Joe: All right, everybody. Hey, welcome. Glad you’re here. And as you can see, if you’re watching this on video right now, we’ve got a special guest. Her name is Ester. And we’re gonna be talking about Ester here and what she’s doing. She’s crushing it right now in the El Paso, Texas market. Cool market to be in. And I got Gavin. Gavin here. How are you, man? 

Gavin: I’m good, Joe. How you doing? 

Joe: I love your shirt. I know. I know how you like that. Yeah, it’s really cool. Those of you that don’t know Gavin and I don’t know how you don’t know Gavin if you’ve not been on my podcast for a while now. Gavin, I’ve been working together for four- or five-years doing coaching and met him originally in Spain. Yeah, right. Yeah. We talked before then. 

Gavin: No. Maybe we have. We did. We did. We had a phone conversation. We did. Yes. 

Joe: But you were living in the US. We actually met in Spain. I was doing a workshop there in Spain, in either Barcelona or it was Marbella. Yes. But anyway, Gavin, I’ve been working together. He’s been helping me in the coaching business. And one of the things that I like about working with Gavin is he’s a lot smarter than I am in some areas and most areas okay. But he is good mindset. He’s real good with teaching sales skills and how to talk to sellers, how to talk to buyers, just take massive action. I like to analyze everything and build a spreadsheet. You know, do all of the CRM stuff. And Gavin’s like, screw it. Let’s just get on the phone, pick up the phone, call him, talk to him, make ’em offers. Right. Don’t over analyze the deal. Just massive, massive, massive action. So I thought, man, I got to bring Gavin on to help me and my coaching business. And so Gavin has been a great asset and he’s doing really, really well. He’s doing most of the coaching for me with me right now. 

Joe: And as an example, case in point, we’ve got Ester here that we’re gonna be talking about how she’s doing deals. She’s got six properties locked up right now in the last month in a difficult post Corona market. Right. Everybody’s scared running to the hills. You know, there’s the thinking the sky’s falling and, you know, it is bad. It’s tragic what’s going on. But we just wanted to bring Ester on and show you like we have students who have clients that are actually doing deals right now. And don’t get discouraged because like, you can actually do this stuff, too. The cool thing about Ester’s story is know she wanted to come in and maybe I should let Gavin tell the story. But we wanted to just focus on like sticking with what works. Don’t change things. Don’t complicate things. Let’s stick to what works. So, Gavin, once you introduce Ester and maybe talk a little bit about what you encouraged her to do. 

Gavin: Yeah, absolutely. Ester, how are you?

Ester: Good. How about you? 

Gavin: I appreciate you jumping on. We wanted to get you on because I think it’s a cool story. You know, everyone has a vision. And the first thing that we did is that you had a vision, which is always good. You have goals that you want to hit. But we have to look at the best way to actually create that plan to get to them goals. And originally, you know, you were thinking, let’s go virtual, let’s do some wholesaling and lease options in multiple markets to three markets at the same time. And you were already doing, you know, one, two, maybe three days a month anyway. But after we actually analyzed and looked at it. You did some real key things really well. And I felt that if you could do them more of them. Right, that we could actually make more money without going virtual right now. So we talked a lot about dominating in the market. You know, you’re a master of you obviously speak two languages. Right. You have a lot of people in the area that can’t move deals. So we thought, well, what if we change our plan? Where you can do some marketing in the El Paso area, but you need to become the force in El Paso to if I need to move a deal, I need to go to Ester. Right. 

