SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hustlers, in today's episode of the Trump to Hustle Podcast, we're joined by a hustler who is known throughout the real estate investing space as the face of PropStream. In this episode, we go beyond the tool and get it to the story, how you got to where he is today, and the role he plays within one of the most powerful platforms in real estate. We also break down why PropStream is such a critical tool for investors and how most people are barely scratching the surface of what it actually can do. If you're serious about finding better deals and leveling up your business, this is an episode you don't want to miss. Today's episode, Burton Alicondo. Welcome to another episode of the Turn Up the Hustle Podcast, where real estate investors and entrepreneurs show their stories, strategies, and mindset behind our hustle. I'm your host, Michael Giannis, aka Mr. Hustle. To my right, Skylar Moon. Let's go. And today's special guest, Burton Alicondo. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_05 0:54

I'm doing very well. How are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Man, I appreciate it. I've been looking forward to this podcast, man. Just so you know. Okay. I've been looking forward to this podcast for a minute, man. So, but before we get started, I start every single podcast with this. My hustle is real estate wholesaling, real estate flipping, and real estate subject to by taking over people's payments. Yeah. When someone thinks of Burton, what's Burton's hustle?

SPEAKER_05 1:17

To educate people and understanding real estate data, um teaching them that data is not so black and white, that there's a story to be told when you're when you're looking at data. And my job is to be your tour guide. Just like if you were to go to Egypt, right? I'm your tour guide to help you understand the highway hieroglyphics that are on the wall. And that's my job is to help you understand that story when it comes to data. That's my hustle.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Understanding real estate data. Correct. And how to, as investors like myself, right, and my office and how to use that to capitalize on what we got to do. So burn's uh data. Now, when I think of burn, I honestly think it's the face of prop stream. I think prop stream, um, you just you just it has to be burn, right? Whenever I see prop stream, your face just pops up, man. So prop stream, of course, is a big um corporation in our industry, especially my industry when it comes to wholesaling flips and sub twos. But before the face of PropStream, before the data, who was Burton before all of this?

SPEAKER_05 2:12

Man, I'm just a regular human being. I've gone through struggles just like most people that are probably listening to this right now or watching this right now. You know, I'm not an educated man. I don't have any college degrees. I barely managed to get through high school only because I wasn't as focused as I am there. But just like most of you guys that are watching, I I have raw talents. I would say my best talent is just communication and being very competitive at heart. So who am I? Just someone that would blend in out there, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Someone that would blend in. You're from California?

SPEAKER_05 2:45

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

I was high school, you said you're buried.

SPEAKER_05 2:47

Yeah, so graduated in 04 Downey High School, shout out. Uh close to not graduating with my class. Uh again, wasn't really the most focused kid. While I could get good grades, I was more uh focused on just being wild, if you will, you know, and and kind of just to paint the reason why is I was my parents were going through it at that time. You know, my mom and father uh were going through a divorce. So I took this, uh, being the kid that I was at the time, I took it as an opportunity to just, hey, I don't have to be home. You guys are too you guys are too focused arguing with each other. I don't want to be in this environment. So I'm just gonna go skateboarding with all my friends until sundown. And then, you know, when I'm tired, I'll end up coming home. Uh still respectable to my parents, but you know, I that at that time I looked at it as a luxury when probably wasn't the best moment for most people, you know. But I would say that mixed with, you know, peer pressure and just trying to prove to people that I didn't need to prove, that kind of distracted me. I ended up getting expelled from high school in the junior year, but worked my way back so that I could graduate with my class in 04.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

So high school, troubled parents or trouble kind of issues going on with the parents. Yeah. And kind of took that for granted, and like, hey, let me just do my own thing. Correct. For for the most part, if you will. After high school, yeah, what's next?

SPEAKER_05 4:11

So after high school, um, workforce, really just kind of figuring out um what to do, right? Truth be told, my my parents at the time, my mom and my stepfather, uh rest in peace, Ross, he they gave me an ultimatum. And for most people, probably very similar ultimatum. It was either work full-time job or be a full-time student because insurance is gonna cut you off. So, oh, okay, well then I'll I'll do a full-time student thing, right? Get my 24 units at the local community college. But again, my mindset wasn't focused. So many attempts, multiple community colleges, several academic probations, um, and then eventually just kind of gave that up and just went straight into the workforce. First job was Wiener Schnitchels. I don't know if you guys have ever heard of that place before. Um, it was the hot dog place. And um, I it only lasted three months. I it I learned within 90 days or less, the food industry was just not for me. You know, there are many things that happened behind the scenes, and I was just like, yeah, um, probably why I don't eat at that place anymore. But the Wiener Schnitchell was my first job. I lived in uh Orange County, LA County at that time, uh right on the border. So after Wiener Schnitchels went out the door, uh Disneyland. I actually ended up working at Disneyland as a cast member, and so I learned there just I would say one thing I learned at and at Disneyland is just cultivating happiness, creating creating a culture. How do you because again, the the clientele is is is mainly children, right? And so what I loved about Disney is that they created this culture of like, hey, uh you guys are humans, you guys are our employees, but you're a cast member, and just that name alone, it's like you felt like you were part of something, and and that that being a part of something was maintaining this magic, this this magic for the children, right? Just to make sure that when they went to that park, that that their their uh imagination isn't shaken because you're having a bad day. So to me, that was one of the first things I I learned from like a huge corporation is you have to create a good culture. So went from Wiener Schnitzels to Disneyland, being exposed to that format, and then Starbucks.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

I mean, stop you at Disneyland though.

SPEAKER_05 6:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

So cast member, like what were you doing?

SPEAKER_05 6:45

So I used to work at um rides, Disney California Adventure. I worked at uh at the time the Hollywood Tower of Terror, which is now the Marvel Galaxy ride, and then uh worked at Bug's Life, which has unfortunately been removed, and now that's uh the new Marvel area. And then there was this ride called Soaring Over California, which is now called Soaring because now you fly in multiple countries across the area. So I ended up working multiple. Yeah, which is crazy. So um I don't know if you're familiar with Knott's berry farm, but those were like the two competitors in our area, two different formats with knots. You had to like work your way up from like entrance, like the like the entrance of the ride to the line manager at the at the middle of the ride and then behind the controls. Man, the first week at Disney, I was already touching buttons. Uh so yeah, they but I will say this they had a really crazy way, a good way of like educating everybody, training people, instilling the confidence and the education. So you were comfortable hitting that green button and comfortable hitting the red light if you needed to apprehend the light. I wish I was, which is funny. While I was getting hired, someone was like, you know, you could probably go for Aladdin. I was like, No, I'm all right.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

So that there could have been a moment.

SPEAKER_05 8:07

I could have been on the Aladdin ride or something. So that would have been funny.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Hustlers, real estate investing doesn't have to be overwhelming and you don't have to do it alone. If you've been watching from the sidelines, scrolling past deals on Zillow, or binging YouTube videos, but still not taking action, this is for you. That's why we built Hustle Academy, a community designed for new and experienced real estate investors who want to learn, network, and grow. Inside Hustle Academy, you'll get weekly live calls, QA sessions, and step-by-step classes on fix and flip, wholesaling, creative finance, and my favorite subject to deals. Everything you need to know to build real skills and start closing real deals. You'll join a powerful group of like-minded hustlers who are sharing wins, breaking down deals, and all pushing towards the same goal: financial freedom through real estate. If you're ready to level up, no matter what stage you're starting at, join Hustle Academy today, tap the link in the description, or visit hustleacademy.com and let's trump the hustle together. So you worked at Disney, you said something cool, right? Disney has great culture. Yes. They teach culture, or you just feel like the culture's already there and you kind of just get swarmed into it.

