- 12:46 – Michael’s start in wholesaling and closing 30 deals in his first year
- 10:25 – His strategy of driving for dollars and finding abandoned properties
- 11:38 – How he leveraged a partnership by each bringing their strengths
- 23:38 – The importance of passing on knowledge to build a legacy
- Website: https://azreia.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaeldelprete/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delprete/
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Email: corwyn@corwynmelette.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exitstrategiesradioshow/
- FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/exitstrategiessc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoSuynJd5c4qQ_eDXLJaZA
- Website: https://www.exitstrategiesradioshow.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
PERSON:
Do you want something more? More meaningful moments, opportunities, deeper relationships, and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you said yes, a career in real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for. Guiding people through one of the most important decisions they ever made, the purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative. Exit Realty’s revolutionary compensation model, training, and technology that provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call me today, Me Me You Bank at 843-730-3327, that’s 843-730-3327 or visit exitlowcountry.com/joinexit and make your exit today.
CORWYN:
So good morning and great morning guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode. I need y’all to mark that down on the Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, I’m your host Corwyn J Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Lowcountry group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina. Hey, If this is your first time listen to this show. You sir or ma’am are in for a treat. Hey, our mission is very simple. That is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education guys, we are legacy building. That is what we do. Now for many of you, hey, this may be your first time tuning in 2024. It is mind blowing that we have yet crossed over yet again. So I’m super stoked. I’m super excited. And guys, I’m looking forward to bringing you great content, great information, and most importantly, the best guests possible. And guys today. Hey, today. We did not fail you. Okay, so look, I need y’all to put this one. Hey, I need you to mark this one down in the call when I got this one down in the Corwyn Win category because we got a great one for you today. We have none other look here. We got an investor for you. And somebody who teaches investors and shares. Hey, we have the guy for you. Hey, look, we have with us. None other than Mike Del Prete. He is with the Arizona Real Estate Investors Association .Man Mike, how are you doing today?
MICHAEL:
Wonderful man. Really excited to be here. And thanks for having me.
CORWYN:
You’re quite welcome. So Mike, look, I know what you do my listeners don’t if you can give them high level Hey, this is me. This is who I am at. This is what I do. I will be so appreciative. Because lucky you bought the blow their mind today?\
MICHAEL:
Yes, we are. Well, I’m a real estate investor. So I’d like to talk so I can go over. I can give you a long thing of how I do this. But overarching. I’m the executive director of the Arizona Real Estate Investors Association. We’ve been representing real estate investors throughout the state for 21 years now. So we’re the largest real estate investing association in the country. There’s one REIA, there’s one in every state. So check out your local REIA, for investing information. And besides that, it all started because by heart, I’m a deal guy. I’m a real estate investor by heart wholesaler, letting the fix and flipping lead into rentals lead into short term renting lead into raising money lead into lending money. So you just become a total dealmaker overall, on a daily basis. So I still do that as we speak, as well as the organization.
CORWYN:
That is impressive. So listeners, hey, look, you’re gonna pick up a lot today. Grab your pen, so Mike, look you’re a deal guy. Okay, so what got you to this? What did you do before? What was that draw that kind of attracted you to real estate? And let’s start talking about some of the stuff you’ve been running into over the years. But go ahead
MICHAEL:.
Well, even before I was in the music business, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to like New York City or any of the major markets. There’s always like street teams out there but back in the day, at least, passing out flyers and T shirts and promoting albums. So it was always that started me into the music business which led me into band management, throwing my own concerts and ultimately going on tour or something. So it was always in that entrepreneur kind of world. However, I met my wife and then we had a son and then we he was like one or two years old. And it’s like man this music life isn’t life. Three clock in the morning coming home. This is just not the right environment. So made the switch to become a full time employee at Verizon Wireless. Working most can pay for 40, working for 50, got two weird days off the whole just crazy. I gotta go to the bathroom. I got to put in a coat in a box and tell me like, oh, I only got 84 seconds to get back. But then some guy was like, Hey, you guys are paying attention to what’s going on. This was like ‘09 right and his houses are 15 grand. 30 grand And 40 grand I’m like, Oh, that’s weird. I remember a friend. He was flipping houses in the boom and he was houses are 2 – 3 – 4 thousand and he’s making 100 grand you that world making big money in the old room? I was like, that’s weird. Let me look into this so I got curious and so watching HGTV like we all do you see those big check? So it got me into this as the money is like really? What attracted me but um, I got curious between HGTV and like noticing something weird in the market and I started doing research and getting curious to what’s on something different.
