Ready to level up your real estate game? Join us for an exclusive chat with the extraordinary Ace Hagerty.
Ace Hagerty, Real Estate Expert, and Developer, shares his journey from structural engineer to real estate powerhouse.
Ace unveils his secrets to success, from creative financing with private investors to his focus on luxury properties and unique Airbnb experiences. Discover the mindset that propels him forward in the real estate world.
As you listen in, gain insights into the mindset and strategies that have propelled Ace to success, and be prepared for some mic-drop moments as he reveals the critical role of thoughts in shaping your reality.
Key Takeaways:
3:22- Real estate investing strategies with Ace Haggerty.
7:51- Short-term rental investing strategies.
12:11- Real estate investing with a focus on private financing and building relationships.
17:06- High-end real estate investing and building luxury homes.
20:37- Mindset, self-improvement, and becoming a "superhero" in life.
Don't miss this episode filled with valuable tips, stories, and inspiration to supercharge your own real estate journey.
Connect with Ace:
on Instagram: @AceHagerty
Grab Ace's free ebook: Superhero by Design
Connect with Corwyn@:
Contact Number: 843-619-3005
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exitstrategiesradioshow/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoSuynJd5c4qQ_eDXLJaZA
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
Email @: corwyn@corwynmelette.com
Shoutout to our Sponsor: ROBYN COLLINS
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 me today ROBYN COLLINS with REDROBYN HOMES at 843-557-5003. Again that's 843-557-5003 or visit RedRobynhomes.com/join.exit and make your Exit today.
ROBYN:
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, Robyn Collins, R – O – B – Y – N Collins with Red Robin homes at 843-557-5003. Again, that’s 843-557-5003 or visit us at redrobinhomes.com/joinexit and make your exit today
CORWYN:
Good morning, and welcome to another episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. I am your host Corwyn J. Melette. Broken and owner of Realty Lowcountry group in beautiful, North Charleston, South Carolina. If this is your first time listening to this show, you sir or ma’am are in for a treat. Because our mission here is very simple. That is to empower our community with financial literacy, and real estate education. We’re legacy building, that is what we do. So if you’re out there making things happen with your family, for the generations yet to come, and our world teaches us to leave a legacy, to leave an inheritance for our children, our children’s children, and so forth and so on. We want you to put a hashtag on that thing that says that you are legacy building because that is what you are doing. You can find us on Facebook, YouTube, AnchorFM. You can also find us on Instagram, and at our website, exitstrategiesradioshow.com. You can catch us in several different places on your favorite podcast applications. We appreciate you listening, please share this content with your friends, your family, your co-workers, even those in your groups, your church groups, etc., guys, but sometimes the message in the word that we are speaking here today is for you. Sometimes it is for someone else that you know. Again, we appreciate you listening. Let’s get started.
Good morning. Good morning, and great morning. Hey, welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. 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 listening to this show, you sir or ma’am, are in for a treat. That is because our mission here is very simple. And that is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. We’re legacy building that is what we do. We’ve told you for years now, when you’re doing these things, we want you to put this hashtag on it that says that you are legacy building, because that is what we want to do. We want to start a movement. We want to continue a movement of people doing things to influence not only the current generation, but the generations yet to come. And I’m very humbled because guys, we are constantly added. So look today, y’all know I’ve told you we’ve been doing it, we’re still doing it and that is bringing you some of the best guests from around the country to share with you what they have done in their lives with their real estate business with their practice with other aspects related to financial literacy. And again real estate what they’ve done to change not only their lives, but how they intend to impact and help change the lives of others. So today. Get ready looking at go ahead and put your stocking cap on your head for you guys to where to where to wave caps with kick going to tie that thing that tight because we bought the blow your whole dome off today for real. And that is because we have with us today. None other than Ace Hagerty superhero by design. Ace, how’re you doing today, man?
ACE:
I’m doing fantastic, Corwyn, how you doing? Man?
CORWYN:
I am phenomenal. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us today. Now for our listeners. We’re gonna have an amazing time today. But as I lead a sin, as is who many of us aspire to be. So I want you all to pay attention. So as if you don’t mind, give our listeners like a high level overview of who you are, what you do and what you’re currently doing.
