David Olds Redefines Success and Became a Real Estate Leader

Pamela Bardhi: Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Underdog podcast. Today I have an incredible guest here with me, David. How are you, my friend?

David Olds: Doing? Absolutely amazing. Such an honor to be here. I mean, this is one of the bigger podcasts out there.

Pamela Bardhi: So super excited, super excited to have you, my friend. We were talking right beforehand, you were like, yeah, we’ve already exceeded business from last year. I’m just like, knowing you from family, I’m not surprised, because you’re just an awesome guy with an awesome team. And so today we have the honor of digging into your actual story and how you ended up in this space. Which is, I think, the part I’m most excited about.

David Olds: Accident, all by accident. I never had any intention of running the biggest transactions company in the country. That was never on the radar.

Pamela Bardhi: Oh, man, I can’t wait till we backtrack into that.

David was born in Miami and lived there till he was seven

And leading into that, my first question is this for you, David, because we got to know the origination point, right? Like, where does this all start? What did you want to be as a kid when you were growing up?

David Olds: Yeah, I am. Funny, I just answered this for someone the other day, I wanted to be an architect. Then by the time I got into, I actually, early on in. I went to this private all boys catholic school in Lawrence, Massachusetts, so. And I thought about becoming a priest at one point. Weirdly enough, I don’t know if I’ve ever even said that on a podcast, yeah, Massachusetts.

Pamela Bardhi: You know I’m in Boston, right?

David Olds: Oh, are you? I could tell from the accent that you were up there. Really? Yeah, I was in Lawrence, I grew up in a drake it up, right by Lowell.

Pamela Bardhi: Oh, I didn’t know you were a Massachusetts native. That’s crazy.

David Olds: Early when I first moved, I was born in Miami and lived there till I was like seven. But I grew up in Boston. First place we moved to was Somerville. Then I lived in Millis, and then we moved, I lived for like ten years in Drake. And so I was a Boy Scout, Eagle Scout. All the things, I did them all, but, yeah. When I got out of high school, I went to UMass and I was going to do pre law. I realized I was terrible at a lot of things. Like, I was good at the law part, but like the accounting and all of those, I was absolutely horrendous at. Ended up getting a degree in criminal justice and I worked my way through college because my parents didn’t have any.

I mean, they weren’t rich by any means, so I realized that by the time I got out of college. Was working in retail stores as a store manager, making more money than I would have. Like, if I’d gone into law enforcement or private security, any of that kind of stuff way back in the day. Cause I realized I didn’t wanna sit in a law office, you know, a law library all day just researching stuff. That didn’t sound fun to me. It wasn’t like La Law where, you know, or suits, it just wasn’t, that wasn’t the real, the real thing. So anyways, yeah, I worked in retail. My parents, my dad got laid off in the tech crisis of, like, the early nineties.

We ended up in Florida and I went to work for this hardware store. A hardware company called Scotty’s Hardware stores in Delray Beach, Florida. Kind of rose through the ranks there really quick. Became their youngest store manager, and they transferred me all over the state. Which was cool, you know, every time I moved, I got a raise and I ended up in Leesburg, Florida. Met my wife at the time, and we got married and we bought a house. This is kind of how it started. I bought a house, I didn’t even realize at the time it was Wells Fargo. So I went to this closing with my realtor. And as we’re coming out, I’m like, well, why wasn’t there anybody else there?

Like, I’ve seen it on tv, you know, they’re passing keys across and you’re doing checks and all these things. She’s like, well, dummy, it was a foreclosure. I’m like, oh, okay. So I didn’t even realize my first house I ever bought was a foreclosure. But we moved in and fixed it up and resold it because I wanted to get closer to my job. Two years later, the same realtor, going into the closing, title company. And she’s like, you know, you don’t have to pay taxes on this money, I’m like, what do you mean? She goes, well, dummy, she called me dummy, a lot. And she’s like, well, you know, it’s, you know, homestead, it’s your primary residence.

You don’t have to pay taxes. I’m like, oh, well, that’s pretty cool. So we did that and walked out of there with like, $52,000 check. And I’m like, this is amazing, so we had already had our next house we closed on that. About two and a half years later, we did a big rehab on that one and sold it. Made over 100,000. At that point, I’m like, wow, I need to figure this out. I need to figure this out, this could be really good. Even though I was making a bunch of money in my retail job. You know, making that kind of money tax free is really awesome, so kind of.

Dave started investing in real estate in Florida in 2004

Yeah, I bet you’ve heard the story 1000 times. I was in the bookstore at the airport in Orlando and leaning on the shelf. And I picked up this book, and it was, Rich Dad Poor Dad. That was literally, it’s the most cliche thing ever, right? But that’s how I started, I’m like, oh, this is a pretty good book. Quick little read. Bought it, took it home, and, you know, Kiyosaki says at the end. If you want to be in, you know, real estate, go find a meetup or a real estate group or riadh. That’s what I did, I got on my big computer in 2004 or whatever it is. You know, web crawler because Google wasn’t even around then, and searched for local groups. Found the one in Orlando. It’s funny, I tell people.

