Most Profitable Exit Strategies Right Now
On this episode of Next Level American Dream, Abigail and Sean are joined by Travis Oglesby. In the interview, Travis talks about how he approaches capital raising and exit strategies he's finding to be profitable right now.
Key Topics
What is your approach to raising capital?
What exit strategies are you finding to be the most profitable?
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, business, refinance, home, buy, property, strategy, owner finance, flip, deal, month, mortgage, American Dream, income, Vic, multifamily, year, investors, feel, pay
SPEAKERS
Sean Thomson, Abigail Thomson, Travis Oglesby
Abigail Thomson 00:01
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast brought to you by Thomson Multifamily Group. Your hosts, Abigail and Sean will discuss how you can take your American Dream to the next level, through real estate investing, business practices, and personal development. Join us as we share our experiences as a father daughter duo who are trying to accomplish our goal of financial freedom. We hope you learn more about how to define and achieve your American Dream. Here's another episode of Next Level American Dream. Happy New Year, everybody! Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. Before I introduce our guest today, I want to take some time to ask you to subscribe if you haven't already. Please like, comment, and rate and review on your favorite platform. Today, Sean sat down with Travis Oglesby. In the interview, Travis talks about how he approaches capital raising and exit strategies to finding most profitable right now. If you learned something from our episode today, please recommend the show to a friend! It helps us grow. For more information on our sponsor, Thomson Multifamily Group, visit thomsonmultifamilygroup.com to start taking your American Dream to the next level through passive investing.
Sean Thomson 01:16
Hi, Travis. Thanks for coming on to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. How are you doing?
Travis Oglesby 01:21
For sure, man better than I deserve! Thanks for having me.
Sean Thomson 01:24
Yeah, that's good. Well, we just talked a whole bunch of before we got on this on the show to start recording the show. So hopefully, we didn't use up all of our good material. Just having a conversation getting caught up. You know, we haven't you and I haven't talked so long, that we had a lot we had a lot to catch up on. And we I'm sure there's 1000 things we didn't get to yet. So. But let's talk about the podcast. So, let's tell the listeners kind of your background and where you guys are you kind of came through the real estate business and then where you are now.
Travis Oglesby 01:54
Yeah, so just a little background about me. So, I'm 31, I grew up in Illinois was a I did out of school, I was a medical sales rep. So, I did some orthopedics, consumables. So, it kind of helped give me like that sales background, but kind of probably like most people, you know, always wanted to do more. So, I ended up starting a relocation business with one of my partners who I'm still with today, I fell flat on our face several times with that, but we still, you know, its kind of did some good to be able to kind of start a company, put some formulations behind it and just kind of fail. And then one day we just mentioned like, Hey, man, I'm kind of interested in buying houses, are you? And of course, everybody is right. So, we ended up kind of talking about that more. And then, you know, we met, you know, Mike Hambright. And we ended up you know, he ended up in Toronto. So, you kind of taking us under his wing and teaching us a little bit about real estate really given us like a foundation. So fast forward through, you know, a couple years of a lot of struggling a lot of grinding in the wholesaling and flipping world and a lot of, you know, great, great mistakes and costly mistakes. We ended up today. So, we operate our business out of Georgia and South Carolina. It's me salmon, big. There are three partners, we do anywhere between you know, at the beginning of the year, we were probably doing two to five deals a month wholesaling and fixing flipping today, you know, we'd go anywhere between seven and 12 deals a month. And our primary exit strategy today for acquiring is a sub two will also still take down cash, but our sole exit strategy today is owner financing to those who can't get homeownership. So, we have we have a cool program. It's like a seven-year homeownership program. So, our goal is, you know, to say yes to people like you all the banks, tell them no. So, we're pretty proud of like where we're at today. We've only been doing it for almost four years now. So, we still got a lot of things that we need to learn. But we're we've been doing this owner financing strategy to homeowners now since March. And man, we love it. It's great financially, but also it you know, it enables others to own their homes. Right. That's pretty cool.
Sean Thomson 04:16
Well, I want to talk about that for sure that strategy you're using because it's an interesting one. And it's a bit of an advanced strategy, I think in the single-family real estate business. So, we'll talk about that more. I want to rewind a little bit. Just talk about because we went pretty quickly through your kind of evolution there. Did you always know that you wanted to be sort of an independent business owner or what was your kind of path as you as you came out of school and started that company?
