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Welcome back to the Paperstac podcast. My name is Rick Allen, and this is Kevin Shortell. Kevin Shortell. Not Brett Burky today. Brett Berkey's behind the scenes. We got somebody live in the office, Kevin Shortell, for the ever so popular My First Note purchase. I gotta tell you, I pretty much learned this business from this gentleman sitting right here. He taught me most of everything I know right now and It's gonna be really hard for me not to go into the stories of Kevin's past, past, past. I would say one of the most interesting men in the note industry today. So, Kevin, man, welcome.
Kevin Shortle:Oh, thanks. I appreciate that very much. Yeah, it's good. Enjoy coming to the office. Great to see you guys. And easier location for me to get to. It is, it's not Right down the road. So now that I know where you are, be careful. I might just be popping in here. How long did it take you guys on track. It's 3. 7 miles. I'm like, you walked here in about 15 minutes. No one fits being a quick walker, but that's reference. Kevin's
Rick Allen:the fastest. We went to Puerto Rico one time in Old San Juan, and I was trying to keep up with Kevin walking around Old San Juan and If we were turning laps, you would have lapped me like three times. Guy's hard to catch up with. So tell us about the, the note industry. You've been in it for forever. When did you
Kevin Shortle:start in it? It's, I'll see, it's been, I've been married 32 years, so I got started in it right around the time we got married. married. So somewhere in that 30, 32 year range is where we got, got started in it. And it was a completely different business as far as how everybody approached it. The 80s. Yeah. Yeah. Late, late 80s. And, and That's amazing. The approach was, we didn't have the technology. I mean, there was no such thing as Paperstac. There was no such thing I'd have to go to the courthouse to try to find this.
Rick Allen:How did you, like, where did you, before
Kevin Shortle:notes, where were you? Before, I always wanted to get into real estate, so as soon as I graduated college, I moved to Orlando, and I became a commercial real estate appraiser. Okay. And I did that for about a year and a half, and I was like, you know what, the big, the big money is selling real estate. So I'm gonna go sell real estate, and I'll be driving the big car, I still have my 68 Mustang, you know, from, from college, so I'm like, well, I gotta get the Honda Accord, you know, four door, all that sort of stuff, and I remember at the interview, they were like, Yeah. Well, you know, we're looking at your resume. You bartended us at all through college and everything else. And they said, you know, you can't do that at night, you know, when you're selling real estate, they said, cause we don't want you trying to sell somebody's house. Then they go to dinner that night and you're serving drinks, you know, I said, I get that. So of course I bartended way across town cause I had to eat, you know, like stay down in my area and gave myself a year in that. And it's tough, you know, it's just really tough. And the one thing I got out of it was the first, you A piece of real estate that I bought, we used to have back then, Assumable Non Qualifying Loans. And A and Q. Assumable Non Qualifying Loans. You basically just sign the document, and now you're responsible to make the payments. I mean, that was it. So this guy comes in, and I was working the desk, Saturday, Sunday. You know, at the real estate office. A low man on the totem pole. And this guy comes in, he goes, I just, you know, want somebody to take over the thing. And I'm like, I'll buy it. So that's how I got into my first deal, two bedroom, two and a half bath townhouse. And the other thing I got out of that, it's funny how past lead, you know into something down the road. I knew more about real estate and valuing real estate than anybody in that real estate office. It was an old Higgins and Heath ERA. Remember Electronic Realty Associates? Yes. Way back. So, they became better at homes and gardens, I think. But, with ERA, they at least recognized and said, God, you know a lot about real estate, but I'm not making any money. I'm not selling anything, I'm not listing anything. And, of course, being young and everything else. But, he asked me if once a month, I would teach the group how to evaluate real estate and how to go into some, you know, other things about real estate and, and that's how I really started speaking in front of a group as well. How
Rick Allen:did you know so much about evaluating real estate