They never believe this when I tell them. But I was so nervous, I was so nervous to drive down to Orlando to go to this Ria, Pamela. I drive down there, I told my wife, I’m like, I’m going to this Rio. She’s like, okay, great. My wife was, she was always so supportive. So I drive down there and it’s like 45 minutes to get there, and I find this. It’s the bumby theater, this old theater, and I pull in and I’m so nervous. There’s like 300 cars, I didn’t know at the time. It was like the third biggest Rio in the whole country. I’m such an introverted person. Again, people don’t ever, I’m driving through the parking lot, it’s all these cars with magnets. Like, we buy houses, you know, hard money, soft money, inspection, like, all this stuff.

I drove through and I’m like, oh, my God, what am I doing here? Drove right out the other side and went home. Scared, too scared to go in. And again, I can count on my hand, like, number of times I told my wife, not the truth. She’s like, how’d it go? I’m like, couldn’t find it. Just couldn’t find it. I’ll try again next month. Yeah, finally, two months later, I did go down and I was like white knuckle the whole time. I’m like, I’m going in, I’m going to do this, I’m mad with myself because I didn’t do it before. Greatest decision I ever made was going to that. Ria and seeing that people were doing this business, hundreds of people were doing it. Being around them and getting just that belief that, oh, this is a real thing.

There are people that really do this. This isn’t just something, you know, that you read in books. Because back then there was no YouTube, there were no podcasts or just none of that existed. You had to go find a real estate group to get any kind of education. And that’s how it started. I just got so immersed in the meetings and the classes and all the things that they had because they were very active. Ria. For me, my superpower is that I can latch onto something and get very focused and immerse myself in it. Which is not always the greatest thing for the rest of your life because you sort of block everything out. But yeah, I started buying and doing some rehabs. My wife and I still had full time jobs at the time.

You know, we were just doing a couple of these a year and making some extra money. And then, the end times came 2009 and ten, and Florida was hit as bad as any place, you know. Luckily, just before that started, we, you know, I went to a couple of seminars. I went to this guy, Dave Lindall, who wrote a great book called Emerging Markets. But I was at his class in Boston, right outside of Boston. He was talking about how not every market is the same, and some are up, some are down. What are those indicators of what things you should look for? So I started looking around and just mainly in the southeast for other places to invest. We looked at Louisville and Lexington and Birmingham, Huntsville, Alabama, Chattanooga and Chattanooga.

At the time, even though the recession was starting. Chattanooga had made a deal with Volkswagen to come in and open up their first american production facility. They had two fulfillment centers for Amazon coming. Then it was just a very diverse economy. Blue cross blue shield is here. Unum, little Debbie snack cakes. Like a very diverse economy where it wasn’t going to crash the way Florida did. So 2009 finished our last flip, ended up lease-optioning it for $5,000 because I couldn’t find a buyer. Because it’s 2009, and literally moved to Chattanooga with $5,000 in our pocket. Did not know anybody moved here for real estate. And, yeah, that’s kind of how we got started. Tell people we were half broke when we moved here.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that, David, I love that. I mean, what an awesome story, though. And, you know, the rich dad, poor dad. It’s cliche, but it’s so beautiful. You know, I had the honor of meeting Kim, and Kim is just like, it’s so amazing. Their whole vision is, like, to elevate financial literacy for humanity. It’s so amazing how many people it’s touched because of that. Like, they’re all commissions, which I think is the most incredible thing. Just gives you a whole new perspective on how you see certain things, and it’s just like, wow.

David Olds: I mean, it’s affected. Impacted so many people to get them involved in, you know, investing.

Being exposed to financial literacy really helped me get into real estate

It’s just. It’s amazing.

Pamela Bardhi: Well, for me, it was like the biggest eye opener in the world, right? So, like, me getting into the real estate world, like, I was from restaurants. I had two restaurants by the time I was 21. You know, being an immigrant growing up, you know, from the ground up, watching my parents work. Like, 15 hours days on the regular for me, we didn’t understand that concept of time leverage. We don’t know what that meant. And so being exposed to that really, like, opened me up. I’m like, oh, my God.

Because, you know, our just mindsets are so different, you know. So, like, reading things like that really changes the game about how you time leverage, what is your time worth? What’s your liabilities? You know, what’s, like, what’s good debt, what’s bad debt, what’s all of those? The financial literacy piece that you’re honestly never taught in school. And I gone through a four year college, and I’m like, how do I not know this stuff?