Gavin: That’s what the presence that we needed to create in that market. So really focusing on JVing with other people. Being the buyer. Being that side of it, because we felt we do feel that we can be doing six, six to eight of them a month plus what you’re doing on your own with your own marketing. So there was no need to do two deals in El Paso, two deals in another state. Two deals in another state to have more stress, more people in different places to then make probably less money with more hassle. Right. So that’s what we did. We came up with after these suggestions. And you and Oscar your husband, super cool guy as well. And, you know, really just focusing and dominating. And was that was the word. And I think there’s an air of confidence, not arrogance. It’s confidence. Right. That we wanted in your head. I was trying to get across to you that you are going to dominate this market. You’re going to be a beast. Exactly. You know, you’re going to be a beast, right? That’s what we that’s what we want. Now, you’re not walking around saying, I’m going to dominate and you going to tell everyone. But in your mindset, that’s what we wanted to get. Like you are going to be the go-to. And that’s what we are in Alabama and Birmingham, you know, I’m confident in saying that no one moves more deals than us. But we just do the actions to create. And I think that’s what you’ve done an awesome job. So it’s a great job. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. 

Ester: So. You did mention to me that was it since I had done deals in other states, but I was actually dividing myself. And there was less of me doing. So here in El Paso, I realized, you know, I could do more since I am here. But, you know, I totally agree with you. So me focusing on El Paso and just dominating and being in beast mode here, then I was able to do more. Exactly. 

Joe: And Ester, El Paso is not a big market, right? I mean, I in your mind, like, oh, my market is too small. I can’t really do a lot of deals here. 

Ester: No, it’s not that big. El Paso is not that big. But I mean, like Gavin said, I do have in my repertoire I’m able to speak Spanish and English, so I can jump back and forth. So, you know, in my case, it works in my favor. So, yeah. 

Joe: Can you show us your whiteboard real quick? 

Ester: Well, I’ve got a huge board. That’s four by eight. 

Joe: I love it. Congratulations. Those are deals, by the way. 

Ester: Yeah, those are deals. Those are people that I’ve spoken to. And it’s it’s every day I try to make sure that I check out. Whether it’s for sale by owner, making offers every day. No joke because I do call calling. I have two VAs and I’m still doing cold calling myself and making sure that I do that every day. So if I come into the office, I can literally look at the board and say, yes, I did what I’m supposed to. I did my videos and calls and I feel good that I’ve accomplished something. I’m moving forward. 

Joe: Gavin, Ester reminds me of Melissa. 

Gavin: Yeah, I know. Absolutely. This is 100 percent. Like when I check in. Hey, how’s it going? You know, it’s like, picture the whiteboard. Picture the score card on the whiteboard. It’s going great. We got this. And this was what was a dream to work with because she was just like just tell me what we’ve got to do. We put the plan in place. We even put it in that you were gonna cold call because Ester says, I don’t care. I love my job. All right. You love it then? That’s part of it. So she does an hour to two hours a day and creates leads. The V.A.s are creating more leads. So we’re focusing on the lead gen and also the JVing with others. And now we’re starting to see from one to two deals a month. Now we’ve got six under the contract. You just closed, grossed thirty-two thousand last month. So we’re moving forward. And it’s awesome to see. I think everyone needs to take away is that you’re taking massive action, right? It’s not all about me. It’s all about you. Come on, you’re the one that’s executing. This is this is you. And, you know, it’s a dream to work with someone like you because it’s you just get it done. Some great job. 

Joe: And that’s why I said you remind us of Melissa. She’s a dream to work with. I think she’s just amazing. And if Melissa’s out there and she probably is, I don’t see if you if you hear Melissa comment on the video. But anyway, Esther, you kind of came to us and said, I want to do lease options. I want to start doing the virtually Gavin spend some time with you, your life like now. You know, I think maybe you should try to focus on what you already know. You’re in a great market. You already have experience doing wholesaling. Maybe you don’t need REI Simple right now. You already know what to do podio. Let’s stick with what’s working and let’s just expand and grow on that. So talk about your process through that. What were you thinking when Gavin was suggesting things like that to you? 

