Marketing Secrets to Go From W2 to 7 Figures in 15 Months with Tarah Fernandes

Mike DeHaan: [0:01] Hey. So I know we normally have Friday Focus episodes on Fridays, but this week, we just had some hiccups and could not get one made for you. So instead, we are reposting one of our most popular episodes from a few months ago, is with Tara Fernandez, who does a deep dive into marketing strategy and how her and her husband, Billy, make insanely huge profits with their marketing strategy as a small team in a very competitive market in Dallas, Texas. So this is one of our most favorite episodes that we have had over the past few months. A ton of you guys loved it when it first came out. If you are new to the show, this will definitely be one that you want to listen to one or two times, and you will glean a lot from it. So, anyways, guys, I apologize for the repost, but enjoy this show with Tara Fernandez.

Tarah Fernandes: [0:52] I think my most humble brag and you're probably trying to go more towards wholesale deals, which wholesale deals, you can have really big checks. Right? Yeah. Which we've gotten a few of those. But I think my most favorite is the storage facility that we own because remember, like, my whole goal from the very beginning was passive income. Right? That that was my end all be all was I want a passive income. So that way I could sit back and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

Mike DeHaan: [1:18] Mhmm.

Tarah Fernandes: [1:19] So this storage deal we got actually from the owner sold us one of his duplexes and just created a relationship with Billy, really liked him, and the guy was retiring. And he had a storage facility, and he was like, hey. You you wanna buy it? And we were like, yeah. Probably. So we purchased it. And super long story short, we stabilized everything, and now it's producing, like, I think, like, $8,000 a month in passive income just to billion 9. So

Dan Austin: [1:52] That's awesome.

Tarah Fernandes: [1:53] That one's probably my favorite.

Speaker 4: [1:56] Welcome to the collecting keys real estate investing podcast with your host, Mike DeHaan and Dan Austin. From wins, losses, horror stories, and tactics for optimizing your business, Mike and Dan take a real uncensored deep dive into the ins and outs of running a full time real estate investment and wholesaling business.

Mike DeHaan: [2:20] What is going on, guys? On this episode of the Collecting keys real estate investing podcast, we have Tara Fernandez, who is a savage. Like, honestly, man.

Dan Austin: [2:29] I don't know what yeah. I was gonna say there's just one word. Savage. She's out there just crushing it.

Mike DeHaan: [2:34] Yeah. So she's super awesome. She's built her and her husband have built such an impressive real estate wholesaling business down in the Dallas Fort Worth area. And it's funny. She's very reserved, and she's very humble in kind of what they've built. And I know a lot about her business. We know her personally. And I really had to encourage her to start dropping the secret nuggets of what they've done. But man, when they come out kind of at the end of the show, it's like next level,

Dan Austin: [2:59] it is next level, you gotta I would listen, I'm gonna listen to this show multiple times. If you should listen to this show two or three times, just the knowledge bombs throughout of, like, how you run a wholesale business. I mean, it's amazing.

Mike DeHaan: [3:09] It is. Yeah. And and the thing that they accomplish in such a quick period of time, they literally went from not really being in real estate to leaving their w twos within nine months of starting their business.

Dan Austin: [3:19] And it's not a rags to riches story. Hate you know, Mike and I, we hate on those

Mike DeHaan: [3:23] not a rags to riches story,

Dan Austin: [3:24] but she kind of logically steps through how they did it. It's a step by step process how they did that.

Mike DeHaan: [3:29] Yeah, exactly. So yeah, they quit their w two after nine months after fourteen months, they were doing 7 figures. Now they're doing multi 7 figures like it is just crazy. And just the the way that they go about it, they have a lean team, they move fast, they are all into the fine details, and they are really, really crushing it. So definitely enjoy the show you guys and hit up Tara as well on Instagram. She posts some good stuff, and she's very friendly and happy to chat with you for any questions that you have. So anyways, guys, thanks so much for listening to this. If you enjoy the show, if you have anyone that's interested in wholesaling real estate at all, share this with them. Like, I don't know who wouldn't enjoy the show. Even if you don't really care about real estate, just like the stuff that she says is super applicable to any sort of business that you're trying to run. Absolutely. So go ahead and share it with anyone who might find interesting. If you leave us a five star review, or if you listen to your podcast, and you send me a DM of the screenshot of that, I'm Mike underscore invest. The first five people to do that, I'm gonna send them a t shirt, a Collect I t If you haven't seen those, you can see them on various of our YouTube videos, but they're pretty sick.

Dan Austin: [4:29] They're nice shirts. They make your arms look good. Guy order them.

Mike DeHaan: [4:33] They they they make you look fit. So go and leave us a five star review on wherever you listen to your show, and DM me that screenshot, and I will send you a shirt for free. And aside from that, guys, enjoy the show. And I feel like I need something else to finish off now because I kinda went on a tangent here. Just say enjoy. Have a good Enjoy the show. Thanks so much, guys. Enjoy the show with Tara Fernandez. What's going on, guys? On this episode of the collecting keys real estate investing podcast, we have a good friend of ours, Tara Fernandez, out of the Dallas Fort Worth area. And Tara, she came through a mastermind that Dan and I, I guess, originally started with. And her and her husband have built what I would say is like the most impressive business just in terms of what they've done with a really lean operation is mostly just them. Up until super recently, they were making big money, doing a lot of deals and have just done some really, really awesome things that I think everyone sort of strives to do. And they've learned a lot of lessons along the way that will be super relatable to anybody that wants to run an off market wholesaling business. So Tara, thanks for coming on the show.

Tarah Fernandes: [5:42] Thanks for having me. Super pumped to be here. You really you puffed us up a bit. So got some good

Dan Austin: [5:48] It's all true. It's all true, though.

