Real Estate: Side-hustle Turned Full-time Career
On this episode of Next Level American Dream, Abigail and Sean are joined by Joshua Hines. Joshua, the founder of The Impact Home Team walks us through the process of how he went from a real estate side-hustle to turning it into a business and full-time career.
Key Topics
How to ensure your life fits your business?
Why invest in real estate?
Connect with Joshua Hines:
Facebook group: The Lead Gen Underground
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
business, people, Real Estate, deal, wholesaling, flips, Multifamily, lead generation, property, building, American Dream, sales, buy, realtor, process, marketing, fix, find, Ashley, money
SPEAKERS
Sean Thomson, Abigail Thomson, Joshua Hines
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. Hi, everyone, we have a great guest for you today. Before I introduce him, just a quick reminder to subscribe if you haven't already! Also, like, comment, and rate and review on your favorite platform. Today, Sean talks to Joshua Hines, the founder of the Impact Home Team. On this episode, he walks us through his process of how he took real estate from a side hustle into a full time business. If you learn something from our episode today, please recommend the show to a friend! This is how we 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 01:15
Hi, Josh. Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. Thanks for being on.
Joshua Hines 01:19
Hey, thanks for having me here! I love the name. I love the concept. Next Level American Dream. I'm definitely a dreamer. I'm glad to be here with you!
Sean Thomson 01:26
Yeah, I thought I thought your story would kind of dovetail well with what we're trying to try to kind of convey in the podcast. So I'm glad you had a chance to come on and talk to us.
Joshua Hines 01:35
Well, I appreciate you inviting me. Glad to be here.
Sean Thomson 01:38
Yeah, good. Well, you got a successful real estate company now in real estate business. So, you've got your own podcast about lead generation, and you help a lot of people with building their businesses now as well. Tell me a little bit about kind of how you got started. And then the evolution to where you are now and what you have going on?
Joshua Hines 01:53
Sure, absolutely. I was just thinking about this the other day, and I haven't even said it yet. But like, it's crazy that I think about some of the most successful people that I know, in real estate, right. And none of them have a quote unquote, background in real estate, everyone else started somewhere else, right, and then just kind of evolved into real estate. And I find that super, super interesting. Much like everyone else, I started in something completely different my degrees in biotechnology and medical research. And I worked in the medical research on AI diseases for about six years. And then basically knew that I didn't want to be a bench scientist anymore, my person, I just have too much energy to sit there with pipettes and fill up these little tubes and wait for results. And you know, it's just a very slow process overall. And I knew that wasn't for me. But rather than quit and just, you know, go somewhere else, I evolved it. And so, I went to the boss and I said, you know what I think I my talents are multipronged here, I would like to do his work in business development for you. So, I'll continue doing my own job. But then I'll work like 10 extra hours a week, and I'll start doing business development. And he hadn't even thought of it. So, I just said, you know, I'm not even expecting a pay raise. How about I just start doing it for like, 10 extra hours a week? Well, then, you know, after like, three, four months, I brought on some clients generated some revenue. So, at that time, I could go in and ask for a raise, look, I've just generated you $50,000, how we start paying me $15,000 extra a year seems like a no brainer, right. And so, I worked my way up there eventually parted ways with that company. But that experience got me into the sales world. Before that I just kept getting turned down for sales jobs that I wanted. But I knew I wanted to be in sales, not because of sales itself, but because of the unlimited income potential. And so, you know, I just basically tried to get my foot in the door or some business development, I parlayed that into some sales experience, and then basically work that for two or three years until I got my sales skills up. And then I got into real estate. Basically, we bought our first home, my wife and myself after our wedding. And it was a good opportunity. And we lived there. I mean, from the closing the closing and then renovating in between it was six months to the day. And we pocketed something like 35 or $40,000. And that was like, you know what I would make in six months, eight months at that time. And I thought we just lived here, and we fixed it up on our own time. And it cost barely anything, and we just made that much money. And she said yeah, I've been telling you we should get into real estate flipping. And so, then we did she, my wife, is a realtor and she looked on the MLS and in Maryland, we're in my market at that time, you can still find deals on the MLS to flip it, so I think we paid $103,000 I think we put in like $70,000 we turned around and sold it for I think 215 something like that. So, we made a decent little profit on the first one ever making a ton of mistakes along the way. But that's basically how I got into real estate just kind of by accident. I went to a seminar A long time ago, and much like a lot of other people and then it just kind of fell back onto the back burner didn't do anything with it, but that that itch was always there for me. And you know, I just always wanted to get into real estate, so I went dormant for a while and then came alive and then since Ashley and I've been working together real estate has just kind of stayed alive since then really started to flourish now started to grow a lot. So, I mean, that's the beginning of how I got into it.
