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The Easiest Investments to Make with Your Solar Cash - Bennett Maxwell
58 Plays3 years ago
Becoming a Master of Systems in Solar - Bennett Maxwell
Listen here: https://the-solarpreneur.simplecast.com/episodes/91-becoming-a-master-of-systems-in-solar-bennett-maxwell
Thanks to our sponsor Pi Syndicate for this episode!
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Transcript
Introduction to Solarpreneur Podcast & Taylor Armstrong's Journey
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
Speaker
I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in the year and cracking the code on why sales reps fell.
00:00:19
Speaker
I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a Solarpreneur you might ask?
00:00:33
Speaker
A Solarpreneur is a new breed of Solar Pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.
Bennett Maxwell on Building a Personal Brand & Leveraging Success
00:00:42
Speaker
All right, what's up, storepreneurs?
00:00:43
Speaker
We're here with the one, the only, Mr. Brent, or sorry.
00:00:48
Speaker
I can't think he's mixed up.
00:00:51
Speaker
Brent's his brother, Bennett Maxwell, in the house here.
00:00:54
Speaker
And so this is actually his second time coming on the podcast.
00:00:57
Speaker
So we haven't had too many people coming on for a second time.
00:01:01
Speaker
So thanks for coming back on.
00:01:02
Speaker
Good to be here.
00:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be fun.
00:01:04
Speaker
And we were just talking before this, the first time I had to beg you to come on the show, and this time you hit me up.
00:01:10
Speaker
So what's up with that, man?
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah, I'm like, I can't.
00:01:12
Speaker
Starting to build a personal brand.
00:01:13
Speaker
Everybody's talking about it.
00:01:14
Speaker
You know, get out there, have people know who you are.
00:01:17
Speaker
And I'm like, man, I post a few times a year.
00:01:19
Speaker
It's birthday.
00:01:20
Speaker
So I'm switching that up.
00:01:21
Speaker
Join some masterminds and they are hitting me heavy on it.
00:01:24
Speaker
So I can tell.
00:01:25
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:01:26
Speaker
And yeah, I've been seeing you post a lot more.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:28
Speaker
So.
00:01:29
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:01:30
Speaker
And so if you haven't heard Bennett's first podcast, we'll link to that in the show notes, but he dropped some fire in that one.
00:01:36
Speaker
Go check it out.
00:01:37
Speaker
Talked about, just setting up like systems and processes in your solar business, working with VAs, virtual assistants, and a whole lot of other stuff that you'll want to check out.
00:01:45
Speaker
So definitely go check that out first if you haven't.
Journey from Solar to Diverse Business Ventures
00:01:48
Speaker
But today we're going to be focusing on some of that, but a lot of the focus today will be on just invest
00:01:53
Speaker
you know how you can leverage your money in solar to do some pretty incredible stuff because Bennett now he's actually not in solar which seems crazy but but we're gonna hear all about why you're not in solar anymore so yeah do you want to kind of give well I don't know maybe let's start with that do you want to kind of tell everyone yeah like you know your solar journey in just what you're up to since we did the first podcast
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah, for sure.
00:02:15
Speaker
So started solar in the summer of 19, um, went up to Sacramento and this is the first company that said you could do a solar summer because before I was doing summer sales, but I was taught to stay away from solar because long lead times, you don't get paid after the year round.
00:02:28
Speaker
So I went and gave it a go and it went really well in the first two months.
00:02:31
Speaker
I'm like, wow, I made way more money than I ever have in a product that I believe in.
00:02:36
Speaker
and half the time.
00:02:37
Speaker
So pretty cool, pretty easy.
00:02:40
Speaker
I'm like, wow, this is great.
00:02:41
Speaker
So then I teamed up with Brent.
00:02:43
Speaker
Brent, my brother, Attaway, different last names, but from the same mother.
00:02:49
Speaker
anyways we teamed up we started in the online stuff and that's kind of it went really well so we had some bs paid some marketing companies to give us leads they would call set the appointments verify the appointments i showed up to eighteen i did a eighteen trial i showed up to sixteen or eighteen zero no shows sixteen of them closed the first set and seventeen close the second set and i did eighteen but i'm like wow this is this is great online lead setting and then uh...
00:03:16
Speaker
showing up.
00:03:17
Speaker
So then that's when I, when I was teaming up with Brent, we decided to move to San Diego.
00:03:20
Speaker
We started recruiting people in January of 2020 and still doing mainly door knocking because scaling that model is hard.
00:03:29
Speaker
You can't figure it out.
00:03:30
Speaker
You can do it for a few people, but not as we really scale.
00:03:32
Speaker
So Seth Loveland, he came out in January.
00:03:35
Speaker
He's the first guy.
00:03:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:36
Speaker
My little brother Bailey came out and started, started kind of building some momentum COVID hit, but we were kind of already online.
00:03:42
Speaker
So yeah,
00:03:44
Speaker
Anyways, it kind of went through there and then that's when we started working together.
00:03:47
Speaker
Fast forward a year after I started January of 2021, I was seeing another company called Crumble Cookies.
00:03:53
Speaker
They were killing it and I had the opportunity to buy a similar company out of Tempe and I thought, what the hell?
00:04:01
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:04:02
Speaker
Crumb is killing it.
00:04:03
Speaker
So let's see if I can ride their coattails a little bit.
00:04:07
Speaker
So I bought that company.
00:04:08
Speaker
I was in San Diego, running it from San Diego in the Tempe area.
00:04:13
Speaker
So I had to make, I'm like, if I could figure this out, then I have a scalable, provable model.
00:04:18
Speaker
If a dummy with no food experience can figure it out, then I think anybody can figure it out.
00:04:24
Speaker
So
00:04:25
Speaker
I started working on the model and changed a ton of stuff, redid everything, but we started franchising in December.
Success in Cookie Franchising
00:04:32
Speaker
So four and a half months ago, we sold 57 franchises, so it's going well.
00:04:37
Speaker
But yeah, Solar was a great vehicle.
00:04:40
Speaker
to get the money to then invest in other things.
00:04:44
Speaker
Really trying to work up more on the passive income side.
00:04:48
Speaker
Yeah, no, and it's been cool.
00:04:49
Speaker
I give them a hard time because I was running your team and everything.
00:04:53
Speaker
And then you were on the whole show.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:55
Speaker
And then I get a call.
00:04:56
Speaker
I'm in Lake Powell.
00:04:58
Speaker
And then I get a call.
00:04:59
Speaker
I get back and like, oh, by the way, we sold the company.
00:05:02
Speaker
Sorry to mention that.
00:05:02
Speaker
So we sold it in June of 2020.
00:05:06
Speaker
2021.
00:05:06
Speaker
So we ran it just for 18 months and then we exited that.
00:05:10
Speaker
Me and my brother, we were the partners in it.
00:05:13
Speaker
So I'd already owned Dirty Doe.
00:05:15
Speaker
I was running a boat.
00:05:16
Speaker
You were really running the solar for me.
00:05:17
Speaker
So thank you.
00:05:18
Speaker
You're welcome.
00:05:19
Speaker
I was focusing a lot of my time on this, the cookie company.
00:05:22
Speaker
So, and then after, you know, June, that's kind of when I started jumping more and then until like fully it's like, all right, this is, this is what I want to do.
