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Real Estate, Resilience, and Community Building with Willie Lee Hannah
Episode 26th January 2025 • Dallas, Texas: What’s Good? Lessons from your Local Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners • Brianna Jovahn
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In this episode of What's Good Podcast, Brianna sits down with Willie Lee Hannah, a retired Navy veteran and dedicated real estate professional in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Willie shares his journey from military life to real estate, his passion for empowering underserved communities, and the invaluable lessons he’s learned about building generational wealth through property ownership. With insights on navigating the housing market and creating meaningful change, this episode is a must-listen for aspiring homeowners and investors.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • How Willie transitioned from the Navy to real estate.
  • The importance of building generational wealth through homeownership.
  • Insights into overcoming common challenges buyers face in the housing market.
  • The role of collaboration and mentorship in real estate success.
  • Why community investment is key to revitalizing neighborhoods.

Key Quotes:

  • “The best investment on earth is earth.” – Lewis Glickman
  • "Failure is not an option—we can recreate the Black Wall Street by reinvesting in our own communities." – Willie Lee

Episode Timestamps;

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:50 Icebreaker Questions

00:57 Challenges in Real Estate

03:35 Mr. Willie Lee's Background

04:25 Transition from Navy to Real Estate

07:18 Building a Real Estate Team

09:27 Real Estate Investment Advice

13:46 Executing Real Estate Plans

17:01 Building a Following in Real Estate

17:26 Learning from Others and Overcoming Challenges

19:24 Highs and Lows in Real Estate

22:14 Celebrating Success Stories

28:22 The Importance of Wills and Trusts

30:39 Final Thoughts and Motivational Moment


Topics Covered:

  • Real estate basics for first-time buyers.
  • How to navigate lender relationships and financing options.
  • Balancing personal goals with community-building efforts.
  • Practical steps for real estate investing, including house flipping and passive income strategies.


Connect with Willie Lee:


Call to Action:

Feeling inspired to take the first step toward homeownership or real estate investing? Contact Willie Lee to explore your options, and don’t forget to subscribe for more insightful episodes featuring local entrepreneurs and change-makers.


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Transcripts

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Brianna: Hey, ladies and gents, this is your girl, Brianna Jovahn, and we are here with a new episode of What's Good Podcast. We have a new guest with us. His name is Mr. Willie Lee. How are you?

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Willie Lee: I'm amazing. How you doing?

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Brianna: I'm doing amazing as well. Thank you so much for asking. So maybe a couple of months ago, we decided to see what things that we were going to do and everybody decided to do real estate.

So we are here with real estate. And as you guys know, we do not do interviews. We do genuine conversations. So let's get to it. All right, Mr. Willie Lee. So we start off with an icebreaker. Are you ready for your icebreaker?

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Willie Lee: Yes, ma'am.

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Brianna: Okay. When it comes to your clients, because I watch HGTV. What is the most unique or the most difficult request when it comes to making sure that your clients are happy with the request that they get?

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Willie Lee: Working magic, working magic, working

magic, man, because, yeah, it had to be working magic because it's like, you know, sometimes you want to a 500, 000 house, but you only approve for 400, 000. So it's just like, what can we do to kind of get you closer to that as possible because it's like something is out of your hands and just like something clients see things or, you know, they think about.

With somebody bought a year ago and they think they can do the same thing. So we're trying to figure out how we can do it and what ways we can work to achieve that goal.

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Brianna: I love that. And that's what it's called is working magic.

You gotta work some magic to get what you want because sometimes it's not that it's not possible. It's just like, what do we got to do to achieve that, you know? And then what are you willing to sacrifice to get to that goal? So it's just like having those hard conversations.

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Willie Lee: So I'm trying to work magic to get them to their, what they want.

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Brianna: I love that. I love that. So, outside of, you know, them may not having the proper budget for the property that they're looking for. Is there anything outside of that? That may be like, okay, this is too much. Like for, for example, husband and wife, a husband may want a pool, but the wife is like, that's too much maintenance.

Have you came across anything like that?

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If there's something that your family is going to use, if you got kids and the kids going to be in the pool, but then you can go to the other person just like, Hey, listen, man, I get what your wife was saying. You got guys got kids, it's hot in Texas, you know, kids going to be in the pool.