ACE:
No, I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you very much for having me on. It is an absolute pleasure to be here. Just a quick overview for me. I started off with W2. I was doing that for a long time. I’m actually a structural engineer by trade. So even the engineers out there can make something like this happen. But I started off in the fix and flip realm, a buddy of mine, my buddy Hans came up to me and was like, Hey, I’ve got this project, I want you to flip it for me. I was in construction at the time. He was a broker. And pretty much we flipped the house, we walked away with 90k net, this was about 10 years ago. And from then I never looked back. Now I did keep my W2 for a really long time. I was kind of moonlighting, this sweat, equity, whatever you want to call it, nights, weekends, all of that. I guess that was my side hustle at that time. So I did that for a long time. Did a lot of flips. I was in California at the time, but then I moved to Nashville about five and a half years ago. I’m still in Nashville. And I thought I’d be mister fix it flip it guy flip and flop Nashville person. But that ended up not happening. So what I found myself doing was, for the last few years, I’ve done turnkey rentals. And for anybody listening who doesn’t know what a turnkey rental is essentially, you pick up a property, you rehab it, you get tenants in, and then you essentially refinance the property. Now we were selling to private investors all over the country doing that, that business went really well. That’s kind of where I catapulted and started to move a lot of houses. We were doing work in Georgia, in Ohio. So these were out of state, and learned a whole heck of a lot. They’re scaled up very quickly. I did exit out of that business. The other partner wanted to buy me out. So I said, Sure, let’s do that. And now what I’m doing is short term rentals. In Nashville, I became a developer, I developed a bunch of them myself. I also had others that I accumulated over the years from the turnkey property business, because we weren’t doing that business for cash flow, we were doing it for money, essentially, like a flipping business. So long story short, I’ve done a whole heck of a lot. I’ve done a lot of different things with my background in structural engineering and construction, and then doing a whole bunch of different types of strategies within this industry.
CORWYN:
So what I heard in that Ace, is that you essentially, okay, look, I made it to this step. Okay, let me get here. And we took a step up, because I think nearly everything you described essentially is like, the next level from where you were, fix and flips, Okay, then let’s do this. Okay, wait, man, this is a business model that we can do. And then let’s go to this. And now you’re here, and you’re still going places. So I’m interested to know where you going to next, because I think I see it, what is the next thing that you’re aspiring to, if you don’t mind? Before we go back and kind of unpack some of the things that you’ve already mentioned?
ACE:
I’d be happy to talk about that. I’m really excited about the next thing that’s coming ahead. A lot of people I know are scared because of interest rates, and talks about the economy coming back down and going into another recession depends on what news outlet you listen to, but I’m in Nashville. All my work is in Nashville, I don’t venture out too far anymore. And I am in the short term rental business. So Airbnb, VRBO, all of that. And I know there’s been a lot of clamor, and all of that, especially in the last couple of weeks of Airbnb is going down, and yada, yada, yada. But I am one of those people that says when the house is burning, and everybody’s running out of that burning building, I’m the guy that’s running in because I honestly believe that when everyone else is scared, and it’s too hot for them, I want to be right there in the middle of it to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented in times like this. So with that said, moving forward in the short term rental space, yes, it wasn’t what it was like back in 2020 – 2021. Or even before that, things are changing a little bit. So you have to pivot. I was interviewing a really great marketing person out of Louisville a couple weeks ago and she said being different is better than being better. And so what I’m doing is I’m aligning myself to be different than all the other short term rentals Airbnb ease that you can find in Nashville. And so what my partner and I are doing is we’re positioning ourselves to become more experienced based Airbnb, short term rentals. So instead of just doing hey, here’s a house let’s put it up for sale or for rent on Airbnb VRBO, all of that, hey, let’s give people an experience. So not only are you coming to Nashville to see Nashville and do all the things that tourists love to do in this town, but how can we make it different? How can we position ourselves differently so that when they come, they experience something like they’ve never experienced before, and they come back home, wherever they’re from telling stories of like, man, you got to check this place out, this thing was insane. And it was much more of the experience of the house than actually the destination that they went to.
