Adam Torres and Matt Teifke discuss real estate and being an entrepreneur.
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Show Notes:
Taking an entrepreneurial approach to real estate can mean the difference between success and failure. In this episode, Adam Torres and Matt Teifke, Founder & Real Estate Broker at enTREpreneurTM, explore Matt’s approach to real estate and the community he is building where people without a license can get involved.
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About Matt Teifke
Matt Teifke is an enTREpreneur
Raised in Round Rock Texas, surrounded by the real estate market. His passion & interest was ignited at a young age with family properties. He earned his real estate license 12 years ago when he was just 18 years old and he still is just as passionate about the Real Estate industry as ever.
About Teifke Real Estate
Teifke Real Estate is a real estate brokerage in Austin, Texas that is geared towards helping real estate buyers, sellers, investors, and agents. Unlike many other real estate brokerages, we want to work with people who are interested in real estate in any way. This means that Teifke Real Estate will provide custom solutions for you based on your individual needs regardless of whether you are a real estate buyer, seller, investor, or agent. Teifke Real Estate was created by Matt Teifke. Matt created the business as a way to help him fulfill his dreams of creating financial freedom through real estate and helping as many other people as possible to do the same. Soon after founding the company, Matt brought in his childhood friend, Alex Coffman, who also had a passion for real estate, into the business. Alex is also a real estate expert with many years of experience under his belt. Now Matt and Alex run the business together.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of mission matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today is a very special episode. We’re welcoming back to the show.
Matt Tiefke, who is the founder of an, a real estate broker over at entrepreneur. First off Matt, just want to say, Hey, welcome back to the show. Hey man, it’s a pleasure. I’m glad to be here. I enjoy hanging out with you and what’s up everybody. Man, you got this tie on here today. You’re like, I mean, I’m honored.
I’m like, come on. I don’t get everybody in ties every day of the show, but man, a great to have you back in all sincerity. And I’m excited to talk about this book. So we’ll, we’ll get into that as well. But before we do all that, you already know the drill. We’ll start this episode, the way that we start them all with what we call our mission matters minute.
So Matt, we have mission matters. We amplify stories for entrepreneurs, executives, and experts. That’s our mission, Matt, what mission matters to you? Yeah, man. So creating generational wealth and growing with other people through real estate, whether that be spiritually financially, we really believe that anybody and everybody can own real estate.
And a lot of people feel like they don’t get that opportunity. So the goal is to get around entrepreneurs, figure out how we can bring different skill sets together. And it’s been a really beautiful thing. So we want to help people own and create generational wealth through real estate. Awesome. Love, love bringing mission based individuals on the line to share, you know, why they do what.
They do how they do it and really what we can all learn from that. So we can all grow together. So again, great having you on I guess just to get us kicked off on this one. Like how did you get started on this path on real estate? Like where did it all begin for you? Yeah, man, single mom moved here from Cleveland, Ohio to Austin, Texas.
And she was literally cleaning houses when I was a kid and went from cleaning to buying one to two per year. By the time I was 17, I think she had 14 properties. Why so just inspired, man. Bye. You know, two boys on her own and was able to acquire real estate. So I was inspired and blessed to see that at an early age was possible.
And what it looks like and also what’s required to be able to do that. Man, what is that? Like, this is, it’s, it’s amazing to me because there’s a lot of things and not picking anybody, but we all have, you know, we could say excuses, we can say hurdles, we can say blind spots, lots of things, but you hear the, and so it’s hard, it’s easy to sometimes look at yourself and say, well, I can’t do this because of this, because of that.
But like, what are some of the things like, as you were kind of coming up and you were watching that journey, like, what are some of the things that kind of inspired you on that? Yeah, man. I mean, literally, my mom was waking up at 4 a. m, right? And she was working a full time construction job after she was cleaning houses.
So she started cleaning houses until she could find an opportunity. But waking up at 4, going to work, multiple phones, she was always doing sales and not even as much of inspired, which that is a huge factor, but to see what, what somebody else is doing. And she was doing it in a lot of ways and almost always to help my brother and myself so it was less Inspired.
Although that, like I said, that is there, but it was more, man, I better live up to this, right? She’s not doing this for fun. And to see that and to understand that had single moms all over the country, that’s gotta be one of the hardest jobs, if not the hardest job. And to also go and acquire real estate.
