Creative Real Estate Financing w/ Joe & Jenn Delle Fave

[00:00:00] Joe Dellefave: Hey guess what? I'm never gonna go back to work. The last day I worked was March 12th, 2020, and for now on her and I we're gonna be doing this full time. And for ourselves, it was just a mic test. But I said that in the video and I was just scrolling through like old videos and there it was, I listened to I'm like, oh my goodness.

[00:00:15] So that was like early April 20, 20. And that's when everything started, the magic happened.

Intro: You're listening to the real fi podcast where we discuss time, tested tricks, techniques, and strategies for pursuing financial independence today, so that we can enjoy a better tomorrow financial independence.

[00:00:37] Isn't about getting rich quick. It's about cultivating a foundation to grow financially, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Let's figure out how to kick the nine to five. Here are your hosts, Patrick and James. 

[00:00:51] Patrick McGrath: How's it going everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the real fi podcast. I'm your host Patrick McGrath with my co-host [00:01:00] James Ripon.

[00:01:00] How's it going, James? 

[00:01:02] James Rippeon: It's going great. Patrick, living my life, man. Things are looking up. So I'm excited to get into this conversation with Joe and Jen. I think they're gonna be bringing a lot of great tips for us for real estate investors across the board. So I'm looking forward to. 

[00:01:14] Patrick McGrath: Yeah, I can't.

[00:01:15] Wait, how are you guys doing today? Down there in lovely Florida. It 

[00:01:20] Jenn Dellefave: is absolutely beautiful and nice and sunny. So we're super excited to be basically, working outside all day instead of in an office. 

[00:01:30] Patrick McGrath: That's so awesome. That's so awesome. All right, James, you know the deal, let's kick this thing off and get it started.

[00:01:35] So 

[00:01:36] James Rippeon: Joe and Jen, why don't you two take a couple minutes to give us a little bit of background about yourselves and give us a little bit about, who you guys are, where you came from and lead us up into where you are today and what you're doing. 

[00:01:49] Joe Dellefave: Yeah. Awesome. My name's Joe and I actually got lucky.

[00:01:52] I was, I got to real estate in 22 years ago. The year 2000, one of my friends bought something on a television infomercial [00:02:00] late night with his mom. And I was hanging out at his house one day and it was just there and he never even opened it. So I asked if I could borrow it and cause it said how to do real estate without money and banks and credit.

[00:02:10] And I was like that's write up my alley, cuz at the time I was like 22 and I didn't have any of that. And I read the books, listened to the tapes, watched the VCR tape. So you know, this is legitly old. And a month later I had a wholesale deal under contract. I made $15,000 on that deal. And this was in the year 2000.

[00:02:29] So like when you talk to somebody in the young twenties and then you just get a check like that you feel like there could have been like two zeros after I felt great. So fast forward I meet Jen in 2000 and. She was a teacher. I was working in the car business in finance and uh, she had her own home.

[00:02:45] I had my own home at that point. And lo and behold, we're only dating for a short time. And she's wondering why I'm trying to buy another house. And we started buying in 2008 cuz the market took a dip and we started finding deals at the end of oh eight, a lot of them. So we had access to cash. So we started buying and we started burring [00:03:00] 2008, nine, 10.

[00:03:03] We started buying a new house usually once a year. And then in 2013 we started having kiddos. So Jen decided to stay home and not be a teacher and work even harder, be a stay home mom. Plus our real estate portfolio was growing. So I needed her help cuz I was doing a lot of it while working a lot and it was just not doing what I was supposed to be doing.

[00:03:22] So thank goodness for her helping and then it was around 2016 where. We learned about creative finance and we learned how to buy beautiful houses in beautiful neighborhoods without using banks, without using your credit and very little to no money down. And once we saw that, because the writing was on the wall that eventually you buy and you burn enough houses, the banks are gonna slow it down a little bit.

[00:03:47] And there's still ways to grow, but it's, it gets a little trickier at one point. So we knew this was gonna be a strategy we wanted. So in 2017, we had a bunch of rentals. We changed everything over to rent, to own with a lot of those houses. [00:04:00] And that worked out really well for everyone. And we started buying houses without using banks from there on out.

[00:04:06] And then after that point, 

[00:04:08] Jenn Dellefave: It was like one or two properties a year. And then 2020, it was February, 2020. We decided that, come fall, my youngest was gonna go into kindergarten and my goal would be to ramp up our real estate and bring him home. And so we had just enrolled in a coaching program to really master some awesome skills and March 20, 20 hit.

[00:04:29] And as the world shuts down and we quickly realized that this was our chance to pivot. He wasn't gonna go back to the dealership. 

[00:04:36] Joe Dellefave: And it was one of those things that it actually, I looked, we had a video of it. It was early April. 2020, where I did a short video testing out my microphone and I was like, Hey, guess what?

[00:04:48] I'm never gonna go back to work. Last day I worked was March 12th, 2020, and for now on her and I we're gonna be doing this full time. And for ourselves, it was just a mic test. But I said that in the video and I was [00:05:00] just scrolling through like old videos and there it was, I listened to it. I'm like, oh my goodness.

[00:05:03] So that was like early April 20. and that's when everything started, the magic happened. We had a couple deals under contract right away. I ended up blowing out my left lung for some spontaneous reason. Nobody knows why I was in the hospital, signing deals that were closing in the hospital bed while C's going on.

[00:05:19] So New York did not let anybody in the hospital and whatever, the first day that you were allowed to have people in the hospital was the end of June. She came up there with closing documents in her hand while I'm FaceTiming my attorney after I haven't showered in four days ago, 

[00:05:31] Jenn Dellefave: it was weird timing.

[00:05:32] Yeah. It was like noon. You could go in. And that's exactly when I showed up, I didn't even know what was happening. I'm just trying to get these documents signed. This is now our livelihood and I wanna help these sellers out. It was insane, but you just, it was really like it showed us that it's, you just don't make excuses and you make things happen.

[00:05:48] And you have to apply that mentality almost every day in this business. Not as drastic as that, you really have to pick and choose what you're doing with your time. And. 

[00:05:58] Joe Dellefave: That was intense. And then it changed. [00:06:00] We brought on a team to work with us and we started hiring some folks and that's when we started growing.

[00:06:05] Yeah. And we now have a team of 10 of us total. And this month we have nine deals, new deals in our contract. And on a given month, we probably do 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 deals. Every month we do it nationwide. And because of this, we walked away from our jobs and we're able to travel the country. When we originally came down to Florida, it was to escape one month of the super cold and upstate New York.

[00:06:29] And then we've been here for three months now and don't wanna leave. Don't wanna leave so much that we're selling your house and we're moving down here because we're not tied to. The job anymore. 

[00:06:39] Jenn Dellefave: Yeah. So a lot can really happen in two years. It was just him and I two years ago. And then now, instead of buying in little old Rochester, New York surrounding areas, we are nationwide and definitely doing deals down here in Florida.

[00:06:50] James Rippeon: So let's talk about that a little bit. What motivated you guys to really expand the search area away from where you guys live? And we're based [00:07:00] because everyone gets into real estate. And the first thing they try to do is buy something in their neighborhood, buy something in their city and they wanna be able to drive to it.

[00:07:07] But here you guys are operating across the country doing all these deals every month. Like what kind of got you into that position to be able to think that you could accomplish. 

[00:07:16] Jenn Dellefave: We started with baby steps. So it was definitely like our backyard. And then we branched out to the Buffalo Syracuse market.

[00:07:23] I remember our first property that was like in the Buffalo area. We all, we drove there. It was a rent to own. And so it was, oh, it's an hour and away. This is so crazy, and then our, we started doing ads and they were running into Pennsylvania. So we're like let's venture into Pennsylvania now.