Travis Oglesby 04:41
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I really knew. I think I always had like a big gray area of what I wanted to do you know who, who I wanted to be and so you know, I went I got my undergrad did that play sports in college, so didn't pay a ton of attention to schoolwork and then got out of high school and didn't really know what I wanted to do either. So, I just went to grad school. So decided, you know, going a little bit further into debt would probably be a good idea at that time, so I got done with grad school and picked up, you know, I was an LDP and like leadership development program for, you know, one of those big fancy companies and, man, it was fun, you know, really traveled around a lot got to Deuce learned a lot of good things on strategy wise, but it's, it never felt fulfilling. And I struggled to sit in a position for like, more than a year and a half, like I was my max was sitting in an occupation for more than a year and a half. So, I would job hopping, you know, I would go out and do the interviews and try to, you know, you get those 510 1520, whatever it was $1,000 pay increases, but it never mattered. You know, I was always All I did was, you know, I still spent whatever we made, and just never really had just never felt satisfied. So, I feel like now, you know, I have the satisfaction of, you know, getting to wake up and like to do the things that we want to do just kind of similar to you, like my days are how I want to be at my house. You know, as soon as we get off this podcast, I'm going to the CrossFit gym. So, it's I think I just I always struggled being told specifically what to do. And I guess, you know, I got lucky and ended up, you know, being able to tell myself what I wanted to do every day. But to answer your original question, man, I just struggled working for people, I wasn't a great employee. I wanted autonomy. And I struggled to get that with other people. Yeah, I'd rather work with and then for them, you know,
Sean Thomson 06:43
Exactly. Yeah, and we talked to Vic makes one of your partners. And you guys you guys kind of stumbled into real estate as a as by accident, almost like you said, just as a conversation one day you guys are like anybody want to buy a house kind of thing? Almost. Yeah. So, talk about that evolution to you. So, when you guys finally did decide, hey, let's try this house buying thing? How did it develop into? Hey, maybe this will work as a business for us? how did how did you kind of hit that transition?
Travis Oglesby 07:12
Yeah, well, you know, the evolution is kind of, I mean, well, I'll just I'll give you the rundown on what it looked like. So, we had we all had the interest within it right? And we always together, it's kind of funny, we always call it like the $5,000 house like we all were like Sam you got 5000 Vic got 5000 and Travis got 5000 was buy this rental property. And that's where it first began, we still all joke about that, like you got in everybody probably barely had 5000 you know or had to borrow it from somebody. And so that was like the very first like intro I still remember being on the conference calls. You know, Sam and I originally started it, but Vic is just he’s just a metal you know him like some other people would probably see this. He is just a very, like, he's you talked to Vic and you like know that you want to work with him. He's just a talented, he's, you know, he's very skilled. He was cosmopolitan, like Air Force, you know what playboy or whatever, you know, at that time, so he, he's just a really, he's a really talented guy. So, you know, you want to work with him. So, we, you know, all began working together. And lo and behold, we were going to Georgia to meet up and like kind of begin the discussions and really try to figure out, you know, how to market to find a house because we were all on Zillow, you know, trying to find a house to buy and it was, it just wasn't seeming to pan out at that time. And during while I was going there and coming back continuously, I was slacking at my job as expected, and I got fired from it. So, you know, had this great medical sales job or so I thought and was just instantly fired. And fortunately, my now wife, and this is kind of leading to the evolution of where we are today. Fortunately, my wife, she was in school and a waitress. And I just kind of asked her like, hey, would it be okay if I didn't go back to work and try this for six months. And so, you know, after getting my teeth kicked in crying a little bit, you know, feeling like I was pretty worthless. I went and lived on in Sam's house with him and his wife and three dogs and Athens, Georgia and lived on his couch for six months while my girlfriend who's my now wife, paid our mortgage, went to school full time and waitress late into like the night to pay our bills. She gave me money to live on I remember she gave me like three or 400 bucks a month, which was plenty for living on somebody's couch and undergrad a gym membership for 10 bucks a month. So, I was able to do that. I drove $4 every twice per day. So, remember doing that I was racking up so many miles on this truck. And then we kind of began actually directly Mail marketing to people. So, I was full time in the business and big both had full time jobs. So, we did that for a while, about six months, it started to work, got a couple deals, we got a couple wholesale deals, but weren't making enough to where it's still everybody could get by, I took another medical sales job where I was just managing some reps. And we still do that for a few hours a day, but I'll still focus on the business. Well, we ended up you know, starting to do a few flips. We bought three homes from one woman that we flipped, and we did really well on all three, you know, I think we made close to 30 or $40,000. net on each property. And we did them all within, you know, a very short timeframe, which was unbelievable money to us. And we continuously kept doing deals, and it put us in a position to where, you know, I was still actively working but didn't have to put as much time into it. And this is about two years in Sam had decided to, you know, hey, we, you know, got $40,000 in the bank, I think we can set that aside for pay, I think it's time you exit your job, because he had a, you know, a really good job or Well, a good paying job at that time doing supply chain management. So, he left and then began working in our business full time. So, it was like the dumbest thing we ever did. Then he went and started doing rehabs solely, so he was swinging a hammer, instead of generating leads and generating money. So, after doing that for six months, we got drained all the money we had. And then he just had to go make it happen. And I remember in like March two years into our business, we turned on direct mail pretty heavy. And I think Sam bought himself seven or eight homes in one month. Because we had no options. We were running out of money. And he bought seven or eight homes, we wholesale, quite a few of them and really got back up and running. And then it just kind of continued from there. You know, Vic left his job, I left my job at that time now we're all you know, full time in the business. And there's so many, you know, crazy things like learn the screw ups and putting driveways in wrong people's yards and just doing all the wrong things. But you know, we seem to have done a few right things in between there as well. But yeah, that's a long-winded evolution, man.
