Transcript: Hi. This is David Brower and welcome back to Your 20 Minute Podcast. Our guest is Abhi Golhar from Atlanta, right?
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s right.
David Brower: How’s the weather in beautiful downtown Atlanta?
ABHI GOLHAR: You know, it’s not too shabby. Atlanta’s kinda got a little bit of a bipolar disorder, I think.
David Brower: (laughs)
ABHI GOLHAR: And sometimes it’s hot, sometimes it’s cold. But, you know, we make do.
David Brower: It sounds like Colorado, actually. (laughs)
ABHI GOLHAR: (laughs)
David Brower: Abhi has an online community dedicated to the voice of real estate investing. It’s designed for beginner investors looking how to get started and to the seasoned professional looking to take it to, uh, the next level. It’s called GetReadyDealTalk, uh, .com. So, how long you been doing this online program?
ABHI GOLHAR: Well, it’s been, um, it’s been quite a while. I started it about a year and a half ago. Uh, year and a half, about two years ago. And I really noticed the need, where, I, ya know, I invest in Atlanta and I, I’m, uh, a pretty heavy investor in the residential and multi-family side. And I kept getting asked a lot of questions about, you know, “How do you raise capital?”, “How do you find deals, evaluate deals?”, “What makes sense for you?”, “What kinda mindset do you need to be in?” And there was just the big need. And I thought, you know, if I could contribute in some way, whether it’s answering questions or the daily radio show or a Podcast, or blogs, articles, whatever it may be, then at least I’ll leave my mark positively, uh, for real estate investors, whether they’re new or pro investors. So it’s been a lot of fun the last year and a half.
David Brower: Absolutely and, and, how, uh, so for the last year and a half, you, you’ve been doing Podcasts and radio shows. Do you do public speaking e-, events, as well?
ABHI GOLHAR: I do, absolutely. So, I’m a regular speaker at the Private Lender Conference in Las Vegas, once a year. I’m also a regular speaker at Think Realty and also IMN. And it’s, uh, it’s interesting. You know, sometimes getting in front of a crowd jazzes you up a little bit and I love that feeling.
David Brower: Yeah. There’s, uh, yeah, absolutely. In fact, I just got goosebumps thinking about it cause I’ve done that a couple of times and it’s been a while.
David Brower: So, when, let’s talk about the people who are interested in, in starting up in real estate. It seems in the last, what, maybe, couple of years, actually, probably since you started this online community, uh, that real estate’s been kind of making some leaps and bounds in different parts of the country.
ABHI GOLHAR: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. And that’s probably one of the biggest reasons also why I started it right around that time is because, when the real estate market is hot, there’s so many folks that want to sell you information, whether it’s a program or a service or consulting and all these things. And the problem with that is you don’t need to spend $20,000 for a weekend course to get good information. And sometimes that information isn’t even good information. And that only happens when the real estate market is super, super hot, where, which I believe, where I am right now, it is.
David Brower: Yeah.
ABHI GOLHAR: I’m seeing a big saturation in the market, new investors coming in. Experienced investors, kind of a little wary a little bit about what’s going on. And, you know, now is a time to make money in real estate but you also have to be super, super careful. So that’s what I love talking about.
David Brower: I would think so. Colorado’s the same way, it’s been, it’s been going gangbusters. In fact, there’s just here in our little town of Loveland, Colorado, um, people are selling their homes in three or four days, getting more than the asking price and it’s just been so aggressive like that for probably the last, at least, year, cause our son went through that with, with his home and it was, like, oh my gosh, he was able to close or sell it, or, I’m sorry, buy it, in two days. And that’s only cause the lady liked him. Otherwise she would’ve sold it to someone else.
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s right. Competition is high and it’s a, it is a seller’s market, let me tell you.
David Brower: Yeah.
ABHI GOLHAR: (laughs)
David Brower: I found it inter-, I don’t know if you’ve read into this before, but some friends of ours retired and they sold their home and people were clamoring for it cause it was such a great investment and offering above the asking price and all that. But this one lady really wanted the home and so she wrote them a personal letter about why she wanted the home and how she felt about it and the neighborhood and the history and all that kinda stuff. And they read that letter, they didn’t even care what the, what her offer was. She got the house.
ABHI GOLHAR: Yep. And, you know, it’s a, if I would have known that we’re talking about my secret strategies on how to get real estate, David, I would totally have just not jumped on. No, I’m kidding. (laughs)
David Brower: (laughs)
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s, that’s, that’s what I do. That’s, it’s funny. That is exactly what my team does, whether it’s a letter, it’s, it’s a handwritten, signed personal letter.
