Cold open

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Are you ready to run your short-term rental business like a super host? If so, look no further than Guesty for Hosts. Guestie for Hosts offers listing management for all three major OTAs, Airbnb, Booking.com, and Verbo. With Guestie for Host, you can create a branded direct booking website in minutes. I've been able to hit 61% direct bookings in my business and automate daily tasks such as communication with cleaners and communication with guests. Click the link in the show notes to get an additional $20 off your first month.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Welcome to Live Let Thrive, a podcast about the Airbnb life, the share economy, and everything in between. Here are your hosts, Micah and Steve.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Hello, hello, hello. And welcome back to another exciting episode of Live Let

Derek Forston: housing homeless adults in shared living facilities

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Thrive.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

What is up, Micah Man?

SPEAKER_03 0:51

I'm good. I'm good on this 100-degree Texas heat weather day. How are you, my man?

SPEAKER_04 0:57

Man, I'm a little under the weather. Um, kind of hit me like a ton of bricks today, but I'm gonna power through this in my Michael Jordan flu game right here. So, but saying that, I'm gonna be passing it to Scotty a lot. I'm not gonna be taking a lot of the shots, but I'll be playing, I'll be playing. Um, yeah, man, this is episode 210, 210 of your favorite Airbnb, VRBO, Uber Lyft, Share Economy, all that fun stuff, podcast in the world. Coming at you from Arlington and Fort Worth, Texas. And we have a special guest, Mike. Who we got? Derek Forston. Who's Derek Forston, you ask? Well, he is owner and operator of second chance housing, also co-founder of Foreston Consultants. We house homeless adults. We're gonna jump into this, man. We heard him laying some game on um Clubhouse, and we're interested on housing homeless adults. And how the heck does that make you money? How you doing, Derek?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Hey, you're doing good, man. Thanks for having me. I appreciate you guys pulling me on here. I'm really, really excited and uh super grateful for being here. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

So let's hear about it, man. What do you do? What do you do?

Independent living facilities vs assisted living - no license required

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Absolutely. So um, not sure how much time I have, but I'll just kind of lay it out, right? And you guys are kind of stopping me if I'm going too far. But essentially, guys, um, we we do something in real estate that a lot of people are just not familiar with. Um, we house the homeless, right? And we do that in a shared living environment. So a lot of people understand the terms of an assistant living facility. We do something that's called an ILF, independent living facility. So the major difference is that it doesn't require a license and you don't have to own the property. So there's no special certifications for this like it would be an assistant living facility. And that's what just makes this so powerful that we're able to take people from homeless to hopeful. And we do this again in a shared living environment. So an example of that would be like this, Michael, right? We would take a four-bedroom home, two-bath, and for us, that means a total of eight people that we're going to take from homeless to hopeful. So we don't rent to like a mom and dad and three kids or complete families yet, right? But we house the individual adult male or the individual adult female, and we do that in a shared living environment where there's usually two people per room. So again, we're just excited about it because it allows us to be in real estate in a way that a lot of people are not familiar with, and it allows us to help a population that a lot of people don't want to deal with, which is this homeless population. And I'll add one more thing to it and I'll let you guys kind of chime in. Years ago, we only housed homeless people that had mental health issues and things of that nature. Because a lot of times homelessness and mental health kind of go together. But now, since there's such a big, huge housing crisis in terms of just affordable housing, we housed the everyday Joe now. So the guy that works the nine to five job, right, that you're working with, right? That you always don't know it, but he's sleeping in his car, right? A lot of people don't know that. So again, years ago, it was only homeless people that had nowhere to live, no job, and usually mental health issues. Nowadays, because of the housing crisis, we're housing the everyday person that just can't afford to get their own apartment, their own house, right? So we've built this thing called an independent living facility where we allow people to live in a shared living environment. And again, it's usually two people per home. And then I'll let you guys ask the question in terms of the prices, how we get paid. But that's the gist of how this works. Make sense? Got you.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Yeah, man. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

No, go ahead, Steve.

Four-bedroom, two-bath model: eight people, $4,800 monthly revenue

SPEAKER_04 4:38

No, no, and we've heard you talk about this uh uh clubhouse in a sense fascinating to me. So you like you like four-bedroom, two-bath houses. That's your that's uh typical ones you go after.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

That's actually my favorite, but believe it or not, I have more three-bed, two-bath homes. So generally, most of us get three twos, and again, for us, that's six people that we're gonna be able to take from homeless to hopeful. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

Okay, and how do you vet who you let in, right? So, like, because you're putting now, is it two random people in a room or two people that know each other?

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Most of the time it's random, right? So, and I think where you're going with that is how do I vet them, right? So, my background is social work, so a lot of people don't know that, but I was a social worker for many years. So, a part of my job, even in the social work aspect, was to do assessments. So essentially that's what we do. We do an assessment before we admit somebody to our ILF. So I may take a phone call from a social worker or case manager, and when he or she says, Hey, Derek, I got this really great guy. His name is James. He's gonna be discharged on Friday. Will you take him? Well, I have a series of questions, Micah, that I'm gonna ask this social worker or case manager before I make a decision, Steve, right? So that's the vetting process for us. But the only difference is called an assessment. So we do an assessment, which again is just a series of questions that's gonna allow me to make a decision whether he or she is a good fit for my housing program. Because obviously, when I'm thinking to admit somebody when I take that call, I have to have in mind the other four or five guys that already live there. So when I'm doing an assessment, I'm thinking of my guys Jason, John, Bob, and Joe who already live there, right? So that to make sure that everybody meshes together, right? So hopefully that also makes sense.

Overcoming zoning objections - 230 units across eight states

SPEAKER_04 6:23

It does make sense. One thing I want to point out is um when you were going on those uh the clubhouses and and and talking about this, people, you know, a lot of people were blown away, fascinated. And there was a lot of haters in the back channel saying there's no way you can't get zoning for to put eight people and blah blah blah and homeless people by next to someone's house, no one's gonna let you do that. So, what do you say to the to those people?