Sean Thomson 12:22
Yeah, no, no, that's great. I appreciate the details there. You guys are just done, obviously something right? Because the three of you are now you know, working from wherever locations you want. I know vixen, California, you're in Illinois. And we're at Sam's on the road, right?
Travis Oglesby 12:35
Yeah, he's in he's in Nashville, Tennessee on a lake. So, he's been there for, you know, a week or so I think he's going to hang out there a few more days. And he's going to come hang out with me here for a while. Yeah. And that, that he's headed to Sedona.
Sean Thomson 12:50
So, you guys are able to run your business from all over the country in you know, in Georgia and South Carolina. Where's your primary those your primary markets, but you guys have figured out a way to have that independence from your business a little bit. You still run everything. But you don't have to be on site all the time. So, you mean you're obviously doing something good, right?
Travis Oglesby 13:10
Yeah, well, we did you know, we did spend my wife, we spent three years in Georgia, we house act in a duplex for a while. And then when she became pregnant, we moved into a home. And then when she became pregnant again, we sold our home and wanted to move closer to some grandparents. So that's what put us there. So, but man it was, it was really cool. Because when that time like came and, you know, we kind of started doing things virtual and then COVID sort of put like a little bit of a pinch on doing things virtually made us just commit. And all of a sudden, you know, we realize like, we don't have to, like be there. Right? And there's so many you know, so many people want to help so many people want to make money and like so many people want to learn and be involved. And all of a sudden it just our acquisition managers aren't even there. You know, they buy 100% virtually, they lock them up virtually, and then our contracting team steps in and we'll do any rehabs necessary or assist us and you know, owner financing the home out. So, it's pretty cool. I never thought like I always heard of people doing things virtually. And I was like, how you do that?
Sean Thomson 14:13
Sounds scary!
Travis Oglesby 14:14
Yeah, it does. It's intimidating. You know, and then you wake up one day and you're like, I'll be damn doing the same thing buying and selling houses so
Sean Thomson 14:28
So, you guys buying you now buy everything virtually. And then you were saying a moment ago your exit strategy has become as opposed to like wholesales and fix and flips and rental properties. You're doing primarily an owner finance strategy where you guys purchase the house, put some sort of debt against it, whether it's a sub to debt or investor debt or something like that. And then you sell that to someone else that can't necessarily get traditional funding from a bank or mortgages. And you guys, you guys sort of carry that mortgage form. Work on your own. And then that allows people that maybe can do you know, like I said, can't get the traditional funding to buy the house that they want and to have a place that they like to live in. So, kind of talk about your strategy there. You know how you guys are implementing that and how it's working for you?