Kevin Shortle:or? Well, that first year and a half as a commercial real estate appraiser. I was the I was the guy that did all the work. The ground work. Yeah, and then you, and again, it was going to the courthouse. It wasn't internet, it wasn't sitting on my computer. It was going to the courthouse, going through big books. Book and plaid. The multiple listing service. MLS was on a book. I remember. We didn't have MLS on the computer. I've never heard stories about that. So, no cell phones, none of that. So I would just spend my days in the bowels of the courthouse just going through stuff, getting documents. And that's where they, so you really, really, really had to learn the business. And with that, again, I just carried a lot of knowledge with, with, cause I, I enjoyed it. And you know, I, I, I like teaching the stuff and, and it just led into me speaking and, and doing some gigs like that. I think that kind of put me on that, on that path of training as well. So you went
Rick Allen:down, so you started real estate, and then what, what caused the first note? Was that it? Was that like, you'd say, Oh, I assume that
Kevin Shortle:note? No, notes I hadn't even heard of yet. So notes, it was all about buying real estate and that sort of thing. And I, I started working for a company, I'm trying to put the timeframe. This is, my wife is so good at this, but what I ended up doing, I was working for this company, got in their real estate division and we were teaching people how to invest in real estate and then I met a guy who just made 15,000 bucks. Mm-hmm. again, I got thinking the timeframe here where we're, where we're talking about. And 15 grand is, that was a lot of money. That's a lot. That's still a lot of money today, but I mean, it was a lot. And I'm like, wow. And I said, well, how did you do that? And he told me about what he was doing. wholesaling real estate notes. And I'd never heard of that. Like most people when they, you know, run into this business or I never even knew it existed. And so that's, that was for me, I'm like, wow, well that's interesting. You never saw the house and you never met the people and nope, just put this together with this buyer and, and made that, I'm like, wow, that's different. So maybe I want to start pursuing that. So I hooked up with him and I was kind of the marketing creative guy and. You know, you look at businesses and you go, well, how do we scale this? You know, if this can be done, if there's just two of our efforts, I mean, this other guy, you know, we're doing. This, this business, we're going to be limited. Alright, so I said, alright, how do we scale this up? So, I said, well, I'll write a program, and I'll teach people how to do this. We'll provide them with leads, because at that point there was finally a lead generation company that would do a printout. of Leeds, so you don't have to go to the courthouse anymore to find the Leeds. So, that all... How nice was that? Oh, yeah. It was a game changer, because that allowed me to scale it. So we sold this little program that I wrote, the Hidden Cash Flow System, it was on six cassette tapes in a three ring binder. And as we sold those, and I had this other company I was working for, they bought... They bought, not the rights to it, but they paid me a royalty when it went out there and sold. So, all of a sudden, across the nation, we started building up this network. And we'd supply them with the leads, and what they would do is go out and find the people who own notes. They would fill out a form, they'd get it back to us, and then we'd get the note sold. Okay. And that's how we, that's how we made our money. So it wasn't when I first started, it wasn't about buying a note with your, with your own money. It was essentially how do we build a business where we can just get all this. How much volume can I turn? How can I turn around and let somebody else buy it? We'll just make a fee. Buy it at 10
Rick Allen:and sell it at 12. Yeah. That's awesome. So you didn't know so much as go and buy your first note, you bought, you just started, you jumped in and just started just turning
Kevin Shortle:and burning notes. Exactly, exactly. So I was waiting, where were you going to get that question of, what was your first note? I honestly don't remember because it didn't have, it didn't have that impact of, wow, this is my first investment. It was basically, someone came in with a lead, we looked at it, gave a quote, he came back with a quote, and then I handed it off to my partner, he gets it funded, and I'm off to the next thing. But I'll tell you what note did, the first note that really stood out to me and impacted me quite a bit, I think is an interesting, interesting story. And I remember this person to this day, so it wasn't my note, but it proved to me that if you taught someone correctly, if you guided them, in this business, virtually, I mean, anybody can do this. And this one really stood out to me, and again, this goes back 20 something years. I remember her to this day as I love it Texas, her name is Carol Backus, I mean, that's how much of an impact it had 20 something years ago. So I'm starting to train people now, and she comes up to me at an event, a little Carol, she's