[00:07:37] It's the next state down. The craziest story 

[00:07:40] Joe Dellefave: happened. We had somebody who wanted to sell their house, but they more importantly wanted sell their house in north pole, Alaska. So when our acquisition manager reached out, I forgot what we were doing, but she was like, yeah, we have a. They wanna do it.

[00:07:56] It's in north pole, Alaska, and we were joking like, ha Santa Claus. Like I [00:08:00] honestly, I'm not gonna try to sound weird when I say this, but I knew north pole Alaska was like, I didn't know. It was a real place Santa was up there. Yeah. We thought 

[00:08:07] Jenn Dellefave: she was joking. Exactly. Is this seller kidding? She had seen one of our ads saying we could help buy her house.

[00:08:12] And she lived in North Carolina and she had this house up in Alaska and lo and 

[00:08:17] Joe Dellefave: behold, she needed help and they were trying to sell it on the market. Couldn't We made that deal happen. And she was happy cuz they were making a big payment while they were vacant for two years. They needed a bunch of repairs onto the property, but they didn't have the money to do it.

[00:08:29] And the realtor wouldn't list it until his repairs were done. Yeah. So we actually found a buyer within two days and he couldn't have been happier. We're now friends on Facebook. I have a friend in Alaska now and he's been happy too. So it worked out really well for everybody. That's 

[00:08:43] Patrick McGrath: so exciting. I.

[00:08:43] There's so much to unpack in these first five minutes. It's absolutely crazy. The experience that you guys have and what you're doing and how it all started. I think James, like what James was alluding at was most people start and they have this little circle and they get a little bit more comfortable and a little bit more [00:09:00] comfortable and a little bit more comfortable.

[00:09:02] But typically that's from just saying yes sometimes. And it sounds like you guys have just not let the barrier of a no kind of come up and you've just taken on all these different challenges as they come and keep pushing through. And I'd love for you to expand, on that a little bit, as well as what your current portfolio looks like today.

[00:09:25] Is it all cash that's coming in from wholesaling or of flipping these deals? Or do you have some rentals break that down for us a little bit? 

[00:09:34] Joe Dellefave: Yeah, thank you. So that's a great question. So yeah, we do. We actually don't do rentals. We did, we used to be landlords and we couldn't stand the call that the faucets leaking and the showered, this and the toilet that, and it was really gonna be to the point where either we were going to scale and have a property manager handle all this for us, and then obviously a dipping into your profits or what are we gonna do?

[00:09:56] So part of the creative training we learned was how to not do [00:10:00] rentals, but to do rent to own. What we do is we do with lease. So we actually collect our, a decent size non-refundable option deposit because of that being so large. And it could be 10, 20, $30,000 or more because of that, you're dealing with a different client because they're gonna be a future owner.

[00:10:15] , but they're still renting. So in the meantime, you're collecting rent, but they're responsible for maintenance repairs. So you get that check up front, you get the monthly cash flow and then down the road, once they buy it, you get a big back on check. If you were a flipper, but there's no realtor commissions, cuz you're selling directly to your renter.

[00:10:30] There's no short term capital gains cuz they've held it for over a year. So it ends up working out very well for them too, because they're getting the opportunity to buy a home and not get kicked outta a landlord's house because they're selling it. It's something they could make their own and we work with 'em to make sure they could get actually cashed out.

[00:10:46] We don't just of throw 'em to the streets and hope it happens. Cause if you do that generally doesn't happen. So if they need help, we make sure we help them if they don't and they wanna do it on their own. That's fine too. But I think that's awesome. . Yeah, so we have a fairly good sized [00:11:00] portfolio of those properties scattered across the country.

[00:11:01] And then we love with our lead generation. We get leads nationwide. So we've closed deals from Florida to Oklahoma, to north Alaska to, all over the place. And so what happens is when we get these incoming leads, if they're in the few areas that we like to keep the properties, we'll keep 'em in house.

[00:11:21] But if they're in some of these areas, like a lot of our seller finance deal, We do a lot of these creative finance deals where there's no banks involved and you're getting beautiful houses of beautiful neighborhoods. Some are crystal clean and turnkey. Some need a little work. Some, they might even need more than that.

[00:11:36] But on a lot of those deals, there's just an abundance of folks who want to get into those properties, cuz they just can't find 'em their own. But we have some really great marketing. We've got a great team that processes a lot of leads hundreds a week. And out of those few hundred a week you can narrow it down to a couples like making orange juice, right?

[00:11:54] You squeeze all these oranges and then you have this little tiny cup of orange juice when you're done, but you squeeze all these oranges. But works out well because it's a [00:12:00] great way to help sellers where it doesn't work out for the typical cash buyer and the numbers wouldn't work on a cash deal.

[00:12:05] So that's why on this deal, they really work out well. 

[00:12:09] James Rippeon: So James, how many of these lease purchases do you have going at any particular time? 

[00:12:14] Joe Dellefave: So what happens is we have somewhere in the twenties right now, currently going and the neat thing about is we don't necessarily count doors as much because of the reason is some people will get cashed out right.

[00:12:26] And if somebody gets you cashed out and you get a 50, $60,000 check that you can know, lose a door, 

[00:12:31] Jenn Dellefave: but they gained a home 

[00:12:32] Joe Dellefave: they gained a home, you get a check at the end, and then you could reinvest that into more properties. And to do other things. So a lot of our deals are very little cash you get into 'em.

[00:12:41] A lot of properties we buy with just a few thousand dollars out of pocket, no credit checks, no credit, no banks. So if I do have somebody cash me out and I do get that big old check, one thing is I'm taking another step too far, but you could put it into a 10 31. And by many properties was create a finance cuz you know, they might need $5,000 down or something like that.

[00:12:59] So [00:13:00] there's a really great build your portfolio quickly this 

[00:13:02] Patrick McGrath: way. I'd really like you to dive into the cause I've done some seller financing. I know everyone's extremely interested in seller financing, but you did mention something with the subject to, and we had one other person talk about it, but I don't think they explained it very well.

[00:13:20] So if you could break that down for us subject to, and then how you actually go about that because I know there is some key things that shy a lot of people away from that. And I'd love to hear your guys' input and cuz how you utilize that. So well. 

[00:13:36] Joe Dellefave: Yeah. So there's seller financing is an overall umbrella.

[00:13:41] And there's many different ways of doing it. So when you have terms like subject two, another one, it's a wrap mortgage. Those are for the sellers who maybe have a mortgage on the property. And these are ways that we're gonna be able to buy that without using the bank, and seller financing that those are forms of seller financing, but generally seller financing.

[00:13:59] And what I would [00:14:00] think, Patrick's talking about, these were probably homes where free and clear, right? So then you're able to buy that directly from the seller. So with subject two or a wrap mortgage means is we agree to buy somebody's house for a hundred thousand dollars and they owe a hundred thousand dollars on it and they just wanna walk away because something happened and it's in some type of condition or some other situation happens.

[00:14:21] We're able to buy it for that a hundred thousand dollars. But the way we buy it is we're not gonna actually have to go to a bank. We have it closed with attorneys or title companies, and what's gonna happen is we're gonna buy the property. It's gonna transfer over to one of our companies or to a trust.

[00:14:34] And then what's gonna happen is we're gonna end up taking over that payment on their behalf. We're not assuming it we're gonna be paying it on their behalf, but we're not going to be doing any of that type of assumption work or anything like that. So what does that mean? That means the loan stays in the seller's name.

[00:14:51] The deed goes into our name. We make the payments in the house. Now a lot of common questions I hear is what happens if you stop making the payments? There's paperwork that says [00:15:00] they take back the house and what's going to happen is in these transactions, the buyer, which would be us or whoever buys the deal, you're gonna have to, you're gonna end up having to.

