Bellator Blueprint
Bellator Blueprint is a podcast that celebrates the full spectrum of human experience through the stories of our guests. From the peaks of success to the valleys of failure, we delve into the raw and real narratives that shape individuals.
Bellator Blueprint
Ep 9. Creative Strategies and Community Support in Property Ventures
From childhood sledding escapades in North Conway to igniting a powerful business alliance in California, Jonathan Stratton and Noli Peterson’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. This episode offers a glimpse into their unique friendship, forged through shared experiences—from Noli DJing at Assyrian weddings to his creative ventures in the music scene. Their story unfolds with a chance meeting that led them to the realm of real estate, where they transformed their diverse skills into the Unlocked Home Project, an initiative rooted in empathy and innovation.
On the move back to New Hampshire, Jonathan and Noli’s real estate ambitions gained momentum in the wake of personal life changes, including the need to escape California’s wildfires. With influences like Pace Morby and a focus on creative finance, they embraced wholesaling and innovative property strategies. Their entrepreneurial spirit led them to establish a mission-driven business that supports homeowners facing foreclosure, embodying a commitment to community support and ethical real estate solutions.
Join us as Jonathan and Noli share how their real estate team, anchored by strong values and a dedication to education, has successfully navigated the complexities of the industry. From tackling IRS liens to pioneering creative solutions for capital gains, their work epitomizes the impact of empathy in business. This episode captures the heart of their mission, revealing how they continue to empower homeowners with compassion and a focus on sustainable success.
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Welcome to Grit and Bricks. Grit and Bricks.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm here today with Jonathan Stratton, nollie Peterson's Unlocked Home Project. They're going to talk about their business, how they started it, how they grew it and where it's going to be going in the future. I think you've got some big plans and some projects. I think you guys are keeping a little secret right now, but that's cool. But yeah, go ahead, introduce yourselves, tell us who you are and what you do. Jonathan, go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I think you said it great, but probably better than I could have done for my own introduction. Jonathan, owner of Unlocked Home Project here in New England, that's actually. You know, we're kind of expanding actually right now down south. I'm going to go through the process of that. This is my. I call him my trusty steed. Noly, we've been friends, best friends, since we were, I don't know since we got into a fist fight when we were like six, six years old what was it about sledding?
Speaker 1:he. He ran a sled into me at the bottom of the hill and took me out and laughed at me.
Speaker 2:Unreal looks like he would do that yeah, and laugh just like that too, you know what I mean, yeah hasn't changed much.
Speaker 3:Um, yeah, so we, we ended up growing up together. Um, we lived at the opposite ends of um, north conway essentially, or conway, I guess you could say, generally speaking and um, then he then, uh, sure shit, and only moved freaking around the corner from me in North Conway and then we were like just kind of became best friends from there.
Speaker 4:Boys of summer.
Speaker 3:Boys of the summer Doing crazy things. Yeah, jumping off First Bridge, doing flips, jumping off cliffs causing a ruckus, Mountain biking.
Speaker 2:Is this out west? No, this is in North Conway.
Speaker 1:This is when we were kids.
Speaker 3:Oh, biking, is this out west? No, this is in.
Speaker 2:North Conway. This is when we were kids. Oh, north Conway, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then fast forward to our 30s. I guess we kind of reconnected after a while and we were both out in California. I ended up moving out there for a job opportunity and actually solar. You were out there doing property management type stuff and oh, and then actually before that, no, he DJed at my wedding.
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh, no shit, yeah, cause he's a big DJ out West.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I'll but yeah so then we ended up kind of connecting. You can kind of fill in a kind of when we, when I moved out west.
Speaker 1:I guess you gotta keep going yeah, yeah, I was actually living in San Francisco at the time and John was coming out to California and hit me up. He was like hey, my sister's having a wedding kind of near you, so that ended up being a couple hours away and, yeah, I owned a production company and promotions company and stuff and was doing a lot of DJing. He was like we need a DJ. So I came out and DJed a sister's wedding, which was the first wedding I've ever DJed, because I'm not really like a a DJ. So I came out and DJ'd a sister's wedding, which was the first wedding I've ever DJ'd, because I'm not really a wedding DJ, mind you, this was like if my sister was getting married into an Assyrian family.
Speaker 1:Like Mormon family, it was a dry wedding. Dry wedding which I had no idea. And Assyrian right, yeah, and Assyrian.
Speaker 3:Like old culture from the Middle.
Speaker 2:East Mesopotamia. Yeah, like a good old bloodline, you know.
Speaker 1:What did it even look like? Lots of stomping and dancing, the traditional stuff Music. They had a traditional band there.
Speaker 3:It was completely great food. Yeah, it was like kind of Middle Eastern food.
Speaker 2:Middle.
Speaker 1:Eastern culture.
Speaker 3:I guess you could say that was Very interesting.
Speaker 1:But then a couple of years later John was getting married and was like, hey, you should come DJ my wedding. So I went and did that as well the only two weddings I've ever DJed in my entire life Um, but yeah, I started like when, basically after high school, john moved to Alaska in high school, the end of high school and then so he was in alaska and then when he came back for college, I went, ended up going to college in boston. He stayed in new hampshire. Um, didn't? We didn't like lose touch, because you actually came down and visited me in boston before, but um, but then I moved to california. First I was working in between Boston. I was shooting camera for the Celtics and the Bruins for a little while and I was also working for this other commercial recording studio. And then I got a job. I was producing parody hip-hop for Howard Stern, which was pretty funny.
Speaker 1:I used to produce hip-hop music and don't get him going yeah, he's producing a parrot like parody, funny hip-hop songs, like he would call me and our artists into his studio or whatever and be like, okay. So we just found out robin um gets colonics every month. I need you to make a song about her getting enemas. We're like, okay, done so. A couple of days later a song on howard stern show comes out from us talking about enemas or um, we did um, uh, arty lang's um intro and outro song for his netflix comedy dvd or comedy special or no comedy central comedy special, not netflix. Um, we did a few other songs and stuff like that for howard stern.
Speaker 1:It was fun, um, but then I eventually ended up moving out to california and worked for an audio visual company for a little while but then ended up starting a production and promotions company when dubstep was getting big. Um, and we ended up becoming the biggest, most longest running uh dubstep weekly event in san francisco, which is pretty cool, oh shit. And for in the club scene or whatever. Um, and I was doing parties for dave chappelle and andreina catena and like you met, from you met these people Like oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I've got plenty of photos, it's true. Um, let's see, yeah, and guys from the 49ers and the San Francisco giants, cause they were winning world series like every other year back then, which was fun.
