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Transcript:
Chris Bounds 00:21
Would you share a little bit about how you got started in real estate, especially wholesaling, and we’ll kind of get into the single-payment landlord stuff.
Chris Funk 01:26
Yeah, for sure. So it was a lot of fun getting started in real estate, you know, I guess what I miss about that the most is the eagerness, the passion, being so young and kind of seeing the world ahead of me. I knew from the very beginning, after reading all the Rich Dad Poor Dad books, that I wanted to own investments. I wanted to be a business owner. I wanted to have real estate. And I remember going to a couple of meetings and telling people, you know, hey, I want to buy an apartment complex, and they would sit down with me and the mentor would say, “Okay, well, well, how much cash do you have? And what’s your credit?” You know, it’s kind of just over before it began, right? What’s your experience with, like, zero on all of those things?
And so I realized that the only place I was going to be able to fit in in the beginning was to be a wholesaler and to go out and find deals for other people and also to develop skill sets that would help me later on. So I actually met a general contractor at the real estate club in Houston and explained to him that I was wholesaling with the intent to be a rehabber and a landlord, and he hired me as a project manager. So it really worked out well because I was able to learn the business of renovations. And he just threw me into the fire pit. We started doing burnouts on day one and, you know, his massive renovations and just horrible properties.
And so I got a ton of experience on the construction side. And then what was also nice was when I would get stopped by a project, I would talk to the neighbors and find out if anyone else had a property on that street or in that area that they were looking to sell. And then when I found them, I could just call our clients, “Hey, you know, Jim, we’re rehabbing on 123 Elm Street, and I’ve got 321 Elm Street coming up. Would you like that property?” and make a fee for bringing him the deal. So that worked really well. Eventually, I got fired from that job and became a full-time wholesaler and just kind of dug in. I was the bandit sign guy back in the day, and we buy houses on the corner of every major intersection. Yeah, answer the phone while I was driving, while I was in the bathroom, it didn’t matter if it was a lead, I was gonna grab it and go make an offer and try to get the deal.
And so that was like around 2006 when I first started putting out bandit signs, and it was kind of neat to see because I feel like we’re back in that same environment right now, where you have deals or, you know, they sell real quick and people are just, you know, real estate’s hot, you know, prices are high and that kind of thing. So I’ve seen the cycle come full circle, but that’s how it all began for me was just going to little networking events and trying to figure out what I could do with my limited budget and my limited skill sets, but I had all the drive and ambition. I just didn’t have any experience or any money or anything like that. And so that eventually transitioned into one of my buyers kind of got a little peeved with me, and he said my prices were getting too high.
And he said, “Look, if you believe in this thing so much, why don’t you buy it and I’ll just lend you the money?” There you go. And I guess he figured he could make as much lending me money there as I could wholesale or he could rehab it. And so it turned out pretty good because I was now able to make the full profit on the deal. And I just didn’t have a clue. I was like, I don’t know what that means doing the 12, three loans or whatever, but I’ll take it if that means I can buy the property. And then ultimately, him and I wound up buying some multifamily property together. And then years later, bought him out of the company. And so now that property is online, but it just started little by little. I knew where I wanted to end up. And I knew that I had to acquire the skills and the experience and the credit and the cash to, excuse me, get to that point.
So just little by little, I started taking the next step. And, you know, a lot of times it’s just like accidents, like, you know, he didn’t know that this winner that I had, he didn’t know that I was interested in multifamily until he was in my office one day. And he made a comment about why don’t you have a certified apartment manager plaque on your wall? He said, “I thought you wanted to own property, not be an apartment manager,” you know? And I had to explain that I was just going to learn the skills so that I could hire those people eventually one day to work for me, and I know what I’m talking about. And, and so, you know, and that’s it.
It was a funny conversation. Because right after that, he said, “You know, my banker’s got 20 foreclosed apartments that he can get rid of. If there’s something you’re interested in, you know, we ought to go talk to him.” And that’s how it happened. And, you know, it’s just, people say, “Let the world know what you’re doing and let people know what you’re interested in, what you’re up to.” Because if they don’t know, they may be sitting on that opportunity that might be a perfect match for your skill set. And so when you kind of let the world know, and you have that passion, that energy, you’ll get opportunities, you know, and if you’re working really hard, eventually one of them is going to pan out. And that’s how it worked for me.