Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Hey, everyone. Welcome to the show. This is the highest invest you. A show about people who are striving to reach their maximum potential in the real estate industry. Each week, we sit down with someone in or around real estate and talk about what they're doing to reach their highest invest. I'm your host, Jake Verna, and this podcast is brought to you by VRA Realty. More information about vra realty, visit vraalty.com and check me out at Jake Verna or Ake Verna. Today we're here with Greg Davis.
Greg, I told you I keep this shit light, man.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: That's what we got to do. Greg is, I mean, he, you know, he looks like he's 30 still. He looks amazing. He's just an amazing guy. And I'm really happy to have you on today. Before you get in the background about yourself, I want to start off with this question. I'm going to try to start off with this question every single time, but I want you to just answer for me. What are you doing right now to reach your highest and best?
And this can be about real estate. It can be about life. It's really. I want you to encompass everything, because what's most important. I think I say this every single time, but real estate isn't just about, like, what you're doing in sales, but it's. It really. I mean, it starts with what we learned last week was it starts with your morning, it starts with your night before. It starts with how you're preparing. So just what are you doing right now to reach your highest and best?
[00:01:29] Speaker A: I think probably the main thing is personal coaching. So I have a personal coach that has really helped me shift thinking on certain things and move forward and become more me again. I mean, as you get older. I know you think I'm like 30, but, yeah, I'm a little more than that.
As you get older, I think, you know, just the weight of life starts pushing down on you and, you know, to regain that. That youthful hope and drive, I think is really, you know, important. So the personal coach, I think, is really the big thing.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think it's a perfect segue into. Well, I do want to get into your background, but I want to talk more about personal coaching and who you're using, because who you're using. We just had on.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. He's just on the. On the. On the podcast. Yeah. So Ed Fordyce, absolutely an amazing guy.
I'm sure he went through some of his story on the podcast. But I think, I think certain people in life have to go through hell.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: To reach their highest and best. And I think because of what Ed experienced, I mean, he's just an amazing guy. He is, he is able to have super high level conversations with me and I know other people and you know, I mean, the thing that I find about him is that he's, he has this just crazy unique ability to help people at a totally different level. Totally different level.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Now his, his impact on this earth is insane. Not even about, it doesn't matter about sales or anything like that. But just as a personal.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Well, that's the crazy thing. I mean he's, he's known for real estate coaching.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: But I'm not using him as a real estate coach. We're starting to move into some of that. But when I, when I originally started working with him, it was as a personal coach. It was really about, you know, becoming me again.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: And you know, I mean, it's just been, it's been amazing.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So I don't get too deep, but did you feel like you lost yourself or.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Sure. I mean, over, over time, you know, like I said, there's the weight of life starts, you know, cooking you and you're, you know, biologically you're aging and you don't have the energy that you used to and how do you, how do you get that fire back and you know, how do you have the energy to launch and go and become your highest and best self?
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's amazing. And yeah, shout out to Ed. He's, he went, he's one coach of the year from Rob Lawrence.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: That was funny.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Another amazing guy.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, let's go into your background a little bit. So you have a background in environmental consulting and remediation. And remediation. But yeah, just give me, give me your story from, from when you started at elementary school in Ocean City.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Oh God. So I actually didn't start at elementary school in Ocean City. I, I originally Delco, which you can still hear in me slightly. Ridley park family family roots there. That ties into the real estate thing.
My family's been involved in real estate for 90 plus years. My father's side, my great grandfather, who I never had the opportunity to meet was a, was a builder, owned rental properties.
His one son got into, started a building supply company before Home Depot was ever a thing.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: So I can't imagine what that's like.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So, so a lumberyard, you know, with, with and building supplies.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: And then his, his other Son who was my father's uncle, started a real estate brokerage in early 1960s and just started moving into, you know, traditional retail sales and then moved into, you know, owning, of course, owning rental properties, but apartment complexes, building apartment complexes, shopping centers, doing development deals. I mean, they did.
He was involved with the construction of the Granite Run Mall, which is being reconverted now.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: So, yeah, a lot of family history and I got to grow up around him in Ocean City.