Speaker 1:Um, so we had those guys in the club, a lot and stuff, um, and yeah, it was fun, um, so we had those guys in the club, a lot and stuff, um, and yeah, it was kind of my twenties were absolutely insane, um, and then moved to Tahoe and knew that I didn't want to. I still had my company in San Francisco but didn't knew I didn't want to like do entertainment for the rest of my life. So so I was trying to figure out like something a little bit more sustainable for family and things like that, because while partying for a living sounds fun, it actually kind of sucks when you have other things that are important to you in your life, like outdoor activities and things that involve daylight. Um, cause I would start work at like 10 30 at night. So it was kind of ridiculous but was able to work, you know, four hours a day and make what a sustainable salary for San Francisco, which was kind of fun.
Speaker 1:But, um, anyways, moved to Tahoe, got into property management, real estate, got my real estate license in California and kind of was doing that for a little while. And then, um, covid happened and there was a bunch of stuff. There were challenges with that. And then, uh, my wife now girlfriend at the time uh, we got evacuated from tahoe because of the town was catching on fire because of forest fires. Um, for about a month or two there was just ash raining down on in our yard we actually connected before that, yeah, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:So so, yeah, about a year before that, right before covid, right 2019, I think it was yeah, 2019 um, john and jordan and their only child at the time, kinsley, came up to come visit in tahoe because I've been trying to convince john to move up there since he was moving to california and california's so big he ended up moving what. Eight hours, nine hour drive away the opposite direction yeah, the opposite direction.
Speaker 1:Um, they didn't sell too much solar. No, the 40 inch storms on a regular basis probably impeded that quite a bit. Um, some people had it, but it was like just to have it, I don't even know. But yeah, the solar was not a big industry up there. Um, but yeah, so john came up, visited um, and we I think we kind of started talking about real estate a little bit together then. That's when we first started kind of talking about stuff, because I was trying to get.
Speaker 3:I was at a point where I was like getting kind of burnt out from the solar yeah, game but we were doing a lot of like, a lot of like, re-roofs, you know something?
Speaker 3:like construction and I grew up in real estate because of my mother Was it spent a lot of time in the offices in North Conway, remax and Badger Realty and and all that. So then I kind of dabbled into like mortgages for a couple of years when I was in college. Well anyways, so we're doing the solar stuff and then you kind of I was always in houses, I can start thinking about houses more.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean, and kind of I was always in houses I could start thinking about houses more you know what I mean and kind of seeing the market and stuff, while I was getting kind of burnt out and I was like I need like an end game, you know what I mean. Like in it, like I want to, I want to get into something that I enjoy. I had a master's degree in something else that I got burnt out of as well. I was like I just need something that you know. I wasn't in the master's degree behavior analysis and psychology. Okay, yeah, yeah, and I did.
Speaker 3:I was doing like consultation, um, it was like a kind of a dual degree. Half of it was like how to increase performance, performance management, um, you know, organizational, industrial, psychology type stuff, and then the other half was like how to improve classrooms and systems in treatment settings. So it's kind of separate. But anyways, I ended up getting in. The treatment settings part got burnt out, um, and yeah, I ended up getting back into the houses with because of the solar, and then we started kind of talking about it I was looking into I just got my license actually, yeah, or I was like six months into having my real estate, california license.
Speaker 3:And I was actually thinking about group homes. That was like the big thing.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's what I remember you talking about group homes back then Cause I ended up as a behavior analyst.
Speaker 3:I was working in group homes for kids and then I had a conversation with somebody before California, had a conversation with somebody and learned like the, the money that these landlords are, you know, essentially making off of this stuff, and I'm like cool, I would love to make money and also help people. You know what I mean. Like that was like the cool thing. I was like that's like a kill two birds with one stone kind of situation. You know what I mean? That's a meaningful life, like if you can make money and also help people, like that's fucking cool. And so then, yeah, so then we, that's how we I started, noly, and I kind of started talking about real estate.
Speaker 1:It was from like at that point in our lives in California and then I, audrey and I, got evacuated. Basically we were already kind of planning on moving back to New Hampshire to have a family and everything like that, because all my family's here she's from California but didn't really have much more family there, and stuff like that, because all my family's here she's from california but didn't really have much more family there, and stuff like that. But we um basically had everything already packed up and we left a little bit earlier than we expected, um, because they were going around our town with bullhorns telling everybody that they had to leave and there was only one way out of the town not viking horns what's that not?
Speaker 1:viking horns no, they should have but no, it was bullhorns and it was like it was kind of crazy. It felt like martial law was happening. It was kind of it was nuts and everybody was in their cars with like ferret cages and bunny cages and stuff bungee to the top and just like, oh man, and it was. I mean it's ominous, it's just like smoke and just like the sun could be a high noon and it would just be orange everywhere because it was so much smoke.
Speaker 1:But yeah so we left and John was like you got to come down and visit when you guys do your road trip and, by the way, we're about to have our son, our second kid and I was like, okay, well, whenever the due date is, and he's like, no, it our second kid. And I was like, okay, well, whenever the due date is.
Speaker 1:And he's like, no, it's, it's a due date, it's happening that day because of its schedule you know, Um, and I was like, all right, well, we'll come, like maybe a week after, and he was like get here now. It's like okay. So we got before kingston was born and then we were there when kingston was born, um, and he had, uh, jordan's family was there and stuff, and we just kind of hung out, for I think we were actually we were supposed to go to vegas for some show. We ended up canceling and staying longer yeah, um.
Speaker 1:And then from there, um, my wife and I did like an like,500-mile road trip, got back out to New Hampshire and John and I John had just started- but when you were in Bakersfield, that's when we talked about it, that's when we started talking more about. The next steps, yeah, the next steps. What we were going to do, what I was kind of learning about. And you were connected with Clinton.
Speaker 3:Yep, this buddy of mine I went to high school with from Alaska and he was in real estate doing some really big things and in the background I was kind of like self-teaching myself about this stuff called wholesaling Making money off of real estate but not having to pay anything and pay her money. You know essentially not needing a license. And I was like it's like, what's all this about? I was like this is cool, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then I started from and then I went from like wholesaling to learning about um fell. So I heard this guy pace um, saw this guy pace through all the like wholesaling stuff, right, and they threw me ads from all these different other people that were paying ads and so I want to pace his videos. Um pace more being talking about creative finance, creative real estate strategies and stuff like that, and that was like all I needed to hear. I was like you can buy a house, take over other people's mortgages, do seller finance? Like I didn't even know what seller finance was at the time. Conceptually I understood it, but I didn't even know. If someone was like, what is seller finance? I'm like I don't know. I remember looking, googling, what is seller finance? That's just how much I didn't know about the creative side of things.