SPEAKER_05 9:20

You know, I that's that's a great question I've always asked myself. You know, was it something that you taught me, or is it something that I came in already like believing? Does that make sense? So I feel like they they have this luxury of like when someone applies for Disney, they're already bought in. They're already like, hey, I'm about to work at the happiest place on earth. Right. And you can just see it right now in my face. Like, could you just imagine you saying that? Like, I think Disney has already cultivated this culture. And so when I would say eight out of ten people are applying, most of them are applying because they want to be part of that culture. While the other two probably I just need a paycheck or something. But I great question. I I'm gonna say maybe a little bit both. Maybe they did create it at one point and then it just kind of became its thing. And so now most people are just naturally bought in. Whereas, like to that question, like I look at Chick-fil-A, for example. I think Chick-fil-A is where Disney was at in the early stages, where Chick-fil-A has created such a standard where you can't even tell if someone's been there for a week or someone's been there for 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 10:26

Right, everybody's like on it, right? Give it a few more years. I think people that are gonna be like trying to get work at Chick-fil-A, that's they know that already. So I don't think Chick-fil-A needs to train it. It's you already know. Yes, correct. So I think Disney is beyond training. I think it's just a thing now, and when people apply for it, they're already bought in.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

What's your ethnicity?

SPEAKER_05 10:53

Filipino.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Filipino. What'd your parents say working at Wienerschnitzel?

SPEAKER_05 10:57

Uh they were just happy I was finally getting a paycheck, to be honest with you. I mean, I was an 18-year-old at the time. I didn't even have my driving permit. I I spent most of my time skateboarding and just, you know, being out there, not being productive to society. So I think they were just relief that I finally got a paycheck coming in, which I would say was an eye-opener too, because you know, to get that first paycheck, even though it was 125 bucks for however many hours I had, it it kind of like sparked something in me where it's like, okay, well, that wasn't so bad. You know, and so from there it just became a part of life, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Isn't Wiener Schnitzel the one that had the big Wiener mobile driving around everywhere? Yes. Remember the whistle too?

SPEAKER_05 11:39

You had the whistle, and if you blew it, that was Wiener Schnitzel. Yeah, I thought it was Oscar Meyer. I thought it was a little bit more. Was it Oscar Meyer? Was it? I don't know. I think it was Wiener Schnitzel. Remember seeing that thing driving around? Maybe it was both. I think it was Oscar Meyer. Maybe they had competing wiener. You know what? You're right. I think it was. I think it was Oscar Meyer. Yeah, because you had the whistle. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

I was talking about Wiener Schnitzel. I was on the highway the other day and there was a Wiener Schnitzel billboard and it said America's favorite wiener. That's good. That's marketing. That's good. So that's great.

SPEAKER_05 12:07

Yes, after Disney. Um I go into Starbucks.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Why do Disney? It's such the happiest place on earth. Why would you live Disney to go work at Starbucks?

SPEAKER_05 12:14

Well, first it was the trans, the trans like the driving. So I I at that time I lived in a city called Downey. Disney's in Anaheim. So just getting to and from on that 91 freeway was like an hour and 15 minutes. So I I felt like I was already working before I even got there. Um and then not that it was Disney, it was it was mainly me again. I wasn't really focused on it, but there was also it wasn't it was hard to kind of move up, if you will. Like there it was such a big environment that for those that are at the entry level, there wasn't really a clear path to like where you were going. It was almost like, hey, you're just here, do your thing, and then get your pay. So for for me, it was it was hard to see, okay, well, what what's my next step here? Right. So I got kind of caught into that mindset where I'm like, oh, I just gotta go in and clock in, and then you can get paid every Wednesday or whatever it was.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Majority with population.

SPEAKER_05 13:18

Yeah, and so like I I guess with me being too comfortable and then the driving and whatnot. Me being too comfortable there made it easy for me to talk myself out of it, if that makes sense. Because I didn't have like this this reason to be competitive at Disney meant I was it was easy for me to talk myself out of it. Like, oh, the traffic, you don't have to work there because you're spending an hour to and from to get there, right? So just quit, go somewhere else. So I think because the lack of of a roadmap for for me as an employee, I was able to, again, get myself mentally checked out easily.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

What year was this?

SPEAKER_05 13:54

Uh, I think this was 05. Yes, 2005. The diamond year. I think it was like the 50th anniversary. I still have all my stuff. You should check it out.

unknown 14:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Okay, what's next?

SPEAKER_05 14:04

After Starbucks, after So Starbucks was uh, I would say a pivotal moment because when I were started working at Starbucks in Norwalk, that's when I met my uh my ex-wife. She had her father had owned a restaurant next door. Man, I just remember just head over heels when I first saw her, and then just eating at her restaurant, even though I didn't like the food, just eating just so I can, you know, have a conversation. Fast forward, she and I ended up getting married. We have our child, um, who's now you know soon to be 13. And yeah, but when I worked at Starbucks, it was just, I would say about two years. And then from there, I went into banking. I started working as a personal banker over the phone uh at Wells Fargo. And the reason it was over the phone is because I looked really young. I remember working at the at the uh actual branch, and they saw how good I was as a teller that my branch manager was like, hey, you know, I would really like you to be a personal banker, but you look so young, they're not gonna take you seriously. But we have a call center where they do personal banking over the phone. I think you could work for that. And I took her advice, worked at a call and center, and I was that guy you would call, you know, the back of your ATM card. You call that number and you would talk to a tell uh a phone rep. And if they saw something in your account that was like maybe you had equity or an asset, or you know, maybe you were going into overdrafts, they would push you over to our call center, and then we would try to get you on overdraft protection or a line of credit at the time. Now, this was like 07, oh this was 06, 07. So man, I kind of feel bad thinking about it now. But I made most of my profit as a PB2 opening up lines of credits. Again, 07, 08. I mean, people would literally just breathe on the phone and they would get approved. And so just again, looking back at it, I guess I would say I I played a role uh in in what what ended up happening in 08-09.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

The whole stated income era?

SPEAKER_05 16:13

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

That's so wild to me to think about how I mean imagine, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

If we had stated income. I make this much, give me all kinds of loans. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'd be crazy. Uh, again, just just again, data tells a story. So I I would remember looking at looking at a person's profile and and seeing either overdrafts uh or just you know, not a lot in the savings, but then on my other screen, I it would show me that they were approved for like a quarter million dollars of a loan. And it's like, what is going on here? But I mean, I never questioned it. For me, it was you got to get your commission. So make the offer, and if they get approved, that's the other department's decision.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Going through different types of work industry from restaurants to Disneyland?

SPEAKER_05 16:57

Yeah, restaurants to I guess entertainment, and then Starbucks is another restaurant, except they didn't make food at the time, and then um banking. That was my first uh expensive.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

How do we go from all that to was this prop stream?

SPEAKER_05 17:12

So after I guess the the recession had happened, I mean we a lot of people were just laid off from Wells Fargo, and so I ended up pivoting to a corporate office that did clothing. Uh, there's this company called Fallas Paredes. They used to have this uh these corporate, these places called Factory to You and um Factory to You? Yeah, it was Fac Well, actually they had two brands. It was Factory to You and Fallas Parettes, and they were discount clothing stores. I worked in Gardena, California for their headquarters. I was in charge of the help desk. So I when stores needed supplies, either hangers or there was a plumbing issue, they called an 800 number and I was the person in other line. So we would open up tickets, we would talk to vendors, um, you know, quote wars and stuff like that to see who can service our AC at the most affordable price. So I did that for about a year, and then it just wasn't for me. I and well, mainly A, it wasn't for me, and then two, that was in LA County, and my my girlfriend at the time, my my ex-wife, uh, my my son's babe mother, um, she lived in Orange County. So there was this moment where I'm like, hey, you know what? I just want to get closer to you guys, right? Or to her at the time. And so I just made the decision to move to Orange County and actually walk away from that job. They were paying her very well, but I ended up walking away just so I can move to Orange County. I haven't moved away since I've been in Orange County ever since. I think this was 09, 2010. And um, yeah, so I went from that corporate office to, and this is again a funny scenario here. I needed a job because I didn't want to be like that boyfriend who moved into the neighborhood who didn't have a job. I went to the local mall and got a job at GameStop. So I ended up working as a um just as a teller at GameStop. And this was just like, hey, I'm just here to get a paycheck just so I can find another job. So as I'm working at GameStop, I'm applying for other jobs, but they saw how good I was at communicating and attention to detail. Within eight months of being there, I was already a store manager at GameStop. So I was like, okay, well, you guys are paying aggressively. I can either go somewhere else or just manage the store in Orange County. And I was there for a good four years, five years.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

You're a big gamer? Not really.

