Podcast 177. From a Dream to Reality, Now Teaching Others to Thrive with Nathan Payne

Average Joe Finances:
0:00

Hey, welcome back to the Average Joe Finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni and today's guest is Nathan Payne. I was recently a guest on Nathan's podcast and I was like, dude you have to come on my podcast. Absolutely. The stuff that this guy does is absolutely awesome. You guys are gonna love his story. Speaking of his story, and actually before I even get to, how are you doing today, man?

Nathan Payne:
0:22

I'm doing really good. It's a nice Saturday. I'm ready to go.

Average Joe Finances:
0:25

Yeah. Okay. Good. So hey, welcome to the show. I normally don't do Saturday interviews anymore, but I had to have this guy on. I just did.

Nathan Payne:
0:32

Means a lot to me, man. Thank you for taking the time.

Average Joe Finances:
0:34

Yeah, dude. Of course. So anyway, speaking of stories, Nathan, what's your story? Who is Nathan Payne?

Nathan Payne:
0:40

Who's the real Nathan Payne? Let's start off I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. and originally born in Utah and I actually made my way back. I actually live in Utah now, but originally born in Utah. Lived there, moved out to Georgia cause my dad, he works for Delta. So there's a big hub, big airport in Atlanta. So moved out there, grew up there. Wrestled in high school, was big into wrestling. I really enjoy, I actually do jiujitsu right now, which is like the grappling. It's how I kinda stay in that sport. Did wrestling after graduating from high school. I went on a mission for my church for two years, from 19 years old to 21 years old. It was pretty looking back. It's a pretty interesting journey cause when you're that young, you go out to a different state, different country and teach people about Jesus. So they did that for two years. Didn't have didn't watch any movies, didn't listen to any music outside of classical or church music. So it was like a, it was a good discipline a good way to learn how to set goals and accomplish things. After my mission, I went to school. I went to college at B.Y.U., so Brigham Young University, but it was a sister school. It's in Idaho, so B.Y.U. Idaho. Met who would eventually become my business partner met him in college. Started to do door-to-door sales to make money cause I already knew how to knock doors and talk to people. Did that for about five to six years. Went from, my first summer or where, I guess time. That first year that I did it, like did fairly well for a beginner and then just worked my way up in the company, became one of the top sales guys, ran teams, graduated from college. And then it was time to figure out if I wanted to continue to do real estate. Sorry wanted to do door to door or get into something else. And then I got into real estate because my roommate that I had met in college that later then became my business partner. He was doing real estate in college. And I said, Hey, let's just start, let's start doing real estate now. So he quit his job. I quit the door to door, and we just went all in to real estate. I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured it out.

Average Joe Finances:
2:38

Nice man. Wow. That's some background. And to make such a decision, at a younger age. So you left the comfort of home right? At the age of 19, went on a mission for two years.. And, during that time, you said you were really able to discipline yourself, right? You were really able to learn some self-discipline there and I think that's a key thing that I want to touch on, because I think that's something that you carried over into your business side right. Onto your entrepreneur side. Sure. So you met your partner in college , and so what were you doing with the door to door?

Nathan Payne:
3:09

I was selling Dish network. Okay. Kinda like tv. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, so it started out I was selling dish and direct my first year. So depending on what kind of service they have, I'd pitch them the other one. Sure. And we just essentially, we go to neighborhoods where, and we'd say, Hey, our trucks are in the area. A lot of people have been complaining about their bills being high or going up. We're here to, see if we can help people lower the bills. And then we'd go in there, show them what our product was, and try to close them right then. That was like the goal, because if you didn't close them, then good luck. Probably wasn't gonna happen.

Average Joe Finances:
3:39

Yeah. Okay, so with doing that, you got some good sales experience, right? So I'm pretty sure with wholesaling that comes in handy. Yeah. So now your partner was already investing a little bit in real estate, is that what you said?

Nathan Payne:
3:51

Yeah, so when I was doing door to door, I was always trying to get him to come and work for me or work with me.

Average Joe Finances:
3:56

Sure.

Nathan Payne:
3:56

And he was like, nah, I'm doing lease options. I'm doing seller finance. He was trying to wholesale, and he had started because his dad, who was in Missouri, had started. He, his dad started flipping, then he got into wholesaling. So he was trying to dabble in it, but., I saw how much work, I just saw what he was doing. I was like, man I'm making more money than him. I don't need to do that. So I just didn't think it was a better option. cause door to door is very lucrative. Especially if you have people under you, you make overrides, you make money per sale that they have if you manage them. So I didn't think about it, but, once college is over, I was like, I don't wanna do this forever.

Average Joe Finances:
4:30

Yeah. Okay. So was it because he was already doing real estate that you were like, let me get into real estate? Or did you start doing some research and figure out that this is the route you wanted to go?

