How One Simple Change Led to a $300K Revenue Boost In Just 6 Weeks w/ Karl Huth

Speaker 1: [0:00] Really quick before the show starts, in case you haven't heard, we have a growing community of investors called the scale community, which is full of people learning to make massive income with their real estate businesses, so they can reach financial freedom a little bit faster than building a rental portfolio solely over time, because honestly, that takes decades and who has time for that. So if you're an investor who is serious about growing and creating a scalable business without needing to be a slave to it twenty four seven, then go to collectingkeys.com/scale and apply. And if you're a good fit, we would love to have you join the community. So again, collectingkeys.com/scale. Go ahead and apply, and we'll see if you're a good fit.

Mike DeHaan: [0:38] So many people are always trying to optimize these different things with, like, automations, automated text, automated calculators

Karl Huth: [0:45] Yep.

Mike DeHaan: [0:45] Using AI. And this is fundamentally why I don't think any of those will work.

Karl Huth: [0:49] We were thinking it was gonna help our business because, okay, we're getting out more offers, but the way we were delivering those offers was terrible.

Mike DeHaan: [0:56] What is going on, guys? Welcome to today's episode of the collecting keys real estate investing podcast. Today is Monday. This is the scale show where we interview operators that are in the hustle and bustle and living down in the trenches of their business just like a lot of you. And today, we have longtime scale member Carl Huth out of Wisconsin. And, dude, I am super excited to have you on the show because you are one of, like, our OG members. You literally from, like, day one, you came in with us when we didn't even know what the heck we were doing yet with scale. That's back when it was, like, the instant investor program, and we were trying to sort of figure out what that was going to look like. And, man, you have had all kinds of ups and downs and tremendous growth over the past couple years, man. And so super excited to dive into your story today and everything that you are working on in this and working for you in your business. So to get started and give everyone a quick introduction, give us like a quick little, like, three minute rundown, who you are, where exactly you're based, and what your team and business currently looks like.

Karl Huth: [2:02] Yeah. Thanks, Mike. So we are out of the East Central Wisconsin area. So I was in Corporate America for a while there and then jumped ship about three years ago. And we are in Fond Du Lac is where we're located, but we operate kind of an hour radius of Fond Du Lac, which touches Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Madison. So that's kind of the area that we're marketing to and working in right now. And our team is pretty small still to grow it, but we have some VAs that are helping us with some data gathering and organization of data. And then we have a lead manager and then myself. So that's the business currently.

Mike DeHaan: [2:40] Sweet and simple. It's funny. I didn't realize you left your job like that recently. For some reason, when you told me, I thought you'd been in the hustle and grind for longer. What was your previous job?

Karl Huth: [2:50] I worked in so Mercury Marine, so the outboard motor manufacturers.

Mike DeHaan: [2:55] Okay.

Karl Huth: [2:55] So I was did multiple roles in there, but all of supply chain purchasing ended up as an area manager for one of the plants.

Mike DeHaan: [3:03] Sounds riveting. I'm I'm sure

Karl Huth: [3:04] that Yeah. I'd say it was not.

Mike DeHaan: [3:06] You're very sad to leave.

Karl Huth: [3:07] It was not. No. It was, it was great to say goodbye to them. So a good company to work for and good great people that I worked with, but just wasn't where I wanted to be.

Mike DeHaan: [3:16] Totally. So what is your current asset class slash exit strategy that you're pursuing?

Karl Huth: [3:23] So the majority of the stuff that we're doing right now is we're flipping the majority of it. We're also we'll wholesale them when they make sense, obviously, but we're flipping the majority of it right now just because we have some good teams and ending up with the property is the level of renovation. So we'll flip them, but we'll buy and hold some short term and some long term rentals as well. So

Mike DeHaan: [3:45] Yeah. I know you're not afraid to wholesale because you just brought down a massive one too. It was it was, like, $40 from lead that came in to, like, money in your bank account pretty much?

Karl Huth: [3:54] Yeah. Yeah. That one was our fastest one. So $40 from the time that the individual called us, called into our system to the time that we closed it, it was $40. So

Mike DeHaan: [4:04] Awesome.

Karl Huth: [4:04] That was our fastest one and, obviously, a good payday for the wholesale. So

Mike DeHaan: [4:08] Yeah. Well, we'll talk about that one a little bit later because that was a sick deal, and and I we can go around. Cool. And then such small team, your current role in the business, you must wear a lot of hats, I would guess. Like, how do you kind of balance all of, like, the different pieces of this thing?