Ester: Well, I mean, at first I was, you know, because I had done deals in Alabama. I was telling Gavin about it. And so I was like, okay, you know, I know I can get some really good deals in Alabama also. But then, you know, he would say, you know, you are I already have a cash buyer here. And my niche is not just investors here in El Paso, but I also have retail buyers. Meaning people that they don’t want. It’s a house that needs work and they’ll live in there and fix it up little by little. Luckily, I live close to Mexico. It’s like five minutes away. So a lot of people come from Mexico. They’ve got cash, they just don’t have credit. So I get them with a hard money lender. And I luckily, again, making these connections with other people. I was able to get a hold of lenders that only want to work with me because of my reputation, because I get back to people. And I follow through. So I’m able to get them in with no credit and they get into these houses. And so for me and this pandemic that some people are going through, I’m making more deals. So it doesn’t bother me. So if this virus keeps going. Years and years, it doesn’t matter. I mean, I feel bad for the people that are going through some issues that it’s not worth. In my case, this is not stopping me. And it’s just I gotta keep going forward. And like the horses with the blinders, just keep going forward. 

Joe: Ayeshou is asking here, how are you generating leads? What is the main marketing strategy you’re doing? 

Ester: It’s cold calling. I get on mojo. Cold calling. And just call and talk to people. I mean, it says it back here. Keep marketing. Keep talking to people and making offers. It doesn’t matter. 

Gavin: That’s it. 

Joe: Marketing, talking to sellers and making off, and that’s what my husband keeps putting down. He keeps writing them down as hey, keep making offers. 

Joe: Yeah. All right. So let’s talk about cold calling a little bit, if that’s all right. Yeah. Who are you cold calling? I am calling absentee once absentee owners. Very nice. And it doesn’t sound too complicated. No, that’s an easy list to get. 

Ester: And it’s simple. Just, you know, talking to them like they’re my friends. And I’m not making a sales pitch. I’m just talking to them year. Are you considering a cash offer on your house? And it’s as simple as that. Well, I’ll call you out of the blue. Are you interested in this? Yes or no? OK. Well, do you have any other problems you may have if you’re not interested in selling. And they’re like, oh, maybe I’m like, okay, great. What is it? I’m a little bit more about it. So I start getting the conversation going that way. 

Joe: Gavin, what kind of list of absentee owners did we pull? 

Gavin: We did equity. We did a known 50 to 100 percent equity. Length of residence. Unknown 10 plus years. We did single-family. Multi-Family. Triplex, duplex, quads. In state, out of state, absentees. That’s kind of what we would start. Now everyone would say well, hold on, everyone is doing that list. But as I said to Ester, again back to dominating the market, it doesn’t matter what everyone else is doing. You just got to be the best at of it in that facet. That’s what we do in our market. I think we can give a thousand people the list. A thousand can be called calling it because that’s happening. That’s reality in a lot of markets. If you are the best at it. You have the best system. You have the best on the phone, the best follow up. People like you. You’re going to get the deal. So doing things the right way. You know, the competition is fierce. The competition is out there. But we know and we’re seeing it time and time again. And I’m sure Ester’s got stories. A lot of our clients and we have personally there’s a follow up business. No means not now. Right. We don’t take anything personal. We just keep calling them back until they say yes. And that’s the mentality that we try to install with all of our clients. 

Joe: And this is I’m just looking right now in in perhaps dream and I have over just a quick search over 16000 absentee owners that own single families and small multi families that have owned it for over 10 years that are individuals. They’re not LLC. So we can actually go in and skip trace to them. And so we’ve just scratched the surface of all the leads that are available for Ester. And we can also now we have there’s new technology. It’s becoming more and more easily available to skip trace LLCs. So, you know, if we needed to. The point I want to make is even though El Paso is a small town, there’s a lot of opportunity there. There’s a lot of tired landlords. And I love talking. I’d much rather talk to a tired landlord than a retail owner that’s living in the house that has a lot of emotional attachment to the house. Right. Because they’re easier. They understand that you’re an investor. They understand that you don’t you’re not going to go see the house and you’re not going to go and spend an hour with them, you know, at the kitchen table. It’s a business transaction. Do you find, Ester, that that just makes it a little easier, doesn’t it? 

