Ep 565: Investing In Houses In NW Indiana With Seth Hardy

Transcript

Introduction and Seth's Background.)

hello welcome to the H podcast I'm your

host Dan Martinez today we have a

special guest Blast from the

Past from my past in the day we'll talk

about a little bit about that but Seth

Hardy from Indiana from the 219 so I

always make a joke that I left Indiana

when I was 21 but the only thing I kept

was my phone number which is a 29 number

and Seth is pretty funny about that

because tell everybody a little spoil

alert of what your website is oh yeah it

is uh weby 29.com so the area code

apparently didn't

leave that's funny so it's it's a very

it's a very interesting Dynamic to be

talking to somebody from the past let's

talk a little bit about I was reading

your bio before you came in the room you

started during covid which is crazy

you're yeah yes we did well a lot of

people were doing different things

during Co some of which were productive

some of which weren't for a majority of

people they weren't and yeah we uh I

don't know I I I got fured from my

full-time job my background was in

physical therapy and so at that time I

to get my doctorate in physical therapy

actually to get into the doctorate

program I was already a physical

therapist already had my foot in the

door so to speak I was working 40 hours

a week with physical therapists and kind

of just doing the treatments but not

diagnosing or discharging patients when

they were done with their plan of care

So Co hit and I was working with

athletes at the time and they had the

whole essential non-essential debate and

so they declared our Clinic was non

essential and so I got fured I got fured

with pay which was nice so they said go

home we'll pay you as long as we can

until we can't pay anymore think that

lasted like two or 3 weeks so it was

good on the company to do that but

First Steps into Real Estate.)

during the interim I was like well I'm

already getting paid I'm going to go

work in nursing homes and help some of

the elderly people that have covid right

now what I ended up doing is you know I

worked 60 hours a week in the nursing

home still getting paid the other from

the other job and I got really

frustrated I was like dude I'm I'm

working 60 hours a week I'm still

getting paid 40 hours here and I was

still frustrated with how how much work

it took to get a paycheck that I was

proud

of so I was like what can I do to

accelerate this a little bit because I

always had the mind that I wanted to go

invest in real estate and buy some

rental properties and I started to see

how long it took to save up a down

payment to buy single family home as a

rental property so read a couple books

look some stuff up on YouTube and

stumbled across wholesaling real estate

which seemed to be the fastest way to to

make money also everybody that talked

about it made it seem way easier than it

was and so I started doing stuff like

that during my you know I guess ramp up

to growing a real estate business so we

started doing all the driving for

dollars which is you know you drive

around look for distressed assets and

then you skip Trace them and call them

we started doing all of that stuff we

bought a couple lists we started doing

bandit signs just anything that we

really could do I started leaving

business cards places just all the

cheesy stuff that you hear about people

starting a business with and that was

starting in May of 2020 is when the LLC

started and we started taking action

steps and so I would get up 5: in the

morning and I had a garbage schedule all

of the local towns and when they would

come pick up trash and so I drive around

at 5: in the morning looking for you

know on trash day looking for everybody

that had their trash cans out and their

trash cans out and it looked like or you

know a property that needed a little bit

of work I just said hey write that one

down you know so we wrote that down we

drive every morning for like two hours

and then after I got off at work we come

home skip trace him and call him from

like 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. so it was

like 2 hours in the morning in two hours

a night we did that for six months

finally we got a deal later in the in I

think the end of September was right

when we got our first deal and that

didn't even come from any of the stuff

we were doing it came from me just

telling somebody that I was in real

estate looking to purchase um a

distressed property and my life

insurance agent was like hey man I'm

about to retire I have my home that's

paid off in Hammond which is one of the

hotter investment areas in Indiana you

know I'd take 77 for it if you could

give that to me just because it's all I

need to to pay off the home that I'm

having built so I can retire and stay

there and I was like okay cool and I

didn't know I didn't know how much the

house was actually worth told him that

we'd do it and I didn't want to waste

the time so give me two weeks and I'll

tell them what I can do and I just I

told him I wasn't going to close on it I

was going to find an investor that would

pay me a fee for it and he said that's

fine whatever you got to do so I uh went

to Panera printed out some contract off

of Google and he actually walked me

through how to sign the

contract so he's walked me through how

to sign this contract for

$77,000 I went to a local like a

hardware store got a bunch of for sale

by owner signs post them all the way

around that area and

then I also went into local Facebook

groups to look for people who were

investing in real estate and within like

three days I had an offer for

87 and we took that and it closed like

the next week and it was like all right

cool proof of concept

Scaling Up: Building a Team and Business.)

