Key Takeaways
- Building relationships—not budgets—can be your most powerful source of real estate deals.
- Profit comes from perspective: not every flip needs to be a home run if it fits your long-term strategy.
- Communication and clear expectations are just as important in real estate as in relationships.
The REI Agent with Lyle Spann
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The Real Success Risk? Staying Comfortable.
“I never, ever imagined being involved in real estate or investing…”
That’s how Lyle Spann’s story begins. Just a regular guy in a W-2 job, answering corporate demands, until life knocked on the door in the form of a friend moving from Atlanta to Tennessee.
What started as casual boots-on-the-ground help quickly turned into a career pivot.
Within a year, Lyle went from checking on properties to flipping 46 houses across two states—and he hasn’t looked back since.
In this riveting episode of The REI Agent Podcast, co-host Mattias Clymer takes us deep into the mindset, struggles, and strategy behind Lyle’s transformation from corporate employee to full-time real estate investor and business owner.
From flipping starter homes to managing luxury rehabs and mastering the BRRRR method, Lyle pulls back the curtain on what it takes to build a sustainable and impactful life through real estate.
Bigger Paychecks, Bigger Perspective
“You work all year hoping you’re gonna get a little bit better… it’s just one of those things that you need to have perspective on.”
Before Lyle even takes the mic, Mattias sets the stage with a powerful personal moment—his struggle with a disappointing CrossFit result.
What seemed like failure became fuel for reflection. And that lesson—about perspective, grace, and growth—sets the tone for the conversation with Lyle.
Real estate, just like fitness, isn’t about winning every round. It’s about showing up consistently and leveling up holistically.
Lyle lives this truth: his wife is his partner in business, his village helps raise his kids, and his growth mindset transforms challenges into opportunities.
From Flips to Freedom
“We flip 25 to 30 houses a year… and we want to keep two to three as rentals.”
The beauty of Lyle’s approach lies in his long-game vision.
He doesn’t just chase cash—he builds cash flow. He flips for income, holds for wealth, and leans into his community to source deals creatively.
Forget buying overpriced lists or sending 10,000 postcards—Lyle taps into his relationships, from mailmen to police officers, to find the best off-market properties.
His formula is intentional: flip for profit, keep for passive, and only take on projects where the return reflects the risk.
Whether it’s a $285K rental in Clarksville or a $2M luxury flip in Franklin, the numbers have to work—and the heart has to align.
How to Play (and Win) the Luxury Game
“It was a huge project… we made $175,000 net on that flip.”
RELATED CONTENT
Lyle didn’t stumble into luxury flipping—he stepped into it with clarity and partnerships.
With a rockstar agent-designer duo by his side, he tackled a high-end Franklin property with precision. He also didn’t pretend it was easy.
Between the $1M+ purchase price and $425K rehab, he knew the stakes—and the stress.
But that’s what makes his story resonate. He doesn’t sell the dream; he builds it brick by brick.
His honesty about managing expectations, analyzing risk, and over-communicating with contractors and partners gives every aspiring investor a masterclass in real-life flipping.
Marriage, Mindset, and Midterm Rentals
“She’s my better half by far, man. That’s for sure.”
Beyond the spreadsheets and strategies, this episode reveals the human side of real estate.
Lyle’s wife manages design and transactions while also raising two daughters. The family also navigates short-term and midterm rentals, adjusting strategies to fit shifting markets and regulations.
Their decision to buy a distressed cabin in Gatlinburg and invest $125K into renovations proves that vision trumps fear.
And in Panama City Beach, they pivoted a short-term rental into a midterm haven for snowbirds. Lyle doesn’t just invest in property—he invests in people, in flexibility, and in growth.
The Final Word: Just Take Action
“You can listen to podcasts all day… but if you don’t do anything with it, you’re gonna sit right there.”
That mic-drop moment came near the end of the episode, but it echoes long after.
Lyle’s story isn’t about perfection. It’s about persistence. He didn’t have money or a plan. He had people, he had passion, and he had the courage to take the first step.
Whether you’re an agent, an investor, or just someone stuck in a job that no longer serves you, this episode offers more than real estate advice—it offers a roadmap to a better, bolder life.
Never Forget Your Why
“Set the right expectations, over-communicate, and keep your word.”
Lyle’s success isn’t just built on hard numbers—it’s built on human connection. From flipping houses to parenting toddlers, it all comes down to trust, clarity, and commitment.
So the next time you’re stuck in analysis paralysis, ask yourself: What would happen if I just took action today?
Because just like Lyle said, if you find the deal… they will come.
Stay tuned for more inspiring stories on The REI Agent podcast, your go-to source for insights, inspiration, and strategies from top agents and investors who are living their best lives through real estate.
For more content and episodes, visit reiagent.com.
Contact Lyle Spann
Mentioned References
Transcript
[Mattias]
Welcome to the REI Agent, a holistic approach to life through real estate. I’m Mattias, an agent and investor.
[Erica]
And I’m Erica, a licensed therapist.
[Mattias]
Join us as we interview guests that also strive to live bold and fulfilled lives through business and real estate investing.
[Erica]
Tune in every week for interviews with real estate agents and investors.
[Mattias]
Ready to level up?
[Erica]
Let’s do it.
[Mattias]
Welcome back to the REI Agent. I guess we can do one more CrossFit related intro. Maybe I could try to tie it in a little better.
But I just did the final open workout at the time of recording and was really disappointed in how it did. So last Friday, I did the, again, three open workouts that you kind of compare yourself to the rest of the world in CrossFit. These CrossFit workouts are designed to be something that most people could do, at least a little bit of, even if they’re brand new, to all the way weeding out the top athletes in the sport, people that are dedicating your entire lives to training, all that kind of stuff.
And so they’re hard, they’re really hard. And the first two went well overall. I was good with them.
First one I redid. A second one I may have redone. I did it on a Friday.
And then I ended up getting a fever on Saturday and kind of was battling some sort of cold sickness and then allergies on top of it all week. And I went in this past Friday to do the third one and I just quit in the middle because it just felt like I couldn’t do a decent enough time. I felt like I was still kind of sick.
So I was like, what’s the point of going through this whole thing if it’s just gonna be bleh? So I saved it, tried to rest up all weekend and then redo it on Monday. You kind of have until 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time to get it done. I did it this morning and it was terrible. And I logged my score and I saw what my percentile was. So basically you get ranked amongst everybody in the world.
So to put a little perspective, in 2023, I got a 66 percentile in the whole world for men. So like 66, I was in the top 66 percent or 34 percent, whatever you wanna say. So there’s 66 percent people are worse than me, if that makes sense.
And I was happy with that, that was great. Then last year, I actually ended up having COVID like a week or two before the Open started and I definitely felt like I was not myself even though I didn’t have COVID anymore. But I definitely felt like I just couldn’t perform like I did before.
And so I ended up getting like 58 percent or something like that, that year. So never fun to go backwards, that’s the main thing that I’m looking at. The main reason I do this, I record this in the official CrossFit platform is to see how I’m progressing and the goal is to do better every year, right?
