The Norris Group Real Estate Podcast

Turnkey Real Estate & Direct-to-Seller Success with Marck de Latour | Part 1 #896

• The Norris Group, Craig Evans

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Marck de Lautour graduated with a Masters Degree in International Business Management, from University of Missouri – Kansas City. He is Founder and CEO of SBD Housing Solutions, a Real Estate Investment firm based in the Kansas City area. He has been investing in real estate since 2002 and has successfully flipped over 2,000 homes in the United States of America. His property management firm now manages over 700 rental homes.

Marck’s investment firm specializes in delivering quality rental investment opportunities to passive investors looking to deploy their capital outside of the stock market into alternative investments. The SBD team’s mission is to help investors deploy $1 billion into Real Estate by 2030.
He also loves to invest in multifamily apartment complexes and has successfully raised over $10mill to deploy into assets through the Midwest.


In this episode:

  • Craig welcomes Marck de Latour, expert in turnkey real estate investments 
  • Mark's Journey to the U.S. and Early Life
  • Family Influence and Early Achievements
  • Transition to Real Estate and Early Challenges
  • Building SBD Housing Solutions
  • Pivoting to Direct-to-Seller Marketing
  • The Role of Accountability and Process in Business



I Suvived Real Estate is on October 25, 2024

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The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE License 01219911, Florida Mortgage Lender License 1577, and NMLS License 1623669.  For more information on hard money lending, go www.thenorrisgroup.com and click the Hard Money tab.


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Narrator:

Welcome to The Norris Group real estate podcast, a show committed to bringing you insights from thought leaders shaping the real estate industry. In each episode, we'll dive into conversations with industry experts and local insiders, all aimed at helping you thrive in an ever-changing real estate market. continuing the legacy that Bruce Norris created, sharing valuable knowledge, and empowering you on your real estate journey. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a newcomer, this is your go-to source for insider tips, market trends and success strategies. Here's your host, Craig Evans. The Norris Group, proudly presents, I Survived Real Estate. industry experts discuss evolving industry trends, real estate bubbles, inflation, and opportunities emerging for real estate professionals. We want to thank our Platinum partners. UDirect IRA Services, San Diego Creative Investors Association, White Feather Investments, MVT Productions, Inland Empire Real Estate Investment Club, and Realty 411 Magazine. See, isurvivedrealestate.com for event details, information on all our generous sponsors and to connect with our speakers. We'd also like to thank our Gold Sponsors, Inland Valley Association of Realtors, Keystone CPA, NorCal REIA, NSDREI, Pasadena FIBI, PropertyRadar. See, isurvivedrealestate.com for event details.

Craig Evans:

We have got a great show today. We got Marck de Lautour. Very excited to have him on, he is the Chief Executive Officer at SBD Housing Solutions, Kansas City's largest full service turnkey real estate investment firm and parent company to Best Offer KC and Silverfern Properties. Marck is a New Zealand born real estate investor who currently lives in the Kansas City, Missouri area. He has built up a real estate company that now buys and sells between 150 to 200 homes per year, and currently has 600 houses under management. His expertise in the turnkey real estate market is unparalleled, and his clients come from all over the world to help them buy US property completely hands off. Marck and his team have flipped over 1100 homes in the KC metro area since their inception, in 2002. Why do it all? Well, purchasing and remodeling homes directly saves them time and costs while ensuring their ridiculously high expectations are always met. Once their homes are move in ready, their property management team takes over to alleviate the burden of overseeing tenants, allowing their investors to relax while building wealth through real estate holdings that will last beyond a lifetime, leading with core values of professionalism, quality, accountability and communication, the team has become America's leading provider of turnkey real estate. Marck, it is very good to meet you, my friend. I am grateful for having you on today.

Marck de Lautour:

Thanks so much, Craig. Appreciate that.

Craig Evans:

Absolutely. So listen, we are excited to continue the legacy that Bruce and Aaron Norris have created through I Survive Real Estate. Marck is going to be one of our panelists this year. I guess the one of the things Marck, that I want to do is, you know, I want to start previewing some of what they can expect without giving the whole story away, right? So if you don't mind, what I'd really like to do is just talk a little bit about how you ended up in real estate and what kind of shaped you today. So you're originally from New Zealand, correct?

