Are you ready to unlock a new mindset for success in real estate?
In today’s episode, our host Corwyn J. Melette sits down with Brad Smotherman, a seasoned real estate investor and creator of the Investor Creator podcast. Together, they explore how shifting your beliefs and surrounding yourself with the right people can accelerate your path to real estate success.
Brad opens up about his personal journey, sharing his early struggles with self-belief and the pivotal role that mindset has played in his career. Brad dives into valuable insights on structuring investments, dealing with self-doubt, and why aligning with those who empower you is essential. He also discusses whether getting a real estate license benefits investors, highlighting how your goals and compliance with state laws can influence this decision.
Tune in as Brad shares how his platform, Investor Creator, offers resources and guidance for aspiring real estate professionals to help them build their portfolios and find the confidence they need. Corwyn wraps up with some motivational words for listeners, reminding you that self-belief and purpose can turn your goals into reality.
Key Takeaways:
- 03:20 Brad Smotherman’s Journey
- 04:14 Creative Real Estate Deals
- 06:56 Lead Generation Strategies
- 12:24 Scaling and Team Building
- 14:30 Remote Real Estate Operations
- 18:45 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
Connect with Brad@:
Connect with Corwyn@:
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
Disclaimer: In the state of South Carolina, anyone engaging in real estate transactions is required to have a valid real estate license.
Shoutout to our Sponsor: EXIT Realty Lowcountry Group
Do you want something more? More Meaningful Moments opportunities, deeper relationships and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you say YES, a career and real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for guiding people to one of the most important decisions they ever made, the purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative.
EXIT Realty has a revolutionary compensation model training and technology that provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call EXIT Realty Lowcountry group today at 843-619-3005 that is 843-619-3005 or visit https://exitlowcountry.com/joinexit and make your Exit today.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/corwyn-j-melette/support
CORWYN:
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 to any of that, 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 provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call Exit Realty Lowcountry Group today at 843-619-3005, that’s 843-619-3005 or visit join.exitlowcountry.com and make your exit today.
So good morning and great morning guys to you. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, I am your host, Corwyn J. Melette, broker and owner of Exit Realty Low Country Group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina.
Hey, if this is your first time listening to this show, you sir or ma’am are in for a treat. That is because our mission here is very simple. That is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. Guys, we’re legacy building. That is what we do. So I want to give a quick shout out. Look, trustfully, everybody is quote unquote, getting themselves settled back into what is hopefully soon the new normal. So trustfully all are well, but most importantly, guys, I want to say thank you guys for tuning in and listening. For those who tune in faithfully here at WJNI, 106.3 FM, as well as those who tune in to our podcast on exitstrategiesradioshow.com or your favorite podcast application, whether it be iTunes or any other and Google platforms, whatever, guys, we’re everywhere. And I thank you guys for catching us wherever you can. So today, guys, we’re going to talk practical. You guys get a tremendous amount of content from us. I am very happy with our guests, the people that we’ve managed to, you quote unquote, call down from the mountaintop because they’re up there doing amazing things, making these climbs and hey, will you please come down here to the base of this mountain and be a Sherpa for us and guide us up and get us to where we’re trying to go. So today, guys, we have just one of those. We have the guy that knows this mountain. He knows how to traverse it. He knows where the pitfalls are. And most importantly, he’s willing to share all that information with you, our loyal listeners. So today I have a real estate guru. I mean, look, I’m talking like mind blowing, like you do that guy with us today, right? None other than Brad Smotherman. Brad, how are you doing?
BRAD:
I’m great, man. Appreciate you having me on. It’s a blessing to be with you today.
CORWYN:
Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, Brad, you are like the master, so to speak. So I want to first start by asking you to give a high level introduction as to who you are. The 30, 40, 50,000 foot view, so to speak. And then let’s get down into some of the weeds. So let’s treat this like a crop duster. We’re going to get it hot and we’re going to come in and we’re going to let them have it. So, Brad, go ahead.
BRAD:
I love that. So, I mean, I guess to go 50,000 square foot or bird’s eye view, I’m a guy that didn’t quit. I really came from very little.
I was raised by my grandparents. We were not financially free. My mother was an addict. My father was absent. And so I had this dream of real estate. I went to college, went into accounting for a short time, and I’d sold real estate through college. So I was a realtor, worked at a model home for a builder developer. And in 2008, the market shifted. The people that were a part of real estate during that time remember what that looked like. And so in 2010, I retired my real estate license to do investment, even though I’d never done an investing deal. So from there, we got my first deal. That took me eight months. And then from there, we went on to scale a team. We’ve now bought, I believe, in 39 states across the country and counting. We’re still active in the business, buying and selling and having a lot of fun doing it.