00:05:29
Speaker
yeah well the cookies were always involved because if you heard the first podcast we did that was one of the processes you guys set up is send them cookies and you know treats and stuff so and this guy is always passionate about his cookies right cookie monster watching the video
00:05:46
Speaker
My body and bodies are cookies.
00:05:49
Speaker
But no, they're no joke.
00:05:51
Speaker
They're good cookies.
00:05:52
Speaker
And that got us, I think, probably a lot of referrals sending cookies, stuff like that.
00:05:56
Speaker
Very unique cookies.
00:05:57
Speaker
Yeah, they're delicious.
00:05:58
Speaker
You do these three-layer triple stack cookies.
00:06:00
Speaker
So you look, it's like a brownie on the outside and you bust it open and there's a chocolate chip in the center.
00:06:06
Speaker
And in the very center, there's caramel oozing out.
00:06:08
Speaker
So...
00:06:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:09
Speaker
Don't exist anywhere
Real Estate Investment Strategies & Success
00:06:10
Speaker
else right now.
00:06:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:11
Speaker
So probably getting hungry just hearing this podcast.
00:06:13
Speaker
I have to set up a discount code for cookies or something.
00:06:16
Speaker
But no.
00:06:17
Speaker
So yeah.
00:06:18
Speaker
I learned a ton from you guys.
00:06:19
Speaker
So I always appreciate, you know, what you and Brent did helping us kind of start everything, even though I wish it could have been a lot longer.
00:06:25
Speaker
But it is what it is.
00:06:26
Speaker
No, it's cool to see how you've been able to just go into other businesses and like you said, leverage all the money you did make.
00:06:31
Speaker
I know you killed it in solar and use that as a vehicle in other opportunities.
00:06:35
Speaker
So I think that's a question that some people, I think I've seen it on social media too, but like some people I've seen, how do you even sell a dealer?
00:06:41
Speaker
I don't know, you could sell your solar dealer.
00:06:43
Speaker
I also didn't think that we were going to ever sell.
00:06:46
Speaker
I thought I was just going to be in it for the money.
00:06:49
Speaker
Right.
00:06:49
Speaker
Makes it make some good money.
00:06:50
Speaker
And then when I exit, it kind of just let it dissolve.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:54
Speaker
But there was a public company that was buying up some companies doing looking for revenue really to boost our stock.
00:07:01
Speaker
So I think they'd done 50 million the previous year.
00:07:04
Speaker
And this was, you know, the first about three, four months we had done about 5 million was in our pipeline because when you're that they also own an installer.
00:07:14
Speaker
So they're counting the total volume of the deal.
00:07:17
Speaker
So not just like what goes through your bank account as a solid dealer, but also what the installers get paid.
00:07:22
Speaker
Because again, it's like, oh, if we buy you guys, then you guys install through our installer.
00:07:26
Speaker
Then now the revenue's doubled anyways.
00:07:28
Speaker
So based off of the total revenue, it was about 5 million that we'd done.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:32
Speaker
kind of year to date and they did 50 million.
00:07:35
Speaker
So like, oh, this is a 10% increase.
00:07:37
Speaker
And then they were buying a few other companies at the same time.
00:07:39
Speaker
So yeah, kind of a unique experience.
00:07:41
Speaker
I didn't think that was what was going to happen when the guy contacted me.
00:07:44
Speaker
It was Jason Newby.
00:07:45
Speaker
Kind of just ignored him.
00:07:47
Speaker
He's like, I want to buy your company.
00:07:48
Speaker
I'm like, get out of here, Jason.
00:07:50
Speaker
I'll talk to our brother.
00:07:50
Speaker
Didn't talk to my brother.
00:07:52
Speaker
Calls me again.
00:07:53
Speaker
Dude, I'm like, I want to buy your company.
00:07:55
Speaker
I'll talk to my brother.
00:07:57
Speaker
Then I talked to my brother again.
00:07:57
Speaker
And then it was you that you and Brent, some solar thing, Jason met him, talks to Brent and then Brent comes back to me and he goes, we need to talk to Jason.
00:08:06
Speaker
All right, let's talk to Jason.
00:08:07
Speaker
So Jason was the one that orchestrated it all.
00:08:09
Speaker
He had future home power.
00:08:11
Speaker
He was, had high sales, very, very new.
00:08:13
Speaker
I mean, a month or two in, maybe 40 sales reps where we had less sales reps.
00:08:17
Speaker
We were doing about 30 deals a month, 20, 30 deals between our sales teams, our online and our sub dealer model.
00:08:23
Speaker
And, but we had built out that, the backend process and that we're doing a little bit.
00:08:26
Speaker
So he kind of merged us in and then sold it to Solar Integrated Roofing Corporation.
00:08:32
Speaker
Anyways, everything panned out the way that we hoped it would.
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely some, you know, throughout passes.
00:08:38
Speaker
But it was a good experience.
00:08:39
Speaker
We got some cash, we got some stock.
00:08:40
Speaker
We're supposed to have some future stock.
00:08:43
Speaker
We'll see how that works.
Building & Managing a Real Estate Portfolio
00:08:46
Speaker
door-to-door world caution on stock.
00:08:49
Speaker
Don't put all your marbles on stocks.
00:08:52
Speaker
Which I knew going in that's what I based my decision based on the cash and the stock would be a bonus.
00:08:56
Speaker
Yeah just kind of cheering on top.
00:08:58
Speaker
So I guess really it's kind of my fault that you guys sold because I introduced Brent's.
00:09:01
Speaker
It was your fault so you brought it on yourself.
00:09:04
Speaker
You guys owe a lot to me you're welcome.
00:09:06
Speaker
But no, that's where we're at now.
00:09:08
Speaker
And so I think today we kind of want to focus on just, you know, what you're doing now and specifically for people in solar.
00:09:15
Speaker
I know a lot of them haven't gotten started in maybe real estate.
00:09:17
Speaker
You have a ton of different investments you're doing.
00:09:19
Speaker
And that definitely something you started when we were working together is the whole finance Friday and, you know, kind of a lot of guys that were working with us now have real estate.
00:09:27
Speaker
You know, my brother does.
00:09:29
Speaker
We bought a property.
00:09:30
Speaker
I mean, we're neighbors.
00:09:32
Speaker
One of my investments, I think they're moving in.
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah, so you introduced a lot of people to this whole world of real estate and investments.
00:09:37
Speaker
Yeah, I'm very passionate about that.
00:09:39
Speaker
Like that's how I was when I was in pest control recruiting.
00:09:42
Speaker
And so I got really lucky.
00:09:43
Speaker
I worked for Altera right before they became active.
00:09:46
Speaker
And I sold for them for two months.
00:09:47
Speaker
They recruited me halfway through the summer.
00:09:48
Speaker
In those two months, I think it looked like 170 or 100, something right around there.
00:09:52
Speaker
And I was taking a nap every day in my car.
00:09:54
Speaker
I was like, this is sweet.
00:09:54
Speaker
That's crazy.
00:09:56
Speaker
But I mean, I studied like hell just to know the sales process.
00:10:00
Speaker
I was a very big component of why I wanted to do sales because initially I was in Baltimore doing security installs.
00:10:05
Speaker
I'm like, guys, let's go do sales.
00:10:07
Speaker
We live in freaking Utah.
00:10:08
Speaker
We just saw ourselves.
00:10:09
Speaker
My buddies are like, no, no, no, no.
00:10:10
Speaker
Let's go do installs.