Karl Huth: [4:25] Yeah. So we're in a lot of different hats right now. That's one of the things that we're trying to improve upon just because I don't want it. But the main thing that I'm doing right now is the acquisition side. So we have a lead manager that's intaking, talking with people, building rapport, gathering data, measuring the pillars of motivation, and then she's handing them off to me based off of those motivations. And then I'm going there, talking to people, and trying to get the deal locked up. So we also have our VAs that are doing a lot of, like, the day to day activity with data gathering and marketing kind of organization, some of our social media stuff as well. But that's kind of how it's set up right now. But trying to bring on different people strategically so I don't have to be doing all that.

Mike DeHaan: [5:09] Yeah. Yeah. And the sales piece is something I would love to focus on on the show today because, you know, having gotten to know you over the past couple of years, you are a similar, I would say, like, archetype to myself when I got into this business. And I think it's a place that a lot of people find themselves where you quickly learn that lead generation isn't rocket science. You know, you can get people to call the phone. And the thing that is stopping you from being very, very successful is closing deals and the sales follow-up process, being able to actually efficiently, you know, sell a seller on wanting to work with you. And it's something that we've had a lot of one on one discussions about.

Karl Huth: [5:52] Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [5:52] You know, it's something that you've been trying to optimize. What has that process been like, I guess, trying to figure that out? You know? Have how long did you hire the lead manager? Somewhat recent? Like, six months ago?

Karl Huth: [6:02] Yeah. Roughly six to eight months ago.

Mike DeHaan: [6:05] Goddamn. So, like, so for, like, two years, you were beating your head against the wall trying to, like, force yourself to do this sales piece.

Karl Huth: [6:12] So the lead manager piece, I just I did not enjoy that. I'm more of, like, a in person just talking. Like, I'll I'll go to their house and talk with them and work through their details. I love problem solving with them, but the whole lead management follow-up. You know, I love talking to grandmas, but not for forty five minutes about their house that and their nice cat, their dogs, and things like that. So it it's just I needed to put somebody in that place because I was avoiding all of those tasks and all jobs that I needed to be doing that's important for the business, but it wasn't the best use of my time. So it's like I I brought somebody in to talk with those grandmas and work through the leads and really pass on the more motivated sellers to me so that I could go there and truly help them out.

Mike DeHaan: [6:55] Yeah. But even then, like, for a while, I mean, one of the biggest challenges you were having was getting offers accepted.

Karl Huth: [7:02] Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [7:02] Right? Like, why do you think that was such a challenge for you? Is it just personality? Personality. Time in in personality?

Karl Huth: [7:11] Yeah. A little bit of both. I mean, personality because it's like I wanted to just, you know, if somebody would come to me with a sop story about why they needed this, I'd be, you know, nervous if I was gonna offer them a lower amount. But it's like, this is my business. I need to make money. Obviously, I can't just give it away. So it's kinda come to that reality where it's you just need to do what's best for the business. And, obviously, you're helping these people out, and if you can't get to that number, then try to find find another solution for them.

Mike DeHaan: [7:42] Totally. And that's the big thing that I was harp on, right, is your business not a charity. And there are difficult things that we face in the direct to seller real estate world. And there's a fine line between being, like, predatory and That is. You know, providing service. Right? And a lot of that is driven around intent and, you know, what you choose to do when you face the situations. So what do you think was, like, kind of the catalyst for you to, like, overcome the challenges of sales, you know, and, like, starting to get more offers accepted, especially as someone that on your DISC assessment, you're not a natural salesperson? Like, what kind of work did you have to do to actually get better at the sales portion of this business?

Karl Huth: [8:25] Oh, work. I mean, and just talking to people like you too, Mike, where it's just like just talking through and saying, hey. What can we approve upon? And and the biggest thing is just knowing that you're leading with integrity when you're talking with these people, kinda like what you were saying before. You know, you don't wanna be predatorial with these people. And if you know that you're leading for a if you're going or calling or going to an appointment and you're leading with integrity, you know, it's that changes a lot of things because in my mind, because that's a mindset shift where it's like, alright. I'm not just gonna go here, like, just worried about the bottom dollar. It's like, okay. Go to these sellers and be like, this is our number that we can offer you. This is also you know, it's not gonna be the highest typically, but we offer speed, convenience, will be the easiest sale that you'll ever do. But if that doesn't work for them, come up with other solutions for them as well so that you, again, it was integrity that you're like, alright. This is the number that we can buy it for if we're gonna buy it today. But if that doesn't work with you, we got some other options that we can help you out with too. Totally.

Mike DeHaan: [9:25] Yeah. Just that that simple. Change your your call to action or your pitch to that, and then everyone started accepting right away.

Karl Huth: [9:32] Yeah. I wish.