CORWYN:
Awesome. Man, that’s good stuff right there. Very good stuff. So, Brad, you do, at times we have some of the conversations about this on air. So for all of our listeners, this won’t be, quote unquote, hey, wait a minute, what is that? I’ve never heard of it. But you do a lot of what we refer to as creative deals subject to and all those kind of things. So if you don’t mind, kind of give our folks and like you say, you’re the guy that didn’t quit. So talk about if you don’t mind, like that first experience, quote unquote, the first taste is once you get the first taste of real estate investing, most people are like, that was real good. Let’s do that Let’s eat again. So tell us about that.
BRAD:
Well, it was really funny. And one of the things that I want to submit to your audience is that the biggest wins that you’re going to have are almost always at the point that you want to quit, but you don’t. And so I remember this lead came in. It was very similar to every other voicemail that I had received. Hey, I have a house I need to sell. And you’ll get this because you’re in the South as well. But I had what we in the South call a come to Jesus moment. So I had a come to Jesus moment with myself because I didn’t want to call the guy back. I was just so beat up emotionally. I’d done all this work. I hadn’t really done anything with it. And I was young. I was 23 years old. And can I really do this? But I had that come to Jesus moments like, hey, Brad, this is a life you chose. This is what you chose. You’re going to have to see this through. So I called the guy back. It was a divorce situation. They were one payment behind on the mortgage. And they sold the house. Other realtors had looked at it, said, well, I can sell it, but it might take a year. That didn’t solve their problem in that 2010 market. And then other investors had said, well, there’s not enough equity for me to come in and pay cash, which was true. And so I went in and with the very little skill level that I had, I got a purchase agreement. And then I ended up selling that house with owner financing. And so the shakeout of the deal was that I netted. Now, man, keep in mind, I had like $300 in my bank account at the time. Okay. So I had a $20,000 check come in. Okay. And I was concerned that somebody had made a mistake because the bankers knew me. And when I went to deposit this, I thought they were going to laugh me out of the bank, but they ended up giving me a deposit slip instead. And I netted 20,000 cash. I got a note of $17,000 that I was still owed on the property. And then the note cashflowed, I believe, looking back is $407 per month, something like that. So I built up a little bit of net worth. I built up my cash and I built up my cashflow. And you’re right, man, I had to get some more, man. It was finger looking good.
CORWYN:
I love it. So, because Brad, how this stuff works, I mean, the ebbs and it flows, quote unquote, some days you feel that you’re up and some days you feel that you’re down. And the reality is that you have to keep getting back up regardless. Every day you got to approach it that way. Now you may mention of one of the things I want to make sure that we talk about, you may mention of you got the phone call. So that means that obviously you have developed the strategy for lead generation on these opportunities, these, if you will, off market opportunities. So if you don’t mind, give us a little bit on that.
BRAD:
Yeah, for sure. So I think it’s a continual evolution in terms of what works in the market. And this is in terms of technology and market trends, demographic shifts, those kinds of things. I started off in 2010 just doing those ugly yellow, we buy houses signs. And that worked back then because I remember one weekend, I put out 25 signs and I got 17 calls out of 25 signs. And somehow I was bad enough at everything that I still didn’t buy a house because I was terrible at everything. Now, looking back, I probably could have bought six. That was that 2010 market. And so it got to where that didn’t work as much. And then I went to direct mail. There was a point I’m pretty sure I was the largest direct mailer in the state of Tennessee. We’re doing about 70,000 letters a month to a list. I got to where that worked, but it was less efficient. And so now what we’ve been doing for really the past five years has been search based. Okay. So, and here’s, I guess, without going into too much of an example, but I’m the least handy person you’re going to meet this week. If something needs to be fixed in my house, my wife is not going to say, Hey, Brad, we need to, she’s going to call somebody else that can fix it. Okay. So if we’re at Thanksgiving dinner and there’s a pipe that burst upstairs and my hardwood floors are getting ruined, my wife is not going to call Brad. She’s going to go type in plumber near me fast, go find a plumber. Whoever can get here the fastest is going to get the job regardless of what it costs because we have a problem. But here’s the thing, like in North Charleston right now, there are people that got served foreclosure notices. There are people that opened up the divorce. They opened up probate yesterday and their sole focus today is to find a solution for that problem. And so that’s where we want to be is where people are actively searching. So I’m a big believer in doing search marketing.