Mike DeHaan: [5:49] Yeah. It's all true. I'm just saying the expectations. Now you can't let everyone down, you know, but so and I also say our first female guest too, which I'm I'm super stoked about because that's one thing that I found about this space that's really I mean, it is a a good old boys club for the most part, which is unfortunate, but that I feel like that's changing a little bit.

Dan Austin: [6:09] I feel women breaking through.

Mike DeHaan: [6:10] Yeah. Yeah. You have, you know, proven that it doesn't need to be that way with how you've how you've run your business. So

Tarah Fernandes: [6:16] Yeah. And I think it's just historically more male dominant and more and more women are coming. It's kind of fun to just see them and be like, hey, I can relate

Mike DeHaan: [6:25] to you. Hey.

Dan Austin: [6:26] I'm here too.

Mike DeHaan: [6:27] Yeah. Right.

Tarah Fernandes: [6:28] Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [6:28] Yeah. And you and you can go into the, I guess, the male dominated conversations, like, your business is so cute. I do like times as much as you. So that makes it even better.

Tarah Fernandes: [6:36] I can't hit their ego too hard. I gotta play with them a little bit. But Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [6:41] For yeah. For now. For now. But awesome. Well, anyway, so Thanks for coming on. I'd love to hear just heard about, you know, your backstory, what you were doing before you got into this business, and, you know, how things have sort of grown and come together.

Tarah Fernandes: [6:53] Yeah. For sure. I had a very normal kind of early career. I went to college at very, you know, safe normal school, went to undergrad and then grad school. I did what everyone told me to do, go to a good school to get a good job. So I got a marketing job in a healthcare IT company and worked there pretty much all through my twenties. In different companies, just all healthcare IT related. And it got to a point, I married my husband. We moved from California to Texas, and we were both traveling a lot for work. He was he was also in the healthcare medical supply side, and we were just traveling a ton for work. And it was it was wearing on me to where I was like, you know, like, this is if and when we do plan to have kids, like, I don't wanna have to travel and miss their soccer games and, you know, all the things. So it kind of got my head thinking, what are some other things that I can do to replace my income? So, originally, I just wanted rentals. And I was thinking, okay. If I collect five or 10 rentals over the next five years, then I can have enough passive income to kind of offset my regular job. Maybe I can get like a side job that allows me to stay at home. That was the original intention was I just wanted a couple of rentals so that way I didn't have to travel so much for work. And then that kind of snowballed a little bit Just a little bit. To where I started learning. Yeah.

Tarah Fernandes: [8:28] I started learning a little bit about real estate. I read the Burr book, which got my wheels turning into, oh my gosh, I don't have to scrape and save, you know, $20.30 grand over two, three years to then just push it all into one house and then start over and, you know, that that whole thing. And then we found this this mastermind that we're all a part of back two two years ago, I believe. Uh-huh. And it was mainly about wholesaling. And I was like, I don't need to wholesale. I just want rentals. But what was kinda sold me was you keep the best and wholesale the rest, and that line totally resonated with me. Like, okay. If I'm gonna spend the money on all this marketing to find these deals, and I don't wanna keep those deals, I might as well make money since I've spent the money on marketing. So Yeah. That kinda went from there, and and the rest is history. We did pretty good on it.

Mike DeHaan: [9:25] Yeah. The rest yes. The rest is history. You may you get humble on the crazy parts. But, I mean, I I think what you're saying, though, is is super relatable to a lot of people because that's how Dan and I started as well. We wanted to buy rentals. I mean, even before Dan and I started working together, both of our original intentions were just to buy rentals. And wholesaling wasn't even on the radar.

Dan Austin: [9:44] Wasn't even a thing. Wasn't even an option at that time.

Mike DeHaan: [9:47] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But as you start to learn about it, like, kinda like you said, it takes so long to recycle your money doing the BRRRR method. So then you kinda come to the epiphany of, oh, well, I find if I know how to find opportunities and I can monetize those, I can scale so much quicker. You know, by by making the quick money, by being a wholesaler, doing, you know, quick flips and things like that. And that's something that a lot of people don't realize. Yeah.

Tarah Fernandes: [10:10] Yeah. That and your in the trenches so much more than just collecting a couple of houses a year. Like, you you're getting to know all of the buyers in the area. You're getting to know your bankers, your title officers, and then they get to know your name, and that just kind of compounds quicker by wholesaling.

Dan Austin: [10:28] Oh, absolutely. Yeah. You're right. You're getting you're walking so many more properties. You're doing so many more things at volume because that's the nature of the business that you become an expert. And then it's kinda funny, like, then buying rentals, like Mike and I were talking this, talking about this with our group last night in our in our call, which is like, how we look at properties and analyze properties. I bet how you analyze a rental property now is just so much different than when you, before you started wholesaling. Like, it's just so much easier and so much more experience. It's just like, oh, yeah. Yeah. We're gonna burn this property.

Mike DeHaan: [10:57] It's gonna do this. It's gonna do that.

Dan Austin: [10:58] And and if it doesn't do it this way, it's okay because we've

Mike DeHaan: [11:01] got a ton more properties.

Tarah Fernandes: [11:02] Oh, yeah. I we had the bigger pockets calculator that, like, was saved on my desktop, and, like, I would Yep. Plug that all in, and I would redo it three, four different times because I just Yep. I didn't know. And now you just all you do it in your head in, you know, sixty seconds,

Dan Austin: [11:19] and you're like, yep. That's a deal or nope.

Tarah Fernandes: [11:21] That's a deal or whatever.

Mike DeHaan: [11:22] Yeah. That that's so funny. That's literally the conversation we have last night. One of the guys in our Instagram, literally had like a calculator he got from Redfin. He was like, so how do you guys analyze this? And we're like, honestly, dude, I don't know.

Dan Austin: [11:32] It's nuanced. So nuanced.

