Left $40k Job at Oakley for Real Estate Millions

How to Build a 7-Figure Real Estate Portfolio From Scratch 

In this episode, we sit down with Josh, a real estate investor who made the incredible journey from a dream job in corporate sales at Oakley and Trek Bikes to building a thriving real estate business.

Josh shares the raw, unfiltered story of why he walked away from a successful career in the action sports industry to pursue financial freedom through real estate investing. We dive deep into the mindset shifts, the challenges of starting over, and the critical role his faith has played in his success.

📌 Key Topics:

• ✅ The exact moment to leave a W2—and the safety nets to stack first
• ✅ Our three-option framework for sellers: retail, real cash, or creative terms
• ✅ How to use subject-to/seller finance ethically (and where it goes wrong)
• ✅ Building real deal flow through community, not cold DMs
• ✅ Intrinsic drive vs. borrowed motivation—and how to self-govern daily
• ✅ Bringing faith and integrity into business without being weird
• ✅ A practical, boring definition of freedom that actually holds up

Chapters: 

00:00 Introduction and Initial Real Estate Deal
00:14 Career Struggles and Turning Point
00:24 Discovering Real Estate
00:52 Podcast Introduction and Guest Background
02:51 College Years and Early Career
11:27 Transition to Real Estate
19:27 Applying Past Skills to Real Estate
28:04 Faith and Business Integration
37:31 Navigating Community and Belonging
37:45 Challenges in Building Community in Santa Cruz
39:52 Marriage Counseling and Community Loss
40:48 Moving to Omaha and Building New Communities
42:16 The Sub Two Community and Real Estate Networking
45:24 Intentional Networking and Business Growth
57:22 Creative Financing in Real Estate
01:02:20 Risks and Protections in Subject To Deals
01:07:16 The Value of Community and Mentorship
01:13:22 Defining Freedom and Personal Goals
01:15:42 Closing Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

 I had to call them and he's like, Hey, I kind of wanna sell like these properties. Ended up being like, okay, well the best situation is that we do like a seller finance subject two deal on this. That was fruit of the first meetup. Six, seven months later, they turned into money in my pocket, money in his pocket.

We had two years of just really bad sales and. I was making less than I made my first year in the job. The reward for the time is not really panning out anymore. My wife bought one of Brandon Turner's books. He was not into real estate at all. I wasn't into real estate at all. I just picked it up and read it and, oh, like you can do a heloc, you can do all these different programs.

This. Is how making things work. You, you closing four deals last week. How has being intentional with your, your networking and meeting people helped you grow? It's directly led to deals being closed. The first meetup we did, both sides came from being out in the community and connecting and networking with people.

  



 Josh, welcome. Appreciate you coming here. Kind of threw this together last minute, and, uh, I know you almost had had to cancel for a sick daughter, so I really appreciate you being able to come in. Can you start off and just tell us a little bit about yourself and why we, uh, wanted you here?

Well, I don't know why you guys wanted me here. That's why I was telling my wife. She's like, do you feel like you have stuff to talk about? I was like, I don't know. Well, we'll see. Um, but yeah, I, I grew up here in Nebraska, in car Nebraska. We're gonna restart that because I forgot to switch already, so, oh.

In there. See I did have one kind one point. We'll restart. I'll be.

Make sure I'm right, Josh. Oh, I hit the button by accent. Here we go. Ready? Take Josh, welcome to Freedom Fighters podcast. Appreciate, appreciate you being here. Just kinda wanna start off a little bit of your past, what got you here, why we decided to, uh, invite you here. So just tell us a little bit about your story and why you're here.

I'm sorry, did I do it again? What? I'm trying so hard not to laugh you, you, you said just kind of Really?

Oh gosh. All right. I'm keep a straight face this time. Sorry. Those are normal filler words. That's what's interesting. I know, but it it's your most common filler words. So you said, just kind of want to hear a little bit about your story. Hey, it's perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. That's perfect.

Straight face. This time quit drinking. That's why it's messing them. Yeah, it's the Bailey's.

Take three. Take three. Josh, welcome. Appreciate you coming here. Can you start off with just telling us a little bit about yourself and why we invited you here? Yeah, I mean, I was talking to my wife earlier. I'm not sure what I have to talk about and what you guys will be interested in, but, um, love to be here and thanks for having me.

So, um, I just moved back to Omaha, Nebraska, I guess now it's last year, um, earlier in 2025. Grew up in Carney, Nebraska. Kind of bounced around for the first part of my college years and then afterward went to Tennessee and out to California for about 12 years. Kind of moved around some different industries and then finally found my way into real estate kind of in 2020.

And so that's kind of probably what's ultimately led me to be here talking about real estate and different, you know, business stuff. On a podcast. So it's interesting. So you mis mentioned moving to Tennessee, you moved there for soccer and you went to a Christian school that was like completely nothing to do.

Like wasn't, your religion wasn't, you know, you didn't know anything about the religions kind of jumped out just for oh, just for the uh, whatever, for the experience or whatever. Kind of talk to that and your mindset behind that because I think that goes into play a little bit with your real estate as well.

Yeah, well, I mean, I was, I was Christian and so that was part of what I was looking for in a college was I wanted to have high level soccer, but also with a Christian background, um, in the school and everything, and. This was called Lipscomb University and they were Church of Christ, which was, yeah, the part that I was like very unfamiliar with, what that looked like.

And I think we had talked about when we first met, like the differences and um, you know, I came from a evangelical background and church and, you know, they had instruments you could, you know, you couldn't dance, but you could sing and you could use instruments and stuff and Church of Christ and that segment that was a little more, uh, a little bit more progressive of a church of Christ, um, church.

But you couldn't use instruments when in the worship. And that was very unique for us. Especially being in Nashville, there's like so much music and instruments and things. And so then when we have to go to like our chapel services, it's like, oh, you gotta just sing with your voices and you can hear everybody.

You can hear yourself. And very much different than what I'm used to. And, but it was a great experience and loved playing soccer there and um, getting to combine those two things and then forget everything that I learned there and moved on. What was your degree? Spanish. Yep. Pretty interesting. That's helped you in life?

Yes, so much. I, I graduated in three and a half years and I mean at that time I think the tuition was probably like $40,000 a year or something. And that was like, I mean if I could have stayed here in Nebraska and gone to a state school, it would've been like, you know, five to $10,000 a year I think it was.

So, just seemed like an intense amount of money to be paying for a degree that wasn't really sure what I'd do with it. So, um, we'll pause that 'cause I have to fill in, we're recording this conversation. Because that's okay. So we're off to a great start. That's okay.

I'm gonna check my wife's flight one. Yeah, check it. Get her to safety.

I am sorry. That's okay. Yes, we, uh, kids school, they, that's, they called me the third time. My daughter forgot her book. Did you say, how'd you take how old microphone? I I took it off and I put it on the Oh yeah. I think it's still kind of working up. Yeah. She forgot her book for her class. That's not your fault.

Vibrate the first time and I shut it off and the second time. Yeah. If it's a double ring. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a book. She'll make it. Mm. What? They want you to bring it there. Yeah. It's, it's the learning lesson of, uh, you know, when we say to get ready for school, it means to get ready for school, not, you know.

Yeah. Play any phone. So. Yeah. Well, it looks like Valerie's probably crying at the airport right now. Oh, cancel again. Yeah, it's not canceled, but it's delayed an hour and a half. Oof. So, uh, I don't even know where to pick back up. Um, you were Spanish using Spanish? Yeah. You were talking about using Spanish and, mm-hmm.