Ester: Yeah. Yeah. They’re not so attached to the house. They see it as a house. You know, along the floors, they don’t see the emotional attachments. 

Joe: They might have other properties. They might even become a buyer. Right. For other deals, you ask them, hey, do you have any interest or are you looking for more deals to buy? 

Ester: So, yeah. Yesterday, I just got two more out of cold calling. I got two buyers out there saying, look, you know, I’m not interested in selling. I’m interested in buying. So I was like, cool. So I got one that was forty thousand cash and he was able to send me the address so I sent him the address.

Joe: Yes. I mean this makes my day. I love talking to people like you that are just doing it. You know, it’s like there was there’s one guy I know. I tell the story a lot, Ester. And you should keep these numbers right. And if you’re ever hungry for deals, just go through. Carl is correcting me here. El Paso isn’t that small? OK, Carl, it’s just amazing being in Texas, right? So El Paso is big. But anyway, you have a Rolodex now of one hundred couple hundred phone numbers of players, right. Of wholesalers, property managers, investors, landlords that own properties. So there’s one guy I know he has a big list of 100, 200 people that are active in the real estate business. Whenever he wants to do a deal, he just goes through that list and calls everybody. And he asks some two questions. Number one, I’m looking for a deal. Do you have anything you’re looking to sell? And then number two, are you looking to buy anything? And inevitably, when he goes through that list and he just calls and talks, he’s going to find somebody that has a house they want to sell and somebody has a house they want to buy. And wholesales those houses to each other. So this is so key for everybody listening. When you’re talking to these sellers, number one asked them, are you do you have any other houses you’d like to sell? Do you know anybody who has a house you like to sell? Are you looking to buy some more yourself? Maybe they’d even looking to lend on these two. 

Ester: Now, it’s great when you’re talking to these individuals and why you’re doing this. And if you’re like myself, reaching out to other wholesalers or investors, you can have properties say, hey, look, you know, I’ve got this one. Will this interest you, and just automatically plug it in. So, yeah, I love that. 

Joe: Ester, when you’re talking to these buyers, do you also ask them, like, what are you looking for? And do they tell you? Do they tell you I’m looking for a two bedroom, three bedroom under this price range of rents for at least this. They tell you things like that? 

Ester: Yeah. They tell me specifics. Or if they don’t tell me specifically, I’ll ask them. Hey, I want you to clarify something for me. Is it that you’re looking for a single family? Homes is a three-bedroom, two bath, and then they’ll go in and it’s on me. Yeah, that’s what I’m looking for. Or it doesn’t matter in El Paso. Anywhere, just as long as it’s a deal for me. So I’ll go ahead and have the great thing is Google Sheets. I’ll have, you know, some retail buyers and I’ll have investors. Go ahead and plug them into one of those two. That way I can just go ahead and send them a text message, blast text message to whatever in that group, whatever property is that I have. 

Gavin: That’s awesome. And there’s a couple of things to take away from that is because from a disposition standpoint, you’re not wasting your time with people that don’t have any interest in that certain property. Right, at least. And also, it builds a lot of respect with the buyer because you’re not sending them criteria that they’ve already told you they’re not interested in. So it’s like, oh, yeah, this matches my criteria. I want to get in. Well, yeah. Because you’ve asked them questions. So, you know, it matches that criteria. I know it’s things like that. So like okay, Ester’s on it. Because there’s a lot of people that are trying in the market and that will get it wrong when you can’t knock anyone trying. But I think that’s what the frustration comes from. Cash buyers, oh another wholesaler and they don’t know what to do and the numbers are wrong. Well, as soon as you like, as soon as you send them a message that it gets their attention straight away. Yeah. 