Mike DeHaan: [9:34] Yeah. Right.

Karl Huth: [9:34] But it was, you know, and then just talking to talking more people, going on more appointments. I think that was something too. We we were looking at our numbers at the beginning of the year, and we were having a lot of people call into our system from our marketing, but we just weren't getting a lot accepted. And we had looked at it and said, okay. Who was my lead manager? We're like, we just need to start giving more offers. And it just wasn't the way we went about it wasn't best the because we're like, alright. Let's just start shooting out offers, shooting out offers, them offers. It just wasn't converting like we needed it to. And also that we needed to reframe that where the lead manager wasn't gonna be sending out offers. She was gonna go shoot it to me, then I would call them, hopefully get in person, and go and look at more properties and offering when we went there and looked at us.

Mike DeHaan: [10:24] So why do you think that process wasn't working very well? Because that's always one of the biggest things that I hear people wanting to pass off to lead managers, acquisition managers, is they want them to be able to underwrite and give offers themselves because it seems more efficient.

Karl Huth: [10:38] This is

Mike DeHaan: [10:38] But and then not to spoil your your thunder on this, but when was that was it last week, two weeks ago on our scale community call, you shared that since you had taken that responsibility away from your lead manager, you had set up it was, almost $300,000 in revenue across some of the deals in, like, the previous six weeks, which is insane. Right? Just by not having that, like, too quick to offer process anymore. And so, like, when you were going into that process with the lead manager, like, what did that look like, and why do you think it was so ineffective?

Karl Huth: [11:09] It wasn't personal at all, first of all, at all. You know, we were just kind of, alright. Here's the ARB. This is what we think the repairs might be. Here's our range. And this business is so people oriented that you need to be calling people. You need to be going on appointments and just talking. And so we were very just shooting out offers, shooting out offers, it just wasn't personable at all. And so what we shifted was I was calling up. My lead manager is very good with building rapport, talking with people, data gathering. But she is remote, so she just doesn't have the conversation piece of the local market, talking with local people. And so it was just kinda me talking with people, just being more personable, going on more appointments and seeing them face to face. And I think that was the biggest shift.

Mike DeHaan: [11:59] Yeah. I mean, it's such an underrated comment too. Right? Because so many people are always trying to optimize these different things with, like, automations, automated text, automated calculators

Karl Huth: [12:09] Yep.

Mike DeHaan: [12:10] Using AI. Right? That like, there's several people that have tried to start up these companies that are, like, these sales AI companies for real estate investors. And this is fundamentally why I don't think any of those will work because you're 100% right. You know, and anyone that's been in this industry for even a little bit of time starts to see how important that personal touch is.

Karl Huth: [12:28] Yeah. You gotta be personable. You know, these people, this is their biggest decision, one of the biggest decisions of their life. And if you're just shooting out offers and not going and seeing them really understand situation, you know, it's gonna be tough. So that was one of the biggest shift. You know, we were thinking it was gonna help our business because, okay, we're getting out more offers, but the way we were delivering those offers was just terrible. Mhmm.

Mike DeHaan: [12:50] Yeah. And I gotta give you props on that too because what typically tends to happen with so many business owners when they are starting to face struggles like that is they try to change personnel. Right? They're, like, look for new people. They're, like, do all sorts of stuff. What you did is you said, I'm actually gonna volunteer to do more work. Right? Which is, like, the hardest thing I think for an entrepreneur to do because you spend so much time trying to kinda get out of, like, the grind. And then when you voluntarily go back in, it almost feels like at least a couple of times I've done that, I always feel it's kinda like a loss a little bit or like you're taking a step backwards. But if it's gonna make you $300 in six weeks, like, who cares?

Karl Huth: [13:29] Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And and, yeah, that's one of those things where it's like, you listen to a lot of people say delegate, delegate, fire yourself, and and I get that, obviously, to a point, but you gotta figure out what those obviously, the most important tasks are that you should be doing on a day to day basis. And for my business, it's talking to people, going on appointments, get in front of people that we can help. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [13:51] For for sure.

Karl Huth: [13:52] I think I was thinking that I was a little more important than I really am. And I was like, well, let's not go on at as many appointments or talk to as many people, just the motivated ones. But you really it's tough to figure out what their true motivation is without talking with them and going and seeing them. That's kind of a trait that you gotta and I'm trying to teach our lead manager a little bit more with that, but, you know, just go on and talk with people. I think that's just one of the biggest things that you can go and do.

Mike DeHaan: [14:19] Yeah. And no matter what you try to do, you can never escape the hard work in one way or another.

Karl Huth: [14:24] Correct.