You want me to just ask another question or you want to, you can continue. Go into that or, yeah, I'll switch over. So you went there, learned Spanish, graduated in three and a half years, and then kind of take us on your journey from there. Yeah. Then I floated over to California, Southern California, orange County, and that was like, you know.

Growing up in Nebraska, I think. Are you guys both from Nebraska originally? No. No. We're the one of us. Oh, well, so was the first thing. I was like, all right, I'm leaving and like playing soccer here and stuff like soccer wasn't very, um, like popular at that time in Nebraska and football. I mean still football's still everything here, but I was like, I'm gonna go somewhere where, you know, soccer's more appreciated and um, they like different things and the weather's better.

And so that's where California came in. And um, I was saying I had a Spanish degree and really the only reason I got a Spanish degree was 'cause I went to Spain for six months and my credits just added up for Spanish and that was my minor. And then I came back and my, you know, teacher's assistant or what, whatever they called the people that help you go through the college.

I was like, you could graduate, you know, this semester if you just switched your, your major to business or to Spanish instead of business and made bus business your minor. So I was like, oh, sweet, like $40,000. Like I don't have to go for a whole nother year. That's gonna be a whole nother year to finish my business, or just finished in three and a half years for Spanish.

So I was like, I'll take that. And then I had a internship at Oakley Sunglass Company in Southern California. So I was like, yeah, I'm going, I'm going to Orange County and the Sun, and I see what that's about. So, um, went to my internship at Oakley and turned into job, you know, after a couple of months and I was paying like $300 to live in somebody's house.

Uh, just a friend of a friend's and rode that for a few years and it was amazing. I thought I was making like the most money in the world being this like. Sales rep at Oakley and my expenses were about zero. Um, 'cause you know, that's pretty cheap to live in, in, in Southern California. And you could go to the beach.

There's tons of mountain biking. Really got into like action sports, industry, Oakley's, all about action sports, everybody that worked there. So I didn't really have any interest in real estate or anything at that time. It was just, hey, this is a fun, fun spot to be. Um, I can go mountain biking, I can go road biking, do all this stuff.

I'm a single guy out there just living with no expenses. So we just bought bikes and, you know, got into a ton of riding and things like that. And then that turned into me switching a couple years later to work for Trek bikes. Um, and then worked there for 10 years. And then that's when I ultimately just left like a year and a half ago from there.

Um, I was a sales rep for a long time there did, um, I was a marketing rep before that. Drove all around California, Arizona, Nevada, doing events, um, mountain bike events and things like that. Getting to ride in a lot of cool places, travel in a van, do the whole van life thing, kind of when that was starting to be more popular.

So that was a lot of fun. Um, just to go travel all these different places that I, you know, didn't get to experience when I was growing up in Nebraska. We went to Colorado a lot, um, went to some other states but didn't ever really spend a whole lot of time on the west Coast. So it was great time just to be single and go try a bunch of different places, um, and have a lot of good time riding.

So. So it seems like you had a lot of fun. You were doing a lot of stuff, had a sounds to be a pretty good job. Why transition away from there? What was kind of the, the calling there to, to transition out of trek, out of sales and all that stuff where you can make good money? I'm assuming that it's pays pretty decently.

Been a salesperson in, uh, California. Why a switch? Yeah, it was pretty good for, for bike sales and everything. Like it's not, you know, you're not selling houses, you're not selling like medical devices or anything like that, but it was pretty good. And, um, once COVID hit, like everything shifted for bikes and, um, the whole industry just shot up.

Um, and I think it was like March when kind of COVID started and then I think by April or May, bike sales had just flew off the charts and we ran out of inventory within the next month or two. Um, just completely wiped everything out. And then we just played a back order game for about two years. Um, trying to get.

Shops inventory and accounts inventory. Um, and it was really great for two years. And then it just like, you know, houses have kind of, they haven't like tanked some, some markets they've tanked since that timeframe. But, um, where bikes, they just completely tanked and everybody was discounting. Everybody had too much inventory, shops had too much inventory, manufacturers had too much inventory and then it really just went backward.

So, so it was good. And then just boop, it was good. And then it was amazing. And then it was even worse than it was amazing. So, um, that kinda really set me back on that being a, you know, just a long-term play for me. And, um, they were also in Wisconsin. I didn't see myself moving to Wisconsin or like leveling up in that company.

Um, it was just gonna be being the sales rep. Northern California for a long time. Um, and then I think probably like in 2020, um, sometime or maybe slightly, slightly before that, um, I just remember talking to my dad on the phone one time and he was like saying, you should diversify like your income and stuff.

I was like, I don't know, like, we'll see. And then I, I think my wife bought one of Brandon Turner's books just randomly. She was not into real estate at all. I wasn't into real estate at all. And she bought, I don't remember which one it was, but it was just like a basic intro to real estate investing and long-term rentals.

And she had read the book and I think I just picked it up and read it. And I was always thinking like, all these people have like these houses that are worth like a million dollars in California. And I'm like, how do, like any of these, like some of my friends, their parents have these houses that they've lived in forever.

Like how do they afford things like. How does this all work? I had no idea about any of it. And then reading Brand's book, I was like, oh, like you can do a heloc, you can do all these different programs with your personal house. Like this is how they're like making things work here and stuff. Um, and so that kind of just opened my eyes to look more into real estate.

And then I think that's when I started listening to BiggerPockets. Um, and then at some point I listened to Rich Dad, poor Dad in there and kind of all those books. And I think that compiled with kind of the COVID, um, you know, era and being in California, it was a lot different than being in Nebraska. I think COVID lasted about three months here, and COVID lasted about two years in California.

Like we stopped going to accounts like traveling right when COVID started. And then, um, you know, it was probably six to 12 months before our company even said like. You should start going back to see your dealers type of thing. We were doing everything virtual at that time. We're placing a lot of work, wear masks on Zoom and yeah, wearing masks on Zoom, there would be people in our neighborhood like walking their dog with a mask on their dog and a mask on themselves.

It was pretty comical. Um, a lot of people, you know, driving their own car with a mask, with gloves on, stuff like that. And, um, thankfully we had the beach right next to us. We could walk to the beach and they would shut down the beaches. But at the one we lived at, the Ranger was like, no, like, you guys can come on the beach, you're good.

So he would, he would patrol, but he'd just say like, no big groups. So we just spent a lot of time gonna the beach and everything, and that was, that was cool. But, um, so I bring that up because a lot of things like changed in corporate world and work life and stuff. People were losing jobs for, you know, maybe their beliefs on COVID and vaccines and things like that, and just didn't, I was like, this is a little more fragile than I expected it to be.

You know, just going outta college. I didn't have ever like, earned my own money, um, besides like a little couple of, you know, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, like stents that I had. Just like little things that opened like a little bike shop in college, um, and had a paper route, like little things like that that were kind of like my own job or business that I kind of started.

Um, but other than that it was just like. My dad worked for 40 years and a company still is type of thing and loves it. Um, but I was like, I don't see myself doing that too. So these things just kind of came up and um, like I could see, oh, like, you know, a job, you might lose it just because of you think differently about something, um, or you don't wanna do it to the T of what they're asking you to do type of thing.

And then your income can complete, completely gone. Yeah. I find that very, uh, interesting. And I, I think more people should be more eye-opening, should be more eye-opening to more people, I think. But I wanted to ask you about your dad. You said he told you to diversify, but yet he's been in the same, I think you said, same company for 40 years or working for 40 years.