I’m also getting old, so maybe I need to start having a come to Jesus moment and realize that maybe just being fit and staying healthy is the main goal here, right? So I was hoping to do better than 2023 this year just to kind of prove that I’ve continued to progress and then even though I had kind of like a sickness in 2024, that I’ve still kind of maintained some kind of progress. So I got 68 percent tile for both the first and second workout and then when I logged my score, I guess it didn’t update right away, but it showed me being at 56 percent for the third one and that’s overall.
And I was so mad, I was like, this is, I quit CrossFit, I’m done, this is ridiculous. I can’t be less than the year before like with the COVID year or whatever. Even though this workout definitely I think was impacted by me being sick and having allergies and all that stuff.
But it’s just really, really frustrating. If you’re not a CrossFitter, it’s maybe hard to understand, but like you work all year hoping you’re gonna get a little bit better at all these different things and that you perform a little bit better in the open. So all that to say is it did end up updating and got me to the 69th percentile, which I think by the time everybody’s recorded their scores, it’ll go down.
I don’t know how much further down, I’ll still be in the 60s at least, was really hoping to be in the 70th percentile overall. So I probably would’ve had a score like 75% or something on this last workout, but I blew it. I bombed it.
It would’ve been great to have this workout on Friday all the way through if I felt okay and then get a good sense for it and then really hopefully get back on Monday and do it again to be a little bit better. But it’s a brutal one. If anybody’s in the CrossFit world, it’s really hard.
But I think it’s just one of those things that if I’m gonna tie it into the rest of the life and perspective and all that, it’s something that you need to just have perspective on. I’m comparing myself to people that do CrossFit. If I was comparing myself to the rest of the world, the whole population in general, I might be in the 95th percentile or higher.
And so it’s all relative. And if you focus on, I mean, I guess I’m fairly competitive. I think I have a lot of drive in me to achieve big things.
I don’t feel like I’m a jerk to other people if they beat me or anything like that. It’s not like that kind of competition. But I feel like I have a lot of drive to kind of be the best I can be.
Maybe that’s the best way to describe it. But these kind of things are harder for me to kind of get past. And I need to keep that perspective and understand that I do so many other things in my life than train CrossFit.
And all those other things are just as important, right? I wanna have time with my family. I wanna build my sales business further.
I wanna build my sales team. I wanna write my book. I wanna invest more in real estate.
Shoot, I’m in a band now too. I wanna be able to perform. One of the goals there is to perform a concert.
In the summer at some point, in a couple months. And all those things are important to me. And I have to realize that it’s gonna be a balance.
It’s not gonna be, if you really wanna become the 100% best at something, you’re gonna have to pretty much devote all your time to that one thing. And I don’t think I want that in anything. I don’t wanna be the richest person in the world.
I don’t want that kind of life. So it’s all about perspective. And this has been a nice little therapy moment for me.
I wish Erica was here to kind of help me process this a little bit more. I’m sure she’ll listen to this and give me feedback after this. But yeah, I think that’s the overall moral of the story.
The lesson I wanted to give now is just to kind of keep perspective in your life and realize, be thankful for what you have. There’s almost always somebody underneath you that is looking up at you and being like, I wish I was there. And that’s kind of a weird way to say it.
But basically, if there’s somebody just starting CrossFit, looking at my scores, they’re gonna be like, oh, I wish I could one day get there. That’d be amazing. And then same with me.
There’s people that are a lot further along than me in the gym. I’m looking at their scores and be like, oh man, that’s amazing. I wish I could be there.
But they’re looking at people ahead of them. They’re beating themselves up. So it’s just one of those things that you’ve gotta have perspective on life and just really appreciate where you’re at, appreciate your abilities, appreciate your health, appreciate your family, focus on gratitude.
Without further ado, we’re gonna interview Lyle Spann today. Lyle is an investor out of the Nashville, Central Tennessee area. He does a lot of house flipping.
It was a really good conversation, really interesting to hear the way he processes things and how he kind of got started. But there’s some really good nuggets in there. If you are an agent thinking about investing or just an agent that wants to understand investors better, we get into some of that as well.
So without further ado, here’s Lyle. Welcome back to the REI Agent. I am here with Lyle Spann.
Lyle, thanks so much for joining us today.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, man, thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
[Mattias]
Yeah, Lyle, so you and your wife are investors. Tell us a little bit about how you got started in this journey of real estate.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, absolutely. I never, ever imagined being involved in real estate or investing, so it kind of fell on my lap. Make a long story short here, worked at W2 for a long time in the corporate world and a buddy of mine who was moving to Middle Tennessee from Atlanta, flipped houses in the Atlanta market.
And he was dating a girl up here and was wanting to move here, get engaged and kind of get his feet wet in the Middle Tennessee market. I’m right outside of Nashville, Tennessee. So he hit me up about looking for someone to go look at houses for him.
Stopped by while projects were going, just some boots on the ground. So I did that on the side for him. And then he moved here and made me an offer to join him full-time on his team as his acquisitions guy, sales and acquisitions guy.
So I prayed about it, man. Had a lot of conversations with people in my life and of course my wife as well and made the leap. And I worked with him for a little while, for a little over a year.
And yeah, just made sense to kind of go our separate ways, but started our own thing after that. And here we are five years later with a real estate investing business and portfolio and all that good stuff.
[Mattias]
That’s awesome. Tell me a little bit about what that looks like when he hired you. So were you kind of salary-based or were you kind of percentage of deal-based?
What would that look like?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, so it was very heavily commission-based percentage of deals. So there was a little bit of a salary, right, for a little bit of stable income stability. My wife worked full-time as well, but it was heavily commission-based.
But the year I worked for him full-time, we flipped 46 houses between Atlanta and Middle Tennessee. So there was a lot of meat on the bone, if you will, on a commission basis.
[Mattias]
Wow. Okay, so when you took the leap of faith, you had a little bit of guarantee. He had a track record in a different market, right?
So, and you all had kind of maybe seen a little bit of what could be in your market because you were kind of already doing some running around for him, right?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, that’s exactly it. So the reason it made sense for me is because for the previous year, I got exposure to how he operates, what kind of volume he did, right? The systems and process, the proof of concept, if you will, for what he already had established.
And we did five or six in Middle Tennessee while he was still in Atlanta that previous year. And it already started building out some relationships and things. So knowing that I was also gonna be a part of the things that he was still doing in Atlanta and then building something here in Middle Tennessee, yeah, it just felt like a good opportunity.
So went after it. But I did have quite a bit of exposure, right, before making that leap to where I had confidence in what he was doing.
[Mattias]
Yeah, so I mean, I guess when it all boiled down to it, like you probably were thinking worst case scenario, I’ll probably, what were you thinking, make about the same amount of money as I was in my W-2 job and I’d get this new experience? Or what did it end up being? Was it more than your W-2?
[Lyle Spann]
It was, it was more than my W-2. And I would have been happy making the same, right? I had freedom of time, some flexibility, some other things that I didn’t have in the W-2 world.