You ain't got nobody at home but you guys. So it's just like, Trying to make it make sense to them, because sometimes we don't make, sometimes we say things, we want things, me for a prime example, and just like, when somebody kind of break it down to you, he's like, ah,

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Brianna: ah, you

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Willie Lee: know, you're right. It could be the same thing that spouse has said, but when they get somebody else on the outside company and saying it, and saying it in a way they understand it, they'd be like, oh, you're totally right.

So

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Brianna: you just kind of, okay, so you got to break it down for the people.

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Willie Lee: Yeah, you guys let them know pros

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Brianna: and cons. Yeah.

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Willie Lee: Yeah.

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Brianna: Okay. So let's go ahead and get into our genuine conversation. Mr. Willie Lee tell the people who you are and what do you do?

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Willie Lee: I am, uh, I'm Willie Hannah. I am from Mississippi, but I reside here in the DFW area.

I've been doing real estate for the last two years. I am retired. I'm a single father. and pretty much now real estate has been fun. It's been my focus because, it's been very intriguing because, you know, I got into real estate and I started looking at the history of real estate, especially among the black communities.

And you see how Back when the black community was really prospering, you know, how much real estate that we own, how much land that we had. So that's what made me intrigued in real estate. So I love it because it's like you can make good wealth off of real estate because guess what? You can make a lot of more stuff, but you can't make more land.

And, you know, just trying to educate people and try to get them to understand that, you know, how much this could take them. So, you know, that's what I do now.

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Brianna: Love that. So I know you mentioned retired and you retired from the Navy, right?

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Willie Lee: The best branch in America.

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Brianna: So how did you transition from that industry over to real estate?

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Willie Lee: Well,

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Brianna: what did that look like?

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Willie Lee: So a lot of my good friends, is in real estate. and I did not want to get into sales. Once I retired, I was doing recruiting duty. And, I came by Keloween office and I met Miss Judy. I came in. I was looking for a program for military for Navy people.

When we transfer, do they have a program to help us, you know, transfer and move into houses because we transferred And try to see something that can help us do that right there. And, uh, Miss Judy Redmond came up and talked to me about, you know, she said, why don't you get into real estate? I'm like, nah, I'm cool on that.

And she took me to lunch. She talked about real estate and actually gave me a free course to take, to get my real estate license. and I took the free course and I got a friend. It's an Antonio Buchanan, how I met, Seneca and all the guys that come from, He talked to me about it.

My boy, Greg talked to me about it. So. I gave it a shot and then, I ended up going to champion to get my license. So that's how I got into it. and then you just started looking at real estate and how to help your family. then I see my family, we had all this acreage of land and, you know, you kind of lost it.

So it, a lot of things just kind of made me more interested in real estate. So that's where I'm at now.

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Brianna: what is your expertise when it comes to the industry?

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Willie Lee: I just care. I don't say I got it. I just care because it's like if you want to do it to see how to make you do it.

So it's just not, it's about helping people. And I get a high when you like, you know, you see that client whose parents never, nobody ever owned a house and they buy a house and you help them get that. I have a young man. He think he could do it. First thing people, most people say, man, my credit bag, man, let's see where you at.

We got with the lender, the lender got his stuff fixed and he's building a brand new house out here. So my expertise is just helping people. Let's try to make you want to help yourself, help them and be the legwork to help you go and get it done. So I guess my expertise just assistance to, you know, assisting you and finding something that you want.

Nice. So you mentioned what I got from that is like you talk to a lender to help out your clients get to where they need to be in order to get a new home. Do you have a lot of collaborations in the circle of lenders or whomever as far as resources to help your clients get to purchasing property?

Yes, so I treat real estate like this. We did in the military, right? Because you may not fit with this lender. You may need Miss Kim. You may need Marion. You may need Charlayne. So it's just trying to figure out that right person with that right lender because we all speak the same language We're all in the same books, but some of us not in the same chapter.

You may be on chapter this lender So just trying to meet you, put you with the right fit, and let you go from there. And then let you talk to that person, see if y'all fit. So it's just like, that's why you meet people, you collaborate people, and you see what people do for people. Can they help them?

They may not can help them, but there's other things you can, so you just got to kind of meet people that try to see who fits with who, because it's not a one size fits all.

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Brianna: Yeah, that makes sense. What is your team look like? I know you mentioned a few people.