When he said diversify, what did he mean? I'm assuming he didn't mean mean real estate, but maybe he did. I think at one point he also said like, if I had to redo things, I probably would've. I'd gotten into real estate earlier. He, he didn't have real estate early on in his career, or, or with my mom. Um, and they started getting real estate maybe, maybe like 12, 14 years ago.

Okay. I think. And so he probably built up, like, I don't know exactly how his trajectory went, but, you know, built up enough income and extra savings and stuff to where he would always coach us on getting stocks. He set up a, set us up with a financial advisor when we were in high school or earlier, you know, we got our checkbooks and middle school, um, I think we got debit cards in high school at some point and things like that.

So they were really good at teaching us how to save and to put it into some like, passive investments and things like that and work with our financial advisor. Um, and so definitely like taught me that side of things. And then I think. He had seen like what real estate could kind of do for him as he was on the tail end of his career.

And that kind of just coaching me, maybe I should do something like that upfront. I don't know if he had other ideas on what that looked like. Um, but that's kind of where I took it, I guess, was, was real estate. 'cause once I read that book and then started listening to BiggerPockets, I just started seeing so many different ideas and ways that you can make money that didn't just have to come from going to eight to five job type of thing.

So, so I mean, from years with those big companies and being a sales, you know, a successful sales agent with them. I'm sure there's a lot of skills that you picked up that are applicable to being a real estate agent. Now, probably a lot that aren't, but I mean, just being able to talk to people and, you know, uh, lead funnels and stuff like that.

But is, is there any crossover and stuff that you look back at time at Oakley and, and time, you know, selling bikes that now help give you a competitive advantage as a real estate agent? I think the biggest thing is probably just being consistent and following up and being, everybody says they're a good communicator and stuff, but, and I'm not a great communicator.

I'd say that I, but I actually follow up on what I say I'm gonna do. And that was always probably the biggest feedback with within Trek or Oakley that I did was that I always did what I said I was gonna do. And I tried to hold people accountable if, like, we had these, we'd do like these continuous improvement events at Trek with our retailers, where we'd go through their p and Ls, we'd go through all their finances, all their sales, all these things.

With the shop owner. And it was a way that we could like, help coach them from things that we're seeing in different retailers and kind of bring it to one retailer, um, and say like, Hey, this person's doing this, this person's doing that. Like, can you learn some of this? Because a lot of times you had different, like shop owners, you had like a hobbyist shop owner who's done it for a long time and they just really love bikes.

And so that's why they opened a bike shop. And then they had like, maybe they love bikes at one point or they still love bikes, but they actually treat it like, like a super business. They wanted to grow. Um, they weren't just content with doing the same amount they were last year. And so we were trying to kind of bridge that gap a little bit for the hobbyists and make the bike industry a little bit more of a serious retail industry.

Um, and so that was like a, your question was back to skills. Mm-hmm. How, how do you apply them to Yeah. And so we would like hold those people accountable in those situations. And so I got good at like. Maybe motivating them to do some of the things. A lot, half of the things they just saw as like corporate stuff that was trying to be pushed down to them where they're their own business owner and they don't want to be a corporation type of thing.

So it was kind of trying to find a blend of what was great for them and what was maybe something that wasn't good for them right now, but maybe in the future as they work on some other stuff that we could incorporate some of those corporate, you know, strategies that we think are good for shop. But, um, so I think just holding them accountable to those things was always like big feedback that I would always come back.

I wouldn't push everything, but I would push the things I thought was right for that person and what they would get on board with. Um, so I think that translates into real estate, especially like lead follow up, um, is extremely key and just doing what you say you're gonna do. A lot of times realtors don't do that.

Um, and. It's typically the common theme that I get from somebody that is bashing their current realtor that they're working with is that, oh, they never get back to me. I asked 'em to write an offer like four days ago, and I still haven't seen the offer in my inbox. Things like that. Um, I'm not the fastest person in the world, but I'm, I just try not to commit if I don't think I can do it, type of thing.

And so, um, yeah, I think that'd be one of the biggest. And then talking to people is definitely a great thing. Like, um, at Oakley we'd do presentations, um, and that's where I kind of started like, you know, doing trainings with people on the technology of Oakley and sunglasses. And then same thing that translated to marketing at Trek, when I was a, a rep going around doing events, I was just talking to people like every, every event, several days a week.

Multiple times, repeating the same message over and over. So I think that also helped translate into repeating a real estate message, um, solutions for sellers or buyers type of thing in real estate, and being able to hone that craft of just talking to people and getting deals done. Hmm. How do you hold yourself accountable when you don't have a boss?

Uh, today? So like when you work for Trek or work for Oakly, you probably report it to somebody Today you're independent, basically real estate agent and do wholesaling for yourself. How do you hold yourself accountable? Do you, do you have an accountability partner? What's kind of your secret there? I've tried to do accountability partners before, and I don't know, we don't hold each other accountable, so then it fails, um, and.

That's kind of been something that has been a strength of mine, I think, since I was little at a certain age. Like I just started practicing soccer, I think in maybe fourth or fifth grade. And, you know, through middle school, through high school, I always just held myself accountable to making sure that I was bettering myself in soccer.

Um, and at, at a certain point, school became that way for me as well. Um, and then at a certain point too, just my relationship with, with Jesus and everything was also part of that. Um, and so just trying to grow those things, um, have kind of come, especially the soccer and just exercise in general. It's probably like.

I'm not, I don't have super addictive like, issues with things, but like, except for exercise, I would say is like my addiction. Um, and something that I just feel like I need to do every day. And so I think that started with soccer and just training, working out, exercising, playing the sport, all that kind of stuff.

And then that has translated into when I am motivated these other avenues of work or school and things. And so I don't think I have just like, uh, a thing that I, I just know that I'm gonna be missing out if I don't do these things. And I think maybe the quality of saving and being cheap upfront of like learning from my dad to save for the future, for when things get bad.

I think I just have that mindset that I can think into the future and that I need to do these boring things now. So that. I can have rewards in the future and I can be prepared for the future type of thing. Just, yeah, I think that fear maybe sets in that if I don't do these things, it's gonna cost me in the future.

Yeah. I find people talk about motivation a lot and we, when we talk about motivation, we think external motivation and what you're talking about is internal motivation. Like it's, it just comes intrinsically to you. And I think that it's probably the number one thing if you're gonna be a self-starter and all that stuff, is just being motivated from the inside out and letting your actions speak for you versus always looking for the next Instagram videos.

Yeah. That motivate you or the, the David Goggins running and be hard, you know, like type thing. Like, yeah. It, it, it works in the moment. The next day you're looking for the next, it's like a drug. Yeah. You're constantly chasing, I think just having like a high standard from a young age on things, me and my best friend from growing up, we would always like, kind of, kind of hold each other accountable and push each other a bit.

Um, and I just remember we would come to Creighton, um, university here for our soccer camps. And I just remember like very vividly one time the coach of Creighton was like, Hey, all you kids, like you shouldn't drink soda. Like it's really bad for you and it's gonna, it's gonna, you know, impede your ability to become a great athlete and a soccer player.

And I think we were in sixth or seventh grade and, you know, health healthy eating wasn't like really a thing, you know, 20 years ago it wasn't like a popular Instagram thing and we're just like, yeah, let's. We should do this, we should cut this out. And so at that point, like him and I really never drank pop or soda again.