Sean Thomson 05:05
Yeah, so let's rewind a little bit and talk about you. So, you always wanted to get into real estate. What was it? That was the driving factor? Was it the upside to the earnings potential?
Joshua Hines 05:16
Yeah, I think the earning potential is like the, you know, the first thing there, but you know, beyond that, it's just, it's uncapped. I think real estate is the last frontier in this country. It's the last wild west where you don't have to have a PhD, you don't have to have credentials, you don't have to be board certified. You don't have to, you can go in with no money, no credit, just a little bit of knowledge and drive, and hop right in. And so, for me, it was really about the time freedom that I knew I wanted, because if you get into real estate and you start to do well, then you're not strapped to your desk for 60 hours a week. Like some executives, some well paid executives might be right. So, for me, it was more about the freedom. But to get that freedom, you definitely need that that capital that upside, so yeah, definitely the upside. The earning potential is like the immediate thing that got me into it, for sure.
Sean Thomson 06:09
And your wife, Ashley, she was a realtor at this time. You guys, where you were trying to transition from your job? Is that what it was?
Joshua Hines 06:16
Yeah, exactly. So just stepping back even another step back, my wife and Ashley, my wife, Ashley, and I met online, but then she we met only because she was moving here to start going to school. And she already had her master's degree in special education, worked, ran a course with that and didn't really want to do it anymore. But then moved down here to pursue a degree in audiology. And found out she didn't really like that. And so, she was like, what should I do now, and I was like, you should pursue real estate, that's what I've always wanted to do. So, you should do it. She found a job as an assistant to a high-powered realtor work that job for like six months, then went on to get her license and work for that lady with for real as a realtor on our team, and then eventually left. So, I mean, that was really like kind of the spark to get in. That's how she became a realtor. She's now been a realtor for I think, eight or nine years or something like that.
Sean Thomson 07:06
So, you guys bought the first house, you said you lived in it, it's while you're fixing it up, and then reselling it again. And then so I guess you just found someplace else to live at that point. But you what was the kind of the talk about where you went from that first house to creating this into a business? How did that transition look?
Joshua Hines 07:25
Well, I mean, the So really, the capital that we made on that allowed us to step into the next thing allowed us to step into our current home. So, we had a down payment for it, right? And then we had some capital leftover, but we also had the confidence, we had the belief, and we have a little bit of knowledge that we could replicate that same thing into a larger space. So, our first one was a condo that
Sean Thomson 07:48
Okay, so sorry, everybody, we just had a technical issue, my computer crashed or something. And Josh was telling us about how he transitioned from that single house, that first house that they did, from buying and flipping that property into turn, it created this into a business. And you were just telling us about the story. You were signing planks for the flooring up in the in your apartment at the top floor. And your neighbor had just come up to confront you about something. I guess we're talking about something.
Joshua Hines 08:16
Yeah. So, you didn't. I just, I knew something happened when you didn't laugh at that joke, Sean.
Sean Thomson 08:20
Yeah, I just froze up. But yeah, so tell us about that. You were just telling us about the process from going from one property to your business that you have now? I guess. So that's kind of so if you don't mind, I can't remember exactly where you were. But we'll, we'll try and figure out
Joshua Hines 08:36
Yeah, no worries. Yeah. So, I mean, just that first house, it was a condo. And Ashley brought it to me. And she said, this is a really, really good deal. We should invest. We should make some money on it. We don't even have to stay there long. And so, she convinced me, you know, like every good husband and listen to my wife. And we were off to the races. We bought it. We were there for six months from closing the closing. I was doing most of the work myself. And you know, I laid all the new floors in there. I didn't even know how to do it. But YouTube, you know, kind of educated me and I'm doing it late night. Yeah, I remember like one Thursday night and this guy. It was like 130 in the morning. I didn't even know what time it was. And the guy comes up knocks He's like, Hey, dude, can you like please stop working? It's like really late. And I was like, Oh, crap. I didn't know it was like this late. Sure. No problem. But so anyway, I was just hustling to get it done. Right. And, you know, we sold that place really quick. It was on the market, not for long. And we kind of parlayed that into the next thing. The money we made there helped us put it down payment, our house helped us get that next property. And then you know, gave us a little confidence and a little bit of know how to at least step into that next one. So yeah, I mean, that was the very beginning of hands-on real estate knowledge. And then from there just kind of took off and started doing a bunch of stuff, but we moved into fixing flips, and now I do a lot more wholesaling a lot more assignment of contracts out this way rather than fixing flips, currently today, so its kind of just blossomed into this, but it was a really, really good start.