Marck de Lautour:

That's right, born and raised. So had never, I'd vacationed in America before, but back in high school, a lot of my tennis mates that were climbing the New Zealand rankings with me were starting to get recruited over to American collegiate institutions, and it kind of appealed to me. I didn't really want to give up tennis. I was good enough to really enjoy it and play high level Division One, certainly no way near good enough to turn pro, but it was something I didn't want to give up. So yeah, I explored all options for playing D1 tennis over here, and that's kind of what brought me to the states.

Craig Evans:

So knowing what you know today, of being here in the States, living here, versus growing up in New Zealand. How does that differ, you know, compared to say, you know, raising children here versus what you grew up with?

Marck de Lautour:

Wow, that could be a podcast in and all of itself right there. There's so much to delve into. I think I should first start by saying I'm a very proud parent of dual citizens. So my children, born and raised in America, actually have their New Zealand citizenship as well, and that means a lot to me. You know, growing up in New Zealand, I think it's such a small nation, with only 5 million people, that there is kind of a a more global view on life. You know, you're well aware that there are so many other countries and nations and cultures that are out there. I think you grow up knowing that you know going out and exploring all of those as an option. I think you know, seeing kids being raised in the Midwest little bit more sheltered. I think you know, if they want to go skiing, they think Colorado. If they want to go to the beach, they want to go to California or Florida. And they've got everything here in America that they need. Why would they need to go elsewhere? It's amazing to me how many people that are my age that have never, you know, been to Rome or, you know, experienced Greek food in Greece, or gone to Australia, New Zealand or India. And those are some of the benefits of the benefits of growing up in a smaller country. I think there's a little bit more of a global perspective. But having said that, I'm, you know, the biggest champion of America. I think it's the greatest country in the world. And I'm, I'm super pleased to have grown a business and, you know, and enjoy and love my life here in Kansas City.

Craig Evans:

When you came to the States, did you were you straight to Kansas City? Or where did you land first?

Marck de Lautour:

Yeah, it's a little bit silly now, you know, I'm going kind of full circle, because my son has just gone away to university, and he is the age now that I was when I came to America. And it's bizarre to me to think that we could, you know, my wife would certainly not send them halfway around the world. So I kind of have a greater appreciation now for what my parents went through, you know, at that age that I am now at, looking back at on those decisions that my son has made for university. But no, I never been to Kansas City. I'd been to California. It was about as far as I'd come with vacationing with my family. And so was just looking for a university in a big city. I wanted to go Division 1 and a big university, and so I went to the University of Missouri here in Kansas City, D1 tennis program, and just had a fantastic experience. You know, they say fortune favors the brave. And I think I was young enough and dumb enough to kind of just be that kid that said, Sure, you know, I'll go to Kansas City. Let's go check it out. And was, yeah, confident in my ability to go compete on the tennis stage and then just stayed on, got my undergrad and my MBA, but the university treated me very, very well, and had had a great time.

Craig Evans:

I was a D1 basketball player, uh, many days ago, many days and many pounds ago, right? So one things that you took away from your dad is to Live Your Passion, you know? How do you think that shaped you along the way, especially, you know, moving across from one country to another, and then how do you think you're fulfilling that today?

Marck de Lautour:

