Today on Unstoppable Real Estate Investing Wealth we are joined by an individual and leader in turnkey investments that has hit stratospheric growth with no limits standing in his way! Marck De Lautour, born and raised in New Zealand, now calls the US home after coming here to play tennis in college and earn his MBA in International Business Management. Marck had his humble beginnings in real estate with a $25k flip and has never looked back. This episode is for you whether you’re a rookie or veteran in the business. Listen in as Marck drops some gold nuggets for you.
I ask Marck a little about his real estate niche and I have posted part of that conversation below!
[00:03:26]Billy: [00:03:26] like this snapping the fingers. And before you know what your kids are grown, they're off to college and having a family of their own.
[00:03:30] It's crazy. So, Marck you have a niche, the business you're in. I know it's morphed over the years. I don't know if he ever really did wholesaling, but I know you were rehabber back in the day. Now you're really a turnkey provider. So for people that are listening to the show, they're not familiar with the word turnkey provider.
[00:03:45] What does that actually mean?
[00:03:47] Marck: [00:03:47] Yeah, sure. A turnkey provider is essentially a flipper only. You've already got the buyer in your pocket and you don't need to pay a real estate commission. So the beautiful thing is most people step over those hundreds of $150,000 homes because , they're more rental properties than flips.
[00:04:02] Right? So most people would kind of flip in that. The 150 to 550 range, at least in the Kent state marketplace, we actually take, we don't do any of the small inner city properties or anything. We focus in a class areas. That's kind of our niche, but we take properties that are designed to be nice, suburban areas as rental properties.
[00:04:22] And we actually, obviously, like anyone else we advertise and target to buy them under market value, but then we do a really quality remodel attracting a super high quality tenant. And then we, once the property is tenanted and already, rent it out rehab and rent it out.
[00:04:36] We then, and only then do we sell it to an investor? That's kind of sitting there saying, Hey, Marck, I'd like to buy as many rental properties as I can. I just don't have the time or money, how to do it. So we call it a full turnkey operation because. We have high income, high net worth individuals that are wanting to build a portfolio of rental properties, but we do everything for them.
[00:04:55] We take all the mistakes out of it cause they don't need to go kick their teeth in. In fact, I would say that most of them are dentists, doctors, lawyers, accountants income individuals that see value in real estate over the stock market. But I think the real estate industry for the longest time has done a very poor job of catering to the investor.
[00:05:14]When you sign up for an entry level job, they say. We'll match for your 401k? No. Okay. So everyone just starts pouring their money into the stock market. I think we need to step up a little and my vision, my big goal is to make real estate investing as easy as investing in the stock market.
That was just a sneak peek as to everything that you will here in this episode and as always if you need anything come find me at billyalvaro.com and billyssecrets.com
Talk to you all soon!
Welcome to Unstoppable Real Estate Investing Wealth. My name is Billy Alvaro, AKA the unstoppable BA former billion dollar mortgage banker gone bankrupt turn professional real estate fester where each week you'll learn the tools, strategies, systems, and secrets myself. And other highly successful real estate investing entrepreneurs used to start, grow and scale their businesses, creating massive profits and how you can too.
[00:00:31] And we'll teach you how to put those profits to work. So you no longer have to get ready to finally experience financial freedom and generational wealth. Now let's get started.
[00:00:44] Welcome back everybody. To the next episode I am Billy Alvaro the unstoppable BA this is unstoppable REI wealth. And if you've listened to this podcast long enough, this is all about teaching you how to start, grow, and eventually scale your real estate investment business.
[00:00:58] Now today's episode is going to be a killer episode for may reasons. I'm going to get into that in a second, but first. If you're new to the show, look, I know you can watch many podcasts out there, listen to many podcasts out there. So I want you to know that how much I appreciate you tuning in and listening.
[00:01:15] If you want to learn the tools tips, and tricks, and strategies and secrets that I've used. And my guests use just go to billyssecrets.com on there. Most of the tools that we speak about are going to be on there. Also, if you look into partner on deals, take your company to the next level, joint venture, even do some sort of money lending, go to billyalvaro.com.
[00:01:34] Fill out the form on there. We can connect and figure out how we can select do a business together. Now this, the guests I'm bringing on today, this gentleman comes from New Zealand. I've known him now for about four years, met him at collective genius and he has an incredible story, but he is living proof that when you structure your business the right way, The trajectory of where you can go.
[00:01:55] It's in my mind, it's stratospheric and it's unbelievable. His business has grown substantially in the last two years since he's brought on his COO. And I'm going to introduce him now, Marck Delatour. Marck, Welcome to the show, buddy.
[00:02:09] Marck: [00:02:09] Thanks, Billy. Great to be here. I always enjoy spending time with you
[00:02:12]Billy: [00:02:12] appreciate you coming on, man.
[00:02:13] So listen, let's get a quick backstory, five minutes of how you got into this business and where you're from. Cause we, everybody could listen to that accent of yours and we know it's not from Australia, so
[00:02:24] Marck: [00:02:24] no, well done, no born and raised in New Zealand. And proud proud New Zealand. I wish I could go back more often, but obviously as the code that is kind of putting a kibosh on that right now with this two week mandatory quarantine that they force you into.
[00:02:35] But yeah, I came over here as a tennis player and played four years on the collegiate tennis circuit. Got my undergraduate degree stayed on, go my MBA and fell in love. Got married. Right after I graduated So tennis brought me to America. Love kept me here. And it was kind of love at first flip for me also, and that I flipped a house when I was getting my MBA right out the summer after I got my MBA.
[00:02:59] And so I've never really had a job, Billy. I just flipped that one house and accidentally, may 25 K and I'm thinking, why would I go work for, 40 grand a year? And I can, take a couple months and go do that. So luckily my wife was a nurse and so we lived off Her meager hourly wage for a few years.