David Olds: Yeah, yeah, I know. Same thing. Like, I went to great schools or the best schools I could, and, yeah, it was just. I mean, it was like somebody pulled back the curtain at the wizard of Oz. I’m like, oh, my goodness, this, I didn’t even realize any of this was here.

Pamela Bardhi: Right. And in the beginning for you, David. Like, what was the number one groundbreaking thing that really pushed you into wanting to go into that, ria, right? The third time that you went, what was something that you were like, I’ve got to go in? Maybe, like, a mindset that helped you. Or something that helped shift your, you know, the game when you were looking to get into real estate. Because as we know people that are interested. So I’d be curious to see how that showed up.

Growing up, my dad was very, you know, hard working

David Olds: Great question. Growing up, my dad was always like, he was an ex military guy, software engineer. But he was a hard working New England guy. You know, Irish Catholic, but we were always working on the house, building additions, tearing stuff apart, doing stuff. My dad was very, you know, we did lots of chores. Like, as a kid, I did, you know. It’s like every day I did like an hour and a half of chores after school. And on the weekends, it was like two and a half hours before I could do anything else. So I definitely grew up with doing that kind of stuff.

And it’s funny, you know. We had a big yard and drank it, and then leaves are a big thing right in the fall. Like, all I felt like all I ever did was rake leaves. So I remember as a kid saying, like, when I grew up, I’m never going to make my kids do this. I’m going to live in a condo someplace. Well, what do you do? You end up, of course, being like your parents. But, you know, the only show we had when I was a kid was this old house. Right? Fascinated how we would watch that. That was one of my dad’s favorite shows, and just see these houses, you know, do this transformation.

So even before I bought my first house, I remember just seeing houses and go, oh, that would be really cool to fix that up. Right? I was always fascinated by that, and I still love that. Like, I’m one of those people that really loves, you know, real estate. Yeah, so some of that was the driver. And then always, you know, I think this is a commonality of a lot of entrepreneurs and hustlers. We always know that we’re. At least for me and the people I’ve talked to. Like, you’re meant to do something bigger and something better, you know?

And even though I had a great job, really good job. Even back then, I was probably making 80 grand a year, I always knew that I could do more. The idea of, I don’t even know if I wrapped my head around my own business at the time, right. It was just, you know, I think I can do this and provide a better life and get. Make more money and provide for my family and do stuff. But, you know, when I went into that Rio, I’m going to tell you this again, super. I am the most introverted person. Like you’ve seen me with my family, I will be happy to sit off my own in the corner.

Pamela Bardhi: And I’m like, hey, David, hey, if.

David Olds: You talk to me, I’m good, but I’m the worst person for going up and going, hey, let me introduce myself. Horrible at it. But anyways, I go into this rent and like, for real, like I got out of my car as fast as I could. Walked up there, paid my $20 and went in. And so we went in, there was like this lobby and all these vendors had tables, right? I’m like, I don’t know what to do, so I did what everybody else did. I picked up a bag and walked around and picked up pencils and squeezy balls and all those things, right? So I go in and it’s at a theater, right? It’s a big theater, and I went in. Sat in the back left hand corner because I didn’t want to be too close to the front, right?

Because I, like, I’m convinced, I shouldn’t be here. These are all investors and I’m an idiot, right? Like, I shouldn’t be here. They do this really cool thing, it was called deal of the month, they did it every single month. So I go in the back and they come up and they enter, they welcome everybody. And hey, we’re going to bring up, they pre-selected like four or five people. I don’t even remember what it was, and they would just talk about a deal. It was these old transparency machines that would shoot up on the screen behind them. That’s how long ago this was. But, I’m back there and I’m like, I got my notes and I got my pen. The first guy comes up, this guy’s like quintessential Florida.

80 years old, suntan wrinkly, looks like a raisin in overalls. Everything but the straw coming out of his mouth, right? He’s like, hi, my name is Bob. Wish I could remember his real name, but I can’t, so I always say Bob. But I’m like, Bob, okay, right? I’m writing my notes, because I could take some notes and everybody goes, hey, Bob. And I’m like, where in the world am I at, right? Like, this is the weirdest thing ever, so Bob starts going, and I’m not going to do his accent. But he’s like, you know, I was going to South Carolina to visit my kinfolk. I stopped on the way in Georgia or something, and I saw this house was for sale. So I went and stopped and talked to this guy, and he wanted, I don’t know, 70,000.

I offered him 50,000, but he said no. So I gave him my card, and I went to visit my key in folk. As I was driving home, the guy called me. Said, okay, I’ll go ahead and sell it to you for 50 or whatever his number was. He’s, like, so I stopped, spent a couple days there, hired a contractor, told him what to do. And I came home, and I just sold it and made, like, $30,000. I’m sitting there, and I’m writing all my notes, and I’m looking at this guy, I’m like, this guy? Really? Like, it was a ridiculous amount of money and the guy talked like he had marbles in his mouth. Great guy, I’m not, you know, but I’m like, this guy, really? $30,000. Okay?