SPEAKER_01 6:44

I say to those people that they told me the same thing in the beginning, right? Over five or six years ago. And today, we're proud to say that we oversee over 230 of these throughout eight different states. So when people have this mindset that you can't do this, well, they told me the same thing, right? But here we are, right? And I also operate out of 10 of these myself. So when you hear me use that term 230, that's through the teaching of this, right? So, like Steve, you and Michael right now have no clue what I'm talking about. But let's just say you guys decided to get on this journey. When we teach it to you, and then you get your house number one, two, and three, and four, we add to that number. So you become family to us. So we just keep adding to that number. So over the past, again, four or five years, we have over 230 of these now. And also the reason why we're able to do this without a license and without any zoning, we're only offering housing, right? That's the key in the gym to all of this. Micah, if I start trying to offer food, if I start to try to offer uh therapy, if I'm doing transportation, which we'll get eventually in the future, I've just turned myself into an agency that should have a license. If I'm trying to administer medication, that's a huge no-no, right? That's why, again, we're able to do this, and that's why, again, the clients or the residents that we serve, they have to be completely independent. That means they take their own meds, they cook their own food, and they provide their own transportation. So essentially, I'm just serving as the roof over their heads. That's what makes this legal. And it doesn't require any zoning. So for an ALF, which does require zoning and you owning that property, because the only thing we're doing is housing, I don't need to do zoning. So at the end of the day, Steve, guess what? I really am. I'm just a glorified landlord, right? That rents rooms to people. I just understand mental health. I have a social worker background, but a lot of people we teach this to don't have a social worker background. They've never been social workers, right? So we teach this to all kinds of different people, and we're able to do it again without a license and without any zoning. And here's a story about it, and I'll move forward. In the beginning, I also thought that I would need zoning and all of this stuff, right? So I called Tallahassee, I call Orlando, I call every city and state in terms of starting agencies, in terms of like, what do I do? What's the next steps? And when I began to explain to these people by phone, DCF, ACA, what I wanted to do again. They thought I was all crazy too, right? Like, Derek, really? You want to house people? You don't want nurses, you don't want doctors, you don't want DCF overlooking this thing. I said, no, I want to house independent people that don't need any of the above services, right? I just want to serve as a roof over their heads because the population we serve, they can't afford to go out and buy a home or an apartment, right? So when I started calling all these agencies, one guy finally, after they just kept transferring me and transferring me and transferring me, one guy says, Derek, let me get this straight. You don't want to have a license. You don't really want to own the property, but you do want to help people. He says, Derek, you're just a glorified landlord then. You can't be a group homeowner and all these other great things that I thought I was gonna be. So that just kind of took a big weight off of my shoulder in terms, I was like, oh my God, I can do this, and I don't need a license. So I had literally people from these big agencies with most people think that would tell you, no, you can't do this, tell me that, Derek, as long as you're not administering medication, as long as you're not feeding these people from an industrial kitchen with a set menu, which are all requirements for ALF, Derek, as long as you're not doing that, you're just a glorified landlord. You just rent these guys rooms, and there's no license behind that. So that's the story about that. And again, 230 of these later, we continue to do it.

SPEAKER_04 10:39

So, where does this work best? Do you mean you are you getting houses in the inner city? Because I think a lot of neighborhoods might not want this next next door, you know. Right. So, what does it work best?

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Okay, so this works best in not the ritsiest part of

Where these homes work best: not the nicest area, not the worst

SPEAKER_01 10:53

town and not the ghetto either. So the way we teach it is this, right? If you put this in the most ritsiest part of town, they're gonna run you away, right? Rich, well-to-do people don't want homeless people in their community. But we also don't want to put these homes in the ghetto, in the gutter. We don't believe in that because remember, we're trying to change the trajectory of these people's lives, right? These are God's people, right? We're not doing this because I think it's cool. These are God's people, and we were told to take care of them, right? So we believe that you need to fall somewhere right in the middle, right? And we teach you how to build relationships with your neighbors and your community to make it work so they understand what you're doing, Micah, and they're not against it, right? If your neighbors and community understand the great work that you're doing and you have it under control, no problem. But when they don't understand it and it's out of control because you don't know how to run it, that's where the problems come in. So that's where most people face most of their problems with trying to start something like this. It's out of control. They don't know what they're doing, right? And the community doesn't understand it. There's a huge stigma associated with mental illness, right? So if you can help the community and your neighbors understand that and that you're going to be the key to the helping that cause, you now become a no-brainer.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Now, what about like safety concerns? Do you have like women with what with women only, men with women, men with men only? How does stuff like that work?

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Gotcha. So now, me personally, I don't mix them, but we do teach this to a lot of people and consult folks that do co-ed, and it works, right? Um, prime example, my brother does this, who I was is the first person I talked this to over five years ago as kind of the guinea pig. He does co-ed. I don't. I believe co-ed causes a party, right? But if I do do co-ed, Steve, I'm going to make it make sense, right? I'm not putting the 19-year-old guy with the 22-year-old young lady. That's a party, right? So we you know, we talk about age and just make sure it makes sense. And for me personally, if I do co-ed, I'm going with the older people, right? Not that they don't get, you know, in their ways too, but not like the young folks, right? So, me personally, I house the men from Second Chance Housing, and my wife houses the women from the Angela Denise Foundation, which is a nonprofit. So I don't, so when I pulled my wife from corporate America after getting house ILF number four, and I have 10. ILF number four, I pulled my wife from corporate America. I said, honey, I need your help. She was like, Well, what am I gonna do? You're gonna house the women now because I'm no longer housing them. So my wife houses the women and I house all the guys.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

Real real quick, okay. Can you dive into a little bit what encompasses a nonprofit? Because does that mean there's no profit involved? What is a nonprofit?