Speaker 1:And so I was super excited. They don't have it in any of the real estate courses to get your license either.
Speaker 2:They don't dive into creative finance and once you figure it out, like all right, this, there's something here, I'm gonna do something with this creative finance thing. At what point did you say all right, I'm gonna get noly involved too, and we're gonna, we're gonna do this together, or is that when you started working with clinton?
Speaker 3:yeah, and actually yeah, when you came I was actually I was working with clinton, I think part-time like a?
Speaker 3:yeah, I was just started, just started doing it, working with him, um, in his company, and um, yeah, I just kind of saw like I just got it just got me really excited. You know what I mean? It just got me really excited. I was like this is freaking cool. I just I was like no, you gotta gotta listen to this dude. Like this is crazy. You know, like this is really cool he's um, a very bring it back around.
Speaker 2:So to circle back, yeah, circle back, as keen I would say what happened was apparently I don't know how to fucking use equipment and everything doesn't work, so hopefully this is working right now. Um, so we recorded for about 20 minutes and it didn't save on the camera and my phone. The audio didn't work for some goddamn reason. So now we're here. Uh, again we circle back. We talked about basically how you guys met growing up together, um, how you discovered creative finance through pace morby, you were an agent in california for a bit, got interested in real estate and then you two started talking, started talking about it. So now business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I started working with this company that was working with people in pre-foreclosure essentially and, yeah, helping people in pre-foreclosure stay living in their homes, essentially out west, and so I got into that. I was like Noly got to check this out man and I knew he was kind of where he was at in place in his life. He was looking for something else. We both kind of came together at similar points, kind of like transition points in our lives Career transition.
Speaker 3:Career transition points. Thank you, yeah, we weren't like dropping our wives, or anything no.
Speaker 2:Like career transition Other you know.
Speaker 1:It was California yeah.
Speaker 3:So yeah, so I was telling Noli and I was like we got a free kit. I was like, dude, you got to check this out. It's freaking cool. I was just super excited about it. I think I probably talked Noli's here off about it. I like told the world. I was just like, oh my God, like where has this been my whole life?
Speaker 4:I was like I don't have to be an agent. You know, that was the thing.
Speaker 3:It's like I don't have to be an agent, I don't have to be a realtor to be able to get into real estate.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean and that was just like a huge, like epiphany that I had. Same for me on the BiggerPockets podcast and same thing. Creative finance, the sub-two stuff. I knew what seller finance was and wholesaling was, but we talked about the other stuff. I was like, what is that? Went to home on Google YouTube and I was like, holy shit, people do this.
Speaker 1:And did you join the mentorship?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like right then. Shortly after.
Speaker 1:Probably a couple months after, I think, you went in, and you were into it for like a month or two and then finally convinced me to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had talked to Jesse Stanton over in Alaska. He was the first one I talked to and I was like is this like a real
Speaker 4:thing. What is this yeah?
Speaker 2:You know? So yeah, he's good.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, then we were working with the that group of people for a little while and, um, I think both you and I just hit some roadblocks that we knew that we wanted to overcome. Um, and their model was pretty specific and kind of pigeonhole. Yeah, experience and just more exit strategies that even at that time we were learning about with Pace Mori, about all these different exit strategies, and they weren't utilizing them for their business. I mean, it's their business, they can run it the way that they want to and we were just, you know, kind of in in sales. So I think um, john was like I want to try and start to do this a little bit in New Hampshire and I had like well, I had a.
Speaker 3:I had a different like a different idea at first. So I came up with this idea, which was like providing services, like. So I was from working with a lot of these people. I was seeing, like, all of the issues and all the problems that they were having, right, when they were in pre-foreclosure, and I didn't feel like, um, there was a lot of value, other than maybe, you know, keeping them staying living in their home or avoiding foreclosure, which is massive, right, but what if they have to sell? Right, and there wasn't a lot of like, if they have to sell, where are all the resources and value? You know, there wasn't like resources and value. And so initially, actually, I don I don't know if you know this we started up this other company and the company was to literally take care of all the services. And I actually had a conversation about merging yeah, about merging with Clinton and I was like, hey, you take care of this If they have to sell we can take care of this.
Speaker 3:We can have like a business model. Well, that didn't kind of come to fruition or whatever. Um, it didn't align. So then we, I was like screw it, let's just freaking do this thing. In new hampshire I was out in boise in a fifth wheel with two of my kids and, um, yeah, freaking, launched it, cold called, essentially, you know, um, people in pre-foreclosure and I had no idea how we were going to provide all the resources. But I was like, oh, I, whatever, I'll figure it out. If I, if, if a client comes around like and they need and they need, and if I can't help them stay living in their home and they need to sell, we'll have all these resources and I'll figure it out. You know, kind of thing and a half, I think, maybe. No, not even a month, I think it was a month, was this before you, like, started the company? So I had a website up. I got the website up and running and I literally started cold calling and I cold called for maybe about a month, I think. How did you come up with?
Speaker 2:the name Unlocked Home.
Speaker 1:Project that was after Unlocked Home Project was after Project Relief.
Speaker 3:Oh, this was Project.
Speaker 2:Relief is how we all started it kind of makes sense how you came up with that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because the whole thing was to help alleviate, relieve people from what they're going through and all that stuff provide relief and stuff. So then we moved back. I decided to move back, sold the fifth wheel, sent the kids and my wife home to our in-laws, her parents' house in Merrimack, new Hampshire, and then met actually someone who's actually on our team now, sean that we're um building um unlocked land project and um finding um land you know throughout new england and um down south. Right now I'm locking that up to do um you know, subdividing, wholesividing, wholesaling, um locking up creative deals, all that sort of stuff. Met him there, stayed with him for a couple of weeks, sold the fifth wheel, moved out here and we closed it was like four weeks later on our first deal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and uh, basically made six figures on our first deal.
Speaker 2:Almost yeah, yeah, almost yeah, yeah, and that's what yeah, that right.
Speaker 1:There was, like this is the proof in the pudding, the sauce.
Speaker 3:It was like all right, yeah, now we have to like keep doing this um yeah, you have some money to dump into more resources and more at marketing and advertising, and yeah, and just proof of concept really it was a mindset shift, for sure it was like you know, I think we go a lot of us go through our lives and we feel like we're only capable of like a certain threshold or a certain level, and then, when you like, you're thrown into a situation and you have to figure something out. And that was kind of where the situation was getting when I was out in Boise not going to go into a whole deep dive into that, but it was.