[00:15:10] Closing costs on both sides generally, because if I'm gonna sell or buy a house and I tell my seller, they also have to come to closing with $2,003,000. You're gonna have a lot less come to closing. Okay. So if you have to pay both sides, which we do, to give that house back would be losing thousands of dollars and then obviously too, you might paint it.

[00:15:29] You might do some things to it. Some we do absolutely nothing do. And some that need a little bit of elbow grease, right? So on those deals that are subject to the neat thing about it is if somebody wants to be a landlord and they don't wanna have another loan in their name, this is a great opportunity.

[00:15:45] We actually have one of my friends, I was explaining how this works and he went to the seller's house, made the deal and showed his wife is their, they're gonna be their first rental. And she loved it so much. They made it as their primary residence and they now live there in kids and it's their house.

[00:15:59] So [00:16:00] I know that when we are relocating to Florida, We are gonna end up buying a house subject to for seller financing. I'm putting it out there now it's gonna happen. We've got lots of leads. We've made deals in Florida, just not in the neighborhoods where we wanna live in. So a lot of those Florida deals that we've had, we've assigned them to other investors and they go lightning quick.

[00:16:19] And it turns, yeah, like a feeding frenzy, but it's great. Because we're obviously able to make some things happen. 

[00:16:26] James Rippeon: That's awesome. So let's talk a little bit about how you're finding these buyers and especially for the wanna go back to the least purchases a little bit for those people who are gonna be making these payments and taking over the property eventually how are you finding those people to get into the property and take that over?

[00:16:45] Joe Dellefave: So two different things. So if we have a lease purchase, that's one of our properties that we own. We probably bought it with creative finance and how are, what are we gonna do with our property once we buy it, we're gonna put in a rent to own buyer, right? So they're gonna be paying us and we're gonna be paying that payment.

[00:16:59] We're gonna work with them to [00:17:00] get us cashed out now. That's how our rent to own program works. So how do we find buyers for that? To be quite honest with you, we just put out on Facebook in a lot of different places rent to own available, no bank qualification move in today. All credit is accepted.

[00:17:17] and you will have two to three to 400 people per day, reach out to you. So you definitely need to find somebody who's gonna filter that don't 

[00:17:23] Jenn Dellefave: recommend doing yourself. We just had one house that we shared, and it was shared like 200 times on Facebook. I think our answering service had over what 300 phone calls one day, and then the inbox alone on business suite was just insane.

[00:17:38] So there's a need for people to be able to get into a home that they just need some time to qualify. And we really believe that you do need that large non-refundable option deposit so that we can get them qualified when the time is right. And so that's really important to us instead of collecting a small one in the beginning and then saying, oh, you have a year or two, and then you're out, we'd rather have the large and then let them work through [00:18:00] the kinks.

[00:18:00] And. Get them 

[00:18:01] Joe Dellefave: qualified well, and cuz what happens is a lot of investors don't collect a large enough down payment, right? And then in two years you, your, they get their credit fixed. They go to the closing table and the closing agent says, okay, great. You're all set to go. You just need $18,000 and they're looking at each other we don't have that.

[00:18:16] So that becomes an issue. And now if you don't qualify a lot of times, these rental and landlords will remove you from the property, that's gonna look like, so we hate that. So 

[00:18:25] Patrick McGrath: really what we, and keep the payment, keep the down payment. 

[00:18:28] Joe Dellefave: Yeah. So what we wanna do is we make sure that we collect the right amount front.

[00:18:31] So one, the credit does get fixed and everything else does in row. I don't want that being an issue from holding us to go to closing. And if they need more time, we'll give them more. So that's the neat thing about it. If we give 'em a two year term and they don't get it cash out in two years, maybe we have to revisit the rent.

[00:18:49] Maybe we have to revisit the price. We'll make sure they still get an excellent deal, but I'm not gonna remove them from the property they're taking care of the property. They wanna make it their own things happen. I get it. But I still [00:19:00] want that money to make sure that once they do get that mortgage, when it comes time to closing, I've had one where they actually still owed $3,000 and it was tough for them to get $3,000 together.

[00:19:10] So this is why you wanna make sure you do that. So you set up yourself, but you set up your buyer for success. And that's truly the key because once you set up your buyer for success, that helps you. That's gonna help when you're gonna cash out the person you bought the house from too.

[00:19:25] So you wanna make sure that this works properly and with some right systems in place, it's not terribly harder. It's, there's a lot of work that goes into it, but it's not like. Crazy. 

[00:19:34] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. Yeah. So okay, so property, so a lot of these are subject to, or, creative financing that you have.

[00:19:42] So you're able to tie up these properties from people that you're buying them from and paying their mortgage, and they still have that mortgage in their name. You're making your company is making the payments. And do you have an agreement with these sellers on how [00:20:00] long you plan on, paying on that mortgage for before it's removed from, their name and their credit?

[00:20:08] Joe Dellefave: Yeah, absolutely. They generally are gonna range. I We've got plenty that are 30 years. I've got some that are five to 10 years. I generally won't do anything less than one. Unless we're gonna do a small flip on it. Cause there's a way that you could do that. Not pay for the house, pay for just the flip and then flip it.

[00:20:22] And so we could do that too. I'll do that one for shorter time, cause I'm not gonna need years, but much other than that, I won't keep 'em or I won't let it happen for anything less than five years, because you wanna make sure that you're gonna put your buyer in the situation where they could get cash out.

[00:20:36] And if they don't get cash out, say two or three years, like I've got a little bit more wiggle room to make sure we fix those last few things. Okay. 

[00:20:43] Patrick McGrath: So I, one of the big things that I've heard is when you transfer the deed into, another person or entity the bank could call the note, have you experienced that due on sale clause with any lenders before, [00:21:00] and is the reason that you have it go into your LLC and not your personal name to get away from that possibly happening.

[00:21:07] Joe Dellefave: So we are very aware of it. It's in every mortgage. It's an Avory mortgage, but also if you look at line 2 0 3 on the HUD statement, it talks about how to buy property subject to right on there. So it's not like it's uncommon to do so you gotta make sure that you're going to do it the right way. And there are some nuances that you're gonna make sure you need to set up the insurance the right way, how you're gonna deed the property the right way, how to make sure you're gonna pay the right way.

[00:21:33] Things like this that make sure that, and it could happen anytime. But it's usually very low percentages if you do everything the right way. And what is percentages wise mean? It could be one out of a thousand that actually could call due. And I'm sure I know some of my investor friends who had that happen before, and I don't know if it was just maybe a small town credit union that found something, or maybe they didn't have one or two things set up the right way.

[00:21:59] Maybe they're [00:22:00] making late payment. And the bank's geez, they're making late payments. Now it goes into somebody's hands for the first time. I'm like wait a minute. What happened here? And now it's raising red flags, right? So there's a lot of different things that could really put you in that situation.

[00:22:12] There's also plenty of things you could do to avoid that situation from happening too. So you gotta do it the right way and the success is in the details. 

[00:22:19] James Rippeon: I think that's what is important is understanding kind of what the mortgage is structured to do in certain circumstances. And to have an appreciation that the loan might be able to be called due, even though the chance and risk of that happening is super slim.

[00:22:33] I've honestly I can't think of any instance in which it actually happened to an investor that time now. It's good to know that's how the mortgages work. The bank might have that option just need to be prepared for. 

[00:22:44] Joe Dellefave: Yeah, and bank's not gonna wanna to own real estate.

[00:22:47] That's not what they're looking to do. And a bank usually takes a pretty big hit if they do take a foreclosure back. So you gotta be doing something really eh, in order for that to happen. So just try your boss. And obviously if you have that happen there's [00:23:00] things you could do, you could refinance out of it if you had to, or, talk to the bank and let them know what you're doing.