took six months but we're good to go so

that was September of 2020 end of

September 2020 between the end of

September in 2020 to the end of the year

I think we close another six deals just

like that and so started to get a little

bit of uh traction and momentum going

and that's that's kind of how the story

starts man one one thing I like about

the story is that a lot of people

they're always the question like am I do

I say I'm a real estate investor before

I am a real estate investor and I think

this answers the question is you have to

say you're a real estate investor to get

the real estate investor deal before you

even do a transaction because that's how

you get the deal yeah so consistency and

kind of figuring out there's there's a

lot of underlying motivations to get a

deal and some just lay down yeah that

was that was one of them man and then

you know that was that was a lay down

took six months to get a lay down but

then the other ones were all generated

organically through our own marketing so

bandit signs cold calling uh I think at

the time we were doing rvms which is a

ringless voicemail we were doing those

and the rest of those deals came like

through our own marketing and efforts so

I think it would have been maybe another

month until we actually had our own that

we had to run through a process with but

it was good to have the first one that

you have be a lay down so that way I

knew how to fill out the contract I mean

the guy we sold the property to and the

guy we bought the property from both of

them had had to help me figure out how

to fill

out I had no idea I showed up with a

piece of paper and I was like man I've

never filled this out before can you

work with me through this and they were

they were both super super open to doing

it but is it you know you can't really

you have to be transparent when you

first get started you can't just be like

yeah I'm the one buying it it's like no

you're not just tell people it's not a

big

deal no that's crazy that's that's very

interesting how a lot of a lot of uh

transactions work it's definitely a

patience game you do you do a lot of

effort and and work and you don't know

when it's going to pay off it took me it

took me seven months to get my first

transaction done um so it's uh I think a

lot of people like they they think they

can get results quickly and it takes

longer than they expect yeah

exactly Tes longer than they expect so

let's talk about a little bit is kind of

how you got started what what you doing

now are you doing flips you doing

wholesale you doing what type of

transactions you doing now in Indiana

yeah so fast forward we're at today our

team is 11 people in office and five

people virtual and we still are

primarily wholesale we've added Fix and

Flip we've added Buy and Hold and then

we also do a little bit of building

portfolios for other business owners

that are outside real estate space uh

that need the tax incentive and the the

wealth building power of real estate so

we also have a real estate group I won't

say brokerage uh because we're a group

within a brokerage so any any leads that

don't qualify as you know a wholesale

deal or a deal that needs to be bought

by a flipper those get pushed directly

to our broker or our Real Estate Group

so yeah that's that's what we're doing

right now I

think we're on Pace to do somewhere

between 150 and 200 transactions this

year so started as 6 in 2020 fast

forward to 20124 and we'll finish

somewhere between 150 and 200 on the

year so easy math that's like 12 to was

it 12 to 18 a month yeah yeah that's

crazy uh how how big is how big is the

operation now to handle 12 to 18 deals a

month uh well we so we have two sales

guys plus myself or some of my partners

jump in every once in a while if it's

needed two sales guys we have a

transaction coordinator that kind of

keeps the wheels on the bus for all of

those deals that have dirty titles and

whatnot um we have one guy that is

selling contracts or working to get them

on the MLS a lead manager um a project

manager and a couple of

admins so we're a team of we're about to

hire somebody too so we're Team team of

11 plus four virtual

assistants so 15 total that's a big team

but yeah how how many vas do you have

initially it was a lot more but right

now we have four yeah so we have one

that is strictly admin we have another

one that's kind of a sales assistant we

have one guy that is running text

message marketing and then another one

that's a bookkeeper so there's a decent

decent staff there they're all pretty

high level and self-sufficient which is

Marketing and Branding Success.)