So then the next girl gets up, and this is this. Like, a beautiful 20 something year old girl from Russia, I remember her name was Olga. I’ll never forget that. But she had this super, like, heavy russian accent, and I’m watching her very intently. She’s flipping mobile homes all over the state of, or, all over the Orlando area for five, six grand apiece. Wow. And I’m like, olga underlined that twice, I’m, like, getting all of her notes. I don’t remember what the next couple people said, because these two. Watched these two and I’m like, an old dude who’s 90, talks with marbles in his mouth. Hot girl who can’t speak English. These two are making a ridiculous amount of money, and I’m like, I’m smarter than that.

David, you came to Chattanooga to buy a house when the market was terrible

Why am I not doing this? You mentioned it a minute ago, like, there are some things that are so foundational with you. They, like, they just imprint on your consciousness, on your brain. I think all of the time, my God, those people were making ridiculous, I can do this, right? There’s whatever. Whatever it is, and those two can do it. I’m not here to say they’re dumb. Like, you know? Because clearly they weren’t there making a bunch of money. But that’s the thing for me, that I look back all the time, like, oh, okay, I can do this. Right? Dumber people than me making a ridiculous amount of money. And if they can do this, I can certainly do this. So that was really just something that drove me for a long, long time.

And I cut my story short about coming to Chattanooga. What happened before we left was, my wife had lost her job. I had told my job I was leaving, so I had no job. Of course, we burned through all the money that we’d saved with all these flips, because whoever saves money. We were stupid and young. By the time I left, literally, this rehab that I had, we couldn’t sell it because the market was so bad. So I did a lease option. When we left there, it was me, my wife, our two boys, and three fat dogs. Had $5,000 to my name. Luckily, we’d been going back and forth to Chattanooga, and I had contracted this house to buy sub two. Never dreamed I was going to have to move into this house.

So we drive 577 miles, we get to Chattanooga late in the afternoon, and go right to the title company. Close on this sub two, pay those closing costs out of my five grand, because that’s it. And drive over to this house, and I hadn’t been there in probably two months. I’m like, oh, my God, this house is 19 hundreds house on the side of Missionary Ridge. Not exactly level doors kind of don’t really close. Yeah, so we get to this house, it’s late in the afternoon. Again, I didn’t realize how bad this place was. You know, no air conditioning, half the electric. Wasn’t like, a mouse running through the house, and I’m so exhausted. All I could do was like, we drug in, like, a mattress and threw it on the ground.

Again, me, my wife, two boys, three fat dogs, and I laid there. And I’m like, what on earth have I done? Like, literally, I just left this beautifully remodeled house. Surely we could have figured something out, I could have found a job down there. Instead I moved my family and boys, and we came up here for real estate. We don’t know anybody. There’s literally no safety net. It was the dumbest thing ever. The worst move, and I tell you, like, I cried myself to sleep that night. I’m like this, I’m a terrible husband, terrible father. What am I doing? This was stupid and it was bad. But, you know, woke up the next day and said, okay, we’re going to do this. Like, we’re going to figure it out.

We’re going to go learn how to wholesale, and we’re going to do a thing, and that was it. And I think a lot of people, like, the people that are successful. There are going to be a lot of days where you just get hit in the knees and in the chest with a baseball bat. You just have to find a way the next day to get up and go. Okay, we’re going to figure this out, that’s not the end of the world. I’m smarter than this, I can figure out this problem, whatever it is. That’s just something I’ve seen as a commonality among a lot of investors. That whole burn the boats thing that people like to post on Facebook, fantastic idea. Don’t do it. If you’ve got a family, that’s a bad idea.

Pamela Bardhi: It’s, and I feel, though, like some of the best entrepreneurs, though, the most successful. I’ve had those, it’s, I call them dark nights of the soul, right. We’re like, you really, you know, there’s something that happens that shifts, right? That just, you just, it like, activates something in you that is like a fire that you’ve never imagined, right. Because without that happening to you, David, would you have gone as hard?

David Olds: No, I’d have gone back and believe me, I thought about going in, going back and getting a job someplace. Right? Like, I put out resumes and I think everybody has those days. Some people make it to the other side, some people go, oh, I’m just going to go the safest route. And that’s why I say, like, being an entrepreneur is not for everybody, like, it’s not, it’s terrible. Do you want to work for six months and not make any money? Can you do, like, it’s hard, getting any business off the ground is, you know, it’s a struggle. It’s like rolling a boulder up the hill. You know, even with the greatest coach and mentor. You know, you’re still going to have to fight through some stuff and be able to figure it out.

