Join Wendy Sweet as she shares her journey to financial freedom through building wealth in the real estate industry.
Discover how Wendy went from just starting out in real estate to creating a legacy that will last for generations.
Wendy’s story is both inspiring and informative and will give you the tools and knowledge you need to begin your own journey to building wealth and creating your own legacy.
This is a video you don’t want to miss!
Wendy Sweet 00:00
My intention is not to leave a legacy for my children other than the fact that they have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s that’s the legacy. I want to leave with them. But I’m not leaving them a dime.
Ben Deal 00:14
So I did bring on Wendy. She’s a real estate broker with over 20 years of experience in the industry. She’s also a short term rental landlord and self storage geek. She has a passion to share knowledge and connections with others. Wendy, thank you for your time. Welcome to Real Estate hacking live.
Wendy Sweet 00:32
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Very. Andy, I’m doing terrific. Live shows are wonderful aren’t thing they are they
Chris Bounds 00:39
are. I like it. I can add live. I mean, whether that part’s entertaining or not, I don’t know y’all tell me. But hey, so we were on a panel together at Qwest trusts. Big event, and I really wish my wife could have been in the audience because I know you were like, everything you were talking about, like, man, you’d be speaking right? She’s so passionate about. So tell me. And you talk in detail about this? What are how are you building wealth and creating your legacy?
Wendy Sweet 01:18
Well, I think when I was asked about the legacy thing, you may remember my answer was, my intention is not to leave a legacy for my children, other than the fact that they have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s, that’s the legacy, I want to leave with them. But I’m not leaving them a dime. I mean, I’m sure I will. But that’s not my goal. Because I’ve seen so many people get ruined because they had back backup. And they used it not as backup, they used it as their their everyday, here’s how you get going kind of thing.
They, you know, what made me who I am, is that I had to work for what I have. I’m legally leaving a legacy of education and not college, although, you know, college is great, but I could care less if my kids go to college unless you need a degree, like some sort of a degree to do something like a certification or a license. You can learn everything you need, by going to webinars and seminars and masterminds. And there and it’s so much cheaper than than a college education.
Chris Bounds 02:38
Outside of certain STEM careers. I mean, most of that you can you can just go straight for the certification and be far, much further ahead. And I think, society, especially fortune 500 companies there they’ve, whether by necessity or not, they’ve become more open to that.
Wendy Sweet 02:56
That’s exactly right. I have lots of cousins that have you know, grown children that have all graduated from college, and they all have come out of college with $80,000 Plus, in debt. Can Can you I don’t you know, you look like a child to begin with Chris, you’re so young, you’re younger than me. When I came out of college, I didn’t have a diamond debt. I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine entering the workforce with that kind of debt in front of me.
Chris Bounds 03:30
Yeah, there’s ultimately, I think, really what college teaches you if you go through the process, right is relationship building and work ethic, if you those are the biggest skills, I mean, various degrees, I mean, they obviously differ. Nothing I do has anything to do with what I learned in college outside of relationship building, and work ethic. I learned more from the so the network marketing company I was selling vitamins in college, apologized all my college friends who were broken, couldn’t afford anything. It taught me the fear of communication and the fear of like standing like, you know, doing presentation. I’m an introvert. So it taught me those skills and those skills costed cost me like, I don’t know, 50 bucks or whatever it was to join that company. And it was just trial by fire at that point. But I think you hit the nail on the head, it’s work ethic, ultimately matters.
Wendy Sweet 04:30
It makes a huge difference and, and what I’m doing to build my personal wealth, you know, I’m a lender, and that’s what I do when we create notes or manage a fund. So so a lender is, you know, that’s what I know I was a mortgage broker back in the day and had a mortgage company that we did conventional loans only did investor loans. That’s how I really gotten to know the investing world is because I only did invest your loans, they were the hardest ones to have to do.
And I knew all of mortgage brokers were lazy. So if I learned the hardest one, I could, you know, be like shooting fish in a barrel, I could get that business and it worked that worked out for me. So I love the lending business, it’s it to me, it’s the best seat at the table, you know, you’re you’re putting in the least amount, amount of hours for the greatest reward. When you’re in that, on that team from the rehab or to the contractor to the real estate agent to you know, all of the attorney all of the different positions that are filled, filled to me, the lender is the best.