Speaker 3:I was kind kind of going to that point I was like I gotta figure something else out. I'm gonna take what I've learned and I'm just gonna cannonball into this freaking dive bomber. And I was still working for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And john was like stop, please, just yeah, we got with me full time then we did that one deal or whatever, and I was like all right, I'm done. Yeah, yeah, let's do it here. I think I had like some deals that were still like kept me on the ropes a little bit.
Speaker 3:I needed to get them, get them closed, or whatever but it was essentially sean who I met in rv park, my wife noly, and audrey was doing and audrey was doing some marketing, yeah no, she was doing legion stuff.
Speaker 1:Oh, it was legion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah yeah, it was legion. Yeah in the beginning. Yeah and um, we just all like, yeah, I was doing all the cold calling, yeah for a while, um and just yeah, just doing cold calling, setting appointments and closing the appointments, and then then everybody else, like we all support, you know, supported in different aspects of the business, to make it like get it across the table.
Speaker 1:Essentially, we could start a hat store for the amount of hats we've all worn, for sure okay.
Speaker 2:So especially you, you started with you and ollie, obviously, and then sean um kristin, any other team members you have. How did you convince them? Or, yeah, how did you convince them to leave what they're doing to work? You know to work for you. I don't imagine they're doing to work, you know to work for you. I don't imagine they're all full time, but maybe they're all you know. How'd you get them on your team? Say, hey, make them stay.
Speaker 3:Honestly, we didn't.
Speaker 3:I don't think we recruited really anybody.
Speaker 3:I, you know, the only thing that I ever did was I would post on my Facebook page when I was looking like we were looking for somebody.
Speaker 3:But it was really us for a while I think like six or eight months or whatever. And then, uh, I think it just yeah, I posted on Facebook for like a day or two about what we were looking for and kind of who we are and a lot of people that joined our team like knew about us or like were following us and saw kind of like our business model and because we post a lot on social media and stuff like that and talk about like valuing other people and us using like a value based discovery and really appealing to like what other, what you know, what's important to other people, like putting other people first you know, that's really we structure, from our sales approach to how we you know all the team members on our team where we kind of place them or where they place themselves Actually, I don't place them in anybody anywhere where they want to be and it just, it just creates, I think, an environment that people want to be a part of.
Speaker 3:You know, we've never really tried, we never really had to try to find.
Speaker 2:See, I see what you're doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Can I be part of it somehow? How can I help? Do you need something? I saw you were looking for X position or whatever. You think there was more people seeking you out and asking to be a part of it than you. I think people just kind of saw what we've been doing.
Speaker 3:We kind of hit New England and hit it hard. I think our first six months I think we did eight deals. We closed eight deals, I think, within six months or five months. No, I think it was 12 deals.
Speaker 1:I think it was 12 deals by january.
Speaker 3:I think, yeah, we started in like september I think august august. Yeah, five months yeah, and we closed 12 deals 11.
Speaker 1:Half of them, wasn't it 11? No, no, no, either way.
Speaker 3:But like I think like half of those were creative and at the time when we came in there wasn't really anybody doing many creative deals, you know, maybe a couple here and there per year. You know what I mean. We kind of came in guns blazing and, like you know, it just made a huge impact. And then people are like who the hell? I think people were like who the hell are these guys?
Speaker 1:yeah.
Speaker 3:So then people kind of just kind of started watching us and seeing what we're all about and wanted to become a part of it, you know, how many team members? Eight, nine. So Jordan, me, you, Kristen, sabrina, kitty, sean, jess. I forget anybody. Sorry if I forgot somebody, sabrina.
Speaker 1:Did you say Sabrina? I did say Selena, selena.
Speaker 3:I mean, I said Sabrina, but I just said Selena, yeah, selena, so nine yeah. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome yeah, so obviously you're obviously have.
Speaker 2:You know, you're growing well, we've done this.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's like, yeah, this and then that and then this and then that, and then this and then that and then this and then that you know it's like kind of growing a building and there and like even from the very like. It's funny looking back at leads from two, three years ago, Because it's almost been three years With no intake forms. Yeah, just like what the heck were we thinking? No data allocation or KPIs, or like just.
Speaker 2:It was just solely focus on the grind, like what you said. It goes like this, then like this, then like this and, I think, going back in it doesn't go all the way.
Speaker 1:It's just kind of like a little bit and then comes out more.
Speaker 3:Either one, adding new processes or improving on them, and that way now okay now we can get bigger and being really kind of selective too, like in the beginning, I think, when people wanted to work around, when people were, um, there we go. When people were first reaching out and we were like, bringing people onto the team, you know we didn't really know what to look for, who to look for what would work for us?
Speaker 1:what would?
Speaker 3:vibe well and you know kind of like connect with, like the energy and frequency that our whole team had, Like we have our own kind of weird, energy weird energy and um and so like.
Speaker 3:when we were kind of going through these movements it was like trimming down people that didn't really fit with like the big vision or vibe really well with us or just didn't have the work ethic or didn't have the morals and principles and you know that sort of stuff. And then once we figured that out, we never really like really pushed to hire somebody. I mean, I guess until recently, yeah, you know, maybe until like literally the last, like three or four months.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Maybe when we've kind of hired a couple of VAs, we needed to bring an underwriter in because you know we're just getting too busy and I can't do it. But and our best hire exactly a year ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll all meet soon.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our surprise guest, our surprise guest.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so it was doing the pre-foreclosures, getting that proof of concept down and developing that, I mean from what to use for phones and a CRM and all that different kind of stuff. Some of the stuff was already. We're just building and expanding off of what we already knew from the previous company that we had worked for. So focusing on new things that were the unknown was easier because there were already some rudimentary systems in place, basically, and then building off of those systems and learning about pre-foreclosures and truly how to help people and even the environment changed dramatically throughout the time that we started doing pre-foreclosures to where they are now because of certain COVID relief programs and certain like the memorandum that was going on, the half program, the different uh variations of loan modification products that were out there, like all different kinds of crazy stuff that, in order for us to best serve our clients, we needed to know about all of that we, we just totally niched down, yeah.
Speaker 3:Essentially, I guess what you're saying is we literally just focused on serving a certain population you know what I mean or subpopulation of people that would come into naturally, kind of come into the real estate industry? We would be able to help based off of our background and knowledge. Okay, I got a question.
