S2 E26 | Dream Chasers: Turning Passion into Profit with Melissa Horne

Melissa Horne didn't set out to become a real estate powerhouse. Growing up in Queens, she found her first success in Manhattan's nightlife, managing the legendary Comedy Cellar where comedy icons like Kevin Hart cut their teeth. The bustling downtown scene taught her invaluable lessons about human psychology and influence – "there's nothing like a 5am drunk in downtown that you really learn the depths of humanity and how to control them."

When motherhood at 29 forced a career pivot, Melissa discovered talents she never knew she possessed. Returning to college as an adult student opened her eyes to possibilities beyond the nightclub doors. "I was always that kid that had a ton of potential and I wasn't sure when it was going to come out," she reflects. That potential first manifested in a dumpster company she built with her partner – a venture that proved both educational and challenging in New York's byzantine regulatory landscape.

The real transformation began when a persistent real estate broker named Vinny Martino saw something in Melissa she couldn't yet see in herself. Despite her initial resistance, his unwavering belief eventually drew her into real estate, where she flourished as a marketing director and buyer's agent. "It took him to discover it," Melissa shares about recognizing her own talents. "I didn't see that talent in me, I didn't have that confidence in me."

Life threw another curveball when family circumstances forced a reluctant relocation to Florida in 2017. Starting over in Melbourne's real estate market during the pre-pandemic boom, Melissa navigated dramatic market shifts while establishing herself as a top producer at Remax. Now eyeing multifamily syndication deals, she carries forward the wisdom gained from each business venture and life transition.

Melissa's most powerful message resonates with anyone questioning their path: "Every day is a brand new beginning. There is nothing you can't do." Her journey proves that sometimes all it takes is "one little tiny piece of success" to build the confidence that unlocks your potential. What might you accomplish if you recognized your worth today?

Transcript

Introduction to Melissa Horn

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 0:00

Welcome to Happy Hour Holidays, your go-to podcast for business, entrepreneurship and life stories. We want you to go out there and fulfill your dream. Go out there and think about something that you really love to do and make it happen, Because if you love doing it, you're going to put 125% into it. I'm your host every single week Manny Fresh, we got the resume, Sean Fabre and in studio today we got our special guest, Melissa Horn. She is a broker for Remax and then she also is a digital marketer. So glad to have you on, Melissa, Thank you so much for having me.

Melissa Horne 0:33

I feel blessed to be here.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 0:34

I just love the accent because I love who you are.

Melissa Horne 0:37

I'm like that hustle and bustle.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 0:38

Tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into digital content creation and marketing. How did you get into that field?

Melissa Horne 0:48

So I've always been a marketer.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 0:50

And where? From New York are you? So I'm from Queens.

Melissa Horne 0:53

I'm a Queens kid. I grew up in the boroughs. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 21. Because I was no, because you took the train everywhere. You don't need it right, you don't need it, right, you didn't need it, yeah. And then I got a car when I was like 24 after that, and I proceeded to get 93 parking tickets.

Melissa Horne 1:10

Well, that's why it's better to go public transportation and then it was in an auto cocoon in my grandfather's driveway for like two years and I went back to the train. So I drive, effectively drive like a girl.

Melissa Horne 1:23

Yeah, that's exactly what happened, but I'm from Queens. I grew up there. I moved a lot within Queens when I was a kid. I always was that kid that had a ton of potential and I wasn't sure when it was going to come out. And I finally came out when I discovered that real estate, just like you said, is what I wanted to do and where I was going to thrive the most. I was a bartender and a nightclub manager for many years before that, so I've always been in some aspect of marketing, and marketing truly is conversations, communication, relationships, and if you know how to maximize that, especially on a digital realm right now, you are just destined for success.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:06

You are also a business owner. Do you want to talk about that business or not really?

Melissa Horne 2:10

Yes and no, so I've done a lot of things. So I was going to go to law school. I got pregnant when I was 29 years old. I couldn't be an effective mother and a nightclub manager at that point.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:20

So I had to figure out.

Melissa Horne 2:22

What am I going to do?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:23

from here.

Melissa Horne 2:24

So I went back to college as an adult and and thank God I did I would have never done it the traditional way. It would have never, ever, ever happened. All my professors were like my age. I went to the city university in New York instead of Staten.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:37

Island.

Melissa Horne 2:37

Right. So all the kids are 18. And then the professors were my age, in their thirties. I was like I'll get these kids, but I get you. And when I found out, what was happening is every class I went into and everything that I was experiencing in the course content would be something I could immediately apply to my life, which happens in business too, when you're a business owner, as you're developing your skills and you're learning stuff. But up until that point, I was just managing nightclubs and bartending, which was great because I learned how to talk to anybody. I learned how to influence what I needed. I mean, there's nothing more than 5 am drunk in downtown that you really learn the depths of humanity okay, how and how to control them and get them out of your club and get them in your club.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 3:26

whatever you need to do, Do you open that?

Melissa Horne 3:28

late 5 am. Yes, so bars are open until 4 am in New York. Last call is 10 to 4. The places that I worked you would mostly have the staff ordering four hours of drinks at 10 to 4 in the morning so that we can stay and then move to an after hours. Yeah, so our kitchen was open until 5 am so we would have a lot of people leaving the bars come in, so we had a really strong hour. That 4 to 5 on Friday and Saturday nights, yes, so all walks of life.

Melissa Horne 3:59

Downtown Manhattan is the hub of the universe.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:01

That's where it was too. Oh wow, yes.

Melissa Horne 4:03

So it was the Comedy cellar on McDougal Street. They still have the best shows in all of Manhattan.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:07

Is that by like Central Park? No?

Melissa Horne 4:09

that's downtown. So Central Park is upper Midtown, like 59th Street, and then downtown is really anything under 14th Street, and this was in the village. So we were by West 4th Street. So all of the icons the next door was Cafe Wah. Like Dylan Hendricks, like all the 60s beatnecks, all hung out in the village. The owner of my club was Manny Dorman. His son, now Noam Dorman, owns it and they are probably two of the most creative, influential businessmen and to learn from them was probably my first course in real life. Like what you can build Empire. They have built an empire down there. Every comedian that you know now that's famous came up in the Comedy Cellar Kevin Hart, oh my God, I can't, even when I was there.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:57

That's their club, the Comedy Cellar.

Melissa Horne 4:59

That's where they came up. So yeah, absolutely Any guys that are showcasing to get to that level start in these New York clubs and they do sets through the whole weekend and during the week and they run from club to club to club, agent scout from there and they move up and become these icons in acting and comedy. It's pretty amazing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 5:21

I always like to ask why Florida? Why did you decide to move to Florida?

Melissa Horne 5:26

I came kicking and screaming kiddo.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 5:29

Like. This was not on my list. It wasn't your choice.

Melissa Horne 5:30

Yeah, it was not my choice, so that goes to the second business. So at the time before I got my real estate license, I was actually I just moved to Philly. My father passed away. My mother had already. I was the last one left in New York. My mom moved to Jersey, my brother moved to Pennsylvania and my dad passed away and I was the last one left in New York.

Melissa Horne 5:52

I was already going to the college of Staten Island, which is really like the armpit of New Jersey. Staten Island, like everybody goes Brooklyn, staten Island, jersey and everyone from Queens goes to Long Island, right. So it's just migration out of the city are those two directions? And in Staten Island I was closer to get to my mom and my brother. If I moved to Philadelphia, which was a city, I couldn't. My mom's in the sticks and my brother's in the sticks and I wasn't ready for that yet. So I was like, all right, if I move to Philly I'm closer to them, I could still get back to Staten Island to finish my classes. I only had two years left at that time. It was a lot of driving when I made that move and I wanted to go to law school. So as an adult who wants to go into debt for $300,000.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 6:40

Nobody, unless you're buying a piece of property. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Melissa Horne 6:43

So I still was like where do I want to go? What do I want to do? I reconnected with an old friend that we started dating and he was still in New York and he moved to Philly and he said we can't live here. I left Queens so I don't have to live like a cockroach.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 7:03

Like now you have me here. I can't live here, I left.

Melissa Horne 7:05

Queen, so I don't have to live like a cockroach Like now. You have me here. I can't even get a big Ram truck and you had to like, really like, stick into parking supplies Like I can't even park my truck here and they call it cockroach.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 7:12

And he sounds like that, like imagine like Joe Pesci yeah. Like same height too.

Melissa Horne 7:20

Yes, tim yes.