Oh, look, I was asked one time on a podcast, you know, what do you think your superpower is? And I, my superpower was my family upbringing. You know, there are a lot of people that find great success coming from a broken home, and they're just determined to go crush it. I kind of was the opposite, certainly not silver spoon. We had to work really, really hard. But my parents were just, you know, they've just celebrated their 52 years of marriage. I'm extremely close with my siblings. Just had a great upbringing in New Zealand, very close with our cousins, you know, and just had a great role model through my parents of what a healthy marriage should look like. And they just encouraged us to encourage all four of us, I'm the number two of four children and encourage us to chase our dreams. And you know, they were the parents that just said, Yeah, sure, why not? And you know, I'm kind of the underachiever of the family. My brother is a world class actor. Has found great fame in New Zealand, as well as some some shows in America. My sister's a business owner and a wonderful mom and and celebrates, you know her, she's kind of her passion, is now getting into back and serving her civic duty, and is looking kind of down the political channels in New Zealand to see what's next for her. And then my older brother is a has kind of a COO role, like a general manager of several companies that he's had success with in New Zealand. So, yeah, they've all just kind of done their own thing. And, you know, my parents encouraged us to as individuals, to, you know, just, just chase our dreams and give us the best education they could. They sacrificed a lot to send us to, you know, one of the more prestigious high schools in New Zealand. College, and so all three brothers went through there. And yeah, my sister was a world class triathlete. So it's kind of been one of those things where I think, you know, we were just, you know, always told, you know, why not? Rather than being told the negative, it was always a positive encouragement. And you know, my parents were the ones driving us to every tennis tournament or, you know, every triathlon, or whatever was possible, we'd just try and go live our best life. And I think that's something I'm trying to pass on to my children now, also.

Craig Evans:

In talking about your family, you know, obviously there's a lot of, as you said, you know, overachievers and and big dreamers there in you taking the steps that you've taken. Who do you think was the between mom, dad, brothers and sisters? Who do you think was had the biggest impact on you?

Marck de Lautour:

That's a really good question. Think it's a melting pot. I mean, obviously I was number two of four, right? So there's a great book out there for voracious readers, called the Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman.

Craig Evans:

Great book.

Marck de Lautour:

I've you know, was certainly very applicable for my upbringing, and as the classic middle child, wanting to, you know, always pursue and chase my older brother. He was a really good tennis player, but obviously I'm like, I gotta beat him, gotta beat him. Gotta beat him. And at age 12, I beat him for the first time, and then never lost him after that, but it was like, you you beat your older brother. And then it's like, you know, I've made this huge deal out of it. And he was like, yeah, no big deal. I'm like, wait, no, you should be really upset for weeks that I finally beat you, like, this is meant to be this momentous occasion. And I realized it didn't matter to him as much. And so I'm like, Oh, that sucks. And so then you decide, like, Okay, who's next, and then I gotta go be that person, then who's next, and you start chasing, chasing. I think that was innate in my, so I think my older brother Andrew had a lot to say for kind of, you know, my competitive nature, but that was just birth order. My mom and dad are very unique characters. They complement each other nicely. My dad is extremely calm. One of my good friends that knows him well referenced Retief Goosen. I don't know if you're a golfer, but Retief Goosen is, like the most chill golfer, kind of like Heinrich Stenson and Retief Goosen was, you know, kind of famously walking down the 18th fairway in the final hole of the US Open, just casually eating an apple. Just, you know, no big deal. He had a one shot lead and was just going down, and one of my friends turned around and said, you know, Marck your Dad, look makes your teeth goose and look high strung. So my dad's always just been that even keel. And my mother, you know, was, you know, she was the one that kind of kept us all in line. My dad was an airline pilot on the International Circuit. So would, you know, be gone for seven days and then home for seven days, and gone for seven days and then home for seven days, kind of thing. And so, you know, she very much. Her line was, "Hugh, you get to make all decisions in the air. I'll make all decisions on the ground." And so that they got along just famously. But no, it's been, it's been, I think probably my older brother, but both my parents were certainly influential in that as well.

Craig Evans:

Let's jump back ahead. So you're in the states now. You graduated. You said you got undergrad and you did MBA as well, all at Mizzou.

Marck de Lautour:

Yeah, yeah. For clarity, it's so Mizzou is in Columbia University of Missouri, and Kansas City is the sister campus that's in Kansas City. So I wanted to go to big city. So University of Missouri has a Kansas City campus, which is not as big as Mizzou in Columbia, but yeah, I did my undergrad and my MBA there at the Henry block School of Business and International Business Management, and I got, I think I got my MBA, really, because I didn't quite yet know what I wanted to do. I had that entrepreneurial kind of fire burning in me. And I'd read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and like '99,'2000 and that really hit home to me. My father had introduced me to the stock market, but it just didn't make any sense to me. I didn't zero passion for that and but when I read that book, it was kind of like, wow, okay, I could see that being how I want to build wealth. Didn't understand it was going to be how I, you know, not my vocation, but certainly my, you know, my long term strategy for for wealth accumulation.

