The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever!

Fuquan Bilal: Mastering Tax Liens and Mortgage Notes - Fan Fav

• Dwan Bent-Twyford • Season 4 • Episode 348

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The remarkable journey of Phu Quon Bilau unfolds as we sip tea and discuss the seismic shift from corporate sales director to real estate investment maven. His story, a testament to the power of family legacy, reveals how a family member’s real estate triumph ignited his own path to success. Bilau's insights into tax liens and mortgage notes are not just strategies; they're a lifeline to properties at deeply discounted prices. He's not just reshaping his own financial landscape, but he's also innovating the whole arena of real estate investing with his company, NNG Capital Fund.

As a former telecommunications sales director, Bilau’s narrative resonates with anyone looking to pivot from the corporate grind to entrepreneurial freedom. His transition wasn't merely a career change; it was a transformative leap into building wealth on his terms. Through the lens of personal growth and financial autonomy, we explore how real estate presented Bilau with opportunities that corporate life could never match. His first real estate win—a pivotal moment—underscores the unmatched satisfaction and potential of investing in one's own ventures.

Wrapping up the episode, Bilau offers a masterclass in tax lien investing, serving up indispensable advice for novices eager to enter this niche market. He stresses the importance of knowing the lay of the land, from choosing the right attorney to understanding auction intricacies. But it's not all business; there's time for personal reflection, too. We touch on the essence of life equities, balancing business hustle with the rhythm of relationships, and making sure we nourish our connections with family and friends. Join us on this enriching journey that goes beyond profits to underscore the harmony of a life well-invested.

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Make it a Dwanderful Day!

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Hey everybody, welcome to The Most Dwanderful Real Estate Podcast Ever. I am so excited to have you here for another one of my sessions of Inside the Minds of Today's Millionaires. So if you are sitting there or listening or doing whatever you do in your net time and you're like, hey, I'd like to learn something about tax liens, well, you are at the right place. Today I have a really very exciting guest. His name is Fuquan Bilal. So how are you, honey?

Fuquan Bilal:

I'm doing great. I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me on a show.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm so excited Looking good over there. I got your jacket. I can all pick it up.

Fuquan Bilal:

So are you. So are you. I love it, I love it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I always have some crazy wild shirt on, but I don't wear something wild. People don't know who.

Fuquan Bilal:

I am.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So, as you all know, Inside the Minds of Today's Millionaires we talk to a variety of people and they're not all necessarily in real estate. They're just very successful people in different mostly real estate, but some different genres. Because we're trying to find out what it is inside the minds of these folks that makes them take this extra step over here and become successful, when somebody else just stays over here and never quite makes that leap. So we're looking to dig inside of your mind today for Fuquan and see what it is about you that helps you actually make that leap. So just tell us. So, first of all, give us a little brief summary of who you are and what you do.

Fuquan Bilal:

Sure. So first of all, I'm a superhero to my kids. Oh, that's the first title.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm a unicorn right here to my grandchild. I think I'm the queen of the unicorns.

Fuquan Bilal:

So, yeah, I've been invested in real estate for about 21 years. I have a company, a private investment company, called NNG Capital Fund. That's Nancy, nancy, george, nng Capital Fund. You guys can find more out on NNGCapitalFundcom and what we do is we specialize in alternative assets, primarily real estate assets, which is real property, tax liens and also mortgage notes. So we have a very diverse vehicle and we're talking a little bit about tax liens today. But, like I mentioned, I've been doing real estate for about 21 years. I've been through two market cycles and I'm really just glad to be here to share one of the strategies I use to get real estate a super discount with the group.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Nice, nice. Well, as everybody knows, we start up every podcast with drinks with Dwan, and we are both having tea. See, look, I even got my tea cup that says I'd melt for you.

Fuquan Bilal:

I have ginger tea with flavor that you have.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, I have cinnamon today. So cheers to you and cheers to all my wonderful family.

Fuquan Bilal:

Cheers.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So you all know that we just take this brief minute and just tell everyone take a deep breath, let your stresses of the day, just shake them all off for a minute and just open your mind and set your mind to learning and listening and laughing, because we're going to have a good time as well. And I know a lot of you are listening to podcasts in your net time, so you might be exercising or driving or whatever you're doing, and so I just want you to be in a moment with us for a little while not long, 45 minutes and I just always like to check in and see how everyone's doing. So I'm hoping all of you are doing your homework and your assignments and you're getting on webinars and you're just learning and you're listening, and so, with that Fuquan, how are you doing today?