But yeah, it was way better than I could have imagined.
[Mattias]
Okay, okay. I mean, that’s a cool model if anybody’s looking to kind of replicate, if they are looking to take that much on. So that was that just in that market or is that the 46 flips, was that in Atlanta as well?
And is that kind of the number that that guy typically does?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, that was more, that was his biggest year, for sure. It was split between the two. He was kind of sitting around 25 to 30 when he was just in Atlanta.
And he still had a ton of resources there. And I actually, at least one day a week, I would go, I’d leave at like 3.30 in the morning here in Nashville. And I would drive to Atlanta to get there by 8 their time.
And we would line up all the houses I was going to look at and all of the houses that we had working that I would go check on. I’d line them all up for one day and I’d get home at like 11 at night. But yeah, it was brutal, but it all worked out, right?
We were able to still do volume there. And it was, I mean, invaluable experience that I gained.
[Mattias]
Yeah, awesome. Okay, so when you broke off to go into this yourself, what was, I mean, so yeah, like doing your own thing, I get it why you’d want to do that. Were you also going to focus on other strategies that it was investing than just flipping?
Or what else were you looking to do when you broke off?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, for sure. It actually never intended to break off. I was planning to help grow his business.
And he and I are still friends to this day. We actually go to church together. But working together, we just like really closely, we found out we’re just, we’re different people.
We have different leadership styles, communication styles. Just didn’t really, wasn’t the best fit professionally. So that’s really the reason I left.
So never planned to go off on my own. So I had to revisit kind of when I made the decision I wasn’t going to stay on. Do I take everything I’ve learned and try this on my own?
Or do I go back to my W-2, kept a really good relationship with the company that I left. So there was a process there that my wife and I went through to be at peace with going at this ourselves. But when we made that decision, we knew we wanted to flip houses.
That’s the value that I had. But we also wanted to build a rental portfolio. That was part of the goal.
I even wanted to start building a rental portfolio while I was still working for my buddy. So that’s the goal. Passive income over time is our goal.
So I guess I’ll just tell you, we flip 25 to 30 houses a year and that’s kind of where we want to stay. And we want to keep two to three a year. That’s our goal.
Keep two to three as rentals. So the next 10 to 15 years, we’ve got 25 to 50 rental properties that are bringing in some passive income for us while we still have the active income of flipping.
[Mattias]
What’s your criteria for keeping them? I’m assuming you’re doing like the Burr method where you’re flipping the house and then refinancing money out to hold it for the long term. Is that correct?
[Lyle Spann]
That’s exactly correct. So we use hard money pretty heavily. If anyone’s not sure what a hard money lender is, but they’re lenders that will lend to investors, primarily investors, right?
Based on the deal itself. So we use a lot of hard money. We have private money too.
But when we will initially fund it like we’re flipping the house, but obviously there’s a different underwriting process and a different analyzation to the numbers that we need to hold it. But yeah, once we flip it and we get a, or once we renovate it, excuse me, and then get a tenant in there, that’s exactly what we do. We do the Burr method.
We then refinance out into a DSCR loan or a product like that. At that point, we’re cash flowing and just have a longer mortgage on the house.
[Mattias]
I would imagine that process is more challenging now with interest rates where they are. Are you finding that the best rates or the best way to do that is through the DSCR?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, that’s a great question, man. It still is the best way that we have found to do things just because of the volume that we’re doing and the requirements that you need for a DSCR loan as opposed to more of a traditional lending option. But you nailed it.
It’s definitely tricky to make the numbers work. So you gotta find a really good deal. And it’s usually one of those smaller first time home buyer type houses, right?
That you can get for a discount that needs work and make sure when you’re all in between what you bought it for and your rehab that you’re still on that threshold where you can make money on it by keeping it.
[Mattias]
Yeah, so just to explain what a DSCR loan is as well to people that may not be familiar with it is basically it’s a loan that I think it came from more commercial products. It’s more like, think about it more like a business loan where they are really just analyzing the numbers of if this property will perform like a business. So what they wanna see is the rent rate to be, they have different requirements about what the number needs to be but how it performs compared to that the mortgage payment would be itself.
So basically you don’t necessarily need to qualify for the loan yourself and your personal finances. And that can be really beneficial if you, for whatever reason, maybe your taxable income is really low because you’ve depreciated a lot of real estate assets. And maybe you don’t qualify for a mortgage anymore.
You can still get one through a DSCR loan. And I’m doing one right now personally, getting better rates than I would get otherwise. And it’s been very simple, 30 year fixed as well.
So it’s not like it’s an arm loan either. But it’s, yeah, and actually it’s been cheaper too to actually originate. Like the origination fees overall, they’re also cheaper.
So I will keep shopping around. I think especially in the high interest rate environment you kind of have to be a bit of a mortgage expert to know what the best fit is overall. Because I think it’s different.
Some local banks might offer you a better product than a DSCR loan. Like for example, I had a bank for a while that was offering a little bit higher of interest rate than what the going rate would have been. However, they were financing basically 80% of the ARV on a 30 year fix from day one.
So you go to close on the property and you’re getting all the cash you need to renovate the house, buy the house, et cetera. And if you do it right, you might have a little bit extra. And they just charge a little bit more of interest rate.
It’s a 30 year fix as well. Just an in-house loan that a bank was lending on. So it’s good to make those relationships, right?
I mean, you were talking about that earlier. Like you need to have relationships with in the area you’re working. So banks, who else is important to have relationships with?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, so great question. You let into right out what I was about to say, man. You’re right, right?
You mentioned kind of being a little bit of a mortgage expert that doesn’t hurt by any means and shopping around is vital, right? Making sure you have the right options. But relationships, building relationships with other investors and other realtors.
There’s a lot of people out there who have rentals and have either used DSCR loans or have used local banks, right? Community banks. So I’ve got a lot of good recommendations just from other investors or other people who have been able to say, hey, these guys gave me a great rate, right?
Or they love doing stuff with people locally, tell them I sent you. So great to have relationships with people too in the business just that you can lean into. And I’ve also been able to do the same for other people, right?
Give them a couple of lenders that I use and say, hey, these guys give great rates, especially if you have a good track record or if you have a good relationship that you can build with them. So just networking, man. Networking’s huge.
[Mattias]
Totally. And I think that, I’ve heard it described from banks that basically if you think about a bank looking at their, what they hold, what kind of notes they hold, what their diversity of their portfolio basically is as a bank. And sometimes a bank is gonna wanna fill a bucket up of real estate.
So they’re gonna be interested in these kind of products and be incentivizing people to use them because they wanna get more real estate. So it just really, that’s why it’s just so good to have those relationships and like you said, if you’re talking to other investors, other agents, they will also be doing that, right? They’ll also be talking to different banks to try to find the best products for themselves as well.
So that’s definitely a great way instead of just calling every bank in the area. And then you’ve mentioned too, sometimes the track record’s really important and often a local bank is gonna want you to kind of have a deposit relationship with them as well when you get some different types of products with them. So keep that in mind.