[00:03:15] And I was just kinda getting boots on the ground and figuring everything out. But yeah, looking back 20 years later, it's been quite a ride
[00:03:22]Billy: [00:03:22] 20 years. It goes by quick man. Doesn't it
[00:03:24] Marck: [00:03:24] mate, it sure does
[00:03:26]Billy: [00:03:26] like this snapping the fingers. And before you know what your kids are grown, they're off to college and having a family of their own.
[00:03:30] It's crazy. So, Marck you have a niche, the business you're in. I know it's morphed over the years. I don't know if he ever really did wholesaling, but I know you were rehabber back in the day. Now you're really a turnkey provider. So for people that are listening to the show, they're not familiar with the word turnkey provider.
[00:03:45] What does that actually mean?
[00:03:47] Marck: [00:03:47] Yeah, sure. A turnkey provider is essentially a flipper only. You've already got the buyer in your pocket and you don't need to pay a real estate commission. So the beautiful thing is most people step over those hundreds of $150,000 homes because , they're more rental properties than flips.
[00:04:02] Right? So most people would kind of flip in that. The 150 to 550 range, at least in the Kent state marketplace, we actually take, we don't do any of the small inner city properties or anything. We focus in a class areas. That's kind of our niche, but we take properties that are designed to be nice, suburban areas as rental properties.
[00:04:22] And we actually, obviously, like anyone else we advertise and target to buy them under market value, but then we do a really quality remodel attracting a super high quality tenant. And then we, once the property is tenanted and already, rent it out rehab and rent it out.
[00:04:36] We then, and only then do we sell it to an investor? That's kind of sitting there saying, Hey, Marck, I'd like to buy as many rental properties as I can. I just don't have the time or money, how to do it. So we call it a full turnkey operation because. We have high income, high net worth individuals that are wanting to build a portfolio of rental properties, but we do everything for them.
[00:04:55] We take all the mistakes out of it cause they don't need to go kick their teeth in. In fact, I would say that most of them are dentists, doctors, lawyers, accountants income individuals that see value in real estate over the stock market. But I think the real estate industry for the longest time has done a very poor job of catering to the investor.
[00:05:14]When you sign up for an entry level job, they say. We'll match for your 401k? No. Okay. So everyone just starts pouring their money into the stock market. I think we need to step up a little and my vision, my big goal is to make real estate investing as easy as investing in the stock market.
[00:05:28] Billy: [00:05:28] I love it. So, so your business is multifaceted then you're not only going after product. You're going after the buyers. You have two different marketing campaigns going simultaneously. To bring in both of those,
[00:05:39] Marck: [00:05:39] correct? Well, yes and no. For sure. So we have four divisions. So the company, we have a huge acquisitions department, which is you can, this is what you do on a daily basis as well, which is, advertising and marketing and generating leads and taking phone calls and, going in the living room, getting the appointment on mid the contract to close and all that kind of thing.
[00:05:56] So we're really trying to generate as many deals as we can off market deals. We take those and then we've got to rehab them and we unlike we've never wholesaled. So we don't do any wholesale at all. So where are we rehabbing everything? So when we buy 300 houses a year, Billy, we are remodeling 300 houses.
[00:06:11] So brain damage it's a big lift, but then we take all of those and then we get them all rented out. And then we have this big property management company as well, obviously to cater and housing and manageable those. And yeah, and then we're blessed because we've pondered with Dr.
[00:06:27] David Phelps, that we're part of the freedom founders community, which delivers us. Quite a few buyers, probably half about buyers come from the freedom founders community. And then the other half are just loyal people that have kind of been with me over the years. And what I learned over the years is that wealthy people talk to wealthy people about where they're investing and what kind of returns start getting.
[00:06:44] And they come from a place of abundance mindset rather than scarcity. So they're not afraid to tell people, Oh yeah, this guy, Mark's just crushing it in real estate. And he's delivering me amazing returns. I'm getting, 14 to 20% returns on my money. You should go talk to him. And so it's really just been a referral based business from the get go.
[00:06:59] As far as the sales side of things,
[00:07:01] Billy: [00:07:01] I love it. Dude, you are dialed in and making shit happen. Now, when you first came into CG years back, how long have you been in now? Five years.
[00:07:07] Marck: [00:07:07] Five years.
[00:07:08] Billy: [00:07:08] Five years. So I don't know exactly what year it was, but I remember you were going through. A struggle on the acquisition of property side, because that whole market started to change correctly.
[00:07:19] You were buying a shit ton of your properties at the steps market started to shift. And you're like, what do I do? How am I going to do it? So tell us what you're doing today. How many different arms do you have to acquire properties? What is that?
[00:07:32] Marck: [00:07:32] Yeah, that, that is probably something that, that your listeners would get the most value from my commentary on, because.
[00:07:38]What everyone should do is not put all their eggs in one basket in any of your facets of your business and on acquisitions, we were a one trick pony. I mean, you had occasionally scour the MLS and they pick one or two, three deals a year from that. I mean, it was nothing we had focused on because, we're like, Oh, we can just get as much as we want from the courthouse steps.
[00:07:57] So back in the day, we were consistently buying about a hundred properties a year from 2011, all the way through 2017, just every year, a hundred, a a hundred homes, 150 on set or 10. We can always clip off about a hundred homes a year on the courthouse steps. And then all of a sudden I saw auction.com come into the marketplace and start, giving people that information that used to be.
[00:08:19] Not proprietary, but it was certainly very hard to get. And you had to kind of have to have systems and process to be able to get the information from the trustees, chase down the deals, investigate the homes, talk to the neighbors, do due diligence and have someone show up, live in person on the courthouse States to bid on the house.
