The discourse presented herein elucidates the profound journey of personal evolution required to construct meaningful dialogues among individuals. At the forefront of our conversation is the notion that the foundation of external achievement is predicated upon the internal fortification of one’s character and resolve. I engage with Zach Fagas, a distinguished figure in both the realms of real estate and podcasting, as we traverse the complexities of professional growth and the perseverance required to navigate the vicissitudes of life. Our dialogue underscores the importance of genuine human connection and the unwavering commitment to one's craft, devoid of superficial embellishments or shortcuts. Join us as we explore these themes, aiming to inspire and incite impactful change through our shared narratives and insights.

Takeaways:

• The podcast emphasizes the importance of building meaningful conversations with individuals and sharing impactful stories.
• It highlights the significance of internal development and personal growth before external accomplishments can be fully realized.
• Listeners are encouraged to embrace the hard work and dedication required in their pursuits, without relying on shortcuts or hype.
• The discussion reflects on the challenges and psychological hurdles faced in martial arts, particularly the journey through various belt levels in jiu jitsu.
• The conversation elaborates on the real estate market dynamics in St. Louis, indicating opportunities for investment and growth in specific neighborhoods.
• Lastly, the podcast underscores the value of continuous learning and mentorship in achieving success across various domains, including entrepreneurship.

This is Adam Marburger.

And this is humans that build real conversations with real people.

Not just about what they've built in the world, but what had to be built inside them first.

No hype, no shortcuts, just humans doing the work.

Humans that build.

Real people.

Real work.

Your boy is back with another episode of Humans that Build where we share stories, we share thought provoking conversations with one goal in mind, to just make an impact.

That's what we're here to do.

So I've got a very high level gentleman with me here joining us today.

Known this guy for a long time.

He's a fellow podcaster.

As a matter of fact, I was on his podcast years ago and I ran into him at the gym, I don't know, a couple months ago.

I said, hey man, you need to reciprocate, you need to come on my show.

And it was a quick yes.

So I want to welcome Zach Fagus to the show.

How are you, my brother?

Dude, thank you so much for having me on.

I'm honored to be here and this is awesome what you've done.

I feel very honored that you asked me to come on and, and let's, let's, let's, let's get into it, man.

I'm excited to be here.

You know, the one thing that I actually, I'm going to point out that I think is awesome because I've done this so many times in my life.

I've moved so many meetings because of Jiu Jitsu, I changed my schedule.

So because I had you scheduled, I don't, I think we talked about 11.

Yeah, man, if we could do noon, I could get my workout and I was like done.

Yeah, I try to make that 10am class on Friday mornings usually.

Like, do you think we could do 12 so I could, you know, hit a shower and get back to the office in time and like, dude, what did.

Your response was great.

It was like, I wouldn't dare mess with your sacred Jiu Jitsu time.

And I was like, hey, that's what it is.

First of all, how was the workout today?

It's great, man.

We had a. Trevor ended.

He always makes Friday's.

Friday classes always have a little bit more live rounds in them.

So we ended it with four live round, five minute rounds from the feet.

So I was, I was pretty cooked after.

I, you know, I didn't pick any easy rounds today.

There was, you know, you know, two, three, three other brown or two other.

Two purple belts and a, and a brown belt.

No, two brown belts.

And two purple belts I rolled with there were.

Gave me a hell of a time today.

So we, we had some good rounds.

Well, we didn't give Trevor the name T. Nasty for nothing.

He's a nasty, nasty human on the mats.

You know, God bless Trevor.

I've learned so much from that, man, over the years.

Before we even get into it, because there's a lot, I mean, there's a lot to unpack here.

But let's, let's.

Recent brown belt.

Congratulations on.

How did it feel?

Like, how did it feel?

Were you expecting it?

Hey, let me ask you a couple of questions because it's because Jiu jitsu, this, this, this journey, it's not a sprint.

Kyle talks about being a marathon.

It's, it's long, man.

It's a long, tough journey.

And sometimes we go through moments like, am I deserving of this?

So, A, did you feel worthy of it?

And then, and then B, how do you feel whenever Kyle called you up and put that brown belt around your waist?

You know, like, part of me at first like, you know, kind of felt like, man, I don't know if I'm ready for this.

But I was like, man, you know, I've been a purple belt for, you know, three years.

I feel like I do well against all the purple belts that I train with.

I mean, excluding a handful of, you know, asterisks, guys that are just freaks or people that just have a, you know, big size advantage on me.

But I, I usually hold my own with all the, was holding my own with all the purple belts for, you know, probably the last year, and, and I felt pretty good about that.

But, you know, there's still that, that piece inside.

You kind of have that little bit of self doubt because you kind of regret.

Like, I look back on when I first started at white belt, when I first came in, and I just remember seeing what the brown belts were able to do to me and like, just the level of knowledge that they had.

And I was like, I just, that just seems so unattainable to me for so long and now that it's just, it's kind of like you're building a mountain out of layers of paint.

And eventually, you know, I've built a little bit of a mountain here, you know, maybe not even a mountain, a little bit of, let's call it a hill, you know, you know, from, from doing this for all these years.

But, you know, I'm nowhere near, you know, you're never going to figure this thing out.

I, That's What I've realized, and that's the kind of, the beauty of it.

It's never ending.

You're never going to have it mastered.

You're never gonna.

You're never gonna be the best in the world.

You're.

Oh, there's always gonna be a bigger, better guy that beats you in this one position or this area.

This guy's.

This guy from the feet.

He takes me down every time.

I can never stop his takedown.

You know, whenever I get in this guy's guard, man, he sweeps me every time, and I. I can't stop it.

I gotta figure out how to beat this guy.

I. Yeah, so it's just.

It's so fun in that aspect.

But when.

When Kyle called me up, I mean, that was.

That was, you know, I was like, wow.

I mean, wow.

I only get to.

The first thing that kind of came through my head was like, wow, I only get to do this one more time.

Like, I'm only gonna get one more.

Like, that was like.

That's kind of what I was thinking about on the drive home that day.

I was like, wow, this is amazing.

Like, I. I can't believe I'm here.

But I'm also like, wow.

I only get, you know, black after black belt.

You know, the.

There's really.