Fuquan Bilal:

I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. I'm super excited. There's a lot of opportunities that are out there as far as deal flow, so we're just super excited to be in the marketplace that we're in. We know, almost a year ago in fact a year ago there was doom and gloom and there was a lot of bad writing on the wall and since, as I would say, as a nation, we've come, move forward. Everyone is starting to get some sort of idea of direction, where they want to go, what they want to invest in, things they want to do. So a major shift all over the place from people working at home now to Zoom being the number one thing. So I'm super excited to be in a place and I think what did happen the Black Swan event that occurred made me and my team stronger, so we're just grateful for what's to come.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, I feel the same way. I've been doing a lot of webinars and Zoom calls for several years, prior to all this crazy COVID stuff. So while so many people were scrambling to keep their businesses and things flowing, I was like I already did that years ago. So, tim, I mean, so obviously you know it's been a terrible thing, but we didn't really miss much of a beat as far as our real estate investing goes, because we kind of already had made a transition like that a couple of years ago. So I think one of the so before we get into talking about taxing as a mortgage, so that's what we definitely want to talk about. One of the things I always like to ask all my guests is I try to figure out, like, what you were like when you were younger. So I don't know how old you are. How old are you?

Fuquan Bilal:

47. I just turned 47 on the 16th of March.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yay, 100 years looking fine for 47. Trust me, just looking fine. And I people say, oh, you look good for 62. I'm like you could just say I look good Over 62. Hard to it, just say you look good, thank you so. So Fuquan is an unusual name. Where what's your nationality of that name?

Fuquan Bilal:

Was Arabic.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Arabic Wow.

Fuquan Bilal:

Is Arabic and it means the criteria, like the difference between right and wrong, similar to the Bible.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Wow, what a great name.

Fuquan Bilal:

Thank you.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And I heard it, I was like, oh, I don't know that I've ever talked to anyone. I met him with that name. That's a neat name. So were you raised in America?

Fuquan Bilal:

Yes, I was.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So when you were like, let's say, 1213. 14, what was that food plan? What were you doing? What were you thinking about? What was happening in your life at that time?

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, so even at the young age I was working. I'm so grateful for my mom. She installed the hustler spirit into me. We used to go, I remember, to the flea markets or the bazaars, as they called them back in the day, and she used to go to Chinatown in New York and she would buy items wholesale scarves, just little hats and gloves and stuff like that and we used to rent a space in the bazaar outdoor, indoor bazaar, wherever we traveled to for 25 bucks for a six foot table, and she would set up these items these scars, hat, gloves and incense and stuff like that and we would have to hustle, we would have to be in. My younger brother would have to sell these items in order to generate income.

Fuquan Bilal:

So I've always around at age that's what I remember Me going to these places where my mom helped us sell the inventory that she had, and being excited about it and there was a gentleman that used to sell like newspapers by our school and every Friday I would actually ask him where does he get it from, what does he get it from? So I saw the guy delivering the newspapers one day and I approached him the delivery guy directly and got an agreement with him so I can start getting papers and selling them also. So I did some paper routes and did some things like that. So I remembered at that young age being my own boss and generating income and learning that. So that developed a homegrown me and a hustler spirit. So of course I did the common things with my friends played football in the street, played chase and all the other stuff, basketball.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, but yeah, that's what I remember most, though, being excited about being in business.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You know, it's funny, almost, I think, a hundred percent of the people I've interviewed so far, even including myself, all of us at 12, 13, 14, we were already all making money because we didn't get an allowance. So if I wanted to go somewhere and do something, I had to earn the money. You know now I didn't get to go to a bazaar and just sit behind a desk. I had to go work in the garden feed the cows, feed the pigs, get the eggs. I had to weed the garden, I had to pick the trees and pick the peaches and I had to kill the chickens and pluck them. And I had to do a little bit more gruesome sort of work. But we got paid for it and I was just like, yeah, we lived on a farm. So when you're on a farm, kid you don't know and I would like to just like, sat in a bazaar chatting with people without dirty names, yeah, actually my younger brother.

Fuquan Bilal:

he sat behind the table but I was the one who would go out into the crowd and cut them off, like before they got to the bazaar and so any of the other items that would be in display. And I made sure I had items for sell the incense, the smaller things that they come by. So I was the guy on a corner before the bazaar trying to hustle the stuff.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So it was pretty funny and I looked back on it but yeah, but you learned how to talk to people at a young age so that probably helped you not to be shy or at least not to be shy to, because I was weirdly super, super crazy shy in high school but I would work with my parents and do things and go to fruit markets and all these other things. I talked to everybody, but in school I was so shy it was crazy. So that probably helped you be a little more outgoing and give you some people skills.

Fuquan Bilal:

Oh, for sure, for sure. Yeah, I think again that's what I can remember that gave me my foundation, because it made me. It made me the person who I am today. So I'm eternally grateful for my mom taking me through that experience. I remember at first I didn't wanna do it, me, and my younger brother didn't wanna do it, but then we made a competition out of it who would sell the most stuff.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, there you go, it was 25% of the profits.