SPEAKER_05 19:32

Um it was just a job. No, I yeah, I would say I grew up on gaming, not anymore, but like when I because I because of LA County and the area that we lived in at the time, my mom used gaming to kind of shelter me a little bit rather than going out there all night or during the summer. And I don't know if I should be telling you this, but like my parents, both of them had to work, and so my older brother, myself, would be like we would have to just stay indoors. Does that make sense? Like, we didn't have a babysitter, and my brother was like 11. I might have been, I think I was like nine. And so my parents were like, All right, we've you know, there's food in the refrigerator, just warm it up, but uh don't leave the house. And I mean, okay. So how do you keep your kids entertained this whole time for eight hours while you're at work? The Super Nintendo, you know, the Sega Genesis. So they they purchased that, and yeah, I got, you know, I was a 90s kid, fell in love with those games. And I will say, you know, looking back at it now, gaming did teach me um some funny enough, some life lessons that I implement today and what I do.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Give me an example of how Super Mario taught you a life lesson.

SPEAKER_05 20:43

Okay, for example, Super Mario. So if you ever played Super Mario, you know there's like secrets, right? Like a big one, Super Mario 3. Right. If you ever played that, that was a big one on Classic Nintendo. The first castle level, and this is a very popular thing. The first castle level, you can treat it normally and go into the door, or if you have the feather, you can fly over the map and then run across the top of the map. And then if you do that properly, you'll get these three tubes that actually shortcut you further into the game. So you start on like world one of two, but if you do this little trick, you can go to like seven of four. Why is this important? Is because back then you only had like X amount of lives. If you died, you start all over. So these developers had to implement these little shortcuts, if you will. How is that important to today? I learned at that time be thorough, right? It's not so right, just because it the path is clear, that doesn't necessarily mean that's the correct path to take. And so I learned from games like Super Mario, games from like like Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong Country, and other things like Halo, even that be thorough. Like look everywhere. Because there's Easter eggs, there's hidden secrets, there's power ups. Fast forward, yeah. I'm I I look at Diddy. data thoroughly because again it tells a story and it I implemented that so for me I I I know parents will say well it rots your brains funny enough I just read an article that said like you should be playing games because it like mentally like keeps you young so I I I I'm I benefited from it from a long time but that's how I would say it kind of has a full circle in my life. I've ever seen anybody go deep on video games like that yeah yeah but I I will say again not all games are are created equally there are games out there that are just brain rotting games so I'm for me when it comes to games I'm more of the game like the guy that likes the the the storytelling or the the role playing aspect right versus hey there's a gun there's enemies shoot like that to me is not entertaining yeah at all I think it depends what so I was not a gamer as a kid at all but there was a couple the Sims the computer game.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Yep. So I mean you get to I don't think I've got any deep any deep emotional connection or any kind of intellectual benefit out of it other than it stimulates the brain right I think we would play Sim City and you know you build a city and figure how to do that but like I like you said these games nowadays where it's just like let's just murder as many people as we can and you've got yeah what's the big one everybody plays? Uh Wonder Warfare? Call it no no no the one that's been taking like 16 years for them to make the last number six uh version of it you know what I'm talking about no no no no no the one you're like you're killing people and you got the like that kind of stuff out of them yeah see and I agree with that right and it's funny that you say Sims right it's funny that you say Sims too because like I I played that I played Sims Civilization where you're Did you play Sim Tower?

SPEAKER_05 23:42

No I never did like the hotel and stuff I did like Sim Cities I did Sims game and then I remember Sid Meyer's Civilization but like even that like I remember just being like in my early teenager I remember being 12 13 years old like looking at Sim City and like what what do I do here? But then I learned like oh hold on you got to build buildings and then certain buildings produce profit for you to then create other buildings. So even at that age gaming was still kind of teaching me and I'm this is my argument to it again not all games are created equally but you got to ask yourself this who's creating the game? Yeah it's it's a developer and this is a person who spent four plus years at school right they're utilizing their intelligence within their coding so that's why a lot of games in the early 90s and 80s and even early 20s implemented a lot of like puzzles. Like I use a game like Resident Evil for example while it's killing zombies there's thousands of puzzles within that game in order for you to progress forward. So I I always use that as like a justification like while yes games could be viewed in a bad way just remember there are educated men and women that are developing these games and they're pouring their knowledge into this this art of theirs and it's taught me a few things you ever hear a game called Organtrail Macintosh with the floppy disk. The cattle died crossing the river in Mississippi that's too bubble I would have never remembered any of this stuff and wouldn't have this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

I'm gonna do it now but I would have never thought about this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Yeah all right fast forward to pass all this game and stuff when did Burton and Props meet for the first time how did that come about that was by happenstance.

SPEAKER_05 25:24

It was 2013 I ended up getting I ended up getting fired uh from pro uh from GameStop and I guess the reason was the company wasn't profiting anymore. They were starting to consolidate closed stores and so I was on the chopping block. I was let go in 2013 uh the situation at that moment was uh my ex-wife was seven months pregnant and so she's seven months pregnant I just lost my job I'm in desperation mode and like most people during that time um Craigslist. So I was like okay well I need a job today let's get on Craigslist and then there's this ad that I see and it's like small software real estate software company in Lake Forest California looking for tech support and this close to not filling out the application only because it asked for a cover letter most of the Craigslist ads was just like just give us your resume this one was like we need a cover letter and in my head I was like you guys are desperate like why do you need a cover? You guys are you guys are posting your ad on Craigslist yet you're asking for a cover letter like that just seems like opposite like pe most people that are looking for an employee on Craigslist just need someone right away. If you got a post you're in yeah so I I was like at first no but then I doubled back created the cover letter shot it out get a phone call the next day um great conversation over the phone they pull me in the next day to do a live interview and I must have sold them on the spot because did that interview on a Friday and again ended up getting a call that afternoon and they're like hey would you like to start the following Monday and that was June 14th of 2013.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

2013 now you're on Creslist you're looking for a job yeah and prop what did it say PropStream or when you said real estate what is it real estate data tech?

SPEAKER_05 27:17

Well it it was uh for most people that didn't know PropStream is a is a product name uh the company name is Equamine so that was the company I got hired into Equamine which had a product called PropStream and other products as well so is Equamine's a software company and PropStream is one of them. So I got hired Equamine and then I did tech support with for for a lot of their products including PropStream.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

At that time how many people so is it two different companies or is it like a brand?