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Well, actually, I tell you what, I won't get too deep on that because I'm an LLC, I'm for profit. My wife is a non-profit. I probably should have dragged her on too. She can probably speak more about that, so can my accountant. I don't kind of get into that, but you can make profit in it, right? There is absolute profit when you're doing a good work in the community. You should want to be paid, you deserve to get paid. So there's oftentimes when we talk about this particular subject, including even at our masterclass June 11th, which is this week. We don't get into structure and telling you that you should be an LLC or C Corp, S Corp, nonprofit. My accountant is actually coming to that event and she's going to help people to decide that, but we don't kind of get into that. And again, my wife understands the nonprofit side way more than I do.

General liability insurance and early mistakes

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I'm for profit.

SPEAKER_04 14:19

I know a lot of preachers out there with um Rolls Royce's and private jets, so there's got to be a little bit of profit involved in the non-profit. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

No, absolutely. Now, how does insurance look at this type of asset? Right. So us, we have like proper insurance, they'll cover the vacation rental, short-term rental side. So, how does like insurance cover, like, hey, I'm holding home housing a bunch of homeless people or trying to get back on their feet? How do they look at that asset?

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Right. Um, they view it as you need insurance, right? So a general liability policy um is what we have, and that covers us, the business, the residents. So if somebody trips and falls, we're going to be covered. But I will admit, right, I'll be real honest. When I first started, I didn't understand insurance. Neither did I know I was supposed to have it, right? Does it take long, Micah, before something happens? And do you know that you have to have it? So something happened, right? And I had to get it, and that was education. So we just kind of port that over to all the people that we teach this to. But absolutely, you do want a general liability policy to make sure that's recovered. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 15:22

How do you how do you screen your tenants?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

From that assessment. So, like if I get a call from a case manager or a social worker, I'm going to ask a series of questions to be able to make a solid decision of where I bring him or her into my program. So an assessment, again, it's just a series of questions. Um, my form is about 26 questions long. So when we consult with people, we give them that. We don't make them kind of recreate the will of what should I ask these people? We tell you what to ask them and we give you the paperwork for it. But once you've done this long enough, we narrow it down to about six or seven questions. So if I get a call right now, right, and I wish I get one live because I'll take it so you guys can hear it. I ask about seven questions and I can make a decision whether he or she is going to be a good fit for me. Right? Obviously, I've been doing this a little long, right? So it doesn't take me a long time, but we train people that after a while, you should be able to ask five to seven questions to make a decision.

SPEAKER_04 16:20

No, you put two people per room. You doing like bunk beds or just individual beds. How are you doing that?

SPEAKER_01 16:26

So we work out of a twin bed model. We don't do the bunk bed model. So if you guys go to my Instagram page, uh YouTube, Facebook, any of that stuff, we have tons of pictures of kind of what we do. We're always pushing it, right? So there's twin beds in each room. And then you'll also see in some of my larger, like mansions of homes, we have three beds. At one point, I had one room that was so large, um, Steve, it had four beds in it. Now we don't believe in stacking people on top of each other. If you've seen our webinar, you know that we are completely against that. But some of my largest home is a five-bed, three-bath. It's a mini-mansion, it's huge. And the master bedroom is larger than most apartments I've ever lived in, right? So that one room sometimes has four, but right now, today, three beds in it, right? And again, these are people that were taken from homeless to hopeful. So two beds usually, but in the master bedroom, I'm giving game here. If the if the home is larger, we're gonna add an additional bed to help somebody else. Make sense?

SPEAKER_03 17:26

Gotcha. So how now now you said you're for a profit, so let's

Social Security Income: the guaranteed rent source

SPEAKER_03 17:30

dive into that. So, how do you get paid by whole housing the homeless?

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Absolutely. So, most people think, Michael, when we talk about housing the homeless, like Derek, how do you get paid? They're homeless. Well, believe it or not, most of them receive a monthly income that's guaranteed, right? That they get without fail. Nothing stops this payment, right? The pandemic, COVID-19, nothing. And it's called Social Security Income. And they get it on a debit card, literally on a green debit card that's called Direct Express. I'm going real deep with you guys. Um, and that's how they get it, right? So that's how we get it. So when you hear me, Steve, saying that our product is guaranteed rent, that's why, because they're getting it from a guaranteed fund, which is a government-funded program, Social Security, right? So it comes to them and then that comes to us. And there's a ton of ways that we teach you guys how to get it, but essentially it comes on a debit card. And most of the clients or the people that you even see on the side of the road that's holding the sign and says, I'll work for food, most of us think he's homeless and has nowhere to go and no income. But I'm about 95% sure that he gets an income. He just doesn't know that there's an option to find a guy named Derek who has a one-stop shop to pay me $600 to $640 a month. I take care of the lights, the water, the cable, the Wi-Fi, the security system, the camera. Like, I take care of all bills. So they come to me and don't have to worry about lights and water and miscellaneous things, right? They come to me as a one-stop shop. And most of them also, Micah, have an EBT car, and which is how they eat, right? But back to your original question, the social security income is the way they get paid, and that's how we get it. That's what makes our rents guaranteed.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

Now, so we we deal with a lot of Karen's in our in our industry at times. But like, how do you deal with like are these high maintenance people? You know, how do they clean up? Do they, you know, is there any issues that goes on or how how like what kind of they're not high maintenance at all, first of all.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Let's start there. This is not a high maintenance crew, right? And to the cleaning aspect of it, people ask all the time, Derek, who cleans that place up? They do, Micah. We put the onus on them, right? They live there, not me. I don't live in these homes. I'm in my home right now. I don't live at these ILFs, right? They are independent adults and they live and thrive without the need for staff or medical oversight. So the only thing I do, Steve, is I provide the bleach, the cleaning supplies, the rags, or whatever they need, the dustpan, the broom, the mopping system. I supply all of that because I don't want any excuses of why it's dirty. If you guys have watched my webinar or you are familiar with where we come from with doing this, we don't believe in having rats and roaches and filth and grime. That's a lot of what I saw that started this whole thing. I was a social worker. God put on my heart to do this. I was like, okay, where do I start? I never saw the inside of a group home ever. I never saw the inside of an ILF, ALF, none of that. But when God put the vision on my heart, I was like, so I gotta go and see what they look like. And when I went to the first three or four, it broke my heart. Couldn't believe the conditions that I saw that I was sending these people to because I was the social worker. And the one that broke my heart the most was when I saw a young lady sleeping on the kitchen floor, paying $750 a month in front of the kitchen stove. That was the tipping point for me. So as roaches are running in and out of that bottom drawer where people put their cake pans and all their pots in that bottom drawer of the stove, as roaches are running in and out of that, that's her where her bed was. It was about a three-inch mat on the floor. And guess who sent her there?