Joe: Yeah. One cool thing about what Ester just said, too, is sometimes you’re talking to buyers, you’re like, just send me whatever you got. I’ll look at it. You kind of need to get more specific from them. And I like what Ester said. She says, well, okay, I need to ask you a few more questions. Like, are you looking for a two bedroom or three bedroom or are you looking for a property in this area or this area? So sometimes you need to give them options to choose from, right. Like, are you looking for a property, a fix and flip like with a lot of rehab to sell us to a retail buyer? Or are you looking for just a rental property? Are you looking for small fix and flips like lipstick on a pig or are you looking for something bigger? Would you turn down a deal that needed 30 grand in work? So you got to ask those kinds of specific questions, right? Real important. I love it. And you’re putting them into a spreadsheet, just tracking them. It doesn’t have to be a fancy CRM, right. You’re just keeping a list that way when you get a property. You kind of sometimes when the more you get experience with this, you know who the buyers are that want that property and you know what they would buy for it, right? Right. 

Ester: And of course, a lot of my retail buyers are only one off. But I’ve noticed that some of them, because of the deals that I’ve got, because I always tell them look, you know, it’s 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars less than market. They’re always coming back to meet you to see if there’s any other properties that they can buy. I mean, again, for them, it’s not the numbers that make sense because to them, it’s all about making a deal. Let me get this property. 

Joe: And so when, I want to ask you about the retail buyers, number one. Oh, yeah, I remember I was gonna ask, have you seen any kind of slowdown in the last thirty to forty-five days since the whole Corona virus thing? I guess it’s now been two months. Are you seeing any kind of slowdown in your buyer activity? 

Ester: No, I actually. More. More. I mean, I actually I was talking to a friend of mine who’s another wholesaler, Ryan. And if he’s listening. Hey Ryan and I had to apologize because last time I spoke to him, I said, look, I’m usually good at getting back to you. And you know me. But he said he had a couple of properties that he wanted. He needed help moving. So I was like, yeah, I’ll just send me the details. Everybody knows who buys houses the biggest to me. I’m the disposition person because I have those investors and I also have the retail buyers. 

Joe: It’s just huge. Did he ask you if she’s just talking about here? She’s networking. Other wholesalers bring Esther their deals because she knows she has buyers. This is how important is it? What percentage of your deals, Esther, are from other wholesalers that you’re Jay being on? 

Ester: All six of them are 100 percent JVs. 

Joe: That’s awesome. Yeah. So cool. I think you’re still marketing for your own deals, right? And you’re getting deals of your own, too, but you’re also bring any other people to bring you their deals. Yes. Yes. 

Ester: Because I’ve got that niche market. 

Joe: And that’s what I was doing a lot of that in 2012, 2013 I had an acquisitions manager. We parted ways as friends. He’s still doing that to this day seven years later. He doesn’t do any marketing for sellers just does marketing for buyers. And people bring him their deals. That’s so cool. Talk about what on these deals where people bring you sellers and bring your deals. What is your typical JV split with that other wholesaler? 

Ester: 50/50, 50/50. Now, if it’s somebody I did a deal just recently and somebody was new, fairly new, and I was basically helping them with everything. So we agreed on a 60/40 split, 60 my way. So because I did most of the legwork on that, but it’s 50/50. 

Joe: Most Ester, I would encourage you to start asking for more. I mean, you deserve it. You have tons of buyers. You have a big network. You’re very you have a lot. I think you need to give yourself more credit. You know, you should start with 60/40, 70/30 splits. When we were doing a lot of these, we had other wholesalers and realtors that were bringing us deals. They were just happy to make five hundred, a thousand bucks. You know what? Because they’re not going to make anything anyway. Yeah. And it’s not too hard to go find out who your buyers are because they’re in public records. Right. I’ve done all this work to build these relationships. I think you should be asking for more. Just my opinion. 