If you don’t have a track record yet, the relationship certainly helps, but that’s a great time to really maybe see if somebody would be willing to partner with you that maybe already has that relationship established. That’s kind of how I’ve gotten in the door with a few different banks. I just started with a buddy that we partnered on a flip and that’s his go-to person.
And so now I’ve had three deals with them already. And so they’re like, okay, yeah, if you open up a deposit relationship, an account with us, we’ll be happy to lend you by yourself the next time you want to, so.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, love that, man. Partnerships can be huge as well. We leverage them and love them.
They can be tricky. You gotta be careful with them, right? Make sure you’re partnering with the right people.
I cannot overstress that, but they can also be extremely valuable for sure.
[Mattias]
It’s good to when you start, right? I mean, I think there’s a lot to overcome. Like I imagine it would have been difficult for you and your wife to just jump right in and do a flip by yourself, having not had the experience you did, right?
[Lyle Spann]
Absolutely, 100%. And we have partners too, as far as all kinds of different partners out there. But yeah, having the right people in your sphere, man, can be huge.
Your network is your net worth. I don’t know if you ever heard that. Someone wrote in the book, somebody a lot smarter than me, but I love the phrase because it can be huge who you surround yourself with.
[Mattias]
Totally, totally. It makes it all the difference in the world. Okay, so now you guys are picking up rentals as you go.
You’re looking at the smaller, like kind of first time home buyer range. So like what’s, give us some numbers here. Like if you’re looking at a median sales price, are you like underneath that as kind of where you want to be with your rentals that you pick up?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, we are for sure. And we’re still buying, yeah, really distressed properties. The rehab process is different when we’re keeping them as a rental, right?
Not that where the quality isn’t solid because that’s something we’re big on is quality, right? But a rental grade renovation is a little different than a full-on rehab for something that you’re trying to flip. So the numbers work much different.
But yeah, median price, I mean, we’re right there. So what we have right now in Clarksville, Tennessee, it’s probably worth $285,000 renovated, like ARV, you mentioned the ARV, after repair value for anyone listening that may not be familiar with that acronym. But $285,000, I think we got it for $180,000 distressed.
And we ended up putting $40,000 into it, I think, maybe $35,000 refinanced out into a DSCR loan. So yeah, that’s very typical. And that’s at the high end of the threshold of where we would want to be, right?
But we have actually had that one a few years before the rates went higher. So numbers were able to work on that one a little better. But that is very typical.
$180,000, put in $20,000 or so, and then refinance out as long as you’re within 75% to 80% of what the appraised value would be. That’s what a DSCR loan is gonna look for.
[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah, I’m running into, probably the one I’m doing, the BRRRR I’m doing, it’s probably not gonna work like a true BRRRR where I get all the cash back out. Partly because I’m doing the 70%. And that’s where getting a better interest rate for that 70% as opposed to 75% or whatever is part of it.
So, yeah, and the appraisal honestly came back lower than I expected. So that’s another factor for sure. But it’s still, I mean, if you think about, even if a BRRRR doesn’t work 100% well, you have this brand new, renovated, beautiful property, and let’s say you put $10,000 into it.
It’s like, would you put $10,000 down to get this deal? Like, it’s still a pretty awesome thing overall. So I can’t really complain.
[Lyle Spann]
Totally agree, man. Not the worst thing in the world to type a little money, obviously, as long as you can afford to keep that money tied up for a little while in there. You can always refinance out again when the rates come down or whatever the case is.
[Mattias]
Yeah, hopefully that will happen and we can make it even sweeter. So now you’re in an area that has a lot of short-term rental stuff as well, right? I mean, have you branched out to, it’s the Smoky Mountains, right?
That’s not too far away from you?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, it’s about three and a half hours for me. So I’m in Middle Tennessee, and that’s in East Tennessee. Ironically, we just bought a cabin in Gatlinburg, Smoky Mountains, that we’re gonna keep as a short-term rental.
So we’re in the middle of renovations right now on that.
[Mattias]
But we do- You found one that was distressed?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, we found one that was distressed. It was being rented out. These people have had it for a long time and just never done any updates or really had a lot of deferred maintenance to it.
So we were able to work out a pretty good deal with them. And I mean, just comps are great for stuff that’s selling, and then performance on Airbnb’s in that area are doing really well. So we feel like it’s gonna be a home run, but it needs a ton of work.
We got like $125,000 worth of renovations that we’re doing to it.
[Mattias]
How big is the property?
[Lyle Spann]
It’s a little over 1,900 square feet.
[Mattias]
Okay.
[Lyle Spann]
So it’s got four bedrooms, two full baths, and then some common areas too, right there. I mean, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Gatlinburg, if you’ve heard of Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge.
[Mattias]
Yeah.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, they’re a popular tourist spot in East Tennessee in the mountains. And it’s a point that’s just under a mile from the strip of Gatlinburg, this Airbnb, so.
[Mattias]
You know, it’s funny. So there was, we should get into this a little bit too, but there was this big Airbnb boom right through COVID, through the pandemic that definitely happened in that area. But there was also, prior to that, I mean, if there was some, you know, the short-term shop, right?
I mean, I think there’s some, a few different people that are kind of promoting short-term rentals. And I think that was a very, very popular hotspot. I actually had at least one person, well, one person in particular that comes to mind, but I had a few people that came from that kind of market and then kind of ventured up further north and ended up.
So we’re in Harrisonburg, Virginia on the Shenandoah, the Blue Ridge Mountains. We have a resort not too far away. And I actually had somebody from Virginia Beach strike out left and right in Gatlinburg, couldn’t get a property under contract no matter how hard they tried.
We’re driving back home with their tails between their legs, disappointed and heartbroken and all this stuff. And then it was just kind of like, man, there has to be some other, because they’re basically driving up north through the mountains, right? And they’re like, there has to be something else out there that could work.
And then they, I think they’re kind of Googling as they go, and they found the resort close to Harrisonburg, Virginia, Mastinutin, and found me. And they ended up getting probably one of the best locations of any kind of Airbnb that I sold in that area to date. And it was before everything went crazy.
So they’re sitting really pretty now. But it’s just funny how, yeah, that whole, that pandemic thing really blew things up a little bit. Did you, A, did you buy this on the market?
And then B, how did you analyze the numbers to make sure that you guys are gonna be good at the end of the day?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, so we did buy it on market. We got it for much less than they had it listed for, which is part of the reason it was sitting for a really long time. Sure.
And they finally, we just hit at the right time, right? They were motivated to sell. So, but one of my buddies, he’s an agent, Derek Trainor here locally, but he has a Airbnb in Gatlinburg.
So he’s got a lot of relationships there and he’s got a lot of knowledge of the area. So he was helping us look for one. And he was pretty pivotal in helping us with the comp process and the analyzation process.