Travis Oglesby 15:19
Yes, so I'll kind of like we like it and help me if I get to ramble on like the next piece of it. But it's like, the reason, the reason why we like purchasing a home, whether it's we take over the underlying mortgage subject to, or whether we take it over cash and selling it to another buyer, right, who can't get traditional financing. The reason why we'd like it is because I feel like it's a wholesale deal, or rental deal. And a flip deal. And I'll explain that. But so whenever we buy a home, let's just assume we take it over subject to so they have an underlying mortgage at four or 5%, that I'm now making the payments on for them. So we'll make the home nice. And then we'll list it for sale, I sell them through bandit signs, Facebook, Craigslist type thing, I have a whole system that makes that run and I can touch on that too at the end. But the reason why I like doing this now versus fixin flip and why it's our sole strategy is because when we sell a home owner financed, we get a down payment. Okay, our down payments range anywhere between five and $25,000. So that's my wholesale deal, right. And then it has a monthly cash flow, because we have to charge a higher interest rate than what a normal bank would. So it has a type of cash flow in between there. So there's your rental property, right, whether it cash flows, 100 200 300, you know, we have properties that cash flows 700 a month, because they were bought so deep. So there's your cash flow per month. So now you got your wholesale and your rental. And then there's an equity spread. Because if we buy something, whenever we own or finance it, we sell it 10% above what market value is because there's such a high demand for it. And you know, we get hundreds of inquiries every single time we list a home. So I have my wholesale deal for my down payment on the front end, and I have my cash flow from the monthly payments. And then there's an equity spread, if it's 20 3050 $70,000 that at some point, whether they refinance or sell or you know, whatever they want to do with the home or sell sell it to somebody else themselves, then I get that entire equity pop. So there's my flip. So when we try to get it done within seven years anyway, as far as their Refinance Program, repairing their credit, so they can refinance out and get a lower interest rate. So that's why we like the strategy so much is I feel like it encompasses three deals in one. So that's interesting.
Sean Thomson 17:39
I never really thought of it that way.
Travis Oglesby 17:41
Yeah, that's why that's why it's today, you know, it's like when we were chatting earlier, like, you know, multifamily has it just I love that type of stuff. My what I do with my income that I have is I'll buy just duplexes, so I try to buy one duplex, a quarter for tax write offs and tax purposes and everything. But, you know, I hope one day to be kind of venturing into the multifamily. But today, you know, with having no experience in that, like, this is the best strategy that I have found to be real estate so far for us. Once I find a better one, then I'll segment to that one. But that's why these are my absolute favorite deals today.
Sean Thomson 18:19
Yeah, and the and the I guess the the net result is that you've you've sort of helped someone get out of a property that they may be not maybe struggling to keep up with, you've got like you said, You got a wholesale a fix and flip and a rental income stream out of the one deal you're doing and then you're helping someone on the back end get into a home that they do want, that they can then sort of brace their family in or live in and conduct their life, you know. So it's, it's, I guess, front to back, it's like a that's a really solid strategy. And it seems like it's I really like the way you describe it there that that's interesting. I never thought of it in that in that three incomes sort of source model. I never think of it that way. You know, because the owner finances, it's a lot more complicated on the disposition side, especially to kind of put those together. So I've always kind of avoided them. But I like I like the that three three income strategy thought process.
Travis Oglesby 19:13
Yeah, it can get complicated for sure. And I mean, there's tenants in place sometimes. So like, I have to hold the property as a rental. And that kind of stinks. Most of the time, there's not a, if I have to take it down cash, you know, it's not really a profitable deal, although it probably has a $40,000 equity spread in it. So I'm willing to break even and hold that note for the given time just to break even so at a later date, I can collect that equity. And it's just it's a I don't know, man, it's a really it's a really cool way to like do it. And I feel like it hits all three things and I just I don't see how you can really, I don't see how you can beat it. And so here's a here's a huge factor into this. That's like, you know, like people always talk about Don't count on appreciation. So like, that's fine, but here's a question. Cool thing, so many of these notes that we take over when we take them over subject to the underlying, you know, they have three 4%. We even have one that's a 2% interest rate. Those are all the time between five and 18. Go ahead.
Sean Thomson 20:20
Sorry, you, you said there are 2%. And in your internet kind of cut out, they're better. They're at 2%. And then and then you went like this. Can you start from there?
Travis Oglesby 20:28
Yeah. So like, we can get it, you know, a lot of these underlying mortgages are 234, or 5%, wherever they're at, but also these mortgages, they're like, they're five to 18 years old. So whenever you take over an 18 year old mortgage, and then you create a 30 year mortgage, what's that principle? Pay down look on those two, that 18 year mortgage just flies down. And this one obviously doesn't, because it's a newer mortgage. So then that your equity, that equity, remember that I was talking about, that's the flip profit that just grows every month, man. And so differential, the differential is expanded because of the timeframe. Right? Exactly. So it's, you can't really, it's just, it's so neat, man. So whenever you take over an 18 year mortgage, you're adding four or $5,000, every single month. So it's, it's really neat. But okay, so that was like, why we do it? What was the next part of like that question or that? Well,
Sean Thomson 21:24
I was gonna talk to you about how sometimes you'll put investors in the position of the underlying debt, right? So I guess that your investors, someone that's wanting a decent return that's kind of secured with the property, and then getting a decent, like I said, a decent return? Are you finding that your investors like being in that position? Because it's a longer term commitment on their part? Right. So are they are they? Are you getting private investors involved in that? Do people strategically like that?