nice that's that's the game right there

self-sufficiency and like Team

Management to kind of hit that scale

right what is your what is your

marketing strategy that's working the

best right now especially in that area

because I think different areas call for

different marketing strategies right now

what's what's doing best for us honestly

is pay-per-click marketing anything dig

right now is working best for us so

paperclick paper lead we're running a

bunch of different campaigns for that so

those are those are typically getting us

a a 6X or a y but they're like they're

the most consistent lead sources that we

have so we're we're throwing as much as

we can in there obviously referrals are

great for us too we have a pretty pretty

likable team pretty active on social

media active within the real estate

community and so we get a lot of

referrals which is helpful but right now

anything digital for us is is crushing

it yeah let's talk about the power

branding because I think a lot of people

they underestimate the the power social

media and what what the benefits of that

that lead flow and referral base is like

yeah it's not really something we

thought about initially one of my

partners started to bring it up like man

we got to start advertising start

getting our signs and our name out there

and you know different different things

that just tell people what dynasty real

estate is and so we

ran Facebook ads um not the traditional

ones where it's like hey if you're

looking to your house quickly with you

know with a little house picture it was

like videos of us just kind of telling

stories in front of a house or having a

seller tell a story and um yeah we

started to get a lot of attaction from

that so that was the first piece we're

like okay maybe having our face out

there and kind of telling what we do and

how we're not trying to get over on

people is is going to be helpful and

then we started a local real estate

meetup group called AR

Indiana and we advertised the heck out

of that all of our team members would

post on Facebook and other social media

platforms just to get people in person

at this event and uh our first one we

had like over a hundred people show up

but it was people from all over the

place there's lenders inspectors title

companies property management companies

other flippers uh people who wanted to

get started in real estate wholesalers

like a whole bunch of people and that

one went really well and so we invited a

couple of our colleagues in the real

estate space some competitors if you

want to call them that but I get along

with everybody in the market and yeah

they came up and kind of told what they

did what their stories were and we

advertised them coming to speak as well

and we ended up with like over 200

people on the second one and so because

of the fact that you know now we're in

the community and people kind of knew

who we were as well as real estate

agents

you know our listings and closing title

companies knowing who we are it starts

to grow

organically and you know you hire well

and and they represent your brand well

so it just kind of organically started

to grow and I think I honestly up until

this quarter that's been our highest

converting and our and our best lead

Community Engagement: Hosting a Real Estate Meetup.)