CORWYN:
So you saw an opportunity is kinda So somebody says something that was intriguing that cause you to explore you found an opportunity and then you left then is what I just told him picked out of that Mike. So your first property what did it look like? Was it a flip? What kind of deal was it?
MIKE:
Well, my first wholesale property. So remember, I’ve gotten like how do I get into this real estate world? I have no money, no credit. I work 50 hours a week. I don’t know how to fix anything, or do you want me to fix anything? And how do you get money to buy this $50,000 house and fix it up and it was just mind blowing? I mean, baffling like how then the landlord rents are 800 bucks at the time. Then after expenses, you make 120 bucks at the end of the day. So how do you get rich for a rental property? It doesn’t make sense. I didn’t understand it at that time. So I found the word wholesaling no money no credit make 5k in 30 days, boom. That’s me all day. So my first deal went into wholesaling. So that looked like it was in the tough part of Phoenix area. It was a condo and I got it by putting out those little mini billboards. The bandit signs is what we call them. I pay cash for houses so someone called that and said, Hey, like sell my condo. But the give it context. This is a time of the market crash, the great recession, where you can go to the auction and buy in our world a 2002 bill cookie cutter, four bedroom two bath house for 50 – 60 grand no one will condos. No one wanted two bedroom anything or one bedroom so there was more opportunity out there for investors so I get this little two bedroom condo in a tough area in the guy’s a come check it out call from a bandit sign. And then he’s I want 12k And this is what you got to pay attention to in our world as investors. He says I need to go back to Kentucky to take care of my mother in two weeks. She’s ill. So I was like, okay, so I want to okay, I was like, Okay, I didn’t come to property. I didn’t know what it was worth. I just said okay, because I put the bandit sign out and someone called me. So I didn’t do anything traditional like you supposed to. And what I wanted to get a part a go. Well, before I jump into that, and so how I found the buyer is I sent– I was once again doing research, I was on YouTube. Once I was like how do you find a buyer for a condo, they send a letter to every condo owner in the complex, there’s 200 units. So I hand wrote 200 This is before skip tracing and all that stuff. So red pen, yellow paper, hey, I have a unit for sale. And unit number whatever I want. $18,000 I put my 5k on it. No method to this at all. It was 5k in 30 days 5k on and then people started calling the boy head of the HOA board call me he was like, I’m having a race with somebody’s ego own more units in here. A buy it was like alright, meet me at the house. So I’m at the house, the condo, a homeowner with a buyer. Buyer goes Mike, you only want 18k for this. And then I’m going oh shoot the sellers like But Mike, you’re only given me 12. And I’m like, yeah, that’s how it goes. I didn’t know what to say. But the point I say all that to say he needed to sell. Yeah, he didn’t want sell. Right? There’s a difference there in our world in order to get a profitable deal. You need to deal with people that need to sell Yes, I know. It’s unfortunate. It’s a tough situation. But that cash is in the speed is what saving them as to getting him to his mother in two weeks, versus calling an agent putting on the market, patching up the walls, cleaning up everything, getting it list ready for sitting on a market for three months, four months, whatever because it’s not a desirable product at that moment. So our quick cash people are willing to take the discount so they can move on to the next chapter. So you want to find people that need to sell not want to sell.
CORWYN:
So Mike, I’m gonna insert a disclaimer here for our listeners. Guys. Please remember if you’re listening to this show in South Carolina, or expect to intend to make purchases in South Carolina wholesaling is a real estate activity that requires a license in South Carolina. Okay, I’ve told you I’ve said it before I just repeated it. You need a license in South Carolina if you don’t have a real estate license. Wholesaling is not your animal go hire you an agent and help you in that practice. All right, so disclaimer. Y’all heard it. Now, Mike. Look, that’s interesting. That’s funny, because you put them in the same room.
MIKE:
Yes. And I learned my lesson.
CORWYN:
Lesson learned. Oh, that is hilarious. But Mike’s got you that taste that was yes. Once quote unquote, once you don’t cut the state, and you gotta go look at that state. Now you’re in for us. What did the next deal look like? What did you progress to after that?