So.
Yeah, I mean, that's. I was always in that realm.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: You were exposed to it.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And peripherally. And my father and his uncle were very close in age, so they were more like brothers because my father was an only child. And I mean, just, Just. Just an amazing guy. I mean, the, The. The wisdom I gained from being around him. And then his, his son too, who took over the. As the broker for the brokerage, was amazing.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: That's phenomenal. So how'd you find yourself in doing environmental.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Oh, God.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Fun.
[00:06:15] Speaker A: It was. It was an accident. I want to. I don't. I want to say it's. It was a happy accident, but it wasn't.
Always knew I belonged in real estate. But, you know, like, again, life, you. There's things you think you're supposed to do in life and it's. You gotta learn to trust your gut. Like if your gut is telling you you shouldn't be doing something or you should be doing something, follow it.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Don't go with what societal norms are pushing on you and all that stuff. So, you know, so I went the traditional route of going through college.
That's a whole nother story.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: Where'd you go to school?
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Penn State.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Yeah, so I went to. It was Penn State. It's now called, what, Penn State Brandywine or something like that. It's Penn State Delaware county campus. So it was like 13th and 14th grade at the time.
Went there and was going to go up to Main Campus, just wasn't sure.
Took a year off, moved back to Ocean City year round.
Painted houses down there and lived down there. Surfed. It was okay. Trying to find myself and still looking. If you see me, let me know.
So I went back to Main Campus at Penn State and. God, I don't even know. I want this out on the whole broadcast thing.
So I graduated from Penn State with a degree that says leisure studies. Leisure study. So I'm really good.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: Never heard of it.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Fucking off, I guess.
Right. That's my gift. Right.
So they changed the major.
I originally wanted to go into business.
Traditional business, Business administration. That type of thing, the corporate environment and just, I don't know, I rethought that. And when I came back from living in Ocean City for the year and went up to Main campus, I moved into. It was actually part of recreation and parks. It was commercial recreation and tourism. So me always being kind of entrepreneurial and think working differently than a lot of people, I.
I saw an opportunity there. My. Here was my plan as a young buck. Right. Here is my plan. I was going to get into beach resort management somewhere at some resort down in Florida.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Learn different things and then figure out the peripherals and then break off and start doing, like, waverunner rentals and surfing lessons and sailing charters and, you know, just like, own my own business. Supporting tourism and basically being, you know, an entrepreneurial beach bum was really my plan.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: A leisure.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So, so anyway, so they changed the name of the major when I graduated for one semester. They changed it from. From, you know, Rec park, which was. A lot of football players were in Rec park, and they changed it to leisure studies and then they realized that was a bad idea. But nonetheless, I have a degree from Penn State University that says leisure Studies on it.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: That is fucking so.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Fits you so well.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: So there's that.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Well, you talk a lot about the Jersey Shore and I mean, we could talk about the Jersey Shore for hours. I grew up going there to Ocean City, everyone. It's like the Delco thing is to go down. Go down the shore.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: Down the shore, down the shore. Yes.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: That's what you text. You text your friends after school. You say, I'm going dts.
But where, Where'd that love come from? The Jersey Shore. I mean, because to skip ahead a little bit now your real estate market is the Jersey Shore.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: I do, I do a lot down there. Yeah. The coastal areas, I really, I really know well. And I love.
I don't know, Jake. It's, you know, for me.
So again, I spent my summers down there and I was lucky enough and I was, you know, in a. In a house where it was on ground that my grandparents owned the original house or my great grandparents. The original house was washed away in the 62 spring storm. There was a duplex built there in this. In the 60s before I was born. Yeah, I'm not that old. Late 60s. I was born. Thank you.
Anyway, so I was lucky enough to be able to spend summers there with my father's uncle upstairs in the duplex and us downstairs and got into, you know, sailing, Hobie catamarans and. And surfing she got super comfortable down there. Yeah. And fishing and all that stuff. And it just. It's my happy place. It's like. It's. You know, there's some place where you feel like you're connected. Right. And that's where I'm connected. It's where renewed.