[00:08:35] Well, now you just go to auction.com and they say, yeah, in two weeks time at this day, this time you can come and here's the opening bid. It's like, Oh my gosh. So it was way, way easier for people. And we started seeing more and more competition. And I could just see that going by the wayside.
[00:08:50] And so nowadays goodness, I can't even count the ways. First of all, we work with wholesalers. We've really embraced working with wholesalers to bring us deal flow realtors. We do television radio, billboard, advertising, SEO, PPC, I mean, direct to sale marketing with letters, postcards. So, I mean there's 10 ways right there that we are now bringing deal flow into our.
[00:09:12]Pipeline. And you have to embrace a multi-faceted approach to acquisitions because we're the most competitive time right now for, everyone wants to be a real estate investor. And so to be able to go and buy 300 homes in a year you gotta have your shit dialed in.
[00:09:26] Billy: [00:09:26] And is that what you're doing now?
[00:09:27] Roughly 300 a year.
[00:09:29] Marck: [00:09:29] Yeah. This year we'll do 296, which is just math. I mean, I keep saying, telling the team why not 300 and they're like, Hey, we know a numbers. It's going to be 296 and why. Okay. So I say 300 and then they're going to. Kind of irritated when they get to the two 96 number, but yeah, they tell what the team tells me 296 and in five different markets right now.
[00:09:47] Billy: [00:09:47] So I don't want to gloss over what you say, because this is important. I get this question asked me all the time, Billy, how are you doing the volume? You do a, what is the secret? What marketing secrets do you deploy in order to get the deals you're getting? And basically there is no secret. You just hit on that.
[00:10:02] You have to have an octopus with a lot of legs, a lot of technicals that are going out there, and you're going to get a return of three, four, five X on each different marketing, but no one armed in my view, no one arm nowadays is killing it. When you're getting a 10 X on your return on investment, it's always four or five.
[00:10:19] Marck: [00:10:19] Yeah. And you notice the that we're not doing texting. We are doing outbound dialing as well. So that would be your 10th, but we noticed we're not texting. We chose with all the legal thought. We think that's a temporary thing. I know that some people that are just crushing it right now our buddy, Billy Ross out of.
[00:10:33]Orlando's crushing down and texting. But it's just not something that we chose to go down that angle, but yes, the answer is, it's hard work and the hard work comes in the lead management. We just hired our second lead manager. And we're looking to hire a third. Cause what we've noticed is that the lead management more so than the appointments, the lead management cultivating that lead.
[00:10:53] Is so critical, advertising dollars are like soldiers, right? And if you send one advertising dollar soldier out into the field, he better run back with five of his buddies, otherwise you've lost the power of that. And so we are, hell bent on making sure that our ad dollars are being well spent and that.
[00:11:11] I th I think most people don't realize that the money you're currently spending, whether it be in mail or whatever, you've got the leads that you need. You've just got to follow up with people and people, sometimes you don't get the yes. On the first phone call and they say, Oh, that guys dead.
[00:11:23] It's like, Oh my gosh, dude. I mean, the number of deals is, that come in between months, three and months, nine it's like a half ago. So that means you've got to have patience and follow up and systems and process to remind you to keep following back up with that person, because. When you're dealing with tens of thousands of leads.
[00:11:42] I mean, you're not going to remember which guy to call. You've got to have a system and software to remind you to follow up.
[00:11:48] Billy: [00:11:48] So I want to pick your brain in regards to you're doing 300 deals a year, but you said you have right now currently just one lead manager. How in the hell is that person able to handle the lead flow coming in to put that many appointments for your outside acquisition managers?
[00:12:04] It has. Yeah.
[00:12:05]Marck: [00:12:05] So if a clarity, our acquisitions managers are responsible for their wholesale relationships. So that's only the phone ringing. Yeah, you're right. So the wholesale and realtor, we have one acquisitions consultant that is just controlling our realtor relationships. One that's controlling our wholesale relationships.
[00:12:22] And then we have an acquisitions manager who helps, with the lead manager as well. But yeah, he was getting overwhelmed for sure. Now we've got a second one. We're actually going to get a third one. We just believe in that model of having. You lead managers are really salespeople as well.
[00:12:35] And so we are making sure that we can fill that void and make sure that we're getting, because again, the lead manager, it used to be, we support inbound lead manager, and now he's called him lead manager because we didn't want him thinking it was only the inbound calls. He was like, dude, you got an outbound dial as well.
[00:12:51] He's just a lead manager. And that's, he's gotta jump on Facebook on LinkedIn, all the different facets of lead generation. I mean, there's so many ways to. Talk to people. You just got to talk to people.
[00:13:01] Billy: [00:13:01] Yeah, for sure. What my sales manager did Justin inside the office probably seven months ago.
[00:13:08] We implemented two additional lead managers. We have a total of three and then we have. Three people in the Philippines that are like tier one, tier two. So as all the calls come in, the leads are coming in my tier ones on the ground. I call them appointment centers. They're all day long, just booking appointments and the leads coming in.
[00:13:25] And then my , tier two and three out in the Philippines, they're the overflow. They're diving deep into the database with those leads that we know that are in there that either never got booked or they got booked and the appointment got canceled, or they never took the offer. And we're getting on average, two, three deals a month from having the tier two and three D dive deep into the database.
[00:13:45] And these leads that are coming out. They're 50, 60, $75,000 profit deals. I mean, it's worth its weight in gold, too. Put a little bit of time and effort in that lead management piece off that acquisitions piece, because it is where the money is, man,
[00:13:58] Marck: [00:13:58] for sure. And I will fully disclose that. Although we're going to do huge volume this year, our acquisitions is probably the weakest part of our operation.