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Willie Lee: So I got with a group of people and I call it, we call it, uh, elevation, elevation, you know, sports entertainment.

and, you know, we're people who really care. One of my agents. You know, we're all in like most of us was athletes in school. Most of us was in the military. So we want to help the most military people and athletes out. So to be honest, It's sad when you see people that look like us and their religious like you're somebody totally different It's just like, you know, they can't relate to some of the issues that they have and it's just like why we're not in a space And it's some you know, you talk to some religious They don't think they have the courage to be into that space to work with these people, you know And I don't want nobody to tell you tell me I can't do nothing like oh You can't just hard to work with those people because of this Failure is not option.

So we gonna try to get it. So my team, we try to go in and make sure that, you know, when we have with our athletes and stuff like that, because you see so many people that get money and blow it. Well, how about this right here? You buy property here in Dallas and let this property pay for itself while you still doing your thing and help you invest.

You know, you got family members, hey, let's get your family members involved because guess what? Your family members could buy houses and fix them up and flip 'em. So my team is like, we wanna really help people. So with this active entertainment, but we want to help people put money back into the community because Texas, the DFW area, we have so many athletes has many entertainers, but why not buy property in your backyard and be read it out because you have the capital.

So my team, we want to help people get the capital and resorting neighborhoods. So, like, you know, you hear, like, you know, Michael's bought a block. We can do the same thing with the body blocks and we can help people out. And we can really, put our money back to work because we don't need nobody but ourselves, we can recreate the black wall street, because if you look what black wall street was happening, how did it happen?

The black dollar state within the community. Right. And that money can boom, boom, boom. Just think about that. You know, if you've got a friend and you want to buy a house and buy, what about, Commercial property, you know, boom, we got that right there as well as resources. We got people to give you a training in flipping houses, got people to give you training, all this, all this stuff.

So we want to make sure that we get the right people with the right people in cochlear. So that's what our team is about and just trying to help people.

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Brianna: I love it. So for me Don't know anything about real estate, investing, anything of that nature. And I come to you and your team, I'm like, Hey, I have this amount of money.

I want to get started on either flipping houses or some type of investment. What does that process look like as far as a consultation and what I need to do, how I need to do it and how to bring in your team.

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Willie Lee: So we do it like a blueprint, which is brief, which is to get, what you're looking for, what's your expectation, how much you have so that we can do our research because we don't want to come at you when you come and people just come at you, shoot out of the pocket, and we want to let you know upfront because sometimes people, men lie, women lie, numbers don't, words don't, so we'll let you know some things that Okay.

We may have to go do research, y'all, because sometimes you think you're coming to me and I'm the know all, the know all, and people act like that. But if I'm honest and open and honest with you, you know, you'd be like, okay, but I can let you know that we have a whole network of people in our circle to where you may ask something, we can't go get it for you.

Like, hey, check this out. Let me, let me, let me find out before you give you the information. So boom, you come in, like today we're having a class on flipping properties, right? So today I'm like, hey, come through. We have a class on flipping property. Come in and boom, boom, boom, boom.

No, I would ask for you to like, Hey, if you don't understand what I'm saying, if I'm talking too fast, if I'm talking in words, you don't understand, say something because the big thing a lot of times is that you'll come into an interview and we assume that, you know, some of the basic stuff, but you don't know none of this stuff.

So we don't know what level you're at. So we would ask you to be open to us, but it's like, Hey, okay. If you don't understand what I'm saying out the jump, let me know, you know, like, hey, say, Hey, I don't understand or, or, Hey, how are you talking too fast? So, That way, it'll be easy to help you and help guide you and get you there because it'll be more than one meeting because I'm not going to give you everything in the first meeting.

So part of it is to start with a preliminary meeting to see where you're at and see if we can answer your questions. And then after that, we'll do another follow up meeting to wait, boom, boom, boom, to make sure and ensure that you understand it. And then we'll manage your expectations because you're going to flip.

So you may be thinking, I'm going to bring in 200, 000 and do this right here. So we got to get real now we had to put you with some financial things to where it's like you understand because We want to stay in our lane now. We're not tax attorneys We're not you know, this is this but we want to make sure we put out put you with these people That's going to guide you get to the point get what i'm saying So we don't we teach we're gonna teach you about real estate but this is more than just real estate because like I Do you have LSC boom?

All right. Do you have a seat? So we want to make sure that you have the whole business side set up because guess what? You can be the best person in the world. You can have all the skills in the world But you don't have that business side set up Somebody's gonna come in make money after you so we want to make sure that nobody's making money out of your knowledge your hard work So yeah, you ain't getting what you need.