Mike DeHaan: [11:33] Like, we just don't even think this way anymore. Yeah. It depends. Yeah.

Tarah Fernandes: [11:37] It's just program.

Mike DeHaan: [11:38] Yeah. Yeah. But cool. So, I mean, you say the rest is history, but, like, what what is your past couple of years, I guess, look like as, you know, you started to grow this business? Because I I remember when you and Billy, when I first met you guys, you guys were heading out to Whitefish, Montana. And you came and you made a stop in in Spokane, we went and had lunch. And you guys had like just started and you're talking about the numbers that you were throwing up. And I was sitting going, what the fuck?

Dan Austin: [12:03] You're like, we don't do that. That's not fair.

Mike DeHaan: [12:05] Like, the I was like I was like, these have been doing this for, like, two months. You know, after Dan and I had been going for two months, we were just in massive debt with nothing to show for it. But you guys had been piecing it. You guys were piecing together a couple of months what had taken us, you know, a year and a half at that point to be doing.

Tarah Fernandes: [12:22] Yeah. We I think it just I think a lot of it has to do with just our partnership. So when I say we, it's my husband and I in this is our team, at least for the first year and a half of this business. It was just him and I. And we knew our roles really well from the get go just because we know each other. Right? We're married. We know what our strengths and weaknesses are, and he's naturally good at sales and connecting with people. Man can talk to a wall. He'll talk to anyone. He's great at it. And then I'm more marketing. I have a marketing background. That's what I did in my day job. So I think we just it naturally clicked at least a little bit right off the bat, so it didn't take us as many months to just kinda get our bearings.

Dan Austin: [13:09] So I wanna make a point of clarification here too. When we're talking like marketing, so sounds like you guys are mastermind in heaven for this business because you got sales with Billy, you have you with marketing. When you say marketing, do you, you know, I think a lot of people confuse that with like flashy infographics and stuff like that. What I think about it is like the analytics behind it, so do you find that that was a leg up for you or that that's where you're specializing and that's what you're talking about when you say marketing?

Tarah Fernandes: [13:34] Yeah. I'm I'm a very analytical person, so I like to look back on my data and see what's working and what's not. Because I'm not gonna spend money on something that's flashy but doesn't earn me any money. Like, why would I do that? So I definitely like I mean, much like you guys, I like looking at, you know, the data and the pieces of information and and then making a marketing Totally. Off of that.

Mike DeHaan: [13:57] Mhmm. But yeah. So I guess, you know, what Isaiah said to match made in heaven, you you kinda have the two pieces that most people typically struggle to find. I think that's one of the reasons you were so successful is, you know, you had the sales and you had the analytical side. So a lot of people that we connect with, or that we've met that are or in different groups, they'll have one or the other. Like, they're like, have a real estate background. They're super good at sales, but they can't manage an Excel spreadsheet to save their life, you know, or they're kind of on the other end of the spectrum where they're, you know, very analytical, they're good at the spreadsheet, they understand how to run the numbers, but you try to get them talking to a seller, and they're just, like, completely useless. Right? Right. You know, and that was honestly kinda where we started when when we were getting going. So

Tarah Fernandes: [14:36] Yeah. And learning and just knowing what your strengths are

Mike DeHaan: [14:39] Mhmm.

Tarah Fernandes: [14:40] And finding a partner that complements your strengths. We got lucky in just the fact that we were married and we wanted to do this together. Like, so I think there was probably a little bit of luck involved on that one. But yeah. So we took probably three to four months when we in 2020 to identify what market we were gonna go to, build our brand, figure out what we were gonna name it, you know, just kind of the building of your business. Then we dropped our first round of mailing. We do all most of our marketing is through direct mail marketing. So we dropped our first round of letters in December 2020 and got a deal off that right off the bat. It was a small little wholesale deal.

Dan Austin: [15:22] Nice.

Tarah Fernandes: [15:22] I think we I think we got, like it was, like, $8,000 or something like that for for our first one, but we were like, oh, it worked.

Dan Austin: [15:29] It's like almost our exact same. That's awesome.

Tarah Fernandes: [15:31] Yeah. Right? Proven or at least, like, this go around, it worked. So since we got that deal, we dropped another, you know, couple thousand letters, got another deal, and it kinda just started compounding on itself. Uh-huh. So we kinda moved from the mindset of, okay. This this works. This isn't just like throwing spaghetti at a wall to, okay. Now this that this works so well, can we quit our day jobs and go full time at that? So that was kind of our next goal that we had in mind of, can we have this replace our income and do this full time? So we ended up doing that in, like, nine months.

Mike DeHaan: [16:10] Nine months. That's that's amazing. And what did your business, I guess, look like at that point even in that decision? Like, you know, what was your deal flow? I mean, I know it was you guys doing all the work at that point, but, like, honestly, how much money you were making were you making, if you don't mind sharing that?

Dan Austin: [16:25] Because I

Mike DeHaan: [16:25] think that's always good context for people.

Tarah Fernandes: [16:27] Yeah. I was trying to never remember. So I think we have four different, I guess, criteria in order for us to quit our jobs. It was we had to have our emergency fund of six to nine months of reserves essentially built up. So that was a goal. I think we had to have three months of consistent deals. And at the time we were making at our day jobs, I think we brought home after taxes, like, 12,000 a month. So that we just had to

Mike DeHaan: [16:58] Mhmm.

Tarah Fernandes: [16:59] Basically match that. The third one oh, and we had to just agree on, like, a partnership between Billy and I that this was a good good time to quit. Like, we didn't want to have one person on the page. He wanted to quit, like, two months ahead of time. And Of course. Me you know, I think women are naturally more, like, conservative on, like, you know, jumping out and risk and that kind of thing. So I was more just like, no. We've gotta be on the same page on the month that we both quit.