So, being an investor, I’m one of the investors who is very much pro real estate agents, right? And the value that they provide and having them, having really good ones on your side, on your team, having a win-win there. He was crucial for us finding this deal and then helping us go through the process to make sure that we were underwriting it correctly and then all the numbers made sense.
[Mattias]
That’s awesome. Did you use tools like AirDNA or is it like Dataraboo or something?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, I think AirDNA we definitely used. And yeah, there’s another one that’s slipping my mind right now that Derek introduced us to that I think he uses. But yeah, and it had solid numbers too from the people who sold it, although they had been there for a while, not done much to it.
They had pretty good records.
[Mattias]
Okay.
[Lyle Spann]
You know, T12 and just, you know, yeah, it’s really good records of the performance. So, it didn’t perform super well, but the property was also not in great shape.
[Mattias]
Yeah, just any kind of like proof of concept I think can help. I think I noticed that being, the properties that were already set up as Airbnbs and had numbers in our local resort area definitely were more appealing than converting something completely from scratch that was just like a single family home. And it’s also a good time, I think now.
You know, honestly, I was very apprehensive with Airbnbs and these kinds of markets a few years back because I saw the boom happen, right? I saw the sales prices go skyrocket and just the flooding of new Airbnbs. I don’t know how it is in Gatlinburg, but in this area, we had a lot of single family homes.
People were just living in these areas and some short-term rentals, but then a lot of new ones came on the market, a lot of new short-term rentals came on the market. And so there was a lot more competition. I think a lot of people were buying based on numbers from before there was just this huge influx of new Airbnbs.
So they could see, you know, like this property should, on AirDNA, should be performing at this level. And then when they actually get up and running, there’s a ton of new Airbnbs. So the reality was they weren’t performing quite as well.
And so all that kind of made me feel like there could be this recipe for some downward pressure on price. If a lot of people are underperforming and can’t sustain, they might have to be forced to sell. And then if they’re forced to sell, they might have to start competing down, right?
But honestly, it wasn’t near as bad as I expected. It hasn’t been. I think now, if you’re setting something up, you’re working with real numbers.
So I think there’s not like this huge influx of new Airbnbs coming on the market. So you’re actually, you know, using probably a realistic outlook of how the property will perform when you’re doing your analysis. So it’s cool.
I’m glad I was wrong. I’m glad it wasn’t as bad as I expected, or I was worried about, at least.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, absolutely, man. And here in Nashville, completely different market Airbnb. It’s very popular here too, right?
There’s a lot of that, but they really crack down. Other metro areas really crack down on, you know, limitations and all kinds of stuff. So, but yeah, still a market for it if you do it right.
[Mattias]
Yeah, and you gotta really have good service and focus on the amenities and all that kind of stuff. So it’s, yeah, that’s awesome. The property we’re doing the BRRRR on is actually gonna be a midterm rental because our city also has regulations on short term.
[Lyle Spann]
Understood. And that’s something we didn’t even touch on, but I love the concept. I don’t have one yet, but midterm rentals, right?
There’s your traveling nurses, there’s your snowbirds, there’s a whole market for that too, you know, that you can pivot to. So we’re partnered on a short term rental in Panama City Beach.
[Mattias]
Okay.
[Lyle Spann]
We have one down there too with some partners. And we do that during the winter months, right? Midterm it out to some snowbirds.
[Mattias]
Sure.
[Lyle Spann]
You know, for the slower months. So yeah, a lot of options out there, man.
[Mattias]
So you convert it to, like it’s more of a short term rental otherwise, but then you’ll let it kind of, I mean, I’m guessing you have like what, like a tiered system where it’s like, you know, if you rent it by the night, it’s this price. If you go to a month, you get a discount kind of thing. Is that what it looks like?
[Lyle Spann]
It is in essence. And you know, we, this specific one, we’re pretty intentional too. We pull it off as a short term, you know, kind of sites and kind of marketing.
And we just market for the midterms for a season, right? And if we don’t get something locked in for a few months, then we’ll just continue short term renting it during that time period. But we give it all the opportunity, right?
To be a midterm. Because if we’re going both and someone books it for a short term and then someone wants it for a few months, then it just, you know, it just goes rich in it. So, yeah.
[Mattias]
Yeah, totally. And you know, it really boils down to then occupancy rates. I mean, you have to achieve a certain amount.
I was, you know, doing the numbers of what, you know, the high end of a long-term rental could be versus what I need to get on average with, you know, occupancy rates, et cetera, on the midterm to make it worthwhile. Because I mean, at the end of the day, like if you’re breaking the same, if you’re breaking even, you’ve just furnished a place, you’re paying for utilities, and you have to deal with the, you know, the ins and outs, like the moving in, moving out, the cleaning, all that extra hassle stuff. And if you’re just getting what you would for a long-term rental as it washes out over the whole year, what’s the point?
[Lyle Spann]
Yep.
[Mattias]
So.
[Lyle Spann]
Couldn’t agree more.
[Mattias]
Yeah. Yeah, so tell me more about how you all have built this business together. It’s you and your wife partnering together.
How does that look between the two of you? What roles do you both have?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, so my wife, she helps take care of our girls. We have two daughters, by the way. I’m a girl dad, proud girl dad.
Yes. So, you know, that’s a full-time role in itself. But she helps with all of our design, our interior design.
She’s really good at that, and she really loves that. So on the most volume that we do on houses is that first-time home buyer or 500K or less. That’s the highest volume we do.
We do some luxury flips as well. We’ve got some hiring stuff and some luxury flips that we have done and we’re doing. And we have a designer that we use on those.
But she does a lot of our interior design. She does a lot of our transaction coordination. So she’ll help set up utilities on properties, set up insurance, things of that nature, some of that stuff that she can do in her own time.
And just help out with some of those tedious tasks. She’s great at that. And man, she’s my biggest supporter too.
So taking care of our girls and all that kind of stuff frees me up as well to be able to focus on finding deals and analyzing deals and going to see projects, things like that. So she’s my better half by far, man. That’s for sure.
Anybody who knows me would tell you that too. How old are your girls? For sure.
I’ve got an eight and a half year old daughter and I have an almost two year old in May. She’ll be two.
[Mattias]
Yeah. Yeah. We have two girls and then we got a son that’s like two and a half.
So eight, five and two and a half. So I feel you, man. It’s a crazy life.
It is, man. I don’t know. I feel like embracing chaos is your strongest attribute if you’re wanting to be happy in this stage.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, totally agree. It’s a season for sure, right? It’s a chaotic season, but I will say, man, I gotta be honest with you.
My parents live a couple miles away and my wife’s parents live a couple miles away.
[Mattias]
That’s nice.
[Lyle Spann]
One of my in-laws is retired and my dad is retired. So our village has been pretty awesome to have close by with the kids.
[Mattias]
It takes a village, really. Makes a lot more sense to me these days.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah. I value it a lot more than I used to, that’s for sure. But yeah, we’re blessed, man.