Craig Evans:

Well. So first of all, I'm going to say I love the fact, because now I'm already learning, because I had no clue. And I'm gonna be honest, I had not. It's not studied enough to know that the branch there in Kansas City was not the main campus of that. I love it. I'm learning every day you started down that path. You're interested, you're reading in the real estate side of that. What's the first thing you did right out of school then? At some point you got to start making a living now, right? Because tennis, tennis doesn't pay the bills on that.

Marck de Lautour:

Tennis doesn't pay the bills and and I actually, while I was getting my MBA, my fiance, at the time, her father was in a specialty advertising business and had started up an ad shop, well, start up a new idea. He'd had this Ad agency for 20 years plus. But his idea was putting advertising inside commercial aircraft. And so he kind of, you know, blindly, gave me a massive opportunity while I was getting my MBA. And so he kind of thrust this in my lap and said, Hey, see if you can take this and run with it. So he had developed this pendant product putting, like a watermelon a fancy decal for bit, like of a bit of term on the overhead stove and doors inside commercial aircraft. But it was just an idea. And so we actually patented a product, partnered with a company here locally in Kansas City that was making the product for us. And we got a beta test up on Vanguard Sun country airlines, and then had other opportunities with Frontier and and champion airlines, a couple of those others that we were looking at. And so we were, I was kind of flying around the country talking with the presidents and VPs of marketing with this advertising opportunity. And had, we're gaining some, some serious traction. But then September 11, and obviously that changed the entire landscape of the airline industry, let alone the the marketing and departments that were just fired almost immediately. So certainly they didn't want to take on anything rogue or Maverick, like putting advertising inside their their aircraft. And so that torpedoed that idea. But after that, I actually took a course in October of oh one, where I just answered a an ad in a newspaper. This is dating, dating me now, mate that I'm that old, so I was reading the newspaper, and I'm sure it was in the support section, but it was something along the lines of, learn to buy foreclosure properties like a Millionaire Real Estate Investor. And I was like, Well, that just sounds interesting. And it was, it was a free course, right? Free course, right? So I went along to this free little seminar based out of a Courtyard Marriott here in Kansas City, and the guy pitched really hard on this boot camp that was only$5,000 so I swiped the card and came home to the wife, and she's like, but we don't have $5,000 I'm like, it'll be fine. The guy said, it'll be fine. So yeah, that was kind of my foray into doing things without my wife's permission. But no, it was, it was life changing, and we kind of look back like, Wow, what a what a blessing. So I went down to Springfield, Missouri, a guy named by the name of Larry holder, not a business anymore, but he had a company called wealth builders International, and what he was just coaching was an entire package around real estate. But what I took away was he coached me how to locate and find at the local recorder of deeds office, the where you'd have to go search the microfiche, again, dating ourselves here, but before everything was online, you'd have to go to the courthouse and find people's deeds of trust, take the public 21 day notice of foreclosure, go find and research the deed associated with it and find out what their mortgage was. Then go the courthouse, raise your hand and buy a house on the courthouse steps. And that was my foray into real estate, and that was in 2001 so 2002 I bought my first property on the courthouse steps, a little duplex for$30,000 a half duplex for$30,000 cleaned it up, moved into it, reappraised at 100,000 sucked out some of the equity, and had my capital to go back and try my next deal. And I just kind of snowballed from there.

Craig Evans:

Now, during that time, were you, was there another vocation that you were currently doing?

Marck de Lautour:

No, I was kind of winding down. So my wife was making that huge sum of, like$16 an hour as a nurse, and so she was kind of supporting us. We were living on beans and rice and not much of anything. So my father in law, I was still helping him with his advertising agency. So he kept me on at a nominal salary to kind of help out his daughter more than anything, I think. And then once I flipped my first house, that was it. So I've never really had a corporate job, never had a, you know, been really paid by anyone else, other than, obviously my father in law, helping me for a period of about a year. So I just went straight into real estate full time, and that's all I really know. So again, that I will tell you, was a blessing and a curse, so potentially get into later. But one of the things that I'm passionate about now is, you know, the book Roket Fuel and Gina Wickman story about having a an operational background, or, you know, the Roy doesn't they wouldn't be Walt Disney without Roy, they wouldn't be Steve Jobs without Wozniak. And it's like understanding all of those the the operational side of the business. And so, you know, obviously my Maverick entrepreneurial brain, you know, propelled us into making money. But then the carnage that I left with just lack of process on the back end was something that I had to correct later on down the road.

