to do because you understand what you need, what works? Yes. Yeah. So that’s kind of what we’ve kind of done. And that’s how you’ve started to scale and get this momentum from nineteen. Not great us having conversations of I don’t get a deal done and now you crank out. All we do really is we do check ins of how much kind of money you make you want deals you’re doing, which is good. Right. And that’s what this is all about. So what marketing are you doing right now? 

Steve: Marketing, all we do is cold calls or VA sends out text messages, SMS messages. That’s all the marketing we do. Other than that, we don’t send out mailers. We don’t send out postcards. We\ get word of mouth works. Yeah, I do have a guy that goes around and drives for dollars and we pay him on what we close on. 

Gavin: Well, on that note. You’re still that’s a list. Right. And you’re still doing the cold calling and texting to that list. Yes. So the same as me, you cold calling, you’re texting, and I know we helped you kind of get your cold callers and your text, your admin. I know you kind of love your admin, your new admin. Well, not new now probably what, four or five months. What do they do for you? What does your admin VA do for you? 

Coco: Well basically we have a task list. He’s got like a task daily that he has to do. No one is get on with this every morning and then, of course, we have to keep Steve in check and his priority is to get Steve’s number for the day. He has to do that voxer or however he can get it, because then he does send us email blast, that kind of thing, sends out our contracts. And then there’s a few others, like he looks for leads for us as well, whether it be Zillow, prop stream, wherever he’s pulling the list of that daily to help keep our leads going. 

Gavin: Got it. Let me just touch on a couple of points here. So you’re outsourcing your weaknesses, your outsourcing the lower dollar activities. Right. And last do is allowing you to be more efficient, would you say? Right. So what happens is Steve’s on the phone. So it’s kind of this is what I see. And you can correct me. Coco is like kind of oversees things that’s happening, right? That Steve’s doing what he needs to do. The VA is doing the communication is absolutely key. Right. The communication every single day. Right. 

Coco: If you don’t want to be as much as well, forget it. They’re going to do what they want and they’ll take advantage. Yes, they will. Yeah. 

Gavin: Yeah. But you need to know for your business, it’s only just because they’re in the Philippines or not. You should be meeting with your team every day. You need to be communicating with your team. And that goes to show with the results that you get the same of those we check in with every VA every day, twice a day, twice a day before and after the shift and them that they need right when they have to communicate and start at the end. So you do that. Well, the other thing is when the lead comes in, Steve speaks to them. How do you get that information back over to the VA? 

Coco: We actually we’ve had the VA make up a call list for Steve. So he’s not really using the REI simple list because he was confused on that, you know Steve and computers. So there’s a call list at the VA sends us every day. And so at the end of the call list, there’s notes, says Steve. We’ll let him know whether you call. We’ve got an answer or anything like that. And then the VA takes those notes and either puts to call back on a couple of days later or whatever he needs to do with it. 

Gavin: Perfect. That’s exactly how it should be. So, Steve, obviously great with technology. So we’ve removed that. All simple is the hope of the business. You’ll get in the VA to give your task for the day. So you’re out of it. You then go through them. You give them the VA, the feedback on what the notes need to be. Correct. And how are you doing that? Are you putting them onto the spreadsheet, are you voxer-ing him? How are you telling him what his next task is?

Steve: I’m actually typing it in my notes. I’ll transfer my notes from paper like on a seller. I’ll put down all the information I’ve got because lately I’ve been getting some leads that are per say out of my market. So I’m working that market. I’m trying to figure out the market and I’ve got someone I’m working with up there. Here, in fact, we just Skype each other or whatever we did here recently, but she’s going to be my main runner up there. So what I’ll do is I’ll send her the information that I’ve got and then my girl up there will go run the properties, take pictures and come back to me. And let’s say I make an offer for eighty thousand dollars. And she comes back and says, Steve, you’ve got to get this for sixty thousand or less. I know where I’m going to be if I’m off. So that’s my market through my other people. That’s how I’ve always been. I mean, I can, I can look at prop stream, I can look at Zillow and all that stuff. But until you talk to the people in the know, I don’t feel comfortable sometimes with throwing the towel. 

Gavin: So we’re going to come on to that. I’m going to jump by for one second. Yeah. The VA when you take the notes from the call, regardless if it’s in no one’s regards, if the seller said go and pound sand. Regardless if it needs to make an offer, whatever that is, how are you getting that back to the VA to get into REI Simple? You’re typing in the notes and that’s where they’re getting it from?  

Steve: Yes. He gets it from that same list that he sends me. 

Gavin: It’s an active document. Got it right. You’re staying out of the CRM? Perfect. What you could do. What you could do is take a picture of it depends on handwriting, how good your handwriting is. Right. But if you’ve got decent handwriting and you don’t have to actually update that document, you could just send him a picture of your notes and let him update it if you want to make sense. 