Nathan Payne:
4:39

I just.

Average Joe Finances:
4:39

Or did your friend tug your arm a little bit and say, come on man, come over to the dark side.

Nathan Payne:
4:43

No. You know what's interesting? He, after college, he went and got a tech job. So he wasn't even really doing real estate. He was he had gone off on that route doing tech sales and I reached out to him cause I had done a couple interviews, right? I had, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I met with some super successful insurance guy that did property insurance in like California. He told me like how to get into it. So I, when I had decided to move on from door to door, I went and did some interviews, got in a suit and started interviewing with people and I was like, man, this is whack. I don't like this cause I, I went and interviewed with some guy that like, did medical insurance or something like that, and he was like, asking me like why she should hire me. And I guess I have some pride. So in my mind I was like, why I feel like this guy's like trying to see if I'm good enough when I know I could crush whatever I do. And at that moment I was like, yeah, forget this. Not to him, but just in my mind I was like, I don't need this. So then I reached out to Corey and I was like, dude, you're doing tech sales. I'm good. You're good. Let's figure this thing out. Let's go all in. So I didn't really realize that until now, but that that one interview where had the suit and the guy was looking me up and down and it almost felt like he was judging me, which he probably was. I was like, I don't need that. And I didn't do it. Then I was out.

Average Joe Finances:
5:54

Yeah so you decided to stay away from the corporate world pretty early on, so that's good. So how old were you when you made that decision to, to start investing in real estate?

Nathan Payne:
6:02

I think it was 26. 27.

Average Joe Finances:
6:03

26, okay. Yeah. Right on, man. Good deal. Now what did that look like for you when you made that initial shift, right? I know you didn't just jump right in, all of a sudden, boom I've got all these leads and all these properties, I don't know what to do with myself. What did that process look like? To start from complete scratch.

Nathan Payne:
6:20

Yeah. So it was me, him and me and Corey meeting in my basement looking at for sale by owners and making about five dials a day. cause we thought that was enough.

Average Joe Finances:
6:30

Oh wow.

Nathan Payne:
6:31

Yeah, we were just like, a little intimidated, a little nervous on what to do, what, how to start. So let's start off with just meeting, game, planning, that's kinda usually what happens when you don't know what you're doing and you don't want to take action. So you just plan. And so we were planning, trying to figure out how we're gonna do what we're gonna do, and eventually we just got, decided to take a little bit more action, just go a little bit more. It wasn't forever. It was like a couple weeks and we're like, do we just need to go for it? So I would say the first couple weeks we were just try getting, he, we were hesitant, but we knew we were trying to figure out what to do together at my house. In my basement.

Average Joe Finances:
7:04

All right. Yeah, that's fair enough. So you guys are figuring out, finding yourselves, finding out you. What you needed to do to make this happen. So obviously five calls a day wasn't cutting it, so.

Nathan Payne:
7:16

It might have been more, but it felt, I think it felt like five.

Average Joe Finances:
7:19

Yeah. It's all good, man. But what did it look like from that point where you started off with the minimal calls per day to the point where you got to your first deal? What kind of difference in the activities of what you were doing? What was the difference between day one and day of we're getting our first deal?

Nathan Payne:
7:35

Yeah. So from being in the basement and just trying to figure it out and make some calls and not having a lot of direction, we Corey and I had posted on our Facebook groups. Our Facebook page is Hey, we're looking to network with some agents or people that are wholesaling in the area. Corey had mess, had someone that had reached out to him because of his post that was an agent, like a friend through a friend said, Hey, my broker at my agent agency or my brokerage wants to get into wholesaling. You guys should come and meet him. So we went over there, we met, sat down with him and the broker at the time was like, Hey, I I really want to get into wholesaling. I had a dream about wholesaling and we're like, really? Let's freaking do it. And he's I'll let you, I'll give you guys a place to work here. I'll give you the mojo dialer. I'll give you some lists. Anything that you get is yours, but if you get any listings, hook me up. And we're like, okay. So then we just started. Going to his office, we had a place to work, felt a little bit more serious, and we just were hitting that mojo dialer nonstop, like eight hours, crushing it talking to sellers. And that's really when things picked up is when we started getting on the multi-line dialer and making calls and talking and getting rejected nonstop.

Average Joe Finances:
8:44

Right on. So did you actually wind up getting him some listings too?

Nathan Payne:
8:48

Yeah, we got some listings cause what we did, because of the background I had in door to door, we would go knock for a couple hours a day and then we would call. So we went knocking. I actually, we actually got one of our first deals from knocking it was like $18,000 deal knocking. And then we got him, I think two listings. One from knocking and then one from calling within the first couple months. So yeah, it was working well.

