Most of us would prefer working for ourselves rather than working for someone else. That’s what made our guest, Rob Bergeron, plant seeds into real estate investments. Rob is a problem solver specializing in helping out-of-state investors invest in Kentucky. His seed is now an abundant tree where Rob reaps its fruits through investing in multiple Airbnbs and properties. He also owns The Louisville Network, which helps clients unload their assignable contracts and source them. Still with all of the success, Rob still prefers a cheap and comfortable life and just focuses on empowering himself. Stay tuned and be empowered!
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Empowering Yourself In Real Estate Investment With Rob Bergeron
Rob Bergeron is a problem solver. He specializes in helping out-of-state investors invest in Kentucky. He owns The Louisville Network, which helps his clients unload their assignable contracts and source them. Rob, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, Sam.
The pleasure is mine. The same three questions I ask every guest who comes on the show. Can you quickly tell us, where did you start, where are you now and how did you get there?
I got started in Ohio. I was born in Boston and grew up in Ohio. I went to the University of Kentucky because I was planning on going to Sports Management. I then realized, everybody wants to go to sports management. There’s no money in it. I took a job out of college when I was in charge of sales and marketing for a retirement community, and I was supposed to be outside of Chicago. They put me in Iowa. I was depressed, but I was pretty good at it. I hated it. It planted the seed on real estate because it was the same thing, but I wanted to work for myself.
I saved some money and paid off my student loans. I lived in Florida, bought a sailboat, learned the guitar and did a lot of reading. I lived in Ecuador for four months. I hung out and talked to international students. I came to Louisville and started doing real estate because the market was a little bit more interesting than Dayton, Cincinnati at the time, which now, it’s pretty cool there too. Now I’m here and I didn’t know anyone, and I was so aggressive with Craigslist.
I had this tool where I would post Craigslist ads all the time and it’s an annoying thing to do. What I did is I made it competitive. If anyone ever posted one post, I do 50 posts to knock theirs off. There are probably 28 people competing with me, and then it was just me and one other person at the end of it. Somebody reached out to me from there and was like, “Can I see this?” I got a good rapport with them.
The houses he wanted to see were around $15,000 to $20,000. I was making no money, but he talked to me. He ended up being one of the leaders of our investor community. People were like, “If he’s working with Rob, I need to work with Rob.” I was like, “I’ve got to learn all this stuff.” I joined our local REIA. Now, I’m in my third year of being on the board there. It’s been pretty eye-opening because what job lets you educate yourself and learn while also generating income? It’s like going to school, but getting paid to go to school and set up your own family and your friends.
Give us a quick snapshot of what your business looks like now. What are you personally investing in?
As a realtor, you should know what’s going on everywhere.
Hopefully, for some people, it’s more like, “It happens to everyone.” The first four investments I tried to make, all fell through. The seller came up with the money to get out of foreclosure, the wholesaler didn’t lock up the contract correctly, the house burned down and terrible inspection or whatever. You name it, it happened to me. Fortunately, we got our first Airbnb up and running. We bought it in October with the owner occupying it. My fiancée and I bought it for $275,000. We got my commission, some closing costs and we got a check for $7,000 for repairs.
This house had some hidden value. I know it’s important to add value here. Some things I look for in Airbnbs and long-term rentals is if you have those non-conforming rooms where you put two bedrooms upstairs. You’re buying a two-one, but you can rent it as a four-one. There’s a lot of value there, but hers had no egress in her basement for one of the bedrooms. We’re Airbnb-ing it as a five-bedroom because there are no rules for having an egress window for Airbnb.
It was a value add and we’ve only had it up for two weeks and we already have $20,000 in bookings, which is great. We’re thinking we’ll do about $100,000 on that first Airbnb. I’m closing on another one. I read the news and I think that what sets me apart as a realtor is I read the news all the time. I know what’s going on everywhere. I was on Zillow and we bought this lake house for $149,900. It was listed. Two minutes later, I reached out to see if there’s any Airbnb restrictions. The full-price offer, fifteen minutes later, was accepted.
Now they have multiple backup offers. Unfortunately, this is the area that was hit by tornadoes in Western Kentucky, and ours was fine. We just had the appraisal and it should close soon, but it was already generating $40,000 a year on Airbnb. We’re going to turn the garage into a living space with a mini-split unit, ping pong, fairy lights, add a hot tub and a more comfortable bed. We think we’ll generate about $80,000 on something we’re all in.