Coco: So, yeah, right. There’s a couple of things about that. Number one, I don’t know that his phone is really the greatest. The VA. Yeah, let’s say he said something about it fell on the toilet. 

Gavin: Who said that, the VA did? 

Coco: Yeah. Yeah. So he’s been, but he’s been voxer-ing. And so I don’t know if he got a phone, I forgot to ask. 

Steve: But I know where you’re coming from, it just seems like when I sending notes like that I spend seems like observe amount of time answering questions and it takes forever to finish that project because was saying, is this so-and-so? 

Gavin: That’s the handwriting part of it. Right. That’s why I was wondering if it’s working. It’s still making sense that you’re out the CRM. OK, so that’s obviously the key. People got to be out the CRM if you’re going to make money, if you’re not. Regardless if you’ve got technology, background or not, because while you’re in there, you don’t make any money. So the fact is, is that you’ve got leads coming in. The VA is telling you what to work your day in the notion of the spreadsheet and trying to transition it back into the CRM. So they’re keeping the business organized in the CRM and then they’re just feeding you what you need to know for that day. OK, awesome. So that’s great. That’s a big takeaway for everyone listening. So I want to just touch on that, OK? And obviously if you get the right VA with the right training, then you’re not the one, obviously. And this is important for everyone to understand is that you’re not the one training the VA. I know Coco’s done some work with them. But obviously we, Rod, my team’s helped train them. 

Steve: Right? They yeah. They came from you and Rod, our phone callers. I love this guy. He is so good. But yeah, they both came from your organization, so yeah, it’s all good. 

Gavin: But I think people like they get so hung up with this training and stuff. Right. And if you can put the right processes in place, I know we help you, but still the right processes, people that need these people that are so efficient, they bring in so much money from the business when that good. That’s why the five bucks an hour is just mind blowing to me. I mean, I have probably seven of them that work with me and yeah, the five bucks an hour and they just bring in so much money is great. And so I just again, everyone listening just want to get that outlet. So now you’ve already touched on this. I’m going to come on to what you were saying. Your model is very much the same as mine. Nayeli Right. In terms of the things that all the same is that you’re in the business more than I am. Right. But you are not going to see in houses. You are virtual. You are working from home. You go and get pictures. You don’t go face to face with the seller ever. You’re not doing any of them things the same as me. Right. 

Steve: I do when I need to get out of the office, because Coco and I are stuck here seven days a week. Twenty-four hours a day or so. Yeah, like a week ago Saturday, my buddy up in town about two hours away said, hey, I want to show this house to a seller. He said, but by the way, he’s got this little pub and they got the best chicken wings I’ve ever had. I said, Well, I got to go with you so that you can. So I ran out there. Plus I picked up a check. So, yeah, I went up there. And soevery now and then just to get out of the house or something. And I came home one six o’clock and I loved it and got home at six and Coco said, I had a great day.

Gavin: You don’t have to go, you just want to go to get out of the house. All right. Oh, and what is it important, though, when we go into virtual marketing is exactly the same way as me, is that we can analyze through Prop Stream and Zillow and we can do them things right. We can look active zip codes. We can look at where buyers are buying, where the cash buyers buy and who’s that? We can find out. The whole site is on the ground. We can do all that. Well, there’s something to be said about inside information. What I mean by that is people on the ground that are actually doing this that we’re partnering with to get your information from that was actually working right. Because I can go and look at cash sales, let’s say, in Alabama, and it might put me in the hood right where it’s not really cash by anyone’s buying these things. The three, four, five, seven, eight thousand dollars. So they’re not really investors. They’re just like anyone finally buying them and things like that. Right. So that’s going to be a market where it will come up with the numbers. But it’s not really like true cash buyers. They’re actually doing it on a regular basis. So you’re using these people on the ground, correct. To obviously get your information back, number one, to where you should be marked in your gathering, not from them, but number two, you’re using them to give you the feedback from the seller, from the runners and the people taking pictures so you can then renegotiate the deal. Is that right? 

Steve: Right. Yeah. For example, in one town, my man on the that’s got his boots on the ground. He said, Steve, here’s what’s happening in this area. He said, so this is why it’s a good buy, that they’re getting ready to build a humongous park right across the street. He said, we need to grab this house because we can sell it for a good amount of money. So if you are there, you can look at all the comps in the world, but you don’t know what. Going on. Does that make sense? Absolutely. And that’s what I like about having those people there and my two favorite ones that I have out in the field, they know they know their market like the back of their hand and they do all the work for me, to be honest with you. Yeah, they are a godsend. 