Speaker 2:And we helped a lot of people. So obviously, well, maybe now it's more well-known. Over the last few years, when it got first started, nobody heard of this stuff Almost nobody. So people were skeptical about it, thought it was illegal. So how did you guys address that and overcome that?
Speaker 3:Thinking the creative stuff was illegal. Yeah, right, like the creative solutions, yeah, or even like the people, you're helping the pre-foreclosure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're going to come in, we're going to save you. Obviously, you don't say it like that. Right, right but you know, that's how they hear it sometimes, and they're like oh, it's just under scam at that.
Speaker 3:So you know. So the company that we had was really, really unique, because our first priority was to try to help people stay living in their homes and we didn't make any money off of that. You know that we gave out a ton, tens of thousands of hours to people that we didn't get paid for. What would? When we would con, you know know, when we would cold call and contact, people were like, hey, you don't have. You know, we're not.
Speaker 3:You know, essentially, in a nutshell, this was exactly what I would say, but in a nutshell, you know, we're just kind of calling to, to follow. You know, to follow up, or they check in on you, make sure that you have all the education resources that you need to try to stay living in your house, um, or if you're looking to move, or is that's the best decision for you, there we're, we'd be able to, um, you know, help, serve you in that situation. But you know, regardless of whatever you choose, like I don't, we don't really care. You know, it's up to you. We're just here to support you through the process and, um, and we were like that's, that was literally our. You know that our objective was to just help people and, yes, some situations they didn't have any other options and we helped them sell or connect them with one of our other companies that helped sell the deal to other buyers for them. But that was kind of how we approached it.
Speaker 3:Leading with value and just with value and just being organic.
Speaker 2:So just to play devil's advocate here, you call me. You look at your software. You see that I've improved foreclosure. You look at the public notices and then you just cold call me and say, hey, this is who I am, this is what I do, like what you just said, I'm going to go. Okay, who are you? Why do you want to do this? What do you mean? You're not going to get paid. What's the catch?
Speaker 3:What's the catch? Yeah, no, that's a good point. The catch is really just to help you. We are a for-profit company. If, in a worst case scenario, you had to sell your house, we'd be happy to serve you. But my objective and our goal here is to help you try to figure out how to stay living in the house, because there's a couple of different options out there and a bunch of different information that can be found in a whole bunch of different places, but there wasn't a primary source. There isn't a primary source that can give you all the information and the connections to all the options that were out there.
Speaker 3:And especially even when you'd be surprised when the half of the homeowners assistance fund was helping people bail out of foreclosures, they had problems with some of the attorneys there. They couldn't get in touch with people. No email responses back from people. So we were giving them feedback on how often to reach out, how to Don't wait for them, don't wait for them to get back in touch with you. We would give them just even the littlest advice like that saved. I don't know, we never kept track. We probably should have, because we were keeping track of kpis, but you know, like we've probably saved I mean thousands, thousands of people to stay living.
Speaker 1:you know, saved them from foreclosure so they could stay living in their home and there's no true handbook for homeowners on how to that's, that's deal with them deal with a pre-foreclosure or anything like that, right Like there might be some information in your like mortgage origination documents or your mortgage contract and stuff like that about like kind of I guess what to do, no one's going to read or understand if they do. What happens if it's 20 years later, like, do you know how much, how many different programs have gone in and out of activity just in the past four or five years?
Speaker 2:Never mind 10, 15, 20 years.
Speaker 1:So essentially we've become like a current handbook for these people to you know, help them, help themselves. You know what I mean, because you can only help people so much, some people won't help themselves.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean, because you can only help people so much, some people won't help themselves you know what I mean and a lot of times too, like you know, we had somebody, we had a family friend, that went through foreclosure and um ended up getting, you know, pretty screwed by it because they didn't have the right ammunition, they didn't have the right information in order to protect themselves before you guys were in business, or they would yeah, pretty much yeah, before we knew what we knew right that's for sure right.
Speaker 1:so then, as um what do they call it? Not redemption, as um reparations or whatever the heck it is. You know, you go and you help out hundreds of people. Instead, you know like, okay, we missed that one, let's go help 150 more people this year, you know, or something like that. So yeah, it was just like nice to help people and having that business model yeah.
Speaker 2:Provide to the other programs and it ended up like providing.
Speaker 3:It ended up like giving back to people and leading with value and helping people stay living in their home and not charging them anything, even though that would have been that would have been illegal if we tried to do that um, we didn't charge them anything. You know what I mean. And, um, you know we got a lot of, and it's not a consulting thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just a human to a human.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah, from experiences we went through, you know, with other people in these similar situations.
Speaker 2:They like you so much to give you cool stuff.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, this bad boy right here. Yeah, we'll get into the Viking stuff later.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, dude, but um yeah, so yeah, then get into the programs too.
Speaker 3:So, like the relocation, get into the programs too. So, like the relocation you're saying. So what we ended up developing through Project Relief in the very beginning was we found a lot of people. One of the biggest problems was there was a ton of people that we talked to that were like you know what, I'm just digging my heels in and I'm going to run it through, I'm going to go to foreclosure and I'm not moving. And they didn't know what would happen after and they couldn't find a place to live. I mean, we're still in a housing crisis. You know um in New Hampshire and Maine, and so what we started up was a home search program and so, um that my wife essentially ran or headed Um and we basically developed a program and we got really good at finding people rentals in a market where there was not a lot of rentals, not a lot of inventory. Well, how'd you do that?
Speaker 3:I wish Jordan was here, because that was totally the magic was all in what my wife did, you know, like the resources and people, like we just started making connections. I remember we went to New Hampshire Real Estate Investment Association conference one time and I talked to a couple of people and I ended up talking to a couple investors that were like, hey, I love what you guys are doing. If you guys need a place for one of your clients to relocate, to call me, and that I mean we really relocated just off. A few connections like that we could find places. People would send us. Um, you know, like, let's say, somebody at least was running out and they were going to in October and they were going to flip and it was going to be available in November.
Speaker 1:They would tell us at the end of whatever September that this was going to be available and before they put it out on the market, it was a sales approach you know, I remember Jordan calling some of these places that were management companies and stuff like that or whatever, and it was a sales approach like she sold them on us, you know, because I think a lot of these people their credit is so shot, their income is so shot that they wouldn't normally be able to qualify so apartments?
Speaker 2:some of the people that are, she said, digging their heels in and going to foreclosure, how are they affording these apartments?