Well, the kicker of this story I like to share, especially for newer people looking to get into business and looking wondering how it goes like so my second deal, I was driving for dollars, meaning we opened down any neighborhood, you look for the ugliest house, maybe vacant, fire damage, whatever just abandoned is just that’s the type of person we would like to market to and asked if they would like to sell. So I found that house, Central Phoenix, a nice area. long story short, I found it, got it under contract. And once again, I was looking for a buyer and Craigslist was a popular thing at that time. So a gentleman called me the Hey, this is so and so. I was on my 15 minute break at Verizon checking my Google Voice number and it was like, he sounded familiar. I was like this name and voice remind me of somebody. So I called him and I was like, hey, is this who I think it is? And he’s like, Yeah, we went to high school together. He’s like, What are you doing with this house? And I was like, I’m trying to wholesale it. And he’s like, I’ve been wholesaling for five years. And I was like, oh, okay, well, he’s come down to the office. And let’s catch up. I’m like cool before we hang up, he goes, Mike, every lead, every homeowner that ever told you bring him. I was like, Why do you want people that told me no. And he’s just bring em. So I bring the leads. And what happens is, I always I call it he can see the invisible. So if you’re listening to this, and I had to go into your job tomorrow morning, and you had to train me in your position, and I know nothing, my hurdles, my mistakes, everything you have an experience in next week or month. So he knew I kept the property wrong. He knew I discovered negotiating correctly, he knew I didn’t know the buyers. So he called back those 20 leads. In the next three months, we had four deals on there. I made close 40 under contract and closed and I have 20 G’s in my bank account. Because of this his experience. So what happens is what I call that there’s a lot of lessons here is I was a marketer, I was able to make the phone ring from a concert date and all that stuff. And he was converter, he knew how to analyze the deal and close it. So my marketing, his conversion equaled revenue, we became partners, he saw that because he wasn’t closing deals, he couldn’t get deals to close, I brought him vice versa. So we did, I did 30 deals my first year in the business, him leveraging me for my marketing, and me leveraging him for his conversion. So it just worked that led into my second deal.
CORWYN:
That idea is awesome, man. 30 deals in the first year.
MIKE:
I couldn’t have done it myself. You know, what I’m saying?
CORWYN:
That is huge. This partnership continued for how long still going on today? Two years,
MIKE:
two years. Because when money gets in the picture, and you both are new to it, people forget things. The handshake agreement. isn’t that cool anymore, yeah, everyone forgets about that. So get everything in paper, everything you’re writing, I learned that the quote, when you’re getting in a business, nothing wrong with getting with partners do it all the time. I think it’s a necessity and negotiate like you want to kill each other, run the business like you love each other. And then when everything’s broke at the end, it’s already on paper. There’s no she said, she said there’s no 15 – 20 grand and attorney fees, just talk to them for you.
CORWYN:
Yeah, that’s very fair. I’ve never heard that. But I’m definitely going to catalog that. Mike. That’s very good statement there. Sure. Mike, what is your driver? I mean, so your deals guy you’d like to see things happen, all that kind of stuff. Because you’ve been doing this for a while. I mean, you’ve done if I recall correctly, and please confirm this or deny this for our listenership. But you’ve done over 700 deals thus far? Oh, yeah. Over the last 10 years, correct? Yes. That’s a lot of houses.
MIKE:
I’ve seen a lot.
CORWYN:
Now you stayed primarily in residential? Correct?
MIKE:
Yes, in small multifamily. And in Phoenix in Cleveland, Ohio.
CORWYN:
Okay. All right. So you look in areas that are experiencing both have an opportunity for growth and expansion, but maybe having a slight downturn, I know Cleveland, some of those larger areas like that got hit negatively during COVID Things of that nature. So there was a slight depression, if you will, and pricing and some markets like that. So that’s the stuff that you target is coming back around on the other side, because that kind of how you operate what you target.