Melissa Horne 7:21

Timmy and I are the same height. He's got one eye. He's got half a bald head, big belly. You can't see his feet. Yeah, I wouldn't have picked him out from a crowd, but I was totally in love with him. I still love him. He's still my best friend. We're not together anymore. I still love him. He's a great dad. But he definitely, yeah, back to New York. But he didn't want to go back to Queens, he wanted to go to Long Island. And he's like well, if you want to stay together, you have to rent this house and we'll move back to New York. And I was like ew, no, like ugh, I don't want to go to Long Island. Like at least, let's go back into the city. Like the whole thing was for asking me to move to the sticks of Long Island. He's like you, you're acting like I'm asking you to go to the moon.

Queens Kid to Nightclub Manager

Melissa Horne 8:06

I'm asking you to come home, like just come home, and I was like, fine, I'm in love, I'll go anywhere. And then part two of the ask was well, you know you're not going to stay and go to law school, right? And I'm like, yeah, no, I still want to go to law school, I'll find something, I'll go into the city. I wanted to go to Columbia. That was second choice. Columbia is an Ivy League law school.

Melissa Horne 8:29

So if I didn't get a scholarship, there was no law school really in the future, because I wasn't allowed to. Well, I wasn't allowed. Not that I wasn't allowed, I didn't want to take out that kind of student loan. I already had student loans from undergrad. So there was still. Even though it was a city university, it was still significant as an adult. So you did get your bachelor's degree, I went back and I got my bachelor's, and that's what.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 8:50

I was doing and what was it in?

Melissa Horne 8:51

Marketing and English creative writing. Oh that makes sense. Yeah, so I had a dual degree. I was able to. I had no idea I was smart. I know I keep going in different tangents. I was the epitome of a queen's kid right. I bounced at clubs. I bounced two clubs. I didn't like I wasn't the bouncer.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 9:11

So that my whole life from when I was 15,.

Melissa Horne 9:17

16 years old was, like you know, hit the clubs, go to the parties. Naturally, I got myself a job where it was a party every single night. I didn't until I got pregnant with my son and had my child at 29, three months before my 30th birthday, I had never changed a diaper. I didn't have friends with kids. Like it was very now. I was in charge of feeding and caring for a human being, which was well. I hardly cared for myself.

Melissa Horne 9:45

You know, I got home, I rehydrated, I went back out Like that was, that was it. So it was a very different life to be a mother, and when I realized that I wasn't going to law school and I wasn't going to do my whole life the way it was, I'm almost forgot. There's like four different lifetimes, guys, four different lifetimes in Melissa, and every single one was a big growth thing. So part two that's where I was getting at was now I'm not going to law school. I had a measly $35,000 in my savings, like everything I had at 35 years old was that my house in Philly, which I was able to get, you know, from hard work and bustling up until that point.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 10:26

Like you had bought that house.

Melissa Horne 10:27

I bought that house and then um, and then he wanted to open a dumpster company and he said Now dumpster truck or just dumpsters. Dumpsters and roll off trucks.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 10:38

Those are great. I mean it's a great business. I mean here in Florida it's a great business Like they just put the dumpster in front of a house. Yeah, and they fill them up. Yeah, and they fill them up.

Melissa Horne 10:45

So yes, it's in New York, though, and I learned the difference. I think it's different now. It's been many years Like we came, we left, we didn't lose the company. We sold the company in 2017. Hill said I hear that it's a blessing, but that's where we disagree on that business. So it was very expensive in New York, especially in Long Island, when we grew out of owner-operator, so we started with the one trunk and five dumpsters which was all of that $35,000 for one truck.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 11:23

That kind of sounds like a deal for just $35,000.

Melissa Horne 11:25

Okay, you and Tim, you'd be best friends.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 11:28

Yes, because you were able to get a truck and five dumpsters.

Melissa Horne 11:31

Yes, yes, but then you have to get the business, and then you have to get the licensing, and then that's the other stuff oh licensing.

Melissa Horne 11:38

You need every town. Now this goes back to your question earlier. Long Island operates in counties also, so there's Nassau and Suffolk County and then inside each county is a municipality and each municipality has its own local government. So there's no executive government Each one has. So each municipality required its own license, its own taxation, its own blah, blah, blah. Now New York City the five boroughs had Giuliani at one time that implemented his fight against the mob at the time that he was there was huge. But what he did was he developed something called the BIC I think it's, if I remember correctly, business Integrity Commission which basically took the powers of the mob and put it in the city. Basically, you pay us and you get to operate here through the city, right? The BIC license was over $30,000 a year at the time. So then once you take on employees you also have the employment tax. So just to operate with, the licensing was close to $100,000 a year.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 12:47

That's before you can even do anything.

Melissa Horne 12:50

Yes, and then you have to. You know workman's comp. And then now Timmy was owner-operator for a while, so we were able until we grew. But once you grow we can't just run one truck and every truck you have. You have to have a driver. And we're also non-union and union drivers get paid $250 an hour a day or whatever it was at the time it was. It was hard to get a driver that was good and diligent when he could have a union job, which meant we get the scrap of the earth for our drivers.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 13:19

That you know because union jobs, they get pensions at the end of it. They get everything and you can't why work for you know.

Melissa Horne 13:27

So we would get the guys it really incentivized employees to screw off small businesses in New York it sounds like it was very, and then you had the component that I probably shouldn't even talk about. But there's a component that there are businesses that don't like the small businesses to come up, so there's a lot of anger there and a lot of contracts you couldn't get Like it was really impossible to now.

Melissa Horne 13:56

Even in I would find creative things. This is where my marketing would come in. So roof rips were a great source of income because we weren't roofers but the roofers or the contractors would hire us to rip the roof off before the roofers came. So that, but that was a really heavy dumpster. That was also the difference with Florida and New York. It costs retarded money per ton to dump, depending on what was in there for the landfills in New York.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 14:21

Oh, because you guys pick it up and you have to dump it.

Melissa Horne 14:24

Yeah, and you have to pay for the landfills in New York. Oh, because you guys pick it up and you have to dump it. Yeah, and you have to pay for the dump here. Well, in my county, when we were thinking about doing it here at that time, the dumps were free, depending on where you lived and what you were dumping. Well, roofing material was….

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 14:36

Are we talking like shingles, tar paper? Yeah, not the plywood.

Melissa Horne 14:39

No, just this, because that had to be separate. So that would be a huge cost. So we built that in the cost for the dumpster. Instead of charging per dumpster we would charge per roof rip and we knew what the cost would be to dump and we'd make money. Well then I found this place in Mount Vernon that was taking recycled roof stuff right and they were turning it into asphalt to do the streets.

Melissa Horne 15:01

And I was like all we got to do is get these dumpsters to Mount Vernon, new Jersey, and if we can get it there, we're going to get paid for our dumps. Not only are we going to make the money from the rip, we just have to figure out what the cost is to get to Jersey, and then we can get more money for these rips.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 15:15

Damn, that's fucking smart.

Melissa Horne 15:19

Yeah, to pay to drive through the city for the.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 15:22

BIC, not even if you, because I thought so even if you're not doing business in New York and you're just driving through New York, yes, yes, If you didn't have the numbers on your truck saying that you had the license and you got pulled over.

Melissa Horne 15:35

now you got a ticket with the DOC.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 15:37

This sounds counterproductive for any business.

Melissa Horne 15:40

For trucking yes, Well, shit yeah. In my opinion, yes, so, and then you know as we grew how much would they pay you anyways for the, for the? Asphalt?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 15:50

I don't remember that was so many years ago. It was it. Was it significant enough to it was?

Melissa Horne 15:54

significant enough to try, but not significant enough. To get the licensing. We need to go through the city because so then you drive around it. You can't drive around. It's surrounded by water, all that. They're surrounded by water and all that. So you have to go through. You have to go over two bridges to get to from Long Island to New Jersey, so it was or a tunnel which you couldn't really go. It was, it was too much and I was getting exhausted. And what was happening is Tim was grow, grow, grow and such a great salesman and such a natural connector and something that he loved the trucks. What was happening to me is I was hating the truck. Now I'm hating the truck. I hate this. This is awful. We painted. Then he wanted to get into the garbage so I was like, all right, how are we going to make this garbage truck fun? Painted the garbage truck pink and we did a campaign called Real Men Wear Pink and we collected, because that was another way to make money called.

Melissa Horne 16:44

Real Men Wear Pink. And we collected because that was another way to make money. If you collected cardboard and recyclables, you can get paid to bring that. So I dedicated the whole truck to collecting recyclables so we could try to get money in from that with this big giant pink truck that was driving around Long Island.

Melissa Horne 16:58

It was great, but there was only so many fun things you could do because we had older trucks and then it would get cold. And then everybody's in the yard at five o'clock in the morning with air torches trying to get the air brakes to work and all yeah. So it became more and more of a. I hate this. I hate you. You know, then you would have to change like dumpster diving Right, like that was not law school dumpster diving.