Average Joe Finances:
9:12

Okay. Right on. Yeah, with I'm just curious now, because I'm also a real estate agent, so I'm like maybe I should get some wholesalers to just make some calls from maybe here, use the list and then anybody just that's gonna be a potential listing, then I'll just take those. So.

Nathan Payne:
9:24

A hundred percent.

Average Joe Finances:
9:25

Yeah. It's pretty neat, man.

Nathan Payne:
9:26

We hooked them up. There was this one deal that we did that at the time he paid. I think $42,000, a wholesale fee on it. But I think he ended up flipping it and making 200,000 on it. It was a sick deal.

Average Joe Finances:
9:37

Nice.

Nathan Payne:
9:38

From a guy who inherited this other guy. It was an unfortunate scenario, but the guy was on meth. He inherited a property from his dad and he just was messed up. It took us a couple months. We had feed the guy. We had to buy him groceries.

Average Joe Finances:
9:52

Yeah.

Nathan Payne:
9:52

But but we got the property and yeah, it was wild. It was a wild situation.

Average Joe Finances:
9:57

Wow, yeah, it's amazing the things that you can encounter, but also the problems that you help solve, right?, that's, I think that's one of the biggest things every wholesaler I know. It's you're not really in the real estate business. You're in the problem solving business, right? Because that's what you're doing when you wholesale, right? You're taking a problem that someone has and you're giving them a solution. But still in the real estate business. But that's the way I like to look at it, right? like a big problem solver.

Nathan Payne:
10:19

Exactly, and I would even say like wholesaling not, isn't necessarily investing, right? Because you're not like keeping properties. You're basically right. It's just like a sales job, right? You're like moving, you're moving stuff and it's active income, so you're continuously have to do it. I think it's a great stepping stone to get into real estate so you can start investing.

Average Joe Finances:
10:37

Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know what, once, once you start really hitting it pretty big, you could start taking some of those profits and buying some properties. And or if you even find a good deal that you thought was gonna be a wholesale, but you're like, you know what? I can actually turn this into a rental, then you have those opportunities as well. So that's one of the good things about it, I think because there's a lot of diversity, right? When you're sitting here making those phone. And it just depends on what kind of deal you're gonna pick up. And again, if it's gonna be a good enough deal, you can either get a really big finder's fee for it. Or you could turn it into a rental property. Just depends on what your goals are. And some people just like getting those big checks, yeah. And some people are like, Hey, I want to do it for the long term too. So speaking of that, you started the wholesaling thing and now at this point you guys are really starting to crush. Did you start investing in in real estate yourself?

Nathan Payne:
11:23

Yeah. So that was the thing I wish, like I would've known a little bit more is as I built a wholesaling business over the last, like four years as I built up teams and got more employees. It almost seemed like the more deals you did, like you just had to keep doing more and more to feed everybody in the company. So I, I have a couple rentals, but I wasn't able to keep as much as I'd like, because when you got to pay everyone, you can't really keep something cause then they're like, Hey, I need that commission. That sales guy's Hey, I need my 15. He's not saying I need that, but that's obviously he's got to get paid so yeah, that's, I think that's the problem. If you just build like a really heavy acquisitions business that's just strictly wholesaling, you're not gonna get to keep as much as you want. So what I did now is with the market shift happening I've really leaned out my business. So instead of having a company or a big team that has to be fed I do deals. and I get to get paid pretty much with a little overhead. I get to keep everything and get to keep properties that I want now. So I've changed my model a little bit to be not doing as much, but making more and getting, a lot more flexibility and freedom with my time.

Average Joe Finances:
12:29

Yeah, that's interesting, man, because, you built it up pretty big, right? at one point, and that's a very good point, right? Everyone's that's a part of the deal has got to eat, right?

Nathan Payne:
12:38

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
12:38

So when you start building up your team and it gets too big to the point where, you start to realize your profits are really getting chopped down quite a bit. So I'm glad that you were able to actually make that shift. A lot of people just can't do that, right? And they wind up getting stuck in a situation where they wind up losing everything. So the fact that you were able to realize, Hey, I need to start trimming some of the fat is pretty good. So do you what kind of like outsourcing do you do now? If you're doing most of the stuff yourself, do you have any VAs or anything like that helping you out with lists or phone calls?

Nathan Payne:
13:10

Yeah, so my business right now is just a couple virtual assistants that double as that help me with my coaching business and help me with the real estate side, me that has the connections with the buyers and are my area. And I have an acquisitions guy like a sale, a closer. And he doubles as a closer for our coaching company and for real estate deals.

Average Joe Finances:
13:30

So there you go.