Mike DeHaan: [14:24] Right? Yep. The key to being a good operator is learning which hard work is gonna get you the most revenue, which is you're really your only goal when you're a small business.

Karl Huth: [14:33] Yep. You

Mike DeHaan: [14:33] know? So that's awesome. Exactly. You got that figured out. So what does your business kinda look like right now? How many deals are you doing per month on average?

Karl Huth: [14:41] We're doing right around two deals, two to three deals a month right now. Awesome. And bump that up. But, yeah, we're doing two to three deals right now.

Mike DeHaan: [14:49] Perfect. And then how many of those are, like, flips versus wholesales?

Karl Huth: [14:53] We're right around, I'd say, 70% right now are flips. The remaining are remaining are wholesales. We're trying to do more and more wholesales just because flips take obviously long time. Cash conversion cycle is is tough. So trying to do a mixture, kind of a fifty fifty with flips and wholesales.

Mike DeHaan: [15:10] Yeah. How do you manage that, like, project management piece as a solo operator as well? Because, you know, we just spent the first fifteen minutes talking about how you run the acquisitions process. Flipping houses isn't a passive.

Karl Huth: [15:21] Yeah. No. Not at all. I just I work a lot. Right now, it's kinda one of those things where and I got a good team, especially locally within an hour radius of contractors, people that I can go to that are are doing the renovations for us. And so I can you know, I I trust them. They know kinda how I work. I know how they work. And so that's been huge as well.

Mike DeHaan: [15:44] That's awesome. Do you find that you have to, like, churn through those contractors pretty frequently? Like, people stop performing for you after you do a certain number of projects with them?

Karl Huth: [15:53] Not anymore. I mean, we were definitely it took us a long time to get to where we are with the contractors that we work with. We had to weed out a ton of them, fire a ton of them. But now we have a good indirect team of plumbers, electricians, truck laborers that we can count on. But you still have to monitor them and hold them accountable. So it definitely takes a lot of time.

Mike DeHaan: [16:14] Yeah. Do you have any, like, tools or processes that make that more efficient for you, or are you just, like, driving up to these houses all the time? Because you work in a pretty big geographic area too. Yep. So imagine you're not, like, spending hours in the car every single day. I just hope you're not.

Karl Huth: [16:28] No. No. No. No. We I check-in with the contractors. We have we have four flips that we're doing right now. One is about forty five minutes away from us. The other one's three hours away from us. So it's just the one that's three hours away from us, I have a general contractor out there that I trust. So it's just a lot of check ins with them. And check ins, it verifies. You know, it's like, you know, what are we working on today? What does the schedule look like? So we'll kind of map that out. And then if then I'll I'll always be asking for updated photos as well. They're like, oh, well, we got the floor and we got the paint on. Was like, alright, send me photos. It's like trust but verify. And they kinda get that now where it's like, they have the passage. They're like, oh, yeah. We got the flooring and it's like, alright. Send me photos. They're like, well, we only got two pieces of flooring in it. So but it's just trying to hold them accountable and setting, you know, having having a way for them to check-in and make sure that we're still on track.

Mike DeHaan: [17:23] Yeah. It's always wild what some of those contractors will do. I had a friend a while back who was flipping a house at a distance kinda like that. And the contractor was like, hey. We got all the carpet in. You know, here's a photo. You know, send me the money And the guy sent a photo. He's like, Send the money. And, basically, the photo that he had taken, it was done in, like, such a way that he had essentially just, rolled the carpet out, like, into the room and not actually, like

Karl Huth: [17:48] Put it in the corner a little bit.

Mike DeHaan: [17:50] Totally. And my kid sent that picture, and, like, it wasn't actually stapled down. It wasn't throughout the entirety of the house. It was just like the one room, and the guy just, like, basically stole his money and ran away. Jeez. Jeez. So you never know.

Karl Huth: [18:04] The guys I work with, you know, they're I know them very well, like, personal, and I trust them a lot. So but that's why, I mean, we do the we'll do the photo check ins, and we'll also do videos, like, kind of a let's say, let's hop on FaceTime. He'll walk me through the project quick because then we can, if he's got questions or anything like that, I can answer him. And then it also gives me an opportunity to see the property where they're at.

Mike DeHaan: [18:26] Yeah. That's great. And so on those, how are you, like, funding all of these? Hard money lender? You got lines of credit? You got a bunch of cash?

Karl Huth: [18:33] Private money for the, flips. So we have some of our cash into them as well, but the majority of it is private money relationships with family and friends. So we have about four or five people that fund the purchase and the renovations of the properties.