Melissa Horne 17:26

If they put the wrong shit in the box, you had to go into the box and separate it, Like other bigger companies could dump them out and had people that would do it or a machine that would do it. Small companies don't have that. Small companies have Melissa and a six-year-old kid dumping in the dumpsters, pulling this out, putting this and that Dumpsters, pulling this out, putting this in that. And if you have the wrong like if they decide to dump your box at the yard to check it and you got the wrong stuff in it you go like a gump wrapper in a construction debris box is like a no-no. And if you had anything in busy areas and people are, you know, walking past and they dump their water bottle in there, or the garbage from their car or whatever.

Melissa Horne 18:04

I didn't even think about that. All of a sudden it's not construction debris anymore and if they can see it or they ask you to dump it. Now you have this big, huge expense and things like that started happening. Um, so I said I'm out, not doing this anymore. You have fun with your company.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 18:20

You said out completely like out relationship out and well like kind of got to that. That's what it sounds like right, yeah.

Melissa Horne 18:25

Well, we eventually got back together and had a BB. But at that point when the sauce was hot. We were like, oh no, I hate you, I hate the truck, I hate all of it, and it was two years of bad.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 18:40

And in that two years yeah but you were making money.

Melissa Horne 18:42

I'm assuming we money, I'm assuming we would make money and then make no money. It was like feast or famine and the roller coaster. I couldn't find and he couldn't find. Certainly not together could we find the wave that was successful. There were a lot of other smaller companies that were very competitive. So you would be going in for multiple bids for these contractors who of course wanted the lowest price. Then there were companies that weren't like. When you were here, it was easy to get the work and make it maintained because your bills weren't here yet, right. And then as you grow and your, your, your overhead gets higher. You can't take those smaller jobs at that same price anymore. And now these new companies are coming in and you'd get underbid, right, and everybody. So it was a constant rollercoaster of seeing we got stuck in that middle of. You know, if we grow we're not going to eat and if we go down we're not going to be able to grow, and we couldn't get out of that spot.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 19:49

And because what was your yearly revenue? If you don't mind sharing, yeah.

Melissa Horne 19:55

It never operated. It would be monthly good and then yearly loss.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:01

Was it over a million dollars in revenue?

Melissa Horne 20:03

No, not where we got with that company and that's where I was getting sick. We would be so close and then the tickets would come in and then the bills for the municipalities would come in and I was really—.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:18

Well, I'm talking about just revenue, not profit, just revenue.

Melissa Horne 20:22

I'd say it was about 40,000 a month.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:24

So that's not yeah that's not.

Melissa Horne 20:28

It wasn't worth see what I'm saying. So, it wasn't worth it for the headache, and Timmy and I had very different visions, so we couldn't even get it together to get to something that amazing Right, and I hated it. I hated it. So, without one piece of the puzzle, it wasn't.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:45

You were probably working like fucking 120 hours a week.

Melissa Horne 20:48

I was still. I went back to a bar to bartend on the weekends so that I can, you know, make sure everything was running smooth. So, yes, the relationship ended, the company ended. Melissa Wynn got her real estate license.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 21:03

That's the end of the story, but not in New York, though. In New York oh okay, and you also mentioned another guy, vinny Vinny.

Melissa Horne 21:10

Yes, that's what happened. So I got my real estate license and I thought all of these contractors that I built a relationship with with the dumpsters were going to use me as their realtor. And they were like oh no, you are the dumpster girl. We have the realtor girl over here. She knows asset managers, she knows how to find the properties that we want to flip All the things I didn't think about, because you don't really have to do a lot to get your real estate license right.

Melissa Horne 21:36

You just show up in the class and they teach you stuff you never need for your business. So I was like, all right, I'm just going to find the company that has the best split. I'm going to get all these contractors, I'm going to, you know, get us back on our feet. Timmy's going to go over there and die with his truck and everything's going to be fine. And my contractors are all like no, you don't know enough, you don't have the contacts. You don't have any of this that we need.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 22:01

We can't use you, and so now hold that thought right there, Melissa. When we get back with Happy Hour Holidays, we'll continue the fascinating story with Melissa Horn. I'm enjoying myself. Make sure you like, comment and subscribe. We'll be right back. And we're back with Happy Hour Holidays and we're really fascinated with the Melissa horn story over here. I am fucking loving it.

Melissa Horne 22:19

So it's a rollercoaster, but it's so damn entertaining.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 22:24

And we were just getting to the point, Melissa, where, okay, you got your real estate license. You're thinking, all right, I'm going to get all these contractors, they're going to use me. And then all of a sudden, you're like what the fuck?

Melissa Horne 22:35

No sudden you're like what the fuck? No, they're like nope, it's not gonna happen. So um, there was this guy who was was interested in probably and possibly partnering for a contracting company.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 22:48

Um, there was a contractor.

Melissa Horne 22:49

You're talking like a gc so he was a general contractor out in long island. He, he knew about me from the dumpster company. He knew that I had just gotten my real estate license. He knew and again, just like kind of like the reason why I'm starting to put myself out there more. It's time, for I was ready for the change.

Melissa Horne 23:08

I wasn't exactly sure of the direction. I know I'm like I'm like, I'm like I'm a squirreler, right, like let's do this, let's do this, let's do this. And then I, after I pile all the shit on me, I'm like, okay, now I need to make a decision on what direction is going to be the most sick. So sometimes you make good decisions, sometimes you make bad decisions. Well, this decision to sit in this room with this guy who called himself Uncle John, to be part bad decision when I got there. So I quickly realized that the person likely was not interested in partnering with me. He was more interested in getting a name on his company so he could file for WBO, which is a women-owned business. Right, and basically he was looking for somebody stupid that was going to put their name on something and really not.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 23:59

But not Melissa.

Melissa Horne 24:00

Yeah, I was like yeah, I don't know if this is. Thanks, uncle John. I should have known he was like call me Uncle John.

Melissa Horne 24:06

You know that it was going to be some kind of craziness. However, during this meeting, a man came in to meet with him for a real estate deal whose name was Vinnie Martino and Vinnie for a real estate deal whose name was Vinny Martino and Vinny got like the tail end of the conversation with me and Uncle John and you know when I'm thanking him but no thanking him, and like I'm a real estate agent and I'm going to really concentrate on that and I'd love to do business with you in that capacity at any time. So this Vinny goes, so you're a real estate agent. And I said I am, I'm licensed, I'm with ABC Company and I'm ready to go.

Melissa Horne 24:44

And he's like well, tell me how you market yourself. And I'm a brand new agent, okay, and I only know what to regurgitate. And I got my CRM and I made these pretty flyers and I put everybody I know into this CRM and I'm sending them emails and I'm knocking on their doors and doing all that stuff that they tell you to do. And Vinny's just going, okay, all right, so what? Have you written a contract yet? And I was like, no, not yet. You know, I'm just I'm still getting it Okay. So when you get the contract, what are you going to do? I think of that part Like what the fuck am I going to do? I was like I'll figure it out. You know, I got this great brokerage behind me. If they trained you how to write a contract, do you know how to write an offer, did they? No, no, they don't tell you any of that. In real estate class, they don't. They don't tell you anything when you do the real estate class.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 25:36

It's like some of the on job duties. I mean, you get a contract and you're like what the hell is this? Yeah, I'm like what do?

Melissa Horne 25:44

I know, but I feel still like you can't. Even when you're getting asked direct questions and you don't have an answer, like now, I feel stupid. I'm like and he's smiling, he's all smug Like he knows, I don't know the answer. I'm like, oh, I gotta get out of here.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 25:57

I'm gonna go.

Melissa Horne 25:58

And he's like why don't you give me your number? I think we can talk about getting something going for you. And first I'm like I'm excited but I feel stupid. I don't know how you guys are.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 26:10

And this is in Long Island.

Melissa Horne 26:11

This is in Long Island right, and now I'm feeling my confidence is hurt, so I'm like I just got to get out of this room right now. So I gave him my number, I didn't take his number and I ran out, and then he called me a couple of days later and he's like hey, you know, this is Vinny. We met at John's house and I'd really love to talk to you about coming to work with me in real estate. And I was like now I'm confident again because I'm behind the phone.

Melissa Horne 26:37

I am not in space. So I'm like I'm good, I got it together. You know I'm working on all my stuff and he started asking me the questions again. But now you're a little tougher right when you're behind a phone or a keyboard.

Melissa Horne 26:50

So I'm like, yeah, no, I'm good, I got the screen split. I mean, why would I go work under somebody else? And that's when he said to me he said, yeah, well, you really didn't write a contract yet, right. And I was like, no, he goes. You know, 0% of 0 is still 0, right. And that's when he started calling me horn. He's all he calls me horn and he goes horn Now that he loves me and knows me.