sour referrals to be to be fully

transparent it's like 40% of our deals

last order came from

referrals that's amazing okay okay I did

not know you ran a Meetup this is the

first time hearing about this that

that's really cool I think it's I think

it's amazing the Meetup type of referral

base is huge so I'm really glad we're

we're talking about this because I've

heard I heard about people doing this

but I haven't actually had anybody on

the podcast that's done this so this is

really interesting yeah

now the question I want to ask is how do

you do it monthly quarterly

you run any ads for it is there all Word

of Mouth like let's let's jump into this

uh this Meetup thing here yeah so when

we started we were trying to do it

monthly and it was a pain in the ass

yeah it is so just because coordinating

and trying to throw the same event and

get the same amount of people there

every single month it's like man as soon

as you stop you have to have the next

one up and running and start marketing

for the next one so we decided to bump

it to quarterly which helped us

obviously still focus on the business a

lot of it was coming from effort from

our team and you know we noticed just

with trying to coordinate it that

closely that you know it just kind of

took away from our business and we

didn't really want to have to deal with

it that often so we run them

quarterly and really it's just kind of

word of mouth I mean my entire team will

throw stuff up on Facebook they record

videos we'll have somebody attend the

event and record it and then they'll

chop up that video

and kind of use it as a marketing piece

so to speak but it's not it's none of

it's paid it's all organic just you know

Word of Mouth through Facebook we'll

have some of the some of the local

companies that we work with sponsor the

event and they'll they'll blast it on

their own pages and so people see hey

you know we're going to get together and

talk about how to start your real estate

investing Journey or how to get involved

in real estate and it's coming from

property managers real estate agents

title companies

inspectors it comes from all of them so

all of their spheres see that there's a

free event with you know with some stuff

that's paid for that they can show up to

and you know they just come and enjoy

and try to learn things and eventually

it just organically grows so I was think

that I think that was the biggest thing

for us is just kind of organically

growing not trying to sell anything just

trying to help the local community and

people seeing that is is what helped it

grow for us one thing I think that if

everybody here listening to this I think

this is a great point but one thing I've

noticed with people that run meetups is

that it depends on the market if the

Market's hungry to learn about the

education it is very very popular and

the meetups can go up like that there's

a guy I know that has like a thousand

people go to his Meetup that he does

every once it's crazy so like there's a

lot of

people there's a lot of people in Dallas

and I think and especially in Indiana

there's a lot of people in Dallas and

Indiana that that would do want to best

and partake in these type of networking

events what's funny is I live by San

Diego and I go to San Diego Meetup and

it is the complete opposite everybody is

fine they're they've already made it

there's no there's no wholesalers trying

to learn the game everybody it's it's

such a opposite Dynamic that I see on my

side of the Meetup that I go to so every

everywhere I've known that the they do a

Meetup in like not necessarily it's a

hungry Market it's they're packed super

packed yeah it's interesting San

Diego the cost to play out there is a

little bit higher for most different

types of real estate not always but it's

just interesting yeah you're you're

probably that would make sense you know

everybody's already established and they

already kind of got it right so it's

hard to hard to get your feet wet when

it costs so much to get started in a in

a market like that absolutely so I think

I think it's very interesting but the

Meetup thing is pretty cool the as far

as the people that sponsor are using

that for like free drinks or something

where do you have the where do you have

this uh this Meetup at at like a bar or

something yeah so it's actually in an

event center that I thought looks cool

and it's centrally located so it's a uh

it's called Avenue 9912 in Griffith and

basically we just tell them that you

know there's a $300 bar tab and the

first people that get there get a ticket

to go get a drink yeah and you know

people try to show up early so they can

get their one or two drinks and you know

everybody else is Cash after that so

we're kind of supporting the local

business but also being able to you know

provide I guess a little bit of a fun

time so there's music and stuff when you

get there and it's all it's all done up

kind of cute you know with the the

little string lights and different stuff

like that so it's it's kind of viby it's

cool gotta that's cool man I I I love I

love the strategy like I said my my air

doesn't cough for it so I can't do it

and like it's it's exhausting doing that

stuff pretty regularly it's really

exhausting yep definitely so we try to

limit it to when it's colder outside

here because people typically are more

inclined to do stuff when it's cold as

opposed to when it's nice out and they

can get out with their family in

summertime so we'll run one

q1 and then in the middle like early Q2

and then we'll skip basically skip Q3

entirely and then just hit for because

it's colder outside

so yeah gotta well congratulations on

that man that's really exciting I I

think I think the the social media game

I think you have really good handle on

it I think the market calls for it and

you definitely leverage it one of the

cool things I I leverage a lot of social

media too to get a lot of my

transactions so it's really cool having