[00:14:06] Our strength is in, the property management and the rehab.
[00:14:10]Billy: [00:14:10] I got to put you on pause. You're doing 300 deals a year. How in the hell could you possibly say you guys a week?
[00:14:14] Marck: [00:14:14] Because we're still, we're not in the position where we're able to generate all of them. I still wish that 50% of those will be from wholesalers
[00:14:22] Billy: [00:14:22] and right from realtors.
[00:14:24]Marck: [00:14:24] Probably only five or 7% from realtors. Okay. So we're doing probably 40% from direct to seller and television and all that kind of stuff. We can just get weighed better at the acquisition side. So your goal is to a thousand a year. Billy that's our BHAG is getting a thousand homes a year.
[00:14:41] Now. That's not all going to be, rehab through us. We believe that we can aggregate some of those deals with ponders in different markets and new construction and that kind of thing. But. That's our big goal is to get to a thousand homes a year because there's demand for it.
[00:14:53]It's silly for, to not cultivate. When we, if I had 600 homes in our database that we could turn around that were ready, rent it out, that I could sell tomorrow. I could get them all sold under contract in probably two weeks. I mean, we have that much demand for the products, but we don't have the product to be able to push through the pipeline.
[00:15:11] And so my struggle is. How can we serve as an industry that's being ignored right now, which is the turnkey space. There's so many investors that are dismayed in the stock market that pulled up the leverage from the stock market. Because as that's hyperinflated right now, PE ratios are off the charts and the company's being overvalued.
[00:15:29] So people are wisely pulling money from the market, but you've got to put it somewhere. I don't know if you remember Billy, even about 15 years ago, you could still get about a four or 5% return just sticking your money in the bank and getting a term deposit or CD, those days are gone. So you have to deploy your capital somewhere.
[00:15:46] So we're really focused on. We're really big believers in this turnkey model. We feel like, it's like a flip on it. You've got your buyer already lined up, so there's no risk. And so you don't have a buyer's agent you have to deal with, and you get them pre you were actually mandating that they will pay cash now.
[00:16:00] So now you've got a cash buyer for your flip already lined up, and we're closing our deals within 10 days of rehab getting completed.
[00:16:07]Billy: [00:16:07] That's incredible. What's your average profit per deal on the turkeys in Turkey space?
[00:16:12] Marck: [00:16:12] Our goals that currently hovering around 23 or 24. We can probably grind that up into the 25 to 27 range.
[00:16:20] Billy: [00:16:20] You're the third person over the last two weeks I spoke to. And that seems to be right about the numbers between 20 and 25. And the turnkey space is where the point down North Carolina area, South Carolina, Midwest. Those seem to be the numbers I want to Mark. I want to get into cause you do with 300 rehabs a year.
[00:16:36] So talk to our audience in regards to the rehab side of your company, do you own a construction company or do you third-party it out to contractors that have rehab managers
[00:16:47] Marck: [00:16:47] Both and right. You can't do either or I'm not going to have a construction company that manages 300 homes. That would be.
[00:16:53] Out of my control and out of my depth especially all around the country to manage that, that truly is you have to be solely as a construction company first and foremost. So we ponder it, right. I'm a big believer, Billy and who not, how it's not just, how can I go do this? It's who can I collaborate with to make this a win-win situation?
[00:17:12] So, obviously in Kansas city, we're pretty daunting cause it'd been here 20 years, but the struggle for us was. . How do we scale into other markets? I do not want to go stop hiring and managing people in Alabama or Iowa or Illinois or Nebraska, and all these other States that we're operating in.
[00:17:29]So we potted, we found. Nationwide construction companies. We brought them into Kansas city. We did some deals with them in Kansas city, so they could see our model. They could walk it, we could kind of go through that painful, like them not living up to our quality standard and then getting through, hiring the right people and holding people accountable.
[00:17:46] But once we've done that for about don't know, about 18 months. And so now we feel comfortable that for the last year we've been like, okay, now we feel comfortable that they can, it was about a six month kind of. Onboarding period, just stationed period, where we had to kind of make sure that they were going to be the right fit.
[00:18:00] And then we allowed them to go into these other markets where they felt comfortable and already had teams lined up, but were actually falling after. There's a one of the contractors was Zillow and main street renewal and try on homes and American homes for rent. So it's like this big reconstruction companies that are working on behalf of these big REITs that are doing it nationwide.
[00:18:20] So we just went and found those construction companies, and it's not a working with them and getting them on board as to our system. And they love us, Billy, because. We're spending 30 to 35 grand per house on a remodel, right. We're doing it right. We're putting in all new cabinets and granite and gutting the bathrooms and doing all LVP four and no carpet.
[00:18:40] Whereas the hedge funds were just coming in that would just painting the cabinets, carpet, paint, the walls, and we're done, formica, they wouldn't even change the counter tops. It was very nominal. They would be putting an average of seven to 10 grand per house. And we're tripling that. So obviously that triples the revenue .
[00:18:54] For the construction company. So it's been a, it's been a good fit and we feel like we can scale now into multiple markets. So now it's a combination of where can we partner with people to bring us acquisition volume and where's that remodel strongest. And let's put those two together because the reality is it doesn't matter where we go.
[00:19:11] As long as we hit our numbers. We can sell assets all over the Midwest. It doesn't mean I'm not going to go turn key in New York or California, Florida, but anywhere in the Midwest, we can just go repeat this model. We have a rinse repeat model now.
[00:19:23] Billy: [00:19:23] So the construction side of the business, then do you have boots on the ground for project managers or is it a hundred percent outsourced?
