#27 – Starting the New Year CRUSHING It

 

I can hear you, okay good. I wasn’t getting the clicks at the beginning. Right we’re on cool what is up everybody it’s pints with pad we took a couple weeks off for the holidays which I said I wasn’t gonna do but I fucking did it anyway because the holidays ended up that Christmas day in New Year’s Day were on Fridays this year, so that’s okay though we’re hitting it harder than the new year, it is January 8th right now Friday and we had a phenomenal end of December I think we bought. 

 

We bought like 12 houses in the second half of December and we just tied up our eighth this week so at this point I don’t really brag to anyone else but I can brag on this podcast because it’s how few listeners I have but we have a house for every single day this year so far which is the goal and the plan was our goal and plan for 2020 we’re trying to hit it hard again in 2021. 

 

I think for anybody that’s in this business wholesaling flipping houses interest rates are gonna stay low for a while. It fundamentals there’s literally not enough houses in Jacksonville right now if you have a house that’s 220 to 300,000 dollars or even play if you have houses 150 to 300,000 dollars in Jacksonville and it is renovated and staged it is fucking flying right now so it’s a great year to make money a great year to be bullish in the Jacksonville real estate market both on wholesaling and flipping it won’t last like this forever the music’s gonna stop at some point, but this point we own a couple properties at the beach and the longer it’s taking us to do the renovation. 

 

The more money we’re making. So I. You know, it’s the Warren Buffett the Warren Buffett quote that I’m gonna butcher be cautious when others are greedy and be greedy when others are cautious. Right now is a time to definitely be a little cautious but the fact is there’s just not enough houses in Jacksonville in the markets really strong so you can’t be sitting on the sidelines as you know, seven or eight hedge funds are all bullish on Jacksonville flippers are all making money. 

 

So, I think 2021 is gonna be a really good year for real estate in Northeast Florida. So that’s my prediction. Another awesome big news and yellow bird is we just hired a, you know, a company operations officer. Or COO or very very excited about it to help him’s gonna help us, you know, take things to the next level and help us with systems and processes which is some stuff. 

 

I’ve been trying to do so for the past six months or so, but it’s not really my strength. It’s gonna allow me to kind of. Get deeper into the sales side of things and beef up our sales team beef up marketing and acquisitions to get to that 30 house direct to seller number that we 30 houses a month direct to seller that we’ve been really trying to push hard to get to. 

 

Right now we’re probably teetering around that but a lot of it is from wholesalers a lot of it is from the foreclosure auction which aren’t bad things that’s I mean, but it’s it’s harder to control, you know, it’s harder to control your volume when when a lot Of it is based on foreclosures or wholesalers because you can’t you know you can’t control what comes through? 

 

They’re great sources, but you can’t control what comes through with your marketing, you can have a little bit more control and control the up and down of the sales cycle a little better. So we’re trying to get to 30 higher CEO. We got a great core team right now and I I think we’re poised really well for 2021, so that’s kind of the state of YellowBird right now. 

 

Any wholesalers or people or if you’re looking for hard money, or you’re trying to sell a property, we’re still a great source for that. So we’ve just bought probably five from wholesalers this week, so we’re a really strong buyer if we say we’re going to do what we’re going to close and that’s pretty valuable nowadays. 

 

Another thing I wanted to bring up was a couple things two things Yellowboard book club, right now, we’re reading a book called the obstacle is the way if you have not read the obstacle as the way or it’s by Ryan Holiday. If you’re looking for a book to start off this year with, it is my favorite book that I read in 2020 the obstacle. 

 

Was the way it’s super short. You’ll blow through it if you get it on audible. I think the whole thing’s only four hours. All right, Holidays a young guy, 33 years old. I found that out like halfway through the book because it’s it’s incredible the amount of wisdom he spits out in that the main idea behind the book is it’s based on stoic philosophies, so if you’re a Tim Ferriss fan a lot of what he says kind of comes from that not a not reacting emotionally to problems and issues that come up based. 

 

Leave the whole idea is exactly what it says in the title. Any obstacle or issue in front of you you could look at it one of two ways one of its like oh my god, you know, why does this have to happen to me? I’m a victim this is awful or you can react to the obstacle as what it is is just reality and what it is is an opportunity for you to get better, create a different path, an opportunity for you to be even better. 

 

So one of the, Examples like in our business is right now trying to buy houses in Jacksonville under market value We have a lot of really good competition. I’ll give some shout-outs to us. I mean, we’re competing against Hunter Hayden and those people that cash geese guys. Diamond Gonzalo were competing against were competing against Obi Dorsey and a bunch of other guys in town. 