So I was inspired by that. I was inspired by what was possible and just motivated to, to take over in a sense, learn from what she had done. And I was blessed to be around that. And at the same point, like you said, I mean, I, I’m very fortunate to have grown up around it. We weren’t by any means making all this money, but at our brokerage to see time and time again, people that could have the same excuse or could have different reasons.
And they’re all real, like you mentioned, but there is, there is a way, and we live in the United States of America. So at a minimum, just being here and having the ability to go fight and to, to strive is that’s inspiring in of itself. Yeah, I mean, your mother’s story super inspiring. I think back about like my grandfather.
So he raised, you know, 12 kids in a time that it wasn’t that easy to raise kids. Never, never took a handout, never did anything was able to acquire some real estate. And, you know, I always remember him for having apartments and things like that. And that was really his path to success. And also to like the life that he wanted was was real estate as well.
And, and so when I think about like some of our, yeah, You know, that, those are my role models. So I’m sure your mom’s in that category for you. And when I think about that, and when I think about the sacrifice is what they did, I always, I’m just talking about myself here. Now I always have to reflect and be like, man, Adam, you’re not raising 12 kids.
You better go do another interview. You’re complaining. You, you got to look at a camera and like put on a suit, like you’re not raising 12 kids. Yeah, man. And to realize that you and I were sitting here because of them and yeah, they did a lot. They, I mean, you’re talking about your grandfather, like the time period that he lived through, man.
I mean, that’s a hardcore type person, especially with that amount of kids. So kudos. And we just have to recognize that and hold that close and just go do a great job and keep it going. All right, Matt, random question. My mom was a, a social worker, so that’s where I think I got my questioning skills. You get your sales skills from your mom.
You mentioned she was always in sales. I did, man. She’s always talking to people. And when I was younger. It would kind of bother me. She’s like, Hey, you got to come talk to this person. Like, and I’m like, why, why? And now I’ve just really learned to appreciate it. She becomes everybody’s best friend. You get out there and we’re making money and, and in the business world, but there’s so much more important things going on.
Just talking to people, connecting. We, I remember one time I was like, I’m not going to the grocery store with you, mom. Because she talks to everybody, you know, and right. And it’s a two hour grocery store trip. And we’re walking in and she says she’s like, do I know you to somebody that’s walking out and they’re like, no, no, I don’t, I don’t think so.
And my mom’s like. Yeah, I think I know you and then she just starts talking to him because she thought she knew him right when we were walking in. I’m like, golly, but it’s a huge benefit and value to just connect and, and it’s genuine. And so I’ve definitely learned how to talk to people. I’m more of a closer than her.
She’ll just become your best friend. Well, I’m like, we gotta, we gotta close the deal, you know? So I’ve, I’ve learned a lot and then shifted it a little bit more towards a business in some sense. Oh, man, that’s awesome. Thanks for sharing that. By the way, I always, always love those stories. So let’s, let’s circle back into, into the real estate side of things.
So an entrepreneur’s approach to real estate. So now we know a little bit more about maybe how you got involved, like, and obviously, so you kind of, I would argue you were kind of raised into the business in a way, but how did you know, like, was, or was it a Gradual buildup. Was it a, was there a moment?
Like, how did you know that real estate was gonna be your thing? Because there’s a lot of different ways you could’ve went with your skillset set. Yeah, thanks man. Really it was from working at different jobs and looking at a clock. It came down to, I, I remember I was working at Wingstop and I was mopping the floors like 11 o’clock at night and all my friends were out and I just remember thinking, I can’t, I can’t have a job where I have to look at the clock and just wait for the time to go by.
It’s just a horrible, you know, approach to life. You’re just, your life’s short enough and you’re, you’re wanting the time to go by. So it was that it was the clock man. And just realizing that I wanted to do everything I could to not have to look at a clock and real estate. As, as much as I can think about any other business, I believe real estate’s the best for that.
You got to look at your clock to. Schedule appointments and to do your meetings, but there’s no on or off, right? You can catch up on phone calls or emails whenever you want You can look at properties in some cases whenever you want. And so it was always just trying to not look at that clock Yeah, yeah, I can see that and dear this this concept of being okay So there’s a there’s a way of doing real estate and so there had I don’t know if this again was intuitive You kind of fell into it.