Sean Thomson 09:55
So that first property was really kind of like, I guess, the proof of concept but you know, usually So, in doing that project, taking on that first project and taking that first risk, you saw that first of all, that you could do it, and it was possible. And you know that you could, you could actually make some money at doing this. And it wasn't that difficult. I just, you just had to put in the work and make that, you know, turn that property into something that had value to somebody else that you could then resell at a profit. And so, you use that money to be said, by your guests make a down payment on your existing house that you live in now, really, so. But more importantly, that kind of gave you a path to creating a business, right? So, talk about once you knew that it could happen for you and that you could make it work? How did you kind of make it into a business? Because you're still you're still at this time? You're still working with another company, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And Ashley's a realtor at this point. So how do you kind of take this side hustle? And because you guys are full time realtor’s real estate, sorry, full time real estate investors now? How do you take the side hustle on and make that sort of grow into a real business?
Joshua Hines 11:04
Sure. Yeah. So, I was still like the, I think my first, my first three or four flips, I was still employed. And so, I being an outside sale, you have freedom of time, as long as you're hitting your metrics, right? So, I could show up to the jobsite at 10am. And then again at 3pm if I needed to, to check on contractors. So, I mean, being in sales definitely helped there. But I hired a contractor to do the work and you know, learned a lot from that whole process. But still the first four or so were still on the side while we were working full time. But I think you know that confidence is super important to move forward. Just seeing what's possible, like you said, to actually see that it is possible is very powerful in your own life. If you've built some sort of mental constraints around what you think you can or can't do in your life, what you think is possible, or it's not possible, the moment that you do something that you've been thinking about or dreaming about for a while. And when it becomes a reality when it becomes done. That's a really, really powerful moment. And so, when you realize that, yes, I can do that. And you have that attitude when you take it into the next thing. And the next thing and the next thing, I think it just gets a lot easier doors start getting unlocked, because then it's not like, well, how in the world am I going to do this? It's just like, who is going to help me get there. So, I mean, just these first few that fortunately for us went pretty well, we actually turned a profit, I think on three out of the first four, I think they gave us that confidence that spark to get going. And then it just kind of opens up the world of possibilities, right? You start reading, you start learning, you start listening to other people, podcasts like yours, you start listening, and finding out really what other people are doing and what's possible. And then it's my belief that when you see what's possible, if someone else can do it, you can do it. Right. If someone else has been there, it's possible for you to get there. So, then you look at them, and you start to model and think, Well, you know, they got there. Well, how do I get there? Let me follow their footsteps. What did they do? Who did they get involved? How much did it cost them in questions like that, but, you know, just finding out that as possible, finding out that you're capable is super, super powerful in your life? At least it wasn't mine.
Sean Thomson 13:12
Yeah, anyways, like I you know, I like I sort of mentor Makita a lot too, because my issues in my business as well. And I always tell her look, you have to dream it first. And you have to believe it, right? It's not, you know, you don't have to just believe it's possible. You have to believe it's possible for you. Yeah, right. So, it's I know that it's possible to own skyscrapers and build skyscrapers. You know, Donald Trump does it these other people do it? But is it possible for me, right? So that's, that's where the, that's where the transition happens. I think in in going from, I think I can do this to I'm going to do this. And it's that belief that you can do it that you can have what you want, you know, my business is that way now, too. So, I was in single family. I'm in apartments now. And I never knew that I could do that until I met Corey Peterson, he and he was doing it right. So, then I all of a sudden thought, well, it's possible for me know that now that I've seen someone else, do it, I know I can do it. I think that's big. That's one of the bigger steps in the transition from working for somebody else to doing what you want to do. And, you know, sort of working towards your dreams, is that belief that is possible for you? Absolutely. Yes. That's just not that it is possible. But that is possible for you. I think that's the key. So that's funny that you say that. Let's talk about so you guys have started to do a few deals in here, here and there. And you're learning I guess so you're always learning more about how to do this. And like you said, you go into podcasts and those types of things. What are some of the some of the early on what were some of the, I guess places that you found the best information or best golden nuggets that kind of help you really learn quickly?