There's like that. I don't know, I call it like a baptismal effect of getting in the salt water and, you know, washing off the.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: So what keeps you.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Life, My wife and family, I mean, you know, from the area and, you know, living down there year round is not for everybody.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: I've heard.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: I mean, I like it, but, you know, I. I like desolation and isolation.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: I know it gets super dead down there.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Well, it's not like it. It's different now than it used to be. I mean, when I was a kid going to school down there, you could sleep out in the middle of West Avenue and not get hit, you know, I mean, it was. There was. There was no one there.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: It was worse then.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Oh, God. Yeah. Because when I was living there, the. The first casino had just opened in Atlantic City. So we're just starting to get that movement of workers that coming in and the build out of everything around that. So it was, you know, it was. There were basically, you know, just summer shore towns.
[00:11:54] Speaker B: And, you know, I thought that it was pretty like that now.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Now it's. It's busy now compared to what it was when I was a kid.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: So you do, what do you think, 90% of your business down there?
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Probably, I would say probably 60%.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Yeah. 60%.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, Jersey. Jersey.
Jersey in and of itself, I do a fair amount of business in South Jersey. And that. That ties into what, really. The question you asked me earlier, which was, you know, environmental remediation and consulting and how did I morph into that? And the answer is I was. The short answer, I was. I was working at.
At Brandywine Ace 926 in Pocopson.
Brad Moore's father owns.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: At that time.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: That's funny.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: So I worked for his father, Richard. Great guy.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Knew Brad since he was a little kid, was working there. And a friend of mine from Ocean City actually was working for an environmental company company in New Jersey and said, you know, hey, they're looking for salespeople.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: And I had really never done sales before and didn't know anything about it, but the job offer that I had with my wonderful degree from Penn State was, you know, from a different company. It was for it was for, I don't know, Manioc.
Tourism. Sure thing. Or whatever. Anyway, no benefits, low salary, you get to pay city wage tax and you have to drive in every day to that traffic. And then, you know, when I went and interviewed for the job for this environmental company, you know, they offered me exactly the same amount of money as a base salary, plus commission, plus company car, plus benefits. I thought, well, got to try this.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: So I just learned the business by that. You know, I've always been more of an engineering mind and, you know, learned the regulations and then just grew from there. Left that company, worked for another company, left that company, Started my own environmental remediation and consulting business with. I had three other partners in the business.
Had trouble with one of my partners and just started shutting down the business and selling off the assets. Went back to the company I'd worked for before.
And through happy accidents, I grew that from like 2, 2 and a half million in revenue up to 6. Change the dynamics of the cash flow. And gave notice in 2003 that I was going to leave in January of 2004 to go into real estate full time. Got my, my PA real estate license in 2003.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: And my youngest daughter, who turns 21 today.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Shout out.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: There you go. She, she came along two and a half months early, so three pounds, three ounces. Wasn't sure whether, you know, there's going to be health issues or not.
And so she was in the NICU for, you know, two months. I think everything turned out okay on that end, health standpoint wise. But the company I was with, the environmental company, was negotiating to keep me. And so, you know, I did the safe fallback, good dad thing and stayed with that company and then built them from 6 million to 12 million in revenue and then helped get the thing to the point where it was sold.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: So.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: So your time with doing environmental things, and I've heard you talk about it before, we've been in meetings and stuff. How. Because that has to play into effect on like your knowledge in real estate. I can imagine.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: I mean, you have to, you know more than the average Joe about.
What are we talking about? Cesspools.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: One day you're like, we could talk about all kinds of stuff.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: You're talking about cesspools for hours.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: So I have. So environmental remediation and consulting.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: And I'll tell you what some of that really means. But also building and construction I have a background in.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Right. So yeah, because you were, you were exposed to that.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So I Built. Built houses ground up, but, you know, septic systems.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: I mean, that's getting into. That's the nitty gritty. That's like. I mean, I don't understand that stuff, and a lot of people don't.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Simple, though. I mean, like.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: It's all how your brain works.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: And again, for me, it's that. It's that engineering side of my brain that, like, I want to learn stuff and that's. I mean, I'm constantly in learning. I probably try and learn too much stuff is probably my. My downfall.