But so now you make the decision that you want to be in real estate But I would argue that not everybody in real estate really takes an entrepreneur’s approach or has that mindset of being entrepreneurial within real estate. So was there like, like how did that part, like how’d the light bulb go off there when you decided, okay, I’m going to be in real estate, but then, you know, I’m not going to just, you know, and nothing against anybody that chooses this, by the way, I’m not going to just sell houses or I’m not going to just do some leases, but you’re like, no, this is like, I want to be an entrepreneur within this space because there’s a big nuance.
there. Yeah, there is. First it was known that I wanted to own real estate. That’s why I got into real estate. And then I remember I was going to look at a property off market and I thought I was going to acquire it. I was licensed at the time. But I would always go in there and genuinely just being in sales, like the best way I could close something is if I offer what you want and the best solutions for you.
And I remember there was a line of people, it was like, I’m going in, there’s another guy coming after me and another guy after that. And I just remember thinking to myself, what if we, if there was a system where I could present options, which I did at the time versus. Letting that person pick between people.
So if I could go in there and present the owner with every option possible or every option that I could think of at the time, maybe that maybe she’ll go with me versus wondering if I have the best listing presentation or if I make the best offer. So a lot of it was just trying to be business savvy.
And also it’s having that servant’s heart of how can I help you? What options are available? And it’s a lot of people don’t understand it. We just did a deal the other day with one of our girls who wholesaled the deal and the seller didn’t want to list. They didn’t want to take her offer. And so I said, Hey, go wholesale it.
Cause she could pay a little bit more and she can try and flip the contract. And she did. And that was her first deal. And by no means was she taking advantage of anybody. That’s what the seller wanted. So just understanding how it works and being able to give people options. I’m a big believer that.
There’s a much better approach than, Hey, here’s my listing appointment and it looks real pretty and I can get you to the highest price because a lot of times there’s other factors that people really care about. And so I guess before we go further on that line, cause I do want to go further, maybe talk high level about like the types of real estate that you, that you, you specialize and work with.
Cause you’re, some people just do one particular thing, but your mobile storage commercial, I mean, give us a little outlay there because then I’d want to go a little bit further. Further into maybe some, how, how this concept of giving them more options, like what that means. Cause it’s a little complex, but our audience, they’ll follow along.
Cool, man. Yeah, absolutely. So I guess to, to give a kind of infrastructure look, we’ve got 180 agents we have an entrepreneurial community of 50 people and we own about 135 or so properties. Most of those properties are single family. That was up until about four years ago, we realized, man, we really got to own larger and commercial properties to really get the cashflow because a lot of the single family at the end of the day, they break even.
If you really think about time expenses, you know, new AC, new roof, et cetera. So we started buying a small mobile home parks, small apartments back to what you said. Sometimes we’ll list these properties. Sometimes we’ll wholesale them. But we keep a really open mind to what opportunities are available and how can we plug in and add value and in the current market, man, right now, I, I really do believe that this is the best time in the last 10 years to be actively searching for deals and the market’s crazy rate.
Prime was eight and a half the other day, and so now we’re just cold calling, we’re sending out mailers, we’re door knocking, we got a spreadsheet of 70 deals. That we’re making offers on every single one of them. So to answer your question, it’s very open minded approach to creating generational wealth through real estate and we love having partners like People have opportunities that they’ve tied up that they might wholesale.
I say hey, why don’t you buy this with us? And they’ve never had anybody ask them that, but that’s their goal is to wholesale a few deals and then buy their first one. But we’re like, Hey, buy it right now. And maybe you own 20 percent of it instead of having no asset. Yeah, that’s great. And so take me through your mindset when you’re going into a deal, because now we, and we have.
A little bit of the lay of the land that you’re working with many different types of in industries within real estate, I should say markets or sectors within real estate, but now like, how are you coming at this approach, like mindset wise and looking at the deal and figuring out if it works?
Yeah. I mean, straight up from a value add approach. Yeah, I also I really believe that there’s creative ideas or opportunities that exist that I haven’t even considered I just think that It’s it’s a I look at it as a fact finding mission to start and i’m like, why why are you selling? What do you want to do with the money right like really diving into that?
So it’s consultative like actually consultative because there’s other options than like one or two. Yeah, man so many and a lot of times, People don’t know what they want to do with the money, right? And so, like, how can they make the decision on the front end of how much they want or timelines if they don’t even know what they would do with the money?