Joshua Hines 14:48
So, I mean, there were definitely a few podcasts that were good, but YouTube mainly like going on YouTube is just such a powerful search engine and you can find anything on any topic there. So really, it was YouTube, YouTube University, I went on there just searching. And I would latch on to a few people and listen to what they say and then find other people like them, and really start to reach out that way and expand my world that way. But YouTube was it besides books, you know, some books for general principles and things like Rich Dad, Poor Dad was a really, really big one for me, thinking Grow Rich, but that was more like in the past two years, not the beginning of the business. But for the specifics. For the tactics for the ways, it was all YouTube for sure.
Sean Thomson 15:31
Yeah, people just out there doing it and filming it and showing you how to do it. That's, that's good. So, let's talk about your business now. So, you're doing you've gone from those first few deals to now you guys are primarily wholesaling and doing some fix and flips here and there, right?
Joshua Hines 15:47
We haven't done any fixin flips this year, because I don't think the numbers have really made a whole lot of sense. And I'm a big believer in becoming a hyper specialist. And so down to the point where we're in real estate, yes, but as a wholesaler, as someone who does wholesaling. We're really in marketing and sales, right? I mean, it could be anything, it doesn't have to be real estate, it doesn't have to be homes, it could be any sort of building, Donald Trump is doing assignments of contracts in New York in the 80s. Right, so it like big commercial buildings, it doesn't have to be single family real estate. We're primarily in marketing and sales. And so, it's my goal to build my organization into a high-performance sales team. And I try to get everything else out of my way. So, I don't really even want to like manage people, I don't really want to manage processes, I just want to look when work with my team and optimize the sales processes within my team. So, you know, for right now we're doing a lot of wholesales, a lot of assignments, a contract, you know, real fix and flips. And we're doing that again, because you know, I just, I got out of my lane, I found out that that's something I like doing real estate, I like improving houses. But I found out that managing contractors, finding contractors and everything that goes with it was just not my sweet spot. And really, I only realized that after one day, I kind of accident, I was searching for our deals. Our second deal ever we bought from another wholesaler. And you know, when you go down the HUD and you look at all the lines, and I see this one line says $26,000. And then I'm adding it up and I'm like, wait a minute, someone else just added $26,000 into what I'm saying. If it wasn't for them, I became $26,000 less, I probably wouldn't have the deal either. But I wouldn't be paying $26,000 I thought in that moment I went and signed, we bought the deal. But in that moment, I thought I should be that guy making $26,000. And they don't even have to flip the house. And so, then I start calling for my own deals. And every night Even after work from 4pm to 6pm. I'm back using Mojo dialer calling people seeing if they want to sell their house. And then one night my wife comes back, and she knocks right on the door. I'm like on the phone again tonight. She's like, what are you doing? I said, I'm working? What are you doing? And she was well, you should quit your job. And I said, Well, what do you mean, she said, you should quit your job. And I said when and she said tomorrow. And I said why? And she goes because you can pick up the phone and make $25,000 in a few phone calls, you should just do more of that quit your job. And so, then I realized, you know, I have a skill in this. And of course, I make $25,000 on a phone call because I got a single deal turned into a $25,000 wholesale deal. Kind of I don't know, I don't want to say by accident, because I was taking a lot of action, I was taking massive action. But I didn't have a system. I wasn't even intending on selling that one for a wholesale fee. But it just so happens that it was a really good deal and turn around sold for 25 grand and, and 40 days from the time I initially locked it up with 25 grand profit. And that was more than anything is probably equal to any of the deals any of the profits that we made through the first fix and flips. So, a lot less work, same profit. And that was like really the start to us, you know, kind of zooming in on wholesaling, let's say.