CORWYN:
Makes perfect sense. Perfect sense. So you said something. So apparently you and I are fairly kindred spirits. I tell people I know how to do that stuff, but I just have no motivation, desire now, but it’s flooding. I know where to cut the water off, but going to fix something, I’m going to call somebody out here and do all of that because I’m of this mindset, even though I may not have changed the oil in my car, while somebody else is changing it, I could be making a deal and making some money over here doing something else. That’s right. Yeah, that’s just me. I mean, changing oil is up, drain, take off the filter, put a filter back on, put the plug back, pour in, measure, we good. But no, that’s going to other stuff. I’m not interested in that. So I get it. So that’s interesting. So you guys are seeking out, finding people based upon different scenarios. So if you’re looking for, like you said, the divorce set, then you’re looking and circling that round foreclosure or pendings being filed, et cetera. So you’re searching people out and extending an olive branch or an opportunity there for them to do something different. Does that sound about right?
BRAD:
Well, sort of, I would say it’s a small, but very significant difference in that they’re searching us out. So I don’t want to be in a push marketing perspective where I’m pushing someone to reach out to me. I want to be there when they’ve already identified that they have a problem. So they’re going to their cell phone, going to Google, typing in, sell my house today, as an example. And now, those are the kinds of people that we want to have conversations with.
CORWYN:
Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So you guys then, let’s say someone contacts you, obviously you have a process for assessing a deal and opportunity, and you’re going to figure out essentially what various strategies you may be able to employ. So how do you get into that whole negotiation piece? What does that look like? I mean, whatever you can share in that.
BRAD:
Yeah. So our first conversation, let me back up. I think it’s a really bad plan to be really great at lead generation and bad at a process afterwards. And I think that this is one thing that people feel like they’re really great at it, especially men, because there’s something innate about us that we can negotiate. And people feel like negotiation is, oh, they want to hear that number. I can say this number, that’s lower. And that’s not negotiation, that’s horse trading. And so we wanted to create a situation where in my negotiation, we never give a price. We never make an offer ever. And there’s a few reasons for that. Number one, an offer is a commodity to shop. So if you’re an investor and you’ve left an offer, they get a thousand dollars more. It’s because you got shopped. Secondly, a lot of times the seller’s price is lower than what your offer would be. So you’re actually paying too much on some of these deals. And then third, by not making an offer, it allows us to get to the creative deal structures, like you talked about, sub two, sub three, some now, some later, so that we can take a lead to its highest profit and least risk form while keeping their cash and credit on the sidelines. So we have a process for everything is really structural and in part scripted. So we have triage call where the triage nurse at the hospital identifying, does someone have blood coming from their neck? So they need to see a doctor or do you have a limp and a fever? You’re going to go to the waiting room identifying really does the seller have a problem? And what we want to identify is one of five things. Are they one of five people? Let’s say that pre foreclosure, they’ve inherited something they don’t want. They’re in a divorce, they’re a tired landlord, or there’s a health or safety issue. And the reason I say safety is we buy six, seven, eight houses a year from either ladies in abuse situations or elders in abuse situations. Yeah.
CORWYN:
So what I also heard in there, Brad, is that you guys have assembled a team apparently. So you’d have a process built, which means you have team members that carry out the process. So for those who may be, we’re going to get your information out here in a little bit, because people need to reach out to you to get that. Hey, Brad, can you help me here? What have you? But short version is, Brad, that you have a team, so you have a process where people come through. If you’re an investor, someone who is either at the cusp of ready for that, and I lost my word, but there’s a word about that where scale, where you’re ready to scale. How do you do that? And how did you do it as far as the way you could scale?
BRAD:
Well, I did it poorly first. So it was me and Tony, my right-hand guy. We had 39 houses going at one time, just the two of us. And so I had about two and a half million in equity across those 39 houses, but I was negative cashflow, 70,000 a month. Well, that’s what we call in real estate a problem. And I didn’t have enough staff. So from a football perspective, I kicked my coverage. So I had a great punt. We were great buyers, but we weren’t great at fulfillment once that buy was captured. It was actually my wife that came into the company and started hiring everybody that she knew, and things got better. But here’s what I’ll say, man. I think scale doesn’t have to happen for everyone. I think that somebody can do a deal a month by themselves. But I tell you, man, I can’t name you 12 investors that have done 12 deals a year for 12 years straight by themselves. I see that people either grow a team, whether it’s family members or whatever, or they end up exiting the business because nobody’s great at everything. And in real estate, we’re inundated with different types of problems. So you’ve really got to begin to scale a business. And so who the first hire, I think, is really based on what do you not enjoy, what are you not good at, and what’s lower value that you can offset to someone else. But really, for most people, it’s okay to have a lifestyle business. For most people, you don’t have to do 20, 30 deals a month like we were at our peak. You can do 10 deals a year by yourself and have an amazing income and an amazing life and just more of a lifestyle business.