Travis Oglesby 21:53
Yeah, so here's what we do. So if we don't take over the underlying mortgage, and we take that cash, so I would put that investor in place at the return that we agreed upon, right, whatever, whatever it falls into, put him in place, then I will go owner finance that deal. And then we work specifically with a company today, who will refinance that deal based off of the income of the property. So I then pull that investors money out and give it back to I usually secure for 12 months, I get into full force position. So he has full first position on the property on a cash deal.
Sean Thomson 22:30
Okay, so while you're getting the prop while you're getting the property seasoned for a refinance, against the income that it's generating, so your your, your, your investors aren't really in that property for the next 10 or 20 or 15 years. They're they're only in it for that time period. So it's it's almost like a hard money loan, additional hard money loan for them, right. Yep. Yeah, that's, that's, that's a great way to do it.
Travis Oglesby 22:54
Because, yeah, we could use hard, you know, we could use the lending the whatever worlds, you wanted to have hard money, but we just prefer to use the investors because it's it, they they're taking first position. So it's Yeah, you know, if you're able to earn, you know, a 10, whatever the return is, like, without doing anything, you're in first position, and our exit strategies, we could flip the house if we wanted to, you know, like, it's got enough equity, and it's where we can flip it, I can rent it, but I tell you what I'm actually going to do, I'm going to owner finance this thing. And I'm going to provide homeownership to somebody who couldn't normally do that, right, and just being able to, like, show them, like how we're different. And it's, it's just worked out really well. And Vic is able to, you know, I mean, I guess we are selling it to people, right? But it's more, so I'm just giving you the opportunity to invest with us. It's just, it's really attractive to people, because it's, it's a, it's a known timeframe of when their money is going to come out rather versus a flip. Like it's very dependent upon the economy. Like if the economy dropped, you know, what, actually, I've never seen the economy grow up. So I don't know what would happen. But I would assume, you know, the way we finance loans would stick around and banks wouldn't be able to lend as much.
Sean Thomson 24:11
It's pretty much a flip loan, like your that would be the same that would be the same program I would do with an private investor with me, if I were doing a rehab that I was going to retail, you know, you put them in a position where they fund the project, and then you just pay them out at the sale. Right? So essentially, you're kind of doing the same thing. You put someone into a position where they're funding this, this transitional period, right? Where you're, you're taking the property down, you're fixing it, you're selling it and then you're getting a season a little bit so they're actually in the property for a little bit of extra time over and above like a maybe maybe depending on the sale right of course, over and above a flip loan. But it seems like it would be very consistent once you kind of get it seasons you know you have an exit with their front their funding with with the lender that you work with now, that then carries that forward into the long term future. Right? So I think it's I think it's a great strategy. I was thinking you I hadn't talked to Vic about it, or you bought it yet before, but I was thinking that you had investors in for long term long term loans, which sometimes for a lot of people, it's hard to kind of see that far in advance on a on a cash loan like that to someone. So I was I was curious how that was working, but the way you're doing it sounds like a, an excellent way of doing it, because you can get your investors a better return that way. It's a shorter term loan, better interest rates, and then you have like you said, a clear defined exit, which is, which is it's visible, right? It's not so far in the future that you can't sort of really see that.
Travis Oglesby 25:38
I can't like feel it, you know, like they know in six months, going to get there nice, you know, checks, or if we're paying monthly preferred on the back end, but it's really neat is whenever we go to refinance, like, and we have yet to complete the refinance process yet on them. However, we just started 14 of them this morning, I went through with Sam, so we're just taking unlike big blocks of properties and saying, like, hey, let's refinance this group under a portfolio type thing. And we're gonna do that every month, just bring them a block of properties and refinance them, so we're just doing one loan, but you know, it's I, I just I really like it, and then the guys, you know, it makes the it just enables us to pay the investor, like a better rate. Because it's not like, Hey, I can't pay you 10% or 30 years, you know, but I could pay, you know, we can pay you whatever percent over six and 12 months, and they, they love it. I mean, myself personally, like, I don't really want my money, I want my money working permanently. But a lot of those guys, they want it, you know, they want to test you first they want it in for six months, if I back out. So it's, it's pretty.