in her mid sixties, and she's a little tiny, really shy. You know, comes up, and she's about to invest six, seven hundred dollars. And she goes, Kevin, I just need to hear from you personally, face to face, that I can do this business. And I see, you know, I said, well, Carol, I've worked with so many people and, you know, all different backgrounds and this and that she goes, yeah, but I need to know that I can do. I said, well, tell me about yourself. So she'd been married her whole life. Didn't know really anything about money, financial management, let alone real estate or notes. That just wasn't in her thing. She goes, I leave my house, go to church. I go to the grocery store. And that's basically it. And I was like, well Carol, you know, this is still, which it is today, this is a people business. You know, the product is notes, the product is real estate back notes, but it's still a people, it's not
Rick Allen:going to work. Of course,
Kevin Shortle:of course. It's a whole part of it. So I said, Carol, you're going to have to break out of that, that shell. You know, and I really, I came real close to telling her, Carol, this isn't for you. Don't do it. I mean, part of my brain was just like, don't, don't get her involved in this because she's not going to be able to do it. And thank goodness I didn't do that because she went on. Her goal was to get her grandkids into, into jobs. They're going to college at all. She wanted to pay for their college and everything and get them going. And you know, which was expensive and everything else. And, and gosh, her first deal. It was one of these deals where it was on, it was off, it was on, it was off, you know, you would, when you all start doing your due diligence, everybody listens, this probably has done this, but it's, it's levels, right? You think you know everything about the note and then something else comes up and this comes up or this document's missing or whatever it is, this deal was on, it was off and I kept, I said, Carol, cause I was working, I really wanted her to succeed and I said, Carol, you know, you got to walk away from this one. We're spending all this time on one deal. You got to look at multiple deals. She ended up it, it finally came back to us, and it closed, like six months from the whole start to finish, like six months, which is way too long, but again, she ended up making maybe a thousand bucks, I can't remember, which is essentially nothing over six months, but for her, She took a copy of that check, she put it up on her wall, she was so proud of that. And I invited her to come back, because after that, that's all it took. You know, that was the catalyst for her. And she became a different person. She stood up straight now, because she was always kind of rounded and shy, would look at somebody straight in the face. She would also... You know, stand, stand tall. She was, she would get in front of an audience, which she, which she never would, would, would do. And she ended up doing stuff all over the country. Her grandkids, both of them went through college. They ended up working for her. Instead of getting jobs out of college. And it just impacted me so much because I'm like, Man, if I was that close to talking her out of this. But you helped her. Yeah. That was the thing. It's like, no, you can do it and I'll work with you and we'll make it happen. And every deal, and I think this is still true today. Every deal you do, you get paid in money and knowledge, you know, and you've seen sometimes people just stumbling to deal. There's no business. It's easy. I just found a note and I bought it. Yeah. And they get lucky and sure. It's great. So they, they made money, but they got zero knowledge. But I promise you, that will equal... Oh my gosh. It'll equal out.
Rick Allen:That happened to us, man. We got five easy ones kind of off the rip. Yeah. And I was like, well the first one, it was like, oh my gosh, this is like taking candy from a baby. And then you look back and you're like, like it's like like Indiana Jones when he has to like step on the things not for the floor to fall out. I just happened to hit the right steps and didn't blow my legs off. Right. Boy, but did I learn some knowledge. I didn't make some money on some feud. Boy, did I get some knowledge.
Kevin Shortle:Yeah, so same thing for her. She made a little money on the first deal, but a lot of knowledge, a lot of confidence. And then just took it, you know, took it from there. So, for me, that's, that's my first big deal that I really, really remember and had an impact just on so many different different levels. So,
Rick Allen:you bought a lot of stuff. I guess, how did you, how did you get into teaching? We're gonna, we're gonna deviate a little bit from typical because you did so much, you did such high volume. It seems like the teaching started before the volume started or or did it kind of start walking hand in hand?