You know, I have, you know, more. I'm not saying with any arrogance, but I have, you know, more certifications for real estate than you should have. But there's a. But there's. There's a purpose for. For that, you know.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. You want to provide that value. Are you reading anything right now?
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Yes. So I'm rereading Big Money Energy. Ryan Serhant. Love that guy.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a. He's a badass dude. He was. Yeah. No, he. When I see his videos are. They're fire.
I want to talk a little bit about referral business. It's a lot.
I think we had something last week about referral business and how valuable that can be.
How did you make connections to start that referral business? I'm assuming when we talk about referral business, I'm talking about. Guy from California has clients that are moving to Westchester to Jersey Shore. And guy in California doesn't have his license out here, so he found Greg Davis.
How does that work? How do you make those connections?
[00:17:41] Speaker A: It's smaller than that. For me. It's. It's tighter than that. It's not so much. I mean, look, as. As you grow. I mean, it's. It's getting the point now where I'm becoming a known entity down there. Like, I'm having agents reach out to me in those coastal regions saying, hey, I've got this listing. Do you have any buyers for it?
Which is good. So. So now that. Now we've established a foothold down there, I mean, my goal, I. I think I told Steve this is, you know, my goal is to really get an office down there and have a. Have a footprint down there.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that'd be amazing.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: But the referrals, really. Other agents, local agents. Okay, so you have. You have agents that.
Within VRA that aren't licensed in New Jersey. I mean, I position myself kind of by default as the Jersey guy. And, you know, I. I can tell you Definitively, there is nobody that knows those coastal areas better than me.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: You know, been surfing since I was 6 years old. I used to chase the storms from, you know, on all those areas. So I know where it floods. Right. There's been plenty of times where we were surfing and had to move the car because it was the flooding or, you know, you know, where the tidal flooding is or the, you know, full moon, high tides acts up and all that. So, you know, knowing those areas, I mean, that's so I think people are comfortable referring me knowing that I know those areas, but also just, you know, other, other agents or people that know me from social media, you know, as that's my. Yeah, that's your niche, my happy place.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: I love, I love your social media.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Not as good as yours.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: No, it's better than mine. It's definitely better than mine.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Well, I like, you know, that dark sarcastic humor is what really seems to get traction for me.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: It does. You'll make a Facebook post. I don't know, it'll just be something sarcastic and it'll get the most engagement.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: You know, it's funny. I had my videographer shoot a bunch of stuff to do, like a beach branding type video.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: And I, I was just looking at it the other night because I need to cut some stuff and, and you know, use that. And I, I'm trying to figure out how to use it, but I. Every picture I'm in, like, it's like I have like this resting bitch face in every, every cut that I'm in and I'm like, wow, I wish I didn't look like.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: That'S what makes Greg. Greg.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Well, that, that's absolutely me.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: So, so I want to switch gears a little bit, Greg, into. We talked a lot about your experience because you're so ancient. Just joking. You're not that.
But you know, you mentioned the building, the remediation, the environmental stuff and how your grandfather, you were around real estate brokerages, investing, blah, blah, blah. It's a long history.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Oh, kindness.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: I love it. Thank you so much.
You have rentals? Do you have investments?
[00:20:35] Speaker A: I do.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: And what do you do with your sitting cash?
[00:20:42] Speaker A: So I, So when I got my real estate license in 2000, end of 2003 and did not go into real estate as a, as a career in 2004 when my daughter came along, I still needed my real estate fixed because I, I knew like as at a young age, I knew like in, in middle school that I belonged in real estate. I just, I didn't know what that would. Would shape up to be. Right, so.
So I got involved with diversified real estate investors Group Dig Scott's thing.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Right. He does that too.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: He. Yeah, he was involved in it. He was actually. He instructed some classes. He, you know, taught school. I actually ran a subgroup, which is how I met Steve.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So anyway, to get my real estate fix, I, you know, started reading. Reading books. You know, rich dad poured out. Of course, you know my story too. So everybody starts there, I think. Right.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: When did that book come out?