Sean Thomson 26:42
Yeah. 10 year commitment is a that's a commitment, right? So a 10 year, if you can do 10 year mortgages, that's, that's a big difference between a six to nine or 12 months, you know, horizon. So it's much more easy to or it's much easier just to kind of swallow that as an investor to wanting to wanting to have your money committed for 12 months is not a big deal. for 10 years. That's a whole other, that's a whole other strategy. decision you got to make.
Travis Oglesby 27:06
Yeah, so it's work, man, we really like it. Investors seem to like it, too.
Sean Thomson 27:11
Yeah, it sounds awesome. You know, I've always kind of been leery of owner finance. It's just, there's a lot of moving pieces. And you know, I'm kind of a solo person, I don't have a team like you do the sites, you know, for me, I have to do everything. So anytime it becomes too intricate. In my business, I start to shy away from it, you know? So for me, that was always kind of something I didn't want to do. I liked the component of income for me, you know, my, my business is driven by, can I earn monthly income. So the owner finance strategy being having that the income component is very appealing for someone like me, but the complexity has always kind of kept me away, but the way you guys have it structured makes it sounds so kind of efficient, and streamlined, that, you know, I probably should have been doing this for a long time.
Travis Oglesby 27:58
Yeah, it's, it's semi efficient, you know, we have a lot, there are a lot of moving parts. And you know, I'm in the process of bringing on like a disposition manager because I really want to, I want to be able to now that we've like, we have so many, like testimonials of people being like, I'm so grateful, you know, thank you for being able to buy the home because I will set the mortgage at the rental rate every time I set it up the rental rate of what the market rates should be. So, you know, hey, you know, Mr. buyer, you know, would you rather rent this home? Or for the same price, would you rather own this home? Now, the caveat is it does have to have a down payment, but, you know, it just it gives people the option to do it, man, it's so it's so neat. It's so nice to be able to do that. I want to do more people, you know, obviously, selfishly, it created an income for us as well. But it also it's like, you know, it's like we're showing people a different way to be able to do it.
Sean Thomson 28:52
When everything's so dependent on psychos, you know, there's a there's a whole population of people that that just cannot get traditional funding because they've had a medical issue or they, you know, they had just had a loss of a job temporarily. You know, and your fight goes, you know, your credit score gets gets killed for six months or something and then you it takes you three years to recover from that. Right, you know, so there's, there's a whole mass of people out there that they're kind of stuck in this, you know, they're there, they have great jobs, they've they've they're not bad people, you know, it's not like they've done anything necessarily wrong, they just had a blip in their life. And the credit score is just kills them you know, so they can't get cars they can't get homes, they can't rent homes, you know, they they they just are are in this sort of No Man's Oh, and so I think this could this kind of funding for people that are in that position is excellent, because they're, you know, they they deserve to have a nice house to live in to just like anybody else, but they just, if a bank looks at them and takes just this like you don't fit our box because your credit scores are terrible. Then they don't Have any other choices, right? So you guys are giving them an alternative that, you know, puts them into a home that they like. But you know, it's equitable for everybody kind of involved, you guys are making money on it, of course. But you're also allowing someone to get into a home that would not be able to get into anything at all, probably the traditional path. So that's good.
Travis Oglesby 30:21
People should if you'd like, your listeners should try to Google, like older homes, owner finance, like in their area, and see how many of them that they can find that are available for owner financing. And that will give and then look at how many homes are for sale retail, I'll give you a good idea. And then also, you know, watch out for I don't know the exact number of people that can get bank financing, but it's relatively low. And you would not believe how many six figure earners have bought a home from us. Because they have they either own a business don't have enough tax returns, which is the most common person out there. And then also, it's the bad credit is the other one, it's just horrible credit, they still have a high income, either a family member, they've made a mistake medical bills, just unexpected, like medical bills. And we do all of our payment, we set everybody up online payment acth. And I do credit reporting. So it improves their credit score. So like we're trying to like, you know, we want them to cash out in seven years. That's good for us. But it's also good for them because they get a lower interest rate. So we want them to refinance and get out of it and then be able to, you know, have a lower interest rate, 30 year fixed mortgage in place, which are just 30 year fixed, it's just a higher interest rate. So it's, it's just nuts, the amount of people that are out there, they will inquire when I post something on Facebook Like I have, I have a disposition manager in place, I can put bandit signs out. I have the Facebook posts, I have call systems that like funnel everything in and push everybody to the home will have. I mean, it is not odd for if a post is posted in the afternoon, to have 10 showings that evening. It is not typically the homes literally selling a day or two. Sometimes they'll take a few weeks, but it's insane. The amount I'm starting to have them track the amount of inquiries they have just through Facebook, and it's over. It's been over 100 for the first day, every time.