Sean Thomson 19:02
Yeah, and there's really big segments of the whole process of single family, buying and selling, right. So, you know, sourcing and finding the leads, making those contacts, getting those deals put together initially, where you get them under contract, that's a whole process in itself. And then there's the project management process of fixing the property up, which is extensive as well. So, you've got, like you say, contractors to deal with, you've got a whole other array of things to bring together to get that property value, get that value added to that property and get it fixed up. And then you got to dispose of properties too. So, you've got to either you're on the wholesale side where you're disposing of properties to investors or you're disposing of properties to real retail buyers that are buying your fixed up properties, right. So, there's really this corner sort of these segments of doing the business front to back from you know, from, I guess kitchen table to retailing and what you've what you've kind of done is you've found those, those front-end processes or you know, the marketing and those sorts of things to be your sort of specialization and the project management in the middle is stuff you don't like to do. I don't know if anybody really likes to do that stuff. But there's, there's a few contractor-like guys that like to do that stuff. And then the disposition side of selling it to wholesalers was much easier, you know, dealing with professionals than it is to deal with retailers, maybe. So, you've kind of carved those sections out for your business.
Joshua Hines 20:27
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, think about how silly it would be like, let me give you an analogy. If you go out to eat, and you go to a nice restaurant, would you ever expect the waiter to also be the cook, and then also the bus, your table, and also to wash the dishes, but then also be the host on the way into the restaurant on the front, and then also pick up the phone, and then take care of boxing up your food to go and then ringing you up at the register? I mean, when you think that was really silly, like when you say hire some help, if they were if they had good food, and one person was doing everything, like you would just think of that as being completely silly, right? Well, I mean, there's a lot of people in real estate, that are trying to source their own deals, through their own marketing, and then fix and flip them. And then also go ahead and sell them on the back end and do everything that comes in between. and it's definitely possible. I'm not saying that's not possible. But I think a lot of people get caught up in doing everything. And then they get really, okay, are mediocre results on everything, right. And so, when you try to do that, you're stretching yourself so thin, none of us are good at everything. None of us are good at, you know, taking care of all the processes and the sales, right? I'm not good at processes in the fine details, because I have a better personality for sales. And so, I think there's a lot whether people see it coming or not, I think there's a big consolidation of our industry, for sure. I don't think that people are going to continue to source their own deals and fix and flip them and sell them, at least not well. So, I think there's a really big consolidation coming of, I think there'll be a lot of big wholesale companies that grow and kind of go nationwide and start disposing of 10 2030 4050 properties a month, if you do it the right way. And then the people who are really good at fixing flips, I think will continue to do those and scale that side of business. But what I've learned really is that there's such power in relationships as well, because, you know, our business has certainly grown a lot, we're doing 10 plus deals a month now, whereas 12 months ago, I was lucky to do two deals a month. And it's grown because I specialize but then also because I've built a really good buyer's list. When we send a deal out to someone, they know it has meat on the bone. They know that I'm telling them the truth about the property. And most of the time, they don't even have to go look at the property, they look at the pictures and say, okay, send me the contract, let's go. They don't even negotiate on the price. Right? Definitely, sometimes people negotiate. But a lot of the time my buyers don't, because they know I'm bringing them a good deal. They know I'm being honest with it. So, I you know, I think hyper specialization, if you're not familiar, or if you're not, if your business really isn't like growing in the direction that you want, I think you have to niche down a little bit and find what you're good at, and what you love to do as well. And so, when those things overlap, what you're great at and what you love to do, I think the work becomes a lot less work, and it becomes more passion. So, I think that's kind of where I've taken as well.
Sean Thomson 23:27
Yeah, I had that same issue. So, in my single-family business, I was I was the guy, right, so I did everything. And the problem I had was that income was my goal, right? So, I was trying to collect rental properties. And for me, I had to do the wholesaling and the fix and flips in order to get the rental properties. So, my, the thing I wanted was at the end of the line. And so, for me, I had to sort of run the whole process to get to the where I wanted to be. And what I found was that scaling that was so difficult, because you have to sell four or five properties to keep the one property just because the machine needs to get sort of fed, you know. And so, what I did was I asked myself one day, why am I buying this one door at a time, you know, and so that's when I started to make my transition into multifamily. Because, you know, for me income is really the goal. I I'm not you know, married to the idea of fixing houses and selling them at retail or any of those sorts of things. It's just I just want to create income. And so, for me that that scale has gone away up with multifamily. But you're right, it's it is it's really hard to be the only or the guy or the person in your business. If you're not finding those niches and finding those specializations for yourself and for your company, then you really are going to struggle and that was always my struggle to I was able to do everything, but you can't scale it you can't you know, it's just very difficult to get to the next level. So luckily for me, I finally got tired of, you know, grinding through those processes and started asking myself a different question, right.