Nathan Payne:
13:32

I've double purposed. And again, it's a lot. Ooh, man. It's a lot easier to run. It's a lot more flexible. When you're paying for tons of leads to come into your business and leads are coming in from pay per click at night, and you're like, oh man, I got to call that person I'm, or I'm wasting money. It's stressful. And right now it's like I just do deals when they come across my desk. And if I want. if I want to do it.

Average Joe Finances:
13:53

Yeah, no that's great. It's good to have the flexibility to be able to do that to and be in a, at a point where you can actually say, you know what I don't have to do this deal. This one looks like it'll be too painful or whatever. cause your whole thing is. Painless wholesaling. Go with the name here. So if a deal's looking a little rough around the edges and looks like it might be spiky and painful, you're like, ah, I'll let somebody else deal with that one. That's not gonna be me. So that's good to have that flexibility.

Nathan Payne:
14:18

No, I love it. And it's interesting cause I, I talk to a lot of people that want to get into real estate and I'll say, what's your goal? And they're like, I wanna do 10 to 20 deals a month. And I'm like, why? Like, why would you want to do that many like what's the point? Are you trying to achieve like a financial goal or do you want to just do that much volume? And then they realize if I can do, you know what I'm trying to do in one or two deals, why do I need to do 20? So I think people believe that the more is better or bigger is better when that's not the case.

Average Joe Finances:
14:46

No, definitely not. I, last year I only I invested in two more syndications. That's it. Two deals last year. That's it. That's all I needed, right?

Nathan Payne:
14:55

That's right.

Average Joe Finances:
14:55

Yeah, it's, yeah, that's, I really appreciate your thoughts on that because I do feel like a lot of people get caught up in that numbers game and they're like, oh, I want to have, in, in the next year, I want to have a thousand doors. And it's dude.

Nathan Payne:
15:06

Why? Average Joe Finances: What for what? Take your time. It's great to scale and to scale fast. Absolutely, a hundred percent. But don't like, make sacrifices that are gonna hurt. To get there. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Somebody that's trying to pull 10 to 20 deals a month, like that's, they're gonna be hurting. That's a lot.

Average Joe Finances:
15:23

Especially if you have a family. What are you doing?

Nathan Payne:
15:25

Yeah, exactly. And it's interesting cause I have a, I don't know if Tom Kroll is, but he's one of my mentors, he built like Wholesaling Inc. And I was talking to him yesterday and he's what's your vision for your coaching business? And I was like to be the number one real estate community in the within five years to be the number one. And he's are you serious? You really want to be the number one community in five years? You know how much work that would be? And I was like, nah, I didn't really think about it. But if I was the number one, that'd be, that would be intense. That would be a lot. And then it made me think like, why do I want that? And I've been thinking like, okay, what do I really want? And so it's interesting. Really sit down and you're like, I know everyone aspires for like these crazy things. But it's do you really? Do you really want that? You know how much work that's gonna be.

Average Joe Finances:
16:08

I like that, man. This is one of those what do you call it? When you have an opinion that differs from the masses here.

Nathan Payne:
16:13

Epiphany or, no, it's okay.

Average Joe Finances:
16:15

No, not an epiphany, it's good talking point because I listen to so many podcasts where it's oh, you need to, shoot for the top and shoot to be number one and this and that., you also need to have a little bit of humility and be humble. Yeah. And some reality as well. So that's what I'm getting out of you and that's what I like, man, because you have to be reasonable and, be down to reality. Because the thing is, everyone has these B.H.D. Right? These big hairy or B.H.G. Right? These big hairy audacious goals or whatever. And it's , that's great. You could set the standard high set, the bar high, Grant Cardone's a big proponent of, 10 x, 10 x, 10 x, 10 x, right?, 10 X is great. Set your goal for 10 x. That way, if you don't make it, at least the journey there, you still crushed it, don't say, oh man I'm just gonna do one deal, and then whatever, and then, no, go shoot for the 10., right? But then when you get three. That little number one that you originally had, you just did three times better than what you originally set for yourself. So yeah, do the work to get yourself to that higher number, but also make it so that you're not killing yourself in the process.

Nathan Payne:
17:17

Yeah, exactly.

Average Joe Finances:
17:18

So that, I like that man. That's realistic. So I appreciate your perspective. And it's a good, it's a good way to, it's a good thing to talk about because again, a lot of other podcasts don't talk about this. They just talk about the top. The top.

Nathan Payne:
17:29

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
17:29

Yeah. No, I like that.

Nathan Payne:
17:31

I agree with you.

Average Joe Finances:
17:32

All right, man. Okay, so speaking of that, as you are, setting these goals now, you originally said, okay man, I wanna be the number one real estate coaching community, like , we're gonna be the guys. Now that you've come to grips with, reality, so to say, right? What is your goal now with your coaching business?

