How The Ever-Changing Landscape Of Real Estate Impacts Your Business

On this episode of the Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast, Ryan DeMent speaks about the ever-changing real estate market landscape and how it affects your business. Learn how to make the necessary changes to stay ahead in the game and what strategies you should implement right now. Get ready to take your finances to a whole new level!

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Transcript

How The Ever-Changing Landscape Of Real Estate Impacts Your Business

Hey guys. Ryan DeMent Chasing Financial Freedom Podcast. You guys can see it is me this week. Next week we'll get back into a rotation of guests, but I wanted to finish up my story, and also start sharing some different things that I'm trying to do in—the ever-changing landscape of business real estate.

There's just some crazy stuff going on out there in the world, and I want to talk about it and work through some of the things that I'm trying to do. Get feedback from you guys. I'm always open to that. But the other thing is I really just want to be open and share that the struggles can be real at times, but I have to.

put everything on my back and go, and I'm gonna fail along the way, but I'm gonna learn and move forward. And I know that I say that all the time, but I'm truly digging deep on this one. And being able to make changes on the fly is tough at times, but it, I'm motivated, I'm I've got things going on and things are being held up.

The construction crews, potentially I'd have to reschedule and wait even longer cuz they've got other jobs. So there's just so many moving pieces that I have to worry about. But at the end of the day, my struggle for me is to stay focused and be in the now, in the moment because I do think about the future and the what ifs out there.

I don't go backwards and I know I've shared that my problem is future anxiety. it's a struggle. It keeps me up at night. It wakes me up. But the focus that I want to talk to you guys about this week is being in the now, being in the present, doesn't matter if it's business or personal, staying in your lane where you need to be to get things done.

I know for me, it makes me feel like I've accomplished. During the day, but I've also started to move the needle on things that I thought I couldn't move. And when I veer from that, it just has so many other challenges that come with it. I know we've all experienced it, but for me personally, it just opens up a Pandora's box that's just gone.

Wild. That's all. I don't know how to describe it. And I lose focus and I stop and I don't do anything. I have to regroup. And

when we're, and this is all about scheduling. So when we're trying to schedule out for the new builds and getting that the teams that we need to have in place, we gotta get the foundation, poured and it has to have time to. Solidify and get itself ready, and cure.

Then there's that, that delay of seven to 10 days, depending on what the weather's and then we've gotta get the framers in. The framers are probably the busiest guys right now that we know. And I know you're probably saying the market is, slowing down. It is. But these guys are that good where they're keeping busy.

They work with a lot of regional and smaller builders and sometimes even specific home buyers that are looking to build their own houses on their land. They're keeping busy. They've got four crews grow going right now. I don't know if that's gonna continue to happen or not, but we keep on pushing them back and at some point they're just gonna say, is this really gonna.

So I've had to have numerous conversations to make sure that they understand that, hey, it's gonna happen. It's just the funding has got delayed and I can't control that, and I'm not gonna start a project that. , I'm starting from the rears. I wanna make sure the money's in the bank. Everybody's squared away, everyone gets paid.

That's just how I do business. Some people would've started already and told people, okay, you're gonna have to wait two to three weeks after you get, get going to get paid. I don't do that. I rather just know that it's coming. So once I know it's funded and everything's ready to go, that's when we kick things off, because then we'll have that perfect timing to where everything plays out.

but these framers, we've done so much work on digging into finding some phenomenal framers and what they can do and how quickly they can basically put a house up. And these guys come very highly recommended. They're out of Tennessee, so they've got a little bit of a drive, but they do business.

Kentucky and also Indiana. So if I can keep them busy on three to four houses at a time, that is beautiful because then we frame black it in, put a roof on it, put some windows, we're ready to go, and then we can start getting the interior stuff all done. But the lynch pin and all this and a lot of my anxiety is these guys, I don't know, again, I don't know their schedule.

They tell me they're busy. I have to believe them. , but at the same time, I have to be realistic and say, okay, I can't just put my head in the sand and pray that they're gonna be available. So I've worked, started working on Plan B and plan C for some time now, and these other framers that I'm working on, they're not as good.

And I don't wanna settle for something that's less than what I'm expecting, especially from this first group of guys. So what do I. , I've gotta have plan B and plan C there to keep things going. So do I wait and delay and wait for my plan A to come through once they're ready, if that happens, or do I just go immediately to plan B and start working through that process?

Cuz Plan B, they have two crews. So it's not like we can't get stuff done, it's just, they're just not as efficient with their time. These other guys are very efficient with their time and. Their goal is to get a house up as quickly as they can in the most stur, most professional and effective way, so they can get paid and then they move on to the next deal.

They're all about volume, but they're also putting quality work. In some of the reviews that I got from people that have worked with them, not people that they gave us as references, we just started pulling their permits and I started reaching out to those. and every single one of 'em gave them a glowing review and everything they did was top notch.