Melissa Horne 27:07

That's where it went to. It's the most ridiculous all the way down. So anyway, he's like 0% of zero is still zero. How long are you going to do this? Now, he didn't know too much about me, but I was like how long am I going to do this? Like I'm almost shit out of money, like I had my house in Philly rented. The company's tanking even more. Me and Timmy are fighting. I'm getting ready to move out. Like there's really like I'm almost dead and stinking right. Of course I'm not going to say that to him, but I'm like what am I going to do? I don't want to work for this guy, but how do I connect with him and make something out of nothing?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:49

Was he like much older than you, or something?

Melissa Horne 27:53

No, he's the same age as me. You're older than him, I'm not really sure, but I'm definitely better looking than him.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:57

Vinny Martinez Sounds like a fucking name from a movie too. I feel like an Italian mom, he's the best.

Melissa Horne 28:06

We have the best team. Vinny, I adore you, you're the best mentor and I still give you all the props for making me who I am Always. But very funny. So I said no and he continued to call me Second time.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 28:21

right, that's the second time I said no.

Melissa Horne 28:24

He called me every single Sunday with his Fizbo's and prospected me. He said the same thing Like I became a script for him.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 28:32

So what do you do? Give you the Fizbo's and then said hey, close them, close them, close them close them.

Melissa Horne 28:37

He would be calling his Fizbo's because he was a prospector and a top producing real estate agent and I didn't realize until much later that his Sunday call time was calling Fizbo's and I got into the Fizbo list so while he was trying to get his listings I was on that list.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 29:01

And he would call me every Sunday, as if I were a Fizbo, to try to close me and come work for him. And for those of you who do not know, fizbo is for sale by owner.

Melissa Horne 29:06

Yes, yes. So, um, he was training me without training me at that point. And finally, after about, I'd say, probably six months, I finally agreed to go meet him. And and you know how he got me to go meet him. Damn, six months, yeah, and I was at him one night.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 29:21

Talk about a persistent fellow.

Melissa Horne 29:24

Very persistent. All the lessons I got from him is everything it takes to be a phenomenal entrepreneur period. Vinny is now in construction. Vinny is now in construction and he is a top remodeler in Long Island and has translated his skills and his consistency and persistency into his contracting and has moved out of real estate and he makes these beautiful, beautiful remodels all over Long Island now. But how he got me to finally meet him? Because he was getting to know me and getting to understand my needs and my.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 29:59

He was selling me you know what I mean? That sounded like it was a little bit more than just a professional not at all. No, it's what he wanted, is all I'm saying no, no, not, I promise you not at all no, he's, he was a happily married man.

Melissa Horne 30:13

You know, I asked him that many years later, but not in that way. I said why did you bother chasing me for so long? He told me because I knew you had talent and I knew for what I wanted to do. I needed you to get me for my next spot. And he because when I called him crying, that's how I even I couldn't find an assistant. I'm like I can't get an assistant to stay. Nobody wants to work, everybody's an asshole. I'm like I can't get an assistant to stay. Nobody wants to work, everybody's an asshole.

Melissa Horne 30:40

I don't understand why did you bother me for so long? He's like cause you had talent, he goes and I knew for where I wanted to go. He wanted to build a team. He wanted to become a you know, a recognized team in accolades in this marketplace. He wanted to break into the Hamptons market, which is big money. He wanted to start this construction company, always as a secondary business, not moving out of real estate. He wanted to take everything that he grew in real estate and make it bigger and he felt from meeting me that one time in Uncle John's kitchen that I was the person that was going to do this for him. And then he proceeded to tell me, when I asked him, that whoever you find when they have talent, they're going to leave you. So I knew you were going to leave me. So I had a limited time to get what I needed out of you, to get my business where it wanted to be, before you realized you were great and left.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 31:32

He's a smart guy, yeah.

Melissa Horne 31:33

And I was eyeopening because I'm still waiting for this invisible assistant to show up and help me, and then outgrow me and then leave me, and I would be the next level.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 31:44

But I haven't found her yet.

Melissa Horne 31:46

But yeah, it wasn't anything funny, it was true belief. But that's how far I've come. Right, I didn't see that talent in me, I didn't have that confidence in me and it took him to discover it. And my nose is running, I'm sorry.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 32:02

No, no, no, it's fine. You want me to get you a tissue? No, I'm okay.

Melissa Horne 32:07

It took. Let me take a second and go back to that thought, yeah, I need a tissue.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 32:13

We'll step out real quick, sorry.

Melissa Horne 32:17

Oh my God, I've never had allergies before, and now they just came.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 32:21

I love the bull yeah, bullish stock market.

Melissa Horne 32:25

Yes, and then you got the Monopoly man behind you. That's pretty sick. I like him With the machine gun. Oh, thank you, perfect.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 32:35

Yeah, because he's running monopolies and killing some people. She was talking about the six-month.

Melissa Horne 32:42

Six months of calling. Yeah, the call. But then when he got, so I'm going to get up to so when he got me back to the future.

Melissa Horne 32:53

I forgot where I was the talent. So, yeah, I'm still waiting for my invisible assistant that's going to come and have talent and then leave. Well, with Vinny, he finally got me to meet him because he said just come meet me. We won't even talk about it anymore. I want to show you something. You know the Juicy House from the Biggie video and I was like, yeah, the song Juicy, where they're all, his first hit they're all in the pool.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 33:18

It the song Juicy, where they're all his first hit they're all in the pool and it's telling. It was all a dream.

From Nightclubs to Real Estate

Melissa Horne 33:20

I used to dream, yes well, he had the listing for the Juicy House and he called me and he's like do you want to see the Juicy House? I was like yeah, and I was he's like, well, I want. I want to hear your ideas on how you would market this house, because they adjust. You know, they're renovating it, they want to add a staircase. I know you're not interested in working with me, but I think you have some really good marketing ideas. Let's go walk the house. I'll show you what we're doing to it and tell me what you would do.

Melissa Horne 33:51

And I was like you have this big, giant catwalk because you only see like the outside, from the video. And I had this big, long, giant catwalk when you only see like the outside, from the video. And I had this big, long, giant catwalk when you walked in and I'm like we're gonna do pop-up stores for all hip-hop designers up here. We're gonna get every b-list artist that's just starting to, you know, record and get everything. We're gonna get them all here and we're gonna make it like a talent showcase. So we'll get anybody we can see. If we can get biggie Skies or anybody from Puffy at that time, you know that's a whole nother thing. Anybody we can get.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:21

She went to a white party.

Melissa Horne 34:23

Yeah, like anything, I wasn't at one of those parties, but anything we can get to get the music guys in here that want to touch something Biggie touched.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:36

And then we'll get all of the producers to come walk through the house. What year?

Melissa Horne 34:37

was this, this was 2015.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:39

Oh shit Recently.

Melissa Horne 34:40

Yeah, so it was, but which is long past. You know the song coming out.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:44

Yeah, but why?

Melissa Horne 34:45

not bank on that. You know what I mean. And then there were the real estate parts of the house that was spectacular. The gentleman that designed it, the architect, is. You know, he was a sort I don't remember his name, sorry, but he was a sort after architect. And part of the deal of the sale is that the footprint of the house really couldn't be changed because this was like his baby. It was in the highest part of not Amagansett like Sag Harbor, I forgot what part of Long Island, but where it was. It was on the top of the hill so you could see a lot of the water both on the Long Island Sound and the Atlantic. I mean, there were a lot of spectacular things about this million dollar Hamptons property.

Melissa Horne 35:23

Gosh, she makes me want to buy it. It was spectacular and just for the experience and that he promised he wasn't going to try to make me go work for him again. I went Well, it was snowing and we wound up in a ditch and we went to a restaurant to cool off, not be freezing, and we started talking and at that point he was a very smart businessman. What happened in retrospect is we were able to build rapport. I wasn't on the defense about not going to work to him. We were sharing ideas about this house. He was talking to me more about what his vision was for his company and who he needed for a good fit. It wasn't about me anymore, it was about who this broker at the time.

Melissa Horne 36:11

He, he. Well, he was with Douglas element. So what that means when you have a broker's license and versus an, an associate's license, a salesperson's license. Basically, you took an extra course, right you?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 36:22

learned how to learn some business stuff.

Melissa Horne 36:24

What the benefit…?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 36:25

Like I'm just trying to figure out what he was.

Melissa Horne 36:30

He owned his team.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 36:31

His team. So he was a real estate agent with a team.

Melissa Horne 36:35

He was a real estate agent building a team at the time.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 36:37

He met me and he wanted you on his team.

Melissa Horne 36:39

He wanted me on his team as his marketing director and his buyer's agent and his vision and this was all foreign to me when he was, because I didn't understand how it worked. Like you asked me earlier why I didn't want to just be a broker myself, because camera oh sorry, um, because the liability is so great with the people. The broker's license is really overseeing all the other licenses.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 37:05

So if I hire somebody, but if you own a team, and you own a team as a real estate agent, the broker is the one that takes all the liability, not the real estate agent leader.