To loop back, it’s weird. I’ve been doing it a little over eight years now and I didn’t know anything. Part of that is I don’t like competing with my clients. That’s where I started The Louisville Network. Some of you guys might be familiar with this movie called The Warriors, and it came out in 1979. The premise of it is to unite all the gangs against the police force. There was brutality and all that stuff. Essentially, I united all the wholesalers and signed an NDA with all of them. They all gave me their buyers list. I combined it with my buyers list and created this pretty buyers list.
Now, the wholesalers send out their assignable contracts on my website. If I bring a buyer, I charge $2,000 which makes me the cheapest JV out there. I’m bringing in about $4,000 to $16,000 a month off that website where I’m enhancing people’s lives. Think about this. All these realtors are like, “Don’t forget to wind your clock,” or “Happy holidays.” No one’s getting any spam emails from me. All they’re getting is their potential next best off-market deal.
David Greene, the host of BiggerPockets and I have talked about this before. He didn’t talk about Louisville on BiggerPockets, but people heard Louisville. I had seven people reach out to me one week and I was like, “How did you hear about me?” They’re like, “We were listening to BiggerPockets and it felt like he was talking about Louisville.” I reached out to David and said, “You generated a bunch of business for me. We should start working together.”
I brought property management, title, traditional lenders and $16 million in off-market deals. I went out to California and hosted a happy hour with David. Now, David is one of my clients. He sends me clients to work with. That’s been a huge generation for me and then my buyer’s list, you got to think is so different than all the local ones because I have all that out-of-state money. It was a win-win and all I do is run comps, attach it to my email and then send it out. That’s it. I then get a check in the mail. I didn’t compete against my clients. I enriched their lives. I’m a different beast, if you will.
That business model is a very strategic shift from traditional wholesaling. How did you cook that up?
I figured like, “I’m running comps for all these people and I work with all these investors.” I’m like, “I have a buyer for this.” Why not streamline it and let their buyers list work together? The more sets of eyes you have on any deal is going to be better. Now, we have the hedge funds here which we’re selling a lot too. It’s tougher for the local people.
The cool thing is you have all these people that are learning to source their own deals a little bit. They’re mining maybe 30 different houses in Louisville. Maybe they already have 2 or 3 projects, or one is way too big for them. Now, they have the infrastructure to unload these. I get a lot of random one-offs from this mom and pop. It makes monitoring my list important.
How do you know if someone comes through your website and ends up buying?
They have to reach out to me for the open house information or the lockbox combo. I have a list of everyone that reaches out to me. That way, “Here’s this email where they reached out to me. Make sure I get paid on this one.” Usually, the deals go through me as well. I copy and paste the same phrase. I mention that I’m a licensed realtor. That’s important because transparency is really important. It’s been neat being able to provide different utilities to my clients.
You get to work with everybody in the city for a price that again, as you said, a JV with $2,000 on a wholesale deal. Unless this deal is skinny, that’s not usually what I’ve seen in that side of the business. It is a 50/50 split.
The more sets of eyes you have on any deal, it’s going to be better.
I live very well below my means. I live in a house hack. I bought my house for $130,000 and renovated it while I was living here. Now, I have a HELOC on my house for about $100,000 but most of my peers are all living in $500,000 houses. I live pretty cheap and comfortable. I do have a Tesla and it was a write-off, the Model X. I buy my clothes and most of them are secondhand or on sale. One of the investor problems is finding that balance, being frugal, building a future and then enjoying because we’re not guaranteed tomorrow ever either.
The way I partitioned it in my life is I’ve got that $100,000 HELOC. I’m using that and recasting that money on Airbnbs, BRRRRs or whatever. My traditional income, that’s where I’m screwing around with day trading and crypto. I’m getting into crypto. I started a group called Louisville Coinage. Essentially, what I found out, I hosted an Airbnb mastermind at our Airbnb to get everyone’s input and insight. I found out everyone had $15,000 to $20,000 in crypto, and only one of us knew what we were talking about. I was not that person.
We were like, “We all want to learn together.” It’s cool because everyone in this community and that community is learning and trying to better themselves. When you’re surrounding yourself with that kind of crew, it’s something. I’m not focused on the minutia. It’s more, “How cool is the future going to be instead of being afraid of the future?”