MIKE:
Well, for me, Phoenix is just the backyard. This is where I’m at. So this is where I assume I had to do it. So that’s how that got started. And then as I went back in Cleveland, maybe three years ago, like right as COVID started, and I was going there because the cost Phoenix properties and we’re increasing in the cash flow, you’re losing the cash flow opportunity. So I was like, Where else can you cash flow and everyone talks about the Midwest. It’s not an appreciation market, but it’s a cash flow market. So that’s why I went there. And I started my goal was let me start wholesaling in Cleveland first. I started meeting wholesalers, meeting agents, meeting property managers, meeting contractors, understanding the community and everything. So I started wholesaling. Then as I was wholesaling, and I understood everything, then I would buy a rental. That’s one thing about wholesaling whether markets gotten its way down or its way up or steady, it’s sales, it’s not investing, you’re just writing the money. Either way, you could always wholesale it cheap enough. There’s always a buyer that buy virtually wholesale from my kitchen, my first year in Cleveland. So here’s another thing called joint ventures. I didn’t like in his social media, just like I say, I always preach you don’t need to be when these big PPC guys marketing budgets, you could make a living in real estate off your phone, and social media just telling people what you do. There’s this guy called Tony the closer. He’s big on social media and if you heard of him, but I met him here in Phoenix, he had shared one of my posts, I tagged him whatever cool he has a big following this guy Xavier and Cleveland reaches out to me and goes hey if you ever do deals in Cleveland hit me up because I get random I’m like hey I’m actually just starting there next week. It got to know him i no idea what to expect was nice guy. I started doing the marketing. He already had the cash buyers in the lay of the land are kind of thing so I was like, Hey, how about I just bring the deals and you bring the buyers like you give me the Intel so when I get an because I have no idea like Cleveland’s a different beast in Phoenix so it’s there’s duplexes side by side ups and downs basements roofs, like in Phoenix like what’s the basement so it’s furnace here what’s the heater you don’t even have? So that was the joint venture it wasn’t an official on paper business was like you I bring seller you bring buyer, we help each other out. It’s 25 deals, mentors deal with your with Xavier, I made half the money. Yeah.
CORWYN:
But you move more deals, which means more exposure, which means that you just basically turn the faucet on and stuff keeps coming. Yeah, you do 25 deals. Somebody knows you people know you and people add you because they want a deal done too.
MIKE:
Yeah, I got my contractor through him. I bought deals through him I sold deals through him I met my real estate agent threw him like it was just it just is given up half the wholesale fees, paid itself off tenfold because it allowed me to buy rental properties and do my real goal was
CORWYN:
I like that concept. But Mike, I’ll share with people at times from investors I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the years. I had a gentleman long time ago he unfortunately, he’s passed on. But he started with he bought a one time to the bank one day and said, Hey, let me borrow some money, much like good guy bought a house. And what I could probably say was an area that was depressed but up and coming, bought a house in there, moved into it, worked on it, sold it, made some money, went back to the bank and said, Hey, I want some more money. So the bank gave him enough money that he went and bought two houses, moved into one, fixed it up, put it on the market moved into the other one started working on it sold the first one then borrowed more money went and bought another property that he didn’t turn into a rental he just kept going and by the time I met him, I think he owned 140 some odd properties scattered across our area. And he was in this process of selling stuff off. So he had a bunch of rentals and I joked with him, great guy. I’m gonna buy did a deal with them my and closed escrow at some odd $1,000 check. But he bought another house. He was working on his under age and I go by and check on my phone and they’re working on the house is just a hey, what’s going on all this stuff just checking in, so to speak. So I go by I just happened I was going by by to see him either that day or the next day. I just said I will stop by and I got a call from the attorney’s office. The attorney’s office called me and said Colin, hey, look, you remember such and such? I said, Well, yeah, I see. Yeah, we closed that bubble. I say yeah. So the seller never cashed his check. I said wait a minute what? So I go when I go stop by the meeting. What are we talking to whatever I say, Hey, man, I said certain says turns off his call me said that you haven’t cashed that check. He said, Oh, he said both. He said look it I think not doing the dash in my truck. So he proceeds to walk me out to his truck. He got papers shoved scattered all over the dashboard. Like he gets some he just throw it up on the dash $85,000 Check sitting up there on his dashboard had been up on the dashboard for two, three months. Incredible, he told me say Corwyn said man, I just go get checks out to me. And that’s what he had been doing. He had built herself up to that. So as I work with investors, Mike, that’s the conversation I talk about, or conversations I have because you got to work yourself up to start with this do this do that this that in 30 You started on the wholesale side, but you got into rentals because of rentals keep that check. Keep some coming little Saltman, you get enough of them pretty soon and checks add up. But when I met a guy is getting rental income of 20 some odd $1,000 a month was coming in very little debt most of his houses were paid for, because he flipped others and paid off the other mortgages. So he, the more she had were very small. So he was cashflow when, but least 15 or so $1,000 a month? It was ridiculous
MIKE:
That there. So if I could touch on a couple that call so one of the gentlemen you explained so if you’re listening papers, we got the cat who didn’t and right mind would forget to cash a check, right? Like in cars, messy truck, whatever it is. That’s the real buyer. Like those guys, when you’re online. I’m not here to like trash, okay, but what I’m saying is the people online for you, when you’re new, and you’re trying to get in the business or you’re doing the business and you’re just trying to make things crack off. And you’re watching the guy with the Rolex traveling the world on with the Lamborghini, those ain’t bought the the real guys, the guy you just explained. The guy with the jeans, with the weird clothes on. Those are who you want to know. And those are people that you see at the REIA, and you’re like, you’re looking for people with gold watches. You’re like, No, man, that guy has 500 houses. That’s the wisdom right there. Like that person you explained are the people you want to know, man. Great point.