[00:21:40] Speaker A: Ah, God, I don't.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: It must have been because you read it in the early 2000s.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Oh, my God. It's that old.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Still. That.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: It still has traction. Yeah.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: That's nuts.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Still valuable.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: It's. Oh, my God. I. Who. I was talking to a. I don't mean to go off topic, but I was talking to a young agent, guy I went to high school with or something, and he was like, I was thinking about getting into real estate. I'm just like, read this book. Just read this book first.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: And if it doesn't. Even if it doesn't sit with somebody, then real estate's probably not for you.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with that.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: I mean, like, it just. When I read that, it was like.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Like it's such a. Such an eye opener. It just. Things change.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: It's insane. Like, I don't read a lot of books, but when I read a book, not every time something shifts. You know what I mean?
[00:22:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I gotcha.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: Like when I read Green Eggs and Ham. No, go ahead. Continue with your investing story.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: So.
So I needed a real estate fix, so I got involved in real estate investment. So I started. I started off buying rental properties, got into flipping. You know that. Which was kind of a natural transition with the construction knowledge, and moved into wholesaling from there. Oh, shit. Yeah. Damn near killed me. I did wholesaling between like 2007 and 2009.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: Very different than it is now.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Easy market.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: Yeah. But here's the thing.
So you think it's a crazy market, right, where you had a glut of properties and everything was collapsing and all that.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Buyers, though.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Here's the key. It was the best time to flip. Here's why. There might. Because. Because you could get deals where they made sense, the numbers made sense. Right. You could buy stuff so cheap.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Who's buying it?
There was people buying in 2008.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: So here's the thing.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: I was six.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Wow.
Wow.
God.
So, yeah, there was a glut of properties. Right. There was not a ton of buyers.
But there were qualified buyers. And if you're a qualified buyer, you're looking for that. And there's 30 properties and they're all shitholes. And there's this one beautifully rehabbed property. Which one are you buying?
[00:23:59] Speaker B: The rehab property. But it's different now. It's different nowadays, you know that.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: I know. It's very different.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: It's so weird.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
I don't flip currently. I know there's a ton of people doing it. I've got some very good friends that do it very successfully. Friend of mine's doing like 27, 30 properties a year. But I just look at it. And if you're not.
I'm more passionate right now about the retail side of real estate.
I'll definitely do a flip. I love doing flips because it does my creative side. But it's like the numbers don't work for me. Like they're. I'm spoiled.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: When I was getting deals that cheap back then, you know, the numbers are tighter now, so, yeah, they're.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: It's much different.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, look, you can still absolutely be successful in it. It just. You've got to. You've got to pour yourself into it. That's not where my focus is right now. So. Yeah, so. So I was doing that, you know, I was. God. The wholesaling thing was you didn't have all the resources you have now. Bigger pockets didn't exist. So, like I was paying for real estate education. I was going to these boot camps like around the country and learning all kinds of cool stuff from different people. And, you know, the. I don't know, the wholesaling thing was. Was.
Was to feed the. The buy and hold on. The flipping side, for the most part.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: When you were doing your flips or I'm sorry, your wholesales, was it more of like you were finding a deal and the numbers didn't work for you and then you were wholesaling it.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Either the numbers didn't work for me or I had a project going or it was in an area I didn't want or it was a type of house I didn't want. So.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: So the goal for all these was to flip.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: Cherry pick. Yeah, to cherry pick deals for myself and then cover the. The expenses of the direct mail campaigns and all that stuff for wholesaling buy, you know, wholesaling deals.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: Why did you wholesale instead of list?