One of the things that we had talked about off-air was how you’ve grown your business by adding value. What does that mean?
When I was a realtor, I made $30,000, $35,000 and $40,000 in my first three years. I was trying to do what everyone else was doing. I was door-knocking or having people pass out flyers or the Craigslist thing or open houses and that wasn’t me. That wasn’t a way for me to connect to people the way I like to connect. I like to give people something and not ask for anything in return. I like to say, “If you can hold this, I would hold it because it’s going to keep on going up in value. I’d try to keep it.” Every other realtor is going to be like, “I’ll sell it for you.” “Try to hold these inspection reports together,” to their detriment.
I have a couple of friends who are luxury agents and they sell two houses a month for $500,000 each, maybe. I’d rather sell $10,000 or $100,000 because then I can be like, “I wouldn’t stay in this one. Let’s pass. I don’t like foundation issues.” Adding value is being really transparent. I found this throughout this whole process. I’m very empowered to be myself because I don’t have any secrets. Everything I do is transparent. I’m very comfortable in my own skin. If you ever find me on Facebook, I put out the craziest ideas all the time. I’m empowered because maybe 1, 2, or 3 people in my life said, “Rob, you’ve got a lot of good ideas.” Now, I’m like, “Yeah, of course.”
We all remember that negative thing that one person said to us. I’ve tended to focus on the positive ones and now I’m empowered. It’s a real comfortable way to live your life. People want to be a part of that exciting thing. I host tons of client stuff because I like all my clients. They want to be a part of that Airbnb mastermind because they’re going to save money. They’re going to learn everything. The Coinage, it’s like, “I’m an idiot, and they all know I’m an idiot, but we’re all trying to get better.”
I’m reading and I’m highlighting and posting pictures and we’re discussing it. One thing that’s helped me, too, being a realtor is people knowing that I’m actively reading, learning and going to conferences. You don’t want to miss out. That’s the big fear for everyone, and I don’t want my clients to miss out, so I have to know. If people are finding a way to leverage things to make more money, I want to be able to provide that to them and give them that option.
One of the things that you said has been influential is the book called The Go-Giver. Can you talk to us about that?
There’s this attorney in our market named Harry Borders, and he’s so generous. Imagine his business platform adding value here. He has A to B and B to C wholesaling contracts, and he gives them out to all the wholesalers for free. These are buttoned-up saved contracts. It’s not something you’re getting from FortuneBuilders, and he doesn’t charge anything for them. He’ll take a meeting with you, not charge you anything either, but it allows you to protect yourself and you look more professional having a professional contract. He gives his time away, way more than I do, honestly.
I was like, “Wow,” and he taught me The Go-Giver and told me about the book. I got it and it is easy providing value. That was a big catalyst for me. I started partnering with all these other go-givers and we have all the synergy for recommending each other. I feel safe recommending them and there’s a lot of bad people out there that are taking advantage of other people. It’s nice to be able to refer and know that they’re going to be taken care of.
There’s no perfect GC, no perfect property manager, probably not a perfect realtor, even if I must admit it, but your risk is so much less using the people I recommend. Anyone can use whoever and I don’t get kickbacks from them. If I hear about someone doing better, I’d swab them out of my list. It’s all about adding value because I’d rather have one deal go really great so I can get the next six deals. That’s the difference between traditional realtors too. I sell a house every seven years. I’d rather sell 7 to 1 person every year.
I love what your thinking is and how you have grown your business by getting the Givers Gain. It’s empowering. What do you think the future holds for you on the real estate investing side?
I truly believe money floats to me because that’s the way I am and the way I give. I don’t know what number is going to be enough. “Do you need a private jet? Do you need this or that?” We want six outright Airbnbs that we own without any kind of partners or anything. Honestly, I need the buy and holds to offset my tax liability because I’m getting killed by Uncle Sam. I think $30,000 passive income a month is what I want.
I don’t think real estate is always the right answer for everyone either. I have a barber named Todd, and he gives a fantastic haircut. He turns those Mercedes-Benz and does them for his family. I’m like, “Why don’t you just hold three of them and start renting them out?” We’re in between Nashville and Indianapolis and Cincinnati. The Red River Gorge is right here in Lexington. “You could probably make a ton of money doing that.” That would be his superpower.