Mike DeHaan: [18:49] Sweet. So they gave you the renovation funds as well. Do you do that where they, like, give you the money upfront, or do you take, like, draws as the money's needed?

Karl Huth: [18:58] They give us the money upfront, so they'll just so the purchase and renovations, they'll fund a 100% of it. We'll kind of give them a scope of work and the details on the property kinda like a pitch deck when we get a property under contract that we're looking for. And so then we'll just yeah. They'll send us the funds for the purchase and renovations, and then we'll give them a good return on their investment as long as we hold their money and that they're backed by the real estate as well. Nice. So that's worked out really well for us.

Mike DeHaan: [19:25] That's great. How did you start making those connections? That's one of the biggest things I get asked all the time is around, like, getting that initial financial relationship, especially because when you're new, it's really hard to get people to trust you.

Karl Huth: [19:40] Yep.

Mike DeHaan: [19:40] What what did that process look like to get people, like, willing to give you money like that?

Karl Huth: [19:44] Yeah. The first ones the first investors that we worked with, they were through a local Ria that we created a relationship with. And so they were the first ones that kind of, you know, gave us an opportunity, talked with them a lot. They knew that we were serious about it. And then the next ones, family and friends, where we would just talk about what we're doing. And I think that's why social media I'm not a huge social media fan personally, just posting all the time, but there's a huge place for that. And we've realized that because if you post what you're doing, the different things that you're working on, you get a ton of people just asking you questions. And that led to some other family and friends that was like, hey, we got some money that we're looking to invest. Would you be interested in talking with us? So then it's just a good sit down conversation, kind of explain the process with them. They'll just kind of go from there, but they need to know, like, trust you. So that's been a a huge part of it.

Mike DeHaan: [20:36] Yeah. That's always the key.

Karl Huth: [20:37] And the trust part is huge because you're you're dealing with hundreds of thousands of their dollars. You gotta make sure that you're treating it like your own.

Mike DeHaan: [20:45] Nah, man. They're investors. They know there's risk associated. Like, it's if it goes sideways, not not your problem.

Karl Huth: [20:52] Exactly. Exactly.

Mike DeHaan: [20:53] You're around in 2021 when that was just like the toxic mentality that was everywhere. It was out of control.

Karl Huth: [20:58] Yeah. Yep. But, you know, they know that we treat their money better than we treat our own. If that if anything were to go wrong, we let them know. And and that's a huge thing too is just kinda keeping them in the loop, especially if they're a new investor. Some of our old investors, they they don't care, which is fantastic. It would create that relationship. But some of the new ones, you know, they wanna be along for the journey for the first couple ones that they're doing. So they like to see updated photos. They like to know what color scheme we're going with. So there's definitely a phase of, you know, the honeymoon phase where you're kinda like working with them talking with them. We don't really take their input for like flooring color, paint colors, and things like that. But we wanna show them like, hey, here's the project. It's coming along nicely. And then afterwards, they they're kind of like, okay, you don't have to send me all these updates.

Mike DeHaan: [21:47] Yeah. That's a great tip right there, honestly, for people that are are new to using private money is like especially if they're a new investor.

Karl Huth: [21:54] And then

Mike DeHaan: [21:55] I mean, for them, it's like their version of being in real estate, honestly.

Karl Huth: [21:59] Yep. Absolutely.

Mike DeHaan: [22:01] To be able to see the things come together, they get a similar level of gratification of that that you do actually being the flipper. That is. And that was something that we learned early on. I had a friend who's actually my old boss at the gym that I used to work at that would give us money to do flips. And very regularly, we would just kinda, like, take his money and not, like, say anything. And he also he'd be like, how's the deal coming along? I haven't heard anything.

Karl Huth: [22:23] There you go.

Mike DeHaan: [22:24] And I would be like, why do you care? Like, you just have, like, a loan. But then it kinda, like, clicked with me. I was like, well, he probably wants to know that I didn't just, like, take his money, and I'm like, just, you know, went to the Quest Casino here and put it all in black. Right? So that's a huge tip. It's such a small thing

Karl Huth: [22:40] It is.

Mike DeHaan: [22:41] That will really increase, you know, people's trust in you. And have you ever gotten, like, referrals or anything off that too from people Yep. That

Karl Huth: [22:48] Yep. Absolutely. And that's something, like, each investor is different. But in the beginning, like like I said, that honeymoon phase, it's so important to overcommunicate and overshare. And, you know, they're along with that journey, and they're interested. They saw what you were doing online because you have the before pictures and the after pictures. Like, oh, that's awesome. How can I be a part of that? So just kind of bringing them along with that journey. And just I always overcommunicate until they tell me otherwise because Yeah. You know, again, you know, it's hundreds of thousands of their their dollars that they wanna make sure that it's in good hands, that you're being the best stewards with it. So just always over communicate with those who are investors

Mike DeHaan: [23:27] is key. That's awesome. Until they're finally like, please stop sending me pictures of the alabaster white walls. Like, I get it. Correct.