Dan Austin: [17:28] Right. Yeah. I love how you guys I remember you explained that when we were all in Florida together masterminding, and you all you and Billy explained kinda your process, and I love it because you had a very reasonable approach, and you didn't continue to move the targets, which is easy to do. You're like, well, we got nine months reserved, let's just do twelve, that just feels so much better. But it was very tactical, and then you actually executed on it, like, we're doing it, we met these requirements, We're doing it. And then you just went all all in, and and, obviously, the rest is history, as we say.

Tarah Fernandes: [17:56] It just makes it so much easier when you've got a defined goal. You can just work backwards from it, and you don't have, like, that uneasy feeling of waking up in the morning and not knowing what you have to do. Sure. You just, like, know. Okay. That's my that's true north. That's where I'm heading.

Mike DeHaan: [18:12] Yeah. Yeah. I think and that's that's super valid. So you said the three. Was there a fourth one too that you were gonna mention you said that

Tarah Fernandes: [18:20] There was. And I'm trying to think about it, but I'm blinking, which is not good. I'm sure it'll come to you.

Mike DeHaan: [18:26] It's fine. At this point, you guys are in such a different spot than you were back then anyway. It's it is sometimes hard to remember basic stuff like that. But now, so that that's that's cool. So you quit nine months after you started. So that would have been what September 2021 about?

Tarah Fernandes: [18:41] It was June 2021 when we put in our notice. So

Mike DeHaan: [18:45] Awesome. Cool. So now we're out eighteen months ahead of that. And I guess, let's even just get a high overview of what all of you guys accomplished with your business. What does it look like right now? And, you know, what is, like, I guess, like, the big picture of just, like, your whole everything? Because I know it's very, very different from me when we last saw you last November.

Tarah Fernandes: [19:08] Sure. So we just kinda like the big, like, fun, cool things in the first, I think, the first fourteen months of creating the business, we hit seven figures.

Mike DeHaan: [19:18] Nice. Nice.

Tarah Fernandes: [19:19] And it was just Billy and I. I did have a VA at the time that would help me with some marketing stuff. So super small, lean, lean team, and I've always wanted to have a a small team just because I don't need a huge team. Even in our goals in the next couple of years, it's not gonna be a very big team. And then this year has all been about focusing obviously on keeping, you know, our deals up, but also building our team out. So like I said at the beginning, we've got our AM that we hired in August, and then we hired a lead manager to a month and a half ago. And then we're actively looking for our second AM to hire here before the end of the year. So this year, we we're on pace to hit what we did last year. Actually, we're double double the amount Nice. From last year. Sorry. Not the same. Double the amount.

Mike DeHaan: [20:12] Is that double in revenue or in deals? In revenue.

Tarah Fernandes: [20:15] So our our deals interestingly enough, our deals have actually gone down. Our just revenue per deal has gone way up. We had a couple of big big deals

Dan Austin: [20:27] in there with too. Those big deals. Like, do you think that comes with experience where you're like, I know the value of this, and so you're willing to find the right buyer for the value of something, or do you think it's just luck?

Tarah Fernandes: [20:38] I think it's more about knowing the buyer and knowing your worth. I think there's a combination of that and kind of knowing, like, where you can put push your, know, MAO and where you can start, you know, your baseline of where you're starting with the offer. I also think it depends on the deal too. Like, most of our really, really big six figure wholesale deals have come off commercial or land deals. Just because your, you know, your percent that you're getting off of that deal is the same percentage as a single family, but that just the dollar amount is bigger, so you're getting paid more. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [21:17] Yeah. Yeah. And I I think that is super, super valid. And, like, looking back, you guys have had some crazy huge deals, which we'll dive into in just a second. But I think that view of kind of knowing what your buyers want though, is is really important. It's something that a lot of people tend to overlook. And honestly, Dan and I, we struggle with this where we tend to look at deals from what we would wanna buy them for, and not necessarily what someone else would wanna buy them for. And we've definitely missed opportunities because of that. Right? But I think it's sort of getting out of our own way of, like, thinking that we need to be able to purchase everything ourselves isn't true. I know from talking to Billy, he's taken a really aggressive approach towards that, especially with some of, like, the land and the commercial stuff that you guys have done huge deals on. Mhmm. I guess one thing I will say with that, it definitely helps being in Dallas, Dallas Fort Worth, which is such a huge area, has so much economic development just going on with with big money doing stuff. But, you mean, either way, it's no I know, like, making those connections are still equally challenging.

Tarah Fernandes: [22:17] So Yeah. And that's something that we're actually putting a lot more focus in, are focusing on our buyer relationships, especially as this market, you know, has gone wonky and it's changing more into a buyer's market. We're putting a huge emphasis on cultivating our existing relationships with buyers. How do we get more, you know, additional new relationships with newer buyers or buyers that we don't know yet? So that's gonna be a really big focus here for us, at least the in the upcoming months.

Mike DeHaan: [22:47] How do

Dan Austin: [22:47] you go about that? I know it's it's easier said than done. Like, you're saying cultivate with existing and new relationships. Is there anything specific you are doing to do that?

Tarah Fernandes: [22:55] Yeah. So we have a goal of every week. Billy holds these relationships. Right? Because he's the sales guy. But every week, he either goes and has coffee or lunch with two buyers. Again, just kind of keeping us top of mind. We've got these Christmas cards that I'm I'm putting out over the next couple of weeks for our buyers. Again, just top of mind just because, you know, we're one of a bunch, so we just need to stand out somehow. Then and, like, not only cultivating the relationship, but I also wanna know, like, has their buy box changed? You know? Are they buying in different areas? Have you know, is the building different, square footage different, amount that they wanna spend on a rehab, do they wanna tear down, do they want cosmetic, what is it?