Fuquan Bilal:

So basically that was good enough for me. If I sold $100 in items, I made $25 for the day. We were out there for like six hours. So to me, at 12 years old, $25 was the world.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That's so much money back then I mean it? Really was. I mean, I'm a little older than you, so here we go Once a week.

Fuquan Bilal:

that's $100 a month, and then one year I have $1,000 saved up by something 13. So that was the world to me, and then I started learning okay, I made this $25 this week. Now how do I invest this into a paper route to make money on that? Okay, I made money on that. Now where can I buy the wholesale candy bars and potato chips to sell to my friends in school? So I kind of turn one thing to another. Then all three were going at the same time and In twenty four dollars a week that I was expecting to be now turn into like sixty dollars or seven dollars a week that I can count on. So that was, that was, you know, pretty awesome for me not wow, that's awesome for anybody.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I mean really like how young and your mind was already, you know, rolling and thinking and how that was gonna happen.

Fuquan Bilal:

So I mean, I had no choice under the circumstances that we grew up under, you know, single parent household, and I see my mom struggle. So for me to kind of step up to the plate, to know that I had to, you know, help bring the income in, that was the best thing ever for me. Didn't know I could help my mom and also learn how to generate business right, how to generate income from doing my own business.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So now you get a little older, maybe you're like 20, 21. Are you thinking about real estate yet, or where? Where are you at at that point?

Fuquan Bilal:

not at that age. Around that age I was actually working for corporate. I was a director of sales of telecommunication and I actually lived in California. It was a town called signal Hills, about 20 minutes away from LA, and during that time we had call centers in New York I mean, I'm sorry, call centers in LA For this communicate telecommunication company I used to work for and my job was to modify the scripts and rebuttals and Make sure that people at the call centers was doing a job. They were in compliance. So I did that for a few years and I really liked it because it was cells. Like I've always been into cells, I love cells me too, from when I was younger and everything else.

Fuquan Bilal:

So that gave me the ability to really shine and I actually lucked out with that job because I took a job as a telemarketer and I really did well during a day shift and I was competing with one of the top sellers in that space and then they put me in the night shift and I just blew the doors off of Everybody who was in a night shift and then they made me a manager at the night shift and they said you know what? We need you to go out and help with California. We have some issues out there with your mind going. And I went for 30 days and then it wound up turning to me a living out there. They gave me a nice compensation package and I didn't have any family, anybody out there, but I was as young and I wanted to make the money. Yeah, and they may be a nice offer. They got me a corporate apartment and American Express car and I was living the world. That's what I was doing when I was 2021 and, yeah, that was. Those were exciting times. I love it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Actually sounds really exciting, especially out there at the corporation. We've got your credit card. They got you set up in a nice place.

Fuquan Bilal:

Cars, everything. The only thing I didn't like about it I stayed right across. I stayed in Anaheim when I first went out there and I stayed right across from Disney and I lived in a hotel for six months. So it sounds exciting to a bunch of people. You get some right to clean up after every day. You got a credit card mills, but you just get burnt out from the eating out every single day. You know, after six months I was like, wow, I need to get a place, I need to cook some home cook food and they made it happen. So I was grateful about that and I stayed out there for a little while longer Until I industry started to slow down and then I started to back and somewhere around like 98 I started to learn about websites and internet back then and my company was trying to make a transition into into websites and doing stuff online and, yeah, the industry was dying down at that point.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So where along your path did you come across the idea of real estate investing or the taxings of the mortgage on? Like when along? Because I didn't start to. I was like 32, so I was doing a bunch of stupid stuff before that Like, really stuff, I wish I would have a place in California and a company credit card on as I was too busy, like in the 80s party. And so where along the way did that concept of like hey, you know, I could really make money over here in this thing by myself and not being underneath the corporate Shield where, where along the way did that become a thought process where you started investigating?

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, so it's. It was really easy. I had a cousin of mine who we were like rivals. He actually, you know, just he never had a job, always got odd jobs here and there. When I got my corporate job in my American Express I was like, yeah, I'm doing better than you. You know, young kids, that's what we tease each other, this and that. So he actually started to shadow someone who was involved in real estate and After about a year being around this guy, he actually did a closing and he made like $40,000 and we made the check.

Fuquan Bilal:

You know we had went out to dinner and he showed me the check because they, hey, I just did my first close, I made 40,000. Now you're working for the man, I'm working for myself and I may have your salary, you know, in a short period of time. So that kind of woke me up a bit to know that there were other opportunities out there and I didn't need to be in corporate With benefits and American Express and all the other stuff that I can actually make. You know, in the shorter period of time. Half my salary at the time was being like 85,000 a year, plus commission a lot of money, though, honey.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I'm sorry money for people. Today that's a lot of money.