When I was single and I would drive to go visit friends in Indianapolis, listening to podcasts and reading, that was my superpower. I maybe lost that a little bit now that I have my fiancée, but you get gains in other ways. Take advantage of your situation. Eventually, upgrade the house if we have children so something like that. I’m not political by nature at all. I’m a moderate, but the amount they’re printing money and they can either tax us more, which everyone is so against or print money which is the easier solution because they don’t have to ask permission essentially.
Give people something and don’t ask for anything in return.
The value of the dollar is going down and it’s hurting all these other countries with the dollar as their Fiat gold standard. That’s why Bitcoin interests me. I know this isn’t a Bitcoin show, but it does seem much like real estate. It’s a great hedge against inflation and that’s just so important. Now that the hedge funds have learned how to manage all these single families, they’re sliding into that game. You mentioned the future earlier, I think the future is we’re going to have these massive apartment complex communities and you’re going to see them in a lot of places.
They’re going to have doggy daycares. They’re going to have indoor theaters. All these places already have these amenities. What we’re going to see is homeownership is going to go down because they want all the bells and whistles. You’re not going to have that wealth being transferred on in your family. The rich, the divide and the middle-class, it’s going to become even worse and worse. That’s why it’s so important to empower yourself by reading blogs like this and surrounding yourself with like-minded people.
Let’s jump here into the final four questions. The first one is what is one digital tool or resource you find you can’t live without?
This one is very easy. Some people use Calendly, but I use YouCanBook.me. If I don’t feel like talking to someone for an afternoon or I’m just going to be tired at the end of the week, I’ll block off two hours and I get the [3:00] to [5:00] where one can schedule anything with me. I was getting calls left to right especially when I was advertising on Craigslist. That has become an important thing, but one, it makes other people value your time more. “If he has to use this kind of system because he’s got so much stuff going on, then I’m going to make sure I’m there on time.” It’s been a great tool for me. I’m ADD, so I like getting up and being able to prepare myself for the rest of my day mentally. I’m not always full of energy. I’ll be like, “Ugh,” sitting in my car before an event and I get in there and I feel great. Sometimes you build up that mental void.
Question number two, if you could help our readers avoid one mistake in real estate, what would it be and how would you avoid it?
Generally speaking, if you’re new, don’t buy anything with any structural damage because you’re spending $10,000 or $15,000 to get a property back to homeostasis and you’re not adding much value to it. I would stay away from anything like that. Mold, electric and plumbing are fine. It’s foundation issues.
When it comes to investing in the world, what’s one thing you’re doing right now to make the world a better place?
You can find altruism in about anything. These wholesalers all come from different socioeconomic backgrounds, but much like being a realtor, there’s only a high school degree barrier. There’s no barrier for wholesalers which is a great opportunity, but there’s a lot of room for problems.
I think helping the wholesalers like running comps, making them look more professional because my comps are pretty accurate within $8,000 on almost everything. Empowering them and helping these people. Honestly, this sounds terrible but getting people out of the [9:00] to [5:00]. I find a lot of value in that more so than finding someone their forever home or their first home. It’s having that autonomy and your time, that’s it. That’s the sauce.
Rob, if the readers want to get in touch with you or learn more about what you’re doing, what is the best way to do that?
I’m on Twitter a lot, mostly for sports and Bitcoin. It’s @RobertBergeron. You can add me on Facebook, my name is Ron Bergeron out of Louisville, Kentucky. You’ll see me and my fiancée with the new ring. I’m on BiggerPockets. I think LinkedIn is a cesspool but you can reach out to me there as well. Any of those options would be great. My email is Rob@ROILouisville.com.
Rob, thank you for your time. I certainly appreciate it.
Thank you so much. Have a phenomenal day.
Important Links:
- The Louisville Network
- The Go-Giver
- Calendly
- YouCanBook.me
- @RobertBergeron – Twitter
- Ron Bergeron – Facebook
- BiggerPockets – Ron Bergeron
- LinkedIn – Ron Bergeron
- Rob@ROILouisville.com
- https://www.Instagram.com/robbergeroninky/
About Rob Bergeron
Rob Bergeron is a problem solver! I specialize in helping out-of-state investors invest in Kentucky. I own The Louisville Network which helps my clients unload their assignable contracts and source them!