I mean, you get stripes and stuff, but it's.

It's not that big.

Yeah.

Every three years and it's.

But it's not as.

Not nearly as exciting as getting belt, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

So much truth into that.

Both of us are, you know, for.

For those listening, you know, we're both under the same coach, Kyle Watson.

You know, I'm getting ready to release an episode with Kyle, but Kyle, I have the honor and the privilege to get every stripe, every belt from Kyle.

You know, I do.

I wasn't one of the.

Did I cross train here and there?

Did I have to find times to get Matt working?

Of course I did, you know, but I was with Kyle from the beginning, and it was an honor and a privilege to have Kyle Watson give me my black belt.

Because there's a big difference.

Like saying, hey, who'd you get your block builder saying?

Kyle Watson.

That means a lot.

And, you know, in our affiliation that we don't hand belts out, man.

You know, it's.

Kyle ain't.

Kyle ain't promoting anybody quickly.

I mean, it.

I mean, there was a.

There was a girl recently, she got her purple belt on.

On Wednesday.

And I mean, she's been there.

I mean, she was a transfer I can't remember when she transferred to Kyle's, but she came in as like a brand new blue belt and I mean it's been several years, you know, she was at blue belt for a long time, you know, and she, she's consistently there two to three days a week minimum.

And she's a, you know, she's a mom of three and in her, you know, inner for 40s, I think, you know, so like, but like she earned it.

Like she's gotten to that level for sure.

And I've seen her develop over these years and it's like he's not going to just get, it's not just attendance points.

It's, you're, you gotta, it's, it's attendance but it's also, you got to have the skill set to be, to, to, you know, because he wants to, he doesn't want, he doesn't want to just hand things out because then that, that kind of waters down what he's created.

Well, that, and first of all, not just Kyle, but our sport in general.

I mean you, I mean by the way, and I say this with zero disrespect to any martial art, whatever martial art works for you, whatever you train and it's made an impact in your life.

No disrespect to that, but I'm just going to use an example.

Like if, you know, you see a nine year old getting a black belt in taekwondo in two years, you know, that, that I can't get my head wrapped around that we're in jiu jitsu and we'll use judo as well.

Judo and Jiu jitsu, you can get your black belt maybe a little quicker in judo.

Not much.

Yeah, it's typically a 10 year ride.

I mean for some 12, I mean if you're, you and I, working professionals, business, you sacrifice our time, move meetings and things around to get on the mats.

I mean it's a 10, 12 year ride to get a black belt in jiu jitsu.

And so I started training at 25 and my goal is I want to, I would like to be a black belt by the time I'm 35.

I'm 33 now, so like maybe I hit my goal, you know, I don't know.

We'll see.

Let's see if I can continue to train as consistently as I have been.

But like it's not even about the belt really.

You know, that's one thing I've realized.

It's the, you know, the second they tied that brown belt, he tied that Brown belt on me, around me.

Like, I didn't get a bunch of superpowers.

Like, I'm still the same guy that I was when I had the purple belt on a minute before that, you know, Like, I didn't just get this, you know, like, new superpower.

I just got way better, you know, like, you know, you got a better thing.

You got a bigger bullseye in your back, Zach.

Exactly, exactly.

Now I gotta.

I can't let a purple belt, you know, get the upper hand on me or, you know, like, I gotta fight tooth and nail to not let that tough blue belt over there pass my guard.

You know, like, he's.

He's bigger than me, got £40 on me, and, you know, and he's.

He trained.

He's doesn't have any kids.

He trains more than me, but, like, man, I can't let him pass me.

I remember in going out, talk about brown belt me and you were talking a little bit off air earlier.

That brown belt was my least favorite belt.

Not to discourage you, just sharing my journey.

You know, when I was a white belt, I had a lot of MMA experience and NOGI experience, so I'd already, you know, I was winning blue belt tournaments.

I did one white belt tournament and completed.

Competed at blue.

The whole white belt.

The whole time I was a white belt, I never even did white belt tournaments because it was unfair.

I mean, who.

I don't want to go to a tournament and be.

I want it to be fair.

But while I was wearing a white belt, I just wanted my blue belt.

And then after wearing my blue belt for a while, I really wanted to earn my purple belt.

And then after wearing my purple belt for a while, you know, I really wanted to earn my brown belt.

But when I got my brown.

But I was like, okay, I'm cool.

Waiting a while to get my black belt because I had these seasons of doubt and uncertainty.

Am I worthy of a black belt?

Is it realistic?

Do I deserve it?

Like, I went through that.

There's some psychological crap that happens in jiu jitsu as well.

So that was the belt that I kind of like.

You know, I've trained hard at that belt.

I mean, I really worked my butt off at brown belt.

Didn't compete as much at brown belt, but definitely in my head, a little bit more at that, in that belt.

Oh, that makes sense.

I get it.

No, because it's.

Yeah.

And after that, I mean.

Yeah, because once you're a black belt, it's like you're, you know, you're seen as like a, you know, a master, you know, of this, you know, and you gotta, you gotta be able to instruct and show all these things to people because people are going to come to you with questions, you know, I mean, people come to me with questions now, even at brown belt, you know, like being one of the more, you know, higher ranking guys in the room, sometimes, especially in the morning classes that I go to, like, you know, people come, and if Trevor's over there, you know, busy with someone, like people, I will ask me questions.

And I am a coach at Watson's.

I, you know, I coached there for two and a half years.

I, I taught the basics class.

And honestly, I feel like that, that I just, I did that at blue belt, and I feel like that leveled me up so much.

I feel like I got to purple belt like, like more confidently and faster because I just got way better at it from teaching.

But then when we had our second kid, I had to, I had to dial it back just because I was just gone, you know, two nights a week, you know, for basically being at the gym for three hours, you know, with my getting my own training in and then, and then coaching on top of it.

And, you know, I just, I just felt bad making my wife, you know, I felt guilty and I want to be there.

I want to be there and put my kids to bed.

Damn right.

Damn right.

Well, we could sit and talk about jiu jitsu, the whole podcast, and I don't want to do that in time.

Let's back.

Born and raised, St. Louis, St. Mary's High School.

I know you went off to college, so I, you know, what I want to talk about was, you know, when you were younger, you know, I want to hear about a little bit about the younger Zach.