a minimal marketing budget and still be

doing a lot of transactions yeah for

bigger transactions you know what I mean

so it's a pretty cool Dynamic to the

regular wholesaler who has to spend have

to spend and do a lot of marketing to

get their deals you kind of get them

served up to you on a platter which is

nice yeah it is it is nice like I said

with the referral same thing it's like

you know there's no cost to those and

you just you know those are typically

your most profitable ones and they're

the easiest to close because they were

passed off to you so any social media

leads any referral leads are it's a

great source I think honestly it's

probably overlooked in most people's

Market because they just think all right

it's marketing and sales machine so you

pay for your leads you convert them and

then you close when in reality if you

run it like a legitimate business the

best leads to get are the ones that come

from lowc cost sources so that's

something that we're trying to make sure

we still tap into pretty heavily so uh

what's what's the future look like to

you are you going to dig more into that

that personal branding marketing or you

kicking up some marketing thing in the

future you planning to buy some

apartments in the future like what's the

future look like for

you uh well I'd like to take the exact

model that we have now once it's

completely optimized and copy and paste

that throughout uh select markets in the

entire Midwest so Fix and Flip wholesale

Buy and Hold and just you know make sure

that each Hub can get functioning

optimally without me or my partners in

it and that's the goal is to you know

utilize the the cash flow from those

first two businesses the wholesale and

Fix and Flip to fuel what we buy and

hold and that's hopefully the exit

strategy for the business and how I sell

off in the sunset is having a couple of

cash flowing businesses that allow us to

buy cash flowing assets so there you go

there you go so you're trying to

replicate the same the same uh you are

you doing only stuff in Indiana are you

venturing out to Ohio and Illinois

currently currently it's in Indiana I'd

like to be

a little bit a little bit higher level

when it comes to Fix and Flip we're

flipping right now and I think there's a

lot of room for us to grow on that side

of things so I'd like to optimize our

Fix and Flip operation before we start

getting into some other markets so I

think that'll happen soon but right now

that's that's the goal so yeah you have

a lot of control in your Marketplace and

you should definitely dig in so if if

you're already making the good standing

you have a lot of control do you stuff

do you buy stuff in Michigan City by

chance uh yeah yeah we do yeah I I

always I always think about like uh how

Indiana northwest Indiana and Indiana in

general how how small it is if you think

about it yeah it is it's ah it is a

smaller market and there's a lot of I

don't want to call it competitive

because there's a lot of competitive

markets out there but for how small it

is there are a lot of bigger players

it's interesting so but yeah I like

machine City there's a lot of a lot of

renovation going into Michigan City

right now people are throwing money into

it left and right I think it's

because what is it New Buffalo Market is

right next to it the Michigan you know

Michigan side of things and there's a

lot of people throwing money into that

area trying to Hype up Lake Michigan and

the fact that it's you know it's a nice

area honestly there's a lot of new

construction going on over there and

they preserve the beaches really well

right across the border in Michigan so I

think Michigan city is trying to do the

same exact thing it's a it's a good area

right now to invest

in what's a quote that is yours or

somebody else's that you resonate

with a quote that is somebody else's

that I resonate with could be could be

mine

well not really applicable to anything

but in my office one for the sales guys

is lock it up and figure it out they ask

me should they pull the trigger on it

and that's always my response and then

the second one is for my transaction

coordinator in in TC I always tell them

to close by Friday even if it is

Thursday afternoon so if they can get it

sold and close by Friday no but an

actual quote I would say is the biggest

disservice you can do to yourself and

your family is by not becoming the best

version of you so I I like that one and

that one resonates very heavily with me

good good no I like that I always I

always like asking the quotes because

it's usually it's e something close to

chest that's written on your wall or

something you're like yeah it's right

there you can point at it no not not

written down somebody else was in this

office previously so there's nothing in

here but that's the one that I feel

aligns most closely with kind of how I

think about things awesome awesome uh

where can people find you online I have

a we bu 29 and tell people a little bit

how to get to if they're local to the

area where they can get to the Meetup

and more information about that yeah

follow me on Facebook Seth Hardy and and

Instagram at sethh hard. REI our web

page our website is weby 29.com but

honestly if you Google dynasty real

estate you're going to see our team and

a bunch of reviews for our for our

company so I think if you Google dynasty

real estate look us up on Facebook or

Instagram just again under dynasty real

estate or I think Instagram is it's a

fliping dynasty you'll start to see some

stuff about the Meetup probably got one

coming up here October I would say so

coming up still a couple months away

though but that's how you'd get in

contact with me or you can email Seth at

we buy 29.com

there you go for everybody here go like

share subscribe we appreciate you coming

on Seth thanks for tuning in

English (auto-generated)

Ep 565: Investing In Houses In NW Indiana With Seth Hardy

Daniel Esteban Martinez

Seth Hardy