CORWYN:
I like that. There’s so many people that are they’re hacking life with Airbnb, and such, and you talk about an experience about giving someone something memorable. So they do two things. One, they seek to return to enjoy the experience again, so they keep coming back. But then also they share that experience with others, that word of mouth, in turn increases your engagement and your bookings. That was the first one, right, they had just lifted the top of my dome off a little bit. I like that I don’t believe I’ve ever had any conversation with anyone who kind of got to that. Now, if you don’t mind, let’s kind of go back and unpack because, you know, a lot of our listeners are, we have a mixture of people that listen to our show Ace that we have the people that are looking, trying to gain information, insight and, and how to begin, we have the novice who’s just starting. And then we do have experienced listeners as well that you know, been investing some for years. And some have a little bit just initial experience, if you will, beyond the novice. So for that person looking, you structure your deals with financing with cast, you do joint ventures with your partner, what are you doing, and how you getting started with these investments?
ACE:
Yeah, so I guess it depends on whatever position people are initially in, if you’re W2, I’d say freakin put 10% down get that from a family member or friend or whomever a partner and put that 10% down. That’s what I did. When I started out, it was phenomenal. When I moved to Nashville, I didn’t have that luxury anymore. And I ran into the issue of well, I sold my house in California. So I had a good sum of cash that I could use in Nashville. But even with that you only get through so many deals, and you run out of money, using your own money, especially if you’re doing 100% capital for it. So there’s so many things that I’ve done throughout my career. But the thing that I love the most is what Robert Kiyosaki talks about OPM other people’s money. And when you work with private investors, it’s so amazing because you guys can get as creative as you want, just create the situation you want. Sometimes I’ve raised money, and I’ve made the guy who gave me the money, I made him a partner, an equity partner. Other times, I dream more like a hard money lender. And essentially, you just pay them interest. And the cool thing is, you could do it different ways, too, you can pay them interest, all at the end, you could do points at the end so that you’re not having a burn rate every month having to pay investors every month. And so I still borrow from banks. Even though banks change all the time, I wouldn’t rely on them, I will always have other things lined up. But I just love working with private investors, because you’re only limited by your own creativity when you work with private investing. And I’ve used family members, I’ve used friends, I’ve used acquaintances that I’ve met at my local Ria, that’s a great place to find hard money lenders or even private money lenders as well. I honestly believe that money is infinite. And that if you think that it’s a finite resource, it’s going to treat you like a finite resource. And so going in with an abundance mindset, especially when it comes to capital is such a huge thing in this game,
CORWYN:
you touched on something. So it’s one of the things that we talk about often on this show, we want to make sure we get across to people is about mindset, you just made mention of that, in referencing financing options when you operate from scarcity, when you believe that there is not opportunity, there is not financing available, not ways that you can take down a transaction or complete a deal. In turn, you will find what you believe, when you find there is a plethora of opportunity, there are funding options for whatever your situation is, yes, you might not be able to do it the way that you want to do it, you may have to joint venture, you may have to bring in private financing, otherwise give up parts of the deal in order to get the deal done. However, a deal completed leads you to the next one versus being stuck in the first one like that. So you tend to do kind of a hodgepodge, if you will, of all that mixing joint ventures, private funding, as well as bank funding in order to get your transactions completed. Is that correct?
ACE:
That is correct. Yeah. And sometimes I do use my own capital, but it becomes rarer and rarer as the projects come along. But the thing that I love about this business is yes, we’ve got to pick up projects to make money and whether it’s a rehab or buy and hold or what have you, and you have to put out a good product, but when you’re working with other people, especially investors, they’re clients of mine, I have to treat them right, they get paid before I get paid. And everybody that I’ve done a deal with. And I’ve worked with dozens and dozens of investors over the years, they always come back to me because I do what I say I’m going to do. And they always get paid, even if it means I have to eat a little bit, or sometimes a lot. Because of things that were happening within the deal. They always get paid. And they will always remember that that you are a man of your word. And I have my investors asking me shoot all the time. Hey, what do you got coming up? Hey, what’s going on? And when you’ve built that trust in that relationship, at that point, money isn’t an issue anymore. Because you have a dozen or so people you can call up at any time and say, Hey, I’ve got this deal going on. I’ll send you the Proform of the numbers, whatever, check it out, let me know. And most of the time, they’re just like, what’s the return? And I’ll tell them they’d be like, alright, Sign me up. Just send me the paperwork. I’m like, Alright, sounds good.