Speaker 3:You guys are putting them in From the proceeds from the sale is the biggest thing. So we would be able to put them into a house from the number one, the proceeds from the sale. That would primarily help them. We had. I mean, we also like if somebody wasn't making money cause they didn't have a job. We found people jobs. You know we've got people jobs. We found people jobs when they couldn't get out of their way and found jobs. The guy we don't have to say his name, but the property in Ackworth, the property in Ackworth. He didn't have a job, he wasn't working.
Speaker 1:We found him a job. We found him a place to live.
Speaker 3:We found him a job so he could afford rent and got him proceeds.
Speaker 1:Oh, the seller, that's right, the seller, the original seller, the original seller. Yeah, there's nobody out here.
Speaker 3:They took his job. We gave him a job and, yeah, gave him some money so he could move in.
Speaker 2:The Ackworth property guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah the Ackworth property, Hooked him up with a place from an investor that we met at New Hampshire Real Estate Investment Association Conference and got him a place to live and helped him move, paid for dumpsters, just took care of him. That's kind of all of the other resources that we kind of provide is moving, moving, relocation. You need help packing, you need help moving, storage, clean out, whatever it might be. We just kind of serve. We have a credit restoration company, third-party credit restoration company that will provide to people a whole bunch of stuff and mortgage brokers and stuff
Speaker 1:that will help with getting credit recovery and playing so that they can purchase again down the road. And actually the cool thing with that property was the buyer for that property was somebody that had reached out to me on Facebook months prior and needed to move from Florida to New Hampshire, to the very specific kind of rural area of New Hampshire that they needed to be. This house came up. This guy knew nothing about Sub 2 or anything like that, but had you said the guy, you mean the seller, the buyer, the buyer.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:This guy is a new house, primary residence this house.
Speaker 1:He had limited funds kind of. He was leaving his job so he couldn't really like get a mortgage you know stuff like that.
Speaker 2:How did you guys do this? How did this happen?
Speaker 1:Well, the cool thing is is a year and a half later. He was like ah, my wife doesn't like New Hampshire, we're moving back to Florida. Can you sell the house again?
Speaker 3:So he sold it creatively nice.
Speaker 2:Do you like a another investor, like a just a regular? Flipper flipper yep, okay, yep, yep.
Speaker 3:So yeah, full circle on that one. That was crazy, but yeah, so then that kind of led into expanding more into into real estate um, different, you know, populations of people that we wanted to help um, and things that we were like interested, interested in getting into real estate now.
Speaker 1:We're in it now.
Speaker 3:We're into a lot of it. We just partnered in on a 19 bedroom, two unit motel up in North Woodstock.
Speaker 1:We're helping the creation of Unlocked Home Project was because our niche company was specifically for foreclosures.
Speaker 2:Oh right, yeah, I said that before.
Speaker 1:So then, realizing all the other areas, that this kind of creative financing and even the aspect of relief stuff can be applied to everything else, yeah, how am I the one that's keeping?
Speaker 3:the conversation on track. You're keeping it together, bro. Thank you for keeping this all together.
Speaker 1:The name Unlocked Home Project I remember sitting in my basement, john calling me because he's the visionary, so talking about all this stuff.
Speaker 1:I'm the integrator systems backend kind of stuff. All this stuff I'm the integrator systems back end kind of stuff um, and talking to me and being like we got to start this other company. This is kind of like the idea of what we're going to do, which has changed like a few different times, but the root of the roots of the idea has always kind of been there, right, and it's just like we just didn't know what seed it was that we were planting. I thought it was just going to be this thing, but but it's branched off into like a fricking I don't know birch tree, because there's a billion different things popping up all over the place. But I remember you trying to. We were trying to figure out the name of the company and wanted to, because project relief was the pre foreclosure, like keeping project within, like the whole name and everything like that. And yeah, just like trying like keeping project within, like the whole name and everything like that.
Speaker 3:And um, yeah, just like, uh, trying to figure out what the, yeah, the name of the company, and what it was for me is we ended up having a what's up, brother. We ended up having I ended up having like an epiphany right, like a light bulb went off. I'm like value first Right, and I'm like we could serve so many more populations of people. We could just serve not populations of people. We could serve a ton of like sellers in the industry in different ways and we have these creative ways to help people. Now I saw the big vision and I'm like, oh, that was like that unlocked, like a whole nother thing, and I'm like unlocked. I did some search online. I'm like nobody had unlocked Home Project.
Speaker 1:And I was like that's it. There was something that we really wanted and there was already a website maybe or something like that. That was out and we were like crap.
Speaker 3:It was like Unlocked Homes. I think it was. It was Unlocked Homes. Maybe it was Unlocked Homes, it was taken.
Speaker 2:Did they do kind of the same thing? It was a locked home.
Speaker 3:What did they do? Was it the same?
Speaker 2:thing, it was a real estate firm. Yeah, sidebar, sorry, there's a real estate firm. I think it's in North Carolina, virginia or whatever, maybe Rhode Island, anywhere Southern somewhere. It's Kesa Team.
Speaker 2:Oh geez really the Kesa Team and they have the name trademarked. So I went to the brokerage. So I went to the brokerage. It's a real estate team and nobody there is named Kesa. No, because when me and Amy were looking to make a name for our team, we're Kesa team. They're the Kesa team, yeah, and they have my last name trademarked. That's funny, oh geez. And I can't use it because we're in the same industry. Gotcha Yep Anyway.
Speaker 1:Well, there's another project relief. I thought that was fucking stupid. It's a BLM movement up in Maine oh really so it's a completely different industry, yeah, so you're good anyway that's what ended up happening.
Speaker 3:So now it's led to, you know, fast track a few years. We're getting into providing creative solutions to realtors on market. Realtors are coming to us. We're reaching out to realtors about creative solutions, teaching them about creative solutions. We've got a training series now. We have a website dedicated to that subset in real estate and just providing solutions to people there. We locked up, like I said, that motel and inn that we have up north Commercial Working with investors that have Airbnb, airbnb properties, that kind of they.
Speaker 3:It doesn't make sense for them and they don't want to pay capital gains, so we structure things creatively to defer capital gains over time. Mm-hmm, if you can't do a 1031, it's the second best option. You know we're doing that.
Speaker 2:So you don't do a 1031, because we'll pay. Well, no, that's not capital gains, but what's the?
Speaker 3:other option. So 1031, so you can yeah, basically how a 1031, because they'll pay. Well, no, that's not capital gains. But what's the other option? So 1031, so you can yeah, basically how a 1031 works is you don't have to pay any capital gains on a 1031.