[00:23:04] And sometimes they care, sometimes they don't. But 

[00:23:07] Patrick McGrath: that's fantastic. So what kind of, I'm just gonna jump into this, like what kind of resources did you use to, to learn this strategy? I know you talked about the the real estate guide that you found back in 2000. I think I remember those late night infomercials with the guy with the white Lamborghini or whatever in front of the big mansion, but where, where did you learn this strategy?

[00:23:29] Like where can I find more information about, those nitty gritty details on making sure that it gets done right? You. 

[00:23:36] Joe Dellefave: So where I learned it from was from originally, it was from Ron LA Grande was his name. He's a old school investor. He's they call him the godfather of real estate, probably been doing for 40 something years.

[00:23:47] He's in Florida, Papa they call him big Papa. He's been doing it for a really long time. He know he goes over a lot of great details. I learned a lot from him in 2016. We've spent a lot with coaches though, too. [00:24:00] Where they specialize in a lot of this. Jen and I have spent six figures.

[00:24:03] Education and courses and all types of things to learn what we're doing, marketing business consultants, like everything to really learn how to do this all the right way. And then the next step of it is too is to actually do it. That's the best way to do it is actually doing it. Talking with attorneys, like some of the attorneys we use are some of the best in the entire country.

[00:24:20] So when you're surrounding yourself with these folks and you're doing it at a high volume, like what we are doing, you really get into that sweet spot. And then that's why we've had so many folks reaching out to us. We did start a coaching program a year ago and it's to the point where even a lot of our own team has quit their jobs, cuz our personal team consists of, they're all working from home.

[00:24:42] They're all in the us. They're all women. They range from 19 years old to maybe late thirties and on acquisitions. There's a team of five or six of them. And then on dispositions, there's two more. They all do a great job and I think it's really surrounding yourself with the right team and that's key to success.

[00:24:57] And that's what we found to be key for us [00:25:00] was having these people around us that we've spent a lot of time training and what their success happened. That's how we brought on students to teach them the same thing. And they've all been doing amazing too. So that's where it's the systems really. Gotcha.

[00:25:12] James Rippeon: Talking about all this business that you guys are building, you're putting your teams in place, your systems' in place. And it sounds like you guys are really wanting to scale. Why don't you guys walk us through a little bit of what your goals are in your business and what you're trying to create, and maybe talk about some of those numbers for those benchmarks, for what you guys are trying to do.

[00:25:32] Joe Dellefave: So the goal is to do a hundred deals, a. And I don't think that's out of range at all. And from what we're pacing to do, if we continue that pace, we're gonna get pretty darn close this year. And I think next year we'll exceed that. It's always changing your business models and always looking at it.

[00:25:50] And I will say luckily for me in the car business, I was working for the largest Chevy dealer in the country. And I've learned a lot about processes and businesses and growth and how to scale. And you don't wanna do it too [00:26:00] quickly because you can definitely run into issues. There, there was times where our team reshot to us, slow the leads down.

[00:26:07] There's too much stuff coming in. Which is crazy to hear that sometimes, but that's fantastic problem to have. But we really have dialed in the recipe now to how to dial it in. And we're putting more pieces of place all of the time, constantly refining our business because we aren't just talking about it.

[00:26:21] Like we're actually the ones doing it. And to do it right, and to do it at a high volume to do 10 to 20 deals a month consistently is to the point where we wanna be. And we're gonna keep the properties that we really like in the areas that we buy and all the other ones that are still really good deals.

[00:26:37] We could, pass those on to other investors that they could get that deal hand delivered to them in a silver platter. And if they just pay most of the time, it's just closing costs and our finders fee our assignment fan the deal they're into a really nice deal. And we have the concept of grateful greedy.

[00:26:51] I wanna make sure that our buyers make a killing on the deal to where, when I call them, like what just happened yesterday. Like they're like, they want my phone call. [00:27:00] They want our phone call we have a property. 

[00:27:01] Patrick McGrath: That's really amazing. I absolutely love that statement right there.

[00:27:05] Grateful over greedy. That's fantastic. So a hundred deals a year The name of this podcast, is the real fi podcast, financial freedom, financial independence. That's what I think everyone listening is, striving for. So what does that look like for you guys?

[00:27:24] It sounds like you guys have built a successful business and you have quite a lot going on break that down for us in, one, what does that mean to you? And then what does that look like for you guys? Is that the hundred deals a year point? Is that the financial freedom number?

[00:27:39] Is that just the next goal on the list? That's 

[00:27:42] Joe Dellefave: the next 

[00:27:42] Jenn Dellefave: goal. That's yeah. That's the next story? I would say. I If you're listening, you probably are well aware of, having, what is it? Seven streams of income. And so you don't wanna always rely on one thing. So I think that it's really important to constantly be growing and evolving and finding things that you can, add to that [00:28:00] because you just never know what could happen so that the a hundred deals is great, we really love educating others.

[00:28:07] And in coaching, like that's really a passion. I was a teacher, so it's very passionate for me to wanna get into that and give back and just see others grow and have that time. I don't have a number in my head, 

[00:28:18] Joe Dellefave: the neat thing about the education part of it is some of the text messages that we.

[00:28:22] We charge so little for coaching. It's actually probably disgusting for what they get, what our students get of our time and education, everything that they get. Yeah. We do get a lot, but the best thing in the world that you're gonna get, it's not about the money at that point is we're doing enough deals.

[00:28:37] But the real neat thing about that is, is when you get the text messages, like when you're finding people who wanted to quit their job and they're quitting their job, they're traveling, they're going to spend time in other countries for a month, not a week, like our other jobs were and they're sort way surpassing their other incomes and just doing things that we're like breaking outta the day, nine to five handcuffs and to help people live that [00:29:00] dream, cuz that's what we've been able to do.

[00:29:02] And to get them there a lot faster than it took us to do that. That's really the cool gift. As far as the education, part of it goes the number wise, as far as the housing goes, I think that's a good benchmark to get us to where we wanna be financially is us a. Benchmark, but I'm definitely looking to grow past that too.

[00:29:19] And I, we have a recipe because there's not really many people who are consistently offering these creative finance deals to other investors. There's really nobody doing it. There might be somebody here or there who offers them. There's people who buy them, but there's not many people who are consistently offering them at a really good deal to other investors all across the country.

[00:29:40] So we get 'em in Florida, we get 'em in Texas. We got 'em in Louisiana, Michigan, Illinois, like they're all over the place. So the fact that we could help other investors make their dreams come true. And, we have the theory, like you could win a baseball BA game by getting a first base a lot. Like you don't have to hit grand slams and home runs, although they're great, don't get me wrong.

[00:29:58] You don't have to. And if you're doing [00:30:00] volume and you're doing this. It works out well for everyone. 

[00:30:02] James Rippeon: think that's a Testament to what you guys have been doing. You've been in the real estate game for 22 years, hitting these base hits and they add up, and that repetition compounds on itself.

[00:30:12] And you guys have a plethora of experiences and things have fall back on, and you've built a really great business over years as a result. And you can really tell where this has put you guys in a position to enjoy life in a unique way. So I wanna dive into that a little bit and talk about how you guys building your business over the past two years specifically has got you to where you are right now.

[00:30:33] So you guys are sitting in a really nice home in Florida, but it didn't always used to be that way. So let's talk a little bit about how you guys were able to build that lifestyle a little bit. 

[00:30:43] Jenn Dellefave: I think, again, it's just like waking up with a, with the, I get to attitude and also a have to, in a sense, because this is our new livelihood.