[00:19:29] In the States, other than Kansas city,
[00:19:32]Marck: [00:19:32] I would say it's a hundred percent outsourced other than the fact that our acquisitions, we have one acquisitions guy in each market and he is responsible walking the job and giving us a little bit of eyes and ears on the ground. But, you've got good. I don't want to minimize the fact that the relationships we've created, I would be comfortable with them being our eyes and ears on the ground because.
[00:19:50]We've negotiate terms of net 30 days from punch list. So, I mean, that's the other cool thing, Billy is we don't even have to come up with rehab money now because we're selling it. You're noticing, I dunno if that blew over your audience, but Mark, did you just say that you're you told me that you were selling the asset net 10 days after completion and your rehab bill is due net 30 days after completion.
[00:20:09] Is that right? Yes. So that's where your brain stops. If you stop thinking rather than just doing, you can start thinking, okay, how can I possibly get this to work a little bit smoother? You start taking a more holistic approach and start, you're CFO. You can sit down and say, okay, how can we make this game work a little bit easier?
[00:20:29]But anyway, back to your question. Yes. The the rehab guys, I wouldn't feel comfortable. We have good software, good reporting. They have to post photos before they get paid, all that good stuff. We walk in, we punch it. We're comfortable with what they have and they're going to stand behind it.
[00:20:41] Because again, we're not flipping this to an end user. We are effectively managing it forever on behalf of our owner. And so we will hold them accountable.
[00:20:49] Billy: [00:20:49] So in each one of these States that you're in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Alabama, and Nebraska currently. Yup. And in each one of those States, you have a property management company that you own that manages the assets after you sell it over.
[00:21:01] Marck: [00:21:01] Yeah, we have JV and Alabama with another property management company down there. That's doing a PM for us. Again, our owners only know us, right? So, , all owner communication comes through our office and we virtually property manage in some States, we're just doing it with comfortable and we've got a license and we can just do it there.
[00:21:19] And other States where we're unlicensed. We partnered with a property management company there and we just used their boots on the ground.
[00:21:24] Billy: [00:21:24] Love it. And earlier in the conversation you said for your investors, the returns, they're getting it. I don't know if it was right. Did you say between 14 and 20%?
[00:21:33] Marck: [00:21:33] Yes, sir.
[00:21:34]Billy: [00:21:34] That's a great number.
[00:21:35] Mark: [00:21:35] So it's just for clarity. It's yield of somewhere in the seven to 8% range, but that typically leveraging and obviously cash on cash returns. Expenditure right now, just cause I can leverage it, 3.8, five to 4.5% on non-owner occupied investment property, but that's kicking our average returns into the 14 to 20% range.
[00:21:55] Billy: [00:21:55] That's insane. That is insane. All right. So now we've got a good understanding of how your company started, what you're doing volume wise. Let's talk now about two and a half years ago where you were. Because I know you were a CEO that was probably working what 18 hour days, and doing everything. If I recall, and you were going through some, maybe it was three years ago, you were going through some internal struggles and external struggles where you're like, look, I really want to take this thing to the next level.
[00:22:21] And you're a bright guy, Marck. I mean, no two ways about it. You're sharp. You know what you're doing, but we all know we can't do this by ourselves. We need a second in command. To take the vision of the visionary to really execute implement. So let's go back two and a half, three years ago where you were and what's changed and how that's impacted your business, because this is really where the scale part comes into play.
[00:22:40] Marck: [00:22:40] Billy, you're wanting me to go back to a dark place onto you.
[00:22:44] Billy: [00:22:44] I want you to go back there and feel it.
[00:22:46] Marck: [00:22:46] Yeah. So, there is no such thing as a pure, bridge story, right? I mean, Tom Brady was drafted in the sixth round. That must have been painful, him sitting in that room, wondering if he's ever gonna play in the NFL.
[00:22:58] Right. And there's ups and downs and, tragedies and things that people overcome. So many stories people overcoming tough times. And I'm no exception. I went through a very discerned business divorce in 2009. When and we can, that's probably a deeper conversation for another day, but I was effectively, millionaire by the age of 30.
[00:23:17] And then back to the absolute zero, it didn't declare bankruptcy or anything, but everything was taken away from me. I had to start recharging. And so now, like it was almost that, that scars of like partnering with people that kept me from reaching out earlier was I screw everybody else. I'm going to do this on my own.
[00:23:32] So from 2009, all the way through 2017, I was just charging hard. And I'd surround myself with a bunch of helpers, a genius with a thousand helpers. Right. And I can do it all and I'm going to teach them how to do it because I'm smart enough. And I know how to do things. I'm going to get it done my way.
[00:23:52] Everything's going to be smooth. And we will force forcing it up and, making big money, Billy. I mean, it was I'm not braggadocious at all, but it was, up into the seven figures. And so . You're comfortable in that space, but you're just working your tail, your, to the grind, you're your nose to the grindstone every day, you work your tail off and you know that the I'm not a big believer in the work-life balance.
[00:24:14] I think that you have, through anti-everything you have to have that period in your life where you have to push super hard to make something, truly, come into greatness. However, I reached my boiling point in 2017. It was just too much. I mean, I was a genius with a thousand help as a solopreneur who had surrounded myself with just people that were doers and not thinkers.
[00:24:34]And it's, I like to say it's easier to do than to think it's easier to do something than to think. How could I get this done cleaner and easier and better. And I started reading a lot about. Business ownership and CEOing, and obviously embrace the EOS traction model. And I started talking to, you said I was a CEO.
[00:24:53] I would not consider myself a C I think that terms thrown around way too loosely as entrepreneurs. I am truly CEOing now. And the CEO only does three things. We can get to that, but I started looking at traction as the CEO COO model, and I read a book called rocket fuel, which very clearly explained that.