00:10:11
Speaker
That's where the secure money is.
00:10:13
Speaker
Sure money.
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:14
Speaker
We all move out to fricking Baltimore and we were installing ghetto security systems for fricking sales reps that were kind of scummy.
00:10:22
Speaker
And so I switched halfway through knowing that I'm going from, you know, I get paid when I do an install to I could get paid nothing if I go to sales.
00:10:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:30
Speaker
But I already had it ingrained in me that worked to learn not to earn.
00:10:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:34
Speaker
I thought if nothing else happens, I'm going to learn sales skills and I'm going to learn communication skills.
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:40
Speaker
And then I've always viewed it as what is that person doing that I can't learn?
00:10:44
Speaker
Not that I'm not doing, but what can I not?
00:10:46
Speaker
And then so I'm just always listening to podcasts, videos, sales pitches, and read it all.
00:10:51
Speaker
So that's how I got into it.
00:10:53
Speaker
So I think I made 24,000.
00:10:54
Speaker
That's what I made my first summer in two months.
00:10:57
Speaker
And I got married.
00:10:58
Speaker
I met my wife out in that summer.
00:11:00
Speaker
I got married six months later.
00:11:02
Speaker
So I paid for the wedding, the ring, all that crap.
00:11:04
Speaker
But I had a little bit of money left over.
00:11:06
Speaker
Now I couldn't qualify for a loan.
00:11:08
Speaker
And this is what I really want everybody to get.
00:11:10
Speaker
Like you can get into real estate with almost no money, with no freaking qualifications.
00:11:14
Speaker
You just need to hustle a little bit.
00:11:16
Speaker
So I'm going to tell you guys what I did to get my first property and how that's worked out.
00:11:19
Speaker
Because I really want everybody to get in that same real estate game.
00:11:23
Speaker
Chandler Smith from Aptiv, big into real estate.
00:11:26
Speaker
And he owns like 130 or 60 doors.
00:11:28
Speaker
I just was watching some of his YouTube stuff.
00:11:30
Speaker
He's the one who is telling me.
00:11:31
Speaker
And Garrett Myers, those are my managers and regional managers at Pest Control.
00:11:35
Speaker
So even only making $24,000, within a year I'd bought my first property.
00:11:38
Speaker
First investment property, kind of investment property.
00:11:40
Speaker
So if you're doing an owner occupied loan and it's your first home, you can do an FHA three and a half percent down or even a conventional three and a half percent down.
00:11:50
Speaker
Now you have to pay property mortgage fees, PMI, property mortgage insurance.
00:11:54
Speaker
Insurance.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:55
Speaker
So because you're not putting that much down, but it's like, okay, if so, this particular property, this was in 2016, there's like 220,000.
00:12:03
Speaker
So you'd have to pay, you know, the three and a half percent down.
00:12:07
Speaker
and then closing cost.
00:12:09
Speaker
What we did is we said, well, our offer was no, you pay the closing cost.
00:12:13
Speaker
And they came back and they said, no.
00:12:14
Speaker
So I said, okay, well, we'll just, I think we negotiated down to 210.
00:12:18
Speaker
And then we said, well, okay, nevermind.
00:12:20
Speaker
Let's, we'll pay you 220, even though they already agreed to 210.
00:12:24
Speaker
So here's an extra 10 grand, but give that back to me closing costs.
00:12:28
Speaker
So it's basically me financing the extra 10 grand.
00:12:31
Speaker
So now my three and a half percent on the 20, 200, 20,000 was like nine grand.
00:12:37
Speaker
Now, I couldn't qualify for a loan though.
00:12:39
Speaker
I'd only made $24,000 and I was on a commission.
00:12:42
Speaker
I didn't have taxes.
00:12:43
Speaker
I didn't have insurance.
00:12:45
Speaker
I linked up with somebody.
00:12:46
Speaker
I was like, okay, well, who can I do this with?
00:12:47
Speaker
Because this is a great investment.
00:12:50
Speaker
I could get in this property for $9,000 and I'm going to pay for half of it at $4,500.
00:12:53
Speaker
For $4,500, I'm securing a $220,000 asset.
00:12:54
Speaker
I just need to find another partner.
00:12:56
Speaker
That's easy.
00:12:56
Speaker
I found a partner and I'm like, well, I'm going to live in this.
00:13:03
Speaker
Right?
00:13:03
Speaker
So that's the big advantage.
00:13:06
Speaker
So who's not going to do that?
00:13:07
Speaker
Everybody knows somebody that has 4,500 bucks that will partner and sign the loan that has a good WT2 job.
00:13:12
Speaker
If you don't, contact me because I will partner with every deal that you guys do.
00:13:17
Speaker
And I'll manage the properties.
00:13:18
Speaker
There's my plug.
00:13:20
Speaker
Don't buy comments from me.
00:13:21
Speaker
Partner with me on real estate.
00:13:22
Speaker
I'll manage it all for you.
00:13:24
Speaker
Anyway, so that's what I did.
00:13:24
Speaker
I brought in my brother.
00:13:25
Speaker
So he qualified for the loan.
00:13:28
Speaker
He put in 4,500.
00:13:28
Speaker
I put in
Turning Solar Earnings into Investments
00:13:30
Speaker
4,500.
00:13:30
Speaker
Property went from 220.
00:13:31
Speaker
We sold it last year.
00:13:32
Speaker
We sold it for like 380 or 400, somewhere around there.
00:13:35
Speaker
So we had $500 cash flow every single month for the last five, six years.
00:13:41
Speaker
Then we sold it.
00:13:42
Speaker
Had, you know, rolled in.
00:13:44
Speaker
They're also paying down your principal, right?
00:13:46
Speaker
So it was a $220,000 property.
00:13:49
Speaker
And let's say our loan was for $210,000.
00:13:50
Speaker
When they paid down an extra $10,000 or $20,000, the renters did because I lived there for a little bit and rented it out.
00:13:57
Speaker
So yeah, we profit like 180, 200 grand on that, flipped it, threw it into a, it's called a 1031 exchange.
00:14:04
Speaker
So there's no taxes, goes into an escrow because you have to have an attorney to do this for you.
00:14:08
Speaker
But you sell the property, you can't touch the money, has to go straight to this other account.
00:14:11
Speaker
And this other account has been given the buyer of the property in a certain time period.
00:14:15
Speaker
So we found another property in BYU, right next to BYU in Provo.
00:14:19
Speaker
Nice.
00:14:19
Speaker
It was a duplex, 12 bedrooms.
00:14:22
Speaker
12 bedrooms?
00:14:22
Speaker
12 bedrooms.
00:14:23
Speaker
So my real estate agent shot it over to me, Dwayne Richens, super stud.
00:14:28
Speaker
You actually introduced me to him.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:30
Speaker
You brought him out.
00:14:31
Speaker
Man, I'm introducing you to everybody, man.
00:14:32
Speaker
Dwayne's the man.
00:14:33
Speaker
So Dwayne's like, you need to buy this property.
00:14:35
Speaker
I was like...
00:14:36
Speaker
But prices are so high.
00:14:38
Speaker
This is 2021 June.
00:14:39
Speaker
Prices are way too high.
00:14:41
Speaker
And this duplex went for, they were asking $8.25.
00:14:44
Speaker
But that's freaking expensive.
00:14:46
Speaker
He's like, but look at the cash flow and the appreciation on this.