[00:25:56] Speaker A: I don't know. I. My head wasn't in the retail space at that point. I mean, I did some prehabs, you know, where we went in and just cleaned it up a little bit, maybe painted a couple things, and then pushed it out to a wholesale deal.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: But, you know, I mean, I had a buyer's list at that time, you know, I mean, I wasn't big time. I was sending out maybe, I don't know, 3,000, 3,500 postcards a month.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: But I was doing Chester County, Delaware county, and Lancaster, parts of Lancaster County. And why I say it damn near killed me, as I was living in Westchester, I was driving to Mount Holly every day, New Jersey. So that's, you know, hour 15, hour and a half, and then hitting these wholesale deals. You're running this huge, you know, triangle, trying to hit all these people, and it's just. Was too much.
[00:26:43] Speaker B: It's just too much.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: So. So I stopped doing that.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's 2025. I almost said 2024. What's your portfolio looking like right now?
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Scaled it down a lot, you know.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: Sold out a lot.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, the. The rental thing does get tiresome. It's a simple business. Well, I mean, you know, you're, you know, you're a property manager, so it's. It's. It's a simple business. It's not an easy business.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: No.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: And it's, you know, you get the phone call on Christmas when you're with your family that the heater broke, you know, and you got to deal with it, and it's just the nature of the game, but, you know, it beats working 40 hours a week for somebody.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: Else to drink it on a Friday night, midnight, tenant calls me, I lock myself out, deal with it.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: So. So my.
All my tenants, I tell them, here's three things that constitute an emergency. Fire, flood, or blood. Yeah, those are the three. If it's. If it's not one of those three, it's not an emergency. And don't expect me to respond like that.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Right away.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: So. Yeah, I don't know. A lot of.
[00:27:44] Speaker B: A lot of tenants are spoiled nowadays.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: Paper training. A lot of paper training with tenants.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: So you're. You scaled down and now you're doing what with your free cash?
[00:27:53] Speaker A: So I. I do private landing.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Private landing. Yeah. And I've shifted some of that around as well, too. I'm doing more, you know, smaller.
Smaller amounts in syndications and things like that to spread. To spread it out rather than large chunks to single investors.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: Gotcha. Syndication? You mean like apartment complex?
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Did you invest in that hotel, Indigo?
[00:28:19] Speaker A: I did not. No. Did not.
I'll Tell you the thing. I'll tell you the thing I missed was really the Airbnb thing. That's. That's what I missed. I should have. I should have.
Well there. And that. There's an affordability issue there, but down there. But there's other areas where I could have done that and bought properties cheap. I mean, Lancaster City is really Airbnbs. Yeah. You wouldn't think of it. Right. But here's why everybody likes to go out into the Amish country. Like, there's stuff to do there.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: So there. So it works there.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: It's a different kind of thing to.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: Do, but it is. Yeah. I mean, it's not, you know, not for everybody. Right. But I mean, there's to find those little odd niches where other people aren't really looking or whatever, where you can buy properties on the cheap and then maximize with.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: You still own one out in Lancaster, right?
[00:29:06] Speaker A: I do, yeah. Yeah, that was a great one. So I bought that one pre foreclosure. It was like seven days before the sheriff's sale. There was some goofy lien on the property. I had a partner in the business that time. So we're trying to figure out how to get this lien removed. So we started walking down the streets of downtown Lancaster until. Where all the attorneys are and just talking to attorneys. And we kept getting. No, no, no, no, no.
Walked into one office and talked to an attorney, said, yeah, I can get that lien removed. And further conversation with the guy, he turned out to be the past president of a Lancaster area real estate investors association. So the next question was, do you know anybody who would lend on the property? That's how I found my first private lender. Oh, wow. So, you know, he hooked us up. I had two private lenders out there that were, you know, funding a lot of deals and moving forward with that. But that. That property that I bought in pre foreclosure, I.
I sold it as a rent to own. Got a tenant buyer, nice non refundable option fee.
Guy moved in the house as he saw it as I was fixing it up. I told him, here's my fixture list of what's going in, you know, materials and all that. If you want to upgrade anything, as long as there's no additional cost with the contractor, then you just pay the difference in the material price. So I got him to pay for some upgraded countertops and certain fixtures in a house that I own. He painted the entire house, put brand new windows in a house, and then never went through with the deal. And don't misunderstand me, because there's investors out there that. That try and target people to not follow through with. With a, you know, rental. Yeah, I'm not that guy. That's just not something that I did. So I was bummed that he, you know, wasn't able to carry through. But his life situation changed. He was moving south and all that.