Nathan Payne:
17:49

Actually this morning I spent like a couple hours, I know it's weird, but a couple hours meditating and thinking about what I want. I feel like I have some clarity on on what I'm really trying to do. So I, I really believe like the reason why I'm in real estate and I believe the reason why most people in real estate is not to do real estate transactions necessarily because they get pumped about, or they love it. They do it because they're trying to accomplish a specific goal of like financial security, more time with their friends or more time to do things that they believe are truly important to them. So that's like more of what my goal is Hey, I want to teach people the most effective way to get started in real estate so they can have that financial security and that time to do pursue things that actually matter to them. Because if you ask me like you, Nate, do you love wholesaling? Do you. Real estate? No, I don't. I'm just gonna be straight with you. I enjoy it. I think it's a good job, but that's not why I'm doing all this. I'm doing all this so I can have more time with my wife, more time with my friends, and feel a sense of security as much as you can in this life.

Average Joe Finances:
18:47

Yeah, a hundred percent, man. That's perfect. And the fact that you sat down and meditated on this and really thought on this for a couple hours. That's huge. And I think a lot of people don't realize that needs to be part of your routine, right? When you're setting goals for yourself. And I feel like I'm even having an epiphany myself when I think about what my goals are for like average Joe finances and also the coaching side. Cause I also do financial coaching, right? What are the goals for that? And I've stepped back from that. And I actually started onboarding more coaches. So now I have other coaches. Is that are helping me take care of clients. But the thing is I don't think I've ever really sat down and said, this is where I wanna see myself in five years on this side of the business. And I think now I need to sit down and really think about that. I've got my vision board up here that I'm looking at, with my goals for this year. I was up really late on January 1st, finalizing this thing, man. And it's I look at it and I'm like, the things I have on there. I'm like, I don't even think I have everything I wanted on there. I was like, I think I need to add to this. And then I told myself, I was like the year already started, can I add to it? Of course, I could add to it. I could make changes and make, Route shifts and all that stuff as time goes by because things are gonna change, right? As the year goes on, things are gonna change, and I've already told myself that 2023 for me is gonna be like the great reset. This is where I'm gonna actually come back down to myself and say, okay, where do I really want to go this year? What is the number one thing I really want to I just started a new business man doing inflatable nightclubs out here in Hawaii, completely unrelated to real estate. And it's, and right now I'm trying to get this thing off the ground and I had dinner with a buddy of mine the other night, and we, we usually get together once a month and have a business dinner. We go over what we're doing. He has a really successful turro business out here on the island. Okay. And he told me, he's man, he's dude,, just make a bandit sign that's really simple, says we start parties and then the business phone number, and I'm like, dude, that, that's genius. So that's what I started, that's what I started doing. So I'm like, okay that's, yeah, that's what Im do. I started making flyers and stuff. I'm gonna start putting flyers out all over the place. I'm probably gonna walk around door to door and things like that as well. Stuff that over time has slowly left my comfort zone because it's something I haven't done in a really long time. So it's okay, I need to like humble myself and get back down to the roots, right? I need to get back down to where I was with sales, right? And and get back into that mentality. That's why, I like when you mentioned what you talked about like with meditating on it this morning, like I really feel like that hit me man. That hit me. For sure. Appreciate it. And I appreciate No, I appreciate your honesty and your reality. And I'm certain my listeners are gonna appreciate that as well because, I really pride myself with the guests that I bring on this show. Being really authentic people and you are proven that over and over again with each response to everything that you're doing.

Nathan Payne:
21:27

Yeah, man, I appreciate that cause I try to just like, for me in my life, just. Really find out where I'm going, right? Because we're all limited on time only. We all hundred percent, only 24 hours in a day, all of us. So we got to use that wisely. So you got to figure out what you want and spend it the right way.

Average Joe Finances:
21:42

Yeah. We were pretty limited when I was a guest on your show because we were on a battery percentage of that. That laptop there man. That's right. That's good stuff. I You got your charger today, so we're gonna talk for hours. No, I'm kidding.

Nathan Payne:
21:51

I'm ready for you.

Average Joe Finances:
21:52

We could, I know I could talk to you for hours, man, but okay, let's get back into it. You got yourself, to this point and now you know where you wanna be with your coaching business, you know where you wanna be with your real estate wholesaling business. So what are some of the things that you utilize to make your business work? Do you have any C.R.M. Systems that you use? How do you actually get your lists that your VAs are calling? Like how do you put all this together? Because we're going like the whole soup to nuts thing here. With starting a real estate business.