Sure.

You know, when you were 18 years old, 16 years old, did you have these dreams and aspirations of being this real estate beast that you are today?

I mean, would that.

Was that in the cards back then for you?

Absolutely not.

I, I went to college with zero idea on what I wanted to do.

You know, I always had the dream of, you know, man, I really want to be successful.

I want to make, you know, I want to, I want to live a very comfortable life.

I want to be able to provide things to my kids that my parents couldn't provide to me.

I wanted to, you know, do all those things.

But I went to college really with not much of a plan other than, oh, man, this is a, you know, a bunch a school where a lot of my friends are going, you know, it looks like a very fun place, a great party school.

Like, I'm gonna have a great time.

It's kind of way.

Way I looked at college, I looked at it as a.

It was an opportunity for me to, you know, kind of spread my wings, get away, get out of my parents house, go spend four years with my friends and kind of find myself.

I went in there originally with, you know, a plan of getting a marketing degree with a minor in psychology.

And, and I.

And the only reason I picked psychology was just because that's.

I really enjoyed it.

Like, I never saw myself pursuing anything in that field, but like, just figuring out how, how people think and how the mind works was, Was very interesting to me.

So I was like, I'm gonna minor in that.

And, but.

And about my junior year, my.

One of my best friends, his dad was kind of the, he was the cool dad that we, you know, we loved growing up.

Who was.

He was, he was the, the wealthiest guy I know, to put it quite frankly, that I grew up with.

You know, we'd.

He was the dad.

You know, you'd show up to the.

We'd go to the arcade or we'd go somewhere and he'd, you know, Give the kids $100 bills to go play in the arcade.

You know, just did like cool shit like that.

And I, he was the man.

And he came to me my junior year and said, you know, they were in the restaurant business, they had a bunch of different pizza places and you know, they asked me, hey, we want to, we want to start a barbecue restaurant and we want you to run it.

Know, we, You've worked in restaurants, you know, your, your whole life.

You know, we can tell you have a great work, work ethic.

You have the manners, you're, you're.

You just deal with people very well.

And.

Because that's, you know, that's what I'd done.

I'd always worked in restaurants and that's what I was really good at.

And so he gave me that opportunity.

I moved all my mate.

I moved all my schooling around so that I could graduate faster so we could get this thing off.

Off the ground quicker.

Ended up graduating with a degree in psychology with a minor in general business because I had more psychology credits and, and basically graduated.

And then we, it was like, all right, what now?

We kind of, we.

We dialed in all of our recipes, all of our, you know, our menu, the whole thing.

But then we were kind of at a standstill.

Cause we were looking for a place to place to put it.

Cause as you know, like, location is huge for a restaurant, and so it took us a while to find the right spot, so I actually ended up going to work at another local barbecue place here.

Ended up working there for a little about a year and a half while we looked for a spot.

You know, I worked there for about two weeks.

They made me a manager, and I managed that place for about a year and a half, and I. I had a blast working there.

That was one of my.

Like, I.

Look, looking back on it, that was one of the most fun jobs I ever had, you know.

Did it pay me the most?

No.

But was it.

Was it.

Did I have, like, fun looking back on it?

It was a blast.

We had a lot of fun.

But then when the restaurant opened, you know, I basically did the construction on the restaurant for the full.

First full year.

I was there six or seven days a week, you know.

You know, I have a little bit of handy construction experience.

I'd flipped a house or two.

I flipped two houses with my dad while I was doing all this in between.

And, you know, so we.

We basically got this building in Kirkwood rehabbed.

The whole thing took us about nine months of.

Or about 10 months of.

Of re.

Of renovations till we opened.

I ran it for about a year and a half.

And, you know, and as if you can remember back, you know, he kind of basically promised me, you know, I want you to run this.

I'm going to basically give you a piece of equity.

And I.

You know, and I just kind of trusted that that was what was going to happen.

You know, we're.

I'm basically three years into this kind of project at this point, and I'm like, hey, man, you know, I'm working my.

I'm working my ass.

I'm basically working 80 hours a week for about 500 bucks is what it kind of boiled down to.

And I just.

I.

It was.

It was getting to be a point where I was like, man, I need to have a conversation with him, because we don't have anything in writing.

And that it was.

It was just not sitting well with me.

And I was like, man, I've dedicated three years of my life to this, essentially, and I've got really nothing to show for it.

And so I had this conversation.

I was like, we kind of need to put something in writing, or I'm.

I. I'm gonna need to do something else because I just.

I'm so unhappy.

I can't do this anymore.

And he, you know, didn't really want to do it.

So I decided to walk away.

That was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make.

And.

And so from there, I actually went and worked at an electric company.

So I did that year of construction.

I was like, I like the, you know, I liked the blue collar kind of work.

I liked, you know, working with my hands.

I liked, you know, kind of.

The hours were nice Monday through Friday.

You know, I got your weekends off, nights off.

You're not getting phone calls in the middle.

You know, I.

Looking back, I. I can see why the appeal to that, but when I was doing it, I just didn't.

I looked around, I looked at the guys that were older than me, the guys in their 40s, their 50s, and just none of them really seemed to like their job.

And.

And that was kind of like, I was like, well, there's my future.

Do I want to just continue to do this for a paycheck or do I want to, like, find something else that suits me, that can kind of build the life that I want to build?

And my Grandma, she is 86 years old, still a licensed realtor, and she talked me into getting my real estate license.

And no, she even said she had.

I will pay for your real estate classes if.

If you do it.

You know, me and your grandpa, we had a.

We.

We built a great business.

You know, I'd love to be able to, you know, pass people off to you, because I'm just getting too old to do this.

And so that's what I did.

Once I got my license there, I ended up.

I ended up leaving the electric place, went back and started waiting tables again, because I was like, I can go wait.

I can work less hours and make more money waiting tables than I could at the electric Place.

So that's what I did.

Trying to get.

Getting off the ground.

And, you know, and then I. I found a guy that kind of took me under his wing and started mentoring me and really showed me that, really showed me how to do this thing.

And, you know, I met him in December of 19.

You know, him and I were, you know, kind of getting everything going.

All right.

Yeah.

So, you know, Covid happens.