[Mattias]
Well, tell me a little bit about the luxury flip. So I think, you know, so when I look at my flips, when I look at the deals that I’ve done, I think one of the themes that I’ve kind of kept in mind is that if you are in the meat of the market, if you’re in the median of the market, there’s gonna be the most people, the most demand typically, right? So if you’re renting or if you’re at the median or below, that’s the sweet spot as far as high demand goes.
Like, you know, if you’re gonna be wanting to sell it, you’re gonna have a lot of people able to afford it and it could fit a lot of people, a lot of different demographics. First time homebuyers could be one for sure. And then, you know, and depending on the location, there could be others as well.
But when you’re renting as well, like, you know, if you’re wanting to have a steady stream of tenants, like it’s easier to be at that lower price point than it is to do something luxury. So tell me a little bit about how you all look at and what got you to get into the luxury flip market.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, it’s a different market, right? So fortunately here in Nashville where we are, so Tennessee, especially Middle Tennessee, but all of Tennessee has been a, it’s been a big draw for some of these people who are coming from California, from New York, right? Colorado, not only is it centrally located, but there’s no state income tax here.
Right. You know, we get a little bit of all the seasons. So it’s got some things going for it, right?
So especially here in Middle Tennessee, there’s Franklin, Tennessee, which is right outside of Nashville, which is the nicest area in Tennessee. And it’s a huge draw for these people who are buying these luxury houses. Or you got somebody from California who just sold a house, right?
And they got $3 million and they come in paying cash for a one and a half or $2 million house that they’re getting land, a little bit of land and the bigger house. So there’s a market for it here. Location is key as far as luxury flips go.
We’ve passed on some higher end houses and some smaller areas just because, you know, who knows how long it’ll sit. So sure. Or kind of what the market is there.
So location is definitely key. Well, we got interested in it once we had some systems and processes down for our flips and we felt like we had good contractors, things of that nature. And we had built some really good relationships.
So our designer for our luxury flips is also an awesome agent, retail agent. And she sells a lot of higher end houses. So she has a lot of network in that market, right?
And she and her husband’s a contractor. So we’ve actually, we partnered on a couple of deals together. They’re like a bang, bang duo, right?
A dynamic duo. And they’re really good people too. I know, right?
He was a country music singer at one point. He was on The Voice. Like I know, they got all kinds of check.
They’re just checking all the boxes for this HGTV show or Magnolia Network show. So when I did my first luxury flip was with them and I’ve done, I think I’ve done five together with them. And the biggest one we did was actually in Franklin and we sold it for $2 million.
So some of the comments I made was case in point. California buyer came in, ended up buying it one day on market, full asking at 1.99 million cash offer. We closed in two weeks.
Wow. So the process from what we typically do to the luxury flip to answer your question a little more directly, the numbers, we still run the numbers the same. We have to have a lot more margins because the risk versus reward has to make sense.
If I’m gonna tie up, we bought it for a little over a million distressed, right? A million and $75,000 distressed.
[Mattias]
Yeah.
[Lyle Spann]
Ended up putting $425,000 into renovating it.
[Mattias]
Wow.
[Lyle Spann]
It was a huge project, right? In order to tie up that much money all the time, in order to have the stress and it was a very nerve wracking project and being the first one we’d done at that level, the margins, the reward had to be worth it. So the process is the same.
We just have to have higher margins. You have to build in longer hold times. So you have to certainly adjust some of the pieces, but the overall process is the same.
So once we felt comfortable with our processes and our systems on flipping a house, we felt like as long as the numbers made sense, we were prepared to go and take down a luxury type flip.
[Mattias]
Yeah. It sounds like that agent was probably pretty pivotal to have confidence in, you know, this is gonna sell. I would imagine like having some experience with that that said, this is what people want in this market.
You should do it like this. Is that accurate?
[Lyle Spann]
Hands down. So she helped me comp it on the front end when we were underwriting the deal, when we were analyzing it, you know, before we even officially run our contract. She helped me comp it, she walked it with me and she knew this area.
So this was in a neighborhood called West Haven in Franklin, which is one of the nicer areas, right? It’s a whole community, but she had sold houses within this market, had a lot of relationships and she felt really comfortable with our ARV, our after repair value, which gave me the confidence to come in and say, all right, I can analyze this rehab. I know what it’s gonna take to renovate this thing.
Yeah. Along with her too, because she was, you know, we used luxury, everything. I’ve never paid more for an appliance package in a house.
I didn’t know appliances cost this much, right? But that’s what people expect. If they’re paying $2 million for a house, they want the Bougie lights, they want the Bougie appliances, all that stuff.
So along with her help on the design side, yeah, man, we were able to make it happen. And we made $175,000 net on that flip. So, and that, I don’t say that to brag, I hope I didn’t come across the wrong way, but that was our biggest deal to date.
But you gotta think, man, we’ve paid a million over a million for it and we put 425,000 in and it took eight months from when we bought it to when we sold it. So it’s a long time. That’s a huge risk that we took.
[Mattias]
Totally.
[Lyle Spann]
So having that reward and having that, you know, it felt really good to have a win like that.
[Mattias]
No, that’s awesome. And I mean, to your point as well with the margins, like if you’re thinking about, you know, price reductions or negotiations possible in this kind of scenario, if it sits, if it doesn’t sell, you know, you’re not looking at, you know, $5,000 reduction, like, or if, you know, you’re looking at a five or $10,000 or percent off of the original list price kind of negotiation range, like that’s a lot more significant, obviously, and that kind of price, than it would be on a $300,000 house.
[Lyle Spann]
You nailed it, man. If we were gonna price reduce that one, right, we were gonna be coming down 50K or, you know, 40K. Price reductions there, it hurts.
And if you don’t run your numbers the right way and you don’t have good margins, that can completely kill a deal, right? If we had $75,000 margins here and we ended up having a price reduced by 50K, you know, spending eight months and a million and a half dollars to make $25,000.
[Mattias]
Yeah.
[Lyle Spann]
You know, our first time, our smaller flips, I make, you know, 30K minimum usually, so. Yeah. It’s that, but for anyone who’s doing the quick math here, I do wanna make a little note here that HGTV and some of these shows you see, it’s not all glamor for one, but if you know that I bought it for $1,075,000 and I put 420 into it and I made 175, you can do the math that there’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs and expenses that we had, right?
Between, we paid 6% realtor fees on this, right? So there were six figure, you know, commissions that we paid plus our money costs, right? Our holding costs.
So there’s a lot that goes into it, but if you run the numbers the right way, you can definitely win in this space.
[Mattias]
Yeah. One of the things you said there made me wanna ask this question, and that is like, what would you, do you have like kind of a minimum projected profit that you wanna hold to be able to take on a property like a normal flip?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, absolutely. And people ask me this question a lot. There’s something called the 70% rule a lot of investors will use.
I don’t necessarily use that. The way I run my numbers is based on level of effort and the rehab, for instance. For a house that we’re spending under like $70,000 to renovate, you know, I want my, no less than $30,000.
That’s my minimum net that I wanna walk away with.
[Mattias]
That’s after the purchase price? That’s just the, or?