Karl Huth: [23:34] We do not care anymore.

Mike DeHaan: [23:35] Yeah. So that's awesome.

Speaker 1: [23:37] I hope you guys are enjoying this episode. We are seriously trying to grow this podcast so that the voice of what it really takes to grow a real estate business becomes kind of the norm versus the guru get rich quick b s that everyone is fed on a daily basis. With so many podcasts out there, it is hard for us to get discovered on our own. So a quick ask, please share this episode on your social media accounts. Be that a real story, whatever. And if you tag me at Mike underscore Invest, then I will give you a follow and I will also send you a DM so that we can have a little chat about your business and anyways I could potentially help you grow. So again, please share it on your socials. Tag me at Mike underscore invests, that's with an s at the end, and I'll follow you, and we can have a little DM and convo about your business. And maybe I can help you grow a little bit, or you could just say what's up to you. That'd be awesome. But appreciate everyone, and thanks so much for helping us grow.

Mike DeHaan: [24:30] So on top of, you know, running your business, you're also a family man.

Karl Huth: [24:33] Yep.

Mike DeHaan: [24:33] You have a new kid very recent. Right? A few months?

Karl Huth: [24:36] Six months old she is.

Mike DeHaan: [24:37] Yep. Six months old. So how do you balance all this hustle and bustle with being a dad?

Karl Huth: [24:44] I have a very understanding wife. But, yeah, we have a five year old son, a three year old son, and a six month daughter. And I think it's just the systems and processes that we put in place, systems, processes, and people. So it's like, make sure that you're focusing on the biggest activities and having those KPIs to measure so you kinda know how everything's looking. You know, how the the scoreboard of your business to say, okay, you know, are we succeeding here? Are we failing here? So, you don't have to get deep down into the I mean, if you if you're seeing some failures, then you can kinda dig into it, but kinda keeping a high level overview of things so that you're not spending all your time looking at all the middle school data, and that really doesn't matter.

Mike DeHaan: [25:29] Yeah. Learn to be efficient. Do you have, like, any checks and balances or hard and fast rules about balancing that? Like, you never work after a certain time or you, you know, take Sundays off?

Karl Huth: [25:40] I struggle with that right now, Mike. So I'm probably too available for people to get ahold of me, but it's kind of a grind period as well. So I think my wife understands that. We try to turn the phones off, put them down later in the after or later in the evening and just do 100% family time. But, you know, that can be tough as well. But right now, we're kind of the grind period, and we know that. And so I try to be there as much as possible for my kids. I work from home a lot. Today, I'm at the office just because I could get away from the distractions at home, but it's kinda just balanced working from home and then working from the office.

Mike DeHaan: [26:17] And I think that that looks different for everybody too.

Karl Huth: [26:20] Right?

Mike DeHaan: [26:20] Like, for me, I don't have kids, but, you know, I still, you know, like to spend time with my wife and do different things. But Yep. It's not uncommon for us to be watching a show on Netflix at 09:30 at night, and I'm, you know, texting with a potential buyer in a wholesale deal that we're trying to move.

Karl Huth: [26:35] Yep. You know?

Mike DeHaan: [26:36] Like

Karl Huth: [26:36] Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, and that's the benefit of this business, though, too. Is like, you know, I might have to be on the phone at 09:00 or 09:30 texting some people checking in, but it's also I have lunch with my family almost every single day, practice with my family every single day. So it's like, there's definitely some things that aren't ideal, but kinda comes to the the territory right now.

Mike DeHaan: [26:58] Totally. I think the difference too with, like, this kind of business versus if you're like a workaholic that has a WTS like that is like those conversations that you're having could be like a $50,000 conversation. You know? Yes. It's not like you're making your boss $50,000. Like, you're making that for you and your family at that moment.

Karl Huth: [27:16] Yep.

Mike DeHaan: [27:16] And if that means that, unfortunately, you're gonna miss ten minutes of the, you know, soccer game or whatever, most people will say that that's worth it up to a certain point.

Karl Huth: [27:24] Right? Exactly. And and then, again, that's kind of, like, the systems and processes that we put in place. Hopefully, conversations that those people I'm talking to, like you said, are the most important, you know, or I'm not getting bombarded by phone calls throughout the day or into the evening. That's why we have a lead manager at call answering services that will take those calls and screen them for I need to talk with them. So, really whittles it down to the people that I'm supposed to be talking to and need to be talking to.