[00:25:12] Vision without execution is hallucination. I think you're not like such a true visionary. I mean, I have big dreams, big visions, big people, but my accountable holding people accountable and execution is poor and I force it through and make it happen if I have to, but that is not my skillset. And so I was looking for someone that could help me come in and be a COO.
[00:25:36] And so I finally found that person. And that has transformed my business now that has, there was obviously pain in there because when I hired my COO Chris, he came in and, quite frankly told me right up front, he said, look he's he was a corporate sales guy, really good at accountability process execution work orders, standard operating procedures, implementing process throughout an organization.
[00:25:59] So perfect COO of. But his thing was Mark. When I go in and, carve out a new a new organization, there will be turnover. And I said, okay, I'm ready. But yeah, we, I mean, it was embarrassing. How many people got turned over and I felt bad because these were all good people. They weren't up to the task.
[00:26:15] I mean, we, it's not like we fired everyone immediately. We set high standards and say, this is what we want you to do. And th and most of them just left because they couldn't hack it anymore. And we just hired talent. We had a commitment in 2019. To hire talent. That was going to be a mantra. Our mantra in 2019 was hire talent.
[00:26:33] Our mantra in 2020 was velocity of capital, making sure that we turn things quicker and better because once you get the right people in the right seats, now it's like, okay, now let's run hard. And so, it's been a good transition, but it's been a long one. We had a lot of turnover. I'll probably go up there.
[00:26:48] I'll let you get kind of, direct the traffic here.
[00:26:51] Billy: [00:26:51] Yep. To give the audience perspective. Right. When Chris came in and your COO, how many people were in your organization, including yourself?
[00:26:58]Marck: [00:26:58] 14
[00:26:59] Billy: [00:26:59] And 14 and 18 months later of those 14, when Chris did his thing and he went through his whole process.
[00:27:06] How many of the 14 were left?
[00:27:08] Marck: [00:27:08] We have one left.
[00:27:10] Billy: [00:27:10] That's incredible, dude. I want people to hear that. So it's not that you had the wrong, you had the right people to get you to where you needed to go at that point, but for you to get to the absolute next level you needed them to level up. And one out of the 14 had the ability or capabilities to actually elevate themselves to the next level is what I'm hearing.
[00:27:29] Marck: [00:27:29] Yeah. It's a real challenge as a small business owner. I take note pride by the way, in saying that all those people are gone. I own that. And I'm still friends with most of them. Obviously some took that as, the ones that were actually fired because they couldn't hack it obviously took it.
[00:27:42]And, they probably are not huge fans of me or the company anymore, but you know, you as the business owner, as a true CEO, you have to make tough decisions. And, as long as you are clear and honest and transparent with where your company is going, you have to honor the fact that if those people are not going to get through that, get you there.
[00:27:59] That it's best for them to, most of them will look back in two years time and say, Marck, thank you for letting me go, because I've found a great place. I'm much more comfortable where I'm at. If they were truly honest, they would say I was stressed because I wasn't able to deliver what you were wanting me to deliver.
[00:28:12] And the challenge as a small business owner is just identifying talent and holding onto the best talent. One of the mistakes I made early, Billy, which I will never make again and is just. Trying to get the best person for a set amount of money. Right. So I'll say, okay, well this, I can hire someone for $50,000 a year.
[00:28:32] Okay. Well, if there was someone out there that I would have had to pay 75 grand to get the would just crushing and be really good, I would be ignoring them because I had a budget 50,000. I just had to get the best person for that amount of money. Now I very, really do I go into a job description or job posting thinking how much what is the cap of what I'm going to pay them?
[00:28:50] If someone impresses me, then, you do what you can to attract that talent. Now, obviously within reason, right? I mean, there's, they're reasonably there reasonable expectations for a position, but you can't be closed minded because when you have a talented individual come in for example, I lead property manager is a guy that has come in and just transformed that department.
[00:29:08] He's really taken ownership. I have almost zero day to day. Well I have zero day to day running in the property management company right now we're managing well over 600 doors. To be able to say that out loud, I mean, it's just a nice little annuity. I mean, it's a business in and of itself and I have nothing to do with it.
[00:29:23]There's a joy and a peace that comes with knowing that. Everything's going to have quality decisions and it's not just that he's maintaining, he's accelerating, right? He's a leader. So he's trying to grow the business implement process, incorporate and bolt on new additions, new revenue streams, better service to our owners.
[00:29:41] And, he's leading a company and when you give them ownership and give them revenue share or whatever you can do to get them really bought in. You get some acceleration through that.
[00:29:51] Billy: [00:29:51] It's important. I think the revenue share piece, if it's put together in the right way, could really propel your company.
[00:29:56] If you have the right person on the execution side. I mean, look at Chris. Did I saw his presentation at CG? I think about a year and a half ago. And I mean, just the guy just came in, you hired the right person for that position, and I know it wasn't easy for you because you went through this once before and hired somebody and it was the one person for that position.
[00:30:13] So you took a bet on them. And it's paying off tenfold, if not more.
[00:30:18] Marck: [00:30:18] Yeah. Tenfold literally. So we'll do 10 X from where we were probably in about a five-year time period. So, yeah, super strong. And that's 10 X net brother. So I mean, that's a good thing. It's really freed my time up to think and do what I'm meant to be doing a CEO or business owner should only be doing three things, right.
[00:30:36] The CEO should be looking at vision and strategy people and talent. And making sure that the cash is in place to, to execute on focus on daily. But yeah, I, if your audience is out there and I know you have that model of can you remind me again, the three phases it's like start grow scale. So for those that are in the start and grow phase, Do not jump out and hire someone immediately.