Um, and do now a little bit, but like, it was just, and it's not like it's bad or a send to drink soda, but it was just one thing that, like, it was a standard that somebody said was really good, probably for you not to do. And so we started then, and then we just continued on that trajectory. Um, so I think just having some of those basic standards from when we were younger just have carried forward.

Um, so, so clearly faith is very important to your life, and so I'm, I'm curious how you incorporate it into your business, into your, your daily rituals. I'm still figuring that out too. Um, because I've gone through transition where maybe you guys have had similar but growing up, you know, I grew up in the church.

Thought I knew everything. I would read books, I'd go to conferences, and like, oh, I got this thing down like X, Y, z. This is what you do. And then like everybody else will kind of catch up, you know, in my class or in my school, my soccer team, like, you know, whatever that is, whatever my community was like, you know, I kind of have the path and they're like still figuring out type of thing.

And then you find out quickly, like you go to college, there's a lot more different views, there's a lot more different things. And you're like, okay. Like, all right, maybe I don't have it exactly right. And then move. And that was in Tennessee, like it's Bible bell, it's, you know, we were at a Christian school and then moving to Southern California.

That kind of like quickly changed. Churches were a lot different. Um, a lot of different views, a lot of different people. Um, and then orange, orange County's still for California, pretty conservative and faith-based of an area. Then we moved to CI Cruz in Northern California for the last nine years of that, nine or eight years of that.

And then that's like completely different. Very, uh, lot of like, uh, very progressive. It's near San Jose, um, San Francisco. A lot of different views, a lot of, um, Buddhist religion, um, uni universalism and different things like that. And so it wasn't very common to speak about it. And that was kind of like a big change here when we went to Omaha.

We're like, oh, oh yeah, like people like are okay talking about religion and Christianity or different religions 'cause it's kind of like quieted. Um, at least it just felt very suppressed where we were at in that we had some circles that we were running in, but it wasn't like Orange County where there was a big.

Church community and different churches and there's, I mean, there's like mega churches in Orange County. Um, we lived right by Saddleback Church, which was I think one of the biggest churches in the country. Um, Rick Warren, pastors that and things like that. So there was just like a lot of different views.

Um, and so I've kind of gone through different, um, histories of like being more outspoken upfront and then being more reserved on it and trying to figure out what the balance is of that, that's most effective. There was a time, um, with a, a group that I was a part of in Southern California and there was a guy that was, uh, LDS or um, Mormon and he had kind of joined our, our group and, uh, was interested in, it was a faith-based group and.

I was very interested in what we're doing and I really appreciate and like, respect a lot of those guys. And they really motivated me to be more outward spoken about my faith and to kind of, um, provoke others to go that direction as well in their life. And this one particular kid, I think kind of, he was like 18 or 19 and um, he wasn't really jiving well with his parents' faith of the LDS church.

And, um, so we were working through him with the Christian faith and the differences and what that looked like. And, um, it almost felt like, like he really wanted some sort of change in that. And then a couple of the other, uh, guys and mentors of mine there had maybe pushed him a little like too quickly, too fast and trying to hold him accountable and maybe more on the, I don't wanna say legalistic, but like, just like.

Very structured, like, Hey, this is X, y, Z so you've made this decision. Now your life should look like this. And then that just completely pushed him away to where he didn't want anything to do with it. And I was kind of a part of that and it kind of made me step back to think what does, you know, being in relation with other people and trying to promote a relationship with Christ look like with, um, with just whoever we're coming in contact with.

And I would say it kind of, you know, in Santa Cruz I didn't have like a super outward spoken ministry or things that I did have in, in Santa Cruz. Kind of toward the end I started, uh, with another guy, um, at our church, like a, it's called Sal, it's like five on five indoor soccer on a basketball court.

Basically you have small goals and we just started doing that once a week. We ended up some weeks, we'd have like 60 people and we'd rotate teams and we'd have like 10, 12 teams. And that was just really cool. It was at our church. We didn't like push any like, um, you know, faith-based stuff on it, but just wanted to be a safe place.

Nobody would get in fights, which was very common in soccer. You know, you get the adults together and they're getting competitive and fights start happening at all the different leagues. And this was one place that everybody always commented, like, nobody gets in fights. It's all clean, like nobody's swearing at each other and stuff.

And it was just a great way to get people together and I really enjoyed that time. And many people did start coming to church just because it was a, it was an opportunity for them to come to the church and see what it was about. And that, you know, me and the other pastor that were kind of running it, we're just there trying to build relationships with them.

And so I've kind of tried to bring that a little bit over into the soccer world here since we moved. And then also on the real estate side of things, like real estate is a big. Deal in a lot of people's lives. So, um, I've tried to figure out, and I'm still figuring out what that balance is of how can I implement some of these values or even like, outward spoken things.

Um, like the other day, one guy was saying that at the end of his sales calls with people, he runs a marriage counseling, um, business, but at the end of his sales calls, they usually pray for the people. And it's like, what? You like pray for the people? And he's like, yeah, and it's really great. It's like one of the favorite things that we do at the end of our calls.

And I was like, okay. So now I've kind of thought like, okay, there's been a few times where sellers are very distressed. They're at the lowest, some of the times, the lowest points of their life. And how can we, you know, be a good steward of them bringing their problem to us? And. Letting me solve it for 'em and then also maybe pointing them towards Jesus here as they as they change.

So just trying to a couple, and this is not by any means, like a perfection or anything, it's just something I've started trying is just, you know, when it feels right that I ask, I can pray for them. And they probably get really awkward about it, but it's usually in a private setting and just, you know, can I just pray for your situation and that we could find a problem or we could find a solution for your problem that will kind of kick you, kickstart you back off, um, to flourish and thrive, you know, to come.

So that's kind of one thing I've done, um, to try to blend that. But I think also it's just about. Having good relationships with the other people in, in your industry. And I really like that about Omaha. Like the real estate community is pretty tight knit and a lot of people know each other. And so if you do one bad thing with one person, it, like, I've already heard it from other people about, you know, this person does this, this person does that type of thing.

And just, it's a constant reminder, like how high standards you need to hold yourself to when you're doing these types of business transactions and working with, with everybody. 'cause it, it shows and if, you know, I'm Josh going to church and speaking this message about Jesus, but then I'm going to sellers and I am swindling them.

I'm trying to, you know, get behind them on the price and renegotiate at the end of the deal. Or, you know, be shady with buyers and things like that. It just, it won't go well. And so I think just trying to hold a good standard, um. With doing business with everybody on both sides. And what, what I like about what you just said is that your, your ministry wasn't standing on a podium and preaching to people and trying to convince them.

It was providing an outlet of people that enjoy soccer and then also confined a clean way of doing it. And that became the ministry. And if that leads one person to Christ, then your ministry's success. Yeah. You know, so I, I think that's like Ryan starting, uh, you know, Bible study group. And, um, I've seen many men's groups and like ministries where someone's preaching those things are effective.

But for the, the person, I can't remember who it was we talked about, but um, there was someone that was a Christian that, that just swore all the time and, you know, tattoos and all this stuff. And they, someone asked him like, why do you, why do you do that? Like you're George Chen or Heavy. Yeah. And he was saying that because the people that are on the outside.

We'll never get a foot in the door until they see someone who looks like them opening the door for them. Yeah. And I, I think that's cool. Again, no matter what, you know, scenario that is. Yeah, that's, and that's also one thing, like I, I felt like my community had kind of dwindled a little bit going to Santa Cruz in Northern California and that, that area kind of has a, uh, you might see it on people's trucks or cars there, it's like locals only type of thing.