[00:30:51] We value family and health first and foremost, obviously, without those, ways there. And so for me, it was a mental shift, [00:31:00] especially, going back to March, 2020 is really when the game changed for us. And I actually read Elena Cardone's book that summer, and she talks about grant and her going through 2008 and how many sacrifices they had to make.

[00:31:13] And I felt like she was in my head a little bit there because, clearly the world shut down and we were in New York cause everything was shut down. So there was no more date nights, nail appointments going with friends, babysitters. It was just us in a house and having two kids. And so we just figured out a way to really make that work and we.

[00:31:32] We were just grinding, and then one of our coaches said, you can't do this alone. You need to hire other people. So it was summer of 2020, where we finally started bringing people on and really adapting that, delegate to elevate philosophy. And even to this day, it's being grateful to be able to make everybody breakfast and no one's rushing out the door and, we homeschool our two kids, so we can come down here and do this life and just realizing.

[00:31:57] Life, isn't this straight and [00:32:00] narrow of you have to go to school, go get an education, work in an office. And then we'll retire at a late age. And we saw that and it was, sacrificing some things, like barbecues and boat rides back in the day when we're in a, gross house, fixing it up a little bit.

[00:32:15] And I used to complain at first, cause I didn't quite get it, but now looking back, I'm like, okay, he was, he knew what he was doing, and here we are being able to live this. And so if we can pass that to other people, like he said a lot quicker, it means the world to us. 

[00:32:29] James Rippeon: So I was poking around on I think it was the blog that you guys have and it said something about I thought it said something about a 30 day challenge.

[00:32:37] Yes. For you guys, what? Talk, talk a little bit about that. What was. So 

[00:32:40] Jenn Dellefave: we were starting our coaching program, which developed organically last year, everyone kept asking like, how are you doing this? Teach us. So with that, I decided to create this 30 day challenge. And I sat down with Joe and we thought, okay, what are some things that we did that cost $0 just took a took time to get us from point a to point B, because by that point we'd been doing this for a year full [00:33:00] time.

[00:33:00] And so I just compiled a challenge and it's sad and frustrating at, the lack of the ability to finish this challenge because that's it's so simple to me. I know it's not easy. To do something every single day of your life for 30 days, but it's how bad do you want it? And so from everything from what's your why, so when you wanna quit, you go back to that reason for us.

[00:33:22] I didn't want him going back to the dealership. I didn't want that lifestyle again. Sure. He made decent money, but he had two weeks, the entire year, the kids didn't even see him. If they went to bed early or he left early in the morning, so it's that was my why. And then from there it was just.

[00:33:37] Books and, sharing all over, for that time social media, like we had no other interaction with people, so we used our phones day in, day out. We made ourselves go live every single week. And that's when our business really blossomed because everybody was home. And we of, I think, put our name on, especially in Rochester, out there, like we, we went to a meetup finally and they were like, oh, you guys are the rent to own people, so it's just, if you [00:34:00] believe in yourself and your business and you just take that consistent action for 30 days, like big things happen. And we just had a new student today, he's following this challenge and he's signed up for coaching calls, but, he's, he had three seller calls lined up for him today.

[00:34:15] Closing calls. It's incredible. It had just started. So 

[00:34:19] Patrick McGrath: that's a huge Testament to, I think anyone out there listening that you literally just need to take action. I love the challenge, to take action 30 days in a row and it's how bad do you. Because everybody, wishes, hopes, dreams that they can, achieve these huge goals and become financially free.

[00:34:40] But a lot of people aren't willing to sacrifice and put in those daily actions. And we're not talking about, 15 hours a day here, we're talking about just being consistent, to work towards these goals. I absolutely, love that. It's so nice to hear because that's one of my mottos, decide, commit, take action.

[00:34:59] And [00:35:00] that's, and that's what people need to do. Just take more action and you guys are clearly. Taking massive amounts of action over the last two years. And it's paid off in spades. And I think a lot of people think that they can accomplish a lot in five years, but don't really realize how much they can accomplish in one.

[00:35:19] And you guys are a Testament to that. So that's really fantastic. I really want to break down and talk to about what are some of the obstacles that you see yourself facing, trying to grow your coaching business and scaling up your business to that a hundred deals per year. 

[00:35:40] Joe Dellefave: So I think the challenge for scaling our coaching business is that we are one of the few people that actually do one on one coaching.

[00:35:49] And with that going into place, there's a lot of. There's a lot of it that goes in there, if I was gonna teach somebody how to do wholesaling, I could probably do that 90 days. But with creative financing, [00:36:00] there's so many methods to making a deal and how to X the deal. That's a lot, that's more than a 30 day 90 day thing.

[00:36:06] So it's spending a lot of time answering all the one on one questions that you might not get answered in a group setting. And so understanding that, would you rather stand in a lecture hall, the professor and 180 people in class, or would you rather be a one-on-one tutor? So we spend the time with a one-on-one tutor, but doing that, you can only do so many at a time.

[00:36:24] And what we don't wanna do is have 50, 60, a hundred students at once, because then they're not gonna get the quality you. And so we keep our classes very small on purpose. I think we have 15 or 16 students. And we just, so we do that on purpose because of the fact is we could give. Quality time, as far as scaling our business.

[00:36:41] It's about having the right people around you. And I don't wanna sound crazy when I say this, but we made nine deals this month and I think we have 16 or 17 at, in transit right now. Attorney's office. I didn't talk to not one of those sellers. Jen didn't either our team did Jen and I did not talk to not one of those buyers, actually [00:37:00] one cuz it's a buddy of mine so I like to break his chops, but that's fun and I got another deal for him.

[00:37:05] But much other than that, we don't really talk to any of the buyers. 

[00:37:08] Jenn Dellefave: That's been a challenge of mine. I will totally admit is stepping away. Like we brought in a business consultant and our whole team was there and we wanted them to be a part of it. Paid a pretty penny for it. It was sharper solutions.

[00:37:21] If you need a consultant in your business, highly recommend them. They're amazing. 

[00:37:24] Joe Dellefave: Gary and Susan Harper. 

[00:37:26] Jenn Dellefave: Oh my gosh. They actually came to this house and sat with us while our team was on zoom. So it was incredible. And, after having these meetings with them and they they really go in your business and help you dissect everything, processes, procedures, our team basically told us, Hey guys, you need to let us run some of these meetings and you need to go.

[00:37:44] And you were trying to get to the owner's box. And I, rubbed me the wrong way at first. And they were all nervous about me cause I, I miss, I need to know everything checking on everyone. And by me walking away and that some of those aspects, like we have nine deals pending this month and it like blows my mind because[00:38:00] I needed to have faith in them, in the company and everything that like, I wa I have nothing to do with that part right now.

[00:38:05] Like my job is to do this and stay in my lane. 

[00:38:08] Joe Dellefave: and we have a players on our team. Absolutely. 

[00:38:11] Jenn Dellefave: And that's, I think part of the key team, true leaders. 

[00:38:13] Joe Dellefave: All to the point where we have a transaction coordinator who used to be one of our actualizations. So like when the deal goes to the lawyers I don't follow up with the attorneys on all those deals and all the title companies and find out, oh, we need to grab this statement or we need to, she does all of that and then gives us a report of what's going on so we know what's going on.

[00:38:31] So ideally we have meetings with our teams what's happening on deals. We chat with them. They have a lot of meetings and trainings behind our, behind their path back in a great way. And then if they ever need us for stuff, we're always there and it's hard to of step back. Cause I'm like, I don't wanna seem like ignoring you.

[00:38:48] They're like, no, we're not, you're not ignoring us, but yeah, we're able to be more productive and they really wanna help us because part of the training was to get you outta the business and to get you outta some of the tasks, 

[00:38:58] Jenn Dellefave: to work on the [00:39:00] business. And for so long, we were in it and we still are at parts of it.