Kevin Shortle:Well, yeah, cuz there's only so much you could do whenever it's just two of us, right? You know, we're trying to find leads We're trying to do these deals and it took a lot of time because again We had to go to the courthouse and do some research and that sort of thing before the lead list came along So once that was there I said well we can do it Again, now just imagine you got 200 people across the country, you know, you're providing leads with it that they're following up. Is this your first
Rick Allen:teaching thing? Yeah, exactly. This is the first, like, I know you taught the real estate ERA, but this is your first like, okay, I'm gonna put together a
Kevin Shortle:course. Yeah, this is the first time I wrote a course, put it together recorded it and then. Yeah. It was the first time. And, and
Rick Allen:is this, what's this lead to further teaching? Like, Oh
Kevin Shortle:yeah. Yeah. Because then I, you know, then you can kind of see, well, I, I have a talent for it, I, you know, I enjoy doing it, and I know the topic well, and I'm telling you, there's something also about when you teach something, you learn
Rick Allen:more. You learn it three times better, I heard. So there's some, there's some metric
Kevin Shortle:there. Yeah, there, there's, there's definitely a dynamic with that, and I look at Paperstack every day. I look at, I look at notes. And I spend hours at a time looking and when you do that, you just see so many things and pulls up, but it led me a long time to get down. You know, to that path where I'm working with people personally now, one on one, because it's always been through courses, and then from courses you start to do some consulting, and, you know, it starts to grow from there, and then, Ikora, you've heard me talk about the stories of being on TV, and... I mean, my... I don't know which direction I should go. Oh, my favorite stories.
Rick Allen:You're on Lifestyles of the Rich and
Kevin Shortle:Famous. I was with Robin Leach. Robin Leach. So I Robin was from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. And you're on a show with him. YouTube and everybody. You'll find Robin Leach back in the early 90s I guess we're at now time frame wise. I'd like to introduce you to a very good friend of mine. He's an entrepreneur, a successful business executive, and an educator who has taught probably thousands of people to make all that money that we've been hearing about. His name is Kevin Shortell. What does Global Investors do for people that really helps them avoid this problem? Ten years ago, Kevin Shortell began appearing on television news programs. Since that time, he's appeared on numerous commercials and television programs for his own company. And as professional talent for other companies. I established goals, I set a plan, and most important, I took action. I mean
Rick Allen:literally the stories that I've heard and talked to you in hours of hours and hours of stories. Yeah. That I almost would have a separate show. To have you back on just so we could just, like, you know, get some bourbon or some Heinekens or something and sit back and just tell stories for a while. We won't do that on this one, but so, so that led to teach, so, okay.
Kevin Shortle:So then it was on a mass scale, so it went from something very small. To something that went, you know, I was on, our shows ran on ABC, NBC, CBS, I mean it was nationwide, it was all over. And what are you doing
Rick Allen:at this time? Are you still doing the notes? Are you whole still getting the notes and wholesaling?
Kevin Shortle:Yeah, it was all, it was, it was all through, well no, the program had changed to that point where the, the, the wholesale side of the business dried up a little bit at one point. Okay, so you'd have to really understand the history of this business. The first notes that became massive in the United States were the notes where interest rates were, you know, everybody thinks interest rates are high now, you're talking 18, 19%. So a lot of people back Carter administration would sell the house with financing. So there were a lot of people that created notes that didn't necessarily want to. But, people weren't buying houses at 18%, but they would at 9. So a lot of seller finance notes were written at 8, 9%. And that's right, it was half of what the rate was at the time. So we would find those individuals... And see if they would rather have cash now versus the monthly payment. Now a lot of them didn't even know you could sell a note, you know, that sort of thing. Again, so different. That
Rick Allen:happens so much. People, they own these notes and they're like, I don't, I didn't know I could even sell these.