Mike DeHaan: [27:53] Awesome. Yeah. It makes perfect sense. Very, very cool. So before we go into our end of show questions here, what's on the horizon for you? What is, like, the next twelve months look like for your business?

Karl Huth: [28:03] We really wanna start ramping it up, getting some better systems and processes in place to do at least three or four deals per month, look into wholesale more of them to get away from some of the flipping just because, like I said, the cash conversion cycle can be tough. Yeah. I'm just really looking to grow the business. I'd really like to grow the rental portfolio. That's been tough the last couple of years just because with some of the numbers, we had so much more sets to flip or wholesale a property than than rented out the massive income versus passive income, but we're still really wanting to grow that rental portfolio as well. So but with the flipping and wholesale business, you know, next year's revenue goal would be around a million dollars, and just wanna start add some more doors to the whole sites.

Mike DeHaan: [28:46] There you go. I love it. I know you'll definitely get there because you've made some massive strides over the last little bit. So Yeah. Very, very cool, man. Sweet. Alright. So we're gonna dive into our end of show questions here. So we have the same three questions for everyone that comes on the show. So the first one, what is your craziest real estate investing story? Big win, big loss, crazy tenant, whatever you got.

Karl Huth: [29:09] I mean, as you know, if you're in this business, don't know if there's a ton of crazy stories. Some of them let's see. I had a when I was managing our rentals before, I had a tenant that worked at Applebee's turned into a stripper who would pay me with dollar bills rolled inside the paper paper roll tube. She would put it on her front porch. That's how she would pay rent.

Mike DeHaan: [29:30] No. So yeah.

Karl Huth: [29:33] So and she we ended up evicting her, and when we cleaned out her apartment, that was I mean, there was crack pipes and bullets, all that in there as well. So but that was one crazy rental story. I mean, we've we've signed deals on the hood of a car with the guy that might have been a little drunk, but had to get the deal done so we had that. And that just some of the Cleout stories. I'm sure you're aware of those. Those are just we had one where I mean, there was about two feet of garbage in the house. There weren't even paths. And just I think when we cleaned it out, we found over a 150 milk jugs. And There was a it was disgusting. A a chew pile, like a chew tobacco pile in the corner that was the size, like, of a large raccoon.

Mike DeHaan: [30:18] Really? It was That's crazy. So he's just been spitting there for, like, decades?

Karl Huth: [30:23] Yep. Just he had a mattress on top of the garbage pile that he slept on, and then he just had this pile of chew that he would just throw it out after he was done or just spit. It was disgusting.

Mike DeHaan: [30:35] I mean, at least he kept it in one spot. It could be worse. Suppose. Distributing it throughout the house. Could have been shoving it into the HVAC system or something. You know?

Karl Huth: [30:44] Yep. Yep. And then one of our most recent clean outs, I don't know how PG we need to be, but just most, like, sex toys. Just like and he's isn't even, like, I don't know, physically possible. I was like, that's and it was it was a single man that lived there, and he had moved out and we're like, hey. We're coming to clean up. Like, tomorrow. We'll give you and he's like, oh, I still got a few things to pick up there. I get everything out after and so I was like, alright. You got two hours to go and grab whatever you need. And all of them were gone after he showed up. So but it was just it was just disgusting.

Mike DeHaan: [31:25] That's a good one. Yeah. Or the business The things that you find. We we had one a little while back. Older guy who had passed away, and we found his, like, I don't know, like, porn, like, jerk off, like, broom closet that he had. That was like it it had all these, like, nudes that were just, like, taped off over the wall, and you had these boxes and boxes of, like, Playboys.

Karl Huth: [31:48] Oh, yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [31:48] Yeah. Old school magazines, you know, and he had god. He there was probably, some good money in some of those, honestly. Yeah. Because he had them back going for decades.

Karl Huth: [31:57] Oh, man. It's just, like, put on your hazmat suit and just throw it all in the dumpster.

Mike DeHaan: [32:03] Yeah. No. Thank you.

Karl Huth: [32:04] But Or get a clean out crew. That's what we do. Just get a clean out crew and you can kill it.

Mike DeHaan: [32:08] That's what we do these days. But, you know, when you're starting out, you gotta do the hustle. Right? You gotta save where you can.

Karl Huth: [32:12] Exactly.