Fuquan Bilal:

Oh yeah, that was for me at that young age I thought I was on top of the world. Oh, I can express making his money working for corporate and, but I am sure the person when they had before me they were paying over a hundred thousand to live in California.

Fuquan Bilal:

So I'd still even at that age know I wasn't being paid what I was supposed to be paid. They just replaced the person that was out there that wasn't doing a good job with me at a lower expense, got me a corporate apartment. So I believe everything that I was making in the corporate apartment, all of bells and whistles, was just the salary of the person they replaced me with so I knew I was getting a short end of the stick.

Fuquan Bilal:

There was Gossip going through the company but I was excited because I never got paid that much. I was a young kid and I was grateful. So anyway, when my cousin showed me to check, I knew that if I can put all the time and energy that I'm putting in for this company and just on me and what I want to do and Use real estate as a vehicle to do that, and that was great. So I started to shadow my cousin around and, lo and behold, in less than six months I made a check for 30,000 and I figured out. You know how this works and that was around somewhere around late 99, early 2000.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So how old are you at this time point.

Fuquan Bilal:

Somewhere almost about 24 probably.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, okay, so you're still really young.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, around 24 was when I first got into real estate and you know, during that time it was, you know, going into 2000, I think FHA was the was the prominent predominant Lending source out there.

Fuquan Bilal:

Conventionally didn't open up that much, or if it was, it was high interest rates, I think, maybe like 9%, if I can remember somebody running like 7% was like the thing with FHA and you know they really start opening up the products with the convention of stuff until like maybe 2003, 2004, somewhere around there, where it started to, you know, get more competitive when you know you can fog a mirror and get alone. You know it was. They started to loosen up a little bit and during that time I had home, my skills and flipping properties. I was doing it full-time. I was doing about 35, 36 transactions a year consecutively.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So just real quick, so you were flipping, so you were getting them on a contract and you were wholesaling them to like a landlord or rehab or Somebody.

Fuquan Bilal:

I was actually getting them on the contract, rehab in them and then selling them retail.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So you were rehabbing, I was rehabbing and selling them retail.

Fuquan Bilal:

And you're doing how many in here? I'm sorry.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

How many a year were you doing?

Fuquan Bilal:

about 35, 36 a year.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Wow, that's like you were like playing, that's serious 35 rehabs because rehabs, you know?

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, I know some guys who do. I'm in a group with some guys who do 300 a year.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So that's a lot.

Fuquan Bilal:

But you know, I mean those are smaller. In rehabs they're doing you know, 10, 15,000, really quick fix hoteling stuff, getting rid of them. But yeah, I mean that's probably a mixture to a wholesale and retail stuff that these guys are doing. But we were doing 36, 35, 36 retail deals, like we were buying and fixing them and selling them. So and I knew that, as I'll go back before, I was sitting about, put the time and energy into what I wanted to do, the same efforts and everything I was doing at corporate, and it worked. It panned off. I started putting a lot of time and energy 25, eight, no breaks, sun up, sun down, seven days a week, and it had all the energy in the world and I was very passionate about it, as I am today for real estate.

Fuquan Bilal:

It was a way out. It gave me my fill of importance because I was able to go back to the communities where I was from from Newark, new Jersey. There's a lot of blighted you know the lab of data properties in that area. So for me to go back, we vitalize those properties and put them back on a tax roll for the township all of provide a better place for the residents to live it just made me feel important. You know, you go through block by block and start rehab and then you drop down the street and you can see the change that you're making in the neighborhood. It just fulfills me. So I love doing that and I continue to do that All the way up until 2008,. 2009, when the market started to take a dip and then the market ultimately crashed.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Yeah, yeah.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, I mean. The story is, you know, I lost a bunch of money, like everybody else, went through divorce, went through all of that stuff, and it took me about a year and a half to two years to bounce back to really understanding of where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do. So somewhere around about 2011, I discovered the note business, which is one of the things that I still invest in today. So I actually discovered during that time that you can actually buy the Lincoln paper directly from the bank. So at that time, the banks did not want to be the bad guys. They did not want to foreclose on people. They put the brakes on foreclosure and they started to sell the, the Lincoln debt, to other companies.

Fuquan Bilal:

It's not as regulated. It wasn't as regulated as it is today, right, but back then in 2000, might have been 2012, you could literally get a spreadsheet of loans from the bank that they would a tape, which they call it, and they would sell you a couple of hundred loans that like 10 cents on a dollar, especially in Florida. You know stuff at New York, all these places, inventory was very cheap, but you will buy it in the form of. They were assigned the rights of collection and no mortgage over to you, and then you would have to hire your own attorneys foreclose on it or collect on it. So I learned that space. It was very intrigued with it. I still love it today. Heart is on fire for it. That gave me the feeling of importance to be in that space because I was able to help home understand the house.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So let me ask you a question so, just so people understand, because a lot of people are brand new in the coming process and, like I don't understand what's the difference between buying a note and buying the house? So you were buying the debt, the note against the property. The homeowner was in foreclosure and you bought, so you became the new bank.