CORWYN:
Exactly. So what type of properties Ace, do you focus on? Are you focused primarily on single family detached? If you’re doing Airbnb, you looking at attached units, but then you’ve also gotten into development. So what type of projects are you taking down and doing later?
ACE:
Earlier in my career, I focused on a lot of C class and D class properties. And the reason why I did that was because I just felt like I followed the BiggerPockets model. Early in my career, hey, let’s pile up a bunch of single family houses $100 a door, and things like that. And I’ve played landlord way too long. One thing that I would say if I had to do this all over again, is I would have hired a property manager to begin with, and just got that off my plate. That was way too much energy, way too much time and money to worry about tenants getting them in and out, especially when COVID came and everything. But now I’m focusing in A class neighborhoods. I’m a big fan of how Donald Trump started his real estate career, because he went for luxury. He always went high and everything. I’ve read his book years ago, and he’s since been present and everything and everyone’s opinion of him is his opinion, but you can’t deny the fact that he was a phenomenal real estate investor. And so I kind of follow his model. Now I build A class homes, million dollar plus homes, okay. And my Airbnbs are also top notch, luxury/experience Airbnb. So, yeah, I kind of started off in the B’s and the C’s and the DS, but now I’ve moved my way to the A’s.
CORWYN:
So it’s interesting. So fact, he is not was is because I mean, we know he’s a businessman. So one of the things that you kind of touched in and kind of tied in to something I recently was with a colleague, and her husband is a builder. And they live in a higher end resort, area Island. And in turn, they build houses, she assists with the design, they build these houses, these multimillion dollar homes, they live in them, but they use them as a showpiece. So they house parties and functions and all that stuff and have people come in through. And then this process, they sell more houses to build. And they have moved several times. And I laugh because it requires a different mindset. They have children, they’re older children, grown children. But over the years, they have done this and you start thinking just how most people can’t that concept. I’m gonna do what, and have all these people in my house. But they did this. And the latest house. Oh, my God is beautiful. I mean, look, and he’s got tons of gadgets and all these things in it. But like you say you create an atmosphere. And in turn that’s conducive to what is you want to do luxury real estate, high end real estate is completely different animal than C and D class property. You know that, but it is by listeners. So you’re building these high end properties now in the Nashville market? Is that correct?
ACE:
That is correct. Yes.
CORWYN:
Okay. I don’t want to be remissed. Now, if you’ve got inventory, you got product, let’s talk about it. Because we want to make sure that people know how to reach out and get in contact with you. Not only for that, but if they want if need tips or otherwise to engage with you as far as your offerings as far as investment. How can people get in contact with you Ace
ACE:
Best way they can go on Instagram, AceHageerty, they could also just email me directly it’s ace@superherobydesign.com. You can also go on my website actually, quick little self promotion if you go to superherobydesign.com right there on the main page, you just fill out your name and I think email address, and you can get a free eBook. So can I tell a real quick story? Okay. About two years ago, I was doing the turnkey rental business I was starting to develop, I was still doing my structural engineering business, completely stretching myself thin. I’m sure a lot of people in the audience are high performers. And we have a tendency of trading our 40 hour work week into 100 plus hour work week. Well, I found myself in that position. And my wife came up to me and she was like, Hey, if you don’t fix whatever’s going on, I’m leaving you. And at that point, like, my businesses were starting to go down, I gained a bunch of weight, I wasn’t working out consistently, I wasn’t getting the results in any part of my life that I was looking to get my spiritual walk was going off course. And it was at that point that I knew I had to make a drastic change. So I did this thing. It’s called the 100 Day Challenge. And for me, 100 days, I did everything I had committed to. And I actually wrote a book. And that’s why I’m talking about the free ebook is in this book, I talk about what I did, how I leveraged myself. And in those 100 days, I completely turned my life around in everything, I lost 45 pounds, I was running more, lifting more than I ever have in my entire life, I got my businesses back on track, I got a lot out of one of the businesses, realign my development business, and pretty much did everything I needed to do because at that point, I had to make a drastic change. And so I also wrote the book in 100 days, got done with the first draft and got it off to an editor. And since then, my life has completely changed I was are always working really hard, but I wasn’t finishing projects or seeing the the fruits of my labor, so to speak. And ever since then, I’ve changed my life. I documented it, I did all these crazy things with my nervous system with cold water immersion, and Wim-Hof breathing and all these things to leverage myself so that I could wake up at 5:30 in the morning and go all day and be super productive, have great, Yes management, which is my way of saying time management. So I did all those things. So for anybody listening, check out it’s a free book, it tells my story, it gives super simple tools that you can start implementing in your life immediately. And then also at the same time, reach out to me, Instagram, AceHagerty, or ace@superherobydesign.com. I’d be more than happy to help anybody who’s listening. I’ve got a mentorship program going on a community that I’ve built for of superheroes called the Superhero By Design Mentorship Community. And so yeah, tons of great resources to help people because I always say that in real estate, strategies are great, but it’s the six inches of real estate between your ears that changes your life in your business and gets you above the how we talked about leveling up from one level to the next. It’s all mindset. And so I’m happy to help any of your listeners with whatever it is that they need to get to that next level.