Mike DeHaan: [23:45] That's awesome. Yeah. I think that saying top front of mind is super important, especially, like, we talked about as it is harder to dispo deals right now. Yep. I mean, buyers have choices, especially if they're big buyers. So they need to have a reason to buy your deal. It's not it's not like it was last year where everyone was so desperate for opportunities that you could just, like, sell whatever. Because people would just, like, we're just trying to take everything that they could. Now that things are a little bit more on the rocks, buyers are being a little bit more choosy. And they have to

Dan Austin: [24:14] Buyer's market.

Mike DeHaan: [24:15] It's a buyer's market. Exactly. So, you know, so they have the opportunity to be like, you don't wanna do that. I mean, even recently, we're trying to wholesale one with someone that was absolutely in somebody's box. And they were like, well, you have your deal. I have this other one that I like better. So I'm

Dan Austin: [24:28] just not gonna buy yours. I'm gonna buy this other one instead. And we're like,

Mike DeHaan: [24:30] well, that sucks. But that's the reality of the market.

Dan Austin: [24:33] If you have that strong relationship with them, though, they might feel responsibility to you because they might like doing business with you. Like you're saying, going to coffee, sending out Christmas cards, being top of mind, being that trustworthy provider. I mean, that that's a I'm smiling because those are just some knowledge bombs right there for anybody listening to this, like how to do that.

Tarah Fernandes: [24:48] Well and and making sure your numbers are accurate. Right? Like Okay. So there have been we're actually doing a lot more referrals now where other wholesalers will come to us with their deal that they can't push. And and if the numbers work, we will send it to our buyers. But there's so much, you know, just people just don't know their numbers, and they say their rehab's, you know, only $30 when in reality it's 50. And once your buyer realizes that, they're not gonna trust you because it's the wrong number. So they trust us because we

Dan Austin: [25:20] have accurate information. Yeah. Just because you want it to be $30 doesn't mean it's $30. Like, there's a difference between wants and natural facts.

Tarah Fernandes: [25:27] Right. Right.

Mike DeHaan: [25:29] Yeah. And that can't be overstated too for the, like, the longevity of this business. You know, a lot of people, they will go and they will kind of fudge their numbers to make a quick buck, and they'll think that's a sustainable business model. Sure you can get away with that for a little while, you know, four months, five months, if you're lucky, then it does come back around. I mean, we've even seen that with like some of the larger companies that used to exist here in Spokane. They do not anymore. Because their whole business model was kind of fudging the numbers, and they would do that wholesale side. Then after a while, they started to believe their own bullshit, and they were they were buying their own properties with their own false numbers, and lo and behold, they didn't plug it. Surprise.

Dan Austin: [26:08] It didn't work out. Yeah. It is funny. Mike and I have looked at some of the deals our other competitors, like deals we were competing on, where we're like, the numbers just don't work, and people that they sold them to, and people, you're like, they lost. And you know, because then you go and look what it sold for, you're like, oh, they lost $50. They're not gonna be whole they're not gonna be a a flipper again for the next year. No. I mean, just lost a buyer. Yeah. Right.

Tarah Fernandes: [26:28] Yeah. Right.

Mike DeHaan: [26:29] So, awesome. Well, I wanna dive into your big deals here in just a second. But before we do, I wanna just stay on your your business processes. So I know that from you being on the marketing analytics side, just from talking to other people that are that are in our our same group, a lot of people have high praise for how you put together your list in the meticulous way that you do your marketing and your data. So can you give us like just a brief overview kind of of what that looks like? And I guess any tips for people that want to be proficient at that and not waste a bunch of money on marketing?

Tarah Fernandes: [27:01] Yeah. Yeah. And I get this question all the time on, like, oh, how do you how do you market so well? Like, honestly, it's super simple because I can't complicate things. My little on Ted, it it won't go well. So, like, I have to keep things super simple. I'm just super consistent. Like, all I do is every Monday. On Mondays, I market. So I will pull pull the list that I need to pull that week depending on, you know, what what deals are going well, what deals are closing, those types of lists. Do I need to remarket to that? And I just pull them on Mondays, and I do it weekly. I know some people do it monthly, which works for them, but I know I'm either going a 110 miles an hour or I'm the laziest person ever. So I just put a calendar invite on my calendar. And on Mondays, I remind myself, okay. This is when I need to pull my list. So that's, in a nutshell what I do. Yeah. And then the types of lists I pulled, the stuff that works for us the most and has been the last couple years are just high equity lists. It's nothing crazy exciting. You know, we do market to niche lists, but that's not like our bread and butter. Niche lists, I've actually found aren't doing as well right now just because, you know, people don't have as much money to market with. So what do they do? They go to the niche list because they're small list. You don't have to spend as much money.

Tarah Fernandes: [28:28] So all of those houses are getting nailed with everybody.

Mike DeHaan: [28:33] Uh-huh.

Tarah Fernandes: [28:33] So we don't actually, you know, see as many deals that way just because everyone's getting hit by that.

Mike DeHaan: [28:39] So we get by it. Yeah. And you say just high equity is absentee owners, or is that just, like, all high equity?

Tarah Fernandes: [28:46] It's both. High equity, absentee, owner occupied. We've kind of, if you wanna, like, narrow it down, we've narrowed it down based on the year built. Right. So we do everything that's older than twenty fifteen and then square footage. So we don't want massive houses. We don't run-in that space. So anything that's 2,200 square feet and smaller. So those those are, like, my filters, if you will. But

Mike DeHaan: [29:12] Sweet. I like it. And then for data, you're just using PropStream, you know, RealFlow.

Tarah Fernandes: [29:19] Deal machine deal machine, PropStream, list source. Each have their own little, you know, quirks about it. So I'm not devoted to one just because they all are different in their own ways, so kind of pull depending each one.

Mike DeHaan: [29:37] Yeah. And then to compile all that, do you use do you have, like, a giant complex spreadsheet, or what do you use?