Chris Bounds 05:40
Yeah, I’ve always thought the lender, especially the like, so did you do hard money loans? Like? Yes. So I’ve always felt that the hard money lender and new investors getting into the game, they don’t quite understand it, sometimes they’ll look at it. And the game’s definitely changed since we got in, but um, I’ve always looked at him as a partner, whereas somebody with Messrs are like, Oh, why would I ever pay that way to pay that? I’m like, no, no, no, I don’t think you understand one, there’s a vast amount of experience that you were in your entire lifetime will never be able to personally experience that harmony, because because they’re doing 20 3050 100 plus a month, you’re just probably not ever going to be doing that many transactions, they’ve got a really good pulse on the market. And beyond that, they do not want you to fail.
Wendy Sweet 06:28
That’s right, we want our money back, we don’t want your house, we want our money back. If we wanted your house, then we’d be buying the house and rehab rehabbing it, that’s not what we want to do. We want to make sure that that you are successful, I spend so much of my time holding people’s hands and walking them through the deal. I want to see them successful, I don’t want to just do one loan, I’d love to do them all harm. I can’t do that if they go out of business. And I’ve just met you,
Chris Bounds 06:58
it’s an you’re looking at your partner, but you’re also like an advisor because you’re not going to get them where they will fail. Or ultimately, what you’ll end up saying is, hey, look, I don’t think it’s a good deal. Those numbers now, if you want to do a 50% loan to value sure you’ll take that risk, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Your call, usually those those kinds of things work themselves out. Maybe the last couple of minutes. share with folks, I think this is really important for parents out there. You talked about work work ethic, but that’s the legacy that lives on. It’s it’s it’s through our kids through our family, or if you got a large company to the employees that you work really close with that permeant to their families, how to you and this is probably more for the kids really how to you? How do you teach work ethic?
Chris Bounds 07:48
in a privileged family, like like you’re doing well, like work ethic is a little different when you’re living on the other side of the tracks, and you got to work for every single thing you have, because your parents can’t give me anything. You’re not in that situation. It’s I think it’s a tough question. But I’m curious what your what your answer is?
Wendy Sweet 08:06
Well, I’ve said to my kids several times, it’s awfully cold out there. So they and they need to understand that I’ve taken them on mission trips to so they can see how people really live. But the thing is, is from a very, very young age, I always required my kids to do chores. They got a reward for what they did. And they felt the consequences for what they didn’t do. And it you know, it’s hard and it gets harder as they get older to teach them those things that you don’t take the time to teach them when they’re young, because it’s easy just to give them what they want and get them out of your way. But it’s I also have taken them to webinars, seminars masterminds, since they were young, to sit in and listen, my kids know about self directed IRAs right now they are all 1920 and 21.
All three of my children have self directed IRAs and have for a few years. My youngest son is the one that has the most money. He’s the one who listened the most. And he’s lending his money out he couples with other people, me, other people in our company to put money together to lend money out. They come to my houses and work on the rehabs. If I’ve bought a house that I’m rehabbing, I give them jobs and I pay them for it. I do what I can do now. Some of them just you know, my oldest son’s is hard headed as I come. He’s, he’s the one that had to feel that it’s cold out there. So it’s there. You can treat them all the same. They’ll come out, come out different it doesn’t matter.
Chris Bounds 09:48
Yeah, you gotta you gotta let them fail. Sometimes.
Wendy Sweet 09:52
That’s hard to do. As a parent, it’s really hard to let them fail and to see them do that. But God does that for us to it. I have to keep telling myself that, you know, that’s just, that’s the way he works too. He allows us to fail. So that we can learn. I know that the best lessons I’ve learned, even into this age that I am now is every time I fail, it’s something I truly remember. I’m not afraid of failing, but now I know how to get out of stuff. And that’s the key is failure is cool. It’s okay. It’s good to fail. Because that’s how you learn a lot.
Wendy Sweet 10:31
Well, let’s end
Chris Bounds 10:33
on that. These things go quick. I appreciate it, Wendy and actually really look forward. I’ll be reaching out and think we can have another conversation that really can connect with some folks. Love your story and love what you’re doing. So thank you so much.