Which is why being around other people, kind of having that tribe around you. Or at least being in the midst of other people who are doing the business is so important because this can feel lonely. Like, this can be, you know, being an entrepreneur or you’re running your own business. If you’re not around other people, you just feel like you’re the only person doing it. You’re the only person having these struggles, you’re at your kitchen table, people are telling you to go f yourself. You know, buyers are telling you you’re stupid. Title companies don’t want to close, you know, it can be challenging, it can be hard. It really can.

Pamela Bardhi: It really can. And I think the most important thing is, like you said, when you get one to those Rias. Like, having that community to really talk to and have those outlets, because otherwise you feel so siloed.

Sometimes you don’t want to talk to your family because they’re clueless

And sometimes it’s not that you don’t want to talk to your family. But they’re just not going to understand you or they’re going to be fitless for you.

David Olds: My mother still, after 20 years, does not understand what I do. Like, I had to literally show her some podcasts I was on the other day. You know, like, yeah, this is what I do. He has no idea.

Pamela Bardhi: That’s magical, and it’s a tough game. And there’s so many people. Oh, I’m interested in real estate.

You guys are crushing it right now with your virtual wholesaling business

So for you, in building out your company and just like, how you, how it led you to that point. Like, what were some of the steps that you took, some experiences that you had prior to. David would love to hear kind of the journey on how everything blew up. Because you guys are crushing it right now, but we always know journey behind that, right?

David Olds: Yeah. You know, started in Chattanooga. There was no investors here, there was, it was like, literally, we were the trailblazers. It wasn’t like Orlando, where there’s a wholesaler on every corner, and Chattanooga, it’s a city of 300,000 people. They didn’t understand what wholesaling was, so we had to overcome that. But, you know, initially, you know, we really grew this, we were absolutely dominating. Doing, you know, eight to ten deals a month here in Chattanooga was a lot like, we were doing a lot. Brought in over time, you know, one partner then brought in another partner, and then it was me, my wife, and two partners. Now were starting to split deals four ways, and it starts to get a little thin. So this is what the impetus was to get us to go into other markets.

Virtual wholesaling wasn’t even a thing, it wasn’t even a word back then. We’re like, oh, well, just start doing deals in Birmingham because that’s a similar market. Which was a horrible, terrible, terrible decision, and then we’re like, oh, well, start marketing too, our next one was St. Louis. So I always tell people I have found all the ways to lose money in marketing. But we had to figure it out. Again, I think to kind of go back, once you’ve gone through that dark night. Everything else is just like, oh, we’ll just figure this out, like, oh, it sucks. And for those of you listening, everybody has those days, even the most successful people. I had that, like, last week, I had a day, like, I’m like, golly, man. Just feels like nothing is working sometimes, right? Don’t ever get confused.

You see people on instagram with the Rolexes and all the stuff, like, everybody has bad days, right? That’s the bad thing about social media is it makes people think that life is just so perfect. It’s not. Running a business can be a challenge, but the upside is that it’s absolutely amazing to have that freedom. Hopefully you get it successful in making that kind of revenue. But, yeah, so I started going nationwide. We went fully nationwide to where we were doing 20 to 40 deals a month. Like, you know, every month is a little bit different. And, then kind of stepped into some coaching and a little bit of speaking around the country, which was. I was very afraid, I used to have terrible stage fright, and, yeah, and that’s kind of where we were.

I sort of became the go to person for coaching, for dispositions, kind of the back half of the business. Then Covid hit, and what happened was a lot of my friends who were large wholesalers. Some of the biggest wholesalers in the country, like, they started laying people off, right? Because remember, in the beginning, we thought, again, it was another end time. And so what happened, though, like, four to six weeks later, just exploded again. So, anyway, some, some friends called me and they’re like, hey, you have a coordinator. Can you help us with these deals? I’m having a problem with this deal. What can we do? Actually, this podcast room was our old transaction coordination office. We had three people in here. Yeah, that’s sort of how running, doing transactions started, just, helping some other people.

Then we did a lot of joint venture deals, JV deals, where we would bring the buyer. And typically with those for people who do them. Usually somebody would come to us and we would do two or three deals, and then they would just go away. They made a little bit of money, and now they’ll figure it out on their own. But I had this one guy, his name was Mario, and he called me one time to talk about a deal. I’m like, hey, Mario, appreciate that you keep sending me your deals. We’ve done, like, maybe 15 with him. This kid was in Alaska, and he was doing deals remotely, virtually, in Macon, Georgia. Which was the weirdest thing. But yeah, I said to him like, hey, I appreciate it, but let me ask you a question. Why I, why do you keep coming back?