But I got a great tenant that lived there for two and a half years that improved my property, and I still own the property today.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah, so. And you got that deposit. I want to finish up this podcast by kind of explaining a little bit about how finding your highest and best is not just about doing $10 million a year in sales. There's many ways to find it.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: And I think your story kind of. It kind of hits it home on that is how there's like, there's so much that goes into it, and I know it doesn't look good, but you're one of the happiest guys.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: Wow. I cover it well, then.
Clown on the outside, crying on the inside. Right?
[00:31:48] Speaker B: You say differently, but you, you are, you, like the biggest joy around here. And maybe I don't know what's going on deep down inside, but you bring the energy and the joy to a lot of people every single day.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I appreciate that, and I think that, I mean, that means a lot to me from the standpoint that, you know, I'm really good at helping other people. I'm not so great at helping myself. And I, you know, I have this unique ability to see things in other people that they can't see in themselves. And I love bringing that out. And that's, you know, I know we talked about it, like, in the Friday morning meetings, but, like, that's my. Why, like, that's, that's legacy to me. Like, and I've talked about this a million times, but being that pebble that starts to ripple in somebody else's pond and. And makes an improvement in their personal life. Not just now, but it goes out generationally. I mean, that's massive to me. That's really all I want out of life. And I love working.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: You do love working.
[00:32:45] Speaker A: You're here. It's my happy. It's my artistic medium.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: I'll be driving Westchester pike on a Saturday, and It'll be like 6:00, and I'm like, what the hell is Greg doing at the office?
Finish up the podcast. One last thing. I want you to, let's say someone maybe a little younger than you, similar age Maybe a little bit older. But they are struggling to find themselves and they feel like they're kind of lost. Maybe they're not making enough money or they're not happy with their family or they're not happy with their job. What's a little bit of advice you can give to them?
[00:33:20] Speaker A: It's not all about money and drop the mic. Yeah, it's not. It's not all about money.
Happiness is a self thing. It's an inside thing. Right.
I think the biggest thing that I could say, and we kind of talked about this in the beginning, is just trust your gut. I mean, that's really where it's at.
Don't let societal norms and family pressure and friends or whatever direct your life.
You inherently know what you should be doing and where you. Where you should be going. I mean, I spent 28 years doing environmental remediation and consulting. I saw some really cool stuff.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: I saw stuff where you dig it up and it catches on fire. It's air reactive and, you know, guys in the moon suit stuff and super fun sites and cool stuff like that. I hated that job. I hated that business. Hated it. And I always knew I belonged in real estate.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: And I was miserable for a lot of years because I was doing something that, that I did for the money, and I made a lot of money doing it, and I just hated it. So trust your gut.
I knew as a young kid I belonged in real estate. And I started to test those waters with the investing. But I should have made that conversion way earlier. I'm way happier now than I've ever been. I can help people at a different level that I think really adds value.
So it's not really a mic drop, but maybe it's kind of a mic touch or something like that. I don't know what you want to.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: Call it, but I have an edit idea.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: Trust your gut. God, can't wait to see that.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Where can people find you? I want to. I want to go buy the Jersey Shore. Where can I find Davis, man?
[00:35:08] Speaker A: Right here.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Now your website.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: That'S in progress. Oh, but that's okay. Yeah, yeah, that's. That's kind of my, you know, my beach brand. Right. Yeah. Little caricature.
Best place to find me is really on social media.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Greg Davis.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:27] Speaker B: You can't misspell it.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Well, I mean, it's a common name, so it's hard to find. Right. So. Right.
[00:35:31] Speaker B: Greg Davis, VRA Real.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: God, Greg. Greg D. Sells re. If you Greg D. Sells Re. That then you will find me on most of the social media channels. Greggy D. Yeah, There you go, G.D.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Greg. Let's do it.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: My flag.