Melissa Horne 37:17

So why would you open a brokerage?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 37:19

Only for the commission split. Yeah, so you don't have to pay your broker any money. But there's so many ways that you can, unless you have a cap and you're okay with saying like KW does $21,000. Once you cap out, they don't take any more right.

Melissa Horne 37:32

And it's a business decision based on what you negotiate in every instance with your broker. Um, there's, yeah, there's a lot of things like I'm comfy, I'm comfy, was he still?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 37:43

letting you um try to close your own deals for while you were also marketing director.

Melissa Horne 37:49

Yes, so he, yes, but there were, there, were. It grew, we grew together Like he had a vision and then always with every business, right, you have a vision and then you adapt to make it work best. So I came in as the marketing director and buyer's agent. Right, there were certain hours that I had to dedicate to marketing, making the phone ring, making sure that our brand was being, you know, seen. He would do agent attraction. He had a transaction coordinator at the time who was also doing sales. So really, when I came on, it was Adrian, vinny and I, then Elena came on and then Vinny just did his thing and we did our thing and my job was make the phone ring. Here's the budget Figure out what works, make the phone ring and sell as much as you can, but make sure you're here to do the marketing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 38:39

What was the budget? By the way, if you don't mind me asking.

Melissa Horne 38:41

When we started, the budget was only, I think, $2,500. By the time I left, the budget was up to $10,000.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 38:47

Which goes to show you guys out there that you have to spend money to make money 100%, yeah, 100%.

Melissa Horne 38:53

And when I moved to Florida, and when you say $10,000, you mean per month, yeah, per month, that's $120,000 right there to generate more volume in real estate sales, yes, and in the scheme of real estate, bigger teams. And this was before the whole content. Digital marketing, pay-per-click became big, right Well, no, this is like 2015.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 39:18

2015, 2016.

Melissa Horne 39:19

So it wasn't like that. There are teams today, big top producing teams that exceed $200,000 a month in their budget. That's not my trajectory. I'm not that I don't want to.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 39:33

Not yet. Not yet, melissa, not in the.

Melissa Horne 39:36

I love real estate but I see Melissa's future in multifamily syndication deals. I want to do more commercial than residential and that's where I'm spending my time to grow right now in skill set Residential real estate. I wanted to build a team, I wanted to build it out to get. I studied all those people. I think they're phenomenal, but I'm not willing at this point. You're right. Maybe in the future I won't. I'll never say never because, things change.

Melissa Horne 40:06

You're absolutely right. I'm taking it back now, but there's, I am not willing to take out of my production to be an effective yeah, and if my name is attached to it, I want to make sure my team has the same values and goals and and to work with the same integrity that I work with, and I have yet to meet people that are willing to do that outside of their own business. I have very talented associates, but they're not. They're doing their thing, they're not trying to partner.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 40:36

So we're still in New York right now.

Melissa Horne 40:38

We're still in Long Island, still in New York, you still haven't left Vinny. No.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 40:42

I think you were getting to that part, yeah, so then I left Vinny.

Melissa Horne 40:45

So me and Vinny built this beautiful magic. Vinny built, I helped build this big magical team and then I got pregnant again the second time, 11 years later. Don't do that. Was it still the same?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 41:00

guy Timmy. Timmy has raised my first son.

Melissa Horne 41:01

No, it was Timmy. My first child is not Timmy's biological son, but Timmy adopted him and Timmy is his father.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 41:09

Oh, good man.

Melissa Horne 41:09

Yeah, he's amazing. Even with all the bullshit, timmy is an amazing dad and a great partner for somebody else. And our second child together I got pregnant. Vinny was heartbroken that I needed a maternity leave, so what he did was is he gave me the big office so I can come in with the baby and only take two weeks off, and he would take the little office and he made a mock nursery for me to come back to work with my newborn child. And then Timmy decided not Vinny, timmy decided he wanted to go to Florida and it was a very right now. So we had friends in Brevard County that we would go visit at Easter time and it was coming up in Easter 2017.

Melissa Horne 41:58

It was the year that Easter was really late in, like April, like end of March, beginning of April and we went down for Easter and at Easter dinner he got offered a job and the he needed. He needed to be moved by June 5th and it was already mid-April. So he still had the trucks, I had my real estate stuff going on and he's like I'm going to take the job, we're going to Florida, and I'm like, oh fuck, no, we're not. I was like I don't even know where it is. I don't have a license there. I just was, you know, breaking into a bigger market in Long Island. That was a higher price point. I'm like I'm on fire right now. Like you, I can't leave my business. I just built this in the last three years and, um, he got the job and he went and I got to sell the trucks, keep my business with a five month old baby. It was fucking fantastic, but I didn't want to come.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 42:49

I didn't want to come. And when we get back with happy hour holidays, we'll continue the melissa horn story. We're loving it. Like comment. Subscribe. All right guys. Welcome back to happy hour holidays with the melissa horn story. That's been freaking intriguing as hell. And now they're coming down to the place that I call paradise, but she would have rather been in new york, for sure. 100 so now. So now timmy's taking taking the job in Florida and you're selling off all the assets for the business and about to make the transition.

Melissa Horne 43:20

Yes. So I'm about to make the transition. We're getting rid of all the trucks. Timmy started his job. He he got to get a Cocoa beach condo with my dog. He got to take the dog and be on the beach and he's whining about how he misses us. I was like, shit, give me my dog back, man, you stay down there. So we did fly down for Father's Day so I could see my dog and he could see his boys.

Melissa Horne 43:47

And then reality hit because I hadn't come down. So he came June Father's Day is mid-June and I was like, oh my God, what am I going to do here? Like my license is in New York, it's not a reciprocal state in Florida. Yeah, so I had to do, and that's why I got my broker's license, because I had the option to do a broker or salesperson in Florida with my you know what I've completed in New York. And I was like, well, I'm just going to take my broker's license because otherwise I would have had to wait two years to reestablish my sales, to do another broker class.

Melissa Horne 44:23

So that was the smartest thing that I did for the move. I started shopping brokers who I wanted to work for and be associated with, because Douglas Elliman was not north. I don't even think they still are north of Jupiter and that's who I was with in New York and I didn't know that I wanted to be with Douglas Elliman, because really I was with Vinny and I've never maybe four or five times actually went into the Douglas Elliman office. We had a satellite office. We functioned. Every our marketing was pretty you know what's the right word.

Melissa Horne 45:01

We used what we had to of Douglas Elliman, but we had our own logos, we had our own marketing systems, our own branding, our own branding, and we also had our own systems, and that's something that I really took from Vinny when I started my own business here as a solo agent. I don't use anything my brokerage gives me as far as the CRM or their marketing, I've developed all my own and I just follow the rules of what my broker information has to be on my marketing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 45:29

It's not necessary. I mean the broker is just there to hang your license after that run wild Yep and that's it. So why couldn't you just branch? What'd you call it, douglas, elliman, elliman? Why couldn't you just open a secondary office where you were the leader of it and still be under Vinny?

Melissa Horne 45:45

We probably could have done something like that. My breakup with the Martino team wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be my breakup with the Martino team wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be.

Melissa Horne 45:55

He was very, very gracious in getting me back to the office when Donnie was, and this was only five months after. So now I was pregnant for nearly a year. I only took a couple of weeks off so he would give me the big office, and now I'm telling him I'm leaving. You know what I mean? It wasn't Not your fault.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 46:12

Yeah, not my fault.

Melissa Horne 46:13

Yeah, not my fault, but it wasn't timing for everybody else. It wasn't timing for me. I didn't want to go, you know like to me, but it was the right move for our family, for him giving up that company that he wanted to save so badly, so badly. I couldn't ever ask anybody, especially the father of my child, to go work for a competitor or a client or, you know, basically put his tail between his legs when he had this great opportunity Like he got a great opportunity with this company.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 46:46

What was it, by the way? The opportunity.

Melissa Horne 46:48

Construction manager with the builder in Central Florida.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 46:51

So he For a residential builder Residential builder Residential that's huge.

Melissa Horne 47:00

Yeah, it's huge, huge. From where he was coming from at our age, you know he always wanted to be in Florida. It was the right thing to do. You know I can get my license anywhere and the cost of living in central Florida is so much less than the cost of living in New York. I could fly up. I could probably see my mother and my brother more. This was my logic. In two hours I could be on a plane ride with an hour on either end. So within four hours I don't have to drive and I could be at my mother or my brother, when it would take five hours in traffic to get from Long Island to New Jersey. You should move, not even kidding. So why? Yeah, and I could fly up more often. I was only seeing them on holidays anyway, you know. So it just it was silly not to try to make it work. Well then I got here and I was like where the fuck did you get me?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 47:48

I was like there's giant oak trees. You said Cocoa Beach, right.