So we want to give you the just not real estate but the overall goal about Financing, LSC to make sure you protect yourself. So you can protect your investment. So that's the process right there. So it'll take more than one or two interviews to see where we are and see what structure you have in space, because you may say that you don't have nothing.

You may say this, you may say that, but actually reality, we just got it, you know, it in a different language. So we just got to tread with that, like, like, you know, and make you understand it. So, that

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Brianna: is so good because for me, I'm a Googler. So I'm just going to be like, okay, I know I want to do real estate.

I know it's flipping houses. I know you can do this. I know you can host. I know you can do all these things. But when I actually talk to somebody directly, all of that goes. Cause I'm like, okay, now this is somebody that's actually in the industry and can teach me way more than what I can look up on Google.

Cause you can only know so much when you look it up. So with that being stated for someone that comes in and like, okay, I have an idea. What is something, as far as advice that you will give them? Cause let's go back to Keller Williams. These are the classes that you're talking about, right?

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Willie Lee: Now, so these classes with other agents we work with, right? Because people want to help people out, right? It's not all just about us. It's all about giving the knowledge to people because when you could have all the knowledge in the world, but guess what? They're not going to end up in a graveyard. So get back, get the knowledge back to people and they keep it.

They do classes and we want to help people out. We do classes to help you out. Now, a lot of time you have the knowledge, right? But you know, a lot of time what people are afraid of the pull of the trigger and I got to get you pull that trigger because you probably, you know, everything you need to know, but you're scared to succeed.

Like, you're scared, you're scared you're going to do good at it, and it's just like, you tell people all the time, you work a nine to five job, and I mean, you work hard, you're very good at your job, and you make a lot of money for some company, so when are you going to put the same work into yourself, because it's not easy, and when you realize, tell people, this ain't easy, like, this is going to be a lot of blood, sweat, tears, it's going to be a lot of brunch days you can't go, you got to let people know that they're real, like, you may not be able to go to brunch, you may not be able to do this, you may have to sacrifice, But it's something that you can bring your kids, you got kids and daughters and stuff like that.

They see that, man, mama, and you can bring up what you said down, what you think about this, because sometimes we forget that real estate can be a family thing. And it's like, you got kids, it's just like, baby, what you think about this house right here? Cause kids gonna get it real. Because we think about, we think about flipping a house, right?

You know your kids will be some of your kids be the biggest critics like that's ugly and even like Their opinion matters. So, you know coming in like you have a plethora of people You just got to pull it. You got to pull the trigger, you know pull the trigger Like what's the point of doing it?

What are we going to execute this plan because you got it you've even got a little bit of it How can we execute this plan? what's our what's our time frame? We want to establish this because we're going to keep talking about it going to classes When are we going to do it? And that's a little big thing like cool you got this and this all right What's the plan i'll get it executed because like Sometimes it's like, how much is your time you're willing to give up to make your dream come true?

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Brianna: Wow.

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Willie Lee: Because it's easy to get somebody money to do it, but you still want to know what your people on the site is doing. Because you may have everything contracted out, but you still want to have an overall basis of what they should be doing. So, you know, like coming in, you may be shadowing somebody as they're doing their project.

And then sometimes you have to get it. So you can get that, we can get information. But you might say, Hey, Terry, you got a project going on with the wolves and you may go to Terry. Terry, I know you got a project going on and I just want to shadow you anything you need.

You ever heard of sweat equity? So sometimes when people want something to use that sweat equity, meaning you go over there. Terry, y'all got some. Cause you're sitting there, you're learning from Terry. You're learning how Terry do this. You go find a successful person. You watch them. You know what you need to go to site and watch them.

And it's like, okay, cause you have the Google basics, but Google basics, just Google basics. I can need to put your feet on the ground and actually go out there to the property site and see how they doing it. Yeah. And then ask people, what's your phase? Because we like to know people's success, but what's the phase you had?

And then take their phase and look at it. Okay, how did they fail? And how did they overcome it? take a journey, take a, take a journal. And then write down the process and steps how you failed to overcome. Because that first project, you may do bad at it. But that second project, you know you did bad.