CORWYN:
So one of the things that, and as we were talking behind stage, so to speak, Brad, you have, and leveraging a team helps you not only in scaling but as far as growth goes, but it also takes some of the pressure off. And you guys pretty much manage what you guys are doing fairly remotely, correct? So we’ve talked on this show and we do it oftentimes because we have teaching people that, hey, you can have a life by design, okay? So you can travel with the family, do this, but still have a manageable, scalable, and maybe even still growing, if you will, but definitely thriving real estate practice or real estate business. So how does that look for you, if you don’t mind sharing that with our listeners? And how did you get there?
BRAD:
Yeah, for sure. So, I mean, I’m a firm believer in life by design. A lot of people, in my opinion, they are a slave to money. And I think that money is a good slave, but not a very good master. And so a lot of people, they do whatever they have to, to make more when they don’t think about their time. They don’t think about, hey, when I’m older, I’m going to look back on these days and think about what did I do? Who did I spend time with? Who did I impact in a positive way? So to get more granular with it, the real estate business, the way that we do it is really based on three departments. It’s acquisition, disposition, and ops. So you have operations in the middle. My ops team is still in Nashville. So I’m based in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida at this point. And acquisition and disposition is remote. So you can build this business in a way that is remote. And in fact, one of my top students, Aaron and Rachel, they’d never bought a piece of real estate ever 15, 18 months ago. They just moved to Costa Rica from Seattle. So they’re now buying U.S. real estate from Costa and Infinity Pool, Ocean View, the whole thing. It’s really amazing. I’m like, hey, bro, take me with you. I’m coming with, but they’ve done well. So it can be done, but you have to decide. And one of the things that I see, people don’t know what’s possible. And then if you don’t know what’s possible, you don’t know what you might even want. But don’t sacrifice lifestyle. Like you want to build a life that is worth living. Now, there’s no sense in getting rich, losing your time and getting sick. That doesn’t sound like a very good plan either.
CORWYN:
Very true. Very true. So you guys have expanded. Like you say, you have remote people now scattered abroad, if you will, but operations team. So how difficult or challenging is it for manage all of that? I mean, you’re talking different times on Costa Rica. It’s a different time zone than where you are. The ops team is in Tennessee. I’m pretty positive y’all may be in the same time zone. The short version is you have different people in different places. How do you manage that effectively?
BRAD:
Yeah. It comes down to a few things. Number one, you have to have end of day reports for each person. Okay. So in Slack, which is just a kind of like a chat app, we have Slack channels. Each person has an end of day report. So you can see exactly what happened that day for that person and also a daily mode of operation for the next day. So this is what I’m focused on for the next day. From a management perspective, we can look at that role and identify potential problems, but also how we can serve that person in the best way by helping them become more efficient. So that’s the first thing. And then it’s really about meeting cadences. So we have department meetings, we have company meetings, we have one-on-one meetings, and we have a schedule for that so that we can really keep our finger on the pulse. Because if you look at company culture, it’s like, how do you define company culture? Well, in my opinion, you can define company culture by what happens when two people are having a conversation. And if you have a team that’s remote, then your company culture, the value of your company culture is truly the value of your meetings. So having a cadence and a meeting cadence and a plan for your meetings, that’s impactful. So with those things, I don’t think it’s that difficult. And I think technology makes it to where now, 20 years ago, it would have been much, much different. But now I can see most businesses having a remote aspect to it.
CORWYN:
Well, that’s fair. I mean, I know that maternally we do as well. It just makes things easier at times. Because people, we found out, unfortunately, during COVID, that we can figure out how to work wherever. So in turn, people get the opportunity more so now than anything else to live that life that way. I want to live here and I can still work for this or do whatever from there. So Brad, we’re quickly getting towards where our time is. But I want to make sure right this second that we get your contact information out for our listeners who may have additional questions, one may want to engage with you, maybe for some coaching or some other assistance. So where can people get in contact with you?
BRAD:
I think that there’s probably two places that if you’re interested in how we do things, that would be helpful. Number one, podcast, investor creator, and then investor creator on Instagram. And happy to chat with you there. All right. You said, what was the first one here?
CORWYN:
You said investor creator?
BRAD:
Yeah. Podcast, investor creator, everywhere that podcast exists, and then investor creator handle on Instagram.