SPEAKER_05 27:42

Oh it's just it's it's it's a comp it's it's a brand. So Equamine was ran by two owners uh probably just more than half a dozen employees in 2013.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

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SPEAKER_05 28:45

PropStream in 2013 yes what was PropStream doing back then in 2013 and what was your role like because from a from watching Craigslist to down in my opinion being the face of PropStream how does that journey from 2013 like man hey I went on Craigslist I got a job what was your role exact tech data or was it yeah it was technical so what does that mean what do you what do you So at the time PropStream was software based there was no PropStream.com it was software and so most of our users had to install software you guys remember that installing a CD yeah you had to do that with PropStream and you had to have 56k or DSL because that was the thing back then. So if someone was doing that and something were to happen my job was to speak to them on the phone uh troubleshoot either over the phone and if if for whatever reason they're not able to troubleshoot it I was able to remotely access their computer then install it, you know, do whatever I needed to do, you know, update their drivers fix their operating system. So very hands-on with you know adjusting people and making sure the product ran accordingly in their product or in their computer but for me you know this is 2013 Burton it was just another job to be honest with you because again in my desperation I I had a a wife at the time that was seven months pregnant they answered the call so for me it was like I'm just gonna do what you guys need me to do um so I could get my pay obviously insurance is important because I'm about to have a kid and I was still looking at other jobs. As a matter of fact I when I when when I first joined Propsham I didn't know anything about real estate and so when some of our customers would call and they would say oh I do wholesaling or I do creative stuff financing I'm like are we is this a scam? Like I really thought at first I was working for a company that was scamming people and I'm like what do we do and then I you know talked to the owner I'm like so Rob and that was the owner at the time I what what do we do? And then he like kind of explained the whole process of what real estate investors do and you know the roles of the different profession. Because I I was under the impression and I'm sure most people that are probably listening to this that don't know real estate I was under the impression or this misconception that like in order to do real estate you had to go through an agent. Right? Like you had to go through an agent. Like you can't buy a house without an agent and if you did you're doing something funny you know you're doing something you're doing you're scamming. Especially in 2013. Yeah and so for me I you know just hearing these callers say I'm oh I'm doing this I'm doing that kind of like made me think about so thankfully with that conversation with the owner at the time I mean he knew a lot more than I did because he created the product uh it kind of made me feel more comfortable in what I was doing uh so you know for the first year or two it's just tech support for the software.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Speaking of the product what was the product back then? Because now everything's online everything's instant data click one click and you've got everything at your fingertips but like you said back then the internet was obviously been around for a little while but it wasn't where it's at today. You know there was I don't think even Uber was around back then. There's a lot of things that people have to go back in their memory. There was not a lot of it uh Craigslist was the Facebook marketplace now it's Facebook marketplace everything was just in a very different world back then.

SPEAKER_05 31:52

What was the product like it was it you know so the the concept of the product uh the the reason the product was created was because there was a need to save time prior to software any of that technology uh real estate professionals were physically gathering their data and so it was either you know you had the MLS um you know the leads were on paper um i either that or you're going to the county directly to pull your leads you know your auction data your pre-foreclosures and so the owners of PropStream at the time saw this opportunity which is we can be that we can be the people we we can be the software that's gathering that data and bringing it to these real estate investors to save them time rather than spending a day or two doing that you know you can pay our subscription which is I believe like 20 bucks at the time and then you know pull the limited data that we had and it was like pre-foreclosures and foreclosures and cash buyers.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

So in a world before all the connectivity how were y'all getting that data were y'all sending somebody down to the courthouse in every county and now they're gonna how would y'all get it a great question.

SPEAKER_05 32:58

So there's repositories out there there's huge companies that are already collecting that data from property details I mean like for example County has a lot of that information they have the tax data they have the property owner uh data or the property owner's name so the goal was really the way I view real estate software it's it's it's a jigsaw piece right and it's these software companies including us we're we're just gathering data to kind of create this bigger jigsaw puzzle. Now we don't have every piece but our goal is to get you the mortgage data from this vendor and then the tax data from the county and then the MLS data from the MLS board in that market so that when you pull it up in Prop Shim you get that that that picture. That's today back then it was just just get the data for people. Right and you didn't have to like piece it together and create this this what we have today it was people just want foreclosure pre-foreclosure data and cash buyer data and that was what Prophom fulfilled at that time in 2013.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

That's pretty cool. Definitely came a long way right so from back then 2013 till 2026. So after doing tech data what's the next step with you and PropStream like how did you come evolve to burden with PropStream?

SPEAKER_05 34:07

So when so PropStream I guess the way that it was kind of I viewed it was that it was an autopilot uh kind of product where when I came in in 2013 because PropStream was around since 2006. So I came in in 2013 and and this was just autopilot already right we've already had our users uh we had some white labels because we had some big names we were working with like Rich Dad Poor Dad and a few others um so Propchin was already good in terms of it had its clients it was already maintaining profit because of its subscription model but then uh around 2015 2016 the need of going web based was just we needed that right like nobody's doing CDs anymore like laptops at that time are being sold on the market without CD players anymore like everything's going digital so a huge investment was made by one of the owners and I mean huge this this gentleman like sold everything he sold his house he just took uh his entire life worth and just dumped it into um the conversion of going from CD to prop stream.com not only did we go from cd to propstream.com but we also introduced new data and that new data was nationwide MLS and so looking back at it now I think we were just in the right place at the right time you know we captured lightning in a bottle and that was going from old interface which was a CD interface to a dot com interface but also supplying not just the data that we already have but that MLS data because the need of comping was very very important especially in markets that we're in right now Texas. And so when we introduced PropStream.com with our nationwide MLS data like the marketing was it's like it it marketed itself at that point. And so with that and then the rise of of YouTube influencers right people now teaching real estate like you said the 2013 I I wasn't aware of what you could do with real estate but that I would say the cat got out of the bag around 2015 2016. You started seeing some really huge names you know just the ones I can think of at the top of my head you know Tyrone Taylor Flipman Max Maxwell uh Tony the closer uh Sean Terry there was just a lot of people that were just on their YouTube channel just constantly in training and so we decided as a company how can we support them and that was where our partner program came in and I I became I went from tech support to okay now you're part of the partner program but there's a problem. And the problem is no one knows how to use a product and so when I heard that that was where I I made it a decision that okay maybe I should start creating some help videos or maybe I should just join their webinars for them and teach that product and that's kind of the angle I've been taking for the last few years.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

So for a brand new wholesaler who's never heard of PropStream I know we've been going into it for the past few minutes but what exactly to someone brand new who wants to start wholesaling what is PropStream and how can they help wholesale PropStream can again help you identify off market most importantly off-market motivated or distressed properties.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

Motivate sellers are distressed properties and again the most important there is the off-market part as wholesalers obviously trying to look for properties that are not listed. So we can hugely support you in that aspect by helping you find you know that that owner who's just going through it that hasn't reached out to an agent yet maybe their house is not suitable for that strategy. So wholesalers can utilize us to build their leads uh get contact information and even connect to these owners not only that we do provide property information which I think is important because when you're having conversations with homeowners or you're you know looking at it at a property as we said earlier data tells a story and so our goal as I mentioned was to get all the puzzle pieces and and put it in front of you so that you can get kind of a an idea of what what what this property is going through. I'm a firm believer no two properties are the same while some properties might have a hundred pieces and it's puzzle some might have 10,000 pieces.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

And so our goal is to see how many pieces we can provide you so that way you can get a a vivid picture if well or a decent enough picture of you know how to solve that situation let me ask you you said that one of your at the very beginning you said one of your top uh personal skills is being well spoken which obviously we can tell where did you get that from was that something natural is that something you learned along the way because that helps with what you're doing now obviously being on so many webinars being able to articulate the product so well being able to I mean you have to communicate communicate with what you're doing. So where did that come from?

SPEAKER_05 38:55

Well I I I would say initially I I blame my mom um initially started with her in fourth grade she persuaded I would say more forced me to to run for student body uh so I remember going on the cafeteria stage in front of probably 500 fourth and fifth graders and then giving a a public speech on why I should be their vice president I ended up winning yay. Nice but I I would say it started there and then for me I'm I another thing I would say Skylar is that I'm very curious. I just I love learning I've not just about like the world but like how things work and then people you know I am cultivated I'm just captivated by just learning something. And so when it comes to humans I mean no two humans are the same. So like it's always entertaining. Sometimes I could end up like doing this where I'm just talking to someone for hours but you know for me that fills my tank.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Yeah it's definitely a good skill my mom actually called me a couple months ago and I've got a 14 year old sister so we're 20 years apart. And uh she I don't even know why she asked me but she asked me you know what should what should I be having Chloe my Chloe's her name what should I have her in and I said dude the two things you should have her in right now is AI classes how to learn how to use it whether she likes it or not and public speaking classes. If you know how to speak publicly I mean that I personally think that's probably the biggest skill set and I've talked about this before but I mean if you want to be in sales you have to know how to speak right if you want to be in anything you want if you want to act if you want to be you know you even see like professional athletes right golfers for example I watch a lot of golf and so the golfers at the end of the at the end of the round they've got to go out and give a press conference right you don't want to be the one idiot that wins a million dollars in four days in a golf tournament is like oh you know yeah I just you know played well so you really have to you know it's it is a really good life skill I think that it's something I think even Warren Buffett said that you know the number one skill you can invest in would be you know how to communicate because if you want to get the raise at your job whatever job it is whether it's working at a clothing store like you said or whether it's working at you know Starbucks or a company like yours you have to be able to communicate your ideas to somebody you have to be able to communicate why you're the guy and so that's really cool that you have that skill. And I think that is that's one thing that I tell a lot of people is you really really need to invest in public speaking. Whether you're gonna be on a stage or not just in life in general if you can't communicate and get your point across it makes life much, much more difficult.