Speaker 3:There's all these regulations or whatever surrounding that I won't get into. But if some people can't do a 1031, they don't have enough time, they can't find the property, they can't do, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. They don't have enough equity to maybe put it into a 1031, stuff like that. Then deferring capital gains, carrying the equity over time, doing a creative deal, can save massively on taxes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a pretty good strategy. So we have a lot of.
Speaker 3:Someone's going to watch us and go wait a minute?
Speaker 2:Yeah, contact us. I'm going to contact John.
Speaker 3:And no one's talking yeah. So yeah, that's how I mean. What we're doing kind of how it's kind of snowballed, and that's what we do kind of full time now, is just serve a bunch of different types of people sellers, realtors, buyers that are looking for opportunities and providing solutions and providing like massive value you know, in, in and among real estate.
Speaker 2:Awesome dude, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Kristen, do you want to come on?
Speaker 2:Come on, come on, let's talk about your experience with uh, yeah, so let's meet another uh team member who happens to be here.
Speaker 3:I'll swap my mic out. We got Kristen and Christian. Kristen and Christian.
Speaker 4:Nice to meet you, Christian.
Speaker 1:I just build them, and I don't sell them.
Speaker 4:Is this all right? Yeah, that's fine, blue.
Speaker 1:Blue White.
Speaker 2:White Kristen Halls Kristen the. Shield Maiden. Oh, excuse me, the Acquisition Shield Maiden. No Acquisition Viking Shield. Maiden yeah that's her role in Unlocked Home Project.
Speaker 4:Official title.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so obviously your name's Kristen Halls. I'm not going to say introduce yourself, because I just did that for you, but what did you do before this and how did you get into this and why did you want to join Jonathan's team?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's kind of a funny alignment story. I, like them, had kind of jumped a few different careers, you know, to get to this point. So I went to school for interior design, interior architecture.
Speaker 2:Oh nice.
Speaker 4:Worked in that field for eight years, I think, got super burnt out because I was really pigeonholed and I hate cubicle life years. I think got super burnt out because I was really pigeonholed and it was hate cubicle life, um, and so then I, when 2020 happened, I quit my job and pursued travel instead. So I actually picked up being a travel agent, um, and working for a startup app within the travel sphere um, and took off and traveled the country in an rv with my now ex.
Speaker 4:But, yeah, we have a very similar kind of um lifestyle at that in that. And then, uh, that company unfortunately went belly up and so I was left again to be like, all right, what now? So I've had, um, I've had, uh been following a ton of these, you know, investors online on instagram and kind of self-teaching and reading all the books and listening to all the podcasts and a big interest in it.
Speaker 4:I kind of felt like that would like tie back to the um. You know what I went to school for. And so, um, I just never really had that kind of like commitment to pull any sort of triggers on my own. And so, um, I'd come, you know, connected with a whole bunch of people over time, and then someone that they were connected with had posted online that they were looking for someone in acquisitions and I had like, just lost another job. I was like back at home, basically had like no cost of living, so I was like, why not like send it? And so I, you know, met with him on a Zoom and we were just like super aligned, aligned like even with the Viking thing right off the bat. I'm like I literally am a Viking and he loves Viking stuff. You know, as he's showing swords and stuff, the sword is still here.
Speaker 3:This is actually.
Speaker 2:Kristen's sword, did you? Uh, what's the thing like? You get on a knee and then you the sword on your shoulder.
Speaker 3:Oh, we're going to build it into our concept now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm gonna anoint like you're officially not part of the team until you get anointed, yeah he does send out.
Speaker 4:When you get your first deal, he sends out the viking horns. So I do have one at my house now, which is proper. Yeah so, um so, yeah. So I joined the team. I think you had one vision originally and then things shifted. So then I ended up on the project relief side doing all of the pre-foreclosure stuff, cold calling, just sitting in.
Speaker 2:So when you started with Jonathan, what was your experience in real estate?
Speaker 4:Next to nothing. I just like can speak the language because I've read enough books and stuff, and so I basically was like hey, I have absolutely nothing on my resume to make you want to hire me, but I can talk to people I'm really good with empathy.
Speaker 2:Good enough, we'll teach you. He was like all right sold.
Speaker 4:I can learn fast. I've changed careers a thousand times Like I pick up everything. Like take a risk on me.
Speaker 2:How long has it been since you've been with them? Just a year. Oh, you said this week. This week it's been a year, okay, cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, it's been cool. And then you know, since I've been with them, we've kind of shifted a bit too and now we're taking on more and expanding, so big things.
Speaker 3:Kristen's starting to get into like doing other leads now and serving other people, you know, in different situations and stuff like that. So now kind of expanding, know that I know. So it's kind of cool like seeing where kristen started, you know, and kind of where she's at now, where she's kind of going and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what's? What's your vision, because you're a visionary. What's your vision for kristen?
Speaker 3:in the future vision for kristen is to get her where she wants to be in real estate I mean, it's kind of the big vision, you know and kind of show her the ropes, which she's pretty much slayed since she's been on with us. Yeah, you know, you've absolutely killed it. You know over the last year.
Speaker 2:What are you doing right now? What's your main role right now?
Speaker 4:Right now still focusing on acquisitions for the pre-foreclosures. Okay, we're primarily in New Hampshire and about to expand into massachusetts I'll be heading that up and then, um, also handling any sort of inbound people who reach out to the company as well. Okay, yeah, it's been. It's been cool because I feel like we've been. It's been evolving too. So I feel like we're always learning something new and shifting the way that we're doing things. You know, getting to learn about different situations that people bring to us.
Speaker 4:And especially now, the way that stuff has shifted in the last year is, you know, with these half program and stuff drying up a lot. There's a lot of people with a lot less options. Now we're seeing a ton of these modification scam companies coming out. I mean tons of people I talk to on the phones are getting scammed out of money left and right. So our main goal really is to just like educate and, you know, protect people from these, yeah, predatory groups and whatnot. So, um, you know it's been. It's like we're learning something new every day, or we're like seeing something new come to the surface, and so the more that we can learn about that, the more we share, the more that we're able to help folks you know, especially with the relocation services, for sure.
Speaker 2:Okay. So are you like cold calling people, or okay?
Speaker 4:Yep. So the um, I, they, I get all the phone numbers and every single day we're hitting um, new, new leads, basically new people based on these public notices, um, and so I kind of try to reach out every other day for the most part, get them on a call, um, if I can, and really even to the point where we're getting you know upwards of two weeks out and someone finally will be like thank you for being persistent. I've been avoiding everything.
Speaker 2:And finally, just like, all right, I've got to face this.