Fuquan Bilal:

Absolutely.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And then you did you call homeowners and say, hey, if you can come up with this much money, we can start you on a payment plan. And did you work out that with people? And because I did that for a while too, and that's what I always said, I bought these super cheap notes in Florida actually, and then I would call the people and say, hey, if you can, I would lower the payment, lower it all down. If you could pay this much, you can keep your house. So that's how we yeah.

Fuquan Bilal:

I love that. I don't mean to let people that was a good explanation. I really appreciate that, cause a lot of people don't get it. And that's the top of the pinnacle. When you can actually go and buy the paper directly from the bank, you're a friend of the people who buy RAOs, essentially.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Exactly, and one of the things for all of you that may be hearing this for the first time there's a big difference between buying the note and buying the RAO. Once it's an RAO, the bank has taken it through foreclosure. The bank has it back, and the way the bank works today is they list it and put it on the market and then they sell it. So if Fuquan is talking is, you're going into the bank and saying sell me your bad debts and I'll finish the foreclosure. So you're, in essence, becoming a bank which gives you all the options in the world.

Fuquan Bilal:

Absolutely, and the main thing-.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love that.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, the main thing that we did was we didn't want to foreclose, so we foreclosed. We fell. We wanted to give a solution to the homeowner because we bought it at a discount and we wanted to share our discount with the homeowner. We wanted to waive all of the arrears as long as they came over some type of earnest money and they provided financials showing that they can afford the new payment that we had agreed for them to pay. And that way it made us the true blue bank and basically we were able to start collecting mortgage payments instead of being the property owner and collecting rent.

Fuquan Bilal:

The homeowner was still the property owner and they took care of all the maintenance issues and we just took care of making sure that the customer service and so we were placed with the loan servicer I wish most people who have a mortgage today deals with and they would handle all the phone calls and all that stuff. And we just did the workout portion of it and that was really exciting because that was pretty much doing business from a laptop cell phone oh yeah, you know, instead of running around, the tennis call is trashed and turned my ain'ts and chased the contractors and they'll want to be broke.

Fuquan Bilal:

So that transition for me was like oh, you can make money and still do this. So the whole goal of that would be, once you take it from non-performing the bad debt and you turn it to good debt, which is called performing, then you can then go out and sell at that. Just to give the listeners a view of that, let's say the person owed 50,000 from a loan he took out from the bank and they went to the link when the loan would probably sell me that 50,000, not a loan. At that time I can get it maybe for 20,000. And when I worked something out with the homeowner where I made the payments more affordable and if they paid for a year on time, I could then go and sell that loan to somebody for maybe $45,000, and I essentially doubled my money. So it's just a way to flip paper and I make return.

Fuquan Bilal:

So we loved that space because we was able to provide a solution to the homeowners that were in default and we were able to provide inventory to investors looking for cash for on papers without being the property manager. So that was great and we did that for a very long time.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So real quick before you go on, because I know people are gonna be like what, how can they find you? How can people find you? Because I mean, I did that for a short while and it was one of the most fun things I ever did, so they're like okay, I wanna hear what Fuquan has to say more about that. Where can people find you?

Fuquan Bilal:

I'm all over social media. They go I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on YouTube. They can find me on any one of those platforms and message me or communicate with anybody who reaches out to me. So they just put my name in any one of those platforms, Fuquan Bilal, and message me and I contact them.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And your website.

Fuquan Bilal:

Our website is NNGCabitufundcom, but if they want me directly, they can hit me up on social media. That's the easiest way nowadays. I used to give people my email address, but social media is the place now where everybody's at, so they can find me there easily very easy.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And here it is right back. I stalked him on Instagram, so he does right back.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, I have a time block that I actually do with social media, you know, because when I first got on it it sucks up all your time and everything. But I have a time block where it's early morning and late evenings, like when I'm done with all the stuff I have to do. Then I kind of tap into social media and that's like you know, do some customer service stuff, answering questions, and I actually create those platforms on social media so I can actually help people. When I first got on social media two years ago, I said my goal was the first year was to educate 5,000 people, and then I quickly realized that that was too small of a goal because within seven months I had 5,000 followers on Instagram and I was like, wow, this is because I was putting out content, content, content and everything else. So I believe I've surpassed that goal so many times and I just put out a lot of content, educational content. I try to put out that will help people.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You do. I follow you everywhere. I'm like one of your secret stalkers.