[Lyle Spann]
That’s after, that’s my net. So that’s after we pay our investors, or we pay interest on our money, after we pay commissions, after we pay utilities, insurance, right? When we settle at the end of the day, I wanna make a net, 30K on the house.
[Mattias]
I guess my question was the $70,000, that’s the repair cost? Or that’s like all in?
[Lyle Spann]
No, that’s our rehab cost. Yeah, apologies for the confusion there. Yeah, so for me, the way I look at it is our risk, right?
If I’m spending a lot more money renovating a property, and more time, right? There’s more complications that can happen the bigger projects you do.
[Mattias]
Yeah.
[Lyle Spann]
So if I can stay a smaller risk, right? A quicker job, I’m okay making less money, knowing that I’m gonna turn this thing around quicker. I’m not tying up as much rehab money, things like that.
So that’s how I look at my numbers. If I’m doing, especially if I’m doing a $30,000 flip, $40,000 flip, I’m okay making $30,000 net on that, right? Yeah.
Now if I’m spending 75 to like 120K in rehab, now $50,000 is my minimum net that I’m looking for, that I’m gonna walk away with, right? There’s bigger risk, it’s gonna take more time, bigger project, things like that. And then anything over, yeah, 120, 125K in rehab, yeah, I’m looking for 75K to six figures in margins to take on a huge project that ties up a lot more money, ties up a lot more time, a lot more things can go wrong in a big project like that.
Things go wrong with flips anyways, right? Sometimes you uncover, you take out walls or floors and you see things that you didn’t know were there. So there’s a built-in cushions and things for that, but that’s how we look at things.
Short answer to your question is based on the level of rehab, but 30K is our very minimum, no matter what, that we wanna see in order for us to feel comfortable pulling the trigger on a flip.
[Mattias]
And the million dollar question too is where are you sourcing your deals typically?
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, I’m a little unique, at least to other investors who I’m connected with and we’re part of a mastermind. There’s all kinds of masterminds out there, but we’re part of an investor mastermind. So I’m connected to a few hundred people and a little unique in how we operate.
So we’re relationship people, my wife and I, even outside of work, right? We just, we love relationships. We believe in building relationships and loving people in general.
It’s just kind of what we feel like our purpose is in life, just to be good people and to build good relationships. So that carried over into how we built our business. I don’t spend marketing dollars, really.
There’s a lot of investors who will send mailers or agents too, right? We’ll send mailers or kind of put some dollars into marketing, which works, that stuff works. I’m not at all downplaying that.
We built ours through realtors that we’ve connected with. So we work with a lot of realtors and we let them know, hey, if you have a seller, their house is not market ready or they just want something quick or if they’re motivated to sell, if you pull us in, we’ll let you represent us and you can list it for us on the back end too. So you can represent us when we sell the house, a beautifully renovated house.
So we have a lot of agents who bring us deals. We do have wholesalers that we work with. Those are hit or miss, right?
And they get a bad rap too. There’s a lot of bad ones out there, but there’s some good ones out there as well. And then when I say our network men and relationships, we work really hard with our social media presence and our exposure into what we’re doing.
And a couple of quick examples for you. Buddy of mine is a police officer, right? And I told him, hey man, you patrol all the time.
You go and see houses all the time. You see a house that looks like it’s abandoned or it’s vacant or there’s any situation where you feel like there’s a potential for someone wants to sell a house that needs a lot of work. If you connect me, if you shoot me the address and we’re able to buy it, we’ll give you a referral fee.
Like we’ll hook you up if it works out. Made friends with my mailman, right? The guy who comes, we talk about the balls, right?
Who sees mail piling up in a mailbox or who sees distressed houses, right? And these people who have occupations that they do, they drive around all the time. So we’ve gotten deals that way too.
Just really our network and exposure. People from our church, our family want to sell rentals or someone passes away and they don’t want to deal with it because we have built that presence. We’ve been fortunate enough to have people just bring us a deal and make it work.
So that’s our main resource. We do reach out to pre-foreclosures. That’s one of our biggest kind of tools that we do direct to seller is, we look at pre-foreclosures to see if there’s a win-win to help somebody out of a tough situation that makes sense for them to sell their house and then probates as well.
Those are the two direct to sellers that we really do. People who have inherited properties and are potentially looking to just offload them and looking for a cash offer. We go direct to seller on those and then yeah, basically our network, man.
[Mattias]
That’s awesome. That’s really cool. I love that.
I mean, that’s such a great example. I mean, that’s good marketing. That’s good practice for real estate agent sales as well as investing.
And that’s just being well-connected and just kind of having that in your mind all the time. I mean, that’s kind of what one of the approaches I’m looking at for the midterm rental is just kind of if I have this in my head all the time of who is gonna be, if I see a construction company working somewhere that is from out of town that I don’t recognize the name or whatever, maybe that’s a source I can try to get some midterm rental stays from and just kind of keeping your, getting creative, thinking about it and just kind of keeping that open so that you can find those opportunities and yeah, looking for opportunities instead of just being held back by doubt or whatever that some people struggle with.
[Lyle Spann]
Yep, absolutely. And not in an annoying or negative way, but I also just try to take advantage of conversations or when I meet people, I’m never like, hey, I’ve lived houses, you got anything? I’m not like annoying with it, but if I’m meeting someone or talking to someone and they ask me, hey, how are things going?
Yeah, I’ll slide in. Yeah, I went by check on one of our properties this morning, whatever. Sometimes that’ll lead to a really property, what do you do?
So I always look for just ways to at least let people know what we’re doing and just be front of mind if it comes to them, so.
[Mattias]
That’s awesome. Well, I have to ask if you have any kind of golden nuggets that you’d like to share with people that maybe are thinking about getting into investing in general or just kind of general wisdom for people, mindset for people in this space.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, two quick things for me. I’ll say one on the real estate side and then one on just kind of the mindset side. On the real estate side of things, especially on the investor side of things, the nugget I have, man, is it can be scary for people that are like, I don’t have the money to buy a house, right?
Or I don’t have all this kind of stuff. It is shocking how many resources are out there, right? You just gotta take action.
That’s my biggest thing, like just take action. Get in the right room, right? Be around people who are either doing it or have some knowledge there and soak everything in and just take action.
You’d be surprised at how many resources, how many resources for capital there are, how many deals are out there, but it doesn’t matter how many deals are out there or how much access to money you have. If you’re not looking for a deal or if you’re not taking the action, just rolling up your sleeves and getting some good old reps in, then it’s hard to do anything. You can listen to podcasts all day and read books all day, but if you don’t do anything with it, then you’re gonna sit right there.
So that’s my biggest thing. Just get out there and get after it.
[Mattias]
I love it.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, just take action, man.
[Mattias]
Yeah.
[Lyle Spann]
Do something, right?
[Mattias]
Just to add to that real quick is I think that that’s been a reoccurring theme on this show for sure, just to, in addition to what you said, but to find the deal first. Don’t worry about where the money’s gonna come from right away. People often wait till they have their savings up or they wanna thank the traditional, well, how could I possibly buy a deal if I don’t have any money or a connection to somebody?