Speaker 4:Exactly, and that's when we're like we can still help you. We're still here. Yeah, you know, and I've had so many people thank me for just being persistent. I've seen your calls, I've seen your texts. I'm sorry. I've seen your calls, I've seen your texts. I'm sorry I've been ignoring you. You know like they, they, they didn't get into this.
Speaker 2:It's a tough thing to have to swallow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, to face it.
Speaker 2:You know people are like how did I get here?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't want to tell anybody.
Speaker 4:My house is pre-foreclosure and I have no money. The rug pulled out from under me. I had a safety net, you know, like he's he's said that he struggled with finances in the past. Like we can relate and that's why people can trust us, so I couldn't even buy a house.
Speaker 3:I was struggling so much. You know what I mean. I couldn't even have the. I couldn't even get into a foreclosure if I wanted to.
Speaker 2:It was the. I couldn't even get into a foreclosure if I wanted to.
Speaker 3:It was so bad I'm like, trust me, I know where you're at, I couldn't even afford a house to get into foreclosure. You know, yeah, I freaking. One year I was freaking on, uh, my classic story like we had a 32 inch dv on the floor with our first child on solar pallets and we had a futon mattress on it. You know like that was like how rough it was for us in the very beginning. You know so.
Speaker 3:So, like I think leading with like you know, leading like our approach is leading super, with empathy and understanding and being able to relate to them and all of the people that we that I've served I mean thousands, you know thousands. You know like we talked about before. You know thousands. I mean probably 5,000 people or more I've talked to in pre foreclosure and probably you know 3000, you know 3,000, you know of those or more. We've probably helped stay living in their homes and you know so. We know the process, we know how it all works and us leading with like we're not here to. We're not here Like yes, we can help serve you if you have to sell your house, right, but at the end of the day, like our main priority is to make sure you have a roof above your head and if you can stay living in your home, like, hey, stay living in your home with your family, like that's what's most important, like we're not like sales-broth kind of people. I guess you could say, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a thousand different ways you to be there, to walk you through the process and to make sure that you end up somewhere on the opposite end and that's where the value comes in, and I think that you know a lot of these people end up in these situations because of things that happened to them that they didn't plan for right and uh, you know, I think that that alone, just like acknowledging that people's hardships, is something that you know.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's something they can't avoid. Didn't plan, it's just illnesses, anything.
Speaker 4:So I think that having that is the main focus of just understanding where they're coming from, why they're in their situation, Then they're in good shape if they trust us. Yeah right.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 4:Awesome. Yeah, it's been fun, it's been. It's a good team. We're all super aligned. We talk a lot about mindset stuff and how we want to provide value and what our goals are, and then told him I've got goals to get my own property next year. He's like all right, let's do it, we'll support you.
Speaker 2:So good team.
Speaker 4:Where do you see the company going in the next?
Speaker 3:three to five years. What's your goal in the next three to five years? That's a good question. Next three to five years would be be able to have this machine running without me in it full time and for it to provide a continue to provide value to people and have it not lose the quality that we have in everything that we're doing right now. Like that's like my big goal is like to continue the vision. It's kind of like I mean it might sound corny, but it's kind of like a passion project.
Speaker 3:Like we saw when we were still, when we were, when I was first getting into pre foreclosure we saw a lot of investors taking advantage of people, you know, and that's what led to our first business was to protect people, you know, and that's what kind of led into this.
Speaker 3:Like the business that we're in now is to like still protect people, make sure that people are taken care of, you know, and if they want to sell their home and we don't want to buy it directly, which is mostly the case, you know, we will do an in-house bidding process and we'll try to get you as much money as possible for this property instead of them having to worry about, you know, this investor calling them or them go here and them go here. It's kind of like you know they sign with us and we handle everything that they need, anything that they need. We've gotten people into assisted living. We've gotten people jobs like we were were talking about. We've got multiple people found people jobs um places to live. We've helped with relocation. Um we've uh recently got um almost four million dollars of irs liens taken off a house that this woman was going to be that's a whole podcast itself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that that was a massive accomplishment that we were able to do for the seller this year.
Speaker 4:I brought that lead to the table and he literally said no way, no way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then a partner of ours was looking for a place to live and I go, I'll find you a place to live. And then, when this property came our way, I was like this isn't the area you want to live. However, we have $4 million of liens. We're going to try to take off of this. And she's like okay, well, good luck, I'm not going to hold my breath, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And she was looking for a primary residence super successful real estate investor, owns a ton of doors and just super successful but was looking for the right house for herself, you know. And we were able to lock, take the liens off of this property. Um, we had to communicate with the IRS. We sent them a creative contract, a subject to contract. They approved that contract, remove the liens and she was able to buy this and, you know, now lives in it full time.
Speaker 2:That's, that's sick, I remember you posted that and people were like the comments were fucking crazy because they're like how did you do that yeah?
Speaker 3:everybody wanted to know yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, so all the kind of the stuff that that we're doing now and, uh, it's super rewarding, you know, and at the end of the day, that was kind of where I want to be in five years is still having a meaningful and like a purposeful life. You know what I mean. And like taking care of people fills my cup. You know what I mean. Like taking care of people on our team, taking care of people, our immediate partners and investors to our sellers. You know just everybody. You know the title company.
Speaker 3:You know can't tell you how many times that we've gotten given like, take care of your title companies. You know, like tell you how many times that we've gotten given like, take care of your title companies. You know like we've sent them so many lunches. You know what I mean for the whole office and christmas cards. And you know what I mean like just being, like leading with value and showing people that like who we are and how we appreciate them. And you know what I mean that we're here to like have. You know, enjoy what we're doing, have fun doing it, and I give back to other people while we're while we're doing it yep that's awesome.
Speaker 2:I think that's about how we wrap it up. Where can people find you? Are you on social media? Are you a big social media person? Not?
Speaker 4:really Not so much anymore. I think we're all over on Facebook now at this point Instagram.
Speaker 3:I don't post too much. Someone wanted to reach you. How would they do it? Well, instagram, creative real estate, viking we live, we live. Yeah, we live, live, the, the, the, the truth of the viking concept. Hard in this, in this business, um. So you can find us on Instagram with that, on Facebook, unlocked Home Project, or you can look me up, jonathan Stratton, on Facebook, I don't know if.
Speaker 4:I don't really post anything. I'm out there.
Speaker 2:Like messenger. Pigeon or smoke signal.
Speaker 3:I was going to say you can reach out to our email. You can look us up on the web UnlockedHomeProjectcom.
Speaker 4:Reach him Bye.
Speaker 3:Yeah, reach out.
Speaker 4:Cool, awesome.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me, man.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Grit and Bricks Podcast.