00:14:51
Speaker
So we rent out the 12 rooms to 13 tenants.
00:14:55
Speaker
So there's two sisters, they share a room, they're each paying like 450 to 500 plus utilities.
00:15:00
Speaker
So we're collecting about $6,500 a month.
00:15:03
Speaker
We pay about $500 of that goes to utilities and maintenance.
00:15:07
Speaker
And then 3000 is our mortgage that leaves us about 3000 cash flow.
00:15:12
Speaker
And I partnered again with my brother on this.
00:15:13
Speaker
We own it in an LLC.
00:15:16
Speaker
So there's no liability if one of these girls slips on the ice or whatever, which is kind of another section.
00:15:21
Speaker
But
00:15:22
Speaker
Yeah, I made $24,000 in two months.
00:15:24
Speaker
And then fast forward to 2022, I now have over $200,000 of equity into this property and it's cash flowing me $3,000.
00:15:29
Speaker
$3,600 a year.
00:15:30
Speaker
That's not the best money in the world, but it's not terrible.
00:15:38
Speaker
I don't do anything for it.
00:15:39
Speaker
And then I hired a virtual assistant, Skye.
00:15:41
Speaker
She's freaking awesome.
00:15:43
Speaker
She manages all of my tenants.
00:15:45
Speaker
So I just went online.
00:15:46
Speaker
Dwayne actually connected me.
00:15:47
Speaker
He's like, this is attorney you should use.
00:15:49
Speaker
You don't even have to use them.
00:15:50
Speaker
Use his lease agreement.
00:15:51
Speaker
And if you have problems, he'll represent you.
00:15:53
Speaker
So I'm like, sweet.
00:15:54
Speaker
So we just used his lease agreement.
00:15:55
Speaker
Skye manages it all for me.
00:15:57
Speaker
And since then, I've been buying up some other properties.
00:15:59
Speaker
I'm closing on number six and seven this month.
00:16:02
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, you think that you have to have $100,000 to invest in real estate or $50,000.
00:16:06
Speaker
And it's like, no.
00:16:08
Speaker
go find a little property, make it owner occupied.
00:16:11
Speaker
That means you have to live in it.
00:16:12
Speaker
We'll have the intent to live in it.
00:16:13
Speaker
And then have them pay closing costs for you.
00:16:16
Speaker
Wow.
00:16:17
Speaker
That's good.
00:16:17
Speaker
And spending solar, I mean, hopefully people have extra money in solar, right?
00:16:21
Speaker
I mean, if you have the money and you have a hundred grand, it's like, we'll still do this strategy.
00:16:25
Speaker
And then then buy another one too.
00:16:27
Speaker
Buy two now.
00:16:28
Speaker
You can put $9,000 or $20,000 or $30,000 on owner occupied and keep the rest of your capital and then go do an investment property with it.
00:16:35
Speaker
Cause investment properties, you do have to have 20% down.
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:37
Speaker
typically 25% if you want a little bit of a better rate.
00:16:41
Speaker
Right.
00:16:41
Speaker
But it kind of just depends on the market where you're at.
00:16:44
Speaker
Here in Utah, the appreciation is going up.
00:16:46
Speaker
I bought a property last April and where it's April now.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:49
Speaker
I bought it for $390,000.
00:16:51
Speaker
Wow.
00:16:53
Speaker
I'd looked on Zillow the other day.
00:16:54
Speaker
It's worth 605.
00:16:54
Speaker
Right.
00:16:56
Speaker
It's gone over 200,000 in a year.
00:16:58
Speaker
And everybody told me don't buy, don't buy.
00:16:59
Speaker
You know, prices are inflated.
00:17:01
Speaker
Prices are inflated.
00:17:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:03
Speaker
And it's like,
00:17:04
Speaker
Whatever that, I don't know what that means.
00:17:05
Speaker
People told me that when I bought freaking a house in 2017.
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:09
Speaker
Paying too much for the house.
00:17:10
Speaker
But my advice to that is just get in the market.
00:17:13
Speaker
Don't time the market.
00:17:14
Speaker
It's not like an opinion.
00:17:16
Speaker
It's a fact.
00:17:17
Speaker
You can't time the market.
00:17:19
Speaker
Don't wait for it to crash.
00:17:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:20
Speaker
Just get in the market.
00:17:21
Speaker
yeah just buy i like that because yeah so many people are into like crypto you know like jason newbies all crypto crypto crypto but it's like with all these wars and things like that and you know just crazy stuff going on i think once you say homes it's always going to be basically secure right i mean yeah it's a physical thing let's say you buy a home and it's 400 000 and the market dips 25 yeah and now your home's only worth 300 000 but what i mean as long as you can keep making the payments yeah it will go back up
00:17:51
Speaker
So even if you owe $370,000 and it's only worth $300,000, you're like, crap, I'm like negative $70,000.
00:17:57
Speaker
Just hold on to it for five years and it'll go back up.
Innovative Cookie Franchise Model
00:18:00
Speaker
And the other thing is, what happens in 2008, all these people
00:18:05
Speaker
owned homes and then they all foreclose on their home.
00:18:08
Speaker
They lost their home.
00:18:09
Speaker
Guess what?
00:18:09
Speaker
It makes them makes them renters.
00:18:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:12
Speaker
It's the renter market.
00:18:13
Speaker
That's true.
00:18:14
Speaker
Market crashes.
00:18:15
Speaker
There's more rent that need places to live.
00:18:17
Speaker
So it's very unlikely that the market will crash, at least in my opinion.
00:18:21
Speaker
I mean, I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
00:18:23
Speaker
Market's going to crash.
00:18:24
Speaker
and then you can't find a renter to cover your mortgage.
00:18:27
Speaker
That's going to be possible, but it's not super likely.
00:18:30
Speaker
The market crashes and there's more renters.
00:18:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point.
00:18:33
Speaker
It brings up demand.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:35
Speaker
No, I'm a big fan, and yeah, well, I told you we just got our first investment down in St.
00:18:39
Speaker
George, Utah.
00:18:40
Speaker
I don't know.
00:18:41
Speaker
There's probably better stuff out there, but I did it with like... Money.
00:18:44
Speaker
Airbnb, right?
00:18:45
Speaker
Yeah, Airbnb.
00:18:45
Speaker
And there's like six people in on it, so that's not...
00:18:48
Speaker
as profitable but i mean i think that's what you did yeah it's just getting in the market yeah you own 10 of investment or one percent of at least you're in it yeah and then you gain confidence and you're like okay now i can do another one yeah and i can do another like this isn't that hard yeah because for me i was like i don't know i've always been like skeptical and cautious and like i have to have a bunch of money just wait wait wait but uh yeah i like that just starting somewhere just starting on a small deal and then you can see okay this is actually working out let's use it for bigger deals and let's keep everyone
00:19:19
Speaker
If you have a hundred grand sitting in your account, you're not that motivated to knock.
00:19:22
Speaker
You're not that motivated to knock.
00:19:25
Speaker
You're like, I'm gonna go knock, but not that general.
00:19:27
Speaker
You spend that money and you don't have money in your account,
00:19:30
Speaker
not wasting it but investing it in things that you can't, you know, it's not stocks that you can sell and take, it's real estate or it's a franchise, right?
00:19:37
Speaker
It's business.
00:19:38
Speaker
Then now you need to go knock some more.