Gavin: Yeah. One of the big things as well as is that we change. Tell me if I’m wrong. But I think like you’re working for like 5000 books as well. Before we started working together on a few of them and I was like, absolutely not. Right. You need to be getting percentages and minimums. Right. If it’s a minimum of five. Right, then yes. If it was like an eight-thousand-dollar deal, I want more work in less than five. But otherwise, the percentage that was one of the big things because I felt you were bringing value, because don’t forget a lot of the people and this is what we’re trying to change in the marketplace, bringing new deals because they can’t move them. You’re getting more money. What we then tried to transition is instead of doing that, they just bring them straight to you because you can get a higher price. Everyone makes more money. The wholesaler makes more money. They can’t move any locally to a normal cash buy. You have buyers paying more money, so they bring it to you. You make money and they make even more money. Yeah, I agree. 

Joe: And don’t be afraid to start asking for more profit, expecting more profits when you’re talking to sellers. You know, I remember they said the same acquisitions manager when I was working with them. He was so happy to make three grand on a deal. He’s like, Joe three grand! I used to, he was making eight bucks an hour at Home Depot. This is a big deal to make three grand. And he felt bad and guilty for asking for more money than that. I said, well, listen, you got to understand, you’re exchanging speed and convenience for price. So there are sellers. They don’t care that you just you’re helping them by buying their house. Right. So get that out of his head. And eventually I said, all right, let’s change it. Let’s try to get $4000 on average. Just ask for and then after that, I said, man, let’s try to get five thousand dollars. Now let’s try to get seventy-five hundred and ten. 

Joe: And so sure enough, I mean, just by going into the deal, expecting to make 10 grand asking for it, you’re not going to get if you don’t ask. Our average profits went from two or three grand up to seventy-five hundred eighty eight thousand dollars by the time that we parted ways. We had some deals where we’re making 15 grand, you know, but just gotta start expecting that and asking for it and it’ll start happening, you know? Absolutely. By the way, Carl Randall says here, Ester rocks. Hey, Carl, thanks. Somebody else here is watching from Virginia. I want to talk real quick about Podio and REI simple. So when you started, you wanted to start using REI Simple because obviously I talk about it a lot and I show it on all my videos and it looks amazing. But you are already using podio. It was already working for you. Right. What did Gavin say to you about switching? 

Ester: He was like saying, you know, it doesn’t bother me whether we do REI Simple or back to Podio. So I was giving REI Simple a chance. I was actually getting on it, trying to, you know, put leads in there. Created the campaign and everything. And it has really great stuff. I do like REI Simple it’s just because I used Podio already and I was like, I didn’t want to be learning another system. When I at that moment I was actually getting more deals. People were calling me. So I was like, I don’t have time to be learning, you know? So I was like, let me just stick with Podio. And I got it a little bit more automated Podio. So now I can actually put the lead in, and it automatically creates a task for me. So I know next day I get that email. Just like REI simple, you’ve got your notifications and so forth. So I do like Podio and I do like REI Simple They both have their goods and bads.

Joe: But I like that, though, that you’re sticking with what’s working. You’re not letting anything slow you down. Like REI Simple is amazing. It does more than podio, but you would have lost a lot of momentum. Yeah, learning how to do it.

Gavin: I was just gonna say as soon as we had the call after, I think you’d only been using it probably less than a week and I could already tell. You’re not on the phone. Right. You’re not on the phone. You’re not making offers. I was like, you gotta go and come back to it right now, because I know we’re going backwards. We’re going from one to two deals, to no deals if we’re not careful. For the immediate, right. What we’re trying to train on here. So it was a decision that was educated. If someone’s coming in, and Podio is a disaster. Right. And then well, of course, we’re going to go to REI simple because of the automation that you can do on the back end of it, which is important. Everyone’s different. That’s why I love working with people individually, because no one has got the same thing going on. And you have to adapt for the market. The situation, your situation is different than somebody else’s. You know, because I don’t know what’s going to come like without people reach out. I want to do what Ester’s doing. Well, then they wouldn’t want to cold call. What you can’t do what Ester is doing then. That’s what she’s doing. You don’t want to do that. So everyone’s got a different plan.