Why don’t you just do this yourself? You’re making plenty of money. It’s like, well, first off, you guys sell all of my deals really fast. I love that. I’m like, well, thank you, man. Appreciate that. Made me feel good, he said, but also, I dont have to deal with the title companies. And I absolutely hate that, I’m like, oh. That was kind of that first kernel in my brain of like, oh, other people hate the title company, too. Not just me. So, yeah, so those two things combined, that’s sort of where it started. It just kind of became a thing that was in the back of my head. Finally, in 2021, we said, okay, I think we can do this, I think we could open this business up. There’s nobody that really serves investors anywhere that kind of provides a service for them.

lt’s the thing that most of them are terrible at, right. The thing that makes you a great wholesaler is not that you’re good at paperwork and follow through. I mean, typically, we’re terrible at that, and I consider myself like, I’m a yemenite, old school caveman wholesaler. Like, I’m terrible at those things. But luckily, I had assembled a great team around me. To help me and some of my friends from the very beginning. Yeah, we launched at an event in Miami in 2000, October of 2021. You know, the first six months were a little slow, and then, my God, it just started getting traction. More and more traction. And, you know, we’ve done over 4000 deals now, 2200 just last year, $238 million in closings. Last year, we generated $29 million in assignment fees for our clients. So a lot.

Pamela Bardhi: Oh, my goodness, and incredible. And for anyone who’s listening that doesn’t know what you do exactly, David, could you dive into that?

David Smith is a transaction coordination company that helps buyers and sellers

And then I want to hear the most important, like, lessons that you’ve learned. Or the most important things that have helped you, in building your business or in real estate, whichever one.

David Olds: Yeah. What we do as a transaction coordination company, we do everything on, kind of, the back third of your business. Right, the first 3rd, we would say, is marketing and acquisitions. In the middle is dispositions and marketing to sell to your buyers. But then once you get, once you have a seller and once you have a buyer. You’ve got to get to the title company, and sort of the misnomer. The thing that people will say is, if you just find a title company, they’ll do all the work. And that’s not true, the title company’s job is to do a title search. Tell you what’s wrong, but what was happening to me. Doing a lot of deals is the title company would say, hey, here’s an email, go fix these things. Or hey, collect all of these things.

These are the things that we need. And sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it was incredibly complicated. Sometimes I would send my contract to the title company and they’d say, oh, Davey, this is, there’s a dead person. You’re going to have to probate this. Or Davey, there’s, this is bankruptcy, so it’s going to have to be, you know. You have to get a court order and have the judge remove, it from the bankruptcy or whatever. It was like there were all these complicated title issues. Because what do we do as wholesalers and investors? First off, our job is to help people. To be clear, you should be out there helping people. But we go out and we look for people with problems.

The more distressed either the property is or the seller is, the more of those problems that we can solve, the deeper a discount. If it’s bankruptcy and foreclosure or divorce a bad tenant. The more of those that we can solve, the deeper discount we can get. But on the flip side, when we sell our property, what do we say to our buyer? I’m going to give you clear title and pro with your taxes. When we go out there and we stack all those problems, well then all those have to be cleared up. Typically I became good at it just because I had to, but most investors are not. And that’s why we have probably a 50% fallout rate. In contracts in our industry is because they just don’t understand how to navigate all those title issues.

So what we do with our clients, we have hundreds of clients all over the country. The moment you get that contract with your seller, we want you to give it to us immediately. Because we’re going to immediately go to action. One of our coordinators, it’s going to be assigned to them, one coordinator has it from beginning to end. Let’s say Claudia, she’s going to call up Mrs. Smith. Hey Mrs. Smith, I’m working with Pamela on your deal here at 123 Main street. Mrs. Smith, I’m going to be your point of contact from here all the way to closing. I got, some questions for the title company.

I need to start to ask you. So that we can get you paid just as quickly as possible so we’re going to work immediately. Then once you’ve got your end buyer, boom, give us that contract. We’re going to talk to him, gather up all his documents, get it to the title company. Get you closed just as quickly as possible. So, you know, we’re just a customer service admin company, but it’s white glove service, concierge level. You know, just complete hands off, just give us the contract. We will get it closed for you and we’ll do it honestly far better than you’ll ever do it. And really cheaper than you could hire somebody in house.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that, David, I love that. That’s amazing. I mean, that’s such a huge value add for all wholesalers and real estate investors and all of that. And I mean, I love that you had mentioned earlier. That it was the needs of the customers that you were listening to and really morphed your business into that.

What’s your best business tip or real estate tip or both

But, you know, what’s your best business tip or real estate tip? Or both that you can share with anyone who’s listening that really elevated your business and really elevated you in real estate?

David Olds: Yeah. On the real estate side, there’s so many people out there that are far smarter than me. One thing I just try to realize is this is a simple business, right? We’re in the business of helping people, always keep that in mind. Like, these are real sellers, these are real buyers, these are real people. I do think it can be easy to get a little bit arrogant. And only see things as a piece of paper and a number and an assignment fee. Right, like Mrs. Smith, she’s got a real problem.