Melissa Horne 47:49

Well, that's where he was staying, that's not where we were living.

Melissa Horne 47:55

It was, you know, vieira. So Melbourne, vero Beach, no, vieira is in Melbourne and it's one of the top 10 PUDs in the nation. Vieira Builders has more money than God, which I've learned now to piggyback off their marketing. It's a plans unit development. So Vieira Builders owns like massive lands well out of just Brevard County into central Florida and they have built all these really beautiful high-end subdivisions through the Melbourne area.

Melissa Horne 48:28

And the deal was for my older son because they moved him so much in his 11 years up to that point that if you're going to make me move to Florida, I want to know that we're not going to move out of the same area, that I can go through the junior high school and high school with all the same kids. And I owed him that because before Timmy and during Timmy there was a lot of turmoil and a lot of moving. Donnie was only five months old, like I said, when we got here, and that would keep Donnie established at least through the beginning of elementary A-plus schools in a cushy neighborhood you know it's very soccer mom, very not my style.

Melissa Horne 49:06

But you know that's. I had to give too right, so I couldn't be like. What do you mean? I can never go on the chain, I can't go to the city. I couldn't be a crybaby, because I needed to be part of the family.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 49:18

Well, you can still go on a train.

Melissa Horne 49:19

Yeah, the two-two. Bright line, bright line, it doesn't even stop, it goes right through my county.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 49:24

It doesn't stop there.

Melissa Horne 49:24

Oh really no, it stops in Orlando and Miami.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 49:29

They need, they're talking about it, and it goes all the way up to New York, if I'm not mistaken.

Melissa Horne 49:33

Well, I did the auto train coming down because I wasn't going to drive my pretty car all that way with a newborn baby and half of what we own that I wouldn't put in the moving truck. So that was really cool to do the auto train down to Sanford with Donnie. That was really good. Actually, it was really the best experience.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 49:52

How long was it?

Melissa Horne 49:53

It was like 18 hours. You get on in Virginia and then you get up in Sanford and that was just an hour drive, but they put the car in its own car, like the car in a train car, and then you it's like old fashioned with little curtains and stuff, and yeah it was pretty cool.

Melissa Horne 50:07

It's like an actual train, though, right yeah, no it's like a wild wild west trip Like I never. The subway trains and Amtrak are very different, so it was like a real choo-choo, I'm telling you. It had curtains and all this stuff and the baby was. Donnie was a really good baby and he would like goo-goo and ga-ga-ing and all the people wanted to hang out with him.

Melissa Horne 50:29

I didn't even get one of the bed trains. I mean, the seats were so big I thought maybe I made a mistake. And then I saw there was, it wasn't crowded, it was, it was great. We you know it was. It was really comfy and a good experience. So yay for the auto chain. I think is by Amtrak, but um so we rented a house, I went and got my license, I've got my broker license.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 50:48

Had you sold the house in Philly at this point, or you still had it as a?

Melissa Horne 50:52

rental. I sold it. I sold it before we left. It was a rental for only a couple of years. I actually sold it in the little break me and Timmy had so that I could move out of that house. And then, yeah, and I got my savings back together and all that good stuff. It was sad to break up with that house, though I really loved that house. So then you decided to join. Remax. I decided to join Remax.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 51:16

That was the first one that you found down here.

Melissa Horne 51:19

It was the first one that had a great market share. What I found I don't know how it is in Tampa, but in Melbourne in my MLS, there's 6,500 agents. A lot of them are broker owners. There is real no distinctive market share with how many agents there were. And that's what I was looking. I was looking for the branding of a big company to build myself until I built my own brand.

Melissa Horne 51:41

Yeah, and there's five Remaxes in my area. Remax Elite is the one that I chose and because they had the most market share from what I could see from signs. So I spoke with KW, I spoke with MyRemax and I spoke with….

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 51:58

Cowell Banker.

Melissa Horne 52:00

No, did you ever think about Premier?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 52:01

Sotheby's.

Melissa Horne 52:03

No, no, mm-mm, there was…. And, like I said, I was under Vinny for so long. I never had to interview like that. My deal with Vinny was the deal that I wanted at that time. I've never spoke to somebody in Douglas Elliman. My deal was with Vinny and my license was held by Douglas Elliman, so this was a whole new shop for me. Right, like what, do I ask? What is a good split? What am I looking for? And at the time, the brand was most important because I knew where I wanted to go. And then my broker is amazing. She's one of my best friends. Now I was able to, I'm very comfortable with my business and I'm a top producing agent, so I suspect that they don't want to lose me either.

Melissa Horne 52:53

And and it's a good place while I'm a top producing agent, so I suspect they don't want to lose me either, and it's a good place while I'm figuring out where Melissa wants to take a business next.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 53:03

We were actually talking about this outside. Where does Melissa want to take it next? And you said multifamily syndication. Yes, can we get a little bit more shed on that? What exactly is it for the viewers out there that don't know what that means? Absolutely I see Grant Cardone always talking about the syndications.

Melissa Horne 53:20

Yes, so Grant Cardone's model is different than the model that I want to follow. I'm working with the Warrior Program, which is Rod Khleif and he's out of Sarasota. It's about 2,500 people in this group. It's pretty awesome. Look up the Warrior Program and what I'm learning is so you don't necessarily have to be a real estate agent. You need to want to invest and you need to know how to underwrite deals and find value ads. So what I'm looking for and then the-.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 53:51

And buy value ads ads.

Melissa Horne 53:57

So what I'm looking for and then the value ads meaning is finding in apartment complex or commercial residential. Specifically, anything over five units is commercial residential. I'm looking for anything between 50 and a hundred units. That needs value ads, meaning that the driveways need to be fixed up and painted and maybe assign a parking spot to each unit so that you can add value to the rent, Maybe adding a pet policy where you can have one pet at rent for $25. Maybe there's plumbing and each unit could be added with washers and dryers, and there you're maximizing the rent. But you need to be specific in the area that you're looking for. What is the maximum rent that these areas are going to hold? Are there jobs in the area? Are there big ticket stores? Is there a Starbucks, Like where? What? What is in the area that's bringing people that they're going to pay top dollar and what do you need to do to improve this unit to get that top dollar?

Melissa Horne 54:50

And each deal is going to have a limited partnership and a general partnership and the limited partnership at the legs of the deal that puts it together A construction team, a property management team, an asset management team and they're running day-to-day operations to put this deal together and put the value adds in it, and then you have the GP. So the LP team is raising capital for the GP. That are the investors that come in to put this money in, to acquire the property, work through the loan process and then you have a pro forma that you are going. When are you going to sell this? When is it going to maximize his money to sell it, to take, to cash out, to go to the next deal, which is typically around five years? Now, in five years, if it's performing fantastic, you're going to hold on to it, but in the meantime you're finding more and more deals.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 55:32

And a low vacancy rate is going to also add to that right.

Melissa Horne 55:35

Well, you want a higher vacancy rate. I think that if you're at 90%, a low, I'm sorry, low, sorry. Yeah, okay, you want 90% occupancy, sorry, no no, I think, for the best loan products, and I'm still learning all this you want at least 90% occupancy in order to get the best loan products available.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 55:57

For someone to purchase.

Melissa Horne 55:58

To purchase From you.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 56:00

From the group.

Melissa Horne 56:02

Or for us to purchase, to even get the value add and then to sell it. Yes, oh okay, yeah, and then to sell it. You want it to be.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 56:11

Well, actually to me it makes more sense that the property is vacant more than, like, say, 50% I know that's an extreme number for you to get a better deal on the property, right.

Melissa Horne 56:23

Well, it would depend, like if it's in disarray right and it needs a roof and it needs this and it needs that, which means you've got to invest more money into the repairs of the property.

Melissa Horne 56:30

But if there's no I've, I've. I'm still learning this, but from what I've, what I've been researching and the people that I'm networking with, I'm finding that it's been I've heard it both ways right. I heard one story recently that if you had you know you want to do all these value adds interior that having it vacant to have the value adds done have the people in, that that might be better. The example, I think, was that it was a socioeconomically stressed area and they wanted to do these value ads with all the jobs that were coming in, that they could raise the rents and having it vacant actually worked more vacant had it worked to their benefit because you didn't have the riffraff still living in the building.

Melissa Horne 57:12

So if you're trying to do all these improvements, but there's people, with a different mindset living there that might not invite people with a better mindset to come in. So you have, I think, each. So it's case by case, each case by case, and I think it's really important to walk these areas, not just identify the deal, but walk the community, walk the building, meet the residents. What do they like about it? What do they not like about?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 57:39

it Well, even the surrounding areas too right.