Ester: Gavin, but I love the fact that boxer. You know, if there’s something up like I got that, you know, I spoke to that one seller and they had a house. They were trying to sell it to their tenant, the tenant didn’t pay. Because they did a contract with them and they did it for twenty thousand dollars and they only paid ten. The contract already was voided because it was only good for a year, it said. And so I was like, I don’t know what to do with this. So I sent a copy to Gavin through Voxer and I was like, can you give me what your two cents would be on this? And he was like, it took maybe half an hour to get back to me, because I know you’re busy, but I love the fact that, you know, I can send a quick message, get a quick response, and I’m like, okay, let me talk to the escrow agent. Let me verify this information and go and move on. So I love that fact that, you know, I have you guys as coaches to help me out as I’m going. 

Joe: Thank you. Now, Ester did you go to Savannah, Georgia? 

Ester: Yeah, I did. Before they locked everybody up. So we were able to go and spend the whole day with Gavin. It was good. Very informative. The day went by like that. So then you were lucky enough to leave the next day cause they were shutting down everything. 

Gavin: You nearly got stuck. Yeah. I mean, it was like I didn’t even know the flight was gonna go ahead to get you out of Savannah. It was right on the wire. And that’s what’s cool now. I’ve learned a lot because, you know, when you came in, it’s like a whirlwind. It is. I mean, we are going one hundred mile an hour. Right. We’re getting stuff done. And it’s just like it’s happening. It’s happening. You know, and we’re doing a lot now on the virtual side. And the good thing is, the why I do like the virtual is because everyone’s got a different learning style, an ability so I can go full in and do hours and knock it out. Or we can do. OK. We’re going to do an hour. We’re going to come back tomorrow. We’re going to work this. You do that. We’re going to get back on. So I can now actually structure things depending on the each individual and how they take in information. So it works great as well. But yeah, it was a lot of fun having you guys in. 

Ester: And something else I learned from you Gavin. Profit first. That book. Oh, my. I was like because I’ve been in this business for three years. Oh, yeah. 

Gavin: This is huge. This is in my mind, that was like what. 

Ester: If I didn’t get anything from you guys, you and Joe. I was like, this was, Profit First. I never paid myself. So when I got that books and we saw the movie on YouTube or something like that, you can look it up. And I was like as soon as I got my first deal after I met you again and I was I went ahead and I allocated some money for myself, allocated some money for profits and taxes. And I was like, I should have done this. Somebody should have told me this years ago. 

Gavin: I remember that. It blew my mind. I was like, oh, yeah, you did like a ton of deals over the year and a half. You go, I don’t pay myself. I was like, wait, hold on a minute. 

Ester: Oh, yeah. No, I made six figures last year and I did not pay myself. So that’s going to tell you something. So, yeah. 

Gavin: I remember that. I was like, no you get paid before anyone gets paid. Because you have to feel like this is mine. I’ve earned this. Because that’s what’s going to drive you. Right. Not everyone’s money driven, but it does you like to see the efforts that you can do things for the family or put it back into the business, ordo whatever you enjoy. If you’re not paying then you’re busting it to make sure everyone else makes money. Absolutely not. So I’m glad that was. I’m glad you brought that up because. 

Joe: Yeah, I know, man. If you guys have not read that book, if you’re watching or listen to this. It’s called Profit First by Mike McAlary. Don’t worry about spelling his last name. Just look a profit first. Get the book you can. Takes you a few hours to read it. It’ll change everything, you know. It will virtually guarantee that you and your business will be profitable from day one. Yep. Simple as that.