Joshua Hines 24:58
That's awesome. But think about that. Because I think you just touched on a really important point that I think other people maybe might miss. But you went through it, and you struggled, but you kept going. And then you started asking yourself different questions. If you were like in the middle of it, and you're like, Oh, this is not paying me what I thought it was, screw it. Let's go back to work. Would you have ever learned a lesson from that? Or do you have ever found that the end goal of where you're at now and where you're at now? No, definitely not. But you went in, you took massive action and jumped in. And then you start asking yourself the right question. And really, you know, that obstacle that was in your way of scaling, getting to the point where you want to get to really started the obstacle started to show you the solution. So, you know, kudos to you for grinding through that. And I think it's something where a lot of people hit an obstacle, and they think, Oh, this isn't for me, oh, you know, I'm not fit for this. Oh, whatever story you want to tell yourself insert here. But oh, like, I can't do this. My mom, my aunt was right, I should just go back to work and be safe, right? Be safe, but you kept grinding through it. And that obstacle kind of showed you the path that you needed to take? So, you know, that's a lesson in itself, right there.
Sean Thomson 26:06
Yeah, well, I was fortunate in my business, I was successful in my business, but I wasn't successful at what I wanted. Right. So I wasn't, I wasn't achieving the dream. I was, I was just kind of working. And I was I was making money. And I was having success. I had, you know, a good, vested relationships, I had good relationships, all my people, you know, my property managers had a good relationship with them. So, all the business components, were going well, you know, my business was, was successful by any real measure, but it wasn't achieving my goal, you know, and my goal was up here. And I was still struggling down here. And I didn't see it making that leap. So that's when I started to say, hey, let's, I want I want to achieve the dream, you know, I don't want to just work. He's not good enough, because I can work anywhere, you know. So, yeah, so I did, I finally figured that out. But that's good. Let's talk about where you are. Now you're doing wholesales and things like that? Where you guys? Are you? Are you just hoping to kind of refine that or what is the next step for you?
Joshua Hines 27:03
So, I think we have several next steps, but I want to continue to grow it for sure I'm really growing. This year, we hopped into building our team. Before this year, it was a lot of a struggle, because it was just me, it was myself and Ashley, Ashley still did a lot more retail. So really, on the wholesale side, it was me and some virtual assistants. And I was doing everything from soup to nuts, I was doing everything from finding the marketing list, to pulling them to refreshing them to skip tracing them, like all this kind of stuff. And then we really started to expand when I got rid of all the other stuff and focus in on sales and the sales process. And if someone says this, then we should say this, right. And so that became my specialty. And so, we're building out our team here a lot. Now I have two acquisitions, guys and one disposition guy, plus Ashley, who does market now and then some virtual assistants, but building out our team here, I'd like to really double the business from where we are now in the next year. And then I do want to do some things in the education space info product space, to really help other people rubber stamp what I've done into their own business. And then long term, get into some buy and hold stuff for sure, just not me as the operator or project manager. But yeah, definitely want to get just like you want to get my income up to sustain the life that I want to live to make long term investments. And really, the overarching goal for me, is to build a family legacy. You know, I come from a family where I was just raised by a single mom, God bless her, she was able to do so much for me, the best thing I think she was able to give me with a mindset, happiness and positivity and perseverance. But really, it's important for me, I have three kids now two girls and a boy. And it's super important, important for me to leave a legacy to them, not just of, you know, finances or wealth in that regard, but a legacy of living a rich life, a legacy of doing anything you want, in life, learning anything, helping other people are really living the life of your dreams. So, whatever that may be, you know, it's up for my kids to decide for themselves. But the legacy I want to leave them is just an empowerment that they can do whatever they want, they should help other people, they should be kind. So, everything that we're doing is to fuel that. Of course, it comes with generational wealth, but it also comes with time freedom, right? And so, everything that we're doing is to get our income up so that eventually we can pull ourselves out, have a wider impact on people, whether it be through education, whether it be through finances, through real estate directly, but just to get our income up so we can start to pull ourselves out even more and have a larger impact.