unknown 21:18

Me.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

I didn't know it though, right? So when I I was like, You live here? She was like, Of course I live here, Derek. You sent me here. Wow. And when I started speaking to her and got a story of what she paid to live there and why she's sleeping on the floor by the stove, that's because the lady had 13 people in that place in a three-bed, two-bath home, and one of the rooms had a lock on the door. Really? So when I ran into this, I was like, Man, we gotta change this. So I know that was a little bit of a rant, but I did want to tell you that story of kind of how all of this is like that's the why of all of this. I couldn't stand to see that, and we had to change it. So we're changing the way home.

No drugs, no alcohol, second chances with accountability

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Homeless people are being viewed and the way they're being housed. That's our whole goal.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

All right. So people uh, you know, when they hear about homeless people and stuff like that, they always think, you know, drugs and alcohol. Now, do you I know of course you probably don't you don't allow drugs at your places. Do you allow any alcohol at all?

SPEAKER_01 22:17

I do not. So no drugs, no alcohol, no outside company, right? Your boyfriend, your girlfriend, they're not welcome there. If they want to come by and pick you up and you guys go out and have a great time, have at it. But we want that place to be safe. So there is no company allowed. If your dad wants to come, your mom wants to come, no problem. But even they can't stay. If they want to just come and see how you're living, to drop off some grocery, no problem. But they can't stay. And then that whole drug issue is this. The population we serve, Steve, they come with that sometimes, right? These are homeless people that live on the street. But my rule is this, right? There is absolutely no drugs or no alcohol. So when I bring you in, it's under the understanding that there's no drugs, no alcohol. And just in case if you slip, because they do, right? I'm very honest. This population will slip. My rule is this, Steve. As long as you don't mind going to get help for this problem, you'll have somewhere to live when you come back. My program's called second chance housing. So how can I not give these guys a second chance? I don't kick these guys out the first time they make a mistake. That's not what I do. I'm called second chance housing. I can't do that. So with the drug thing, is this if you're on drugs, no problem. Let's go get some help. Let's get you admitted somewhere so that you can come back and, you know, live a productive life. But if you can't get help or you refuse to help, then you're probably going to be discharged from our program. Because remember, there's six, seven other people that live here. So I can't afford for Brian to be on drugs and don't want help and encourage my other five guys to use. Can't do that. We're running a program, right? That's the difference between us and like a room and house or some guy that just rents rooms. There's a program and there's a structure in terms of what we do. There's rules, there's a handbook, there's leases, all of that. So this is not a free-for-all. Make sense?

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Yeah. Now, how how let's say somebody's not cleaning or something and they're not getting along. How do you deal with those types of complaints?

SPEAKER_01 24:19

We refer back to the handbook and the rule book and what you agreed on two months ago when I met you at the hospital, when you were homeless and had nowhere to go. And I said, Hey, bro, I got a nice place for you to live, man, but you just got to keep it clean, pay rent on time, right? It don't hurt anybody. That's pretty easy. But if they can't clean, then there goes that training aspect of it. Okay, why is he not cleaning? Does he not know how to clean? Does he need to be trained? Or is he refusing to clean? Now, again, if he's refusing to clean, it's gonna it's gonna be hard to stay there because that's part of the rules and the paperwork that they sign. Remember, this is this has structure to it. This is not a free-for-all, and they just come and do what they want. They agree to all of this stuff before we move them in, right? To make sure everybody's on the same page. Now, what okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 25:08

Uh, what about like adults with kids? How do you handle that?

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Don't do it. So, right now, we don't do it. So, when you like if you went to my Instagram page right now or YouTube, you'll see that we're buying property now. That's where we're going to help women and children, complete families. But in this shared living environment, this is the adult male, the adult female. No families, no women and children. Because it doesn't work with our model. That's why we use the cash flow from the rentals to now buy property to do the women and children and the complete families. That's what we do on that side.

SPEAKER_04 25:44

What happens if a lady, you know, gets pregnant? What happens in that situation?

SPEAKER_01 25:49

While she's in our care?

SPEAKER_04 25:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Great question. I don't think I've ever been asked that. That's a really great question. The way I can see it happening right now, just thinking of it, and that's the first time I've heard this question, we will probably keep her up until the ninth month. But guess what? We're also doing probably from month five to nine. We're looking for somewhere for her to go that can suit what she's going through. So there's other programs and places. It's funny that you even brought that up. I was introduced to a case manager uh last Friday of a young lady that does something very similar to what you just mentioned. She helps women that have children or women that are pregnant find housing and offers all kinds of other services. So she is somebody that I would tap into. So being in the field of work that I do, Steve, I

Referral network and future expansion to families

SPEAKER_01 26:34

gotta be connected to a lot of people and resources, right? Because I get a ton of calls every day for populations I don't serve. Right? That's why we're also getting ready to open up a referral agency that just referrals people out. Because I get so many calls a day, hundreds of calls, and probably 10 of them are for ILF stuff. The other 90 are for women and children, complete families, like all kinds of things. You wouldn't believe it. But now we're gonna turn that into a product, right? Because we still need to help. So we're gonna open up a referral agency and still be able to help these people that I usually say, ma'am, I'm sorry, but we don't house women and children, but you can call this guy. Now we're gonna turn it into hey, call this guy. He does, right?

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Now, how now you you said leases earlier? Now, how long of a lease, how how long are they allowed to stay?