Restaurants shut down, so I no longer work in there.

And I'm like, well, I guess I'm a full time real estate agent now.

And so I just started really treating it like a job, working at 8, 9 hours a day making calls.

Doing all the things, hosting open houses.

Every opportunity I could, cold calling, everything that I could do to, like, get this thing going.

And, you know, within a few months, I closed a handful of sales.

And then when the restaurants opened back up in July, they, you know, they wanted me to come back and work.

So I ended up going back for, like, I was there for probably a week and a half, and I was just on my phone the whole time, you know, getting phone calls, because I had, like, had all these deals that were, like, you know, working with and all these people, all these clients I was working with, and.

And I felt like I was.

I was kind of getting hamstringed by working at the restaurant again.

And so just had a conversation with my wife because, like, man, before I got into real estate, I was so bad with money.

I mean, I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck.

We were spending pretty much every dollar we made every month.

And.

But with.

With real estate, you know, we basically had about three months of bills saved up.

And I was like, honey, like, I've got a lot of things going on here.

Like, I think we can.

If I can keep this momentum going, I think we're going to be all right.

So I was like, we got three months of bills saved up, so worst case scenario, in three months, I can go back at the restaurant I'm going to.

You know, they'll always take.

Even if I.

Even if I called today, they'd probably still take me back as that.

That.

That rest.

That particular restaurant.

I worked on and off there for almost 10 years, and they just.

I always left and came back on good terms.

Like, they all love me there, so I was like, worst case scenario, I can go back and wait tables, but we're good for three months.

I know that.

So, you know, I left the restaurant and then I ended up closing 32 sales that first year, so.

Well, what did.

What did that equate to in dollar?

Yeah.

So I made $96,000 that year.

Well, no total real estate sold.

Oh, volume or units?

Volume.

I'd have to look.

I think it was like just shy of 6.

I think it was like 5.8, if I remember right.

Yeah, that's fantastic here.

That.

That's a big number.

Yeah, I mean, that's a big number.

You know, most people their first year in real estate, if they can hit a million.

Million in transactions, I mean, they're doing an okay job.

Yeah, I mean.

Yeah, Yeah.

I mean, a million, you Know, I always kind of look at every million is about 25 in, you know, in income.

So it's like, man, if you make a million, that's an extra, you know, 25 grand in your pocket.

Yeah, yeah.

So you know art too.

I mean, here it.

It's not you.

You said a few things that I loved.

I mean it sounded like the grind was never ending.

The cold calling.

Let's talk about.

I do want to back.

I do want to back up.

I got a few questions about the restaurant industry with you because I can relate there.

But cold calling.

So give me some examples if you don't mind.

Yeah.

How you cold called.

I would love to hear my.

My favorite way.

You can even do this now still today and whenever.

And I haven't cold called in a while now, but even if I always say if like business gets slow, it's the first thing I'm going to go back to because even if I don't get business there, I'm.

I joke about this with my real estate coach all the time.

Like, I think there's a thing called call.

I call it call karma.

That even if I'm make.

If I sat there on the phone dialing cold calling for an hour and a half and I don't get anything, I don't get any good leads, something tends to happen.

I ended up.

I get a. I get a random phone call, a text message, a message on Instagram.

Something always seems like something always kind of pops up out of nowhere.

And I think it's just activity is breeding activity.

There's this weird.

I'm a believer in it.

You call it woo woo, call it whatever.

But one of my favorite ways for cold calling is I would pick a. I would pick a house, particularly in a house in a neighborhood that I would like to sell.

So I picked the price point.

Okay.

You know, these houses in this neighborhood are going between 350 and 450, you know, somewhere in that price range.

Great, great.

You know, middle of the range, you know, that's like the center, you know, the average price point.

St. Louis.

Right.

About 300,000.

So you know, pick something like that and, and we'll look and go find a recent sale, something that sold that was, you know, like something that's a way over asking price.

So like if I.

I had a house sell for 70 grand over list, over list price last weekend.

It you know, so I find a story like that, and then I, I, I, I have this software called Mojo, and you pull up all the phone numbers in a particular neighborhood.

So you pull up all the addresses.

It'll pull up, you know, all the phone numbers associated with address, and then it'll just start dialing them one after another.

And so I'll call and be like, hey, Adam.

Hey, is this Adam?

Yeah.

Hey, Adam, this.

Yeah.

Hey, Adam, this is Zach.

I'm a local real estate agent here in St. Louis, and I just wanted to let you know, I don't know if you saw, but there's a house right down the street from you on 123 Main Street.

It listed last weekend and sold for $60,000 over the asking price.

You know, I'm not not calling to sell you guys anything.

I'm just calling the neighbors, letting them know the good news about what's going on in the neighborhood.

Real estate prices are looking great.

You know, if you guys ever need anything, feel free to give me a call.

You know my numbers.

This is the number I called you on, you know, if you ever need anything.

And I usually follow, if I have a good conversation with a person, I'd always follow up with a text or a video text, and usually that would spark conversation, you know?

Yeah, that's brilliant.

That's absolutely brilliant.

Yeah, I, I try not to, like, call, because nobody wants to call and be sold to, but, like, hey, I'm not calling to sell.

I'm calling to tell you some good news.

Like, you can hang up right after I tell you I don't care.

Like, I'm just calling to tell you something good that happened in your neighborhood.

Like, is if a house next to me sold for 50 grand over asking price, I'd want to know about it.

You know, like, that's, that's gonna, that's, that's telling me something's good about my house.

Like, man, real estate prices are good in my neighborhood.

Hell, yeah.

You know, like, if I needed to sell, it would be a good time.

Yeah.

You know, I want to nerd out on real estate.

I'm going to take a step back just for a second, because you know me enough, I got ADD and I'm going to move all over the place.

Yeah, you're good.

But go back to the restaurant industry for a minute, because I don't know if you knew this, but that's what I was doing.

I, I thought I was going to do that for a living.

And in my senior year in high school, I Didn't like school.

I dropped out of college.

For those listening out there, young students, I'm not saying drop out of college.

I dropped out because it was a fit for me.

I'm just sharing that.

Anyway, I had enough credits my senior year.

And I worked at this Italian restaurant down the road where all my classmates would come in.