And better yet, they're affordable and they work within our budget for the Our Houses. So it's like it's a win. It's a winner chicken dinner time, but it's at jeopardy. And I have to be realistic with myself. And I know thinking about it all the time just doesn't. . It truly doesn't. But it's on my head.

It is truly on my head because I've got everything on my back. And if I don't actually ensure we're prepared, guess what? Ata la pasta. And that's just life. There's, there. Always a way to find a plan B and plan C in everything we do in life. You just have to be willing to find it and dig for it and keep moving towards them if your plan A doesn't work out.

The giving up piece, guys, I know is a struggle. We all struggle with it. I struggle with it. I put it in my head at times and I have to kick it outta my head. But if you don't.

if you don't continue to try to move forward, how are you supposed to become a better person, a better husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever. And then what about a business owner or a leader or a coach or an advisor? You can't just give up when things really, the stuff hits the fan.

You've gotta find a way around it and continue to push forward. and I'll be always the first person in line to tell you. That is the most difficult and daunting task I have with my life is always making sure I push forward cuz I am human just like you. The pain gets a lot, it gets very stressful, but we have to find a way to persevere and be consistent and move ourselves to the next.

And all this talk about in these buzzwords of scaling up, it's just that it's buzz because you've gotta move at your pace and what you're comfortable with and what you know that can work. I'm not saying stay comfortable and sit on the couch and binge watch Netflix and need bond bonds. No. What you're comfortable with, with moving your business to the next.

The scaling piece is just that man, it, it will come with time. It comes with perseverance, for example, building one house and then building three houses at the same time, that's moving up, that's upstream, that's improving, that's getting better. That's growing your business. Is it the scale that some people want?

There's this, the buzz out there is the 10 x rule. I put a hundred thousand dollars into a company and I'm want a million bucks back. In today's day, and agent and market and where everything is at, up and down and sideways and so forth, I don't know how somebody can do that or ask that, but it's out there.

I reach out to plenty of. and I talked to them, they're all looking for, 10 x returns in a very short period of time. And it's just, I have to tell 'em, I'm sorry, but in this space, that type of timeframe that you're looking for is pretty much impossible. Can we give you a double digit return?

Sure, we can, but it's have to, it has to be over six to 12 months, not over three or four. , there's no way I can build a house that quickly and disposition it through our five exit strategies. No way. Even if I rehab a house, it's still after three months would be tight. The rehab would probably take 60 days or so, maybe 70 days, and then 20 or 30 days to sell it or exit it through another strategy.

It's all tight and I'm not gonna set myself up for failure. And having those realistic expectations for myself and the business is key to. , and I say that to you guys because you can't let somebody push you into making that decision, especially when you're stressed and you're trying to get something accomplished or you need the capital, whatever the case is you have to sit back and say, that's not the right person, or This is not the right time for that person to come in and be an investor, or whatever the case is.

Don't get bullied into it. And I know that's a key word, buzzword, whatever, but it's truly is don't let your emotions make those decisions for something that is a financial decision. You need to step back. Let me think about it and I'll get back to you. I'm talking to this guy that wants to buy a couple of our properties that are just empty lots that are outside of our normal scope that we've sat on for a couple years, and he, of course, he low balls me, and then he expects that I don't know who he is, and of course I play dumb.

But being truthful and honest about who you are and what you're trying to do is my biggest factor in life. And if people can't be honest with me when I'm doing business, I have to really think about, do I really wanna sell 'em the property? It's money. I get it. A couple extra shackles in the bank.

All good, all for it.

But I don't like people coming off that way and doing that. And unfortunately this individual comes off as, as somebody that knows it all and, and thinks that, he runs. Runs our business kind of, it basically telling us what to do, telling me what to do and how I should sell things and where I'm going with stuff.

God bless 'em. Doesn't, it doesn't move me one way or the other, but I can tell you this, those type of people, I shut up and I listen. Let 'em talk, let 'em keep going. . And then at the end he offers it and I'm like, okay, I'll take under advisement. I'll get back to you. He said, and then he responds back this is my only offer.

Okay, great. Thank you for the offer, but I don't know if I wanna take it or not. And right now I wouldn't tell you if I wanted to or not. Just for the simple fact of, I don't want to tell you. And it got him a little angry. I think there's other ways to work around that, and I've got some ideas and we'll see what happens.

I'm supposed to talk to 'em today and we'll see what comes out of it. Whether it happens or not, I don't know, but at the same time, I'm not in the game of fire sales or having somebody, like I said earlier, bully me into selling something or buying something that I don't need.

Another person can come along and buy the property at the right pricing. We're about $1,500 apart. We're not talking a substantial amount of money, so don't know. But the thing that I can tell you guys is when somebody comes like that, hot and heavy at me and tells me that they've done all their research and they've done this and they've done that, and they try to think that they know.

Those are the individuals that truly don't know anything about me, and they don't know my background. They don't know what I've done in the past. They don't know where I stand on any of this stuff. And this leads me to the last piece of, today's podcast, we'll be short, we'll be under, potentially under 20 minutes.