The first part you may do good at, the second part you may do bad, so you know that there's obstacles you have to overcome. So, my thing is you come in with the basics of what you want to do, the idea of what you want to do. We help you see what you need to do, what you started at. Or pretty much go and watch somebody, you know, or figure out what type of learner you are.

And then from there, we get you into the game and start doing it. Because the thing is, just do it. You know, because sometimes we will sit there like, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. And Viola Davis said this, you know what, some of the most best ideas is it right now in the graveyard.

So please go ahead and execute their plan, because if you don't, it's always gonna be a shooter to the woodest. So come with their plan. How are we going to execute this plan? What are we going to do? And then what's your vision? And from there, we just do it because like that you have a vision.

you execute a plan and you go on. And as you see your vision, it's hard because guess what? And you're about to believe in your vision. Not what you believe it's all that matters because guess what? Get some people that's going to follow you. They're going to love what you do.

Same with real estate. You know, you're going to start small. And they say, you know, boom. And then maybe somebody come along and say, girl, I want to put some money behind you. I want to invest in you. Let me see what you're going to do. Oh my God. Because when you work hard and people see that, they're going to help you.

So, I would say you come up with your plan, get it laid out, and somebody see it. And don't just talk to one person. I never say just talk to one person. I talk to two or three people. As an agent, if I'm looking for a house for you, I may go to Frisco and Keller Williams, I may go to Keller Williams over here, and I talk to people, like what's up, what do you think about this, and I say, okay, it's not because I don't know, I want to see what other people think, same thing, you going to your, doing your thing, doing that, how do you do this, when you do this, right, so you want to get different opinions, so you're like, oh, okay, because sometimes on Google and stuff like that, it'd be lies, like, you know, HGTV, it'd be lies, you know, it's reality TV for a reason, so like, now you're seeing that people are doing it, You've seen the failures, you know, we have a class in DeSoto with Miss Tasha.

She's a black lady, another husband, two black people. They buy and flip houses. And, so they're having a dressing club today. They have a team, we have a team over there today. We have them over here at the Argentine office. And she takes you to the site. And she tells you about the city, the city permits and stuff that she, issues she have.

The, you know, like, you know, you can find because your grass not cut. Things that people don't tell you, you got to bring this stuff off electricity. Things like, Oh, you just bought a house and found out, oh, you can't do this asbestos. So things that people don't think about and then these things make some people give up.

Some people are like, I quit, I can't do this too much. You gave up so fast. Well, look at God. So now I'm just saying, I'm not talking too little too much, but I just like to just get started, come in, get started and, you know, give it to the right people. Because sometimes, and I hear it here in real estate now, people say, You ever heard this saying, somebody say, if you need help, give me a call, I'll help you.

People lie like rugs, but there are people that will help you, so you can't just, cause this person didn't help you, you can't just say everybody, so you're like, oh, but you know the people that'll help you, you know the people that'll guide you, Just come in and just find the people in your niche and don't take no for an answer.

If somebody tell you no, cool, you said no. Let me go on over here and let me see what I can do because you want it.

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you have to get through it and then you'll learn as you go. So as you mentioned with the journal. and doing those self reflections and things of that nature that is totally important as far as the journey and that transitions me into our next segment, which is pretty much our highs and lows.

So, as you mentioned before, You're going to have those good moments and you're going to have those okay moments and you're going to have those lessons. what is a moment that made you question your journey in a real estate? And then tell us, how did you get through it in order to still continue being in the industry and helping and showing up the way that you do today?

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And you can tell everybody everything they need to know. I can give you all the advice, you know, a thousand times, I can tell you like, listen, you're going to capital gain taxes, you know, you're going to make over 500k when you sell this house, you should talk to a CPA, you talk to your tax professor and see, the numbers that way we can change the numbers up to the house that way you're not paying more taxes because we want to make sure that you are not, successfully, you know, going, so we want to, we don't want to go out to step outside our lane.

So, Hey, talk to a tax professional. I'm not a tax professional. Talk to a tax professional because I'll be liable for that. Clients don't tell you the truth about everything. So it's just like, you know, if you find out that this house is, Airbnb or something, and you know, you can't do show at a certain time and it hasn't been in work for a while, then you get the blame for it and you get down because you let somebody down and it hurts because when you don't feel like you let somebody down, it hurts like, dang, you feel like you're doing your job, even though you know, you call another aid that you call up people, this, this, and this, but if people can't see your house, you know, like, ah, And then you lose the contract, you know, because, you know, they have outside, you know, significant other boyfriends.