Craig Evans:

There's a couple things I want to ask out of that, but so how quickly did this come from, turn from you investing and, you know, being a foreclosure guy that's digging into microfiche, to actually being a business that you're running and potentially employing people things like

Marck de Lautour:

Yeah. So I flipped about six or seven that. houses on my own, just using, you know, kind of bootstrapping private money, you know, borrow 40 grand from a guy that I knew to buy a house and then flip it, and then use that capital to, you know, to kind of do another deal. But obviously, I was not able to do the monster deals that you might have to buy something for, you know, for 400,000 and sell it for 800,000 so I actually partnered with so after I did, I think, six or seven flips, I was approached by another guy that said, hey, you know, Why you not doing more of this? I mean, these, these deals you're showing me are just ridiculous, I suppose, just, you know, there's so much opportunity, but I don't have the capital. And he said, Well, what if money was no object? And I said, well, that we could have some funds. So I went into business with two other gentlemen that were kind of my silent financial partners, that were just bankrolling my operation. And I built that up until 2009 so we did, I don't know, two or 300 deals in that time period, from 2003 to 2009 held a lot of rental property as well. And then that business again, that could be another detail on how not to end a partnership. But that was kind of a malicious takeover from of their, on their part, where they kind of forced me out. It was a third, a third, a third, and I suddenly realized that we owned a third of something. If the two thirds getting up on you, it can be not much fun for the minority partner. So that was a bit of a lesson, and kind of got, you know, bumped all the way back down to starting over when the market turned in 2008 and 9, and then, obviously, that's when the turnkey business kind of started from 2010, onwards.

Craig Evans:

Okay, so now, did you start that out of again, out of a foreclosure side? Were you back on the courthouse steps looking for that coming out of'08, '09 with that?

Marck de Lautour:

Yeah, 100% when that business, you know, you know, kind of went away. My financial backing went away. But I obviously had some capital of my own to go play with, but, but not much. They took a lot when, when that ended. So that's when this turnkey operation came around. I mean, I had, at that point, perfected the art of buying on the courthouse steps and hedging the risk that comes along with that, obviously, had good title procedures, had fairly decent analysis of an asset before you get inside it, and the process that goes into that had really perfected the art of talking to neighbors and people to get as much information on the property, as well as trying to help people out they people out that were in those situations when the properties were not vacant and someone was still in there. So we did a lot of rent back to owners, giving people the second chance on life and that kind of thing. So the business was there, the operations were there. My financing just went away. So at that point, I pivoted to say, look, my business hasn't changed. I still know how to do everything, and they were not coming in to compete with me, that two guys were just just done. They just took the properties and sailed off. So at that point, yeah, that's when the turnkey operation started in earnest, which was, you know, we basically did a, hey, you put up all the money, I'll do all the work, and we'll split the profits, or for those that would be more of an ideal rental. I mean, obviously we can't forget how, how much of a carnage 2010 11 and 12 really was. I mean, people were not buying real estate. And the irony was that I had much more traction from my international clientele at that time than my domestic I mean, I only went the international route to cater to those investors, because you would talk to Americans about real estate, and no one would do it. They're just so influenced by the media. And everyone was like, Oh, I would never touch real estate. It's the worst time ever. I find it ironic that if real if Walmart or Target has a sale with 50% off, the masses go rushing. But when real estate took a haircut and was 50% off, everyone said, I would never touch real estate. What are you doing? But I was kind of again, young enough and had seen enough to say, Man, this is like one of the greatest opportunities in our lifetime. And so I started doing deals where, again, I was so burned by that first partnership that I never gave up ownership in anything I did again. So I was 100% owner. I just did a rev share versus a equity share. And so ever since then, it's been 100% just on my shoulders and slowly built that business back up again, from, you know, just me and a secretary and some tradies that were doing the work to what it is today.