Mike DeHaan: [32:14] Awesome. It's good stuff. Alright. Second question. If you could go back to the very beginning, what's one thing that you would have done

Karl Huth: [32:20] differently? Definitely get around people that were in the game. You know, I after college, I spent ten years in corporate America, which was fine. We have a company, good people to work with. But if I would have surrounded myself with the right people actually doing deals and just kinda tap into them like, hey. What are your operations? And I think there's just a lot larger community of sharing now, which is fantastic, where people are like, this is what we're doing. This is the systems that we use. But if I could have just tapped into somebody back then, we would have just been so much farther ahead now, not people that were actually doing deals that they just that would have just been huge for us. Because we were kind of struggling along, like, sending out some mail and not sending out mails for six months and just kind of doing a half ass. But we could've tapped into something that was doing more deals back then. I think it would really help us out a lot.

Mike DeHaan: [33:15] Yeah. It's so funny because I fully agree. And I'm like, if I look back at the biggest sort of, like, mindset change that I went through, it was when I joined my first, like, wholesale mastermind. And all of a sudden, I was around people that were exactly like me that were, like, just a couple steps ahead of me. Yep. And it gave me so much belief in what was possible and gave me so much, like, opportunity to learn. But still, people have such an aversion to it. You know? Yep. And I don't know if it's like the fact because there's bad actors out there with people with these, like, sort of crappy products or if it's like they don't truly believe in themselves or what it is. But, I mean, it's a huge thing. And and everyone's always just like, well, you know, if it's really that good, like, why does it cost money? It costs money because that's a barrier to entry to get the people that are actually gonna be serious.

Karl Huth: [34:06] Absolutely. You know, we went to the local Ria. There was, you know, good people there, and we still have that. But it was like so many tire kickers, and it it just wasn't the right group of people to be around. Again, good people, good local people. We've made some great connections. You kinda find those top four or five people at the group and try to connect with them. But, yeah, I hate to be in the right room with the right people. Like, the scale community is great because it's just operators just starting out and people that are doing a ton of deals, and it's just an open book of this is how we do it. This is what we do it. Like, this is where we pull the list. This is what we do with it. And it's just very open communication. So it's just it's just fantastic to surround yourself. And what I love about the group is it's very honest, blunt feedback. Like, they just won't you guys don't shove your coat a lot, which is good because it's like, no. Stop doing that. Do it this way. It it works.

Mike DeHaan: [35:01] Yeah. I'll try to be honest. I appreciate that, Carl. And just so you guys know, I did not ask or pay Carl to say that.

Karl Huth: [35:06] So You

Mike DeHaan: [35:07] did not.

Karl Huth: [35:07] I appreciate that.

Mike DeHaan: [35:09] So awesome, man. Alright. Last question. Where can people find you, follow you, reach out to you?

Karl Huth: [35:14] You can reach out to me on Facebook. It's probably the easiest way to do that. Follow me on there.

Mike DeHaan: [35:19] Cool. Right on, Carl Huth. And then what's name of your business in case anybody wants to do a deal with you in Wisconsin?

Karl Huth: [35:24] Yeah. ClearPath Properties.

Mike DeHaan: [35:26] ClearPath Properties. Right on. Alright, guys. Well, if you're over there in the Midwest region, reach out to Carl on Facebook or at ClearPath Properties. And I'm sure he would love to JV or put something together where you guys can all mix money together.

Karl Huth: [35:41] Absolutely.

Mike DeHaan: [35:41] So, Carl, my man, thanks so much for coming on the show. Seriously, I really appreciate all the information, and congrats on your success, man. Like, you're one of my one of my favorite stories that we've had because I've seen you go through the so many ups and downs.

Karl Huth: [35:54] Downs. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [35:55] You've had so many fights, and you still continue to, like, stick with it. And that's, like, honestly, the number one thing that leads to success is

Karl Huth: [36:04] the

Mike DeHaan: [36:04] willingness to just keep grinding, keep making adaptations, gutting through the hard parts, and then ultimately, you will just outlast everyone who chooses to get up when things get weird. So, dude, really appreciate you being a part of the community and excited to see where things go for for the next twelve

Karl Huth: [36:18] Yeah. Thanks, Mike. Really appreciate it.

Mike DeHaan: [36:20] Absolutely. Alright, guys. Well, if you didn't get anybody from that, I don't know. Go listen to something else. Joe Rogan, like people that like six hours of talking to some bloated old comedian or politician. Like, that's your jam. Listen to that. If you wanna learn how to make real money with your real estate business, give us a follow at the collecting keys podcast. Shoot me a DM on Instagram at Mike underscore Invest. If you have any insight or direction you'd like me to go with some of these episodes. I always appreciate hearing from you guys. And besides that, thanks for listening, everybody. We'll talk to guys next week.