Especially we were talking about two, three, four, five million dollars. So it’s, it’s how do I understand what you really want? What’s important? Why you want it? And then coming up with all kinds of ideas. Like I’ll just start throwing out ideas. Hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about this?
Right? Like for example, someone might say, you know, I really need to sell because I need 50, 000 for a college fund. Right. What if they have 120, 000 in equity in the property? So I can say, Hey, what if I gave you 50, 000 and I become a 50 50 partner with you and you get what you want for the college, but you also keep the asset.
I mean, I just don’t think people are going about real estate that way. And I want to be the place in the company that does that at scale and that people know that they can go to for those creative options. You mentioned right now was a great time to be in the market and be looking at deals. Like what excites you, whether it’s region to property type.
I mean, just in general, what excites you right now in the market? Personally South Texas. So. Texas in general you’ve had lots of jobs, lots of businesses coming here for a long time. Same with Florida. But when you start going South, like towards Corpus and Kingsville and Robstown, there’s much more affordability and there’s a lot more land.
And so I’ve, I’ve had that feeling, but also Tesla just did a 375 million battery plant. Robstown, which there’s almost nothing in Robstown. And so there’s other businesses and companies and jobs are going to follow that. And I think in a lot of ways, these other markets in Texas are going to continue to grow just because Texas is business friendly.
But I, I really believe that. Being in South Texas is probably a little early, but it’s ahead of the curve because I think jobs and companies are going to start moving South. That’s my that’s my secret, man. And I’m giving it away. I mean, Hey, it’s good. Speaking of giving it away. I mean, do you so do you take on investor capital or you mentioned you have partners in this?
Like, are you looking like, talk to us about the organization side of things. Is that these like syndication proper, like fund model, like talk about the model. Well, we have a fund that we closed out, so we’re not raising capital currently. We’ll probably do more in the future, but really what it is is partners, man.
Like anybody who wants to own real estate, we want to talk to them. We’ll be, we’ll be true partners on deals. And we’re looking for a deal flow. And then through that, you know, we put up our balance sheet, we sign on the loan, we help manage it, operate it. We bring deals to people that they can invest in with us.
We’re, we’re doing a couple of deals right now. We’re literally getting them for free because we’re just, we’re taking over the loans and we’re, we just closed on one. Well, we’re closing on it in about an hour. My partner, Alex is closing on it. Nine houses in Lubbock. And the guy just has to walk away from the deal because he can’t handle the debt.
And so we’re just, we’re just taking over. And so that’s back to the point of, man, I’ve been doing it for about 13 years. And everyone always talks about, you know, the market’s going to change. And it’s the first time I’ve experienced it in Texas because it’s been hot for 10 plus years. And by no means is it easy.
And by no means do I want any negativity on anybody. And we have our challenges too, right? Like. But right now, what I believe is that if you’re selling your properties, it’s because you have to in most cases. And so as a buyer, you just have to understand that someone who’s been aggressive for a long time now is the time to really be aggressive.
And, and we’re, we can bring value on alleviating these problems. We can try to move quick, but the deals are out there, man. And an eight and a half percent prime interest rates, a huge deal. There’s so many floating apartment debt rates. Oh yeah. It’s survival mode, man. Like you gotta, you gotta survive in this business for the next couple of years, because there’s not a lot of commissions being made.
There’s a lot of deal flow, but there’s not a lot of closings happening. I can see that by the way. And, and for anybody else that’s, that’s been operating and real. State for a long time, then, you know, like you said, there’s challenges, right? And it’s, and it’s about making sure the numbers make sense. But for, for those individuals that like haven’t been, and have been wanting to get into it, like talk to them for a moment.
Because I, I mean, I’ll just briefly. Look back to when I first, first got into it. I mean, I was a little bit younger and I just, it was right after really 2008 and we all know what happened then. Right. And it just happened to be my age. And I remember at that point, like right after, like there was just so many deals, so much going on.
I mean, the prop first property I bought, I think I’ve got it for like 30 percent of what they paid for it maybe five years before that. And it was just some of the numbers. So for some of the. Newer individuals who maybe aren’t heavily leveraged into real estate and they’re thinking they’ve always wanted to get into it.