But I think if you find a deal good enough, you can figure it out, typically.
[Lyle Spann]
I totally agree. And I’ve been shocked at how many people in my life have access to capital, whether that’s a self-directed IRA that they wanna fund with or all kinds of different things. So people are looking for ways to grow their money.
So get out there and get after it. If you build, what is it, the movie, If You Build It, They Will Come? Find the deal, they will come.
[Mattias]
Yeah, 100%.
[Lyle Spann]
So on the mindset side, man, I preach this a lot to my team and just in life in general, even my kids, right? This is something you can apply anywhere. But the two things that I talk about all the time is having the right communication and setting the proper expectations.
So in a nutshell, if you set the proper expectations, whether it’s with a contractor, whether it’s with your kid, when you’re going to the playground and you’re telling them how long you have or, hey, five minute warning, right? If you’re setting the right expectations and then you communicate properly throughout the project, sometimes that means you gotta reset expectations, right? Not everything goes smoothly.
But if you have the right communication to say, hey, things have pivoted, and now we’re all on the same page, you would be surprised how great relationships can be, how much more efficient and how much smoother things can be if you just communicate, over communicate, right? Take the time to have the conversations and then just everyone be on the same page. Make sure expectations are set.
Keep your word, right? If you say you’re gonna do something, do it. And if you can’t, then have the right conversations to reset that expectation.
But whatever relationships you have, whether it’s on the agent side, whether it’s on the contractor side, whether it’s with your wife, your kids, brother, your parents, right? Just communicate well. It’s not worth it to not communicate well.
And just set the right expectations. I have found so many times that that has been helpful, especially in tough conversations. If we had the right expectations on the front end, whenever it came down to have a tough conversation, things went a lot smoother because we all knew, right?
And we had communication leading up to that point.
[Mattias]
That’s a really good nugget. I mean, that is so true in the real estate sales world. That is just so true.
I mean, so a lot of people get a bad rap because they’ll set a sign in the yard and never talk to the seller again. The seller expecting the house to get sold and to hear about updates, et cetera. So definitely hear that all the time.
So that’s beautiful. And if you can really hash that out, a system for how you’re gonna be communicating and what you wanna communicate as your expectation, your client’s expectations for the process, how that’s gonna look. Thinking about that intentionally before you get into the scenario where you’re under contract or whatever is super key.
So that’s awesome. I love it.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, and on the investor side of working with agents, it’s been crucial for me too to say, hey, you brought us this deal, I love it. We’re gonna let you list it on the back end. That’s our agreement.
But here’s my expectations, right? For what we’re gonna do, right? Because there’s a lot of great realtors out there.
They’re not all created equal. There’s a lot of ones who, like you said, put a sign in the yard and they wanna let it ride, right? But if we have the right expectations that we expect open houses, we expect marketing, right?
We expect this and that. We especially be proactive when reaching out to people where I ask them for feedback. It’s just on both sides, the expectations and the communicating is so crucial.
I’m gonna give you one quick example because I use this on a recent one. Even with my, it’s an elementary one with my kid, but you can apply it to anything, right? So going to a play date at the park, and I told my daughter, her name is Berkeley.
She’s my best buddy, by the way. She’s my dude. She’s like my ride or die.
We told her, hey, we got an hour and then we gotta go meet mommy and Bella, our other one, we gotta go meet them to go do something. So we have an hour. I want you to know when we’re going to play, have a blast.
We’re gonna have a blast. We got an hour. So she knew going into it, right?
There’s a time limit on this. We’re not just going to play unlimited. So about 15 minutes, they gave her, hey babe, we got 15 minutes and then we have to go.
And then another five minute morning, right? And just saying, hey, five more minutes, anything you want to wrap up, anything you haven’t done yet, make sure you do that. So then when we leave, there’s no tears.
There’s not like the whole, you know, oh, I don’t want to go because the expectation was set and then make sure I communicated along the way, right? So you can apply that to anything in life, but if you set the right expectations and you’re intentional with communication, situations can be a lot smoother than if I just, we went to play and I’m like, hey, it’s time to go. Let’s go.
I’m going to leave.
[Mattias]
I’m having fun, right? Totally with kids. I mean, you’re right.
It applies to everything and that’s definitely true with kids too.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, kids for sure, for sure. But if you’re intentional, man, if you’re intentional with communicating and expectations, yeah, I think your relationships, I think you’ll find, have some health to them.
[Mattias]
Yeah, I love it. Now, how about a book? Do we have a favorite book that you currently are reading or the one that you think is kind of fundamental that everybody should read?
Again, mindset or a real estate investing specific.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, my favorite book right now is, it’s called The Go Giver. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but we’re big on giving in our home anyways. And that one had a lot of really good principles in it.
Just talking about other people and how giving can, it can really not only help people, but obviously it can help yourself and kind of further what you’re doing by investing in other people, surrounding yourself with the right people. If we’re talking about the book I read the most, it’s called Five Little Monkeys, Jumping on the Bed, that my two year old is in love with right now. So volume wise, that’s the one I read the most.
But now Go Giver, man, if anyone hasn’t read it, would encourage you to give it a shot. It’s a good book.
[Mattias]
Yeah, I love it. That’s a great book. Cool, well, if anybody’s interested in knowing more about you, is there a social media they can follow?
What’s the best way to kind of know more about Lyle?
[Lyle Spann]
Absolutely, man. So we have Sparrow Real Estate Investing is our Facebook. On Instagram, it’s @sparrow_REI_.
And then we have a website as well, www.SparrowREI.com. So we have some portfolio, some of our portfolios on our website. So if you want to kind of see some of our befores and afters and some good content on there too.
But yeah, we’d love to connect with anyone if they’re looking to reach out.
[Mattias]
Cool, that’s so much, that’s awesome. I love it so much. Thanks, this has been a great conversation.
I really had a good time. I hope we can stay in touch. If anybody’s looking for Airbnbs, we can throw each other, connect them to your agent that helps you with that Gatlinburg, et cetera.
But yeah, it’s been a really good conversation. I appreciate it.
[Lyle Spann]
Yeah, right back at you, man. Appreciate it. I gotta leave you with something though.
Dad jokes are my thing. So you gotta let me tell you one, from one dad to another, you gotta let me tell you one dad joke.
[Mattias]
Yeah, yeah.
[Lyle Spann]
What do you call an alligator with a GPS?
[Mattias]
I don’t know.
[Lyle Spann]
A navigator. There you go, man. That’s the other nugget.
Yeah, last nugget for you. That’s awesome, thanks so much. Yeah, man, have a good day.
[Erica]
Thanks for listening to the REI Agent.
[Mattias]
If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe to catch new shows every week.
[Erica]
Visit REIAgent.com for more content.
[Mattias]
Until next time, keep building the life you want.
[Erica]
All content in the show is not investment advice or mental health therapy. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.
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