Sean Thomson 29:40
So, I was just about to ask you. I asked everybody on the on the podcast, you know, because it's called Next Level American Dream. So, I asked everybody kind of what is your American Dream? And what are you doing to level it up? I think you just answered it honestly. So, your American Dream is to have the freedom to have the time to do what you want to do. But you're sort of injecting that into your kids to an end. and teaching them how to how to sort of think of life that way as opposed to go to college, get a degree get it's how to how to create a life that you can be happy with and proud of, and that kind of thing.
Joshua Hines 30:11
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So, I, we're very big on like teaching our kids and I know most parents are right, but like one of the one of my proudest moments is, I've taught our girls about having the right attitude. And I'm so proud of this. But our girls, you know, if they do something wrong, so you don't have the right attitude, what's the right attitude? And they say, Yes, I can, daddy. Yes, I can. Yeah. And so, I've taught them that the right attitude is Yes, I can. And so, in everything that they do, their attitude is Yes, I can. And so that's like one of my proudest moments through them. But yeah, I mean, just having the time freedom to spend time with family, the ones I love, making new friends, traveling a little bit, but really impacting the world on a larger scale, is something that I'm super passionate about will be part of my legacy, you know, another maybe 100 years when I hit there, yeah,
Sean Thomson 31:00
Well talk about because then you've got a podcast here. So, you'd like to say you're moving into sort of education of others, and how to teach others how to do what you're doing. Talk about some of those things, how people can reach out to you and get in touch with you about your podcasts or your website or how they can get more information. How would they do that?
Joshua Hines 31:17
Sure. Absolutely. So yeah, I mean, I am very passionate about teaching other people things, astronomy, you and investor fuel in the Mastermind. Masterminding is something that I'm so passionate about. And really, a Mastermind doesn't have to be, you know, a paid group, right. But its where high-level thinkers come together and start brainstorming around activities. And I just love to Mastermind. And so, to me, all business started with lead generation. And so, this is something that not a lot of people talk about. But so, I started an online group around lead generation for real estate investors. It's called "The Lead Gen Underground" on Facebook, Facebook group, and we do weekly live calls, do a lot of tips in there, people ask questions, but it's all centered around lead generation for real estate investor. So super, super niche, but we go really, really deep there. Because let's face it, if you don't have leads, and whatever business you're in, if you don't have customers, you know, you're going to very quickly be out of business. So, you can go to Facebook and find us at the Lead Gen Underground. And maybe I need to ask you for some tips on making it into a podcast, because we're not there yet. But I'm going through the approval process, and going to start to get it on all the major podcast platforms. But for right now, it's just lives on zoom, actually, but inside the Facebook group, so yeah, I'm definitely looking to expand that group. We just had 1000 members about nine months in. And so I'm super passionate about helping that community, and about going as deep as I can in about, you know, teaching a lot, but then also learning a lot from other people. So yeah, that's where you can find some the lead gen underground.
Sean Thomson 32:49
Yeah. And that's, that's definitely the starting line for a real estate business, for sure. So if you're looking to get into real estate, lead generation is, is really your starting line. So lead gen underground, check it out, it'll really get you kind of started with a lot of high level this. It's very high level stuff you guys discuss too. It's complicated methodologies. It's not the simple stuff. But it's also the simple things as well, right? So it's everything but you guys take it very deep in how you guys look at it, and what you're trying to do and what people are bringing to the table, and everybody kind of has their own sort of unique sauce to make that that's but that worked out really well. And but there's a lot of different ways to do it too. And to be successful with it as well. There's the, you know, the postcards, simple method all the way to your stacking, stacking lists, cold calling all these different, more complex systems, too. So it's really good for people to learn all that stuff.
Joshua Hines 33:38
Absolutely. So let me ask you a question in multifamily. I know you're going after a lot of larger stuff. Is Lead Generation even important to you? Are you guys teaming up with brokers to find deals? Or how do you guys work out on hearing? So I'm very curious.