CORWYN:
All right. I love that. And guys, you got to go check this out. I’m actually pulling it up right now because look, I mean, my man is doing some amazing things and getting some awesome word out there for you. So for those who are looking to engage, learn more, clean, please go check out Brad’s podcast. Please connect with him. Please connect with his group. So Brad, look, so sometimes I refer to it as the mic drop question. I mean, you probably get it a lot, but it’s that 2020 because again, if you quote unquote, stop, turn around and look back over your life, you can probably discern a few places in the road that probably did something different here. The path would have probably gotten arrived here a lot faster. I mean, it’s life. We like to think sometimes as a road is just a set destination and a set course, but it’s a road map and there’s various ways to get to the same plate. So if you could go back at what place or what would you have done differently that you think would have gotten you to this point a lot sooner?
BRAD:
Man, if I could go back, I would tell myself to believe it almost sounds trite. I lost a lot of years dealing with belief issues. Can I really do this? Those kinds of things. And which looking back was really about this negative self-concept that there was something special about someone else that I didn’t have. That’s really what it comes down to because it’s obvious that real estate is a good thing for people and that a lot of people have done well. And so if you don’t think that you could be one of them, then it really says more about what you might think that you are more than the opportunity. And so I really struggled with that for a long time. If I could have gone back, I would have in part gotten around a better group of people earlier that were coming up so that I wasn’t around people that were just naysayers and some of them meant no harm, but they just weren’t in a position to help. For the person that’s never been where you’re hoping to go, they can’t get you where you’re hoping to go. And so I’d have been around a different group of people.
CORWYN:
That is interesting and profound. So Brad, I’m a broker, real estate broker, company owner, and I talk with agents all the time, newer agents coming into the business. And that’s a conversation I have with them very often. If you don’t believe it, the adage you don’t believe you won’t achieve.So you have to believe in what you’re doing. If you don’t believe that you can have a positive impact, if you don’t believe that you’ll be successful, then the reality, you won’t. And you have to remove, not that you go technically against the naysayers, but you have to empower yourself by being around people who are endeavoring versus just naysaying. And once you get that together, obviously, apparently what you did, life is different. Man, life is so different. So that’s a very good word right there, man. I really appreciate you delivering that to our listeners because that’s the conversation we have. It’s always about mindset. So look here, I’m going to ask you something because I pulled up your website and I’ve had this conversation with beginning investors. So your last podcast was a question, if you will, that I oftentimes, or I sometimes encounter with potential agents. People want to get into the business, want a real estate license so they can do investing and stuff. I have a response for them, but before I give, I want to hear yours. Do you believe a real estate investor is served well to have a real estate license?
BRAD:
Yeah, I think it depends on what the goal is. There’s a major benefit with being an investor and being a licensee that you can run investor marketing and for the deals that you don’t buy, you can list and you listing those deals will more than pay for your marketing and give you like a really good income just on the agency side. So if that’s the model that someone wants to go with, then I think that’s great. Now, where I think it becomes tricky is that different state laws, different states have different state laws when it comes to disclosure. And so being in a position where you’re running marketing as a licensee, but not disclosing the license potentially could be a problem. And so I would just recommend that someone number one decides what do you truly want? And then secondly, make sure that you’re in compliance and then move forward. Let’s go.
CORWYN:
I love the response because that’s it, depending upon what you’re going to do. As I’ve talked to people that, well, I have no interest in helping people sell property, blah, blah, blah. You don’t need a license. And also it changed the rules of engagement. If you now have a disclosure that you have to make prior to, and you can’t do the person harm, you can’t advocate for you and then not protect them in a transaction. That’s just in our state anyway, in South Carolina. So I appreciate that answer, Brad. So for our listeners, guys, make sure that you go that piece as well. And feel free to reach out to Brad and get some more insight into his thought process on it, or reach out to us here as well. So Brad, look, I want to thank you, man, for taking time out of your busy schedule, for taking time away from your family, because hey, you’re on the beach right now. I love it.
BRAD:
I’m just trying not to get sunburned, man.
CORWYN:
I love it. So thank you so much for taking time out to be on the show, man. I love to have you back in the future and delve a little bit deeper into some of these opportunities, but I really appreciate you taking time out to be on the show with us today.
BRAD:
Hey, thank you very much. It was a pleasure.
CORWYN:
So for our listeners, guys, look, guys, y’all know how I feel. Y’all know what I say. Y’all know I always put the two of those things together, and I give it to you this way, which is to tell you that I love you. I love you. I love you guys. And we’re going to see you guys out there in those streets.