Craig Evans:

It's interesting as I'm listening to your story, how much stuff that we've got in common as I'm listening was I experienced a very, very similar situation with the one and only partner that I've ever had. So, yeah, those things can burn quite bad, right?

Marck de Lautour:

Yeah, it stings. And I, you know, I've obviously forgiven them and moved on long time ago. You know, if I saw them in the street, I'd go and have a conversation. And certainly what they did was, you know, unethical and not very, very nice, but I just had no money to turn around and sue them. They're extremely wealthy guys that would just buried me and in a long, drawn out proceeding. So you kind of pick your battles and you learn and you you move on. So yeah, I feel comfortable that I think God led me through that to kind of get me out of that I may have, it may have been like a pacifier that I kept on coming back to and holding on to that money and not finding a way elsewhere. And so I think at age 30 to be to gone from being a millionaire all the way back down to nothing, was a way of saying, Okay, now you gotta go do this again and do it the right way. And so that was, yeah, a big, big life lesson. But for that, yeah, to that end, I was started, you know, approaching some of our friends and family in the Australia and New Zealand, and then that led to South Africa, and then another guy in Germany, and then the UK. And I just started, like, branching out with people, and what I found was that wealthy people talk about where they invest capital, and if you do a great job for them and treat them with high level of service, they will tell all their friends, because they live in abundance. It's not like, Oh, I'm going with Mark and he can only get me deals. It's like, man, you should this guy's treating me great. He's making amazing returns. And I think there's huge upside there, over in America, and so I would, you know, kind of had that. So that's where before even turnkey became a term. I didn't, didn't call it that back then, but I just told them that I was an all inclusive program that could help them invest capitals. So we set them up with an LLC, set them up with a bank account. They funded that account, and then I started deploying capital on their behalf, and started buying up as much property and then managing it along the way. I was smart enough also to understand the intricacies of property management, and so one of my hacks early on was I didn't want, like, I started doing math on the, you know, the$8,200 per property that you make every month, thinking, Okay, I can't go build an organization, so I'm going to outsource all the property management to a third party property manager, as we were starting to build and hold this, this large pool of real estate again, but just with the very transparent nature of telling the owner say, hey, look, one day I'm going to knock on your door and say, I'm going to do this myself. Just full transparency, I will be a property manager one day. It's just I don't want to be it right now. And so we got to the, I think we're at like, 350, or 400 doors over that next four or five years. And then once I got to that, then I went and hired a property manager and then brought it all back in house. And so we kind of had a good start to it, and now we're over 700 doors under management and and have a full staff that's that's able to cater to that I have not. Although I've obviously spent seasons in property management, I've done a pretty good job of allowing them to operate the business without my day to day oversight.

Craig Evans:

Were you only in KC at the time, or were you in other markets at that point?

Marck de Lautour:

Yeah. So yeah, in that time period, it was Kansas City. Then when I get a little bit more assurance of the market. We did go down to Florida for about two years, and started in the Sarasota, Bradenton, Tampa area. But we found out also pretty quickly that the difference between Kansas City and a major, major market like Florida was that Blackstone was already buying aggressively, and we would get outbidded auction every single time, sight unseen. And so we're like, man who's this Blackstone LLC? What do they know? You know, that worked out pretty well for them. But no, we were getting outbid every time. And but in Kansas City, we were the big dog, and so we would literally go in there and push others around, which was kind of fun place to be, buying as much as we possibly could. I wish I could go back and double down on those efforts, because you don't see that kind of pricing anymore. But it was fun while it lasted.

Craig Evans:

When did you start seeing in your market? You know, because I know Florida based on how our laws were and how long things took to start hitting a foreclosure market from 08 when did you start seeing the foreclosures in Casey becoming more and more scarce and what kind of created that pivot moment for you?