[00:30:58] Right. That's not the intent of this once you're growing and hyper-growth phase that's when you should be looking to have a, an operations guy come on board, or just be, if you're starting there are some people that are blessed. We have people inside CG, as Billy, that kind of work, really good owner operators that had like a visionary COO right from the get go and their business has done well because of that, I just wasn't that way.
[00:31:20] I was having to fill both seats. And when you. I think everyone should kind of, do some kind of Inwood or self-reflection saying, what is my best role? I would highly recommend rocket fuel. It's a small, easier to read book that will define you. Are you the visionary or the COO or you a unique combination of the two?
[00:31:37] If you're the combination of the two, you're going to have to choose which way you go. But if you're a visionary, like most young entrepreneurs are. It takes a lot of guts to say, I'm going to start a business. I'm going to do this. I mean, most people don't, 96% of companies never make more than a million dollars a year.
[00:31:51] And so when you're in the top 4%, which is going to make more than a million, that takes a lot of skill and execution and understanding that you've got to have the right people around you to elevate you to the next level. Just one of those natural progressions that you're going to have to elevate too.
[00:32:05] But if I hadn't been told that, from a younger age, Billy, it would've saved me lot of heartache
[00:32:10] Billy: [00:32:10] you have
[00:32:10] a, an edge over a lot of ingenue is Marck, because you are educated. You have your MBA. A lot of guys that get into this space and other spaces, entrepreneurs they've quit college. So you have that professional background and you, but you never actually took a job. You went from MBA to flip it, right, right. Into this business, like.
[00:32:27] Marck: [00:32:27] Yeah, I would say my MBA, I felt a little out of place getting my MBA when I was a, what would that have been, 23. Most of the people in the MBA class were obviously in the thirties and forties.
[00:32:38]But I was able to glean from the, so I had very little practical experience, right. Other than internships and small little part-time jobs here and there. So I didn't have much experience. And so I leaned on them and then it was kind of one of those kids that just absorbed a lot through my MBA rather than contributed more, like I normally would have done through my undergrad.
[00:32:55]And so it was also a combination of just knowing, I didn't quite know what I wanted to do. I know I didn't just want to go get a job. I had an entrepreneurial burning desire in my brain and I've read rich dad, poor dad at an early age. So I knew that real estate was going to be a wealth building tool for me over time.
[00:33:10]Biggest no-brainer ever, it's just buy real estate and hold. I mean, it's just for those that don't understand, it's just buy as much as you can now just hold on forever. And you're gonna look like a genius in 10 or 20 years time. But for those that are, Yeah, education was great for me, but for those out there thinking, how can I, obviously you don't have to go there and get your MBA right now.
[00:33:28] I would be an MBA of reading as many books as you can do behind me. You can't well, I don't know. So the audience, this is my MBA right there, bro. I mean, for those of the people that don't read, I just kind of impress upon you enough. Everything out there that you need has already been written and documented and you should be reading and absorbing as much as possible.
[00:33:47]My goal actually just used to read 52 books , and take from that what I will implement to the business. But again, that's a freed up some time to be able to have. Now I'm working a three and a half hour work week. So Thursday afternoons and Fridays, you just my downtime and maybe one round of golf, a lot of book reading time with the wife, trying to work on, just, becoming who I want to be building.
[00:34:05]Billy: [00:34:05] Life is a lot different than what it was three years ago.
[00:34:07] Marck: [00:34:07] Yeah. About hiring the right people. I mean, Chris is in a place where he's just loving life as well. He was in the corporate grind hated what he was doing and, we've given him a breath of fresh air. I mean, he's, I kind of see myself in him now because.
[00:34:19]He's running into that site. He's like, Oh dude, like contractors, like this guy didn't call me back. I'm like, yeah, no shit, bro. He's like the same little things that like, you can see yourself saying like 15, 20 years ago. And he's kind of coming into that, that, he's learning real estate.
[00:34:33] And so it's fun, but he has so much VIM and vigor because it's this new lease on life. And he's making more money now than he did in corporate. And so he's happy and he treats the business like his own. So it's great.
[00:34:46] The freedom
[00:34:47] Billy: [00:34:47] Marck, like you've given him the rain's like, I remember one of the presentations you said to him, look like the decision's on you when there's issues or something that goes on, you don't want the employees or the staff to come to anymore.
[00:34:58] And that, just talk about that for two, three minutes. How was that a tough decision for you to make as the person who always made the decisions? The guy who was always there to solve the problems. To be like, I'm going to hand the reins over and have Chris now handle this. Was that tough
[00:35:13] Marck: [00:35:13] for sure. So for every entrepreneur out there, listen up because this was when you get to that point where you actually hand the reigns over, you have to do it in a way that honors and respects your entire organization.
[00:35:24] So you have to honor the COO and his ability. You cannot undermine him. It's a lot of retraining the organization and. Oh, some people, it took a little, we're a little butt hurt when they come to my office and you have to kind of just train yourself to say, well, what did Chris say about that?
[00:35:41]know, When that come and say, Hey, Marck, what do you want to list this at? Well, what did Chris say about that? And then he would go to Chris and Chris would obviously, rather than just telling him, which I would just told them what to list that Chris is smart enough to know. So. Okay. Well, what's your process.
[00:35:53] On getting a list price for this property. Well, I've run the comps and I think it's between this and this. Okay. Is that written down? If you've got a training manual for that, because when you leave and elevate into a new position, we want the next person to come on board and be able to train process this and use the same form of document that you're currently using.
[00:36:09] I mean, it's just do my brain. Doesn't even go remotely there. It's out of my mind, like smart. Like why didn't I thought of that, but. He's training. So when I would set, seeing that, I'll be like, okay, I can not answer any quick questions. So that's why I'm actually working from home today. I work from home a little bit more just to kind of.