SPEAKER_05 41:10

And I'm happy you're teaching your sister that because your sister and my son are not too far apart in terms of age my son's gonna be 13 years old and I I've told them the same thing. I go look while I would love for you to have straight A's and be the 4.5 GPA kid in school like the reality is you know you're gonna have moments where you're gonna be there and moments where you're not gonna be there but what I would love is for you to just be able to look eye to eye to someone and carry a conversation and go from there. And I I think it's more important for that age group than ever before and I tell I tell my son this, Skylar, and you're probably telling your sister the same thing I tell my son like focus on communication today because later on you're gonna have such an advantage when eight out of 10 kids are just on their tablets like this. Yeah more so now than ever. Yeah to be that two out of ten to communicate like you'll be able to empower a lot of people you know and again when you have a lot of people looking at tablets and watching YouTube streamers and or whatever, you know they're gonna be they're they're creating this behavior within themselves to want to listen to somebody right that's what they're doing now on these tablets. So if you're that person who's very well spoken naturally people are going to listen to you because that's going to be society later on.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Any person who is of any kind of like high level individual whether it be a YouTuber whether it be a CEO of a company whether it be the president of the United States anybody who's in any kind of higher position within that industry, that field, I feel like you have to be able to communicate right it's very difficult that you see somebody who's a CEO of any kind of business, whether it's a small or big business who is you know not very well spoken. So I think that it's very it's a life hack that most people overlook. But I mean anything from being a podcaster a YouTuber president a CEO a good salesperson on the phone that's doing online sales or whatever or over the phone sales I mean you just need to be able to communicate and you know I definitely think it'll it's a very powerful asset to have yeah let's go back to uh PropStream.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

So prop stream and wholesaling kind of go hand in hand, right? Yeah. What do you think about the wholesaling market now? Do you think we passed the peak of wholesaling?

SPEAKER_05 43:13

No I I I think that it it's a pendulum. I I think everything in life is is a pendulum it swings one way and it goes back the other way. While it's not 2015-2016 uh anymore where I mean you go on YouTube and you you see it like it was like let me teach you how to wholesale here's how many deals I've closed um I feel like the industry uh has gotten a little tougher and I feel like it kind of has weeded out those that just didn't have the business model to to last the longest. And so kudos to if you're listening to this and you're still in the operation, kudos to you because it's not it's not as easy as it was before. You're dealing with regulations, you're dealing with you know market values going high, interest rates as well Competition, um, not just from other wholesalers, but other real estate professionals who are starting to catch a wind of outbound marketing, you know, especially after COVID. You know, I I don't mean that sound bad, but like prior to COVID, I wasn't seeing real estate agents do outbound marketing. Like I, when I viewed a real estate agent prior to COVID, I saw them more as, hey, here's my brand or word of mouth, right? So most of their deals, and again, I'm not trying to talk for every real estate agent out there, because I know there were some out there that were already doing what I'm about to mention, but for the majority of them, I I would I think most of them were not used to outbound marketing. Now, I again maybe I could be wrong here, but I I think I read an article that like last year, even 71% of real estate agents didn't do a single deal. Not one deal. Right. So I is it them or is it just the the industry has shifted? And I truly believe COVID forced the shift. And that shift was you need to do outbound marketing. And my reason for it, or the way I viewed it, was being an agent in 2019 before COVID, you had an office, you had your billboards, you had your word of mouth, your references, right? But then COVID hit, your office is shut down, or you can't go to it anymore. Right. So someone who needs to sell their house, they can't go to your office anymore. And they probably don't know your number, right? Or they have to remember your brokerage name or whatever your company name and then search that. Most are not going to have that type of memory because they're going through something, right? They're going through something in life. What they're typing, how do I sell my house during COVID? That's why we saw a rise in iBuyers open door. Even Zillow got involved with, hey, we'll just buy it outright. So real estate agents, even wholesalers are now under competition. But I think the wholesalers were good because they were already used to doing outbound marketing. Right. But again, the competition increased because now you have these other real estate professionals, especially real estate agents, who are like, hold on, we got to do what these investors, these wholesalers are doing now. We can't wait for the client to come to us. We got to get in front of that client. And I won't I would be lying if I told you that I personally saw an increase of real estate agents starting to use PropStream in the last few years because of that. I think the COVID forced that hand, and that hand of if you're not doing outbound marketing, you're not gonna make it.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

When it comes to PropStream, who do you think the most common avatar is? Wholeseller, flipper, developer, flipping, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:32

No, definitely it's the the real estate investor. And I and by that, um I would say wholesaler is probably one of our biggest avatars out there, but fix and flippers are huge. And then the the real estate agent is huge as well.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

As a fix and flipper, what's the best tool for props that they can use? Oh, I flipped.

SPEAKER_05 46:49

I mean, A, if you don't have a flip right now, you can use this to pull a lead and then find your next flip. Uh, in that sense, I think one of the best uh assets when you're trying to generate leads as a flipper is using like our AI data. We can show you disrepaired properties if you're just looking for that, or high equity properties, because we know you got to make your margin. So high equity properties, um, distress-looking properties using our AI data. But I also think the property details are important. Um, if you're trying to flip in a market that you're not familiar with, the comping is important. And then I also think our demographics, we have this tab that says demographics. What I like about it is it gives you the demographics within either a mile plus or mile less. So you can do like a quarter mile. But what I personally like about that part is um it shows uh how many owners versus renters uh around that subject property. So if you're a flipper, maybe this asset has more rental, um uh rental demographic that maybe it's not a flip that you should do. Maybe it's a rental portfolio that you should do.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

A lot of realtors are watching this podcast. I mean, I'm a broker, right? On my side as a brokerage, the realtors in-house, I have two companies. I have Inspired Buyers, which is our wholesaling operation, and I have Inspired Brokerage, which is a traditional real estate company. A lot of the realtors and inspired brokers don't do the Inspired Bars side, which is the wholesaling, the sub twos, the flips. As a realtor, what is a cool tool that PropStream can provide to realtors that most realtors don't know about?

SPEAKER_05 48:21

Okay. Well, see, that's the tricky part. Like, I think everything can apply, just depends on like what where your mindset is at. But in terms of like what's a tool specifically that I think realtors would enjoy the most in PropStream. Um I would say when our filtering, uh definitely looking for for the investor buyers in that area. I would say the specific tool in this case would be a filter called numbers of properties owned. I think as a real estate agent, you need to know who's out there doing the who's out there doing work, right? And if you're if you're an agent looking for consistent leads uh in a predictable pipeline pipeline, then use our cash buyer data and look for not just a cash buyer, but one that has multiple properties because that's letting you know, hey, this person or this LLC is doing this on a regular basis. And so you can be a real estate agent and get your onesies and twosies, which is again not bad, or you can build that relationship with those institutional buyers or individuals that are at that point of, hey, I I I need more properties, right? I need to buy more, I need to buy more. So I would say as a real estate agent, um, and it goes back to just that outbound marketing part, but I would say, yeah, definitely our filtering system.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

Now let's go into wholesaling, because obviously I love wholesaling. I've been doing it for what? Unknown for whatever. Yeah, I've known you for like 10 years, a decade. And wholesaling, I feel like there's two different businesses. Yeah there's acquisition, there's dispo. I feel like when people think of prop stream, they think of acquisition. Leads, skip tracing, pulling data to do comping. What's a good dispo tool, like a disposition agent can use or a dispo house that can really use with PropStream? Because I think in my mind, I think most people think acquisitions. Yeah. What does a PropStream offer to the dispo side of the house?