Nathan Payne:
22:22

Yeah, so I actually we'll bring it back to like, how can anyone start, right? Yeah. Yeah. How can anyone start and getting into real estate, because I do that right, because I went, I got lean and I said, okay, I don't wanna spend all my time cold calling. I don't wanna spend all my time pulling lists and doing all this. Stuff that I know how to do. I even have a C.R.M from my big business that has like 180,000 leads in it that we've paid money on. But do you know how much time it would take me to call those people and follow up and do it? So I said, I don't want, I don't think that's the right way to go. What is the fastest way to get a deal? And that's what I'm going to do and that's what I'm gonna teach people. So let's just start from there. So usually when you do off market deals, you have to negotiate with the seller, which I'm very good at negotiating. I can talk to them, but you have to ne find them. Are they in the right, do they have the right motivation? Are they in the right time? Do you ca catch them at the right time? And if you did, then you sign a contract. So that portion of calling, following up, trying to get ahold of them and getting them to sign a contract, that can take a long time. It can be quick.

Average Joe Finances:
23:22

Yeah.

Nathan Payne:
23:22

But it can take a long time. So I said, look, I know how to do that really well, but I kind of wanna skip that part. I don't want to do that even though I'm good at so what do I do? I believe that the buyers are the ones, especially now in this market, they have the power. They're the ones that pay you the sellers. Obviously it's good to have a good seller so you can get the contract and either buyer or wholesale it, but the buyer's the one that actually gets the transaction done on a wholesale deal. So I said, I'm gonna get tight with all the buyers in my market, and I'm just gonna find them deals and I can find them deals. I have are already under contracts, so I don't have to do that portion of the deal and I can just connect them and broker the deal, right? Bring them bring them the deal and they'll pay me a fee. So that's what I do.

Average Joe Finances:
24:04

Okay. So are you like finding, so are you connecting with like other wholesalers and being like, Hey, you got something on your contract. I got a buyer for you. And then they pay you a piece.

Nathan Payne:
24:13

That's right. A hundred percent.

Average Joe Finances:
24:14

Okay. Oh, I love that man. Yeah.

Nathan Payne:
24:16

It's joint venturing or J.V.? I just closed it. I just did a deal last week for 19,000 on a J.V. Deal. The previous week I did 30,000. I did another one. That's, so that's what I do majority of the time I say. I know, no matter what I say, whatever my message is, people are just gonna go out to sellers and they're gonna get deals, right? They're gonna spend most of their time. Cause that's what's mostly being taught is just go find the deal. But these people, once they find the deal, half the time, they don't know how to sell the deal. So I spend most of my time developing relationships and finding out how to disposition properties. So when I see people. They have deals, I just say, Hey, I got a buyer. Would you be down if I brought it to them? If I was able to pay your fee? Or let's just split the fee. And they say, yeah. So a majority of my business is just connecting wholesalers that already have deals to buyers and then agreeing to a J.V., a commission split, which is either usually 50% 50%, but if they're in my program, I give them 60%. And that's just what happened on that 19 K deal that closed, I think it was yesterday. He gets 11,400 and I get 7,600. He's happy. I'm happy. I didn't have to negotiate with the seller. Never saw the house, didn't do anything. I just made a phone call to one buyer and he wanted it.

Average Joe Finances:
25:28

Nice. Yeah. There you go, man. Okay. Yeah, I like that. It sounds, as you would say, painless.

Nathan Payne:
25:36

It's painful. It is. I'll tell you what's painful. What's painful is trying to follow up with sellers that don't, you're not sure if they wanna sell, finally get ahold of them. They're talking to five or 10 other people. That's painful. I know because that's all I did for four years and it's okay. You can make great spreads, dude. I meant, I've made tons of money doing that but I wanted to do it part-time. I wanted to f build the coaching business, focus on that, teach people to do what I'm doing. cause I believe what I do is something anyone can do part-time. Anyone can do it if they have a W-2 like if they have a normal job. So that's like my when it comes back to my vision and what I'm trying to accomplish, I'm trying to teach people how the most effective way to get into real estate part-time so they can get financial freedom and pursue other things. Their free time. That's what people want, so why give them a giant job, a giant business that they don't wanna run wholesaling business when I can just teach them how to get deals part-time.

Average Joe Finances:
26:32

No that's fantastic, man. It'd hard for me to do out here in Hawaii since I'm a real estate agent, , if I find, if I have buyers that usually it's a little harder to do that. But and we have some funky rules out here in Hawaii, man, but I absolutely love that. And I love the fact that it's a system that makes it easier on the person that is trying to make the transaction happen, right? Again, like I said earlier in the, on this episode, is that you're a problem solver, right? You're solving this person's problem that has this property under contract, and they're trying to find a buyer. You're bringing the buyer and that buyer, you're solving their problem because they're looking for another property to put under their belt to either flip. or, make into a rental property and you are solving two people's problems now at this point, instead of, just the seller. So that's fantastic, man. Actually, really three people, right? Because even though the property's under contract, you're still helping that seller out as well, right? cause you're bringing the buyer. So it helps everybody that's involved in this transaction. So now you're helping three people.