00:19:41
Speaker
You do make more money.
00:19:42
Speaker
When you have more money in your bank account, you make less money.
00:19:44
Speaker
When you have less money, even though your net worth is going up, you're more inclined to work.
00:19:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:50
Speaker
No, that's true.
00:19:51
Speaker
100%.
00:19:52
Speaker
You want to be cash poor.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:55
Speaker
You don't want to be set on cash.
00:19:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:57
Speaker
Other than, you know, a three to six month reserve, which should also be in a separate account, not your bank account.
00:20:03
Speaker
Right.
00:20:04
Speaker
Different account.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:05
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, so many, unfortunately, so many guys in door-to-door and solar are broke from stupid stuff, right?
00:20:12
Speaker
From not putting in investments.
00:20:13
Speaker
And I remember, maybe it was you that was telling me this, but some like, I don't know, maybe it's door-to-door managers, things like that would like to try to get their guys to spend their money on stupid stuff and go out and buy like expensive cars.
00:20:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:25
Speaker
do that because it meant it's like how do you recruit well you have to show up in a nice car yeah like that's one way of doing it but like the way that I recruited was based off of education yeah what what are you going into school for what do you want your career path whether that's I want to be doctor or a lawyer or a marketer or whatever it's like okay so you're telling me you need communication skills yeah it's not sales skills it's communication skills so you needed the ability to catch somebody's attention rapidly very quick
00:20:53
Speaker
Get them to listen to you and then persuade them to what you're doing.
00:20:56
Speaker
You need to do that in your business, right?
00:20:57
Speaker
In your future career.
00:20:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:59
Speaker
Okay, cool.
00:20:59
Speaker
Well, I got an opportunity to teach you and then you focus on what they're going to learn and educational piece.
00:21:06
Speaker
And that's why I did the finance Fridays.
00:21:07
Speaker
The second pest control company I worked for was Sage Pest Control and the owner's name was Brandon Grover and Josh Shiffman.
00:21:15
Speaker
And they had their version of the finance Friday.
00:21:17
Speaker
I think it was Wednesdays, but they did a pre-recorded broadcast, a pre-recorded video.
00:21:22
Speaker
They would send that out and you just play it into your meetings.
00:21:25
Speaker
And then it was like this Wednesday we're going over stocks and life insurance and then real estate and then all these, you know, businesses.
00:21:32
Speaker
And so I'm like, I love that.
00:21:33
Speaker
And I recruited people off of that.
00:21:35
Speaker
So that's why we built that.
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah, that was huge.
00:21:38
Speaker
But yeah, I was just going to say too, that's way more valuable than telling you guys to go buy cars.
00:21:42
Speaker
Because I know guys will just get their reps to spend money on stupid stuff just because we're going to keep them broke.
00:21:48
Speaker
We're going to keep them broke so they'll go work more.
00:21:50
Speaker
And you can keep them broke by buying real estate.
00:21:53
Speaker
It's like, do you want to work for somebody?
00:21:55
Speaker
that driving a freaking Lamborghini or that owns a handful of properties or one property, right?
00:22:01
Speaker
It's like there's more money comes than it goes.
00:22:04
Speaker
So before it goes, secure something that'll make you money.
00:22:08
Speaker
And like going back to YP's cookie company, I just listened to a podcast.
00:22:11
Speaker
I didn't even go freaking remember which one it was, but it was,
00:22:14
Speaker
You get wealthy in two ways, buying businesses and real estate.
00:22:18
Speaker
I'm like, I've been buying real estate.
00:22:20
Speaker
Here's an opportunity to buy a business.
00:22:21
Speaker
And then, you know, in the back, oh, well, you don't know what you're doing.
00:22:24
Speaker
You've never been in food.
00:22:26
Speaker
It's out of snow.
00:22:27
Speaker
Like you can't even pop in and do it.
00:22:28
Speaker
And then I'm like, I'm just going to get in the market, right?
00:22:31
Speaker
Even if it's a business.
00:22:32
Speaker
And then kind of playing the whole thing.
00:22:34
Speaker
Okay, well, what if I buy this company and it goes under?
00:22:37
Speaker
I'll just go knock some more freaking door.
00:22:39
Speaker
I mean, like I have a skill that I could go in any freaking any state and go sell pest control or satellite or alarms or solar and I can make six figures in a few months.
00:22:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:51
Speaker
So also knowing that confidence, I just like throw the money here, throw the money here and I like some money over here and then that 50 grand, that business didn't do good.
00:23:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:01
Speaker
I still made any money off of it.
00:23:02
Speaker
The business is still running.
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:04
Speaker
But at the same time, it's like I got rid of the money.
00:23:05
Speaker
I worked harder, got more money and invest in something else.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:08
Speaker
And you're kind of throwing your money out there.
00:23:09
Speaker
But real estate is really what everybody should be getting into, in my opinion, first, get a property and then businesses.
Franchise Investment Opportunity with PI Syndicate
00:23:17
Speaker
And I didn't really know much about the franchise model, but franchise your business owner with a set of really good processes and instructions.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:26
Speaker
So that's, again, what I wanted to build when I was trying to buy crumble.
00:23:31
Speaker
They're like, yeah, you can buy one, but not in Utah or sold out one.
00:23:33
Speaker
I was like, cool, well, where can I buy one?
00:23:35
Speaker
They're like, well, where do you want to move to?
00:23:37
Speaker
I'm like, I don't want to move anywhere.
00:23:39
Speaker
I'm not going to go do cookies for my career.
00:23:42
Speaker
I mean, that's what I'm doing now, but I didn't think I wanted to do cookies for my career at that time.
00:23:46
Speaker
I just want to put some of my money in, hire somebody good.
00:23:49
Speaker
and have them run it.
00:23:50
Speaker
And that wasn't in their cards at that time, which is totally fine.
00:23:53
Speaker
So what I focus on is making it dummy proof.
00:23:57
Speaker
So we pre-manufacture everything at a centralized location.
00:24:00
Speaker
So we're ordering all of our flour and our sugar directly from manufacturers rather than third party distributors.
00:24:04
Speaker
So we get it at steep discounts.
00:24:08
Speaker
And then we use machines to eliminate labor.
00:24:10
Speaker
So rather than doing everything by hand and weighing it by hand, making them little balls by hand,
00:24:15
Speaker
We have a machine that does it all.
00:24:17
Speaker
So our labor is very low.
00:24:19
Speaker
And then we're shipping these pre-portioned cookie pucks that are already three layers to the stores.
00:24:25
Speaker
And all you're doing, they're still being baked fresh every hour.
00:24:27
Speaker
There's no difference in the freshness.
00:24:28
Speaker
But now you have half the labor.
00:24:30
Speaker
You have half the startup costs.
00:24:32
Speaker
your ongoing costs are less.
00:24:33
Speaker
You don't have to deal with raw ingredients.
00:24:35
Speaker
You don't have to have the space to store everything.
00:24:37
Speaker
So your least space can be smaller, can be less expensive.
00:24:40
Speaker
That's the model that I built.
00:24:41
Speaker
One to lower that barrier of entry so a solar guy could get into it, right?
00:24:46
Speaker
So or somebody that didn't think that they can own a business now can because it's very affordable.
00:24:52
Speaker
I mean, relatively speaking, right?
00:24:54
Speaker
Franchises are typically several hundred thousand dollars to a million dollars, a few million dollars sometimes.