 

I don’t you know, I see it for what it is that they are competition but at the same time they’re all great people and rising tides lift all ships and we all work well together and buy stuff from each other, but at the same time they are our direct competition. 

 

In this space And you know some would consider it an obstacle which it is but because they’re around it makes us better. It forces us to get better. It forces us to spend our marketing money smarter if forces us to look at the calls and leads that are coming in and start converting them better. 

 

It makes our whole business better. The fact that we have competition. So that’s just one example, but he has a ton of them ton of great little historical examples in the book and it’s just a great philosophy to go through life with if every. Time something bad happens that’s out of your control you get all down and poopy pants about it. 

 

You know, it’s you’re gonna live a really tough fucking life. But if every time an obstacle comes up you look at it as an opportunity in a way to make yourself and your team better. It’s a completely different perspective and it allows you to react stronger and be a better leader and just I have nothing but great things to say about this book. 

 

Another thing I’ll bring up about it is we talked about in our meeting? In our first book club meeting but we talked it talks about the serenity prayer. So if anyone has been involved with addiction and been to alcoholics anonymous and meetings or narcotic amount of meetings, they do the supremunity pair, which is Serenity Prayer, which is please. 

 

God, you know, I can’t remember exactly but you know help me to basically basically what it says is. Not care about the things that I cannot change and the strength to change the things I can and I butchered the fuck out of that but it’s basically don’t not don’t care about it but you can’t change things that are out of your control all you can control is yourself and your reactions to it. 

 

So I just think that’s a great way to to think about it to think about challenges that come your way. And just take a step back don’t react emotionally to them and Logan since you’re watching can you put it in the can you put the serenity pair prayer just in the comments there, that’ll help everyone just google it real quick. 

 

Okay what else that I want to say the last thing I wanted to touch on is I think this was in the book but it’s the Nick it’s the Nick Saban example of trusting the process, so what’s different about Nick Saban the head coach of Alabama and why they’re so great is at the beginning of the year, they do their long term goal setting right they want to win a college national championship the beginning of every year, but got they have a ton of games and a ton of practices to go through and a ton of film to watch it’s a long season of a bunch of different. 

 

Small tasks to get to the ultimate goal and what he tells his guys is trust the process and do whatever you’re doing at the time to the best your ability do tackle that tackle that person with perfect form hit that block with perfect form, if you’re running back hit that hole with the with all of your speed and strength and all of these little things will add up to the ultimate goal, so what it what he preaches is trusting the process and I think in our industry in in. 

 

In real estate or if you’re you know if you’re an agent or if you’re buying discounted houses you have to trust what you’re doing is you have to constantly be honing your skills, but at the same time trust that what you’re doing is going to get you to where you where you need to go so if it is 30 directed seller deals a month watch your numbers watch your marketing watch watch, you know your cost per contract and as you’re spending more marketing money, as you’re doing more cold calls focus on every single call being the best that you can do every single dollar you spend on the marketing being the most. 

 

Mean the most bang for your buck on that marketing and then eventually you will get you will get to that thirty house a month or you’ll get to that national championship or whatever, you know, whatever your goal may be. Here we go. I’ll give you the serenity prayer. Yeah thank you Logan for this it’s a it is commonly quoted as God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change courage to change the things I can give us the courage to change what must be altered serenity to accept what that’s the beginning of it is God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference is the end of it, so thank you Logan for the beginning and I was able to finish that for you yet the wisdom to know the difference between the things you can change and The things you can you know, that’s I think that’s another main piece of the book the obstacle is the way. 

 

Because market conditions the weather what’s going on in Washington yeah you can vote but ultimately those are things that you cannot change and for me to sit here and complain about Donald Trump or complain about Joe Biden well that’s not doing any or look listen to Fox News or CNN and get pissed off that’s not helping me it’s just creating a tornado in my head that you know, doesn’t help anybody it doesn’t move yellow bird forward, it doesn’t move me forward whatsoever so. 

 

To be able to just accept that and do the things that I need to do in Jacksonville to take me and my team around me to the next level. The things I to affect that part of my life rather than letting the what what goes on that I can’t control get a whirlwind in my head that’s I think the main message in that book and that’s that’s what I’ve been trying to do every day since reading it so if you haven’t checked out that book the obstacles the way I would highly suggest it thank you everyone for watching and we will see you next Friday and I hope everyone has a phenomenal start to 2021.