And, you know, it’s our job to make sure that, you know, we don’t want to over promise. I’m not saying be ready to close on every deal. But be relatively sure that you can solve her problem and do the things you’re promising. Right. You know, we shouldn’t be just bouncing in and out of contracts so much. Because this is what’s going to cause, this is what’s going to continue to cause us regulation.

Building a team and scaling is really important, David says

So one, yeah, we want to legitimately try to help people, but on the business side and building a team and scaling. Which is the thing that people ask me to speak about the most, because we’ve done it so many times. Is you can’t run a big business by yourself, it’s never going to happen. You’re going to have to find a way to outsource to really the very best in the industry. Because why would you hire someone who sucks? You don’t want to do that. But on your internal team, on your people that work for you, it’s hard to find a, the best, right? And I used to get so upset when somebody would quit until, Steve Richards with he’s a family as well.

He told me one time. He’s like, listen man, the best companies in the world with the best hr people, the Fortune 500 people. The average person stays 16 to 18 months, he’s like, so just relax. You got this little family business, you know, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. If somebody stays for eight to ten months, you’re good. Like, you’re very normal, but, you know, you’re going to want to hire people. You’re going to want to bring people in to. And out of every ten people, you’re probably going to three, maybe four that are going to last. But within that three or four, there’s going to be one person, that believes in your vision. That understands where you’re going, that wants to be a part of the team.

And those are the people that you’re looking for. You’re literally mining for gold, and you’re going to want to find those people and just empower them. Take good care of them. Just make them feel, you know, as kind of as loved and as part of your team as you can. Over time you’ll start to surround yourself with those people, and that’s what’s going to help you to scale. Treat your people well. Train them. You know, just pour into them as much as possible, because, you know, I do see some new investors. They’re like, oh, I’m going to go hire a bunch of vas.

They hire them and they’re like, okay, now call, like, well, bro, you got to train them, man. Just because it’s a virtual assistant, they’re people, too. You’ve got to pour into them and let them know what you expect and where you’re going. And, you know, what the plan is. So, yeah, building a team is really important, and that’s something I think we’ve, we didn’t start out good at it. I was the, you know, in the beginning, I can do everything myself, guy. I’m smarter than everybody, you know, I realized that’s not true. But, you know, yeah, we’ve just done really good, building a great team.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that, David.

You really got to love real estate to be in this thing long term

Those are two really amazing tips, though, you know, keeping, I always say real estate’s a real thing. Like you said, real people. If you’re serving people, your intention and your mission is to help them, you’re always going to win. I tell everyone, I’m like, if you’re looking at commission dollars, the money you’re counting cash, before. Anything happens, before you actually help this person, chances are it’s not going to go that great for you. I’m like, you really got to love real estate to be in this thing long term

Because like you said, there are days where you’re just like, banging your head against the wall. You’re just like, what? Because things go sideways way more than you think they do, right? So you really got to love the industry, especially as the leader. And especially when you’re the leader, because everyone’s looking at you when they’re having hard days, too. It’s almost like, it’s an interesting thing, so I love that. Then also scaling, like you said, without the people, do everything yourself.

David Olds: There’s no way I tell people. Math, and science tells us there are 24 hours in a day. That is it. And I was the guy who works 16, 18 hours a day, every single day. Well, not Sunday, 8 hours on Sunday, those are my half days. But that only works for a little while. That’s not why we got into this business. We got into this business to have freedom, to sure, make money. Money is fantastic, but what does that money buy you? It buys you that freedom. The ability to donate to your cause or go travel or be able to work for yourself. So you can go pick up your daughter at 02:00 every day from school.

That’s what you’re looking for. You don’t want to work yourself just into a corner where I, you are literally the plumber, the electrician. You’re just doing every single thing yourself because there’s a cap on what you could do. And you’re just going to wear yourself out. In the beginning, you may have to do that. I’m not here to say, day one, we had to bootstrap our way up. Like I said, we were half broke. But once we got to a point where we could afford it, I wish I had done it sooner. I would have been far further ahead.

Pamela Bardhi: I love that, David.

What would your older self tell your younger self based on what you know now

And this is my favorite question. I always save the best for last, because I always save the best for last. So what would your older self tell your younger self based on what you know now? Oh, personal. Anything.

David Olds: Anything. Yeah. Oh, boy. Well, the one thing, business wise, you know, keep more properties than you wholesale. I’m sure you’ve heard that bunch of times, right? Anybody who’s got properties of any landlord, I wish I’d have kept twice as many, three times as many properties. You know, I’ve sailed over 1600, and I only have 87 rentals, so I wish I’d kept far. Far more, be just, you know, much, much wealthier than we are, yeah. Be a good judge of character, you know, they’re going to be people that come into your life and want.

Especially when you start getting some success and just kind of want to ride your coattails and use you a little bit. You know, so just try to just, you know, be careful. Make sure you’re not giving so much to some person who’s never giving anything back to you. Right. Protect your time. And that’s something that I have to do now just because we’re busy and run, you know, five, different companies. That there’s just only so much time you have for everybody.