Transition from Solar to Cookie Business
00:24:59
Speaker
And we're in the range of around 200,000.
00:25:01
Speaker
I mean, it could be more, it could be less.
00:25:03
Speaker
But then we're on the SBA approved list.
00:25:04
Speaker
You can either get a loan, you can do equipment financing.
00:25:07
Speaker
And there's just different ways that you don't have to have that much cash to get into a business.
00:25:12
Speaker
And then we're here at Solarcon right now and partnered with Pi Syndicate.
00:25:16
Speaker
They, Jerry Fusel and Austin Underwood, Austin Underwood, their family owns 100-something franchises.
00:25:22
Speaker
Tons of five guys, all the five guys in Utah, a lot of them in Texas, Zaxby's.
00:25:26
Speaker
They know how to do this, so they said,
00:25:28
Speaker
you give us your money and we'll make it a passive investment for you.
00:25:31
Speaker
It's a white glove service.
00:25:33
Speaker
So that's another way that you can get it.
00:25:34
Speaker
And what they're doing is really unique.
00:25:36
Speaker
They see this model, they know how profitable it is.
00:25:38
Speaker
They know how to rent restaurants.
00:25:39
Speaker
So they're offering 100% ROI.
00:25:41
Speaker
So they're kind of minimum package.
00:25:43
Speaker
You do 27,500 and they open up a store for you.
00:25:46
Speaker
You own 10% of that store, but they guarantee all your
00:25:48
Speaker
money back year one which is crazy it's like who's doing that who's that confident in what they're doing yeah so super cool i'm glad to glad to be working with those guys and some other all-stars in the industry in the food world no that's cool yeah pretty crazy investment and uh great so we'll uh you know link to that for those that are interested and give a more plug at the end of the show but let me ask you bennett were you uh so transition out of the solar industry like were you nervous getting out of solar going on on this cookie thing because oh
00:26:14
Speaker
I mean my thoughts are like you already got crumble you're especially in Utah you got a million cookie shops yeah so what were your thoughts like how did you feel making this whole transition I always had kind of in mind of if I was looking at Utah I wouldn't have done it yeah but looking outside of Utah it's like there's only crumble though it's like when's the last time you seen a McDonald's that you don't see a you know California Jack in the Box or a Wendy's or a Burger King within eyesight that's true yeah
00:26:39
Speaker
Or the targets are always right across the street from the Walmarts.
00:26:42
Speaker
The Jamba Juices are always in the same freaking strip mall as a Starbucks.
00:26:47
Speaker
So I looked at it on the outside, I'm like, okay, well, Crumble's killing it in all these other states and Utah's kind of saturated.
00:26:53
Speaker
But again, we built a model that's profitable with low cells.
00:26:57
Speaker
We looked at like a Mrs. Fields and Insomnia cookies.
00:27:01
Speaker
those have been in so many cookies been around for 20 some years.
00:27:04
Speaker
40 years.
00:27:05
Speaker
They've weathered the recessions, you know, they don't rely on a growth economy necessarily.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, they're taking hits in the growth economy.
00:27:12
Speaker
They're shutting down, but there's a lot still open and that's because they do centralized production.
00:27:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:17
Speaker
and they're shipping it out.
00:27:19
Speaker
And then you look at Crumble and I see, I mean, they do a lot of things really well in their marketing and their weekly rotating flavors.
00:27:25
Speaker
So it's like, well, can we take the weekly rotating flavors, the novelty item, giant cookie, served warm, delivered to your door, but take in this robust business model of a Mrs. Fields of insomnia cookies and combine them so we can get the higher sales of Crumble while keeping the lower costs and the lower risk on these other business models.
00:27:44
Speaker
So that's what that's what we've been aiming to build.
00:27:46
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:47
Speaker
And I think we've done a decent job.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:50
Speaker
We're opening up, you know, 57 stores in our first four months is what we've sold and funded so far.
00:27:55
Speaker
Four stores opening next month and then basically four every month after that's about one week is what we're doing.
00:28:01
Speaker
Wow, that's
Investment Advice for Solar Reps
00:28:02
Speaker
crazy.
00:28:02
Speaker
So yeah, it's pretty impressive to see the growth and it seems like everything you touch just goes to gold, man.
00:28:06
Speaker
So congrats on the success with it.
00:28:09
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, so we've talked about two different things here.
00:28:11
Speaker
Real estate, you got the cookie shop.
00:28:14
Speaker
So if I'm a solar rep or I want to start investing, are you telling me, do you think I should invest in a cookie store before I do some real estate?
00:28:21
Speaker
Do you think guys should go real estate first?
00:28:23
Speaker
I would do real estate first.
00:28:24
Speaker
First, if you're going to actively manage it.
00:28:27
Speaker
If you're looking for just something to throw your money, I would do a franchise, but I would do it through the Pi Syndicate, get the guarantee.
00:28:34
Speaker
So that's kind of, I think you want to do both for sure.
00:28:38
Speaker
But if you don't have the time to go find a deal with real estate, you don't want to find a renter, you don't want to move, it does take work.
00:28:46
Speaker
If you want the, like,
00:28:47
Speaker
I have money, I want to get in the market today, then let's get you with Pison to get.
00:28:51
Speaker
If it's, well, I have a little bit more time, I want to get into real estate, cool.
00:28:54
Speaker
And again, I'm happy to help.
00:28:56
Speaker
If you can't qualify for yourself, then let's partner on the deal, go 50-50, 51-49.
Utilizing Virtual Assistants in Business
00:29:03
Speaker
You don't ever go 50-50.
00:29:04
Speaker
That's the one wrong answer.
00:29:06
Speaker
And then I have obviously a system that manages it all.
00:29:08
Speaker
It's very cheap.
00:29:11
Speaker
It's not an 8% management fee or 10%.
00:29:12
Speaker
I'm paying somebody out of the Philippines that manages over 20 tenants for me.
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:18
Speaker
Well, that's the other thing I was going to bring up because I've heard some people, oh, real estate is so much work.
00:29:23
Speaker
It's not really passive.
00:29:24
Speaker
We have to do
00:29:25
Speaker
so much managing it but yeah you've taken the hold and again if you haven't does yeah somebody has to manage it so you just hire somebody to do it is my point yeah it does take time but it doesn't have to take your time and so yeah i mean this guy's a whiz with the virtual assistant so again go listen to the first podcast if you haven't already but he's taken a lot of the same stuff that our assistants were doing in switch to solar the solar dealer you had and now you're just using them for other things and leveraging that so i don't know
00:29:50
Speaker
How do you, I guess for guys that maybe have properties and stuff like that, do you have any tips on how to get maybe a virtual assistant or someone running this stuff for you or ways you've used it in real estate or other stuff?
00:30:02
Speaker
There's a lot of different companies that can connect to virtual
Finding & Partnering in Real Estate Deals
00:30:05
Speaker
assistants.
00:30:06
Speaker
So I've gone with, after we hired our first few, they just hire, they're hiring out on their network.
00:30:11
Speaker
So I don't go through any different companies.
00:30:14
Speaker
I know there's a year, Matt Sphere Marketing, I think.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:17
Speaker
The owner's name's Ken.
00:30:18
Speaker
He's got a good company.
00:30:20
Speaker
There's some other companies that are popping up doing that.
00:30:23
Speaker
And you can also shoot me a message, Instagram or something.