Or they'd shorten it to locals only. Mm-hmm. And it was a very, like, 'cause there's big surfing culture there, um, and it's amazing surfing, amazing train, amazing mountains, Redwood forest, all like amazing place in California. Like, it was one of my favorite places and that's one of the reasons why I moved there.

But they kind of have that stigma that's stuck in around, stuck around. I think it's kind of stemmed from the surf culture. Just like they don't, you don't wanna share like your wave. Type of thing. You get on a wave and it's like, it's not an abundance mindset. It's very, it's a scarcity mindset. A hundred percent.

And, and then as surfing got more popular, more people started finding the spots that they're surfing. And then, so it's very secretive, you know, kind of like maybe real estate used to be. And now it's a lot more abundant mindset it seems like, and that you actually might do more by sharing. Um, and so I think that kind, locals only vibe kind of reduced the amount of communities that were built.

Um, especially in like mountain biking. There wasn't a whole lot of like fully legal trails in Santa Cruz. They're, um, which is like a whole just like bike thing, um, topic, but like whether you can ride a trail or not. And so then that kind of stems people to not have big communities. And we had a big cycling community, orange County.

There was a lot of legal trails, a lot of legal places for you to go ride. And that were fun and challenging. And not just like a little beginner trail type of thing. And so I think that also there's just these things about the area that did not lead to community building. Um, although I still love the community and I love a lot of people there, it just felt like that was kind of something that you're always gonna be fighting against.

And me and my wife were doing like marriage counseling for a few years there. And one time my counselor asked something about like community or something and it like, I don't, have you guys done counseling before ever? Mm-hmm. Um, like sometimes they would ask you a question or you say something and then you just start crying and you just like, you feel it in your head or in your like chest.

And she asked something about like community and, um, one of my friends in Orange County had just passed away and from this cycling group. And it just, like I was talking about it, struck a chord, started crying and all this stuff with my wife here, there. And, um, she's like, it feels like, do you think that's about like your community and you don't feel like you have some of those good, like male relationships that you had in Orange County or in the past?

I was like, yeah, I think that's probably to do with it. And so when we moved to Omaha, you started talking about the communities and stuff. My goal was like not to sit behind a computer all the time. Um, I wasn't really sure what my business was gonna look like if I was gonna go more toward like helping primary, uh, people buying their personal residence or if I was gonna work with investors.

And I kinda just wanted to see which way it went and, but I knew I wanted to just get more in community and build those with different, uh. Avenues. So I didn't wanna sit behind a computer and cold call like I was doing all the time or like reaching out to realtors just about different leads that they might have.

I really just wanted to do the things I wanted to do. Um, and so that's kind of what I put my focus on. Um, I am also like, I took the summer off, be with my kids. We just went to the gym, went to the pool, did the zoo, all the fun things for the summer. 'cause we had just moved here, wanted to get them acclimated.

And then I still am, you know, part, a full-time dad as my wife works like a nine to five job and. Um, so with that I was like, all right, I'm just gonna start getting in communities. I don't know a ton of people here in Omaha, but I'm gonna start getting communities and building communities. And so the kind of avenues I've looked at that is one, soccer I've already talked about to a church that I'm getting plugged into, um, and small groups and things like that.

And then, um, three is like the real estate community. So, you know, we talked about the Omaha Res starting to get in those, but I'm also part of the Sub two community, um, which is like the nationwide investor group where that PACE Morby started. And they didn't really have a community here meeting like they do in a lot of the other states.

It's very big in California. They have meetups in Northern California and Southern Cal, California. There's hundreds of members. And there was about, you know, 20 to 30 members here in Nebraska. And my brother-in-law was one of those. Um, and he's like, yeah, there's no community here for the people don't talk to each other.

Um, they don't know each other that are in the group. And so that was like my first thing I did was we started, uh, Nebraska Sub two Meetup, um, for all the members or anyone that wants to come. And so, and then my last community is the gym, um, kind of the exercise thing, go lifetime fitness here in Omaha.

And um, it's just a great place. Like you see more people and so, um, just the more times you can connect with people, see 'em, say hi, just randomly, um, leads to relationship building and, sorry, I'm a little sick still. No, you're good. I think just those were the things I wanted to do and as you meet more people, you'll do more business.

But also going from the point that I'm not doing those relationships to just do business. I'm doing the relationships to do relationships and then hoping that something will follow or there'll be some path opened up for my business that just naturally comes. And that's kind of what has happened. Yeah, I find it.

I think that's the biggest thing that men are missing is community and where we fall short quite a bit, both personally, professionally, um, psychologically, just everything. I think a lot of that stems from those men are very egotistical and territorial and kind of fall short there. And it's, uh, it's not terribly.

I mean, I think we overly complicate meeting people. You talk about the meetups and stuff. That's how I met you was, I think you actually talked to my wife and I walked up Yeah. How I met. But the thing stuck in my mind about the Church of Christ thing is 'cause that's what my wife was raised, church of Christ.

Yeah. And I remember joking around with you. Wow. You really, really swung down the way with, you know, and, but. Just from that little connection where I think we exchanged phone numbers and, you know, kind of stayed in contact somewhat, you know, through the last couple months. Yeah. Whatever it's been since I met you.

But you've been intentional with your networking. You started a group and stuff like that. You, uh, sponsored pace more becoming into town for one of his, I think he was doing 50 states in 50 days or, yeah. Or he is doing a hundred, I think it's a hundred, a hundred meetups in 120 days he's doing and he's getting toward the end.

I think February is his last one sometime. But you, you set that up for Omaha and made it, I I ended up missing it. It was on Sunday, I think. And I was gonna say, yeah. But, so you've been intentional with everything you've done. How has that helped you being here for a year roughly grow your business? I mean, you talked about closing four deals last week, so obviously you're, you're doing well.

How has being intentional with your, your networking and meeting people. Helped you grow? Well, I mean, it, it's directly led to deals being closed. Um, there's one of the guys that came to the first sub two meetup we did in August, um, August or September. He, I, he was an investor, he was in sub two. And um, you know, we just started, kept talking after that event.

And one day I just had called him and he is like, Hey, I kind of wanna sell like these properties. And I was like, okay, well, like let's go through it and everything. And, um, ended up being like, okay, well the best situation is that we do like a seller finance, a subject two deal on this. We do create a finance to sell these.

And, um, so that was from, and then I just closed those three deals last week, um, after a couple months of, um, you know, finding a buyer and then also, um, going through just the, uh, escrow period and different hiccups that come. Every time you go through something, you learn something new and there's some new issue that you didn't know that was gonna be there type of thing.

And so, um, that was fruit of the first meetup that we did. And, you know, maybe six, seven months later they turned into, you know, money in my pocket, money in his pocket. Um, a new deal for somebody else that I had also met at the Pace Morby event. Um, connecting the dots there between the investor that had the properties and then sold 'em to some buyers that I met at the Pace Morby event.

So like directly there, you know, both sides came from being out in the community and being, and connecting and networking with people. Um, I just closed or I just, um, closed a deal that I brought a, brought to a flipper, um, a couple of weeks ago or months ago now. And, um, I met this guy. Probably in the first couple of weeks going to the gym in the summer when I wasn't even thinking about real estate.