I'm coming in, like, oh no, we can make more. And it hurts when people don't take your advice, they take their significant other advice, and they don't do what you say. and you lose, you know, you lose the deal, but you know. You're down, but then you had to realize it's like, dang, you know, did I do this?

Did I do that? Did I do this? Did I do that? You had to check yourself and make sure that you did your job because, you know, sometimes if I was wrong, I'm wrong. But what did I do that I could have did a different? So I had to go back and analyze what I did wrong. What could I have done differently?

and after I did everything, I took my licks, but I was like, I did my job. I did what I was supposed to do. you can't win them all. And it hurts, but you can't win them all and you lose it back. Sometimes you can't work with everybody.

Don't mesh. So, you do the best you can because even Jesus had enemies. So it kind of hurts, but you have to take a reflection, look in the mirror and write that down. Like what did you do wrong? And the next deal, you got to make sure that you ask these questions.

You make sure that, the pitfalls that you had in this deal, make sure that don't come in the next day and go from there. So this was one of the things I had, and what I had to do is kind of look at what I did wrong and go from there. So, you said it was the highs?

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[00:22:21] Willie Lee: My 1st deal, I came to real estate.

I had a goal of closing 3 houses within my 1st. I got it May. I want to close 3 houses by June and I had 3 houses on the contract with 1 house. I had a contract. It was crazy because this person, this young lady, single, single young lady, she was the first person in the house, first person in her family to buy a house, right?

And I just think it's dope because me being a single father with a young daughter, you don't want to see your daughter thinking that, you know, every life is about money, earning up this and this, you want her to have that balance. But this young lady, she's a nurse, and she's bought her first house, And you know when her dad was coming out to see the house like I never get he He had a limp when he walked he come out to the house or whatnot So we're going to the process behind the house Her mom would come out here to go to the house and if you come out with her house and I never forget, We was supposed to close and why having a lender while listening to your relative about your lenders is very important because we know lenders And I told her we need to get linda out here, but she had a lender and Somebody recommended linda linda in atlanta and this girl was always on vacation sometimes like lord have mercy So One week before closing, we didn't get to clear the clothes and we was about to lose the deal.

And Charlamagne Armstrong, and I'll never forget this right here, you know, she was at the office and, you know, she talked to her and then she, she prayed with her. I'll never forget this, right? She prayed with her, you know, and she started crying and it's like, she's like, let's see how we can fix this.

she put it to underwriting. So it was a Friday afternoon. She put it to underwriting and that's why I say, you know, some, some, some lenders are amazing. She put that girl to underwriting and told her what you need to do and how we can do the deal. Boom.

Charlemagne said, we're good to go. We got it clear to close. And when we closed the house. You could see the look. Her daddy was walking with limp. He was walking smooth and he was just so proud of his daughter. The joy that he had for his daughter. He just bought a house, you know, he got other kids, but she bought a house, you know, she was able to provide a better life for her nephew because she bought, she moved her nephew, her sister and her mom in, so her nephew could have a better school system.

And then, after she bought a house, she said, it's crazy. She said, my niece told me she wanted to be like me. She's like, ain't you doing your thing? And she said, that's the way that made her feel somebody, one of her siblings looked up to her and like, wow, sometimes we don't realize that kids are watching us, young kids are watching us, adults are watching us, and that right there inspired people because some people think they can't do it, some people think they can't buy a house, but that right there showed her niece that she could do anything because we come from the same platform, and look at you, you bought a house, she's just like, oh my gosh, she said that just did something to her when she heard that, because it gave her more motivation, and it did something to me because it's like, She went through all that right there, and just to see, she didn't do it for herself, she did it for her family.

And, you know, another IHABs was a young man who bought a house, he did a house built at DeSoto. And, you know, single father, and he's like, man, I can't, man, I want to get it, but I can't, you know. I said, I can't. Like, why don't we, like, why don't we go straight negative, you can't. Let's talk to a lender. Most people are scared to just sit down and speak with a lender, because I don't know why.

Man, we spoke with a lender. The guy said, yeah, man, you need to fix this. And we're, we almost done with the construction of his new home. He got a new home, got it designed the way he want to, a single father. And I told him, I said, man, use my motivation because most men don't buy houses and it sucks because I don't know why.