Tarah Fernandes: [29:43] No. No. I use Resift. So or Reisift, and that's where I house all of my data. That's how I keep everything organized with the number of lists that I've got. I have a whole tagging system so I know, okay. I've mailed this, you know, these 15,000 records in October, so I'm not gonna mail them again in November. Or maybe I am gonna mail them again in October because they hit my, you know, certain parameters that I wanna be able to be top of mind every month. And that ReSift just keeps it super easy by being able to tag things and know when I've mailed or what I've mailed, if I've mailed a postcard versus a letter versus something else.

Mike DeHaan: [30:28] Yeah. And what you just said right there is what I was trying to push you towards, because I know that you do that.

Tarah Fernandes: [30:34] I felt it. I felt it.

Mike DeHaan: [30:36] And that that is like, I can't emphasize enough, because that is so, I guess, like impressive how you sort of built out that system of, you know, that meticulous way that you go through and you look at those little details. Right? Because like like you said, the person, like people can go and pull out the bankruptcy list and they run it's actually a long budget, they just mail that. But you're actually going through and you're reviewing your data based off different criteria bench up based on when you mail them. If they still fit your criteria, you look for those little nuances, and you basically create your own niche list doing that. Yeah. And I think that that is the secret sauce that I don't even necessarily know if you realize that you have. And when people reach out to you and they say, what are you doing? That's what they wanna hear. But here's the crazy thing is you can tell them exactly that. And they'll be like, that sounds too hard. I don't know if I can do that. And exactly. And that's why you will continue to be more successful than that person.

Tarah Fernandes: [31:27] Well and then really it really is just very boring work. Right? It's not

Mike DeHaan: [31:31] It is.

Tarah Fernandes: [31:32] Nothing flashy. Like, I'm sitting there with, you know, all the data. And I think one of the things too that people tend to overlook, and I tend to overlook it too, just because you're just busy with life, is Mhmm. The, you know, looking back at what's worked. So pulling Yeah. You know, if you've closed whatever 10 deals over the last thirty days, pull that information and figure out, okay, where did those records come from? Is there a list that they've all come from? And remail that. Send them in a postcard versus, you know, a mailer or a letter or or something different or give them a cold call because that list happens to be working Sure. Right now. It may not work in another three, four months. It'll switch to a different list, which is fine. You just have to, like, stay on top of what's working.

Mike DeHaan: [32:19] Wow. Yep. And that is, I think, like, the sign of a good marketer. Right? You have your key performance indicators, your KPIs that you're tracking, how many deals you're closed, where they came from. You're testing it. Right? You're retesting it with a different kind of marketing, you're comparing what worked and what didn't, and you're being consistent. And I think that testing that retesting and that consistency and then having a tracking mechanism is really, really powerful.

Dan Austin: [32:45] And being being agile, like you said, sometimes lists stop working for three month in in three or four months, and you gotta you have to be agile to switch to something else and keep doing, like I said, test and retest and keep moving forward.

Tarah Fernandes: [32:55] Yeah. Because, I mean, marketing is just it's as much an art as it is a science. Right? Like, you Uh-huh. Sometimes you have to throw stuff up and see what sticks, and that's the scary part that people don't wanna spend money on. But you have to if you wanna grow, and then all the while still grooming the stuff you know that is worth it.

Dan Austin: [33:13] I know Mike and I joke and, like like, you've put a put a system around what Mike and I call the moon cycles. Like, I don't know. Just the different moon cycles that list hit hard this time.

Mike DeHaan: [33:23] Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. But that awesome. That's great stuff, Tara. That's it's really, really awesome. And, know, if anybody is listening to this, go and to that section. Because honestly, the little nuance that she does there, if you're unclear on those, like, you I will get Tara's information after after the show, but go and reach out to her and just like ask for any sort of clarifications because that is seriously the magic of being very, very successful in this business with a small team is knowing how to For sure. Details like that. So super cool. Awesome. So as we start to sort of round up here, before we get into our our final questions, let's hear your humble brags on the big deals you guys have done. Because you guys have done some of the most impressive deals that I've ever heard of.

Tarah Fernandes: [34:05] Oh, gosh. Humble brags. Honestly, I think my most humble brag and you're probably trying to go more towards wholesale deals, which wholesale deals, you can have really big checks. Right? Which we've gotten a few of those. But I think my most favorite is the storage facility that we own because remember, like, my whole goal from the very beginning was passive income. Right? That that was my end all be all was I wanted passive income. So that way I could sit back and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

Mike DeHaan: [34:35] Mhmm.

Tarah Fernandes: [34:36] So this storage deal we got actually from the owner sold us one of his duplexes and just created a relationship with Billy, really liked him, and the guy was retiring. And he had a storage facility, and he was like, hey. You you wanna buy it? And we were like, yeah. Probably. So A little bit. Yeah. A little bit. A little bit. And so we just kind of walked through the numbers and knowing nothing about storage. Like, this is our first commercial deal, and we just kind of figured out, okay. What are the rents in the area? Can we compare that? Is there some sort of gap between what people are renting out the units for and what they're currently renting it out for? And and there was. There was a major gap. So we purchased it. And super long story short, we stabilized everything, and now it's producing, like, I think, like, $8,000 a month in passive income just to billion 9. So That's awesome. Awesome. That one's probably my favorite.

Dan Austin: [35:36] But A $100,000 a year in passive income. You can't hate that.

Tarah Fernandes: [35:40] Off one. And then the tax

Mike DeHaan: [35:42] Off one.

Tarah Fernandes: [35:42] Yeah. You know, the tax depreciation on that, they're paying off my mortgage, which we owner financed it through the guy. So he's also getting mailbox money. So total win win.

Mike DeHaan: [35:53] Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Awesome. That's huge. That's the kind of asset that every buy and hold investor strives for. Yes.