Sean Thomson 32:12
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, there's I forgot about the component of you know, the someone that owns a small business that doesn't doesn't technically have earned income. You know, banks will shy away from that. And, you know, your business has to have, you know, balance sheets that are incredible for banks to lend to you, you know, yeah. So it's there's that whole component as well, someone may not have bad credit, necessarily, but they don't have a traditional earned income because they're, they're, they're operating through a business, you know, their life. So yeah, that's a whole other contingency that there's plumbers out there make six figures, but can't necessarily get a mortgage because they don't have the, you know, the W tube income.
Travis Oglesby 32:49
Yeah, yep. truck drivers has been one of our biggest ones lately.
Sean Thomson 32:53
Those guys make a ton of money. Those guys kill it.
Travis Oglesby 32:55
I mean, the last few homes we've sold to they both been truck drivers, they have their families at home, you know, they have two or three kids, like we try to do we try to buy homes that have three plus bedrooms, because I want to, I want a family to buy them, right. Like I do want I mean, everybody without a family should have a home as well. But I'm you know, but obviously, but it's just like, you know what, I like the bigger homes because it gives the option for like kids to be able to live there. And I feel like you know, putting them a little bit first is never like a bad idea and have one guy can buy a four bedroom house too.
Sean Thomson 33:30
Yeah, that's, that's a great, that's a great strategy. I think it's amazing what you guys are doing. that's a that's a good business. And I you're the evolution to get there has been quite interesting. You know, and I think you guys have gotten to a point of refinement and how you can sort of conduct conduct your business, it's really good. Well, let's talk about I asked everybody on the show, about, you know, what you what you define is the American dream for you. And then if you can share with people kind of a couple strategies you guys have used or you've used personally, along the way that's kind of helped you, you know, get to this level or get to the next level. Yeah. Okay.
Travis Oglesby 34:07
So I think I think there's a bunch of different ways to answer both those questions, but I feel like to me, man, the the so I have a one year old and my wife is 20 Weeks Pregnant I'm you know, I'm just understanding what it's like to be like a father and a dad. So I definitely would say like my American Dream is definitely you know, in this in these walls back here, for sure within within that family world but you know, also outside of you know, looking looking outside of that and becoming a father I feel like it's really like it's slowed me down a lot both in things that I've been able to do and things that I want to do but it's also like focus some attention and and I feel like the American us today is being able to go from Cuz I don't even know if we've hit like this success scenario yet, at least not maybe to where we want to be at. But what I want to do for like, my American dream is to go from signet success to significance at some point. And like Zig Ziglar said that that's not my same, but it's always like, or somebody probably before him too, but it's like, that's what I really want to do. Because I feel like if you're not helping others, like what you're doing, you know, you could be doing something better. So to me, like the American Dream is being able to get up, have coffee with my wife out here in my sunroom, that's pretty cool, go get our son up together and be able to do things, you know, not having to go to an office or anything like that. And there's nothing wrong with that either. But to me, that's what it looks like. And then being able to get sit here, talk to my buddies on a podcast, share a little bit about what we get to do, go to the gym, come back, you know, help create a business that's helping others and, you know, learn how to do it to four more people, basically, at least that's what it looks like to me today at 31. It probably changes every year. But that's what it looks like to me.
Sean Thomson 36:05
Well, it's just a freedom to to operate the way you want to operate your life. Right. So yes, good.
Travis Oglesby 36:11
Yeah. Sean, what's that? What was that second part? I think I was supposed to answer something else for you?
Sean Thomson 36:17
Well, I'm just curious if you there's a couple things that you may be doing in your life that if they've helped you, or things that you may recommend, it could be a book or something, I don't know, just some way to help other people say, Hey, this is what has helped me make the transition from where I'm at to the next level in my life. Yeah. Is there anything that you have maybe recommendations for people?
Travis Oglesby 36:38
have three things without, you know, putting some thought into there were three, like three things? Because I know, we mentioned it right before three things that come to mind is, you know, I mean, everybody has their own stance on like faith. So I say my mind's pretty firm on that, you know, I read my Bible every night, I think it's just, it's funny how relevant that book actually is, whenever you actually take the time to read it. And so that's been a huge component, man, you know, doing the right things, and just understanding that anything and everything can happen. So that's a huge piece, you know, God, faith, and then, you know, my mornings are pretty solid, I have a pretty good routine. I love the Miracle Morning thing. The next is CrossFit, ironically, because it's a mind game. To me. It is it requires like strength, and fitness and all of that type of stuff. I feel like it's a mental battle every day. So I really enjoy that. And then the final one, it's literally just community, I have my huge support system with my wife, you know, she does an amazing job of, you know, helping me and lead me run all these ideas by her and letting me vent sometimes, but then it's, it's the team Sandvik and Hunter, those guys are just, they're impressive individuals, you know, they're more powerful. And, you know, they're the people that like, I want to be like, so being able to talk with them and work with them every day. It's just, you know, it's changed my life for sure.