CORWYN:
They work. When I first met him got he drove a panel van. And with a trailer attached to it. When you see him he was a t shirt. If it was a summertime he had on shorts and some sneakers or something. But he works.. I mean, literally paint marks all hope he was working. But he was killing like you say that was the buyer. He went in he was that what he was gonna do? He knew what it was gonna cost him. He told me what he was gonna offer. He paid cash, that was the end of it.
MIKE:
Simple. They know what they’re doing. They’re no beating around the bush.
CORWYN:
Exactly, exactly. So Mike, look, we have quickly gotten towards the end of today’s show. And I want to make sure that people know how to reach you. Because again, you run like the largest REIA in the country. So for our listeners, guys, if you’re in South Carolina, we do have a few REIAs around this area. We’re connected to a REIA, in western North Carolina. Mike, how can people reach you get more information? How can they plug in?
MIKE:
Yes, yes, thank you in the Arizona Real Estate Investors Association. So if you want to invest in Arizona, or you’re coming out here to invest, whatever it may be, we’re your number one resource to come check us out. We’ll get you everything you need to be an investor here in Arizona. So azreia.org, we’re on all social media platforms, just search Arizona Real Estate Investors Association, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, always got content getting pushed out. So yeah, reach out anytime my personal Instagram is @MichaelDelPrete, check me out, send me a message. But if I could say one last thing, because what you said in the beginning, your mission is about legacy. And financial literacy, which is important here as well. We’re not always just looking to just networking is huge. And funding, building your business, all that stuff is important. But one thing like you heard my story, working nine to five looking for something better. Our goal is to help people just get one house even just bought one house that will change one rental property, get the education and resources in one and then you’ll be like the gentleman you explained, then maybe a year later you get number two, he got more confidence. Now maybe you’ll get two in one year, I’ll send you have four or five, that five rentals will change your life, your lifestyle, not say you’re gonna be ballin rich, but you will put your family in a better situation. And the key there though, to the legacy, which I feel in the community sometimes gets confusing here is, yes, you’re learning and getting the education and you’re changing your life. But in order for that legacy to keep going, you have to teach the kids, you got to pass the education down, not just do it yourself. But tell the friends, the family come to a training, watch a YouTube video, read a book, I don’t care what it is, but you got to pass that information back down as well. So it keeps going. Because when you know, there’s a lot of that story about a lot of people, they win the lotto, then they lose it in three months, otherwise, your kids are going to lose all your houses. Whatever it is.
CORWYN:
So Mike, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule man to be on the show with us today. I love to have you back on in the future, to continue to share that energy number one, but also to keep inspiring our folks to get started somewhere to do something to help further themselves to help reach those goals and those dreams and those aspirations that they set before them. Because real estate is a vehicle that will expeditiously and efficiently get you down the road to wealth. So we know that but we want to share that with others. So again, thank you so much for being on the show today.
MIKE:
Yeah, thanks for having me, man. Thank you.
CORWYN:
So for our listeners, guys, look here, y’all know ain’t nothing changed, y’all know how I feel? Y’all know what I say? I know I always put the two of those things together. And I say it to you this way, which is I love you. I love you. And we gonna see you guys out there in those streets.