Kevin Shortle:Right, right. And how do I do that? Yeah, it's yeah, it's. So it, it grew, you know, grew from there. But when that inventory. Kind of dried up and that's what everybody's doing. That's where big buyers, Metropolitan and, and, and Gaffanac is still around, but Associates, there are these big buyers in the industry that basically everybody went to to bring their, their deals through. So they were the bigger buyers. And it was probably an easier move at that point in time to make just revenue with the wholesaling of it. But when that inventory started to to dry up, then, you know, the industry made a change. Metropolitan, which was one of the biggest buyers out of Spokane, Washington, and we know People who worked for that company they, the old old man who owned it, he passed away and the family didn't want to take on, so a huge buyer was gone eventually associates went, went away, a couple other places, small ones in DC. So the pool of all of a sudden those big buyers aren't there anymore, kind of dropped up and then it became, well, you have to adjust to the marketplace, you know, and that, that's the whole thing. And we're doing that. Today, you know, the last crash in 2000, that was an adjustment to the marketplace. We saw inventories just explode in a different in a different realm. We're anticipating change in inventory coming up, you know, right now. So back then it was, it was a shift and it became alright, now you start to buy, you know, your assets and, and build 'em up. Build 'em up that way.
Rick Allen:And you did so you went from doing. You know, you just started out. How, how many deals were you moving a month at your peak?
Kevin Shortle:Boy, I wish I had an answer for you. I, I just don't remember that much, but I, I, it's for some reason, probably 20, 30, you know, something like that. 20 or 30 deals a month. Just, wow,
Rick Allen:that's, that's some serious vibing you're talking. Through 400 a year just depending on yeah, that's that's
Kevin Shortle:a lot. That's a lot of inventory Yeah, and you know dealing with with big buyers huge buyers, right? Institutional oh sure. Yeah, I mean, I think FNAC is still you know, they've been around 40 years and they've they've They're still buying three nine million dollars worth per per month. It was
Rick Allen:it's crazy. They buy that stuff How they guys like what they? I think that at one time I heard they had money directly from... Oh, they're back.
Kevin Shortle:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Fred, yeah, Fred Foote and his brother started that. Years ago I think one of the brothers is still, still around but they're still in the business, but they're back by a bank. Yeah, so their funds virtually are unlimited. There's
Rick Allen:no bottom there. Right, right. They just gotta adjust how they buy. Right. Well, that's,
Kevin Shortle:that's good stuff. Yeah, so it's a different, completely different model than, which we see a lot of today, that people have a fund, you know, that they raise capital and, and buy, so they're, yeah, different Different rules, regulations, and approaches to all of that. That's good.
Rick Allen:So, the teaching, you started selling volume, then you're in the teaching, and you're on TV, and now you're still teaching. You got, you're, you're just, but on, not the math stuff now, now you take in students who are really looking to like, take on a mentor, somebody who's ready to...
Kevin Shortle:Yeah, I, I made a major shift, and I, you know, kind of had a chance to... Look at the overall industry where we were what's going on out there and I just saw a lack of True mentorship. There's a lot of group coach. There's a lot of courses. There's, you know, a lot of that sort of stuff. But, you know, I just had a feeling that what people really need and I get feedback from, you know, so many people because over the years I probably trained more than than anybody through the courses in the companies that I was working with. And I just said, you know, the feedback I'm getting is people just need, they need more handling. They need more help. They need more guidance because again, you can talk about all the fancy stuff we can do in the industry. But then, them trying to apply that is just a whole different thing. There's, there's moving parts and it's new to people and everything else. So, with technology and legislation changes that happened after the last crash, it just shifted the, the, this marketplace into a whole different realm. I mean, we never used to have inventory the way we do year round now. We never had that. It, it definitely came in cycles and, and waves. We have that because of legislation. We have a more liquid marketplace you guys identified in it. You, you saw that there was nothing like paper stack and created it. I mean, that gave a place where people could actively trade. So when you have the liquidity in a marketplace, when you have legislation working in, in your favor, changing banking laws, and you've got the technology like zoom. Now I can get on you know, Zoom with everybody and just work, direct, share screens, go through the deals, look at the documents, review everything, run through the calculators, look on public records, you know, look at the contracts, I mean, just go through everything. That's... That to me was a, a, a big game changer and it's been for, for my clients as well because there's nothing else like it, you know, just, just handing somebody a book and tape, you know, those days where we're gone having online video courses are nice, but the business becomes real when all of a sudden you're actually doing a note deal, not reviewing a course on it, you know, and you're like, did I do that the right way? Is that right? Did I miss this? Did I sign that document the right way? It's a paralysis
Rick Allen:by analysis.