Dan Austin: [35:59] Yeah. But It's a legacy property right there.

Mike DeHaan: [36:01] It is. But just because I'm a I'm a meathead, I have to go with, like, the wholesale equipment of what's your bench question. What's your what's your biggest deal?

Tarah Fernandes: [36:09] What am I benching right now?

Mike DeHaan: [36:11] Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Ask the gym question. What do you bench,

Dan Austin: [36:14] bro? Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [36:15] What's your biggest wholesale check?

Tarah Fernandes: [36:17] I don't remember the exact one. It's around, like, $3.70. $300,000

Mike DeHaan: [36:25] from one assignment.

Tarah Fernandes: [36:27] Yeah. It was another actually storage facility deal. We decided we didn't wanna keep it, so we wholesaled it. But I could tell you, like, a year a year ago, year and a half ago, we had our first six figure assignment. And I was like, there's no way that's normal. Like, we're lucky to get that one. Like, that's totally not normal. And then, like, three months later, we got another one, and we're like, okay. That's that's weird. And now, like, if we're not getting as like, the it's it seems a little ego y, but it's not. If we're not getting a 6 figure assignment every, like, handful of months, I'm actually getting a little concerned.

Mike DeHaan: [37:08] Oh, man. Yeah.

Tarah Fernandes: [37:09] It's regular. And it's just who you market to and what their motivations are and and that kind of thing. So And

Mike DeHaan: [37:16] your and your buyers.

Tarah Fernandes: [37:16] That's my benching. And I don't like talking about it, but that's my benching.

Dan Austin: [37:20] Benching.

Mike DeHaan: [37:22] Yeah. I love it.

Dan Austin: [37:23] You got a huge bench press record.

Mike DeHaan: [37:25] Yeah, right. Yeah. If I if I'm not benching for place once a month, I don't even want to count it. I'm not even that strong.

Dan Austin: [37:30] Oh, my gosh.

Mike DeHaan: [37:33] Well, yeah, you're too humble. Seriously. Awesome. Well, this is great stuff, Tyre. I really, really appreciate you going through all that. And, you know, they don't like talking about it. I mean, that is that is really impressive. So people do want to hear it. Thank you.

Dan Austin: [37:45] You earned the brag. You earned the brag. Yeah,

Mike DeHaan: [37:48] you did. Yeah, you have a very, very big bench press should be proud. But alright. So we're gonna go into our sort of roundup questions here. And the first question is the group favorite. I know you guys have some good ones. But what is your craziest real estate investing story?

Tarah Fernandes: [38:05] Craziest real estate investing story. Gosh. Billy's got all the crazy ones because I'm the dork in the closet that does all the data. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I would say the craziest one he came back to so he used to run all of our appointments, right, and go meet with the sellers and all that stuff. And I remember he called me on his way back from an appointment where it was just a total meth lab. You walked into the house, and and I'm gonna butcher the story because he's a way better storyteller. So have him on here, and he can tell the story.

Mike DeHaan: [38:35] As long as he promises not to tell the dog story.

Dan Austin: [38:37] The dog.

Speaker 4: [38:37] I was

Dan Austin: [38:38] gonna say, don't tell the dog story.

Tarah Fernandes: [38:39] Don't tell the dog story. That's that's like a Friday night after a couple of drinks, then then Yeah. Yeah. Story. But just, you know, having to deal with crazy people who had, you know, shot themselves up about five minutes beforehand, and they're passed out in the ground. He's gotta walk over them so he could take pictures of the house. Yep. Silly stuff.

Dan Austin: [39:02] Yeah. Yeah. That sounds about right. That sounds like some of our sellers right there.

Mike DeHaan: [39:06] Yeah. Unfortunate reality of the business. Right? Like, you know, you see stuff like that. It's not pretty, whether it's, you know, a homeowner that is having problems with, you know, with drugs themselves, or a lot of times we get, like, landlords that have tenants that are causing this sort of issues and Yep. You know, it's just it's just you start to see things that you never thought you would see when you

Dan Austin: [39:26] get into this landlord.

Tarah Fernandes: [39:27] Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's it's not the the sexy Chip and Joanna Gaines

Mike DeHaan: [39:33] stuff.

Dan Austin: [39:33] No. Not at all. You're the one you're the one getting that so Chip and Joanna Gaines can do their property. You gotta you gotta get the crackheads out of there first. Yeah.

Mike DeHaan: [39:40] Yeah. Yeah. Just just funny funny side tangent story. I think you're enjoying this. We had a guy on about a month ago that he does like new builds and like high end new builds and his one of his builds was on like the love it or listed or like one of those like a house hunters.

Dan Austin: [39:58] Oh, yeah. It was it was by flipping Boston or so was one of them.

Mike DeHaan: [40:02] Yeah. Yeah. But but the whole premise of the show was that, you know, you have like the homeowners that go and like pick the house. And, you know, they like was like, oh, we don't like this one because x y z, this is the one that we want. But he said that they had already bought the house like eight months before they came to film the show. What? And like, literally, they they showed up and they walked through like two pretend listings well, two listings and pretended like they were looking at them. They'd already bought the one that was, like, presented in the show. And he said the thing though that was so stupid was they put this big emphasis on, like, wow. They did such a good job staging. Look at how they put this couch here. It's like he's like, that's your couch. That's literally your couch. Why you like that

Tarah Fernandes: [40:39] couch. Exactly. Oh my gosh. I didn't know that.

Mike DeHaan: [40:44] Yeah. It's all just BS. Yeah. And then he said that after they they did he did two episodes of his houses, and then they started asking him about being on like a house flipping show. And after he sort of told him about the business, they're like, oh, that sounds like it has way too much drama for us.

Tarah Fernandes: [41:00] Yeah. Hey. Alright.