SPEAKER_01 27:24

So, for my program, they can stay as long as they like. There is no time frame, so as long as they abide by the rules, pay rent on time, and don't kill each other, they can stay as long as they like, right? So there is no time frame. Yep. Now, my lease is to rent the property or lease the property is for one year and sometimes two years. So one of my property I have on a three-year lease. I've never had to renew it, it's just there. Oh, these are other landlords, one year arbitrage.

SPEAKER_04 27:50

Yep. Oh, okay. I thought you were buying it. Wake up, Steve.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

I don't own none of these places.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

No, because I'm about to go into the arbitrage side. I now because when people call you now, how are you advertising yourself, right? Because, like, you know, you can just go throw a place on Airbnb and you're up and rolling. How do you advertise yourself?

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Like, hey, we're ILF, right? Man, I'm hard to miss on social media. So I don't know how deep you guys have looked

How to pitch landlords on corporate housing leases

SPEAKER_01 28:16

into me, but I'm hard to miss on social media, bro. So YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. We we just get the word out everywhere. My personal page, which probably has more traffic than any of my business pages. So I post it everywhere. Um, the need is so great, Micah, that it's not hard to promote this, right? Everybody needs somewhere to live. We just kind of house a population that nobody really wants to deal with. Most people turn their head to the homeless guy. We don't. They come with a guaranteed income and they also deserve a place to live. These are God's people. Remember, we're not doing this because this is the latest thing to do with real estate. We're not doing this because I thought it's a great idea. Even in the Bible, it says the poor will always be among you, and we are to help the poor and the needy and the widow. That's exactly what we do, right? And we do it in a shared living environment. And again, Steve, the powerful part about all of this, I don't own these properties. I was a poor social worker making 28 grand a year. How was I gonna buy a property, Steve? Right? But once I got 40s, I was like, ooh, I can quit my job. Then once I got a couple more, ooh, I can pull my wife, who I thought made really great money. My wife was the breadwinner in my home from the day I met her. I've been married 10 years, right? My wife has always been the breadwinner until God gave me this. When he gave me this, I said, Shay, I want you to quit.

SPEAKER_05 29:41

I need help, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Because not only did the housing get out of control in terms of just growing so fast, the teaching of it. And to be honest with you, that's what keeps me most busy. Not the houses, they run themselves if you do it right. That's the key part, Micah. These houses are set it and forget it. It could be if you do it right, right?

SPEAKER_03 30:01

Now, how now take us through it? How are you? Because these are arbitrages essentially.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

How are you pitching this to a landlord for him to say yes? Yeah, so that's probably the main thing that we teach in our platinum course, and also that we talk about at our June 11th event coming up. But guess what, Micah? It's no different from what you guys do in the short-term rental space. It's almost the same conversation, right? I'm not coming as Derek. Nobody trusts Derek. Guess who they do trust, though? They trust second chance housing. So we come from a standpoint, first of all, we're the greatest thing since sliced bread. We pay guaranteed rent. We come with our own maintenance team. You just sit back and collect rent, sir, and let me do this great work in the community. That's literally kind of how it sounds. And we're coming from the standpoint, again, not from Derek, but I have a housing program, sir. Right? So it just works. Now, some people believe me, they think I'm crazy. Derek, you want to rent my home to do what? Right? So there's a way that we say it. Obviously, that's in our packages. But the gist of it is again what you guys use. Do you guys allow corporate leasing? Ding, ding, ding, ding. This is no different, Steve. I corporate lease that place from second chance and I do my good work. And I'm so all over social media, even if a guy wants to check me out and say, man, what is he doing with these houses? It ain't hard to find out what I'm doing. I house the homeless, right? So I don't hide that either. So at some point in that conversation, I'm telling them that I'm working with local hospitals, right? That when people are going to be discharged and have nowhere to go, they call us. We serve as a stepping stone to where they're going to eventually go. Most of our residents are going to return back to their family or get their own apartment. We've never had a resident leave and get their own home, but we do have people graduate our program and connect with family, right? Get a better job somewhere and get their own apartment. So again, we're a stepping stone for a lot of these folks to where they're going to eventually end up. And we're super proud of that. Yeah, we love it.

SPEAKER_04 32:04

Now let's talk profits. So, how much can you make on one of these? On average, you know, I like I'm sure there's other turnover and stuff like that. But how much do you do you usually rent them for? I know that's a loaded question too. And how much do you usually make? What's the percentage profit?

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Got it. And also just to give you a quick gem, turnover turnover for us and our business is actually a good thing.

Why turnover increases profit: $1,800 from one bed in one month

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Whereas in most businesses I run, turnover is not a good thing for me. But in the ILF, I actually make more money and help more people with turnover. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But for the math of it to make it really make sense, I'll give the four-bed, two-bath model again. And for even math, um, $600 is usually the range of where I charge, right? That can go from $600 to $750. Let's start with the $600 and then I'll bring you there. So for me, if I take a four-bedroom home, two-bath, that's me, eight people that I'm going to take from homeless to hopeful. That's going to be $600 per person. So I make $4,800 on one home. My rent is going to be somewhere between $1,650 and $1,800. My lights and water range about $250. My internet range is about $70. And the insurance for one home could be about also $70. So if you guys do the math on that, because I'm not doing it right this second, you can see why people call what we do real estate on steroids. Right? Now we don't call it that, but a lot of people that we're teaching this to now said, man, these guys teach something that's like real estate on steroids. Because they don't rent to a mom, dad, and three kids. We rent to eight people and they all pay an income. They all pay rent. So $4,800 for a 4-2 for me.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

Yeah, that's less overhead than a short-term rental because it's a whole bunch of more stuff that goes in there. That's actually pretty cool, man. That's actually pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