I cooked all the food for the buffet that they ate off of.

And I spent a good, you know, year before I got in the auto industry.

I worked in some busy restaurants and.

And I'm going to ask you what your favorite part of it is, but mine I'll just share with you.

Mine.

Like that crazy rush on a Friday and Saturday where the front of the house is all over the place, demanding on the back of the house.

I was in the kitchen, just order after order after order.

Chaos, Chevy.

Chaos in the.

In the team working together, leaving it freaking 11 o' clock at night, just soaking wet and disgusting.

But you all want to go out and have a couple drinks after, right?

That is the restaurant culture.

I love my years in the restaurant.

Oh, it's so fun, man.

I. I loved.

I love the rushes, you know, like when I, like when I mentioned I worked at that barbecue, Rush.

I worked at Sugar Fire, I was a manager at the Fenton location.

And man, I've never seen a restaurant busier, you know, I mean, they were doing some.

I mean, because they were doing over 100 grand a week multiple.

I mean, crazy in sales, which is bananas for a restaurant.

And we'd have a line out the door every lunch and dinner, and it's just nuts.

It was crazy.

And I mean, like the.

Just the rush there, you get this.

Like you said, it's just everybody's running around, everybody's doing their own thing.

But like all, you know, if everybody's doing their job, it works.

And, and it's just.

It's.

It's.

It's a beautiful thing.

It's beautiful.

Yeah.

No, I wanted to share that with you because, you know, just.

Well, you know, it's funny that you mentioned that, Adam, because I actually, I'm.

I'm.

Me and my wife are doing 75 hard right now and I actually just read your book.

Just finished it the other day.

I bought it.

I bought it a few years ago when you released it, and then I. Yeah, I never read it.

So I was, you know, right when we started, I just grabbed it off the shelf and I was like, I'll start it with this one.

Well, hopefully you found some value.

And I did.

It was good, good, good.

Yeah, but I remember the part about the restaurant, so.

Oh yeah.

So let's, let's get nerdy on real estate because man, I'll tell you, I've had several conversations, you know, in my book, you know, I lost everything I had.

I, you know, everybody kind of knows I was a self made guy in my early 30s and then in my late 30s I lost everything.

And it was because I had invested in real estate that I was able to leverage those assets to keep me alive, to keep me afloat, to help me start a company.

So know, the real estate industry is a very special industry to me.

So my question I'm going to start with you is how is Business in the St. Louis metro area right now?

Talk to me a little bit about the market, the conditions, is it a good time to buy, Is it a good time to sell?

What should buyers and sellers be looking at right now?

If you don't mind, just kind of start for sure.

It is a, it's a weird market right now because it totally depends on the property itself.

Because like, like I said last weekend I had a, I had a house in St. Charles right next to Revive, if you know where that is.

Yep, we, I mean it's two minutes from Revive.

I listed that house and it was a fixer upper.

It was like a rehabbers dream.

And I considered it as a rehab for myself but I just was like, I'm just too busy right now.

I'd rather just sell it, make my money there and just be done.

And we listed it at 199.

I had over 70 private showings.

I had 40 people through my open house.

We had ended up 29 offers.

Ended up selling for 70 grand over the list price, you know.

And then on the opposite end of the spectrum, I had another house list last weekend in Oakville.

Great area.

But the house was on a, on a very like windy road, like with a narrow driveway, kind of hard to pull in and out.

Beautiful house.

It had been rehabbed three years ago before they bought it.

But it was like, man, just at the location on this one it might be, you know, it might, might hold us back, might, might take us a little bit longer to sell.

This one ended up selling the first weekend as well.

So right now, I mean it, if you price the house right, you just need to.

I had several loans at 249 at 10 and 15 years, a bunch of two nine nines, some three twos.

I stupid so much.

Oh, it's amazing.

It's amazing.

I still have one that I, my.

One of, one of the rentals we own is, you know, it's stuck at 3%.

And I always say, man, I'm never selling that thing unless like I absolutely.

That's actually my wife and I's old house.

So when we moved out of, we bought the house we lived in.

Now we essentially just left all our shit there and now we rent that out to traveling nurses.

Traveling nurses.

And it's been, that's been my, my big moneymaker because we, because it's such a, our payment so low on that.

Like that's easy.

You know, instead of having a ton of units, having less that produce more is, you know, it's just kind of a different strategy.

But that's been, I mean just having those, it changes it when the interest rates are lower.

But here's the thing as the way I look at it, people.

There's always going to be markets where people want to buy.

There's always going to be markets where people want to sell.

Like there's people go through life things and like you're, you know, just because, you know, if you're having another kid and or you're, you lost your job and you have to downsize, there's always going to be a reason to buy and sell.

So you just, it's a matter of finding those people that, you know that I can help depending on the situation that they're in.

But as far as, I mean there's always deals to find if you're on the buying side and if you have a good agent that can find you stuff off market, which, you know, I'm always searching for off market deals for My clients, like if I can, if I come across somebody who's looking to sell and I've, I've got a buyer that, that matches up with perfectly.

Like I'm going to always go bring it to that buyer first and see if I can, you know, match it up off, off market and get my seller what they want, you know.

But if they, you know, if I can't always guarantee that's going to work out.

But you know, trying to find things off market is.

That's a huge thing that, you know, real estate agents can bring to the table that you know that a lot.

Don't.

It's.

Well, I mean it's, I mean here, any off market deal I did, I mean saved me a ton of dough.

The ease of transaction, the quick to close.

You know, I don't know if you know this.

There was a time, I mean I had 61 doors in Illinois.

Since I've started liquidating, I am not interested in doing business in the state of Illinois.

And I'm just going to give you one reason why.

It's not J.B. pritzker.

Well, maybe a little bit to do with him, but taxes, my taxes continue to go up so much that yeah, it's real easy in theory to say pass it to the consumer, pass it to the renter.

Well, the taxes are going up so much it's impossible just to have them absorb that tax.

So can't afford it.

My last six deals that I've done have been in Missouri.

So we'll talk about market here in a little bit.

But I've been, I've been really investing in the Joplin market.

That really.

Yeah.

That unfortunate tornado that took out a lot of single family residences back in.

Was it 19 or 17?