SPEAKER_05 50:08

Well, so again, with that one, I would say probably the comping section, um, understanding who's buying in the area. There's a a there's a tab in our comping section that's called um flippers, and it shows you like who who what they bought it for and what they flipped it for. I think that alone is very, very important in terms of like dispositioning because then it lets you know, okay, we locked up the contract for this much, and this person's willing to pay that much, and then they flipped it for this much. So A, it lets me know their buying power, and then if they're gonna make profit on that buying power or not. And so to me, I would say it's definitely our flippers tab in the comping section that would be good for like the disposition part. But again, I think there's more to it. Like if you need a list of buyers to you know start your dispositioning, we have our cash buyers list, we have our flippers list. But in if there was just this one thing in the middle of like looking up a property, like, hey, I'm about to dispo this property. I think definitely pulling up the property and looking at our flippers uh information is probably good.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

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SPEAKER_02 52:16

I am super looking forward to that. So you and I are gonna sit down with the team tomorrow. Let's go. And uh you're gonna show us, I guess, all the new features, the AI feature and specifics. I'm on the flipping side of the house. I don't do any wholesaling, do a little bit of subject too, but my main thing is flipping. We're doing probably 40 to 50 flips a year. And to be frank, I don't use a lot of prop stream. Uh I do a lot of MLS data and then you know some other tools that we have, but I'm extremely excited to learn uh exactly how it works for flippers, right? Because it's always been known, like he said, for wholesalers, right? And so I know that I got an email from uh, because I'm obviously I've got a user account with you guys, and I got an email that said, y'all just I just got this, I think, two days ago, that y'all just launched an AI tool. Yeah, and it will help you, like you said, run comps. It'll help you not only do that, but y'all's AI tool will help you, like you said, uh, potentially with the rehab budget. And so I'm really interested to see all that so we can implement it into my flipping business with the people that I have on my acquisition side. Um, and then obviously with the guys here in the office on the wholesale side to tighten up the numbers that we use. Yeah, super excited to sit down with you to put it on the show. I'm excited for that.

SPEAKER_05 53:13

And again, it's a two-way streak because I'm sure there's a lot I can learn from you, Sky. Like I'm I'm a fan of you and what you've done. So I appreciate it. I'm sure there's a lot of insight that you could provide that we probably haven't even thought about yet. So I think this will be beneficial both ways. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

So AI is the feature, right? AI is the feature. That's all we hear about. AI this and AI that. What exactly does PropStream doing with AI? What's a cool feature that no one knows about yet? Yeah. If we can share, I don't know where we are.

SPEAKER_05 53:35

Yeah, we can. So uh so AI was implemented in PropStream early 2024. So we started uh last quarter of 2024 with Prop Shream Intelligence's photo grading and foreclosure factor. So quick rundown on both. The photo grading. So one of the data sets that we have is MLS data. And what we observed was that our users were either going on their MLS or these other websites, or even ours, and going through each picture one at a time to discover some sort of condition, if you will, right? Maybe the bathroom is bad. So when we observed that behavior, we decided to lean on AI to kind of uplift that part. And what what we did was we told our AI, look at all of our MLS photos and give it a grade. Compare the houses that have been renovated to the houses that are not the greatest, and then grade. And so we have a grade from like excellent all the way down to disrepair. And so instead of me going through like failed listings, let's say I build a list in PropStream and I get 100 failed listings, each of them are probably gonna have 30 photos a pop on average. I can go through 3,000 photos, or I can just say, Prop stream, find me all the poor or less conditioned properties through my failed listing, and that's where AI comes in and kicks that out. So that's our photo grading, prop stream intelligence. The next one is foreclosure factor. Clearly, we collect auctions, pre-foreclosure, and mortgage data. So our AI was instructed to when in a market, let's say San Antonio, for example, our AI is instructed to look at auction data, pre-foreclosure data, foreclosure data, and mortgage data and look for behaviors. We call them indicators, but look for indicators. So, example here. You see 10 pre-foreclosures, eight of them have an adjustable rate mortgage, two of them don't. That's an indicator. Majority of pre-foreclosures are people with an adjustable rate mortgage. Again, 10 pre-foreclosures, eight of them did a line of credit. That's an indicator, right? So we told our AI anytime you're in a market, look at these data sources or data sets and look for indicators. And then once you identify those indicators, run it across every single address in that market. And then we're able to now compare someone who's not in pre-foreclosure yet, but based on their portfolio, their mortgage, their tax, their interest rates that we've been able to calculate, we can dictate or determine how close are they to foreclosure or how far they are from that. So photo grading, pre-foreclosure, and then what you just mentioned, Skylar, that we just launched not too long ago, and that's PropStream Intelligence's chat support within the property details. So now when you pull up any property in PropStream, at the bottom right, you'll see PropStream Intelligence. You can click on it, a chat box appears, and then you can ask it anything property details related.

SPEAKER_01 56:25

For that specific house?

SPEAKER_05 56:26

For that specific house. And why is that important, in my opinion? Everyone's using AI now, but it data in, data out, if you ever heard of that, right? A lot of the AI right now is looking at public data. So when I use, let's say, Chat GPT and I ask it a question, its data sources are what's out there in the public right now. We instructed our AI to not do that. We instructed our AI to look solely at PropStream's data because that's what we're known for. As a matter of fact, I would be lying to you if I told you over the last four years, people have asked for an API. API, API, API, uh, because they want to create their own AI, but again, data in, data out, you need good data. And so the need of, oh, well, I created this software, but I need your data PropStream. So we knew we had something. And so the idea was, well, instead of relying on a third party to do this, let's just do it ourselves. But the most important part is control the noise. And that's AI, do not look outside, look internally at our data. And so when Michael says, Hey, what are my five rental comps? It goes through our our our rental data, and then it gives you those five best rental comps for that set property that you're in.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

And when did this go live?

SPEAKER_05 57:38

Uh, about a week and a half, two weeks. I'm bad with timing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:42

Okay. Cool. Well, I mean, I didn't I didn't know that. So I I heard about it, so I'm glad you're sharing that information. Now we talked about two things. We talked about flipping, we talked about wholesaling.

SPEAKER_04 57:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 57:51

My favorite topic is subject to taking over payments really easy, right? Taking over payments for me is that's been my bread and butter. That's made me who I am today. Someone like myself who loves sub two deals, what can't PropStream offer a sub two investor that's a really good tool or feature or tip or trick using the sub two method?

SPEAKER_05 58:13

Our mortgage filters, without a doubt. I mean, one of the things that you can do, multiple things that you can do in our in our filtering, is choose the property or the mortgage type and even uh the interest amount and the interest type. So in your case, like I can go to San Antonio or DFW or like Orange County, my market, say military market. I can say who has a VA loan, because that's assumable, that is 3% max and fix. And then those are my addresses that will populate, and then you do your thing.

SPEAKER_02 58:42

I have so many questions, but no, I know. The uh the thing you said about other GTPs pulling or chat specifically pulling public data. I have students that jump on my one-on-one call or my uh my fix and flip calls every week, and they'll be like, Look, I had Chappie GTP, it gave me comps for this house, it gave me what the rehab budget is, and I'm like, dude, and I look at it and I said, you know, it's it's cool and it's within you know a margin of error, but it's a big margin, but I mean comps are no good. The you know, the rehab budget is no good. It's just because it's you know, where is it getting that data? It's it's it's definitely, you know, is it YouTube videos that they're going through? I mean, I don't know. I haven't gone through, you know, and figured out where that specific case study is coming from, but it's you know, it's the right idea. And so it's really interesting. I'm interested to see when we play with the prop stream one tomorrow. I'll see how it's like.