[00:39:03] And I think that's a misconception too, is so many people try to just jump right up to the owner's box and you really do need to be in your business for a little bit. Maybe not as long 

[00:39:10] Joe Dellefave: for a while. So then when you have the right people in place, you could help them and give them value too.

[00:39:15] Jenn Dellefave: And they create they fall into their own positions, like our transaction coordinator and our acquisition manager. And we're bringing on a full-time acquisition. So just, it's incredible too. It'll allow things to happen organically and never try to push it. Like we didn't have a CRM to start.

[00:39:28] We got one when we needed one. And so I think that was really something helpful for us too, is not the shiny objects and syndrome and pushing before we were ready. We just, we gradually go. When we need it. 

[00:39:40] James Rippeon: So I want, I wanna talk about this a little bit more because you guys have done a great job at building a business and taking yourselves out of the job.

[00:39:49] And a lot of that comes with and you just gotta kick this head a 

[00:39:52] Joe Dellefave: little bit, some more work that needs to be done. You made it sound so great. I just that's why, but yes, we are definitely getting ourselves out of it and [00:40:00] you're working 

[00:40:00] James Rippeon: towards it. And as you're processing that, how are you working to align all of your team members goals with your business?

[00:40:08] How are you creating the proper incentives to make sure that everyone's doing what they need to be doing and checking all the boxes and doing a great job? Cause it sounds like you've got some really committed good, hardworking people on your team. How do you align those incentives? 

[00:40:23] Joe Dellefave: So it's strange.

[00:40:25] It's like everybody's on the same page. Everybody on the team knows what to do. Everybody. And I think it's if you raise your kids the right way, and so most of them have zero experience. One of them, Abby, she was in high school last year at this time. She graduated in June and she's 19 years old is already closed four deals and has a handful more ready to go where I don't know many 19 year olds.

[00:40:49] So I came on saying, Hey, Abby you need to put out there that you're gonna be 20 years old. By the time you're 20, you've already done a dozen real estate deals. And there's gonna be not many people who are that age, who could say they've done that, but she's [00:41:00] not a big social media person, but that's great.

[00:41:02] It's finding the right people. all understand it, really what it is you, what you put into your team, you're gonna get out of your team. So we've spent, and that's what I was gonna touch on earlier is the dedication. There's been times where Jen and I are at the beach for her birthday, and I'm on a zoom call with our team training them.

[00:41:22] Oh. And our anniversary beach family kids. Yeah. Summer 

[00:41:25] Jenn Dellefave: 2020. There was really no rest. There was a lot of, no sacrificing and just making it happen. 

[00:41:32] Joe Dellefave: Parks, parking, lots, taking calls. Mm-hmm All of the things that you could possibly imagine. We did. And this is right. I don't wanna sound crazy when I say this, but there's not a whole lot of people who worked harder in the last two years than Jen and I have, because it's been those 15 hour days for weeks and weeks, and months in a row before we even pulled our head up to breathe for a minute.

[00:41:50] I would get up at four or five in the morning and I'm working. And I think too, 

[00:41:53] Jenn Dellefave: when we hired people, it was never just to clock in and clock out. We offer to pay them in education, [00:42:00] everything that we know we're gonna give to you. And we want to have them have their own portfolios and grow their own, estates.

[00:42:06] And it's just, I think having that mindset like their carrot people, I dunno if you've heard that analogy at this carrot or the stick. And if you have to sit there and tell somebody to keep doing something or go, like it gets boring. We're not, we hate being that boss. We won't be that boss.

[00:42:18] And we don't even consider ourselves bosses. They'll call us boss. And we're like, no, we're just you're boss too. And they're all carrots, like they all have their, he has quarterly meetings with them. We, they, he checks in, sees what they wanna get out of things where they're at check in weekly, we have win meetings.

[00:42:35] They're called thanks to sharper where we get like the employee satisfaction. Like, how are we feeling? So our culture is really important and we've always been like a 10 across the board for that I would say. And then, their productivity just clearly shows in the numbers. 

[00:42:49] Patrick McGrath: Man. That's great.

[00:42:50] I'm sure there's, that resonates with so many people out there because there's a ton of terrible bosses and culture out there that don't check in to [00:43:00] see how you're doing that. Don't ask you what you want to get out of this company, what you want to get out of this career and have a path towards that.

[00:43:10] And the, the incentive is truly, is clear as day. You guys are providing all of your knowledge and like you said, you, you want to help them build their own portfolios and get into some of these deals and, change their lives forever and set themselves up. So they have just as much of it, a huge incentives to make sure that you guys are successful for them to ultimately be successful.

[00:43:33] That's really fantastic. I kind of wanna pivot here and ask your guys take. On the current state of the market. I know you've been doing this since 2000 went through 2008, got to see this crazy appreciation run up. And here we are now in limbo.

[00:43:50] There's so many opinions out there. I'd love to hear, your guys' opinion on the current state of the market and where you think it's headed. 

[00:43:57] Joe Dellefave: So I'll give you an interesting, quick [00:44:00] story of a property. I just looked at down here in the Tampa market, the house was built. The lot was bought for 98,000 around the year 2000, the house sold in 2005 for $450,000.

[00:44:18] I'm sorry, 2004. Next year later, it sells for almost like $600,000, 2011. That house sells for three and a quarter. The market took a dive. After they bought it 2006, they buy it for almost 600,000. They sell it for 3 25. They lose their tails on that deal. Ly bought that house for 325,000 back in 2011. It's currently on the market right now for 1.2 million.

[00:44:47] So my question is,

[00:44:52] are we on the 2004 when it was 475,000, are we at the 200 and or [00:45:00] 2006 where it's now almost a $600,000 house? How close to that are we getting? So I also think it's not 2006. It's not 2008. There were subprime loans, adjustable mortgages. Were they giving out mortgages like popcorn? Yes, they were. Are they still doing that kind.

[00:45:15] I know they made it strict a little bit more tight, but they're still doing it. Although there's a shortage of new builds because of the cost of labor materials are high. So it's not like they could just turn and switch and just open up new builds. And they're so affordable now, so that crash the market, people will think there's an abundance foreclosures, but banks won't just open the floodgates and let 'em all go market crash.

[00:45:34] The market. They'll let 'em out trickle. 'em slowly. There are banks. That'll keep that property there for five years, vacant growing weeds and they'll pay for whatever to get done. So I don't think we're gonna see a huge crash, but even in 2008, it's not what happened. It didn't like crash overnight.

[00:45:48] The prices didn't go in September of 2008 from, $500,000 home to November, 2008 to a half off sale, all of a sudden like it, it came down. So [00:46:00] are we at the peak? Are we close to it? I think the interest rates will stall it cuz they're raising rates. And so is this a plateau where it takes a dip and it keeps on going back up.

[00:46:11] I don't know, because I don't see the fact of how they're gonna make new builds, affordable, and be able to pound 'em out. Like they used to, if there's a shortage of materials everywhere still for a, quite a long time. . So I could see this maybe being like a little bit of a lull might dip a little bit, but I don't necessarily, and I'm not economist who knows, but I did see it do this a bunch of times, right?

[00:46:29] So I could force these some similarities, but I also could see some differences this time too. So my whole aspect is this. If I could buy real estate without using a bank and I could buy real estate without having to use my personal credit, and I could get into a deal with a handful of thousand dollars down, then I could cash flow on.

[00:46:49] Then what's the difference to me. And now if I back myself against the wall, some three year term, and then in two years, the market did one of these and I gotta get my buyer cashed out. That's where those short term stink. That's [00:47:00] why I like the long 10, 20, 30 year terms. Because if that market does do this, I got plenty of time to let it come back up, cuz it always will.