Ester: Totally agree. Totally. If you don’t get anything else, that book does it. And then something else I read, which was Fifteen Secrets of Successful People. Learned now that I’m more busy because I’m trying to get more buyers for all these deals. I learned to allocate again my time. He says you need time. You can never get it back, but you can always get your energy back. So I’ll go ahead and set my little timer for forty five minutes. I’ll do focus energy with, you know, speaking to sellers, revenue generating activities like Joe always says, you know, talking to sellers and talking to buyers. I always focus on that and then I’ll take fifteen minutes break, go to the bathroom, stretch, exercise, talk to the kids and then I get back in and start again. So I feel a little bit more energized and I keep going so. 15 Secrets of Successful People. 

Joe: Nice. Awesome. I want to write that one down. 

Gavin: Yeah. No, that’s good. I do. Yeah. You know that one through me off. I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t get many curveballs. But that one definitely was one. I was like. Right. Hold on. Let’s forget that. Let’s talk about this. We need to get you making money. Yeah. You know, follow up. Right. It’s just like any plan we put in place. It’s easy for us just to say, right, let’s do 10000 a month in marketing. Right. We can almost find a motivated seller. But that doesn’t mean you’re profitable. Right. You have to run a business to make money. Right. It’s just so important. And there’s so many people we know even in massive minds. Right. And the me and Joe know that I’ve got businesses that do turn overs like crazy. What they’re putting in the pocket, the hassle, the overhead, the stress, just like stresses me out thinking how stressful they must be right now, especially in a pandemic. 

Ester: Just sent me a message just now. It’s fifteen secrets of successful people for time management. OK. Really? Yeah. So anyways. Yeah, I totally agree, Gavin. I mean, I was babbling at Westinghouse. I got you. I got my first deal again after I met you. And we were set to ourselves. OK, let’s go ahead and pay ourselves that portion. So we did that. And I felt that incentive, as you always say, you know, when you have a business, you don’t pay yourself. You pay all the bills and all that stuff. So, yeah, that really took me. 

Joe: Yeah. All right. So real quick here, guys, if you’re interested in working with me and Gavin, just go to this link right here. REINetwork.com/coaching. REINetwork.com/coaching. And we have a link for that in the description of the video here on Facebook and YouTube and in the podcast. But again, REINetwork.com/coaching. Ester, if somebody is in the El Paso area doing deals out there. How can they reach you and maybe partner with you on a deal? Maybe they have there’s somebody here that wants to lend some money on some deals. How can people get a hold of you? 

Ester: You can reach me by (915)320-6774. (915) 320-6774. You can reach me on Facebook. YouTube. It says Ester buys houses. Ester without the H. Yes. TR Yeah, I’m always with the yellow shirt that says Lester buys houses today and boots. Everything’s yellow and black. 

Joe: And this explains why Esther does a lot of deals because she answers her phone. No, no, she’s not afraid of the phone. Doesn’t hide behind it. 

Gavin: This is crazy as well. This is from her house. Just love happened. So they come and they’ve got asked to buy houses. We’re in a hotel because the office is closed. We’re in a hotel. And you’ve both got your yellow shirts with your numbers. We buy houses or ask to buy a house on the block. And this guy comes over to us. Does he not? And he’s like, hey, I got a house I need to sell. He’s always like, really? With the suit. So we’re like. So we get the information, start looking it up. I mean, it didn’t end up being a deal, but it just goes to show all them things do work, especially when you’re out and about. So that was awesome as well. 

Joe: And Oscar, thank you. He has the book. He just typed it in here. 15 Secrets successful people know about time management. Cool. Yes. 

Ester: Thank you, Oscar. 

Gavin: Cool. Guys, again, go to REINetwork.com/coaching. And we got to end this because I’m late for another call. But Ester, congratulations, man. That’s so awesome here. Proud of you. Happy for you. And I know you’re gonna keep on crushing it. 

Ester: Thanks, guys. Thank you. 

Joe: We’ll see you later. Bye bye.