Gavin: Yeah, well, you’re still bringing value on what you’re doing. And this is what is the same model as me. I travel, as you know, we just went over, I’m in Mexico next week, come back, get in the RV, going to Arizona, coming back. I’m going to be gone traveling for probably six weeks, maybe eight weeks. And but things are still happening, right, because you have the things in place. You have the team on the ground to be with and your people look at it and say, well, if you why don’t they just do it on their own? One of they just do it and people just misunderstand what it takes to run a business. I think you’re right that there’s more than one thing as a sole wholesaler, you can probably only do I think you can only make one hundred grand a year as an individual wholesaler, in my opinion, doing everything else from start to finish, from doing the market and taking the calls, go and see the properties dispo and doing all them things right. And you’re working to make that amount, in my opinion. Right. Or you can choose to build out your team and focus on what you’re good at. Right. Which is kind of what we’re doing with you. You’ve outsourced all your weaknesses, your strengths on the phone negotiation. Right. Having conversations. So if you focus on that and someone else is doing the power by removing the deal, then even though you’re partnering with people just like I do, you’re still making more money than trying to do it on your own or what you’re getting this time. 

Steve: That’s the key. Time. I had mentioned three weeks before Christmas break and three weeks after Christmas break. To give you an example, my daughter works first shift. My son in law works third shift. She’s a school teacher, but yet she had to go to school while her kids didn’t have to go to school. They had to be taught on the computer. Well, they can’t do it on their own because they’re eleven and they’re five and they’re two years old. So they came here for six out of those eight weeks, we would never have been able to do that and close all deals if we didn’t do it the way we do it. Because there’s times I hate to admit this. There’s times that I might work an hour a day, especially when the kids were here, because I’m enjoying the kids or helping with the kids and doing this that the other. So what it gives me doing this is time. And you’re right, you might only make one hundred grand as a wholesaler during the year because you’re doing a thing. Well, what are you up you’re giving up your time. Whereas in this scenario I really expect to make a bit more money next year than we made this year. Inspected to be where? 

Coco: Well, see, the other business that we had before this one on the Internet took, that is and it was kind of like a relief for me because we were twenty hours a day and that is not a lot. Sixteen, but we were running it ourselves. We didn’t have a team in place. And so, I mean, to know from that other business to this business, I would much rather work this way than we would have been able to have those kids had we had the other business because we would be just working behind our desk all day or going. 

Steve: You should see my movie list this year. It’s phenomenal.

Gavin: It’s the active lifestyle business, isn’t it? Right. 

Steve: It is. It’s lifestyle. It’s not it’s not even about the money, although nice, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not about the money. It’s about getting your life back. And that’s what I was wanting to do, was get our life back. 

Gavin: When I teach. I’m not the one that’s going to get you to do for people in an office, massive marketing budget, huge overheads. It’s just not how I run the business and it’s not how I teach it. I don’t have the vision for it. Right. I think I should be coming from England. I’ve got to get home if I need to, and I have to be able to be built in that way. I think there’s so many people with either due to jobs or in the business that have a day off. And I know wholesalers that big operations, they take a week off, they’ll lose too much money. 

Steve: Yeah, they’ve got too much of an overhead. 

Gavin: Exactly. Too much overhead. And they can’t do it virtually right now. They can’t afford to leave. 

Coco: That other business. We cleared a half million more year and you know, but we had no time to spend any of the money or have any fun with it here. 

Steve: I never got to use my seven iron that whole season.

Gavin: Yeah. It’s as if you guys if you’re if anyone is listening and Steve constantly on coaching calls, will be in the chat box trying to put me off every opportunity while I’m teaching something to do with golf or seven iron or pitching wedge. I’ve never actually asked, you see, do you actually play golf? 

Steve:  I’m a scratch golfer. I scratch my head wondering where did the ball go. My son was a scratch golfer for a while, but he hasn’t played for a while. I didn’t golf last summer at all. I hurt my shoulder. So in fact, I’m going to the doctor Wednesday to find out what’s up with it. But my shoulder, I can shoot a basketball right now, so. 

Coco: You I would be one day drive the cart and walk and shoot. I like golf. Really do. I just don’t do enough of it. I like the weather. You play so good anyway. 

Gavin: Yeah. So that’s good. That gives people I think a lot, especially kind of with the systems that we have in place, building the team to, to remove. You’ll outsource your weaknesses I think is pretty much the nail of this conversation right now. So your weaknesses, focusing on your strengths, partner and doing deals, collaboration. And you’re now, like I said, five contracts last week. You picked one up today. You’ve got a great start to the year and now you just going to obviously dominate. You’ve now gone as well. You spreading across all of Ohio. You’re doing this in multiple areas. And I will just throw this out. 