Nathan Payne:
27:27

Yeah, I like that. It's fun to do it. And it's not just J.V. Though. I also focus on market properties, because you can also wholesale a deal that's listed on the M.L.S. Or double close. So I look for those, if they meet, since I'm getting tight with these buyers and knowing what they want, I'll look on the M.L.S. If I see something I know they'd want, I'll pick it up. Get on your contract. They will either pay me an assignment or they'll write me an invoice. Just be, and I can just connect them to the seller. Just say, Hey, go ahead and sign it. I showed you I got you I guess teed up, go make the offer. And but I want to tell you something interesting about how I do the deals. Is that okay?

Average Joe Finances:
28:00

Yeah, absolutely.

Nathan Payne:
28:01

So this 19 k deal we just did, it was one of the students in my members of my program and he brings me a deal in Columbia, South Carolina. It was an a house for sale by owner that had listed at 340. Way, way overpriced. But you know how it is for several owner, they try to do as much as they get, as much as they can. Half the time.

Average Joe Finances:
28:19

Of course.

Nathan Payne:
28:20

So they have a 340. My guy noble offers 380. So sorry. 340. He offers 280, so it's 60 K. He thinks he got a good deal. He's Hey man, can you help me find a buyer? I can't find anyone. I look at it, I'm like, man, you're too high, brother. Like you need to be. I just check with my buyer cause like I said, I got type with buyer so I just called one. The buyer wanted to be like at 200, cause the guy just did his com strong. So I said, dude, you got to get this down to 180, 185 for this to what senses? And I have a buyer, I you got to go renegotiate. So he is okay, I didn't think he'd, they'd do it. He calls him renegotiates it down to 185. So just like that. I told him what our buyer needed to be at. They dropped their price.

Average Joe Finances:
29:02

He cut that listing price in half.

Nathan Payne:
29:05

I know, bro. And the thing is, the sellers probably were just crossing their fingers. No love. So they're probably just whatever. This is probably where we need to be cause the house is trash. So it's interesting because, This property, that was not a deal. If you just looked at it, 340, we got it all the way down. We're able to wholesale it, solve their problems cause they were trying to get done with it. And we were able to help out my buyer and get it done. So cra crazy how things work out like that, yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
29:30

That's awesome man. Good deal. Thank you for sharing that, man. Just to see like how that deal worked out. And even at the point where it looked like it was a done deal, like you're just gonna walk away from it, still was able to make it happen. So you're the person that's in your program's got some good negotiating skills, that's for sure.

Nathan Payne:
29:46

Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Average Joe Finances:
29:47

Especially when he came in and said, oh yeah, 280 and now he's coming back saying, oh yeah, let's take another a 100k off that. And then still getting the the seller to buy into that. That's pretty darn good.

Nathan Payne:
29:56

Very interesting. Yeah. That it got done, but yeah. Closed. We're got good. Got it done.

Average Joe Finances:
30:01

Nice man. Congrats to all of you on that. That's a great deal. Okay. So Nathan, I want to transition this into something that I call the final round cause I feel. We could just keep going all day on this, bro. And it's, it this will be like a 10 hour podcast episode and I can't do that cause I got a couple other things scheduled for today.

Nathan Payne:
30:17

Yeah, I'll tell you.

Average Joe Finances:
30:18

The final round is where I'm gonna ask you four questions, same four questions that I ask you every that comes on the show. It is a little bit, we'll put you on the spot, but also helps us understand how you are under pressure, which I'm pretty sure. We already know that just because of how you've been crushing it, man. So if you're ready to go, we'll we'll get this party started.

Nathan Payne:
30:34

Let's get it. I like that float. What did you call that? The popup party. The floating party.

Average Joe Finances:
30:39

Yeah.

Nathan Payne:
30:39

Yeah. Let's do it.

Average Joe Finances:
30:40

Nice man. Okay first question, and it's a doozy, is what's the biggest mistake you've ever made in real estate?

Nathan Payne:
30:48

Yes, sir. So I've had this question before and think this is the answer that I always come back to, and I bought a property in California that had a squatter in it, and I did not know there was a squatter in it. And that was a big mistake because, when we tried to sell it again, nobody would touch it because of the squatter. They were like, yeah, the squatter rights we're not trying to get into that. So I didn't know anything about that problem. I didn't know. That there was even a squatter in there. And so we, we sent somebody out there to give this squatter like $500 to get out. And the squatter's nah, give me$2,500 and I'll think about it. I'll think about it, pretty much, right? So I was like, man, that's that's not. How I rolled, I was very annoyed because I'm like, this guy's stopping me from selling this house. So I flew out to California, my business partner, and we pretty much got the guy out. But that one day flight, got him out. Next day we flew back. It's a crazy story, but I don't wanna get too into it. But yeah. Don't buy houses in California. If they got squatters there can be some problems.