It was, it was when I was down at school.

Yeah.

So I'm, I'm buying new construction homes that, you know, I mean the cash flow is not great.

There's a little cash flow but 6% appreciation per year on these deals.

And I'm telling that's kind of like my wheelhouse but I'm, I'm looking.

So tell me in the St. Louis and this is just me being in very interested, where's the best place for a real estate investor to purchase rental properties?

Right now in your, in your opinion in this just St. Louis metro or around counties place you would, you would.

Personally invest where I would personally invest like I love, like South.

South County.

South City.

Like, those are my.

I'm partial to that because that's.

I grew up in South County.

It's like, I know that area like the back of my hand.

I went to high school in South City.

And I mean, the real estate prices in those areas are, you know, have been appreciating significantly.

You know, areas of South City, like Southampton, Lindenwood park, you know, Boulevard Heights, Princeton Heights, like, all those areas, I, in my opinion, I just feel like those areas are still like, good, safe areas that people want to live that are appreciating significantly, like air.

That's the zip code in Afton.

And, you know, there's.

There's parts of Afton that, you know that have Lindbergh school district, which is like our best school district in St. Louis, you know, so, like, the real estate prices on those are always climbing significantly.

And, you know, and you said appreciation.

And, you know, I think that's something people don't always think about with.

With real estate.

You know, real estate investing is.

That's truly where the money is.

You know, like, you know, cash flow is.

You know, cash flow is nice.

You know, a couple, you know, a couple hundred bucks per property, you know, you get.

Get 60 of them.

You know, that.

That becomes significant.

But, you know, really the money is.

Is in the appreciation, you know, because over time, those properties are going to grow in so much value.

It's going to just.

That's truly where the money is made, in my opinion.

Like, I try to focus less on the cash flow and more on the, you know, is this.

Is this.

How much.

How much more valuable is this property going to be in 10 years?

Yeah, I definitely play long term.

I, you know, everything I'm doing right now in the real estate world is long term.

You know, I don't touch any of my cash flow, to be honest with you.

Yeah, Yeah.

I mean, so unless something breaks and it has to get fixed over there, but, like, other than that, that's.

That's the only thing I use that money for.

So when should somebody buy their first home?

What?

When should somebody.

So when should somebody say, I'm done renting, when should I.

What do you think that the timing's right to buy your first home?

Well, when it makes financial sense.

Like, I would never advise anybody to get into a, you know, an uncomfortable financial position.

Like, until it makes sense where, you know, and that's not.

Because I can afford that rental payment or that, that mortgage payment every month, you know, say my.

My rent.

My rent.

Great.

No, it's not just that.

There's a lot of things on top of that.

There's your taxes, there's your insurance.

There's.

You need to have money set aside in case something is inevitably going to break and something's going to go out.

Your, you know, your air conditioner is not going to start when, you know, it gets hot in the summer or, you know, your furnace goes out in the winter, or, you know, there's a, you know, you're.

You name it.

There's a leak in the pipe.

There's this.

You need to have money set aside for, you know, a rainy day.

So it's not just being able to afford the payment.

It's.

It's.

It's being able to have some money set aside that in case something goes wrong, we're going to be still sitting a good spot.

But as far as when.

I mean, I. I think.

I mean, I bought a house at 22.

I bought my first house at 22.

Like, I would suggest getting in the game as quickly as you can, because real estate prices are only going up.

Like, they're not going to, in my opinion.

I don't see them coming down anytime soon.

So I would say get in the game before, you know, because it's.

Before it's going to be.

Every year that goes by, it's going to get more difficult to get in.

So, you know, there's that saying, you know, when was the best time to plant a tree, you know, 50 years ago.

The next best times today.

So, like, just get in there, man.

And, you know, hey, in that first house, that doesn't have to be a palace.

It has to, you know, it can be bare minimum.

And, you know, you live there for a couple years and then, you know, you save up and, okay, man, we bought this house for, you know, 200,000, you know, five years ago.

Hey, wow, man.

Now it's worth, you know, this.

My Realtor says it's worth 275 now.

Like, okay, well, you know, we paid the mortgage down.

We're at about, you know, 180.

And, you know, so if we.

If we sell it after commissions, we'll walk away with about 75 grand.

And, you know, we take that and Put that down on a, on a bigger house that we, you know, that we would actually want to live in, you know, like see ourselves in for a longer time or whatever it is.

But like, I think you get in sooner and, and that way, you know, you're, you're building that nest egg.

Amen.

Amen.

You know, one thing that I've noticed to be fact, you know, I'm in a mastermind actually.

I was just in Croatia last week with a room full of multi millionaires and a couple billionaires and it was just mind blowing the information that was shared.

And I will tell you, 90% of the people in the room, not all, not everybody, but 90% of the people in the room have a real estate portfolio.

Every, almost every high level entrepreneur that I've ever met a has multiple streams of revenue, but all lean into their real estate portfolios.

That's the true wealth building king that will stand till the end of time.

That will always be there for you.

I was talking to a woman, Nicole Ruth.

She's out down in Denver, Colorado.

She's an absolute monster in the real estate world.

Does a whole lot of syndications.

She's got a mortgage company.

I mean, she does big, big, big, big numbers.

And we were just looking at history, you know.

Yeah, the Great Depression was a thing.

Right.

There was a little setback there.

It was a thing.

You know, Covid was a kind of a thing.

But guess what?

We always.

Yeah, look at the, look at the following year.

Yeah, yeah.

It just, we always bounce back.

And so for those listening out there, if you're not currently investing in real estate and you just don't know how or you don't think you can reach out, reach out to Zach.

If you're in St. Louis or anywhere around St. Louis, reach out to Zach.

He'll hold your hand and show you the way.

But if you're listening and hearing this from anywhere in the country, interview a couple local real estate agents.

You got to get it.

Get a bank that you can trust.

Get a banker that's going to be there for you to help you with the transaction.

Get a real estate agent that understands the market, that you can build an intimate relationship.

Get a small construction crew or a handyman who's super qualified if you're.

I'm not you, Zack.

I ain't handy, bro.

I can barely change a light bulb.

So, you know, like get, get the right little infrastructure around you and just take a leap because that's how you're going to build legacy wealth.