[00:47:08] There's also inflation right now. So everything is gonna cost more. Can they bring that back down? Sure. There's, so there's a lot of things to it where I don't see it being a huge dip, but if I could get into these deals and it makes sense to make the deal, we're gonna do it.

[00:47:20] And that's where I think about it, honestly. 

[00:47:22] James Rippeon: There's that, there's two things I really like about what you said first is, you've been through this experience one way or another before, and you've lived through these different markets and what it sounds like it's taught you is that you don't know.

[00:47:33] And it's probably true that the economists themselves also don't know like where we're listening to the fed, talk about how inflation's transitory and there is no inflation inflation's here the supposed experts, what do they know? The second thing is, buying deals responsibly.

[00:47:49] Having them situated so that over the long period of time, you're not gonna be caught in a situation where you're gonna, you're gonna end up having to make, being forced to make really bad [00:48:00] decisions, because a loan's becoming due at a term and you have to find some liquid cash one way or another.

[00:48:06] If you've lost some equity in your position, in your property that's not the position you wanna be in. So I think, just to summarize it, you don't, we don't know, you don't have to know, but you just have to buy responsibly, have good cash flow coming in and just make good deals happen.

[00:48:20] Joe Dellefave: And that's the point, what did I learn from all the folks who got hit really bad in 2008? What did I learn from them? And what happened to them? A lot of times, what would happen was, and what I learned, and this is why I get so much, like people, like you don't know what you're talking about, but a lot of the folks that got hit the worst were people who were doing birth.

[00:48:37] So can I see some similarities now to Burr? Yeah. It's a little tough right now. Why? Because you have to buy at the top of the market. Real estate. Has houses ever been more expensive than right now ever the history of man? No. So am I buying stuff at the top of the market right now? Yes, I am. Doesn't matter what you say you are.

[00:48:58] What are materials right [00:49:00] now? Are they the highest that they've ever been? Pretty darn close if they're not, but they're right up there right now about highest materials I've ever been. And now what are the costs of labor? Can you even find people to do the work? And if you can, what are you paying them?

[00:49:12] They're not cheap. So you're pricing of the house. Is it gonna be high? Your renovations are gonna be higher. Everything's gonna be higher right now. And then you're gonna refinance it. And what are rates looking at right now? They're not looking the best. They weren't six months ago. They're high right now.

[00:49:28] So if I get into that deal and I'm burning because all the gurus are just saying birds, the greatest thing ever right now, that loan is in your name rather it's in an LLC and you're personally signing for it. If you're personally guaranteeing that loan, you are on the hook for that personally. Okay. So even though it might be under your company name, you're personally guaranteeing that.

[00:49:48] A lot of people don't understand that part of it. So what's going to happen is if you bought a house right now and you did all that rehab work and you didn't go over budget and the appraisal came in cuz that's a huge [00:50:00] thing. People are losing or leaving thousands of dollars into the deal.

[00:50:03] Once they go pay back their money lender or whatever they're doing. So there's just so many risk that go along with that. And then what happens if you cash out refi out of it. And now you're pretty tight leveraged and you're at a 75%, 80% loan to value. And the market does one of these in the next two to three years.

[00:50:19] Those are the folks who are getting, who held the bag last time. A lot of the commercial properties, the same way, but the ones that were getting hit, the biggest same things with developers, they were getting crushed too. But I think a lot of it has to do with some of the newbie investors who were doing burn.

[00:50:33] When that started happening, you owe $600,000 on a $300,000 house. Now cash flowing or not. If your tenant moves out and, or they're not paying you because the economy's crumbling down and you now, oh, weigh less. There's only so many things you can do. I can't just put it on the market, sell it. Cause I'm a tired landlord anymore.

[00:50:52] That doesn't work now. What do you do now? It's a challenge, right? So what do we learn from these other investors? How do we avoid some of these [00:51:00] mistakes? I think somebody who burs right now I'm not gonna say don't do it, but I wouldn't. And I don't put houses on my own credit.

[00:51:06] There's no need for it. And once you learn how not to do it, you'll never need to do it again. And what my Bo or my old mentor around the grant says, he says, I almost hope you have bad credit just so you can't get loans. 

[00:51:17] James Rippeon: And I think, that speaks to where people in 2000 8, 9, 10 got in trouble, was being unable to replace that credit that they had on their loans.

[00:51:27] It wasn't necessarily the prices going down, but it's because the prices went down and they needed to refinance for whatever reason. Now of course, if they could have held that property for 10 more years, Here we are 2022. And you'd have that one point, whatever million dollar property, you'd be really happy about it.

[00:51:42] Joe Dellefave: If you could, whether that beating for probably good three, four or five years. Exactly. A lot of people got hurt on it, but it's no different than if you own a stock or crypto and it dives way, way down. You can get, oh my goodness, you sell. And that's when you typically lose, although if a stock, you could just take that loss with a house, it's a little different story.

[00:51:59] You gotta pay [00:52:00] somebody back. But when that starts to go back up, then yeah. Then you look like you're a genius, of course, but you gotta weather that storm and be able to handle that stomach crunching. Your name is on that dotted line on those deals. But you're right. If you could weather that storm, rather it be only a few months or a few years, but most likely gonna be.

[00:52:16] You could be back in a situation. That's good. Again, that's, what's awesome. About real estate is time could fix stuff too. So even if you end up being in a bad spot, doesn't mean it's the end of the world. If you could get some patience on your time, the one thing about real estate, I can tell you is prices will go up and they will also go down.

[00:52:30] But over time they go up. So if you do have a goof up and things like that, you could have time bail you out most times, 

[00:52:39] Patrick McGrath: right? Yeah. I think those those jumbo loans and those adjustable rate loans and those five year, terms or three year balloons that people were getting into, and that, that's what there was a lot of things, but that's what really screwed people.

[00:52:52] And we're not in that now. I hopefully don't think we're gonna get to that point, but like you said, [00:53:00] it's not timing when to buy real estate, it's buying real estate and letting time take its action. So that's 

[00:53:08] Joe Dellefave: they were doing mortgages where it was stated income. So you didn't have to prove your income.

[00:53:12] So let me ask you a question, Patrick, what do you make? Patrick tells me he, he sells shoes, but he makes $500,000 a year. Sounds good to me, right? Sure. Why don't. Shoes sales would make half a million a year and not to that extreme, but that's a lot of what was going on before 2008. So that's not happening now.

[00:53:30] So they definitely have made it better to get more responsibility for lending to happen. So that's why I, it won't be 2008, I don't think again. 

[00:53:39] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. And then they also issued out anyone that's in forbearance or hurting. They're giving everybody the option to refinance into 40 year mortgages.

[00:53:50] To lower those payments. And what that's gonna do is that's gonna keep the housing supply tight even longer because those potential foreclosures and houses [00:54:00] that would've came on the market in short sale are now gonna be tied up even longer because they're lowering the payments to keep people having them.

[00:54:07] So it's this whole thing that they're trying to do to keep the inventory low and the prices high. So that's what we have for the time being James. What else you got for us, buddy? 

[00:54:16] James Rippeon: I think we're good. I think if you, if we don't have anything else to talk about, we can probably hit our next section.

[00:54:21] Patrick McGrath: Are we always have stuff to talk about, but I just wanted to see let's jump into our next sec. Section James. What's that one called? 

[00:54:30] James Rippeon: So we're gonna, we're gonna call this the big four. I think that's what we settled on, right? Patrick calling it the big four now. 

[00:54:36] Patrick McGrath: We change it up every episode. So yes, we're gonna get into the big four.

[00:54:41] James Rippeon: Okay. So for our first question, guys this one's I really like this one. What is something that you do that feels like a cheat code for achieving financial independence, something that you guys have done either in your real estate business or your personal lives there, just maybe a greater tactic that just feels like a cheat code, [00:55:00] 

[00:55:00] Joe Dellefave: assigning sub two deals to other investors.