Kevin Shortle:It's a whole, right. It's a whole different thing and, and, you know, for some people it's just to have the confidence where someone like myself is like, yeah, you're good, this is going to be fine, you're good, good deal, you know, go for it. And, and so it's been, it's been great and I really I really have enjoyed this part of it because for so many years it was just, Teach somebody and hope they do well, and I'm out on the road and, you know, teaching courses again, and I don't really know the results. Now I know very well what we're doing and, and how people are doing. So it's been yeah, it's been exciting movement for me to go to that
Rick Allen:format. That's good. Biggest, well, hardest step going from zero to one notes or one to ten notes?
Kevin Shortle:I'd probably say 1 10. You know, what inevitably happens in this industry is you typically run out of your way. Everybody starts to face that at some point. And when you run out of your own capital, then you've got to think, well, what do I do from here? Some people went on and built funds, you know, raise capital that way. Some people just did smaller partnerships, you know, or they might just partner with, with maybe starting with a relative and then graduating to maybe finding some investment club where they can start to do some deals that way. Or they just simply learn some techniques like partials and, and structuring deals where they, they just bring a deal to another investor, you know, and that investor pays pays the money. So, that's, that's really, I think, going from that, say, 1 to 10. And I know that's kind of arbitrary. It could be 10 to 20, whatever it is, it's at some point, you know, when your capital gets, gets exhausted, you've got to get creative, but that's why I tell everybody, look, the biggest thing in this industry, like most things I think is the ability to identify, you know, so if you know how to look at a deal, look at a note and. If you can identify that that is a good deal for somebody and you're able, I think, to explain that to somebody, lay it out in a fashion where they can understand it, then the opportunities just are constantly there. They're
Rick Allen:there. Yeah. And you can find the funding. The funding, I would imagine, is there if you've done a couple deals and you can identify it. And if you've got, like a, like a, I don't know if you've done this, but I imagine having somebody like a Kevin Shortile in your corner when you're going to talk to capitalists and say, Look, This is the deal. I've looked over it. I looked over my mentor. He's been in the business for 30 years. I imagine that helps. When you're, when you're working with your,
Kevin Shortle:Clients, Client students. Client students,
Rick Allen:yeah, your friends Are you are you teaching them, are you talking about, Hey, okay, we're, you know, there's a goal to get, Let's buy that first note, but then we gotta look at, Hey, let's look at these, let's look at partials, or hypothecation, and stuff like that. Let's set up this plan for, you know, what's your goal. Are you looking for just one or two, or are you looking to make
Kevin Shortle:a business? Yeah, so my approach is, it's education, And the consulting really is the true mentorship. It's me working directly with you, one on one. And, but you have to have the education there, because I think you have to be well rounded. There are some other people in the industry who may still do it today, where they only teach like one side. You know, one, let's say, performing notes, or just non performing notes, or one technique. Which might get somebody going, but what are you going to do when that technique isn't there? There anymore, or it doesn't work anymore, or what happens when you learn performing and it
Rick Allen:turns