That vehicle is going to be real estate.

That's just.

That's my TED Talk on that 100.

I couldn't agree more, man.

Couldn't agree more.

So what decided.

I like the idea of interviewing a few different agents and, you know, and.

And I would look them up, man.

Like, look up their stats.

You can figure out how, you know, find someone who does a fair amount of business.

Numbers.

You know, numbers don't lie.

They're.

They're, you know, a bunch of people.

Don't go to that guy because he sucks.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, like.

So I want to ask you a final question about real estate before I get into talking podcasting with you.

So paint a perfect picture.

What's the end game for in real estate?

Do you have a vision for me?

Yeah.

What's the end game?

Where's Sack?

A decade from now?

What does it look like?

Yeah, man, I. I go back, I kind of.

This changes all the time for me, but I, I would.

I would love to continue to build my rental portfolio.

You know, it's.

It's not.

Not too.

Too big right now.

I'm, I. I'm a total of five doors total.

So, you know, it's nothing.

Nothing crazy.

I would love to continue to build that to a point where I, you know, I was making, you know, a good.

I could.

I would love to get to a point where I could live off the cash flow, you know, making.

I'd love to be able to get to a point where I was making 20 grand a month in cash flow.

That would be ideal.

And then, you know, I could start building other things.

I would love to open up a martial arts school like you have.

I'd love to.

You know, I've gotten really back into music lately.

You know, I've.

I'd love to, you know, do something with that.

Not even, like, creating it, but even, like, just doing something in that space just because it's been.

I've really, really enjoyed that most recently.

But as far as the real estate stuff goes, yeah, I mean, I would love to continue to build my.

My portfolio.

I really.

I genuinely love being a real estate agent.

Like, I mean, there are bad days, but, like, I really don't see myself retiring ever from, like, doing this.

Like, I look at my grandma, she's 87 and still doing it.

You know, she does a couple of deals a year, but, like, she still does it.

And I just think that's so cool because, like, you can.

You can do it for.

For as long as.

As you want to.

And so, I mean, I don't.

I can certainly see myself slowing down as years go on and be a little bit more selective about people that I work with.

But there is the, you know, my, my dad and brother have talked about getting their licenses and kind of joining me and kind of creating a team.

So that's, that's something that we're, you know, kind of kicking around.

My dad retired.

My dad, My dad retires from his.

He's been in medical sales, you know, my whole life.

And.

Yeah.

And so he, he can technically retire next year.

So he's, he's kind of kicking around the idea of retiring and getting his license and, and kind of, you know, joining me and kind of building this thing.

And my brother, you know, he's, he's, you know, talked about doing it as well, so that, that would be.

You know, I've tried to build a team in the past and I don't know, it just never really worked out.

You know, I just never.

What, What I think it was is I didn't find the right people.

You know, I can't, I've.

I found people that were just kind of wanting, expecting me to, you know, hold their hand through everything.

You know, it's like, I'm going to show you how to do this thing, but you got to go out and do it.

You know, I'm going to show you exactly what I did when I first got started.

You know, I made, I, I.

Here's, you know, get a list of a hundred people, call them, you know, introduce yourself, tell them what you're doing now that you're an agent, you know, simple stuff.

And, you know, they wouldn't do things like that.

So I, and I just haven't found the right people.

But I think if my dad and brother wanted to do it, I think that would, that would, that would work because we just have similar work ethics and.

Yeah.

And I know that they've got the, the people skills and stuff.

So.

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of how I, where I see it going now probably, you know, just continue to try to sell anywhere from, you know, keep, keep increasing my volume every year and do more and more, bigger deals.

I'd love to get into the commercial space eventually.

That's something I, I haven't really explored much, but I, I can.

I actually just did a class recently for.

We have to do continuing education classes every two years, and I did one on commercial last week and really got me kind of like thinking about, oh, man, maybe.

Okay, maybe that'd be something I could, you know, kind of get, get going in the future and, and kind of figure out that, you know, a whole different kind of avenue of this real estate space.

Yeah.

The one thing about real estate is the marketplace is so big, and it favors those that are willing to put in the work.

Like, you've got.

Well, and this is in a lot of industries, you get people where they get to a level of income and they get happy and they get complacent.

And then you've got those that continue want to grow and build and build and build.

Because the sky's the limit in what you're doing.

I mean, there's no, there's nobody that's gonna to call.

Gonna call you and say, hey, Zach, you can't make $3 million this year.

You're not allowed.

The sky is the complete limit.

Yeah, dude, I, I know that.

I can feel that feeling coming.

I, I, I, I recognize that feeling when it comes in all the time now, because I, I've, I've fallen into that trap in the past, you know, like, oh, man, I just had a really good month.

I had, you know, like, right now would be an exact time.

Like, I've got eight closings in August, and I'm like, I cannot get, like, I'm making, I'm gonna make a good amount of money this month, so.

But I'm like, I cannot get complacent.

I'm not chilling now.

I'm full.

You know, foot on the gas.

I need to keep this, I need to keep this snowball rolling down the hill because, you know, I know that how important momentum is, and, you know, I just need to keep this momentum going.

In the past, I've definitely, like, I've had a great month, and I'm like, oh, you know, I can, I can just chill, you know, like, oh, man, I made it.

I, I made dough.

I made, like, normally what I make in two months last month.

So, you know, I can hang out this month.

You know, that's not the way to do it.

No, you keep going.

You roll it.

You keep, Keep that momentum going.

Well, the best way to sell something is right after you sold something, and the best time is right after.

So I always tell my sales team, oh, you just closed the deal.

Awesome.

Go find another one.

So that just freaked me up to.

Go find another one.

Yeah, I love talking.

I love talking real estate with you.

So let's kind of.

We'll descend in talking about your, Your podcast because, you know, I We talked off air.

I shared my ambition on mine and how much fun that I'm having with this, and I feel I'm making a difference.

You know, I'm getting these messages from people saying, wow, I needed to hear that today.

Bringing on, you know, just wonderful guests like you that have special skills.

You just never know who's listening, that needs to hear the words at the time that they hear it.

So, a, thanks for spending time with me today.

But B, let's talk about your podcast.

You know, the Zach and Pat Show.

So, you know, you guys have been doing this for a while.