Marck de Lautour:

Yeah, it really was. I mean, I look now, and our business has just done a complete 180 from where we were. We were about in 2015, and 16. We're still buying over 110 to 120 houses a year on the courthouse steps. So that was, by far and away our major source of acquisitions. Obviously, we did some off market transactions, and, you know, realtor referrals and PPC leads and some direct to seller marketing, but we weren't really committed to that direct to seller channel until 2017 and in 2017 I think we did 100 deals on the courthouse steps, and then next year, in 2018 we did zero. So take like 100 deals a year, which was like 90% of our transaction volume, and then go to zero the next year and stay in business. That's probably one of the biggest pivots that we made. And something I'm most proud of is being able to pivot through that, and I do have to give a shout out to the Collective Genius, the Mastermind Network. I don't think if it wasn't for them, I may have just shut up shop and say, let me go figure something else out, because I never would have guessed that just sending out postcards, or, you know, doing other forms of marketing and advertising would generate the kind of leads that we get. It's amazing to me that the director seller marketing works in the way that it does and but we went and just kind of used the Mastermind and the brain trust. There's an old saying that your network is your net worth. And I think my network of high level entrepreneurs that were doing real estate at a super high level around the country, I was able to kind of rip off their models, learn from them. And the old saying, it's borrowed brilliance. There's no new ideas. So we just kind of took their ideas and and borrowed them and started doing it in Kansas City and we're able to turn that ship around. Yeah, in a calendar year, we went from doing getting 100 on the quarter steps to none, and still doing 100 deals a year, plus.

Craig Evans:

That's a quick pivot, then.

Marck de Lautour:

You know, there's a picture that I use, and I'm giving a presentation tonight to a bunch of realtors and investors. And I always start with a picture of this man on a deserted island with just water all around him. I said, just so you know, if you're going down this path of being a real estate investor as an entrepreneur, this is how you feel 90% of the time, because you do, you just feel like you're on island. You can't really talk to anyone in your community because they're competitors. You don't really know where to go, and there's no cheat code online, unless you have a community of people that will help you get through it. It's a certainly extremely lonely, lonely place. And I felt that way. And the big revelation for me was I needed an operator. I brought on an EOS implementer, Frank Curtin, that helped me through some of the tough decisions that I was having, some of the tough things that I was going through, and I wanted to get a little bit more process around our business. And he helped me realize, Mike, you don't have an integrator in your business, and without, you know, a director of operations or an integrator, you're going to, you know, struggle, it'll always be you, until such time as you find that person to come in and run the business. And my biggest life change in a business setting was finding my now COO, who was able to come in and start overlaying the whole sense of process and systems and more over accountability in the organization. You can build culture as an entrepreneur, but you're never going to build the best culture you have without holding people accountable. And the irony is that although some people would view accountability as a bad word, as one of our core values, and what people live into and similar to the way that well behaved children, again, going back to my upbringing, you know, we would always walk into the we would hear like our parents, you know, always say, Oh, your children are so well behaved. It just seems so weird to us, because it's like, what are you talking about? This is just how you meant to behave. But now you grow up with kids that are not that, and you see the comparisons between good children bad children. You realize that without accountability, you can't be the best version of yourself. And so what I was and what I've realized is that I'm extremely poor at is, you know, through an organization, is giving people the accountability that they that they really deserve. That's just not my calling. It's not what I'm good at. I like change, solving big problems, moving on to the next and thinking six months in advance. Well, the comparison to that is my COO, who, you know, needs to have perfection where we stand before he can move one step further forward. So he's busy getting all the details lined out to make sure that we're operating as efficiently as possible, and giving people clear direction of exactly what's required of them, and then making sure they're doing it. And so he lives in the now, where I'm living, kind of six months down the road, to make sure that we're sailing in the right direction.

Narrator:

See, isurviverealestate.com for event details, information on all our generous sponsors and to connect with our speakers. For more information on hard money loans, trust deed investing, and upcoming events with The Norris group. Check out thenorrisgroup.com. For more information on passive investing through the DBL Capital Real Estate Investment Fund, please visit dblapital.com.

Joey Romero:

The Norris group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE license 01219911. Florida mortgage lender license 1577 and NMLS license 1623669. For more information on hard money lending go to thenorrisgroup.com and click the hard money tab.