I said, man, most men don't buy houses. I don't know. We like to go out and do whatever stupid stuff, but you're a single father taking care of his kids. And I say, man, listen, you hear so much of the black man that his kids life and this is this. You just bought in college with your son. Like that right there gives you a high because it gives you hope because people in the world think that, you know, we ain't nothing.

But when you see another man just like you out here doing it and you're doing for his kids, So don't break their heart. They look at people like, man, that's what's up, man. So there's a lot of highs in this, in this game, because it's like, when you see somebody not doing it for them, for their family, man, it just like, wow.

And you see somebody who think they can't do it. And they do it and you you meet those good lenders those good title companies that's really there for people like And man, I got a lot of highs in this, you know, my my my man retired He told his wife that he gonna buy her house one day when he retired He bought her house in allen, texas, man And it was beautiful because like, you know, she cried because he said one day we'll buy you a house.

I'll buy you a house And he bought it for his wife and it's just like to see the tears of joy and he said something he said as a man we carry the weight of the world on our shoulders like we got to provide and all this stuff right here and sometimes we don't know how we're going to do it and he said today you know I was able to you know let you pick out a house and you know clothes on it so those highs right there because it's like it lets you know that we can do this right here like this we can do this right here so sometimes we just need some help but sometimes we need some people staying with us so those are some of the highs right there.

Yeah.

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[00:27:04] Willie Lee: Yeah, because you see it because people say what's your hobby? This is my hobby. Now. It's fun. Like you see people helping out. I got a young lady right now. A young lady.

She's 25 years old. She just got a paperwork here. She wants to buy a duplex. 25 years old single no kids want to buy a duplex and want to live in one What was I doing at 25? I couldn't be thinking like this right here but those are highs right there because these are young kids like My god, and it's just like and I tell you young young ladies like black girl right there Like look at her 25.

She's about a duplex, right? So these guys right there just makes it worth living and trying to help them out So like now my job is to go out here. Let's find you a duplex, you know Let's find a duplex and see how we're gonna make this deal work to what you're benefiting off of it so it's just like Let's see how we're gonna help you not just only have a duplex.

Let's see what we're gonna do to help you make sure your business is straight because you bought the duplex. make sure your taxes and stuff like the insurance is straight So that way things that we get just that we don't think about so, you know,

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[00:28:07] Willie Lee: so you're going to tell me my name is Willie Hannah and it's you look at me on Instagram.

:

T. Hill Library. We're looking to get something started up over there about bringing people come in and like, talking to what people understand about probate, will, and trust. Because we have so many of our family members that pass along and die, and none of their business affairs is intact.

He has six houses. He has six new places in Priory, Illinois. It's a hotel. He had a house in Houston and he lost it all because he didn't have his business affairs in order. You know, we don't know what tomorrow has planned for us.

So that way they can come in and do their will, like there's a will you can do for free. And like I told a lawyer, when I talked to her, sometimes y'all talk to us and y'all talk up there and we don't understand it. We just say, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. I want you to talk to people to where it's like, what does a probate mean?

Cause we say, say probate. I'm like, what is probate? But you know, we're looking to do that right there and see the hill. And I, and I hope we get people out to actually come and get the information and take it back to their families. because you buy a house and then you die and your kids just mess it up.

So let's see how we going to correct these deficiencies because I know my family, we had acres and acres of land in Mississippi and guess what happened. My mama generation messed it up and it's like now the taxes and stuff like that and now like you know what the land when mama roses bought the land for what the land was intended for it's not doing that no more so I want to do my favorite passion about doing a class about that right there so we're trying to get the logistics together try to get some people out there to really learn about how to take your asset because just think about it you know your parents They have a house, they have assets, it's just secure.

The first thing people say, Oh, you're trying to kill me off too soon. No, we're not trying to kill you off. We're trying to make sure that the

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[00:30:05] Willie Lee: you built, yeah, the legacy that you built is taken care of. It's just not given away to the States. The lawyers, that's not coming in and taking money.

So, but that's that. But, but man, you know, it was a blessing being your president. You know, I met you at the event and he was nice but man, this is a blessing, it's an honor to be in your presence.

Every day I learn more. I learn more and more every day. but I love it though, and I just love the fact that, you know, I look at history when I look about how wealthy black people were, when we had our own real estate, we had everything, so. That's what gives me the joy. I think it's me to joy.