And then the other example of that is this. I always give a little example and a big one. So we talked this to a guy in Lake Wales, Florida. He wanted to get into this so bad. He couldn't find a 3-2. He couldn't find a 2-2. He found a one-one. He took two people from homeless to hopeful. He makes $1,200 a month. His rent on that one-one is like six, I think it's like $612. It's an odd number, like $613. It's an odd number. But you see what he's doing. He's taking people from homeless to hopeful. He's got a one-bed, one bath. He's got two twin beds. The guys get along great. Two military veterans. Right? Now, the largest one I'll tell you about is my home. Check it out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. It's called the Estate. I name all of my houses, right? They all have nicknames. The estate is the largest home I have. It's a mini mansion. It's a five-bed, three and a half bath. At any given point, Steve, I can put 15 people in that place. Watch this, Micah. These guys don't have the money I told you about earlier. The SSI, the SSDI, they don't have it. But guess what, Steven? They've met certain criteria through the hospital they came from. Now the hospital pays me $750, right? Because it's from a community-funded program. I'm going real deep with y'all. Now do $750 times those 15 people. That's one house, bro. That's what my estate does. And you can see that on Instagram and Facebook. That's why this is a no-brainer, guys. Right? Now, before you give me the numbers on that, Micah, watch this. Watch how honest I am. Micah, I'm never full. I never have 15 guys, ever. Watch this. I range between nine and 12 guys at any given time in that home. Today, there's 12 guys in that house. So let's do 12 guys times 750. They don't have a mom, dad, or uncle Joe that pays their rent. They don't have SSI, SSDI. They don't have a job. But because of this community funded program they came from, that program pays me $750. I just told you six minutes ago, I charge $600. But when it comes from a program, Micah, they get no breaks. Community for funded program, Steve. They have it. Right? And they start at seven, right? So it's $750 for us for my largest home that can fit 15 people. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 36:18

Damn, 9,000 people.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

And again, and again, these people would have been on the street without you, Micah. Without you, Steven. If you guys get one, these are 60 and 70-year-old men and women that are sleeping in their car on the park bench outside behind a dumpster. Somehow they end up in a hospital. They meet a social worker that I used to be for nine years. I make a call to Steve and say, Stephen, I got this great guy, man, 76 years old. You won't believe it, man. He's a military veteran. He gets $1,050 a month in income and he's sleeping on the street. Stephen, will you take it? Stephen's going to do a little bit of an assessment. Stephen's going to ask some questions because he's learned from forced consultants of what to do, what to ask. After the interview goes well, Steven is going to move this guy in for whatever he's charging, right? $600, $640, $850, right? Depending on where you live, the price is going to be different. We teach this to folks in you know New Jersey and higher up where they're $800 a bed, $850 a bed. My brother is $550 a bed. There's some folks $450 a bed. See, it's different everywhere you go.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

And I know Micah's brain is churning because his wife can see it. Yeah, his wife used to his wife used to be a social worker.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 37:31

She's got, I'm sure she's got a lot of ends, she's got a lot of connects.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Absolutely. Sure. Yep. She would know exactly what this is in terms of discharging people to the street with nowhere to go, or group homes that have rats and roaches and nastiness and all of that foolishness, right? She would understand that part of it. If she heard this, this would blow her mind. Because when it kind of light bulb went on for me, I was like, Derek, what are you doing? You make $28,000 a year. You can make that monthly, which was kind of a prayer. I said, God, you know what? It'd be real nice to replace my yearly salary monthly. And I want to help people. And just like that, guys, he was like, Derek, you've been on this job for nine years. Open your eyes, bro. Here's the problem. So when I tell people, God spoke to me, it wasn't no audible voice. It wasn't like, Derek, you should be, but he showed me in terms of what I was doing at my job. I've always wanted to start a group home. Why did I have to work at a place, Steve, for nine years to wake up? Have no clue. But one day it was like, I should be the other guy. And I tell people now, that was God, man. I'm no genius. I've never been the smartest guy in the classroom, never been the smart, you know, the sharpest guy. Barely finished high school, right? My wife tricked me to go to college, finished that four years later. Right. So I'm not a bright guy, right? But I do got a heart for God's people. I love real estate and I love helping people. And if you like that stuff, this is it. Right? Real estate on steroids, all white helping people.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

Yep. So you mentioned earlier, turnover is good in your industry. Why is turnover good?

SPEAKER_01 39:04

So for the business that we're in, um,

Insurance agencies now call Derek - he's cheaper than $4,000 ALFs

SPEAKER_01 39:06

we get a lot of calls, people come and go. So the population we serve, Steve, they're transient. That means they come and they go. Sometimes they don't stay put. An example to that is this. I got guys that have been with me from day one of opening my first ILF. Then I got guys I've housed as small as 15 minutes. So they come and they go. Two days, three days, and they leave. But I got guys that as soon as I open my first door, I still have them five years ago. They'll never leave me. They're never gonna go anywhere, right? But I got guys that are also housed for three days, five days, six days, two months, three months, right? And before I get lost, what was the original question again, Steve?

SPEAKER_04 39:45

So why is turnover a good thing?

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Turnover is good because when they do leave, okay, here's the example, Micah. If I get a call for a guy on the first of the month, or the third, the fifth, he comes in, pays that $640. He says, Man, you know what, Derek, this is a really great place, but I'm gonna go back to Ohio and live with my grandmother. No problem. Have a great one, God bless you, and um hope you make it, right? He's already paid me. There's no refund on how that works, right? Yeah, so when he leaves, I get calls every day. Every day, tons of them. Oh, perfect. I'll come get him at six o'clock or drop him off at five o'clock. So he's replaced. So on that one bed, instead of making 600 a month, sometimes I make 1800 from one bed because they just leave. Oh they know you're collecting the monthly up front, no matter what. Come on, Micah, come on, buddy. Come on. When they come in, I want the six, buddy. It will behoove you to live here for 30 days at least. I tell them all that. When they call me in seven days and say, Derek, I gotta go. Where are you going? When I got you, you were living on the street. Where are you going? Don't make a bad decision. This is the best thing since sliced bread here, right? Where are you going? Well, um, my girlfriend got her check and um she found the spot and we're gonna move together. All right, man. I I wish you the best. If it doesn't work, call me back and we we want to help you. See you, Derek. I get a call the same day, place a guy, 600. He leaves in three days for whatever reason, place a guy, 600. So when I first got in it, somebody told me this and I didn't believe it. Neither did I really understand it. I was like, what do you mean it's good if it's turnover? But just like the light bulbs coming on for you guys, probably now you understand it. That's how I was so 600, he stays for five days and leave. Somebody else comes 600, he stays for 10 days and leave. 600. I just made $1,800 from one bed, not one house, one bed.