They’ve always been thinking about it but haven’t quite pulled the trigger. Like maybe talk to them for a bit. Sure. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, the thing that I think most people fail about. So they don’t ask enough questions and they, they don’t get specific with their questions. And to me, that means that you’re not thinking through things enough, but they, they wonder what if, what if this happens, but it’s not a good enough question.
So I would challenge people to. Ask people that you respect really thought out questions. I always had a list of 10, 15 questions that I had realize that it’s a really long term game, create a base of how you want to approach your business, whether that be to have a marketing plan or social media plan or just cold calling, whatever it is.
And then you’ve got to follow through. Like everything in real estate happens with consistency. And I feel like that’s the biggest thing that makes people give up is they don’t see the results immediately. For example, like if, if I were to make a offer on a property that you own and you don’t accept it, in my opinion, 99% of people never think about you or that deal again.
Yeah. But the mo, the money is made on me talking to you a year later and still negotiating a year later. And I think people are, are so quick to try to get a deal done that they go to the next and the next and keep, keep doing those in my opinion, but, but follow up on those other ones, because if I were to get a deal on my first offer, I probably wouldn’t want it.
Right. Cause I’d be like, dang, I overpaid. I always want the sellers to come to me and to play on my terms. And when you don’t have enough going on, you come become too attached to the results. And I just think that you just maybe most likely don’t have enough going on. And someone told me this once and I believed it, but it’s, as far as negotiations, like the person that cares the least, they win the negotiation.
And the only way to not care as much as someone else is to have other opportunities. Yeah, man, that makes so much sense and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard like my buddies that are there They’re much more active and in real estate and they’re like, you know, somebody comes back or you know, you always get the oh They accepted another offer, but did it go did it finish?
Did it not like how many offers fall through and then maybe right after that? Oh, through your, you’re the one calling back and you’re the only one. And there were 20 people going after it though. They accepted one that didn’t work out. Now they’re, they’re past their timeline. They already needed it. Like how fast can you close this?
Your call might be the one that gets it done. Happened so often. Dude, way more than people realize. Yeah, man, you’re dropping knowledge today, man. Like people don’t, I’m telling you, man, I appreciate that, but really most of these deals don’t close. Right. And then when they don’t close, then you get that, guess what, you know, they come back to you.
Right. And you’re like, yeah, I’m still interested, but the price needs to be this now. And that’s how you make the money. You make it on the buy and you get, and you gotta be aggressive, especially right now. Everybody agrees that the market’s not good. Yeah. So get them to understand that. Get them on your side and then get them to come to you to get the deal done.
Yeah, well, Matt, man, I just have to say it is it’s been great having you on the show today. You dropped some knowledge and this is, and you reminded me of some things I haven’t thought about in a while, like what we just talked about. And I’m like, man, you’re, you’re. So, right. And whether it’s sales, whether it’s this, I mean, it’s still, you know, exchanging of value.
It’s the same thing. But that being said, I mean, if somebody’s watching this or listening to this and they want to follow up with you and to connect with you and your team about real estate or to follow your journey, I mean, what’s the best way for them to do that? Yeah, the, the real best way is to call my cell phone five one two.
9 1 4 4 8 0 6 5 1 2 9 1 4 4 8 0 6. But type key real estate. com on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok. I try really hard to be accessible, man. And, and I want to be a resource for people and I’m trying to be someone that people can count on. And, you know, we, we learn our lessons and we try to slow down.
I’ve, I’ve in the past, I was so fast. And now I just try to slow down and, and really help and be the best that I can. And I love to connect with people. I love people that have a fire in their eyes and that say what they’re, you know, they do what they say they’re going to do. And there’s not a lot in real estate, like little things.
People say, I’m going to do this or we’re going to do that. And if they don’t, I don’t lose respect for them as a person by any means, but I kind of lose respect for the way they go about their business. And I, I absolutely will make my mistakes, but I try hard. Like if I give my number, I’m going to call, I’m going to respond.
I’m going to do everything that I say on this podcast, because I believe in it at the end of the day. It’s great, man. Well, again, awesome having you on the show and to the audience as always, thank you for tuning in. Hope you got a lot of value out of this. Hope you learned a lot. I sure did. If you did, I mean, hit that subscribe button.
We have many more mission based individuals coming up with the line. We don’t want you to miss a thing. So definitely hit that subscribe. As always, Matt, really appreciate you coming back on the show, man. Have a great rest of your week. You too. Thank you, brother.