Like my goal for the summer was, I'm not gonna think about real estate. I'm gonna slow down, kind of reset, and I'm not gonna listen to a bunch of real estate podcasts. I'm not gonna, 'cause then I'm just focused on that and that's all I do. So, um, I met him in the workout class and then, um, became friends and then at a certain point I had a deal that worked for him.

He bought it and then we just listed it last week, um, once he was done renovating it. And so, you know, that came from just going to the gym, one of the communities that I've been intentional about like growing relationships at. Um, and then even with that, my brother-in-law, he was the one that kind of motivated me and spurred me on to create the sub two meetup.

He comes to every single one and he's more on the lending side. So he's, he's connecting people with money and two people with money. And it was cool after our second meetup, him and another substitute student that didn't know each other before, they connected and did a lending deal together for somebody in Ohio doing a fix and flip.

So somebody had 30 grand, he lend it to my brother-in-law, Jacob, um, who lend it to this fix and flipper, and they, they all made money on it. So that was, you know, just the product of creating community and what it can do, not for me alone, but for the other people as well. So I will bash sub two and paste morby with this question.

Yeah. Yeah. Before I compliment 'em. So I'm not a fan of sub two. I take it. Sub to the community or sub to the subject? Sub To, to the, yeah, the subject to the, the, the concept behind it. Because sometimes I feel like two, two reasons. One, as soon as people hear it, they just wanna gravitate to and they, it's just like everything, everything's subject to at that point in time.

Yeah. And that's all they can think about. And I, while I think it has, its, uh, its purpose, it's not every deal is a subject to, should be a subject to deal. So that's my, my one batch there is, um, it's not a catch off for everything, but what I do, like what Pace did was I feel like outta everybody in the national, uh, whatever you like, big real estate, like influencers, influencers from the past 10 years.

Yeah. I feel like he has done the best job in building community and. Um, just getting people involved and not only like community from his egotistical standpoint, community from helping others. Like he really preaches helping your fellow people, like helping people in subs. Two, because that've been your perspective.

I've never joined sub two, so I'm looking at it from the outside, but that's my pers perspective, perspective of things. Is that factual? Yeah, I'd say like I, I mentioned I think already that I'm pretty cheap and I would never spend money on anything. Um, especially like education for myself or anything.

Like I, I listen to all the free stuff, go to YouTube, do all that stuff, and then, uh, when I'd done my first couple of real estate deals, I did it the traditional way. Um, or like what BiggerPockets would preach, you know, kind of house hack, um, live and flip, get your nice like, uh, primary residence loans and everything, and then you run out of.

Money, like super quick putting 10 to 20% down in California on a property. And that's where I kind of found, I listened to Pace on the bigger pockets, um, uh, podcasts at one point, and I was like, wow, this guy's like sharing a ton of stuff. And that's what I just remembered. He's sharing a ton of resources, he's being super helpful, sharing like all these things.

And he just sounded a little bit different than most of the other people that were hopping on there. So then I just started listening to everything that he was doing and I was like, this guy, like shares like a ton of stuff and was just giving me the confidence, like get more into the investor side of real estate.

And so, um, I looked into joining and I was like, I don't know, this is like $10,000 or something at that time. And I was like, what? If you think it's gonna be a good deal, like do it. I was like, you should, like, you want me to spend $10,000 on, on this? And, um, she's, yeah, go ahead. And I was like, okay, great. So I did it.

And then, um, like they don't promise you a whole lot, but they overdeliver like so much in the program. All the money that you use to sign up for the community goes to the, um, sales company that is just bringing people on, um, called New Reach and Pace doesn't own them or have any affiliate. And that was kind of, he'll say this all the time, like he doesn't want it to be a mentorship that everybody looks to him.

So he dies, he's gone. Like it doesn't continue. And so he's been big about making it a community and I would, you know, stand by that. And that what you see is actually what happens. And even more like, just so many crazy opportunities that he provides to people, to, you know, if they put a little money in or they, um, sometimes they don't even have to put any money in.

He'll give opportunities to people, um, that like they don't deserve and they didn't do anything and he helps them. So, and then it kind of trickles down to the community and all the other leaders in the community kind of having that same mindset. So I think there's some bad actors, you know, in any community and everything, and they try to, you know, deal with that when it comes up.

But for the most part, you can typically trust anyone in sub two. And that's been my experience. Um, and so I think it trickles down from pace, just growing that community and setting the standard from the start. And you can, you can do a lot of business within sub two with all the connections and everything.

Um, there's tons of training, tons of knowledge in everything and, but like ultimately it's just the confidence in the connections that you get, I think through sub two that mean the most, and then getting in, in groups and rooms with people. Um, so yeah, I think it's, I think he is the real deal. I'd like to circle back to you leaving your W2 and what, what had to be true for you.

In order to leave W2, I'm gonna got out on a limb and assume something that as a Christian male you wanted with a family, you wanted to be able to provide for your family. So leaving your W2 was probably took a lot of thought, you know, a lot of a, a lot of nights praying, if you will. What, what had to be true for you mentally, emotionally, spiritually, whatever.

In order for you to leave your W2 and have that, um, lack of better term, lack of, uh, had the balls to do it. I think I probably, if things were going better there, I think I would've just kept riding it out and it was just a safe, easy, predictable thing to do. Um, we had had two years of just really bad sales and I was making less than I made my first year in the job type of thing, and made that two years in a row.

Um, and so I was like, all right, well this is kinda the re the reward for the time is not really panning out anymore. And so, um, a couple things kind of came together towards like, all right, um, we should probably just cut the cord here or like fully dive into that and stop doing real estate. And I didn't really want to do that.

So, um, I wanna say it was like super planned. Um, but it was like. If it happened, I would be okay with it type of thing. And so then when it did align and it was like, okay, well let's do this. And um, and then yeah, I, I wouldn't say it was super planned, but I knew I had the ability to create the income, especially with extra time, um, plenty to, to provide.

And then I had some rental properties in California too that were also nice cushion that were doing like short term and midterm rentals on. So I just had some safety there and knew that if I put my full effort into it, like I would be totally fine in that. And I think going back to sub two, every time you go through like a new module or a new Zoom that they have there, they have this whole like library of all these things that you can do.

Like you have to be. Super lazy or unintelligible or unmotivated to not make money with one of these methods. And so I think just having that background and knowledge that there's thousand different ways to make money. And that's all. If that's the only thing I'm trying to do, then like I can pick one of these and if one's not working, I can pick a different one and you can make money on it and enough to provide for the family.

Um, so yeah, I don't, yeah, that's kinda where I land on that, I guess. So. Tanner, you, you gotta have a question by now. You're, uh, well, I mean quieter than normal. I'm curious, 'cause I mean you like, you like the residential sales aspect of it, but it seems like what you're using, the tool you're using in the sub two and the investment side, have you found a bridge or is there a goal of finding sellers that are in tough positions, connecting them with sub two?

Or what's your, what's your method there? Yeah, I'd say my method right now is I have three like buckets that I go to when I'm talking to someone. If we're talking to like a seller, um, I have the realtor side, I have the investor side, and then I have some blend in that. So I usually present three different options and then try to help guide them to one of those options based off the things that they've been telling me like.

I think you might lean toward this one or ask them which one they feel like they're leaning toward. And if it doesn't really align with what I think they're saying, then I might try to help them see why one of the options is better for what they want based off what they told me. Um, but so I kind of go through, you know, qualify them, ask a bunch of open-end questions, figure out what you know, their context, you know, their timeline, uh, price, all that kind of stuff.