[00:55:05] Simple notes, assigning seller, finance and seller sub two deals for me is what I see is it's, that's like a cheat code because guys like pace Morby and a lot of other investors have really got the word out there about sub two and creative finance and how great it can be if, especially if it's done right.

[00:55:22] The one challenge, another cheat code that we have is our lead generation, average lead gen for an incoming, warm lead. These days is a little over a hundred bucks. Ours is like three to four bucks, a lead of people who reach out to us and they wanna sell their property off market. So we have a cheat code there, but then offering, once we do lock up those deals, it's consistently having deals for investors where they're not great maybe, or maybe they are, maybe they're just good, but they just can't find the deals that we can find.

[00:55:50] And so with that being the case I would think that's a pretty solid cheap code. Yeah. I mean it, the 

[00:55:55] James Rippeon: whole subject two thing is it's a. It's a way to leverage [00:56:00] while also in many ways reducing risk. So it, I can definitely see how that would fit into that category of being a great Chica. 

[00:56:07] Joe Dellefave: Yeah. And as you get a lot of investors who are assigning cash deals, there's a lot of those guys and girls out there, ton of them.

[00:56:15] There's really, like I said, you don't find money that dos this part. So we're like very rare that it's happening. There's a lot of people want those. 

[00:56:21] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. I'd like to use a cheat code of having you guys on the podcast and having you sign some of these subject two deals my way and my friend's way who's in Tampa.

[00:56:31] So after this, we'll definitely be chatting cuz I'm super, super interested in. And making this happen, but let's get onto number two. So question number two is all about resources. So are there any specific books, podcast, influencers that have really shaped, your financial independence? Something other than, rich dad, poor dad.

[00:56:57] Everybody usually says that book. Do you have any book [00:57:00] recommendations podcast recommendations or people recommendations besides the ones you've already told everybody about. 

[00:57:06] Jenn Dellefave: Yeah it's a cheat code too. I was thinking was, think and grow rich. I know it's a famous book.

[00:57:12] I know most people won't read it. And if you really truly want that freedom, that lifestyle, the ability to control your own mind, because I think that's like the number one thing I see with students or people that message me on Instagram, or even on Facebook is you have to control your mindset. And it's so easily persuaded by everything that we see by all the influencers out there.

[00:57:37] And so it's really important to see like what you are taking in on a daily basis. And she is not an investor, but I really truly love Gogo's real estate. She is a powerhouse real estate agent. She is from. I believe Sylvania. I moved here by herself and literally came from [00:58:00] nothing. She had $200 to get here, ends up meeting her husband.

[00:58:03] She was nannying. Next thing you know, she becomes a real estate agent and I don't even know she's go check her out on Instagram. She literally built her whole empire on what she says, selfies, and really it's like that. I adapted that and I said, okay, if she can just share the word of what, buying and selling houses in her area, I can adapt that to investing.

[00:58:26] And in putting us out there on the map in social media, cuz most people are on their phones, twenty four seven. That was really inspiring to me. Her story is incredible. I don't, I'm not doing any justice, so go check her out. If you wanna be loud, she's incredible. That's awesome. 

[00:58:40] James Rippeon: I'm definitely gonna look her up.

[00:58:42] Yeah, I'm sure I can learn something from her as I'm doing my whole real estate agent thing as well. Oh yeah. Alright. So for our third question it's five years in the future. You guys have accomplished way more between now and then what excites you guys the most about reaching your financial independence goals in terms of either your business [00:59:00] or your personal life kind of paint that picture for us five years 

[00:59:04] Joe Dellefave: from now.

[00:59:05] So I see the business as being to where we've not only our team. We've also helped our team to all be in fantastic spots, too to where they're running their own businesses and be a part of it. Like we wanna start our own fund where we're buying all of us buying houses and that fund together. So we all grow together and everybody to a point where within five years, they're all financially free to the point where if they work it's because they enjoy it and they do now, but it's too.

[00:59:34] Really put them into a really good spot to where they're gonna have some more time freedom and things like that. For all of us, I can see personally for us, 

[00:59:43] Jenn Dellefave: I keep envisioning like I wanna travel. Yeah. Like we went to Italy in Paris and Amsterdam for our honeymoon. And I wanna take the kids back and I wanna be able to, work over there if we need to want to, but to just, spend months over there and really just soak all of that in.

[00:59:58] And then we also have [01:00:00] charity ideas that we really wanna start setting up and getting involved with that and just really giving back we've seen how much is needed in communities. And so I'm excited to settle down into the Tampa area and, connect with people here and see how we can really give back.

[01:00:17] Patrick McGrath: That's truly fantastic. I love hearing people's, five year visions because majority of the people that we talk to. It really focuses on giving back and bringing others up with them. And you guys are a true Testament to that with the business that you've built with what you're doing for your team, your and that whole thing.

[01:00:38] It's really fantastic. And I think it, it definitely is a reflection of the two of you after our conversation. You guys seem like amazing people. And I think that resonates through all of the great information that you guys have put out here. I know you've got my wheels spinning. I know James wheels are spinning.

[01:00:57] This whole topic has been something that I've really [01:01:00] wanted to dive into and you guys have definitely shed some light and peaked my interest even more where we'll definitely be talking after this. So with that being said, What's the best way for people to reach out to you. If they are looking for a coach, if they want more information, if they wanna tell you they were inspired by this where do people find you?

[01:01:23] How do they find you? 

[01:01:25] Jenn Dellefave: So we have our website, creative finance, playbook.com. And then from there we try to link everything. I'm Al always on Instagram. I think that's how we connected. I love following you. So it's just our name, Jen DFA and Joseph DFA. And then we have Facebook pages, YouTube channel we're trying.

[01:01:42] So we really put more out there. We know that it can be a lot. I personally, he seemed to grasp it a lot quicker with the finance brain, but being an English teacher, I'm not gonna lie a couple times. I would read, try to read a book and I would fall asleep. So to really wrap my head around subject two and run to own and all of that it might take a little bit, so just don't get [01:02:00] discouraged and just keep trying until you, you hear a couple things like the right way and then it'll really click for you.

[01:02:05] Joe Dellefave: Yeah. And if you wanna find out more about the properties that we currently have available, You go to fave F as in Frank fave, F a V E home buyers.com. So if you go to fave home buyers.com, you could hop on our VIP list and you could get first dibs and all the new properties that we put on there.

[01:02:24] Courtney is our disposition manager, so she always updates that the minute we have a new property and girl is good, . But also too, you'll see the other properties that we currently have available. There's a lot that are on there are sold, but you'll still see some that are available, but if you wanna see what deals we currently have, where we have, 'em where we've had in the past.

[01:02:40] And that's a great resource, too. So if you're looking for cash deals that are on there, most of these though, I would say probably 80% are gonna be creative finance deals of some sort. 

[01:02:50] James Rippeon: That's awesome. We'll make sure to link to all that in our show notes. So people can click and go and check out what you guys are offering.

[01:02:58] Patrick McGrath: Thank you. That's awesome. Yeah. [01:03:00] Guys, you guys know the drill. Make sure to give us a follow, leave us a review, apple, Spotify, Google, YouTube, all those great places. Go follow both of them on Instagram. I know I'm signing up for the VIP list to check out all these different deals and we'll catch you next time.

[01:03:20] Have a great one. 

[01:03:21] Joe Dellefave: Thank you. See you.

Outro: Thank you for listening to the real fi podcast where you learn from the investors that have lived, the hard lessons for you to connect with us during your pursuit of financial independence. Be sure to join our community by following us on Instagram or emailing us@infoattherealfi.com.

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