00:30:25
Speaker
I can refer you to somebody that I'm not going to make any money off of it, but I'm happy to refer.
00:30:30
Speaker
Because man, it's awesome.
00:30:32
Speaker
Now, most people are hesitant with the virtual assistant because they don't know how to be like, oh, well, do you trust them?
00:30:38
Speaker
It's like, well, you protect yourself, but you use password management systems and use credit cards.
00:30:43
Speaker
You don't use debit cards, things like that.
00:30:45
Speaker
And it's all into really training.
00:30:48
Speaker
Like yeah, there's some good people and there's some bad people and you're gonna run into that.
00:30:52
Speaker
But it's, they're doing a bad job and you've trained them right, then you get another one.
00:30:56
Speaker
And if they're doing a bad job and you train them right, get another one.
00:30:58
Speaker
And if they're doing a bad job and you train them right, well you're not training them right.
00:31:03
Speaker
It's your fault.
00:31:04
Speaker
Yeah, I like that.
00:31:05
Speaker
No, I've been using, they're super helpful.
00:31:06
Speaker
So, and it took me, I did go through like four virtual assistants before I found one that's crushing it now.
00:31:12
Speaker
So yeah, I think that's, and that's one of the benefits.
00:31:14
Speaker
Maybe there's agencies, guys that will help you find more.
00:31:17
Speaker
But I think me, I'm Bennett.
00:31:18
Speaker
Interview and vet them properly.
00:31:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:20
Speaker
And I always start them at a very rapid increase in pay as well.
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:24
Speaker
So we would hire $5 an hour.
00:31:26
Speaker
kind of average out there.
00:31:27
Speaker
We do a 50 cent raise every quarter.
00:31:30
Speaker
Nice.
00:31:31
Speaker
So within the, if they stick with me for a year, that's seven.
00:31:33
Speaker
If they stick with me for two years, they're at nine.
00:31:35
Speaker
Nice.
00:31:36
Speaker
So they've almost doubled their income in two years.
00:31:37
Speaker
And then after that, I switch them to a 10% raise per year.
00:31:41
Speaker
Well, it's a two and a half percent raise per quarter.
00:31:44
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:44
Speaker
So it ends up being just over 10% because of the compounding effect.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:49
Speaker
But it's like, let's start you at it low for us, right?
00:31:52
Speaker
But like kind of an average in the Philippines, maybe a little
00:31:57
Speaker
like two years you're gonna make me make a double the money so stick with me because to the culture is like high turnover I'm gonna work for you for three months I'm gonna go find somebody else yeah yeah it's like no incentivize them to stick with you so who's not gonna pay somebody $10 a dollar $15 now that's been with you for a few years
00:32:13
Speaker
Yeah, like that's a no-brainer.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:32:15
Speaker
I mean, that's good advice because I haven't given mine a raise in a year.
00:32:18
Speaker
So I should start giving mine a raise.
00:32:21
Speaker
You're doing good enough for a raise or that you're not doing good enough at all.
00:32:24
Speaker
Yeah, you're fired type of deal.
00:32:26
Speaker
Yeah, so it's not like I'm gonna evaluate it and see if you're gonna do it.
00:32:28
Speaker
These are guaranteed raises if you work for me.
00:32:30
Speaker
That means you're doing good and you get the raise.
00:32:33
Speaker
Okay, well mine actually edits all these podcasts.
00:32:35
Speaker
So she's gonna hear all this right now and be like, what the heck Taylor?
00:32:38
Speaker
Yeah, I'm giving me a raise though.
00:32:40
Speaker
All right, Angelica, better give you a raise.
00:32:45
Speaker
But cool.
00:32:45
Speaker
And so just kind of as we start wrapping up here, Bennett, my last kind of question with real estate, how would you mind these deals?
00:32:51
Speaker
Because that's what was one of my, I guess, things that has held me back to is I don't even know where to begin looking for these deals.
00:32:57
Speaker
Like how do I connect with a good real estate agent?
00:33:00
Speaker
What to
00:33:00
Speaker
What tips do you have on that?
00:33:01
Speaker
Facebook groups are amazing.
00:33:03
Speaker
Now, because now we're doing real estate in multiple states for dirty dough, right?
00:33:08
Speaker
So not buying residential properties, but you look up Phoenix, Arizona realtor groups.
00:33:12
Speaker
Go on Facebook and join them and say, hey, I'm looking for a realtor, and I need, this is my first time buying investment property.
00:33:18
Speaker
Something like that.
00:33:20
Speaker
But you need somebody that's done this, and you want a realtor.
00:33:23
Speaker
If you're getting into investment,
Maximizing Real Estate Profitability
00:33:24
Speaker
you don't want any Joe Blow realtor that's like, oh yeah, I own my own house.
00:33:27
Speaker
And it's like, well, do you own investment properties?
00:33:30
Speaker
If they own investment properties, then use them.
00:33:32
Speaker
If they don't, I mean, just flat out don't use them.
00:33:34
Speaker
If you're buying investment property from somebody that doesn't own investment properties, just don't do it.
00:33:38
Speaker
So, Duane Richens, you know, I get realtors like, oh, why didn't, you know, how do I earn your business?
00:33:42
Speaker
Bring me a deal.
00:33:44
Speaker
You know, bring me a deal.
00:33:44
Speaker
Duane brings me deals.
00:33:46
Speaker
So, when you brought Duane to me, you know, he came out and he did his presentation.
00:33:51
Speaker
I got under contract with two properties.
00:33:52
Speaker
I paid $1,500 for a condo.
00:33:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:55
Speaker
Earn this money.
00:33:55
Speaker
And the other one, I bought a town home that was like, I don't know, 10 or 15 grand because I was paying for some upgrades and stuff like that.
00:34:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:01
Speaker
Finished the basement, made a five bedroom so I could rent it out.
00:34:04
Speaker
But anyways, the condo, just focusing on that, paid $1,500.
00:34:07
Speaker
Is that what Tanner did?
00:34:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:08
Speaker
Brother?
00:34:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:34:09
Speaker
So me and Tanner put $1,500 down on a condo.
00:34:12
Speaker
That was our only risk.
00:34:13
Speaker
This was in May.
00:34:14
Speaker
Now these condos are being finished here in April or I think May 4th maybe.
00:34:18
Speaker
And when I got under contract at $389 and those same condos in the same spot in Lehigh, Utah just went for $454,000, something like that.
00:34:30
Speaker
So it's like, gained $60,000 of equity.
00:34:32
Speaker
And my risk was $1,500.
00:34:33
Speaker
Because I'm securing the price and the market's just crazy right now.
00:34:39
Speaker
So turning $1,500 to $60,000, I mean, what type of return is that?
00:34:43
Speaker
That's a 400% return.
00:34:45
Speaker
So we're talking crypto returns, but with real estate, just crazy.
00:34:49
Speaker
But yeah, now that I'm secured it, like now I have to pay 100 grand to actually pay for it, right?
00:34:55
Speaker
But at that point, it's like, how easy is it to go find somebody with 100 grand?
00:34:59
Speaker
Like, hey, dude, we could walk into 60 grand equity.
00:35:02
Speaker
So if you need a partner, you can always do that.
00:35:06
Speaker
So it's finding these deals, but finding the realtor and asking those questions to vet them.
00:35:11
Speaker
If you're in Utah, I would use Dwayne.