And then once I get all that, then I kind of present my three buckets that they could fall into. And, you know, if it's in good condition, doesn't need a ton of work, and or they have the money to fix the house up, we can go list that on market. So that's my realtor pitch is like, we'll go list on market. We stage it, we do photos, do the traditional real estate thing that you're thinking of, and that most people sell their house and that's gonna get you the most price.

Um, it might take a little bit longer. You might have more costs, but you're probably gonna net the most if we do it correct. And so that's like, you know, 80% of people, that's them. And then there's this other 20% that, you know, they don't have the money to fix up their house. Um, or they're in foreclosure. Um, they owe too much money, they're behind on payments.

They just went through a divorce. Um, you know, they have some foundation issue or something like that that's come up. And for them to put the money into get to that retail sale is not gonna happen. And so, you know, we can go the cash route, which is, you know, discounted, um, offer, like we need to buy it, you know, anywhere from 50 to 70 cents on the dollar, that's our cash route.

It's gonna be the most convenient and it's gonna be the quickest option for you. And I think that's when you talk to just a normal realtor that just knows retail, just. You know, option one, they see this as like sleazy and like you're taking over someone's house and you're manipulating them and things like that.

But what they're operating off of is the assumption that everybody has the priority of the highest price when selling their house. 'cause that's what realtors are taught a lot of times in school. Like, our job is to get the most money for the client as possible, but even if that takes six months, even if that takes 12 months, like we can't wait that long sometimes.

And so there's other people out there and there's plenty of 'em. They there, there's all the cash. You know, we buy houses for cash ads out there and people call and people sell to those because they prioritize speed and convenience. And so that's why I try to, you know, promote with, with that is that we're in the close quick.

You're gonna have assurance that we're closing and you're gonna get, you know, this number for sure. Type of thing. Um, so that's cash. But you know, the problem you run into is a lot of people owe a lot more than what we can pay for it with cash, with their current condition. 'cause if they're in a distressed, you know, financial situation, they're probably in like distressed physical condition with the property.

So, you know, a cash offer is not gonna solve their problem. So then we have a different solution, which we get into the creative finance stuff where, you know, we can take over the mortgage with the subject two route. We can, um, do seller finance, um, or we can do a blend of the two. So you can combine those two.

You can do a seller finance with a subject to, and you might be able to get the price that they need, um, to walk away from the property to solve their problem, whatever it is. So it kind of, those three situations and with the creative thing, you get a higher price to the seller. So it kind of acts like a retail is usually what I tell 'em.

Like, you, you need the price, but you want the convenience at the same time. So this is a way that we can do the convenience and the price, but you need to give some sort of terms with seller finance or you know, give over your mortgage. 'cause now we're selling a house, not just by itself, but with financing attached to it.

So it's like a package. You get a house, you get financing, you buy it together. Instead of you buy the house from the seller and you go to the bank and you buy the loan, originate the loan, you have to pay money for that. And then you're gonna be paying them. You can just buy 'em together and you can give the seller more money.

Have in the communities have, do they talk about stories where things don't go right And like what protections do they put in place? Oh yeah. To make sure it doesn't happen. Oh yeah, yeah. Um, there's different, uh, philosophies on, you know, subject to um, seller finance and how you can protect those sellers, um, or the buyers.

'cause both have risk and any real estate transaction, there's risk. You could sell your personal house and you could get sued because, you know, they demoed something, you know, a couple days later and they found that you had covered up, or a previous seller had covered up something in the house, um, you know, foundation, crack it, something like that.

And they could come sue you. There's always risk, um, or you could not have done the proper due diligence and you didn't even own the house, or there was a lien that you didn't know about, and then you go to sell it and then, you know, there's a lien or there's just a, a number of things. And so there's also risk in these transactions and sometimes more.

But we have plenty of different options. Um, with that, just with a subject to transaction, sounds like you guys are pretty familiar with that type of thing. So normally with a subject to, you're gonna take over, you know, if I'm buying Ryan's house, he's got a mortgage and his, and his wife's name. And then he also owns the deed, which is just saying who owns the house.

So we have the mortgage with their name on it that goes to the bank. And then we have the deed, which is the receipt tells you that you own the house. And so the deed that says you own the house, transfers typically in a subject two deal to the new owner. So I'm gonna buy it, I get the deed, it says Josh on it now, and when Ryan, um, Ryan is still gonna have his mortgage there, it's not gonna switch to my name.

It's gonna stay in Ryan and his wife's name. So that's typically the, one of the biggest barriers on this with somebody. Is that part. And so, um, you know, that can go bad because now I just like got in a car accident and I'm not responding to anything and I was manually paying the mortgage payments and now I'm not paying the mortgage payments.

And now his wife and Ryan's credit is on the line and it's gonna start going down. So that's, that's one of the biggest, like, things that can happen. Um, and, but typically we'll put in the protections on those so that they can foreclose on the property. And then there's also options where you can put in a trust where there's a trustee holding it and they can basically, um, which this kinda gets in the weed.

They can basically. Do the foreclosure a lot quicker. If it's in a trust and the trustee knows what they're doing with the transaction and the paperwork's upfront, they can take that property back a lot quicker than a normal foreclosure. So that's one thing. Um, the other thing is like the due on sale clause.

You know, a bank might call the note due, uh, the mortgage due when they find out that it was, the sale was transferred, which is totally legal in everything to do this. There's, you know, IRS codes that talk about subject to and what happens with it, and how the taxes are paid on it. So it's, it's totally legal thing to do.

Um, and you're not, you know, doing something bad to the bank. It just says they have the right to call the note due. Um, when the sale is transferred, they don't have to, they could just leave it. And a lot of times you might just talk to the bank and like, Hey, we've been making these payments for two years.

Like, are we good to keep going on this note, or do we need to refinance? Um. That might be the case. They might ask you to, sometimes they'll let you stay, um, with the loan. So there's that. You can also deed the property back to the seller, which basically makes it a land contract or an agreement for sale.

And so they're kind of like the legal title owners, but the seller has, or the buyer has all the other rights to the real estate. And so that's one way that you can, you know, mitigate the nuance sale clause. Um, so there's a number of things and it's happened, like everything has happened, that's why we know about it.

And then there's typically solutions involved as long as you've done the paperwork up front and people are on the same page. There's like three pages of like one, one thing that's great about stuff too. They give you all the contracts and things and he's constantly updating those with his attorney. Um, and so you can utilize those and there's.

Three or four pages of just subject to disclosures of like, here's what happens, here's what you're doing. You, you initial this, you initial that, all that stuff. So it's upfront, um, but there's still risk and there's still things that can happen and you can still have lawsuits about it and everything. So it's part of the part of the thing.

So yeah, it's the, uh, I like creative deals and I like all that stuff, but the more creative you get, the more legal jargon. Yeah. You need to go through. Yeah. And I just, one of the good things about joining, like I said, I've never joined Paces community, so I'm not advocating for it or against it, but. He does share all his legal stuff, and you could easily spend $10,000 in just legal fees.

And one things I noticed like with his community is people will be like, Hey, I'll partner with you on this first deal. We'll split it 50 50 or whatever. Yeah. And then you'll have all the legal documents after that or something to those effect, but then you kind of get your training wheels going. Yeah.