SPEAKER_05 59:26

And I think you're you're on to it. Like I think AI is in a place right now where there's still skepticism out there, right? Because I've used some of these tools that you've mentioned where again, I'm like looking at call them competitors or which or whatever, but when someone announces something and I think it's it sounds cool, I'm gonna test it out. And so I've used some of these tools. You know, I'll type in an address, it'll provide me what it believes is its comps. But there's a part of me, just like what you probably mentioned, where there's this skepticism. Yeah. And then what what what do I end up doing? I end up going to the MLS and saying, okay, well, let me just double check it. Right. And I think that's kind of a luxury that we have is that while our AI can say, here are your five rental comps, right after it does that, there's a button that says, would you like to view them? Yeah. So then you go to that page in Prop Tim and it shows you those results. So I think until that can until people are truly confident, like, hey, whatever AI says, great, which I truly believe we're never gonna get there. Um, I think there's still a need to see it physically uh rather than just saying, hey, this is exactly it. Again, you're dealing with people and people are just naturally skeptics.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:32

So out of all the users on PropStream, which there's tons, obviously. But uh from a percentage standpoint, if you had to guess, because my number I think would be super high, how many people underutilize PropStream?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:43

I would say a lot. Uh when I get when I'm at events and I go to a lot of events, you know, people come up to me and they'll be like, I love using PropStream, but then they'll tell me how they use it. And I always find that they're usually usually using one aspect of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:56

Like basic 101 stuff.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:57

Yeah, like some most cases I'll get people that say, Oh, yeah, I use PropStream for my comping. And then I'm like, Oh, great. And what do you do for leads? And they're like, Oh, I go to this other product to pull data. And I'm like, Well, we have data too. So uh I think again, um, maybe it's it's it's a two-way street here. Maybe it's our we we just we have opportunities in terms of how we can you know educate people on some of the other features. Uh at the same time, too. I think the user they're going through a lot. And you're right, it's not just the prop stream that they have to worry about, it's their business, their employees. So sometimes I think they just have a lot on their plate that maybe they do overlook a feature uh that could be beneficial, yeah, but they just haven't tapped into the phone.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

I definitely feel like there's for the people who have an office, who have multiple acquisitions, multiple disposition rips, and already have PropStream, I feel like there's probably deal. I mean, I don't know, again, I'm not the wholesale, I don't know much about it, but from what I do know, I feel like there's probably deals already within their ecosystem that they could be, you know, closing, but because they're not using the software. So I mean, one simple tweak to understanding how the software could work uh in their favor, you know, whether it be acquisitions or disposition side, I definitely feel like there's probably meat left on the bone on a lot of these uh wholesaling companies just because they're not using the tool properly.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:10

Yeah, and that's to me is like one of the first things I think about too is that like you in this industry you you constantly have to generate leads. And so when it when someone tells me they're not using PropStream for lead generation, the first thing I think of is okay, you're probably using us for comping then, but then like what are you doing for lead generation? And some of them they don't even have that in play, you know. Oh, I well, I get word of mouth or my title company gets me the leads. Um, again, it it goes back to you really have to start considering outbound marketing. And I guess I guess because you mentioned it, you know, like there's a lot of new users, not just real estate agents now and and the wholesales who have always been there and fix and flippers, but we have third party. I I was speaking to a guy who was doing solar panels, he was using PropStream. Uh and he was using it in a weird way, a good way. He he the way he would do it um is he would do a uh solar panel on a house, and then once it's completed, he would go in PropStream and type in that property and then go into the comp section, and there's a tab that says neighbors. He would then save the 100 neighbors around that property and then mark it to them and say, Oh, by the way, I just did solar panel here, right? Because everyone wants to keep up with the Joneses. So he was using PropStream in a matter of I just pull up all the houses we've done and we market to their neighbors. That's lead generation. So to me, again, as we get more use case scenarios and more professionals start using PropStream, I had to like summarize it or dumb it down for me at least. And the way I view it is we're all trying to get to a contract. Some of us, when we get a contract, we wholesale it. Some of us, when we get a contract, we list it. Some of us, when we get a contract, we do solar panel, some of us when we get a contract, we fund it, we flip it, right? So, what's the point? The the whole thing is get to a contract. What you do with the contract, I'll leave that up to you. But you have to get to that contract. And so for me, it's one of the biggest things that Prop Shim can do is we have the data to help you create that list so that you can get closer to that contract. And so when people aren't using that aspect of Prop Shim, uh an eyebrow is raised to a degree, because again, maybe they they're supplementing it somewhere else. But if they don't have an answer, then it's like, why aren't you using that part?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:22

As a wholesaler, I think most wholesalers, especially when they're starting off, they have issues with two things. One is running comps, and two is how to fully estimate rehab.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

What does Propson have to offer when it comes to the rehab part?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:36

We have this rehab calculator uh within the property details, is at the top. It's under the tools drop-down menu. And the rehab calculator, again, it's it's an estimated calculator, but we've worked with this company called Blue Hammer. They're really popular with like insurance companies, and we've been working with them for, I believe, a decade now. But anytime you go into our rehab calculator, you can actually shop. You can say, hey, okay, I'm on this address and we need interior, um, we need to do completely remodel the interior. Actually, there's three formats when you're using a rehab calculator. If you know what you're doing, like Skylar over here, then you can just shop. You can say, I need this panel, I need this type of playing material, I need that pipe, or whatever, um, lighting, concrete, and then it will give you local level costs. So that's one venue. The other venue is sections at the house. You could say, okay, well, after speaking to the owner, they just need to do the bathroom, all right, complete remodeled bathroom, and it actually builds your item, it itemizes what you need to do. Your scope of work? Yeah, it does. It again, local level costs, but uh it gives you two prices. It gives you your do-it-yourself costs. So if you were to go to the store and buy all that stuff and do it yourself, here's your do-it-yourself cost. And then it gives you your like labor costs. I think it's valuable because again, if you don't understand the rehabbing part, this could help you with that. But I also think it's a good tool if you're a fix and flipper as well, or just starting out, to to create one and then. Go out there and just try to get quotes.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:02

My call on Tuesday was that exact question came up. Lady out of Houston, she's been in our community for a while. She's mainly trying to do wholesaling, but she'll jump in on my call and she'll say, She asked on Tuesday, hey, you know, I've not had any construction experience ever. You're showing us how to create scopes of work and all this stuff. How do I know what to pay? Right. So I'm actually, this is really super interested in diving in with this.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:22

And I think that benefits someone like her, where she can go in Propshoom after pulling up the property, go to our rehab calculator. Uh, my favorite one is a third format where it actually shows you pictures. So you can be like, oh, kitchen, garage, lighting. Yeah. And then it gives you your itemized. So for her who who doesn't have the experience, this feature not only itemizes all the work that needs to be done and gives you the pricing and your do-it-yourself costs and your your with labor costs, I think it benefits her two ways. One, when she's talking to the homeowner, she can now sound more confident and more as if she knows, you know, the the the fair scope of what's going to cost her. So for me, I like it because when you're negotiating, some of these homeowners, like Mike says, you think the real estate, the wholesaler doesn't know rehab costs? The homeowners probably don't know times two. So to be able to now have this information to know for yourself as a wholesaler, but to then use when you're negotiating. Because sometimes these homeowners are like, well, I'll just do it myself then. Well, do it yourself, it's gonna cost you $35,000. Right. So I think it helps with the negotiation.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

Probably the product's not gonna be great.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:25

Exactly. Uh so I think it the the report, the rehab calculator helps with that aspect. And I also help I think it helps with finding the contractors. You know, not all contractors are made equally. And I've we've heard the crazy stories out there where people get taken advantage of. I think to be able to provide this report to a contractor and say, hey, this is what I came up with. You know, what's your price? I think that puts her in a power position rather than being in a take an advantage position.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:52