David Brower: Yep.
ABHI GOLHAR: Or even a video. You know, send that video to the listing agent and that agent shows it to thee homeowner, or the investor, whoever’s selling the property. And, we gotta humanize, humanize ourselves, right? Everybody’s on the phone. Everybody’s on Twitter, social, Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever. There so many platforms out there. But ultimately, we want the sense of connection with another human being. We want to be able to touch and feel. We want to say, “Wow.” You know this person, this guy, this gal, really has my best interest, is a really good person and you can communicate that with a personal letter. You can communicate that with a video or even a nice, personal e-mail. But the more the personal touch, the better it is. So, that’s how we get, that’s how we find a lot of deals and … You know, ultimately, too, we do good for the community and we do good for the homeowner. And we’re really proud of that.
David Brower: Abhi, it’s ethics, integrity. What a concept. (laughs)
ABHI GOLHAR: Right? I, I feel like sometimes that’s lost. Right? [crosstalk 00:05:45]
David Brower: I totally agree, man. I totally agree. The, uh, and what’s interesting about that approach, in fact, our son, like I said, he did the same thing, he wanted to buy this house and he met with a lady and the lady’s going (vocalizing). And they just connected. And then, okay, let’s do that. And then our other friends with the letter. So, yeah, I’ve seen that. I’ve seen your secret. Uh (laughs) in, in action here, so, it’s pretty cool.
David Brower: And, and as a homeowner, if I’m selling our home, and I’m invested in this and I love this home and I’ve been passioned about it for twenty years or however long, I want that connection. I want, I want to hand this off to somebody who’s going to appreciate it at least half as much as I do, you know?
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s right. And, you know, as a homeowner, you’ve lived there twenty, twenty-five years, you’ve had memories in the home. You have an emotional connection to the home. And, as an investor, my job is to really understand that. And, unfortunately, not a lot, not a lot of investors care, you know. They’ll, they think of a home, not as a home, but as a house.
David Brower: Yeah, absolutely.
ABHI GOLHAR: And, and, and I get caught in that trap, too. You know, it’s, it’s tough because you run the numbers and you can do all the analysis and then you look at the renovation budget, new construction budget and you wonder, “Okay, what can I turn this into?” without really recognizing that somebody used to live there, somebody’s kids grew up in this home.
David Brower: Right.
ABHI GOLHAR: And, we really have to connect with that, so, it’s a, it’s a very humbling experience all the time.
David Brower: I’m impressed, man.
David Brower: So, when somebody, uh, somebody listening to us going, “Wow. Ethics? Integrity? They can help me do this the right way, what a c-, and I don’t have to spend $20,000 for a weekend, uh, mind-blowing experience.”
ABHI GOLHAR: (laughs)
David Brower: So, how do they, how do they, uh, how do they get in touch with you? Through your website, I assume?
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s the best way to do it. So I’m all, I’m, I feel like I’m a social bug. I’m crazy online. You can look me up. You can look up Real Estate Deal Talk. You can go to RealEstateDealTalk.com. You can look up Abhi Golhar. Just shoot me a message. I, I love answering video. I love answering messages in video format or even, just shoot me an e-mail. You know, I don’t have Vas somewhere else working for me. It’s not gonna be an automated response. It is me answering your question and I’ll do my best to get to as many questions as possible that I have throughout the day. But, um, just get in touch. RealEstateDealTalk.com is the best place to go.
David Brower: That’s terrific. And so somebody connects with you and, uh, you answer their question and you feel a little bit of a connection there, like, you know, this person may have what it takes to get into this real estate game. What’s the next step that they take with you?
ABHI GOLHAR: Great question. So everybody has a different perspective. Everybody has a different mindset. And everybody has a different investment personality. There’s some folks that all they want to do, they want to have very minimal risk in the game, they don’t have a whole lot of capital to work with. So they generally will fall into the wholesaling bucket, where you find the motivated sellers and then you want to sell them to buyers. So I work with wholesalers all the time.
ABHI GOLHAR: If you are a type of person that just wants a monthly check in the mail from your rental, we can work together because we’re buying rentals all the time. And there’s an opportunity there, where, all you have to do is find a deal, buy it yourself, put property management in place and all of a sudden, you have a cash-flowing, income producing asset month after month after month.
ABHI GOLHAR: Alternatively, if you want to be super aggressive and take advantage of the market as it stands right now, as long as you’re buying it at discount, you can flip. There are so many opportunities to renovate a home, find a home in the right area, work with the homeowner, build that emotional connection and buy it, renovate it, and sell it to another homeowner that will take just as good care of that home as the previous homeowner did and as you did.