Pamela Bardhi: Amen. Yeah, that’s something that’s been told to me, too. Is like, you know, people really got to earn a seat at your table.

David Olds: Yeah, it’s. You know, I used to love to. I would have people come into my office all the time and, hey, I’m a new investor. Can I pick your brain, can I talk to you? And I was able to do that for a lot of years, but now it’s like, I can’t. You’ve got to get through two people, two locked doors to get to me. Just not that I’m too good for that, I just don’t have time. Right.

Pamela Bardhi: And your time is your most precious asset, my friend.

David Olds: I mean, it sounds, again, cliche and dopey, and it sounds like a meme on Facebook, but it’s true. Now my responsibility is to the people that work for me and making sure that our company is running good. Because they’re my responsibility, you know, it’s my job to make sure they’re making money. So they can go pay their rent and their mortgage and put shoes on their kid. And go on vacation and make the car payment. Right, so I have to make sure they’re, you know, there first.

Pamela Bardhi: Amen. David, I love that. And for you, what’s going on in your world the next few months. Like what, what’s business personal? What’s going on in the realms of data?

David Olds: Growing a lot. Our business is growing a lot. You know, one of the things about a little over maybe a year and a half ago. I sat down with my COO, Heather Anderson, and we talked about, well, what can we do to help our clients more? Right? What can we do, are there some other businesses around our transactions company, what can we do? And we sat and thought, you know, notary service, picture taken service locks. Or like, what are some things we can do? We were driving, I said, like, a title company, like, are we smart enough to open a title company? Could we do that? And we did. So we’ve opened a title company. We’re licensed in like, six states right now.

The reason that we did that is because everything about us is we want to compress time for our clients. I want to, you know, I want to get. From the time they put something under contract to the time they close just as fast as possible. And the title industry as a whole has terrible service. I’m telling you, we do, again, thousands of files. We get bad service from people, and we’re like a big deal. So I can’t imagine what, somebody who just has one file at a time, how they’re getting treated. Honestly, I remember as an investor, we’re licensed now in a bunch of different states, and we’re growing that business. Yeah, it’s exclusive to just our clients. So that we can make sure that we’re focused on giving them the highest level of service.

Pamela Bardhi: That’s amazing, David, that’s amazing. And I love how you’re adding the complimentary businesses that are going to feed your clients, right? Like, it could title company, but it correlates directly with your core business. Which I think is amazing and absolutely, absolutely genius. I’m so excited to see how you guys grow, you know, you’re already exploding. So I can imagine what the, from now until the end of the year is going to look like. It’s probably even going to double even from there. I believe it.

David Olds: I tell people, as you know, I get to get a lot of credit because I’m the person who gets on here. Tell my team I’m just the dancing monkey who gets on. Gets on stage and gets on all of the zooms. A guy with a face for radio should not be on this many podcasts, but, it’s 100% my team. Used to think I was pretty smart and good at stuff. Now I listen to the things that they do and how they find ways to help our clients. And really just bend over backwards or work late or just so committed. To making sure that their files are getting closed that I’m just. I’m lucky to have all of them, I really am.

Pamela Bardhi: That’s amazing. Well, there’s a whole lot of gratitude there. And that’s the reason why is because they feel that, and they feel, you know, they’re part of the mission. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be as committed as they are. So that’s, a kudos to you. Leadership comes from the top down, my friend, so, you know, it’s a magical thing.

Thank you so much for your time today, David 

I’m so grateful for your time today, David. Seriously, I loved all the golden nuggets you’ve dropped throughout this whole interview. I would love to know where we can find you, because I’m sure there’s a lot of people thing that want to know where you and your awesomeness is. And how they can or your team.

David Olds: I know you’ll drop a link for our closing service. But, you know, I post a bunch of content on Instagram, so avidolds rei. I think it’s the same on all the platforms. Is it a handle? Never know what to call it.

Pamela Bardhi: You got it, Doug.

David Olds: You got it, Doug? Yeah. David Olds and then Rei and, yeah, follow me there. If you message me, I’ll answer it. We answer all of our own stuff, and, yeah, we’re just providing lots of content. So it’s a great place to connect.

Pamela Bardhi: We’re so grateful. David, you are amazing. Thank you so much for your time today. And, everyone, go find, go find David Tandell. I think that’s how we do. You said it right.

David Olds: Thank you for having me. A big honor for me.

Pamela Bardhi: Thank you.

Underdog is always dropping on Thursdays at 9pm

So that’s it for today’s episode of Underdog. Catch us next week. Always dropping on Thursdays. And remember, if you’re interested in real estate or want to learn how to create more money and magic in your life. Check out meetwithpamala.com. and let’s chat. Sending you so, so much love.