Melissa Horne 57:41

Yeah, because you couldn't possibly do all these value adds. But is somebody still going to live there? Yeah, like they're going to have to really love where they live, and like the other people that live there in order to stay. So there's a lot of working parts and there's so much I'm learning. So it's, I haven't been in a deal yet, but I'm looking for a deal. There are a lot of people that I've been talking to that are willing to put in capital, and the easiest ways I'm finding into a deal is to identify the deal or have the capital. So I'm getting closer and closer.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 58:19

So we are going to pin this and talk to me in six months because my goal is that in the next six months I will be in a syndication deal. Well, what's the for an outside investor? What's the minimum capital requirement of investment if they want to be in a deal like?

Melissa Horne 58:29

this, I would imagine $50,000, because with the syndication deal it is regulated by the SEC, so you have to be an accredited investor and can only have a certain amount of unaccredited investors, as I understand. I think with $50,000, you can get in a deal.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 58:44

And how long would that person that invests said $50,000 expect to return on their investment? Around five years. About five years when the group decides to sell the property yes, and what's their ROI on that? Around five years, about five years, when the group decides to sell the property?

Melissa Horne 58:54

Yes, I think that-.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 58:54

And what's their ROI on that? Are they looking at 20% or are they looking at more?

Melissa Horne 58:59

I don't think it's that high. Again, I'm not up to that part yet, but I no, but this is just ballparking, ballparking.

Melissa Horne 59:05

I imagine that there would be something between 7% to 10%. Yeah, so from what I listen, it happens every day and people put their money in it. They're making bucket loads of money, so the return is definitely there if the deal is right. So that's. I'm also very careful. I don't like to get myself into anything if I don't have a full understanding and at this point I don't have a full understanding yet, but I'm learning every day. My goal is to understand how to underwrite a deal. So where I'm concentrating my networking efforts right now is to find the people in this group that I joined that know how to bulletproof, underwrite a deal and teach me how to do it. So I've picked and we were talking outside about it also my area is a growing area.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 59:54

Asset management right.

Melissa Horne 59:55

Yeah, but there's not a lot of multifamily opportunities in my backyard, so what I'm doing is I'm taking those deals and practicing right. Okay, well, let me underwrite this. I'm throwing shit at the wall.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:00:08

I'm throwing shit at the wall what's going to stick? Until I figure it out.

Melissa Horne 1:00:12

And that's why give me six months. I promise you, I will know and I will have my fingers in it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:00:17

Now also outside um. You mentioned a lot of areas, but there's one area you did not mention, and that was Miami, for Lauderdale and you. You said something that you know resonates with. What those uh people in that area are are experiencing is just an inundation of investment that drives the cost up, right? Is that the reason?

Melissa Horne 1:00:38

I have so many just on my residential, my business, my current business. A good portion of my people are moving out of Miami. They're moving out of South Florida. They're coming to me. In fact, I've worked with a lot of trades so I had a plumber that was looking for three properties that had a huge, booming business in Miami, fort Lauderdale. I said what are you going to do with your business? He's like I'm going to dump it. I'm going to make so much money selling that business. I went there 50 years older man. I went there 50 years ago. I started with just me. I built this 50 employee plumbing company right now and I watched this grow and I know Bavard is next. So I'm going to start over right here with a small little company. Start building my employees, let my kids take it over. I'm going to just buy a couple of properties now because it's coming to you. I mean 50 years from now, but I see the growth just from 2017. Years from now, but I see the growth just from 2017.

Melissa Horne 1:01:37

Half of the Vieira area that I was talking to you about was not built in 2017. There's 30 years left of planned building still just in that north part of my county Palm Bay. The south part of my county is non-HOA. It's all scattered lots. All the builders from Miami are buying it now. Just last year there were investors having the houses built from these builders and then selling them resale, but as a brand new build in Palm Bay. All those builders now have model homes there. They're like why are we building for these other guys to sell our product for $40,000 more when we can just maximize put 25 houses there and just Vernon and Sharon?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:02:14

they're all coming and they're beautiful, and I think the biggest thing with Florida, too, was in 2020, when COVID hit. It accelerated our market by probably maybe 15 years, because we were looking at houses at $255,000 and now they're at $450,000, $500,000 already and that's in a short period of time, probably about four years. Yeah, so it priced out a lot of people, people that are in the middle class class. It priced them completely out. Everybody from up north came with cash and they said waive the appraisal, waive the inspection, I'm paying it yeah and that's what happened with the real estate.

Melissa Horne 1:02:49

A lot of those people. A lot of sight unseen. Yeah, a lot of sight unseen. I bought my house sight unseen did you really?

Building the Dumpster Business

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:02:54

yeah, because I couldn't, fucking bro, I fucking Bro, I'd walk in there, walk the house, and it was like, okay, here's the offer. And then, oh yeah, we already have 10 offers. So as soon as the house came on the market, I was like Rammus put in an offer right now, right now, yep, you haven't even seen it. I was like I saw the pictures I don't give of your house. Yeah, I got it, you're lucky. See a lot of people. That was in 2021. Uh, the offer was accepted.

Melissa Horne 1:03:23

April 1st. Closed. May 1st in 2021, good for you.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:03:25

For mine in 2022, I still paid over and I still had I felt I felt like the market really cooled off 2021, like I came towards may or june 2020 or was it 2022?

Melissa Horne 1:03:36

march, it was like 2022? March May, it was like 2022.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:03:38

It was 22 or two, that's when the interest rates changed.

Melissa Horne 1:03:41

I know because I locked in on the last day before they went to five and a half.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:03:45

Oh shit, Yep.

Melissa Horne 1:03:46

And I got a 4.25.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:03:47

That's fucking good yeah.

Melissa Horne 1:03:50

And I'm one of the people. There's two things happening. I'm seeing in that realm so many people that bought, like you, sight unseen, between 2020 and the end of first quarter in 2022, they don't love their home. They had to get a home and they had to put an offer sight unseen or they had to go over ask. They were fighting against 25 offers and now they're like I don't like this house.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:04:13

And they're also down 20 or 30% on their value from when they bought it.

Melissa Horne 1:04:16

Yeah, and they're also down 20 or 30% on their value from when they bought it? Yeah, Maybe more than or I wouldn't say everyone. It depends it's in pockets. I do hate my house though I don't like it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:04:23

You just said you loved it. No, I never said I loved it. I bought that house just to buy it, so I could have real estate. That was it.

Melissa Horne 1:04:31

Yeah, well, that's two things are happening.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:04:38

One. Two things are happening. One my wife loves the house Happy wife, happy life.

Melissa Horne 1:04:40

The people that are selling. Now there are two, two people, two groups of people I'm finding either they can't sell because they have a two or 3% interest rate and they hate their house, but they can't move up, they can't change. So they're most of them are not in a position to move right now and they have to wait until they find that sweet spot where that free money that's essentially free money can become portfolio property for them and they can get another property and offset it um and that's, that's, that's my advice for all those people.

Melissa Horne 1:05:10

Then you have the people that are like I just needed to get here. I needed to get out of new york, cal, california, wherever the heck they came from, right, because everybody was like a political refugee, also during COVID. So they just bought because they needed out. And now they are either suffering where they overbought Right they're 50,000 to 100,000, even in some cases over ask and when the market evened out for the loans that they didn't have the cash to waive the appraisal or put the cash in. They have to wait out that money and they're not willing to lose it. So, um, we have a lot of inventory right now, but I suspect that we may have another inventory problem when, when the people that can't move can't move and it's time for them to move, which is going to come up in the next four years.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:05:56

I like it, yeah, and then when we get back we'll do final words with Melissa and really appreciate having you on just to see what kind of education and motivation you can give the audience.

Melissa Horne 1:06:08

Absolutely.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:06:09

And then one last thing a prediction on the real estate market. Quick one, all right. So we're back with happy hour, holidays and we got the the expert, melissa horn, over here and she's going to give us a little prediction on the real estate market and then we'll get our final words to educate or motivate you. Whatever she decides to do, what do you think Melissa is going to go on? Let's just say, moving on from second quarter all the way to the fourth quarter, what are we looking at as far as the real estate market?

Melissa Horne 1:06:36

I personally do not think it, not think interest rates are going down. I don't think we're going to see that.

Melissa Horne 1:06:44

I don't see how it doesn't make sense to me. I personally think the guy who is like one day, hmm, let's make the interest rates 2%, 3%, I think that guy should be fired, like why it flooded our market People. They can't afford to move up naturally. So now, when all these life things happen the diapers, the diamonds, the divorce dumpsters, when all the D's happen where are these people going to go? The natural time for them to move? It's going to be impossible for them to do it. It's going to be impossible for them to do it. Very few people are going to be in the position, based on a salaried income, to be able to move on and keep that house as a portfolio house that they have for 2% or 3%, which I hope the whole world can do. I hope that you find a way. Find a way.