Fuquan Bilal:

Appreciate it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Now, how did you go from?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So the know-buying? It is something I've done as well and I got to tell you. One of the things I always tell all my students and I call them my family is that you want to create a win-win-win. So it's a win for the homeowner, it's a win for the bank and it's a win for you. So the fact that you base your life around these win-wins wins three wins. You're not just screwing the bank or whatever. It's a win-win for everybody. I love that. I love that Because not all investors are as ethical, I guess we could say and they're like, I don't care, I'll screw the homeowner, the bank, I don't care, they just all about money for themselves.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And which is one of the reasons I'm picky about what I have on my call, because I really want people that really have a heart for helping people, because my whole life, my whole 30 years of investing, has been all about helping people. So when I meet a fellow lover of people, that makes me very excited. Now, how did you go from the because I love the note-buying how did that work over into the tax lanes and explain to people what? So here's a couple things Explain what it is. And then if you can give us three tips just three tips on how a brand new person could find out or look into tax lanes. I always like to try to leave people with some little piece of information that they can go, oh well, ok, I'm going to take those three tips and Google and find out what I can find out and, of course, reaching you directly.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, so I mean during the, so let me just back up a bit. So, before the market crashed, I felt as though and I don't want to take this the wrong way- I felt as though I was.

Fuquan Bilal:

God and what I mean by that. I was so ignorant that I didn't know that a real estate community existed, because I had so much money and had all the cars and I was by the time I was 28, I was a millionaire and I just was dumb for better lack of words of being in a group of other people who can have a pulse in the market and kind of let you know what's happening. So I was blind. When the market crashed, I didn't see the signs on the wall and I lost a couple of million dollars in my own money and had to start all over again. So, through me discovering a real estate groups, I started to attend these groups and these meetups and started to take it more serious and connect.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I just want to ask you a quick Nandana, Rob, did you used to go to Phyllis Rock Hours Group?

Fuquan Bilal:

Which group.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Phyllis Rock Hour and LA. Did you go to the LA realm?

Fuquan Bilal:

No, no, so I didn't. I was living in New Jersey after I lived in California. You guys started my real estate career in 99. So I lived in California until about 98. So when I started to, after the market crashed, go to these real estate events and really started to understand the power of relationships and building a strong network, I discovered really, those places were an opportunity for you to have a pulse in the market, because they had different categories and they taught different things.

Fuquan Bilal:

And it was during that time that I learned about tax liens. I didn't take action with it, but I would listen to the presentations, I would take notes, I understood the concept and I was like, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day. So I would keep the arrow in my quiver, as they say, and or tool in my toolbox, and I had knowledge of it, I researched it, but I didn't take action on it. And one thing I want to tell the listeners is that you may see me on social media with all the things that I do, but please realize that there's 21 years of experience and before I did each one, I created mastery in it. So I had did over 150 flips before the market crashed.

Fuquan Bilal:

So I knew how to do that, but I wasn't excellent at it. I was probably 60% good at it, and I got better at it after the market crashed and reverse engineered my mistakes and started to go to these real estate meetups and learn from people who had more experience. I was able to build mastery on how to do a flip, how to streamline construction, how to use the right systems and tools to keep you accountable. So I could build mastery in that when I learned to note business, I did the same thing. I went over to Hill and got the arrows in my back.

Fuquan Bilal:

First I invested my own money, I built case studies, I figured it out Before I started to raise capital. For that. I put my own capital at risk. So, and then I built mastery in that I brought the right team one. I built systems, tools and processes in order to scale that business efficiently. I'm not scaled to be a bigger, I scale to be better. So that's one thing I just went in part upon on listeners is that you have to create mastery in what you're doing before you start jumping.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I want to be a wholesaler.

Fuquan Bilal:

I want to buy taxings. I want to do this because you're just fall flat in your face, so try to go deep instead of wild. So that was what.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I did. I had deep instead of wild. I'm going to use that. That is so true.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah. So when I learned about taxings it was one of those shiny objects I want to try to go do it. Let me go to the next auction. So I knew how to do it. I created the process and I remember a gentleman coming into my office, probably maybe five years ago, and it was representative of another gentleman. So he took a meeting with me and he brought me this book from this tax lien attorney and he came to me to sell me. Actually he came and said, hey, you're buying properties. I have a group that buys tax liens and they're looking to sell them to investors like you. So he showed me a couple of properties and I just didn't get what he was trying to do because I was like, ok, if they're buying the tax liens, they have to be getting them at a discount.

Fuquan Bilal:

Because my understanding from before going to these meetings and listening to my notes in my head and remembering, is that you're going to buy the tax lien for the link with taxes, and the link with taxes are like $12,000. And it has to be two years In my state of New Jersey where someone falls behind, where you can actually foreclose and get the property. So I'm saying to myself it's $12,000 a year. Two years, $24,000 cost everything. They can't be into it from $150. So why are you selling to me at a retail price? Where's the discount?