Average Joe Finances:
31:46

Yeah. I just, in California in general, like their landlord tenant laws are pretty rough and very tenant friendly. And it's it's hard to invest in properties in California.

Nathan Payne:
31:54

Yeah, for sure.

Average Joe Finances:
31:55

Yeah, man. Okay, that's definitely a big mistake. And definitely make sure there's no squatters in there before you do it. Yeah, Hawaii has some crazy laws with squatters too, so yeah, it's, that's definitely an important thing, right. I guess the next question will feed off of that one probably, but what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first started?

Nathan Payne:
32:12

I think what I told you in the beginning, like we, we started making a couple dials and we thought that was good. I've learned that if you want to be consistent in this business it takes massive action and consistency. And that's something I wish I would've learned better or more in the beginning was the amount of action required to do deals. Because it really takes if you wanna be consistent, like five offers a day, certain amount of calls. So yeah, I wish I would've known that in the beginning.

Average Joe Finances:
32:36

Yeah, a hundred percent. Man, that word consistency, that is something I used on your podcast as well. I think that's huge. When I was talking about, how to build a podcast up, man, like consistency in anything that you do is huge. So yeah, definitely appreciate that.. Okay next question, and again, this, these all kind of feed into each other. You'll see the theme here, but do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started today?

Nathan Payne:
32:58

Yeah. Yeah. So it, it comes to the way I show people how to get into real estate. The first thing I teach you, teach everyone to do, and the first thing I recommend, the first tip is when you get in, connect with someone that's doing deals. Connect with somebody that's a cash buyer, I would say in your area of what you're trying to get into, because they'll pretty much mentor you. They'll tell you what they, you want, they'll answer your questions. If someone came to me and said, Nate what are you looking for? I'll find you. What you want. Yeah, I'll tell you what I want. If you go and do the work, so that's my first tip. You wanna get into this get with someone that's doing it.

Average Joe Finances:
33:30

Yeah, a hundred percent. Man. That networking piece is huge. And just to meet people I always tell, yeah, you got to go out to real estate meetups, conferences, meet people. And I always tell people too don't find the person that's been doing this for 20 years and try to talk to them about it. Find the person that started two years ago or a year ago, because they're closer to the same spot where you're at right now. And the guy that started 20 years ago, things were different 20 years ago when they first started. Different programs, different everything. Yeah. That's huge, man. Appreciate that.. So the last question on the final round is an opinion-based question. And because you have a podcast, I'm gonna preface this with besides your own, but do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both?

Nathan Payne:
34:09

I like wholesaling Inc. Podcast. I listen to that. But yeah, I would say out of all that you brought, I'd say Wholesaling Inc. Is a good podcast.

Average Joe Finances:
34:19

Okay. Fantastic. Appreciate that. All right. And that is it for the final round, man. So definitely appreciate your perspective on everything. I appreciate, your responses during this interview. Dude you're legit, you're legit. And.

Nathan Payne:
34:31

Appreciate it.

Average Joe Finances:
34:31

Man, I really appreciate everything that, that you brought to the table here today. With that being said, I do have one more question for you. This is outside of the final round, but this is the final question and the most important question of all, because of the conversation that we've been having. And I really believe, the whole thing with how you talked about, getting started to where you are today and we walked through the process of how to get there, so That's awesome. I'm sure I have some listeners here that are like, man, I wanna know more about Nathan about what he's doing about his podcast and things like that. So where can people find more information about you? Do you have a website you could share with us or social media or anything like that?

Nathan Payne:
35:07

Yeah, of course. So Investor Thrive is my company, investorthrive.com. If you go there, you can contact me, you can reach me, you can see all my stuff, investorthrive.com. You can even sign up for our little community mastermind. That's the number one place to go, but if you wanna just chat or see the kind of the materials, I guess the content I have a YouTube channel, Nathan Payne. You can reach me on. It's either me responding or if I'm busy, my VA will respond to you in the Messenger. But yeah, you can reach me on any platform under Nathan Payne or Investor thrive.

Average Joe Finances:
35:36

Awesome, man. I appreciate that. And again, I appreciate you. Thank you so much, man. This has been fantastic.

Nathan Payne:
35:42

Thank you, brother.

Average Joe Finances:
35:43

All right. Hey, and to my listeners, thank you so much for joining me and our special guest, Nathan Payne, on the Average Joe Finances Podcast. Go leave us a five star review and tell us what you liked about today's episode with Nathan. Aloha from Hawaii and have a great rest of your day.