Mike DeHaan: [41:02] So they they don't even want the real story.

Tarah Fernandes: [41:03] That's so

Mike DeHaan: [41:04] Yeah. Was Damon Omano. This this episode came out probably about a month before this one. So you should definitely go back and and listen to that if anyone wants to hear that. But awesome. So second question, what is one piece of advice you would have for a new investor looking to get started or a small investor looking to take their business to the next level?

Tarah Fernandes: [41:21] I would just say be consistent. You know, none of us are geniuses. We're just more consistent than the average person. Consistent in your lead follow-up, consistent in whatever marketing tactics you decide to do. Just be consistent on them. You know? Not everything works right out of the gate. And especially the small business owner, you you try things and then they break, and then you try things again. And then, of course, they'll break. So I would just say be consistent on it.

Mike DeHaan: [41:49] Yeah. I think that I

Dan Austin: [41:51] love that. You gotta show up every day. Exactly when you're, like, worried to push the button. Like, Mike and I went through that. Right? Do we push the button again? The marketing button? Do we do it again? We're not feeling super good about it, and you do it. Keep You doing it, and then money rolls back in, and you're that's why you're still here today.

Tarah Fernandes: [42:06] Right. Right. Well, and building a team too. Right? Like, you're this is your baby that's learned that, like, you were holding for a while, and now it's starting to learn how to walk, and you're like, okay. Well, like, this is my baby. Please take care of it kind of thing. Yeah. So but you have to.

Mike DeHaan: [42:23] Yeah. And that is the most important thing. And like I said, this we're not all geniuses. This business isn't rocket science. And there are very few business models that literally a a couple or even an individual could do the same thing could go from getting started to making 7 figures in fourteen months with no real experience in the business beforehand. Like, that is, you know, people who have other businesses, whether it's like a trade business or they're selling widgets or things like that, they spend literally years and years trying to get to 7 figures worth of revenue. Right.

Dan Austin: [42:52] Trying to figure that out.

Mike DeHaan: [42:53] You know, and this just because the size of the transactions and the way that, you know, the business kinda works, you can do that in a very short way.

Dan Austin: [42:58] And you can do it with high profit margins, like, you guys had a you still have a lean team, but starting out, you had a very lean team, two people. Right?

Mike DeHaan: [43:05] Yeah. I mean, those profit margins are incredible. Insane. Yeah. Awesome. So last question. Where can people find you, follow you, or reach out to you if you'd like them to do so?

Tarah Fernandes: [43:16] Yeah. They can find me on Instagram. Just terra underscore ferns, f e r n s.

Mike DeHaan: [43:23] Perfect. Easy.

Tarah Fernandes: [43:24] Easy. Easy peasy.

Mike DeHaan: [43:26] Yeah. Yeah. Thanks so much for coming on, Tara. It's been great. And did you I just realized I haven't seen your name wrong the entire time. It's actually Tara.

Tarah Fernandes: [43:33] Oh, that's okay. The you're it it's fine. I had a Like, does

Mike DeHaan: [43:37] it all feel terrible now?

Tarah Fernandes: [43:39] No. No. No. Don't feel bad.

Mike DeHaan: [43:40] You for a while. I know. I've literally said your name wrong the whole time.

Tarah Fernandes: [43:43] I had a boss for, like, probably five years. I worked for him for five years. And, like, the first and, like, his kids went to school with my youngest brother. Like, so we were, like, pretty connected. And I I remember correcting him, like, the first couple of months that I knew him. And then by the time, like, year four rolled around, I was like, you can call me whatever you want. It doesn't matter.

Mike DeHaan: [44:06] Probably. Well, either way, I apologize. I'm embarrassed about that now. So I'm gonna leave that in there.

Dan Austin: [44:12] I'm wondering where you got Tara from. I just kinda left it alone. I was like, that's kind of a weird way to say it.

Mike DeHaan: [44:16] Yeah. Get out of here, Dan. You're just trying

Dan Austin: [44:18] to jump on the the band. Never even make it a Alright. Thank you, Tara. Thank you for Tara for coming on today. Yeah. Whatever.

Mike DeHaan: [44:25] Oh, man. But

Tarah Fernandes: [44:27] It's my guy for Gambian.

Dan Austin: [44:29] Yeah. Call him Nick around here.

Mike DeHaan: [44:31] Yeah. But yeah. Right. Nick Dahane. Anyways, well, thanks, Tara, for coming on the show. Do really So appreciate much good stuff. And if you guys wanna reach out to her, go ahead and hit her up on Instagram. She posts a lot of great stuff on there as well. Really is a wealth of knowledge. Besides that, you guys, if you wanna learn how to create an offer market opportunity generating business like Dan and I have, and like Tara has, go and check out instantinvestorprogram.com. And we'll see if you're a good fit. We're gonna have a bunch of new offerings up there right now as well. So if you're an instantinvestorprogram.com, you can see all the different programs that we currently offer for you. Aside from that, guys, thanks so much for listening, and talk to you guys next week.

Dan Austin: [45:10] See you.

Mike DeHaan: [45:11] Thanks for listening, everybody. Please make sure you subscribe and leave us a five star review wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, please make sure you go and you share this with other people within your network. We are really trying to grow this thing, and the best way for us to do so is by you telling other people to come and check us out. You can also follow us on Instagram. I am at Mike underscore invest. Dan is at investor man Dan. You can follow the podcast at collecting keys podcast. And if you wanna learn how to make real money as a real estate investor or you want to grow your already existing real estate investing business, please go and check out instantinvestorprogram.com and book a call with either Dan or myself, and we will see if you'll be a good fit. Thanks for listening everybody, and talk to you next week.

Speaker 4: [45:55] Thanks for listening. Please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. And check us out at collectingkeyspodcast.com for tips and guides on starting your own real estate investment and wholesaling business.