Kevin Shortle:non performing So I think everybody should be well rounded and get the complete training So that's part one for me And I do like the fact that all my training now instead of live and you've been to my live events as you're sure and you're Filling out yellow Going through it and taking notes like crazy There is a comfort in being able to have those on videos where they're broken up into pieces like I have and you know, where you can stop, start, go back, replay, or even go, I know we talked about that technique, I wonder what that was, and go in your video archive and go, oh, there it is, that's how we do it, and that's how the calculator works, and that's, you know, all of that sort of stuff. For
Rick Allen:us, when we went to your live, the three day live you were teaching I think we were in a different environment. Yeah. Sort of place and most people that walk in because we own 15 notes And I had you know a couple million dollars liquid waiting to buy more right so you know sort of there's that you don't know What you don't know, but when you've been in it for a you know at that point 12 months Yeah, there's a fire hose of information, and I was like oh my gosh Yeah, I was like trying to catch it all and at the end of it. I was just like My head was just exploding. I was like, there is so much here. And at that point I was like, it doesn't matter what the mentorship costs, we have to do it. And I remember leaving. Just leaving the live event. We drove back on the ride back. We learned something that we learned in the live event Which is I mean you'll learn some stuff there But you're really like you said the meat and potatoes is when you can get into the videos Yeah, just it I can pick up the phone and call you man. We learned something that live event We made money, but we made half what we paid for on the ride back and I was like, oh, this is it I, I think this is a loaded question. I think I know the answer. I know what my answer is. But if you have one piece of advice for somebody getting into the business, what is it?
Kevin Shortle:Understand that you're getting into a business that's not perfect. Right. And you, you become a problem solver in that imperfection. And that's really the key to this. this whole thing. If you come into this expecting everything to go perfectly, you're setting yourself up for a rough ride. Now again, you may have a deal that goes perfectly, but I'm just telling you as it starts to play out, there's going to be some, but it's the same way in rehabbing a house. I mean, if you think you're going to buy a house that needs rehab and it's going to work, it's going to come out on time, perfect, at the cost that you estimated, you're in for a rough ride because it doesn't quite work that way. So, you have to have a good knowledge base of the industry Expect to be able to move on your feet a little bit. What I mean by that is adapt to, you know, what comes at you if something, the documents missing or this is wrong or that's wrong. How can we fix that? You know, and, and, and not go into panic mode. I think that's really, you know, really the key to the whole thing. Cause again, if you know, I've said this on camera before everybody on my hats here, they think it has something to do with Notre Dame or. Tony Robbins and all. It doesn't. I like the brand basically is what it is, but I, I, I like this statement too and I've said this on some of my tip of the days and stuff, but you know, this is the brands called live lucky and I think the definition of luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparedness and when you're prepared, guess what? You see opportunity. That's right. So that's probably where I'd come back and say, just Be a good boy scout, right? Be prepared, wasn't that the first?
Rick Allen:I had it as ownership and it was opportunity and preparedness holding hands. Is what it is. Yeah, but that's, I like it, it's that intersection,
Kevin Shortle:so. Yeah, yeah, and then all of a sudden, yeah, you feel like you're getting lucky, but no, you're just prepared.