Fuquan Bilal:

I was telling the guy where's the discount, where's the discount? I could just go to the realtor and get the property to the same thing. What is this group doing? So when you get first access and that's what I know is a bunch of BS? So I told the guy I wasn't interested at the time, I'll get back to him. So he said, ok, no problem. He was a little upset and then when he was leaving he went to grab the free book back that he was giving to me and I put my hand on it.

Fuquan Bilal:

And I said you told me this was free, why are you trying to take it? And he go oh, you can have it. So I took that book and it set on my shelf for like two years.

Fuquan Bilal:

I didn't read it. I just like a tax lien, tax lien, tax lien. I'm gonna read that book and find out more information, because I researched the attorney. He was the attorney who wrote some of the laws in the state of New Jersey for the taxes. So I was like, okay, this is a guy that I definitely wanna read this book. I'll just put this on the show.

Fuquan Bilal:

So the market started to increase after 2015. I really got heavily into real estate. I was doing notes and I started to do more real estate and my personal portfolio this is my fund that I raised capital for at that time probably I was for notes. So the longest short of it was I started to do flips in my personal portfolio and pricing started to increase and I knew some of the similar things that I saw, some of the similar things I was seeing back in 0708, when it started to increase rapidly. When I started to buy from these banks. Pricing was increasing on the market. Price was increasing. I said, okay, I gotta get ahead of the curve. So where can I pivot to get ahead of the curve? Where can I get a bigger discount? Tax leans it came up. Okay, what if I can get these at the same price these guys can get them at. And at the time I was actually buying a few properties from investors of fund who actually purchased the tax lien and they would then foreclose and sell it to me. So after buying about three or four properties from this one particular, this fund from upstate New York, I was like, wow, I need to reverse, engineer this project and spend some time into it.

Fuquan Bilal:

So the short of it here's the three tips that I would tell people is, if you are interested in getting into tax liens, the first thing I would do is find out what are the laws in your state. In the state of Florida is tax deeds where you actually and I think upstate New York where you actually foreclose at the auction and you get the deed to the property I mean, then you have to pay the back taxes. And New Jersey is the opposite you don't get the deed until you foreclose on the taxes. So I went through all my notes and one thing I could tell people is reach out to me, turn it to find out what it is in your state. That's the requirement. What are the redemption periods in your state when I'm anybody, as if you do foreclose, what rights to the home and I have to redeem with the time period.

Fuquan Bilal:

And I would highly advise, when you put that attorney retainer they're probably 250 an hour you would invest 10,000 dollars with a guru. Why don't you give $2,500 for attorney for 10 hours and pick they bring right. I had to use that to pick the brain. Get with an attorney and find out more information about how do you lose money. That's what I did. Put the attorney retainer into. Look, I want to get into this business. How do I lose money, whether the pit falls? And they went through every step on how I would lose money and then I said, okay, how do I protect myself from that? That they went through every step on how do I protect myself from that. Then I built the process. I asked the attorney what is the process of the foreclosure, what's the timeline, what's the first through the last step? So the attorney told me that I did it on a lucid chart, a diagram. I did a PowerPoint presentation so I can go through it and understand the steps, the timeline, the costs of the attorney.

Fuquan Bilal:

Then I attended an auction. That would be tip number two. I would tell someone attend the tax lien auction. They usually the standard tax lien. Auctions usually happen sometime in December, be right close to the holidays, where the fourth quarter of the lien when taxes go to sell. So I attended the auction. I started to observe what was happening at the auction. How are they bidding? Why, if the lien was $6,000? Why would somebody bid $30,000? I don't understand that part. Why would somebody bid more than the lien? I would understand that process and then, after the auction was over, I would actually approach a few people, people who did not win and people who won. I would go out to lunch with them. I would ask them questions. I attended a few auctions in different towns just to get a feel of it and how it go right. What's the requirements after you win?

Fuquan Bilal:

So I did some investigation and I spent about six months really understanding the whole concept, the risk and how to mitigate the risk. And then again I went over to Hill, first, got the arrows in my back, I put my money up and bought some tax liens and I was able to successfully win the first round 18 tax sell certificates.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Wow, good for you.

Fuquan Bilal:

This was pretty scary. Now what do I do? And then I was like okay, you have a process, follow your process. I reached out to that attorney Good news. We spoke a few months ago and basically I won these auctions. I got the steps. Here it is and we went through that whole process and it was a learning experience. It was organic for me because the attorney was giving me more information, spending a lot of time helping me. And one thing I would also suggest is the attorney that I chose was the same attorney that foreclosed on the township that I may be bids in tax certificates. So when it goes to auction, nobody win, it goes back to the township and then the township will foreclose and take control of the property or had to lean. So I used the same attorney who the township was using, because they were already in there with the township and it would be easier for them to go through the process with the township. So that's another tip I can tell people. So you know through that process.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Is that the third tip?