SPEAKER_03 41:51

So let's say let's say a dude leaves after three days, right? And whatever, makes a mess, whatever. Who goes in and cleans up after Morse? He, hey, it's in your lease, you got to clean up before you leave.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

I want him to clean up before he leaves. But if he doesn't, I have a guy in every one of my houses that kind of is the man, right? They're not a house manager. I don't call them that. They're not in charge. But in every house I have, and we teach this to people, right? Don't hire staff. Somebody you're gonna be housing, Micah, is gonna be really responsible. They're gonna be really nosy, they're gonna be a tattletale. That's gonna be your guy. He's gonna let Steve know every time something's going wrong, right? So that guy's gonna flip the bed, he's gonna wash the linen, all of it. Now, in the beginning, it was me. But until you get a system down, it's like, man, you know what? This guy's really stable. He can probably do this if I ask him. And they love it, they love to have things to do. No, right? No, they're free. Free because they love it, they want to help. Now, I will admit this my landscaping crew, right? And I do have a crew of about four or five guys. That sometimes we will say, hey, hey, you know what? This is cleanup month. I'll take four guys with me and we'll go clean all of those places from top to bottom. They get paid for that. My landscaping crew, they get paid for that. So in the beginning, I hired all of these people to do landscaping, cleaning. The longer I got in, I found out, man, the guys I'm housing do all of this stuff. So my landscaping crew is the guys I house. Because most of these guys have background in landscaping, housekeeping, being a chef, you name it. We house school teachers, retired policemen. My wife is right now hiring a grant writer. We've been praying for a grant writer for three years. One just fell in our lap. She's homeless, and we're housing her now. She's gonna be writing us grants. Right? Look how cool that is, right? My wife's very recession proof. Nothing stops it, Micah. Nothing stops this. I don't know how short term rentals go. I've dibbled and dabbled in it, but this is this goes all day, every day. There is no slow season, high season, like you guys talk about slow season. Season and vacation season. This is every day. There's somebody being discharged tonight with nowhere to go, and he's gonna be on the street. Because they don't know about second chance housing. They don't know about Micah and his wife. They don't know about Steven, who's got two of these now. They don't know it's an option, right? And even when you're a social worker like me, the only option I had were places that had rats and roaches. And I called them every day. And I didn't know it until I went on that tour. When I went on that tour, I said, that's enough of this. I'm finna figure this out. And when I realized that I can rent the dat gun place, oh God, game over now. Because I'll never be able to buy one, but I can rent a place every 20 days. So when I got to house number four, house number four, five, six, and no, no, I'm sorry, four, five, six, three houses, they all came within 20 days of each other. That's how fast this was moving. So when I when I tell people, they say, well, Derry, why do you rent versus buy? First of all, I never could buy. Second of all, I could rent a house every 20 days. I can't buy a home every 20 days. So house four, five, and six all came within 20 days of each other. Taking people again from homeless to hopeful.

SPEAKER_04 45:12

So are local governments and politicians knocking, pounding down your door because they know you're doing good and housing these people?

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Are they some of them are so in the beginning? Like, I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to ask people, could I do this? I wanted to be the honest guy and ask everybody for permission. Everybody told me no. They thought I was crazy. All of these municipalities and governments and county agencies. Derek, you must be a fool. How is this going to ever work? Once it works, Stephen, they all beg for this product now, right? So that's another mistake a lot of people make in the beginning, Micah. They go talking to the wrong people, saying the wrong stuff. Then you're told no that you can't do this. But now that we're in it, they beg us for this product now. Insurance companies call us now. When when I told people four years ago what I wanted to do, they said, Derek, you're never going to get referrals from anywhere because you're not insured. You don't have a license. You're not going to own no property. And now insurance agencies call us now. And that's amazing. We never thought that was going to happen. That surprised all of us. Even me, I didn't expect for insurance agencies to call us. But once a lady explained it to me, she says, Derek, guess why we call you guys? Because you're cheaper. Because if I place somebody in the ALF, they need $4,000 at minimum to be housed. You guys charge $640 and you cover all bills. You guys are a no-brainer to us, right? Glad I know that, right? But if they try to find an ALF or a group home that requires a license, you're talking $4,000 minimum. It can go up to $8,000 depending on where you live. Wow. Well, they save money by calling us. So we're a no-brainer to insurance agencies now. And now that they're allowed to do it, game over.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

Here's a crazy question. You just said that they charge like $8,000 to $10,000 or whatever. You ever thought of getting into the ALF space?

SPEAKER_01 47:06

I did. I did. We all we we play around with the idea a lot. It's just that I'm so busy. And again, not on the housing side. I teach this. When people hear this, if you're smart enough, you want to do it. So that's what keeps us busy, right? Um, and if you don't want to do it, you'll tell your friend who wants to do it, or somebody that you know at your church, that old lady at your church, that said, man, we keep feeding these folks, but it's got to be more. What else can we do? Housing, right? So um, it's not for everybody. We also understand that. We also tell people that if you don't have a heart for God's people, this is not for you. We often turn people to STR, Airbnb. Because if I take a strategy call with the guy and his first 10 questions about how he makes money, this is not going to be for him. He's looking to make money. Let's do short-term rentals, let's do Airbnb. Your heart don't have to be in it to run an Airbnb. But to house these homeless, vulnerable individuals, your heart's got to be in it, right? And that's why we say that if you don't have a big heart for God's people, this is not for you. If you don't have patience, this is not for you. If you only want to make money in this, this is not for you. But if you like people, right? And you don't want to see them living on the street, if that bothers you and you want to produce a nice product and you like real estate, this is it, right?

SPEAKER_03 48:27

Yeah, now you you said something earlier.