CORWYN:
That’s kind of a great segue. But I want you to know Ace, I’m going to take what you just talked about, right there, because I’ve never heard that before. The six inches between your ears. Oh, gosh, that’s gold right there. Man, that is a nugget. That’s gold for our listeners. Y’all write that down. But as we have this thing that we’ve started doing over the last several weeks, I refer to it as our mic drop question. So you know, you got your information out for our listeners, thank you so much for that. And guys, y’all please reach out to Ace the guys doing it. Y’all need to figure out how you can learn and how you can be a part of but Ace, our mic drop question is I asked our guests, what was that thing that if you would have known it? Years ago, I was having a conversation with somebody. I think yesterday I was sitting with a former schoolmate. And you know, they were talking about where they were in life and they’re doing things in life now. But they said to me call if I’d have known this man founder known this 25 years ago, man, where would I have been? And I’m like, I get it. But you know what now? So for you as what did you know now that if you’d known only 25 years ago, I have many years ago, it needs to be would have changed your complete trajectory would have had you far beyond where you are now.
ACE:
I’m gonna go back to mindset, your thoughts become your reality. So what are you thinking about day in and day out? Because once you become aware of your thoughts, that’s the brilliant thing once you become aware of something, then you can change it. And now you have the decision to make. So if I had known back then that wherever I want to go in life, it all depends on what I’m thinking today. So for everybody listening, be aware of the thoughts that you’re having because that will become your reality. You have to choices one have empowering thoughts or to have disempowering thoughts, you’re gonna have thoughts regardless. So, choose your thoughts wisely because that is going to define your future.
CORWYN:
That was it. My draw right there man. Ace, ;ook man, I thank you so much for that. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for being on the show with us today. You have a podcast so if our listeners please check out Ace’s podcast. Ace, what’s the name of your podcast?
ACE:
Superhero By Design
CORWYN:
Superhero By Design. So look here, we’re gonna go do it lucky, I want you all to go into your closet, I want you to pull out that cape. If it’s the wrong call, I want you to go down to the school and get you some dye and dye it and come back. Let’s try this thing here again. But I need you guys to put your cape on. And let’s go out here and let’s take over let’s conquer. Let’s be the superhero in our own lives. We don’t need somebody else to do it. Let’s be the superhero in our own lives, guys. And let’s make a difference not only for us, but for the generations yet to come. Ace again. Thank you so much for being on the show with us today. I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.
ACE:
Awesome, man. Well, I appreciate you having me on. Thank you.
CORWYN:
For our listeners. Guys. One more time. Y’all heard me and I spent when I see your light hitting the streets later, but I’m gonna see a lot here what keeps and stuff on? Okay, so go get your capes, and let’s go get it for our listeners again for the final time. You know how I feel? Y’all know what I say? I’m gonna put the two of them things together. I’m gonna say it to you this way, which is I love you. I love you. I love you. And we gon to see you guys out there in those streets.
Guys, that was a great show today. And we thank you so much for taking the time to listen to Exit Strategies Radio Show. My name is Corwyn J. Melette. Yes, that is me. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for tuning in. With today’s episode, exit strategies are my faith. It is how I give back to our community. It is how I foster goodwill. spread good news, and trustfully help you get great results. Guys, as I always say to you, as I always say to you, I love you. I love you. I love you. And we gon’ see you guys out there in the streets.