In life and in business. We're always negotiating. They say, the old adage is, life is negoti. It truly is. It's just matter how you negotiate with others. Do you negotiate from a position of practically beating people up, and bullying them? Or do you negotiate from a position of knowledge and ability to be effective with your.

Negotiation skills to where you get what you're looking for and you create a win-win situation. Now, is it always gonna be a win-win? No. It, it can't. In a perfect world, that would be great, but sometimes there's winners and sometimes there's losers. But in the end, if you can find a way to effectively negotiate and bring the deal to the table and both parties.

You get more of those in return and they just keep on coming and they keep on coming. And it makes life a lot easier when you're trying to take advantage of somebody in a negotiations that ultimately will come back and bite you in the took us.

And that's nowhere near the type of business person I am, and especially a human. I'm not gonna take advantage of somebody, nor will I even think about it. I just know from my prior years, of working door-to-door collections and all that other great stuff. It's all about connecting with the person and understanding who's on the other side of the phone, in person who you're chatting with, whatever.

But once you get to know that person and start asking the right questions from a position of trying to. and not try to berate them or bully them. They tend to open up and share a little bit more and be willing to work with you more. Especially in collections, man you can't strong arm people to pay you really have to find a way to make it work, and you're basically telling them to pay that bill over any other bill.

So you have to understand where they're at financially, if they're behind on their rent or their mortgage or their utility. All those things have to be paid first, and if they're not, your bill's gonna probably be somewhere down the road. But you can always find a way to start getting partial payments or some type of postdated payments or work out some type of arrangement to where you can bring it current over a period of time that works with their pay schedule.

And I know that's deeper than most people want, but. , that's collections. But that's where I learned how to talk to people. That's where I learned how to relate and understand their situation and then be able to provide some type of solution. Life is not always that way. You're gonna run into people that are not trying to provide a solution.

They're just there about themselves. They're gonna steam, excuse me, steamroll you, and just keep going. They don't. and that's just a horrible way to look at life. It's a horrible way to treat other people. And in this situation that I'm working through on these properties is I'm not gonna try to steamroll this guy, even though he is trying to steamroll me.

I just push back and I push back with knowledge and the only way to do that is to make sure that I have my ducks in. I'm armed with information and have that conversation. He truly thinks he has the upper hand on me, and I don't know why. It's just I think he, he thinks he's smarter, but again, typically the person that is the loudest in the room that thinks of the smartest or not, and I don't care if you're a doctor, attorney, highly educated, doesn't matter.

You could have zero degrees and be the smartest person in the. You could have street smarts, you could have life experience. It's more than just a book. Is a book an added piece? Sure it is. went to college. I understand that. But a lot of things that I actually learned in college, I don't apply to my life today.

So I learned more from my experiences, and I'm sure you do too, but don't ever discount. How you interact with somebody in life and in business because you don't know where they're at in life. You treat 'em with respect. Have an honest conversation, go back and forth in the negotiations, however that looks like, whether it's a conversation with your, your significant other or spouse or a kid.

It's always treating the other person. Treating the other person on the other side is how you want to be. It's an old adage, but it's true, and you'll get more out of it. You just, at times it, it has to be deescalated to where there aren't emotions and it just comes down to a conversation and two human beings talking to one another.

When that happens, a lot of great things do occur in business and in life, and if you always keep that in. You're always going to win with everything that you actually do, and that to me is critical. It's crucial because it helps me be positive. It helps me be persistent, it helps me be consistent, all the things that I need to do as a business owner, an entrepreneur to keep things moving and making sure that I stay.

but it's also feels good because I treat the other person well and they see that whether they, whether we're doing a transaction to buy something from us or I'm buying something from them, or they'd like to buy a house from us. Always treat 'em with that respect and that dignity is huge. It goes a long way.

It just, some people don't do that. And. For me, it's, I shut down and I listen and I'll chime in every so often, but at the end of the day, it isn't worth me getting my anger up or getting all hot and bothered and pushing back and becoming the becoming the person they are. It doesn't work.

Guys, I'll finish off with this. If you're struggling, you're going through stuff in business, it's tough out. Be consistent, be persistent. Show up every single day and be in the now. And when you're interacting with people, treat 'em the way you want to be treated. It's very simple. It's how we do business.

It's how we treat others. It's how we interact with people in life doing that. It'll work out. And I know guys being in the now is the, probably the biggest c. . But the one thing I can tell you is if you start feeling anxiety and you're wandering, find something that allows you to refocus yourself. Even if you get up for five or 10 minutes, go for a walk, clear your head.

Whatever you do, just don't fall prey to it. Bring it back to the now and live there. Things will get better. You'll get through this and you will. Really understand how to fight through pretty much anything in life by doing that. And you're also gonna be very happy that you got on the other side and you didn't give up and live with regret.

All right guys. That's it for this week. I hope you guys have a great one. Stay safe, stay happy. I'll see you guys on the other side.