And, um, yeah, so that wasn't a real question. Well, he's, he's big on like partnering with people, especially when you're new. And that's what I did. Like the first, uh, the first deal I did, I kind of did by myself, but it was just a cash deal. And then, um, I think my first subject two deal we did as a team, um, and I, you know, partnered with somebody that had been.

One of the first sub two students, um, that joined and had done many deals. So, um, and then I've done the same thing for other people where they had a lead and then we took it to the finish line and helped them get all the way there. And I'm like one of the people I'm thinking of and um, in Arizona, I helped her do a deal and then we did a second deal and now she's doing all those deals by herself and like it's cool to see her like now promoting those same listings that she might have that like failed the traditional way.

Then you can go and sell it on seller finance or subject to, to get them that price that they need. If Plan A didn't work, here's plan B the creative way, we can still sell it for you. So it gives us as realtors too, another backup option. And that's what a lot of times I tell people, like when they ask what your value proposition is for being our realtor type of thing is.

Like I have a, a lot of, you know, in depth knowledge of the inner workings of real estate and investors and the different options to sell your house so we can pivot if we need to. Um, and like, it's not everybody's, it doesn't work for everybody, so we're not gonna make it force it. Sometimes you're just gonna be stuck with the house for a couple more years.

Um, or you need to make it a rental or you need to bring some cash to the table. Um, if you have it to close your house, that's gonna happen. So, yeah. What, um, to go to your meetup, what, what requirements is, do I have to be on Pace sub too? If someone's local to Omaha watching this, I'm like, oh, this sounds interesting.

Is your meetup strictly tied to. Pace more being subject to like, do I have to pay the 10 grand or whatever? Yeah. 20 grand or can I just show up? Yeah, you can just show up. And that's one of the cool things too with Pace is like he just put a number on there to make sure that people like, have some barrier to entry into the community.

Um, because when you don't pay anything, like you don't pay attention, you don't pay attention and like anybody gets in then, so they do some vetting. It's not like crazy vetting or anything, but you don't have to be in sub two to, um, come to our sub two meetups. Um, part of being like a sub two liter, like I'm the Nebraska sub two liter, and part of that is like they want us to be doing community building and outreach, whether it's a Zoom call or an in-person meetup, um, whatever it is that we do, it all has to be free and anybody can join.

So they, like, if we're promoting it as a sub two meetup, we can't charge for it. Um, because. That's, you know, paces barrier to entry is very low. It's like $10,000 to be in sub two. And you might go to another mentorship that's, you know, 25 or $50,000 for six months and then you're out of it. Um, so his barrier is very low and he provides a lot of value through that.

Um, and so he wants that barrier to be low for these types of things. And he knows as he gets these people in the community, he does more deals with people and he makes more money because he does deals with people. And so that's the same thing with this is like, this is a free meetup. People can come and learn.

They don't need to know anything. They don't need to pay anything. Um, to get this type of, you know, relationship building or community building and networking. You can just come, anybody comes. I'd say half the people are in sub two or one of Pace's other communities. There's Gator is the other one, which is the lending side.

Um, so some people are in Gator, some people are in sub two that come, and then half the people are. Not in any of these communities. So anyone can come in. Anyone's welcome. We'd love to have anybody. It's interesting. So it's, he created a community to basically get deal flow. So like you join the community, you start a networking locally, he basically mandates that you don't charge, which gets his name out there.

Well then you potentially join the larger his community. Yeah. Which he from what you say, doesn't probably make money off from, but it gives him deal flow for what he actually does. So just an interesting Yeah. Concept to what you were saying. And then you also get to do deals with people that are higher or further along in their real estate journey than you are, which just gives you credibility and helps you learn and helps you give confidence to do 'em by yourself in the future like we talked about.

So it's a really cool, I don't know if you thought about all this stuff from the start, but like the way it's developed. It is very communal based and it helps everybody involved. It's not like a lot, I'll get the skeptical guys that watch all this free stuff. He's like, oh, he's just like, he's just selling hard on, like, he's making tons of money off the mentorship and stuff.

And you tell him like, no, he's not making any money off of you paying the company to join sub two. And they're like, ah, no, no. That can't be, like, he's gotta own the company and he's making money off of anything. No, like he just makes money from doing deals with people. So it's cool. Awesome. Well I know you gotta get outta here shortly.

I know you had a pretty hard stop, but I wanna end on this question. Uh, well, I guess before the ending, but what does freedom mean to you?

Well, I'd say the real estate stuff comes from the freedom to control my days and, um. So I think being able to control what I spend my money on, what, what activities I do for business, what activities I do with my family. Um, and so I think, you know, leaving the W2 that has been able to give me more freedom to do those things, whether it was, you know, take the summer off, be with my kids, um, you know, I think that's freedom.

I think being able to say what you wanna say is freedom, um, and, you know, promote the things that, like, that's one of the, um, problems I have with the corporate world is that you don't get a say whatever you want to say and some things you might have to say, even if you think it's not good for the person that you're saying it to type of thing.

And so. With the business freedom. I think being able to, you know, if you want to pray for somebody at the end of a, a sales call, like you can, um, if you don't want to, you don't, you don't have to. And, and if you, um, you don't have to hit your numbers for the month if you don't want to. If, um, I think being able to do what, what I want to do or what I think is best to do, um, for my daily life and for my, you know, long-term life and that, um, I don't like to go travel a bunch and stuff.

Like, I like being in routine and doing similar things every day. So like, freedom doesn't necessarily mean that I can go travel anywhere whenever I want to, but if I want to, like I could. So, um, yeah, I think freedom to do what I want, when I want, with who I want and be able to provide for my family and.

How I went, I guess. Awesome. Any closing questions from you specifically? I don't, no, I, I appreciate sharing the knowledge and the experience and, you know, it's cool to see how you're building this community, you know, and, and taking charge. Um, definitely look forward to seeing your success. So if someone wants to get a ahold of you, obviously we'll tag you into Yeah.

Podcasting. But what's the, uh, what's the easiest and best way? Well, I think my phone number's posted everywhere, but, um, with the amount of spam calls I get, so, but I have a website, um, you can link it, it's easier to link. And then, um, Instagram or Facebook's probably the easiest way, just follow me or, um, send me a message is fine.

I'm usually checking those. And that's honestly where a lot of business comes from, is Facebook and Instagram. So, um, you can easily reach me there if, you know, if it's business related or you just wanna play soccer or connect or whatever that. Where you can get me and, uh, I know you're really happy about your over 30 golden cleats or whatever.

Oh yeah, yeah. You, you put on the form. What are your, do you have any big awards or achievements? And that's kind of been a joke in our house 'cause there's outdoor soccer league of, you know, men's over 30 and it's pretty legit. Like they, they have full on refs. You got jerseys, you, you know, I was like impressed when, when I came and my friend was playing on it.

And uh, then the first season I got the, uh, my wife makes fun of me for going, and his, my best friend's wife makes fun of him for going. And so it was the joke like, oh, I got a trophy at the end of the season for scoring the most goals. And so my, my daughter went and put it on my, my wife's, uh, side table by her bed when she woke up that morning to see it.

And my wife's like, this is the stupidest thing out. So that was the first thing I thought. I was like, oh yeah. I got this award. Yeah, that'll be good. I remember reading it, I just thought it was funny. So popped in my head right at the end. So yeah, otherwise, no other big accolades or achievements or awards.

I'm just kinda kind of doing what I do, so. Awesome. Well, Josh, appreciate you coming and uh, yeah, thanks guys. Look forward to connecting more. Yeah, thanks you sir. Thanks guys.