00:35:12
Speaker
Dwayne's the man.
00:35:13
Speaker
Yeah, he's awesome.
00:35:14
Speaker
That's sweet.
00:35:14
Speaker
And so you could turn around and sell that and make 60 grand, right?
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:19
Speaker
Like 30, 40 because you have to pay your realtor fees.
00:35:24
Speaker
So you sell on a property for 450, you're paying five, 6%.
00:35:28
Speaker
That's going to go up, but yeah, I can sell it.
00:35:31
Speaker
Now this particular builder requires you to keep it for a year.
00:35:34
Speaker
I did two properties.
00:35:35
Speaker
I did a town home.
00:35:36
Speaker
The town home I bought for 475 or 85, somewhere around there.
00:35:37
Speaker
And they just went for 609.
00:35:42
Speaker
It's like, so I'm going to get, I'm signing on both of these properties for the next two weeks and I'm walking into like 180 grand equity.
00:35:49
Speaker
And it's like, it's crazy.
00:35:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:52
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's finding the deal.
00:35:53
Speaker
We'll find somebody who's finding deals.
00:35:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:56
Speaker
I'm not actively looking.
00:35:57
Speaker
I didn't find the duplex.
00:35:58
Speaker
I wasn't even looking for it.
00:35:59
Speaker
I'm not analyzing the numbers.
00:36:00
Speaker
I'm not saying you should do that, but find somebody that's an expert in what they're doing.
00:36:04
Speaker
They're already doing it for other people, and it's just like, put me on your list.
00:36:07
Speaker
Bring me a good deal.
00:36:08
Speaker
Yeah, and so why isn't like Dwayne, for example, why doesn't he just buy up all these good deals himself if they're so good?
00:36:14
Speaker
Or does he buy... They release condos and townhomes and homes every single week, like these new builders.
00:36:19
Speaker
Okay, so he's not going to buy up the whole complex.
00:36:21
Speaker
You can't buy five a week for a year.
00:36:23
Speaker
That's true.
00:36:25
Speaker
okay so yeah i mean i bought a house i moved from san diego to pleasant grove utah yeah bought a home and i moved in february 2nd yeah got under contract on january 1st a buyer fell through yeah and that that was kind of just lucky so same thing this was being built had all the upgrades everything that we wanted they signed their contract probably in january last year yeah so i got under i just took over their contract so i
00:36:49
Speaker
Within 30 days, I found this property bought it moved in and walked into like 60, 70 thousand dollars worth of equity because again I got their last year's price Wow so kind of just being on the lookout but man my time is limited so having people do that for me yeah like these are my criteria or what should my criteria be right a lot of people don't know what they're looking for so it's like tell me what I should look for yeah what's a good investment and at the end of the day just get into it and if you lose the money going freaking knocks more doors
00:37:18
Speaker
more money I know get in the market your your net worth and your wealth goes up very quick yeah hundred percent and that's why we're in solar baby take that money and get some investments so no appreciate the you know real estate tips all the good stuff you've shared with us Bennett and Alex would you say all these real estate it's like paying your expenses you're making I don't know I spend a lot of my two now
00:37:42
Speaker
but pretty good passive money like 6,000 and I'm okay this other two it's gonna it's gonna increase so not so much all my expenses but at the same time like if I wanted to retire of all the properties I own it's worth like maybe three and a half four million dollars so let's say goes up five percent here like last year went up 20% if you look at Utah specific over 20 years it's going on five percent here so what's five percent of four million that's 200,000
00:38:06
Speaker
So it's like I have seven properties.
00:38:09
Speaker
So every year I can technically pick a property and I do like a cash out refinance or heal up or something and pull out 200,000 and then let that property grow for the next seven years.
00:38:20
Speaker
And I take $200,000 out of each property per year within the seven properties there.
00:38:24
Speaker
I'm gaining $200,000 somehow passively on top of my
Final Advice for Solar Professionals
00:38:28
Speaker
cash flow.
00:38:28
Speaker
So that's where the real money is at in this market.
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:31
Speaker
is the appreciation and then yeah i'll get yeah maybe 60 grand a year or something in cash flow but i'm getting 200 in appreciation yeah and then you just need to know how to take that out and either reinvest it or if you want to spend it on something but definitely yeah always try to reinvest yeah yeah that's fire well cool so guys go get started in real estate if you haven't or yeah buy a cookie store either one okay
00:38:52
Speaker
depending on what your goals are, how active you want to be.
00:38:55
Speaker
And so, yeah, I mean, before we let you go, Bennett, if guys want to like, you know, get in the cookies or, you know, hit you up about real estate, what's the best way to connect with you and hear more about how to get in on that stuff?
00:39:06
Speaker
You can go to my website, Bennett Maxwell.com.
00:39:08
Speaker
So B E N N E T T. And there you can inquire about franchising, set up a call with me or my partner.
00:39:14
Speaker
You know, if you had some questions about real estate, message me on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn.
00:39:19
Speaker
connects me through there.
00:39:21
Speaker
And then I do have a, I'm starting to do a monthly like in the trenches report of really what's going on in my business and really getting in the nitty gritty of like actual numbers.
00:39:31
Speaker
Like we lost this much money.
00:39:33
Speaker
We gained this much money and building an enterprise value.
00:39:36
Speaker
So you can subscribe to that.
00:39:38
Speaker
And I do a few of those a month though.
00:39:39
Speaker
Awesome.
00:39:40
Speaker
I don't even know you had a website.
00:39:41
Speaker
So look at you moving up.
00:39:43
Speaker
Fancy, fancy.
00:39:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:44
Speaker
So go check it out.
00:39:46
Speaker
We'll link all that in the show notes.
00:39:48
Speaker
So check it out.
00:39:49
Speaker
Hit up Bennett and some, yeah, amazing investment opportunity with a dirty dose.
00:39:53
Speaker
Check that out too.
00:39:54
Speaker
So Bennett, thanks again for coming on the show.
00:39:56
Speaker
And yeah, it's been fun.
00:39:57
Speaker
So guys, go hit them up.
00:39:58
Speaker
Let them know you appreciate them.
00:40:00
Speaker
I guess any final advice or any tips you'd give to guys in, in solar, anything else you'd add to before we wrap up here?
00:40:07
Speaker
Work to learn, not to earn first.
00:40:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:40:09
Speaker
Be educated and build yourself to be the best salesperson, the most educated salesperson.
00:40:15
Speaker
And then you will get the money and you will get into investments after that.
00:40:19
Speaker
It's just about the education.
00:40:20
Speaker
Love it.
00:40:20
Speaker
Nugget right there.
00:40:21
Speaker
Cool.
00:40:22
Speaker
We'll appreciate you coming on the show, Bennett.
00:40:23
Speaker
And maybe we'll have to bring it back for a third one when you have 100 properties or something.
00:40:28
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:40:28
Speaker
We'll see.
00:40:29
Speaker
So thanks again for coming on.
00:40:30
Speaker
And yeah, we'll talk soon.
00:40:33
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
00:40:34
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:40:36
Speaker
Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
00:40:47
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:40:54
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:40:57
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:41:02
Speaker
So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solarpreneur.
00:41:15
Speaker
We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new, you do not want to not have this sheet.
00:41:24
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:41:25
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:41:29
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:41:34
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:41:37
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:41:38
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:41:40
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:41:46
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:41:47
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.