Fuquan Bilal:

Yes, the third tip.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You're a good attorney, that's.

Fuquan Bilal:

Well, I guess that's the. That would go with the first one Find an attorney. But you want to find an attorney that does business with the town already, right?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I like it.

Fuquan Bilal:

The second one would be attend an auction and understand the process of how it go. And the third tip would be to build your process PowerPoint presentation or process mapping document so you can have your head wrapped around a process and what it all involves and you can visually see what is the process, the cost that's involved with it, and then that's really the business of tax liens, and then you actually it's a learn by doing business.

Fuquan Bilal:

So, you can watch as many webinars as you want and take as many notes, but until you actually do, it is when you really will learn some things things that you may have missed to ask the attorney, or things that may have not come up and then you'll just attend as many webinars or things you can about that Very profitable business. I did a deal the other day where I purchased two properties and I'm all into it construction everything for about 750,000. I sold it for 1.5. It took me about 19 months to do it and that's the biggest tax lien I've done today. Yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

That is an awesome job. So I know we're getting short on our time. So a couple of things, and these are just random. Tell me your favorite band of all time.

Fuquan Bilal:

Wow, favorite band of all time, all time. Wow, why can't these guys come to my mind? They're the band I think they're from Seattle that they do everybody's songs except for their own songs, I think. And, oh my God, what is the name of this band? Nirvana, nirvana.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Nirvana.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, Nirvana, yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

With Kurt Cobain.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Oh, I love Nirvana.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I love Grunge Music when it came out. What's your favorite food?

Fuquan Bilal:

Favorite food, I would have to say I like salmon.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

You know what? That is actually my favorite. I eat salmon like four times a week.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, I love salmon.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

I can never, ever get enough of it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And it's so good for you. All the good Omega's is like so good for you, and I've learned a thousand ways. I learned a lot of ways to cook during COVID, because we couldn't go out anymore. I had to learn how to cook. I had to learn. Now, as you know, we at the end of the podcast we do the life equities and so the so what I say is like these five life equities are basically the sum of who we are. So they're financial, spiritual, physical, mental and family, and I feel like everything in our life falls under one of, like family and friends, you know physical and all of it. So I always love for my guests to honor us and give us our assignments of the week. So what have you decided to give us as our life equity assignment?

Fuquan Bilal:

Sure, so I'll pick family, and what I would say to people is the first assignment is to look at your calendar. Right, a lot of people now are using the calendars to book things, meetings and everything else and then, when you look at that calendar, actually look at what you have scheduled for business versus what you have scheduled for family, whether it's your husband, your children or friends or whatever that you're close to Like. Are you actually blocking time and booking time to build a deeper relationship with your children, your husband, your wife, friends and stuff like that? Is that blocking your calendar? I think that people invest more time into the business and not more time to the things that really matters the most. So that would be the homework assignments review your calendar and look at what you have blocked most stuff for business or stuff for the people who you care about.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

And that is really. That's very. That's the first time we've had that life equity. It's really great because all my guests come up with with such creative things. I really thank you and honor you for giving that to us. So, the wonderful people out there, you know that what we ask you to do is to do that life equity until the next time. So do it for a week and if it's something that you like and it feels good, make it a part of your life. And if it doesn't fit what you think where you're headed right now, do it for a week anyway, because we all need we just all need to do. I guess part of what that is is like it's like balance. We just all need a little bit more balance. So I agree, people get too focused on work and they let everything else go by the wayside. All right, so let me just see if I have this right.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So, fuquan, you are 47. You started working at 13 in the corporate world. Your cousin did a first real estate deal and your competitiveness of him making 40,000 got you interested in real estate investing. You like Nirvana, you like Sam, and you made $30,000 on your first deal. And the tips for the day are learn the law in your state for the tax lanes, go to auctions, try to help people and build your process. Follow someone, build your process, don't just wing it and go wild. Have a process, have some steps, and we're going to check our calendars and make sure we have enough time for our family and friends, versus everything being all about business.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yeah, you got it, is that it?

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Look how much fun this guy is, so hit me up at Dwarnaful Dwarnafulcom Facebook, everything at Dwarna. Just like Fuquan, he's everywhere, and I want to thank you so much for being on the call today.

Fuquan Bilal:

Anytime.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

So much fun.

Fuquan Bilal:

Yes, I enjoyed it.

Dwan Bent-Twyford:

Bye folks, remember the truth is in the red letters. So we'll see you next week, same bat time, same bat channel. Bye everybody.