Rick Allen:No, that's it. That's the, that's the big thing. That was, see, my answer to the question is when somebody's getting into the business, every time they, somebody's new getting in here is, it's, I'm like, look, you need to get education. Yeah. Before you do anything. Educate yourself. Find somebody to listen to. Find somebody to snuggle up with, talk to. There's plenty of free stuff to start with, but ultimately you want to get somebody who's been in the business to teach you what's going on. But I do love that answer. It's not a perfect. Yeah, it's there's rocky roads ahead. Yeah, no matter what the mirage looks
Kevin Shortle:like. Yeah, if you're prepared and that's why I yeah I went to unlimited consult So when people are in my program, they can book as many appointments with me as I want to and because sometimes you need it You know sometimes like oh something changed. I need to talk with somebody and it just enables you to go forward. So yeah Education preparedness, you know, you'll see plenty and that's a good thing plenty of opportunity in this in this industry and You know, the way the legislation is today, Dodd Frank and everything else, those laws aren't going to change, and we're going to be good if the economy stays the same, we're going to have year round inventory, which we've had now for a long time, but if it gets worse, we're in an industry where it actually gets better for us. It does, it
Rick Allen:does, and I think, you know, you talked a little bit earlier about problem solving. I think identifying problems is a good thing, but knowing that, Hey, I know I'm gonna be able to solve this problem. There's three or four solutions to that problem. I think my experience has been that people who are the best problem solvers and the most creative because you're right. It's not a perfect business. You, you can look at a deal and say, I see two or three problems with this, but I've got two or three solutions for each of those problems. I'm going to move forward. And a lot of times you'll get. Those are the deals for me that always turned into just home run deals knocked out of the park because everybody else looked at them It's a good deal. They said that's not a good deal Yeah, the sellers then going I need to get rid of this deal and you're like, I'll take it on I need it for this price. Yeah, and then next thing, you know, you're like you solve those problems and you solve them You solve them very quickly. Yeah, like hey
Kevin Shortle:Great example a couple months back Was the On paper stack. And the problem was, it was really tough. It was one of those neighborhoods where you, you just couldn't get a clear valuation of the collateral. You know, the range was, it would come back, well, it's worth somewhere between 20, 000 and 70, 000. It's like, what? 50, 000 swing? It's like, wait a minute. So it's just really, it was really hard to judge that. And of course, one of the things we always look at is, well, what's our risk? If you don't know what the underlying collateral is worth, Then it makes it really, really difficult. So I'm sure a lot of people passed on that deal. So I told my client, Alvin, you guys know Alvin, I said, Alvin, Offer this guy a partial with a right to buy the back end. There's your solution. The problem he has is he's going to have trouble selling this note because people are going to run into the same issue. The house, we don't know what it's worth. But other than that, pretty good looking note. Offer him some money now with the ability to get on your options some money in the future on that. And he did. The guy accepted the offer. Went through. It's paying great. Yeah, that's it,
Rick Allen:right? It's just, hey, you just mitigated your risk. It's paying I'm mitigating my risk if it goes bad He's gonna, he's gonna step in or at least I'm not out there, but that's, that's fantastic. So where can people get a hold of Kevin Shortell? They want to talk to you. They want to
Kevin Shortle:sign up. Sure, of course I've got a podcast too. You can look that up, Real Estate Without Renters. My book's out there, Real Estate Without Renters. You can get on Amazon. And the website is realestatewithoutrentors. com I love consistency, there's a branding, there's a branding going on there. So, yeah, I think kevinshortsell. com takes you to the same place, but realestatewithoutrentors. com and I do these little tip of the days and you guys comment every once in a while on those as I'm walking around town. So YouTube channel and, and Facebook and. All that stuff, you can find me there too. But if you're looking for true mentorship, it's The program I put together has just been, it's been fantastic. I'm really loving it. It's been great. Clients are all happy and doing really well. So, can't be, can't be any better than that.
Rick Allen:Good stuff. So, Real Estate Without Renters, Kevin Shortell. Wealth of knowledge. Just knows the industry inside and out. And is, you know, you meet some people who teach. And you're like, ah, they're okay, but you really know how to teach and connect and explain stuff. So I'm bragging a little bit because I went to him. I know, I, the proof's in the pudding. I've tasted it. I've sampled the goods. Go for it. Other than that, I appreciate you coming out. Yeah, it's a pleasure. Yeah Paperstac Podcast coming back to you again. Kevin Shortell, thank you for joining us. We'll catch you on the next episode.
Kevin Shortle:There you go. Really good. Oh my god. Ooh! Hot or shocked? Shocked. Shocked? Shocked to crap. It's like, no, we're not done recording.