And there's a lot of wholesalers that didn't know props even had that feature. Uh I'm sure a majority of wholesalers didn't know this.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:59

Yeah. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:01

Yeah. One last question. I'm going to give you uh from a fix and flip standpoint, I've spoiled my one of my questions for tomorrow. So for a guy like me, my strategy, for all of you out here who have followed me for a little while or all my calls, know my strategy. I have narrowed down my buy box, if you will. I want to find homes that were built between, call it 1990. I'll go earlier, but my ideal would be 1990 to 2015. Okay. KB, Poulty, Perry, one of the big guys, great structure, typically good neighborhoods. They've already done all the research. They know what school district to build communities in, they know, you know, where people want to be in, where the cons or where the uh jobs are going to be at. And so I don't really have to go do that research, right? I just didn't say, hey, I can trust that this neighborhood typically, and I know my sides of town, right? So I want to be on this side of town, I want to be in one of these kind of communities. But I also don't want too much foundation. You know, I don't mind putting roofs on, but I want basically just a cosmetic rehab. Is there some kind of filtering system that could say, hey, these are all the builder grade homes between these years? Um, with, you know, maybe on a, I don't know how y'all scale it, on a scale of one to ten, maybe it's a, you know, it needs six out of ten rehab versus a 10 out of 10 rehab or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:05

That's a great question. No, I would say the answer right now, no, the closest would probably be that AI grading that we said. Like in this case, I want properties from 1990, 2015 that are in good or better condition. That way you you can at least rule out that I'm not dealing with crazy foundation issues or huge burning houses or whatever. Correct. But in terms of like because we don't collect permit data, so it wouldn't be it, it's not gonna be easy for us to say, oh, well, this house just pulled out a permit for a roof or uh an extension of the property. So unfortunately, no, we don't have that aspect. I I would say the closest would definitely be the grading system there.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:39

Cool. Yeah. What's next for Burton?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:41

What's next for Burton? Um maintaining. I'm really again my my what I do uh for me uh what I do at PropStream for me is really just to support those that are just listening right now. Like again, let's be honest here. When you if you ever log into PropStream and you look at it, it's complex. It's like drinking from a fire hydrant. And my goal is to just reduce that. You know, how do we go from fire hydrant to a sippy cup, if you will? Uh so for me, it's constantly educating our users and and inspiring those that want to get into real estate to look inwards, right? And I this is probably why I started my podcast. So that's another, you know, why we did this. But I'm a firm believer. My role is to either help guide or remind you that you can do this and that what you're going through in life is okay. Like, you know, I know two stories are the same, and your story, I know I've shared mine, but I'm sure you're going through a lot. Um, but the fact that you're still here means that you're winning and keep holding on, and then use that. Use what you're going through, um, your challenges as ammunition to connect with someone in real estate. You'd be surprised. Um, a lot of people that I meet, when I hear their stories, there's like this full circle. I don't want to mention her name, but I was talking to this woman and she went through a really bad divorce a few years ago. Fast forward, she got into real estate, and guess what she specializes in? Divorce, divorce leads. So if you're listening to this, you're going through something, you're gonna make it. Keep hanging in there, but use it. Use what you went through to connect with someone that's going through it in real estate and solve their problem. That's really it.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:33

So I can understand Burton better. What's your favorite movie?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:37

Hmm. Depends on the mood. Um Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, uh Count of Monte Crisco. But then we have our cult classics like Grandma's Boy, uh Super Troopers. I I dude, I watch everything. I'm curious.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:54

I'm always every person we get. I always want to see what their favorite movie is. It judges me on who that person is.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:58

Yeah, I I I watch, I would definitely say Forrest Gump is probably at the top. I watch it. Yeah, I probably watch it like a few times a year, and it's just it just there's a lot of things you can learn from it, from never judge the book to its cover to being persistent to just never giving up to always giving without expecting anything in return. Like that movie just is just so many things.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

Have you watched it more than 20 times?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:24

I've probably watched that movie like a hundred. Maybe a yeah. And I will say this too, Skylar. When I first watched it in my early teens to now, there's always something new. Especially that I'm a father now, right? And so there's always something new that I get out of it. Uh, and then there's always something funny and dark I get out of it too. Like Jenny took advantage. She came back.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

She took advantage, of course. But again, that's my opinion there. Talk about Easter eggs. You find like I'm the same way. Every time you watch it, there's a little something that you'll get out of it that you didn't re watch, even though you watch it 20 times or whatever, the number is. Yeah, I really I enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:59

Grandma's Boy, huh? Grandma's Boy is a funny one. Yes. Yeah. Again, I was uh in gaming at the time. And that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:06

Yeah, I can see that. Now it makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:07

But it's funny, like you look at Grandma's Boy, and if you ever work in the corporate space, uh there's a lot of um parallels. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:14

So that's a good one too. All right. Well, this is the uh Trump the Hustle podcast. Turn up the hustle to me is not a motto, it's not a slogan, it's truly a way of life.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:24

When Burton hears Trump the Hustle, what does turn up the hustle mean to Burton?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:29

For me, it just means to just constantly be optimistic in the darkest days because not only do you need to to rely on that, but the people around you rely on that. Like you are your you are you are in control of your reality, right? Like something can happen to you right now, and at the end of the day, you dictate what you what you what you decide from that moment. Is it a positive experience? Is it a negative experience? So I think for me, turn up the hustle is just always reminding yourself that hey, I or myself in this case, that I'm in control of my reality, right? And I think that's important because your real your reality, you'd be surprised, other people rely on your reality, right? If you have family, if you have kids, if you have spouses, you have employees, right? Like you you might not know how much you impact them uh to a degree. So for me, turn up the hustle is just always maintain optimism, uh being an optimistic, even in the darkest days, because um the day that your your light goes out might be the day that someone really needs to see it. So that's for me, turn up the hustle.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:36

Well, cool. We first of all, really, really appreciate you coming out. For those of you who don't know, he's flown in all the way from California to be here in this episode. So really, really appreciate you taking the time. This has been an incredible episode. For those of you who maybe, or for those out there, the viewers who've never heard of you, never seen you, don't know what PropStream is, the first time they've tuned in uh and found you, how can they connect with you? What's the best way for them to connect with you, PropStream?

SPEAKER_05 1:14:57

Yeah, if you want to connect with me, you can find me on social media. Just look up Burton Alecondo, not too many people name Burton out there. Um, if you want to connect in terms of like the product, reach out to our support line. You can email us. Our support team will talk to you for hours. Like we just, again, want to make sure you're taken care of. Uh, but yeah, shoot your message. Let me stream.com. Yeah, if you're you know, first off, if you've if you've found success in PropGim, I love to hear your story. I mean, it fuels me just to know that you know you're impacting lives out there and your life is also being impacted for the positive. And if you were like me, uh you're peeking through the grass, you're like, what's this real estate stuff? Reach out. I mean, I love to talk to you. I love to to hear your story and see how you know I can connect you with some amazing people like Skylar and Michael. So if you're interested in wholesaling, you know, and and you don't know them directly, reach out to me. I can probably connect the dots for you. But um, yeah, I would say social media. And then if you need our product, just call the customer support line.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:54

So propstream.com is the best way for them to get uh in the support line?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:58

Yeah, yeah, propstream.com or support at propstream.com if you're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:01

And you have a podcast too, don't you? How can they find that?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:03

Um you can find it on all streaming platforms. It's called PropStream Pros. And um yeah, it's just a a podcast where we we just talk about life, really, and and again, that full circle moment, how what you've gone through really becomes your your ammunition as a real estate professional.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:22

Awesome. Well, again, we really appreciate it. It's been fun. And guys, well, again, we appreciate you guys tuning in every single week. We try to provide value to you and make sure that we're giving you as much value as possible. We will continue to work hard to get great guests like Burton and to make sure we're always providing value to you. So if you are getting value, make sure that you hit that like and subscribe button. And as always, as always, turn up the hustle. See you guys on the next one. Peace.