ABHI GOLHAR: Also, the new construction space, subdivisions, there’s a lot of opportunity in this space and there’s, a, there’s unlimited potential. So, having a conversation with me and understanding the depth of what’s possible is absolutely the next step.
David Brower: Makes perfect sense. Perfect sense. And, and, uh, obviously, part of your success is being a great listener and, and being able to deliver easy to understand answers to these folks. So that’s, that makes, uh, that makes for a nice comfort level for everybody, you know?
ABHI GOLHAR: Most definitely. And there’s so many questions, too. Whether it’s finding a deal, how do I even analyze a market, what does, what is a good deal? What does that even mean to me or what should that mean to me? What are the numbers associated with a deal? And what boggles my mind, too, is, you know, folks will invest in the stock market. It’s no problem. Nothing wrong with the stock market. But you’re not, they won’t do the research on the stock: the leadership, the financials of the stock. They won’t look at these five-year, ten-year financials. You gotta make sure you’re doing your due diligence. I mean, would you, would you ever buy a car sight unseen without running a Carfax or at least driving the car?
David Brower: Absolutely not.
ABHI GOLHAR: No.
David Brower: Yeah.
ABHI GOLHAR: Of course not. But that’s how many people buy stocks and then, unfortunately, that’s how many people think that they should be buying real estate. It’s totally not right. So, the first thing you should do is ask questions. Whether it’s ask me a question or, just going to a local Meetup and asking them questions. Get really comfortable with the vocabulary. Ask all the questions that you can. Understand yourself. Understand what the objective of investing in real estate really is. Is it to earn money? Is it make impact? For me, it’s to make, it’s to make impact. Just the other day, I lectured at a local college and I took questions from all the undergrad students and I had the best time in my, time in my life.
David Brower: (laughs)
ABHI GOLHAR: You know, if I could do that day in and day out, I would.
David Brower: Right?
ABHI GOLHAR: So, its fun for me.
David Brower: Absolutely. Good for you. If, so, alright, we’ve gone through really well on, on getting into, uh, the real estate opportunities with you. What about a, I’m a seasoned pro and I’d like to take my, my craft to the next level and I’ve, I’ve kinda hit a flatline and I’m not, I’m not sure what to do.
ABHI GOLHAR: Great question. So what’s interesting is, there’s so many folks like that. Whether it’s 20 deals a year, 50 flips a year, or even if you’re a builder and you’re building 100 homes a year, or, really, if you’re a real estate agent, you’re totally dominating the business, you’re crushing it, you’re doing really well. And you are just on fire.
David Brower: Yeah.
ABHI GOLHAR: The prob-, the problem is, is you are working in the business because you have to do that same volume the next year. And, sometimes, and I’ve seen this a lot where, seasoned pros, these real estate agents that dominated, will just fall out of love of real estate because they haven’t built the systems. They haven’t built the operations to distribute some of that work to put some of that work on somebody else, to outsource some of that work so they can live a lifestyle that they thought real estate would give them. And understanding that is what, really, I think I do best, to help leverage somebody else’s time and to really find a balance between work, life, and earning money. Because it’s one thing to make all the money in the world, but also, work 110 hours a week. It’s another thing to be able to scale that business and achieve the same objectives.
David Brower: Boy, absolutely right. If, if you don’t have balance in your life … I don’t, and I know a lot of people that don’t, I know, no matter what the industry whether it’s selling cars or being a street sign seller. I mean, they work their butt off and don’t have a family life, don’t have time to exercise, don’t have time to breathe, don’t have time to take a spiritual look at their bodies or anything like that. And, and, the other folks who look at the big picture and go, okay, I can do this for a year, but next year, if I’m gonna increase this, I better have a new system.
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s right. And I, I was there. I’ve been there. And it’s so tough. You know, if you’re, if you’re a developer in, in, in any city, or even if you’re a flipper, whatever, you have so many hats to wear. You’ve got the financing piece. You gotta work with investors. You have to work with the city. You have the permitting department to get your demo permit, build permits, I mean, I’m losing my breath and getting anxious just saying all these things.
David Brower: Right.
ABHI GOLHAR: And, you know, and it’s so difficult to keep things in place and in order. So what, what do we have to do? We have to bring on other people. We have to pay them, pay them well. Teach them. Build them up. Use the right technology so we can scale our business. Have clear protocols in place. We got acquisitions, we have sales. And there’s a lot of things to manage. And it might be a little crazy the first six months, but I would much rather invest six months of my time, or even a year of my time, to develop a system that is coachable, teachable and duplicatable, for others, so that I can sit back a little bit more and be that creative visionary that I’m meant to be so I, my organization can really take off and flourish. Otherwise, I’m spending the 110 hours a week slogging away week after week and I have to do that year after year and that’s not my objective.