It's all I got right now. So thank you so much. And it's an honor. It's a pleasure. Yeah.

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So today's a quote. And I think it goes really good from what we talked about today. So it's by Lewis Glickman, and it says, The best investment on earth is earth. So I'm gonna share what I think, and then you can share what you think, and then we'll wrap it up. All right, so basically when I first read this, the best investment on earth is earth, I thought about us.

I feel like a lot of times we do try to do so much and chase so much when we really have all the resources to get started where we are today. I think a lot of times, like you mentioned earlier, we, hold things to the side or we put things to the side like, oh, I'm not ready yet or this, this and that.

But in reality, we have things to go ahead and get started today. So what are your thoughts?

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do your research just to go out and buy something that the research on it, even though that salesman, sales reps say this piece of land is good, do your research, find a builder, you know, before you invest in something, make sure you do your due diligence because we all say somebody else did that right there, but we all have those two parts of material to look at it up for ourselves.

And, you know, make sure that it's a single sound, decision and make it make sense. So if you're going to invest in her, make it make sense.

Did you have any last words, anything that you feel like we missed today? Anything that you didn't share with people before we wrap up?

Nah, I mean, I love this. You know, this was amazing. I'm very big. I'm a very big component of, People helping people because we're, you know, I tell people that trying to do something, do something for yourself is hard because we look at failing.

It's okay to fail. People like it's not okay. It's okay to fail. Guess what? Tomorrow starting in, you know, and then you didn't make a goal that's attainable. You know, sometimes we make these goals that's so astronomically big instead of saying we gonna start small. We count our wins like I did that, you know, praise yourself.

I did that, you know, because you had to put in the work. So, if it's working out, we want to, I'm gonna try to lose two pounds, in two weeks. Do it small. That way you build yourself up. If you want to do something, do a little bit every day. Like you said, do the Google search every day.

Just do a little bit every day, but then get to the point where you're ready to pull that trigger. And sometimes, you have to invest money to make money. Everything ain't free. And if you don't have the money for it, What can I do for you? Because I don't have the money for it, but I want your stuff for free.

And when somebody do something for you, make sure you know you return it with gratitude because people don't have to do nothing for you. People don't have to sit down and do nothing. But when they do, give you that time. Make sure you know. It's like, okay. And then be on time. You know, you meet so many people that want things but you know, they're like, they're take people for granted.

Take nobody for granted because you can learn from everybody. So, that's one big thing I said, people, you can learn from everybody. Even the most craziest person you can learn from, but you can learn from all of them. Hopefully be seeing you soon and hope we get you out, you know, and you know, we get some questions about, you know, property taxes because we all have to deal with that right there before and we all want to help our family members to be more knowledgeable about it, but we don't want to just have to be knowledgeable about it.

We want to make sure that they, understand it, because it's okay to be knowledgeable about it, but you don't know about something you really don't understand. We got to do our job. So I really want to push that this year to make, we get more people to sign up for probate trust and wield and understand it because we shouldn't have to PC our families, you know, dying or going to the ex for a go fund me when people die.

So that's, you know, I want to be able to push that this year. There's nothing wrong with that, but we have opportunities to help our people out and go from there because we all, we got, hey,

that's it, And it only takes just one or two people and we can make a bigger difference, not just with us, but with these young generation, these young kids, because we got to start looking at them and try pushing them to be great.

Just not, you know, because they're a lot smarter than what we were. And when you role model for young ladies like yourself, like showing these things, that you can do these things, because that's what we're lacking. We're lacking good positive role models and showing these young people that, Hey, you can do this, you know, Hey, you know, have that balance.

You know, I just for that because you are somebody that, you know, you saw the young people look up to because you're doing the work, you're doing the legwork, you're going out and doing this right here, you're spending your Saturdays doing stuff, so it's just like, we need more people like you do, not to brag on yourself, but to show these young kids that, man, you're doing it, because there's no opportunity to fail.

And I tell the kids all the time, you ain't got an opportunity to fail, there's too much stuff out there to give you access to win. It's just, you gotta get up out, stop being lazy. And we gotta call the state of the space, stop being lazy, stop looking for excuses. Go get it. But we see people like you, you know, I love it because young ladies like you out there want to get it.

Thank you, Mr. Willie Lee. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for tuning in. If you're listening to this morning, noon, evening or night, thank you so much. And we'll see you guys next time.

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