You know, what was the reason behind starting it?

How's it going?

Yeah, it's been a couple of years since I've been on the show, and I'd like to hear a little bit about how things are going.

Yeah, so we.

You know, I.

That.

That.

He's a local.

You know, he's actually moved to Florida now, but he was local to St. Louis.

You know, him and I were getting together, and he was making real estate content for me.

You know, we'd show up.

And at first, it started out with me, like, you know, writing a script for what I wanted to talk about that day or whatever it was, but it always kind of sounded like I was reading off a script.

So eventually it turned into him just asking me a question, and then I would just, like, riff on it for, you know, a couple minutes, and then he clip out the best, you know, 30, 45 seconds, and there would be a, you know, social media reel.

So we did it that way for a number of months.

And then eventually I was a guest on his podcast, and I really enjoyed it.

I had a lot of fun.

And I'm a huge podcast consumer.

Like, I. I've been listening to a podcast, you know, daily for about 15 years.

So I.

And I was like, man, like, I kind of want to do my own now.

Like, well, I'm like, here I'm thinking, I'm like, I'm already getting together with Murph once or twice a week anyway.

You know, we're filming for an hour, sometimes two hours.

It's like, why don't we just be.

We'll record the whole time.

It's a podcast.

Then he can take out the clips, and there's our.

There's our social media content, and then we've got the podcast to do as well, and that.

That was.

That was kind of.

That was kind of what sparked the idea.

And then I was like, man, I don't know if I want to do this all by myself.

Like, I think it would be.

Be way more fun to do with a guest, you know, someone that I was like, who's someone that I can.

That I taught, that I, you know, is already, you know, we have a lot in common.

You know, we're in the similar industry, so we can have a lot of the same real estate kind of people on, you know, and Pat was the first person I thought of because, you know, he's one of those guys.

He's.

He's my.

He's my preferred lender.

So, you know, when someone calls a realtor, they usually, you know, if they're not.

If they don't have anybody they're working with, I usually have someone to recommend.

And Pat's the first one I'd always give out just because he does.

He's the best in St. Louis, in my opinion.

And, and, but, but, you know, when Pat and I would jump on the phone to talk about a client, it would turn into a 30, 40 minute conversation sometimes, you know, and we'd be about, you know, talking about whatever, you know, it'd be.

We'd be talking about, you know, our kids or, you know, whatever we're dealing with.

It just turned into, you know, it became a good friendship.

And I was like, man, this would be a guy that, you know, just someone who's really easy to talk to.

And so I was like, this would be the guy to do it with.

And so I had this text message written out for probably like two or three days.

And, you know, because I was like, nervous to send it to him because I was like, this is kind of a big ask, you know, I'm like, hey, man, do you want to spend the foreseeable future with me and split the financial cost of this with me?

You know, like, it's kind of a big ask.

And so I had this.

I felt like I was asking a girl to prom or something, you know, and so I eventually texted it to him, and he responded in like 30 seconds like, hell yeah, dude, I'm in.

And he.

And so.

And that was on a Sunday we started.

We recorded our first episode that following Wednesday, and we've just been doing it, you know, two episodes a week ever since.

How many episodes have out?

We're like two high 260s somewhere, I think, like 267 or something like that.

A lot of content A lot of.

Content, a lot of hours of us talking on the Internet, that's for sure.

Yeah.

And you know, the, the basis of the show is manhood, fatherhood, entrepreneurship and the mentality it takes to be successful, you know, and so we have on, we have on all sorts of different people.

You know, like, we didn't want to pigeonhole ourselves to just the real estate industry industry because quite frankly, you know, that could get boring, you know, and get old after a while.

You know, I want to talk to, I want to talk to various different peoples.

I, you know, and, and like you, you mentioned, I wanna, I look at this as like an opportunity to kind of educate myself too.

I get to learn about all these different people who do things that I've never even heard of.

You know, like we've had, we've had a guy on that he rollerbladed from Venice Beach, California to times square in 42 days.

We had on a sex therapist.

I've had on a guy that, you know, we've got guys on that own over a thousand doors.

I've had on, you know, I've, on guys like you.

I've had on, you know, UFC fighters, I've had on, you know, I've most jiu jitsu, black belts here in St. Louis.

Like we've had on various different people.

And I, you know, I just didn't want to pigeonhole it into this, just one real estate thing.

So I was like, what, what's a subject that can, that everybody can relate to, you know, and we can, the people generally get some value out of, you know, know.

And I, I look at the show a lot of times now as I kind of like, I try to, you know, who they ask who, you know, who.

If you ask me who the show is for, it's for Zach, it's for, it's for myself 15 years ago, you know, like I, this is stuff that 20 year old Zach would have loved to hear.

Love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, what you just said is.

I can echo that.

I mean, you can learn so much from just listening, just hearing people's stories.

You know, I always, I don't know who said this to me years ago, but the greats left the blueprint for us to build something great, not just in our business lives, but in our personal lives as well.

They, they wrote in the form of books for us to consume and now podcast or a new form of, you know, or audiobooks.

Now podcasts are opportunities for us to consume information.

You know, the key is that we just take some action on what we consumed so we can actually make a difference.

100.

Yeah, absolutely, I will.

I gotta implement.

Yeah.

Well, I'll tell you, man, I've really enjoyed chatting with you.

How do people find you or your podcast?

Where's the best?

Absolutely.

We're on the podcast called the Zach and Pat Show.

We're on Instagram at the Zach and Pat Show, YouTube at the Zach and Pat Show, Spotify, Apple, podcasts, all the things I'm on social media.

You can find me on at my just my first, first and last name on Facebook, Zach Vegas with Zach with an H. And then on Instagram, I'm Zach underscore Fagus.

Yeah, man.

Well, I really enjoyed chatting it up.

I mean, me, I could sit here with you and talk jujitsu for another hour and then still talk about real estate for another hour, but for the sake of your, I'm not going to do that to you.

So I appreciate you being on the show, man.

I'll see you over at Watson's sooner than later.

And for those around listening in to humans that build, I hope you appreciated this wealth of knowledge that was just brought to you.

And I'll see you again next week, my friends, humans that build.

Real people, real work.

See you next time, Sam.