[00:36:27] Separate myself and understand that, Hey, Chris is at the shop, he's the one running it. And they should go to him first. And then the other thing is, you look at accountability chart and it kind of sits like CEO with a one line down to the COO and then all the branches off the COO. I think if you put that people that you put up an organizational chart of what they want it to look like, and then just say, Hey, you cannot.
[00:36:50] Get to CEO without going through assistant manager, property manager, COO, and then to the CEO. So, the role for the C E O. Now, if some, if a conversation ever gets to me, it should be. A through Chris, but B it should be, well, what did those three people say? Have you reached consensus yet?
[00:37:07] Why am I being involved in this? I mean, if it ever comes to me, it's normally just at an L10 or a discussion between Chris and I on a weekly meeting,
[00:37:15]Billy: [00:37:15] you brought up L10, I want to pick your brain and then we'll wrap up. So I know you're big into going to masterminds and educate yourself.
[00:37:22] Like a lot of entrepreneurs are, but on the personal side, did you have any business coaching that assisted you? Like one-on-one. To get you to the next level?
[00:37:32] Marck: [00:37:32] No. Although I would give huge amount of credit to CG collective genius was instrumental in transforming my mindset to take it to the next level the first year, I would say the first meeting, but really it was the first year.
[00:37:47] I just felt a little overwhelmed with the. The operational excellence that was in the room feeling like I w cause all I did was go to the courthouse steps and raise my hand and we got a house. You know what I, probably, the biggest thing I took away was that I needed to implement some process.
[00:38:02] So I came back and tried to implement EOS obviously without a COO in place. I was not the person to be doing that. So we did it and kind of had good meetings, but it was still just not kicked, clicking all cylinders because I had to delegate all the authority down to them. It was still just marked. It truly wasn't until I had someone that was running the company and running EOS the right way, having an integrator that fits all the personality traits of holding people.
[00:38:27] Accountable. Accountability is just the biggest thing that I was lacking, Billy. I would too nice of a guy. That would let people slide. I wouldn't , I would just solve the problem that one time without going back and going through the painstaking. Process of trying to create systems and processes along the way to, so we wouldn't have to answer that question again.
[00:38:45] I would just answer the question. So it's just easier for me to do it, or it's easier for me to just tell you what to do and then they would go do it. But then I surrounded myself with people that were just doing, they weren't thinking for themselves. And that was the biggest hurdle. So, I'm actually exploring right now, a CEO coach outside of CG, just kind of more of a corporate level.
[00:39:02] I think that will take me to the next level because. I'm challenging myself now not to get complacent, but you know, my role is to drop revenue to the bottom line and we're finding some fun and creative ways to do that.
[00:39:13] Billy: [00:39:13] Mark. I got to tell you, this has been a great, honestly, this has been a great interview.
[00:39:17] You deliver the goods. You really, I know you helped me out with some of the questions that I've asked, and I know a lot of people out there, I'm going to take what you put out and it's going to enable them to get from that grow to scale phase. If people want to reach out to you or even buy some of your properties, investors from your turkeys, how do they go about doing that?
[00:39:34] Marck: [00:39:34] Sure they can go to mistake free real estate.com. We recently wrote a book mistake free real estate.com. It's a passive investors guide to winning with rentals. It really just for those that want to be hands off. So for those that are entrepreneurial in real estate already, don't buy the book or buy the book if you want.
[00:39:49] But it's more designed to say what my process is and how we protect people from making mistakes in real estate. So for rookies, I guess it would be good. And for those that want to just buy a hands-off. It's talking about the turnkey experience and how you can buy through a turnkey provider. Mistake free real estate, very much tongue in cheek with the idea that Hey, I've made every mistake in real estate.
[00:40:09] So you don't have to in buying a turnkey piece of real estate. Is really the the way to do it. Mistake free. So go to mistake free real estate.com or reach out to me. I'm very approachable. You need to click on a link there. If you want to send me an email just use the word mentor in the subject heading if you just have a quick question and I'll get back to you, we have script that we can actually sort those out and I'll get back to you.
[00:40:30]But yeah, always happy to give Billy and respect you immensely. Love what you're doing and the value that you're dropping to everybody. The one thing I will say is, and Jason medullary does an amazing job of kind of breeding this into the whole group at collective genius, but you live and breathe.
[00:40:45] The Go-Giver mentality and I appreciate you for that. You're so good at, just being an open book. You've helped me and I know I've helped you, you and I have had conversations back in the day when COVID hit and it's like, what are we going to do with leases and tenancy? And how do we handle this?
[00:40:57] And I know were able to kind of collaborate on some of that stuff, but you're a Go-Giver and congratulations on the success of the podcast. I know you're driving huge value.
[00:41:06] Billy: [00:41:06] Thank you, brother. I really appreciate your time and I appreciate you today. Enjoy your home office, working from home, using that mind and dropping money to the bottom line.
[00:41:13] My man.
[00:41:14] Marck: [00:41:14] Enjoyed it. Thank you.
[00:41:16] Billy: [00:41:16] Take care.
[00:41:20] Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of unstoppable real estate investing wealth. My mission is to give you my listeners, the blueprint for success, the inside of secrets for starting growing and scaling your real estate investing business. You can experience and live unstoppable lifestyle.
[00:41:39] I've been simple for them to catapult yourself, says. Go to billyssecrets dot com@billyssecrets.com. And there you will find every single tool tip trick strategy system, and secrets you use to make millions of dollars as a real estate. Everything my team uses and my guests use all in one place for you to tap into you can start, grow and scale your real estate business.
[00:42:09] I really hope. You implement what you're learning. I hope you utilize tools, tips, tricks, strategies, and secrets. And I hope to see you on the next God. Bless bye-bye .