Sean Thomson 33:51
Yeah, so you know, Lead Generation comes in a lot of forms, it's the same as single family, right? So you're looking for deals to buy, of course, you've got to go find those with a lead generation methodology. And the sources for that are going to be brokers and other different facets, you can also go direct as well. So those depends on how you want to strategize that you have to go through after those different silos. But you're also looking for like I do, I think, you know, passive investors in our business too. So we essentially compile a bunch of people's money, smaller investments into a large amount of money, and we go buy these giant projects, and everybody makes more money. That's kind of the plan to the process. So those passive investors, we have to have a conversation with them and have a pre existing relationship. So we lead gen for those passive investors to get them into our, into our family, or guests or group, which allows us to go buy those properties. And so there's a lot of leads in that that happens on a different kind of different different targets, I guess you could say. So there's and it happens differently. So I have to I have to do lead generation on really three different silos of I don't know what you call it. Demographics or people that we're bringing in our business. So yeah, I do a ton of lead generation.
Joshua Hines 35:05
Yeah, that's amazing. That's a different point that you just hit on here. So a lot of times people think lead generation is only, you know, in my case, maybe the the property owner themselves, a lead generation then also goes for the buyers, right. And that's how, like I said before, buyers got a lot better, because we spend some time on lead generation there. But really important, even in your business to find those investors who invest with you and make it possible for you financially, you have to generate those leads, and how do you do it. So I mean, as you can see, lead generation is not just a single prong topic, it goes very deep, but also wide, depending on your niche. So that's really interesting.
Sean Thomson 35:42
Well, it happens at different different time periods in your business too. So at the very beginning, you need a you need a property to buy, so you have to lead gen for that, then you have to have someone that's going to invest with up with you to help you buy those properties, then you have to have someone to sell those properties to. And then you know, and actually you have a wholesale buyers, and you have retail buyers, too. So you're doing lead gen all throughout the process, and you know, a few different silos as well. So it's the same in multifamily. But it's it's a big part of the business. And it's and it's it's a make or break type of components, your business too. If you're really good at it, you can kind of write your own future, right. But if you're, if you struggle with it, then it's it's you're always going to struggle in your business. So it's really something that you want to master for sure.
Joshua Hines 36:29
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think Russell Brunson said before. I'm a huge fan of Russell Brunson and all the work that he does with Click Funnels and all of his books. But he said, "If you become a top 1%, expert in marketing, you'll never worry about money." And that was something that like resonated with me, because there's so many people out there that need marketing for their business, but they don't take the time, or they don't have the drive or the effort to go make it happen become an expert. So what do they do? They hire experts. And so even if you don't have your own real estate business to market for, you can market for other people. So you know, study marketing, and you'll never be hungry.
Sean Thomson 37:07
Yeah, exactly. Well, Josh, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Man. I know you got to get going on something else besides podcasting today. So thanks for coming on. I really appreciate it. And I love your energy. I love your story. It's it's really is a true American Dream story, for sure. And I love that you guys are having a ton of success and stuff. And I always enjoy hanging out with you at investor fuel meetings and things. You know, you guys are just such positive and energetic, you know, people. So it's great to be around you. But I appreciate you coming on the show and sharing with us. Yeah, thanks.
Joshua Hines 37:39
Thanks so much for that, Sean. I really appreciate it. And you know, I just want to tell you that I admire you for having your family work in your business, and grow that up together. Because I think that's truly something special. It's not easy. For sure to involve business, and family like in your company. I know that from experience. Yeah. But I mean, you're building your American Dream. So you know, kudos to you. Congratulations for all your success so far! And I just love seeing people work with their family and you know, really like walk the walk. It's amazing!
Sean Thomson 38:07
Yeah, well, thanks. I appreciate that. Sometimes, I think they're the only ones that can can deal with me. But no, it's great. I we've we've been having a lot of success and a lot of fun doing it, too. So it's been great.
Joshua Hines 38:20
That's awesome. Well, keep it on with a buddy. I'm sure you're gonna be super, super successful. And I hope you rack up lots of doors and we'll stay in touch. Yeah, for sure.
Sean Thomson 38:27
Thanks again. We'll talk to you soon.
Joshua Hines 38:30
Take care. Have a great day, guys. Bye Bye!
Abigail Thomson 38:31
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level American Dream. If you would 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.