Gavin: Guys, if you do have a deal, I’m going to give you Steven and Coco’s email. It’s [email protected] you have a download a contract that you want them to partner on, they have a lot of buyers in multiple areas. I’m sure they’ll be happy to JV. So get in touch. If you are a cash buyer watching as well, make sure you drop them an email. They’ve always got deals, as I’ve just talked about, that they’re going to be moving. So definitely people from Ohio, you need to know you need to network with. Just want to try that out in case I forget. So, guys, anything else? What would you say going back a few years now where you were to kind of where you are now, like, what would you say, someone starting off as someone that’s kind of doing all of the work or there’s been in watching all the training and not taking any action? What have you got? What’s your personal advice to them? 

Steve: Honestly, you’ve got to get your butt kicked. I know that sounds stupid, but I think if you get your butt kicked, which I did for quite some time, and you just plow through it and you realize that know, it eventually does grab hold. And when you find your people to work with, you’ve got to have a relationship with those people and you’ve got to trust them. And you’ve got to know that they have not only your best interests at heart, but also the client’s best interest at heart. But for the longest time, I think Coco will agree. I got my butt kicked and I would quit. And that’s no lie. I said I don’t need this crap. And Coco is the one who pushed me. So, yeah. So in that sense. 

Coco: But I kept telling him the next no will be a yes, the next no will be a yes.

Steve: Which I also heard from you get the absolutely fun game and the old saying fake it till you make it. And there’s a lot of truth to that. Act like if you don’t know and act like you do just take a that you just that you just have to do it, talk to people. All of a sudden something happens and someone says, yeah, I need to sell this property. And it’s like, really, hang tight. And then you yell, I need your help. What do I do next? So, yeah, that’s how what actually worked for us. I think, you know, Gavin, that I didn’t do anything for a minute. I didn’t have that. 

Gavin: We struggled. I mean, we struggled early on. I remember our one-to-one coaching calls when you were kind of in a lull on, say, depressed, but a low light. You were just like kind of everything’s against me, nothing’s working. What’s going on. And, you know, and I deal with that with a lot of clients. And I can only say that to you on here because I know you don’t mind. And two, you’ve obviously now come through it. Right. So I think people need to understand that everyone’s in the same position. Right. And you already have the bit that made the money, in my opinion. You could talk. So if we could get you to focus on that, which was what the goal was, and get all this nonsense about trying to get on the computer and being in our eye and knowing all these things, like forget all that, we can take care of that and you can focus. You’re going to get deals done and building relationships. And the stronger the relationship with the whole sales, the team, the buyers, everything I named REI Network because I believe everything is network. You’re only as good as your network. 

Steve: I know. I agree. 

Gavin: That’s why I wanted the name because it’s just so true. 

Coco: Yeah. There is one thing a couple years back I remember a phone conversation we were on and we were saying, well, we’re not doing this and we’re not doing that and we’re not. And he’s not, not, not, not, not. And the one thing you said to us that resonated really with me was, well, let’s not focus on what you’re not doing and look what you did do. And that kind of put that a lot of things into perspective. 

Gavin: Start focusing on what can go right instead of what can go wrong. 

Steve: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So in that so thank you. If there’s anything I lack is I don’t work as hard as I should but. 

Gavin: Yeah but we’re all guilty of that. I am the same you know, when I’m going in there and everywhere and the business is doing well but I could always be doing more you know, and I just think that’s natural. But at the same time, look at what you’ve built, what you’re trying to do, what you’re trying to achieve. And that’s the key. 

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I had I had a good friend that had a business and he made one hundred thousand dollars on a house and he was so excited. And then he started thinking, that’s going to cover my overhead for three whole months. I’ve got to find more. And that’s when he downsized and he took care of himself. 

Gavin: Steve, I’m in masterminds. Right. And I wouldn’t plug anyone’s name, but I see it all the time and it’s bad. For me, I see it the high level when they’re going, and I’ve heard people say I got thirty-five deals this month to break even.

Steve: Right. Right. I don’t want that. 

Gavin: That’s ridiculous. That’s mad. I need to be profitable from day one. That’s the way I look at it. Deal one has to be profitable and then everything else, profit, profit, profit. And it’s all about what you put it in your pocket. Right. And that’s what matters. And then there’s no like pounding chests about it and giving it how many millions gross you do. That’s all good. But how much do you put in your pocket? That’s what we all want to really know. So I know. Well, I appreciate you both, but I just think people find you super real. And I think it’s good with the networking stuff and the outsourcing and just listening to you see super important. So I appreciate it. Anything else before we get done? 

Steve: Oh I don’t know. 

Gavin: Yeah it’s good to good to talk with you guys. If you’re interested in working with us, go to REINetwork.com/coaching, REINetwork.com/coaching. And we’ll get on the phone. And guys, I will see you on the coaching call Tuesday and we’ll go from there. 

Steve: Send us some sunshine. 

Gavin: All right, guys, appreciate you both. Thank you.