Sean Thomson 38:04
Yeah, that's good. So your, your recommendation would be to, to sort of ground yourself with some sort of faith or something like that work on your, your mental, you know, learning things and stuff. And then work on yourself physically keep yourself healthy, that's a good, that's a good plan. And then surround yourself with people that that care about you and that better helping you along your path. Right?
Travis Oglesby 38:26
Yeah, I mean, I think so. I think that's pretty generic. I think that's the pretty, like, normal answer. I feel like but man, that's literally that is what my day looks like, right there. Every day, every day. You know, there's a lot of play in there. There's a lot of hunting in there, you know, but like, that's what my days look like.
Sean Thomson 38:43
No, that's good. That's perfect. Yeah, I do this podcast quite a bit is that same question and everybody's, everybody's answers are pretty similar. You know, everybody wants to wants freedom to live their life the way they want. And if you don't take care of yourself, physically, you just you're not there for everybody else. And if you're not surrounded by people that are that are supporting you then you know either friends family, everybody, it's really hard to kind of survive that this this business as an independent business person, you know, in any business, you know, you're going through stress so if you don't have a support system and and a network like that, and you just don't you're not gonna make it you know, so yeah, that those answers are pretty common because those are the those are the tools that you need in your toolkit to to be successful just in almost anything. I think.
Travis Oglesby 39:25
I think it's just saying them out loud, too. That makes it makes you realize like, Oh, hell that is really what it is.
Sean Thomson 39:33
Yeah, yeah. Well, well, if they're interested in maybe investing with you guys or learning more about you guys, I know you guys have a Ria club in in Georgia, right, that you that you run and stuff. So is there ways people can reach out to you guys a website or something they can get more information about what you have going on?
Travis Oglesby 39:51
Yeah, so we run the Athens Ria, like locally, so I always I'll give out like our contact info as well. So people can reach out to us. But yeah, guys, like we raise money. You know, just like a lot of people do. However, we run the Athens Ria Facebook group and the Athens Ria. So we teach real estate every month, we're starting to teach more about the sub two stuff. We don't do any type of coaching, or anything like that. We're, we're just, we're here to help. Man, if we got the time, we'll definitely put it in with you. And you can find me on Facebook. I'm Travis Oglesby. I always give out my phone number, this goes through my assistant, but it's (618) 292-1213. If you guys are interested in I don't even know what if you're interested in loaning money or want to speak with us about certain things. We're just we're here to help you. We run our business, keep our own families above water and try to have a good time doing it.
Sean Thomson 40:42
Yeah, that's good. So that if someone's interested in joining the Ria, they can they can go on Facebook and just look up the Athens. Rei. A. Ria. Yeah, that should take them to the Facebook page, the Facebook page is gonna have the events and things like that, too. So that's good. Well, thanks, Travis. I really appreciate you coming on man. It's I haven't talked to anybody about the owner finance strategies, yet. It was great having you run through those things. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that didn't even know those things existed but or didn't know they existed and didn't know exactly how well they worked. So I appreciate you sharing that with everybody!
Travis Oglesby 41:15
Yeah, for sure, man. Thanks for having me. Sean it's been good getting to catch up to you. I appreciate it.
Sean Thomson 41:18
Yeah, for sure. we'll have you back on.
Travis Oglesby 41:23
I said I'm glad to see you guys are doing so well, too.
Sean Thomson 41:25
Yeah. Well, we're trying we're trying you know, I work I work on it all the time. So if you keep working, you can't help it. I guess that's my philosophy.
Travis Oglesby 41:34
A blind squirrel finds a note every now and again. So right. Sure. Yeah. Well, thanks!
Sean Thomson 41:40
And we'll catch up with the next one.
Travis Oglesby 41:44
Yes sir!
Abigail Thomson 41:45
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level American Dream. If you'd like to learn more about what we talked about today, want to contact the team directly, or are interested in passively investing and being a part of our deal room, head over to our website at www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com. Before you go, please leave a review! Your comments help us create more episodes for you to enjoy.