Melissa Horne 1:07:30

If you rent it out, right, yeah, rent it out and you can move up to the next house. Don't worry about the industry. You're going to build it in long-term equity. Just go on, make it a long-term wealth move for you. I think there's a lot of people that are not happy with their houses that they bought in those years also, but if they have the flexibility of financial stability, they can move up. I think there is so much inventory there is more and I think it's making buyers move up. I think there is so much, so much inventory there is more and I think it's making buyers move slowly.

Melissa Horne 1:07:59

I have six buyers right now that it's not the same fear, right? We're trained to get them off the fence, to influence them, to understand the best decision for them. Not manipulate, but just ask the questions that they haven't thought about so that they can decide what's best for them and their family. There are so many choices. They are paralyzed in decision-making and I don't see I just see more and more houses coming on the market, but I also see them staying on the market because the pricing two things are happening. They're pricing well above what the market can bear because the sellers haven't become realistic yet in the expectations that we are not in that market anymore. There are too many choices, but I don't think that they're all priced badly, that's what I think too.

Melissa Horne 1:08:51

I think that if they're in a rush and they have to move, they have no choice but to fire, sale a house because of whatever the circumstances are. But I don't think that's reflective of what's happening in the market. I think the buyers are taking longer to make a decision. I think that the financial stress on some of these buyers because the interest rates are fluctuating so much I don't find that the interest rates being higher than they were is the problem. I think that they're fluctuating so much that it's making deals cancel. They want the house. They're not like I'm just not buying the house, I don't like the house anymore. They get bumped out of their financing and then the house goes back on the market. And then there's the stigmatized oh there's something must be wrong with the house, it's back on the market. I have to tell you, nine out of ten houses are not coming back on the market because of a problem with the house. It's a problem with the financing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:09:47

Buyer financing falling through is the biggest thing I've seen on the MLS, consistently right now. So naturally what you're saying is that the homes are going to drop in value.

Melissa Horne 1:09:54

They're not going to sell Only for the people that really need to sell it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:09:55

They're not going to sell, Only for the people that really need to sell it. If you don't need to sell it, they're either going to take it off, stand their ground and hope that the interest rates fall down and possibly get it built.

Melissa Horne 1:10:03

I think in my marketplace we're seeing it in pockets. I'm seeing neighborhoods. There's one neighborhood in particular. It's a $500,000 neighborhood that easily a year ago I could have sold anything in there that was in good condition between five and five 50 today Within like seven days. With it. Let's see, even with the market change within 30 days, which is still really right now.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:10:29

The average days on market is like 180.

Melissa Horne 1:10:32

I think in my market it goes between 90 and, and with the condos, the beachside condos are well over a hundred, but for the single family homes mainland, we're seeing around 90 days. Um, this one neighborhood I'm talking about, though we're probably at like 435, 450 right now makes no sense. And then you have saturated new construction markets. Anything that is built in the last two years that is in a development that the builder still has other phases to go, you cannot sell that house. You are there between five and seven years. You cannot unless you're willing to take a loss. The builders are offering right buy downs, closing costs. You need to take just $25,000 off, whatever your house is valued at right now, if you want a buyer to walk through the door.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:11:16

Because you're not going to be able to compete with a new house. You're not going to be able to compete, I mean even though, when it comes to new construction, you don't get light fixtures, you lose a lot. You don't have washer and dryer refrigerator. You might think that you're getting a better deal and that's because of the rate buy down. That's really yeah.

Melissa Horne 1:11:32

It's huge. So there are areas in my county that are just plentiful with new construction.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:11:39

Any of those resale sellers are going to have a very difficult time, and yes, if they choose to sell because they have to sell and they have to lower their price to that number. It's going to affect them. But you also see, what new construction builders are doing is they're offering a lot of buyer credits towards things that you know maybe they didn't typically do, and I think it's unrealistic for some sellers to think their house is worth as much as they thought it could be at this point in time. And hey, listen, if you bought, like 2018, and you went through 2020 and the price of your home increased substantially, don't think your house is worth what it was in 2020. Understand that it's probably $100,000 or $200,000, if you're talking about million-dollar homes, $100,000 or $200,000 cheaper than what it was, yes, but I still think I agree with Melissa People are still pricing their houses on what the comparables are. But as picky as the buyers are right now, if it's one thing they're going nah, not going to do it, yeah, because it's their market.

Melissa Horne 1:12:42

It certainly is a buyer's market and I was taught in the beginning of my career 10 years ago that a buyer's market is six months of inventory. I don't think that is so. I think a buyer's market in this decade is three months of inventory. I've been in Florida since 2017. There has never been more pre-COVID more than three months of inventory in my market, ever, and now we're close to four months and I'm seeing it. I'm seeing it with my buyers. I am a very good agent, I'm skills-based and they just have too many choices. If there's one thing wrong with the house, we are waiting for the house to come up, because next week there's going to be another 20 to choose from, and that has never happened since I've been here in 2017. So there and I don't think that the economists and the people nobody's seen this market Seasons.

Melissa Horne 1:13:34

It was still different, though, it wasn't?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:13:37

you had a lot of inventory you couldn't get rid of a house back then you couldn't get rid of a house and everybody was upside down.

Melissa Horne 1:13:42

But we're we're having our inventory problem is not based on subprime lending causing it. It's a very different cause now. So there are so many checks and balances and lending which is why we're seeing so many houses come back on the market because you can't even a bank loan right now is like a pain in the ass to get through. There's so much. It is so much work to get all the documentation for a loan to get to the closing table in 30 days or less and it's still happening. But you need to really have your ducks in a row. You know I have a couple of miracle worker lentils, but they bust their ass to get to the closing table to make it work for the people that have a little kind of hiccups that you have to share those with us.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:14:26

Yeah man, I really appreciate you coming on. Melissa. It's been fantastic. What's your final words that you have to an audience? I mean you, you, I mean you went through New York, went through the ringer, did businesses and now became a really successful broker doing many, many more things. And I'm sure Melissa Horne's story is only begun.

Melissa Horne 1:14:48

Yeah, that's it. That's the message that I want everybody, everybody, to know your story every day has just begun. You're just beginning. Every day is a brand new beginning. There is nothing you can't do. There is nothing I can't do. I wish and this is a big thing for me with my children, I want them to know every single day that they can do anything that they want to do. You just have to decide to do it, and I just wish that I have to decide to do it, and I just wish that I decided earlier to just do it. I wouldn't be me if I didn't follow the path that I did, but when I made that choice to go back to school, when my first son was born and I opened my eyes to there's so much more I can do?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:15:38

I'm not saying, go have a baby, but find something.

Melissa Horne 1:15:40

Find something that makes you know your worth. That's it. That's all you have to do Now. I know my worth now, and nobody will ever take that away from me, but it took me years to realize that I had talent.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:15:59

And that. Vinnie Martino if you didn't bother me, man. Yeah, that's that Queen sounding right there, yeah that's it, just do it.

Melissa Horne 1:16:06

Just do it. Inspired action man. Take one step and you'll find. Do you know, the movie Better Off Dead. That's it. That's my quote In the 80s, with okay, because I'm an old bitch guys. There's a movie called Better Off Dead. That's it. That's my quote In the 80s, with okay, because I'm an old bitch guys. There's a movie called Better Off Dead and it's John Cusack and he tries all these ways to like kill himself because his girlfriend broke up with him. It's a comedy, it's really funny.

Melissa Horne 1:16:27

And then he meets this hot French girl that lives next door and she fixes a car for him and he's like you fixed my car, and she's like you fixed my car, and she's like you'll find success suits you. Just one piece of success will build your confidence and like throws in the keys to this Camaro that's been sitting in an auto cocoon for like ever in front of his house and I'm like that's it. Just that one thing. You need one little tiny piece of success and you will find that it suits you and just ride the wave and don't stop, and it's just momentum, that's it and just ride the wave and don't stop and it's just momentum.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:16:58

I like that. I fucking love it. Melissa, it's been awesome man having you on. I really appreciate you driving all the way to Melbourne.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:17:05

I mean to Tampa, fucking messed up on there. Reverse that, but no, we really appreciate you. Your story was awesome. We're really excited to release this episode and once you guys see it, it's going to be fantastic. Was awesome. We're really excited to release this episode and once you guys see it, it's going to be fantastic. Thank you to all the fans that tune into us and watch our podcast and listen to us on Spotify and YouTube and everything like that.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:17:25

And if you want to be a guest? Hit us up. Yeah, we're going to continue to grow this. We want to inspire and bring motivation to you so you can make your dreams come true. Happy Hour Holidays is going to continue doing this. Peace out.