David Brower: No, exactly. Then you’re all about the numbers and I gotta sell one more house next week and, and you’ve lost, you lo-, you’ve lost that contact with the buyer and the seller. There’s no chance to have a connection and a relationship cause you’re just slamming, right?
ABHI GOLHAR: Right. And, and, and that energy, it just exudes from you, right? I mean then, people can tell you don’t really care about them. You care more about being in the business and getting the deal done than genuinely caring.
David Brower: Yeah.
ABHI GOLHAR: And that’s a problem.
David Brower: Absolutely right. Absolutely right. Well you, I was looking at your, uh, site and you are indeed all over social media. You’re even, you’re even on SnapChat. How’s that work for you?
ABHI GOLHAR: You know, I (laughs), the, the undergrads that I lectured to a while ago, they, uh, they, they were laughing at me cause I kind of understand SnapChat, but at the same time, I don’t. Like I was, I was getting my haircut and I was SnapChatting and, I don’t even know if that’s the right way you use SnapChat. But quite frankly, I’m just gonna keep doing it. And it’s, it’s fun, you know? I think …
David Brower: Yeah.
ABHI GOLHAR: Social media, the online world, presents a very unique opportunity to connect with people that normally you wouldn’t have an opportunity to connect with. And, it’s just, you know, you’re having fun. It’s, it’s cool.
David Brower: Nice. I, in fact, I, I’m glad you, you had that on your site and we talked about it for a minute cause, I haven’t even considered SnapChat. I’m on all the other stuff, you know, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, whatever, but, uh, I’ll have, now you got me curious. Now I gotta check that out.
ABHI GOLHAR: (laughs)
David Brower: (laughs)
ABHI GOLHAR: Yeah, check it out. It’s, it’s a lot of fun. You know, it’s, my, uh, a lot of my friends they’re just out walking their dogs or they’re, they’re at the gym SnapChatting. It’s just, it’s comical.
David Brower: (laughs)
ABHI GOLHAR: (laughs)
David Brower: How funny. So, people want to reach out to you, again, uh, it’s RealEstateDealTalk.com and …
ABHI GOLHAR: Yep, you got it.
David Brower: You can find all the information there to, to connect with, uh, Abhi Golhar.
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s right.
David Brower: And, right, did I say it right?
ABHI GOLHAR: You go it. 100%.
David Brower: Because I had a blank moment there. RealEstateDealTalk.com. And, what’s cool about this, man, is you’re just there to pay it forward, really, aren’t you?
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s, that’s right. I’m, I don’t have anything for sale that I’ve created on the site at all. I don’t even offer consulting services, nothing like that. It’s really, I’m an investor, I’m talking about my experiences, both successes and failures of myself, my team, other investors that I interview. And, just, really taking it from the heart and seeing what this industry really is about instead of just the rags to riches story that you find on late night TV, you know. That’s not what I do.
David Brower: Yeah.
ABHI GOLHAR: I, it’s a very no nonsense, no BS approach to real estate investing, single-family, multi-family, and anything that I’m doing currently. And if there’s something else that I can be of service to, or if there are questions that I cannot answer, I will let you know I can’t answer them and then go find the answer.
David Brower: Nice. And, and one last question. I noticed that you have a, sometimes, if people are looking to scale their business, like you talked about a few minutes ago, uh, you might be even interested in partnering with them, right?
ABHI GOLHAR: That’s right. So, I have absolutely been doing that the last, about two or three years and it’s been a lot of fun. We understand the processes. We understand what the objectives are. And we partner together, whether it’s from an operational perspective, whether its from a capital infusion perspective, and help to grow that business. Similarly, even on individual real estate deals, we have that same ability, whether it’s a equity partner, whether it’s a debt partner or an operational partner. There are many, many, many ways that we can work together. So, absolutely, if you have a deal or if you have a business that you feel is struggling or a deal that’s really good or a business that’s doing exceedingly well and if you want to take it to the next level, I’d be more than happy to have that conversation with you.
David Brower: That’s absolutely terrific. Folks, you gotta reach out to him. There’s no question about it and, uh, I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed our conversation today.
ABHI GOLHAR: Likewise David. Thank you very much.
David Brower: You’ve been listening to Your 20 Minute Podcast with David Brower and our guest Abhi Golhar. And don’t forget it’s RealEstateDealTalk.com. And be sure to like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Your20MinutePodcast. Til next time.