Startup costs: double the monthly rent plus furnishings

SPEAKER_03 48:30

You said uh you're doing them on one or two-year leases. Now, are you guys still picking up arbitrage units, you know, with you know, prices of everything going up? Is that having an effect on like how you guys are pivoting in your business or anything? Or y'all still picking up units?

SPEAKER_01 48:44

Still picking up units. Obviously, they cost more, right? So the unit that I would usually get for say 1600, which is going to be a 3-2, that unit's now $1750. Right? But because we rent to multiple people, the math always seems to work out. Yeah, and the genius part to it is that you need to find a big house, right? I always tell people that if you're concerned about making profit or concerned about when you can quit your job, you need to go and get a four-bed or five-bed to start with, right? We're known now for that. If you make under $50,000 a year, we want you to quit your job within 90 days of meeting me. Period. Right? And we're known for that. That's a bold statement, but we got people to prove it. We had a clubhouse room tonight, every Monday at 6 p.m. We're on clubhouse every night. Last week, Monday, we had two people come to the stage and tell us that they quit their job because of this. They were just like me, $28,000 a year. The other guy made $26, right? That's easy to leave that, right? You most people like we teach nurses and other people that make $40,000 and $50 and $80 and $100,000. But if you make under $50,000 a year and you want to do this, we want you to quit your job within about 90 days of meeting us.

SPEAKER_03 49:58

Now, what are your startup costs, right? So, uh, like we know us, our startup costs are pretty heavy. You know, we got to get TVs, nice furniture. What are your startup costs to start up like a three-bed, two-bath?

SPEAKER_01 50:10

So um, the easiest way to explain it is this our biggest cost is going to be the rent. So, whatever the rent is, so if the rent's uh $1,500, I need to be thinking $3,000 because they're gonna want first insecurity. Sometimes they want first security and last, right? But the startup is going to be double the rent. And then if you had bad credit like me, when I started, they wanted a light deposit and a water deposit. But most people I teach this to they don't have bad credit and they just turn on lights and water. So the rent times two, turning on lights and water, and now getting the twin beds and the furniture in it. We don't teach people to go out and get this brand new furniture like I would do an STR. STR needs to be brand new, speak and span, out the box, right? And this not so. We want you to get most of your things that are, you know, gently used until you get to a point where maybe if you want to be super fancy, then you go that route. But there's a lot of ways to get affordable stuff that's not brand new, and that's what we do. And because hotels now have heard of what we do, and you will see this on our pages as well. When a hotel is going through a revamping and they throw away everything they have pictures, furniture. Guess who do guess who they call?

unknown 51:23

Me.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

How do they hear about me? Social media, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. That guy houses homeless people, call him. So sometimes we go into hotels, guys, and it takes us 13, 15, 20 days to clear it. Truck after truck after truck. I got a warehouse right now with pictures, furniture. So when we launch people, if they're local, we give them all the furniture, the pictures, we plush their place out. Because I have tons of this stuff, right? So that's how we furnish it. So it can be very affordable if you do it the right way through Facebook Marketplace, through family and friends. Most of the the first I the first four ILFs I built, most of the things came from my home. My microwave, my uh dining room table, my rugs. My wife hated it in the beginning. She hated it. Um, everything came from my home. I couldn't afford to buy this stuff, right? But my wife quickly learned that by me doing that, she gets new stuff. Right? So 40-inch screen TV, 50-inch screen TV, that's going to the ILF, honey, this week. She's upset, she's mad. Now she gets a 70-inch for her home. So every one through four, every TV in Glen Lake 1, Glen Lake 2, Glen Lake 3, and Glen Lake 4, they all came from my home. Remember, those are the names of my ILFs. So I have eight ILFs in one cul-de-sac. God just blessed it like that, man. I get out of my truck and I go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And there's 13 in one area. But if y'all go check out my YouTube channel, there's a cul-de-sac. And I'm always there, I'm always interviewing people in me. Eight. I literally get out and go check on eight houses in like 13 minutes. Everybody doing good? Everybody doing good? You guys breathing? Everybody, everybody got food. See you later. I'm gone to my next venture, to my next business. I'm involved in a lot now because of this.

SPEAKER_04 53:21

So see, so you're saying that every stitch of furniture you ever buy could could practically be a write-off if you wanted it to be. Absolutely. That too. That's genius, man.

SPEAKER_01 53:33

And besides the twin beds, unless you have them, everything can also come from your home. You don't have to buy it, but write-off, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 53:43

I love your dedication, man, because you were like, Look, I'm you were so eager to do it. You were taking the furniture at your house. Now that that leads me into this. Like, now, how often are you going over there?

SPEAKER_01 53:53

Like, do you go in the beginning all the time, just because fear of what's going on now? Never. Right? Um, to be honest with you, in the beginning again, because it was new to me on the housing side, I was there often.

Cameras in common areas, motion-tracking security

SPEAKER_01 54:07

And the cul-de-sac, when you guys do see it, I live like 15 minutes away from there. Convenient. Now, that five three, that large 15 people home, that's 55 minutes from where I live. And believe it or not, it's my most well-behaved house and it runs itself. I never go there really. They just send me their rent money, right? Do you have anything like cameras on the outside? Absolutely. Cameras on the now. For me, only a few of my have them on the outside, but they all have them on the inside.

unknown 54:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

So we we want to make sure everybody's safe. That's for the protection of me, them, and the program. Now, where inside are they located? Never in the bathroom, never in the bathrooms, never in the bedrooms. Exit, entry doors, uh, living room area, kitchen area. And we use the kind of cameras that move with them. So it's motion detective. So let's say something happens over here on the left. If it's out of frame, I'm gonna miss it. But we use these cameras from Amazon called um Yee, YI, Yankee Igloo Home Camera, and they're motion detective. I want to see my guys when they're moving. Like I want to be able to follow that, right? Now, obviously, I'm too busy to sit down and just watch a phone, right? Because they're all hooked to my cell phone. Um, but again, they're motion detective, never in the bedrooms, never in the bathroom, right? Only the common areas. So we miss nothing because they're motion sensitive.

SPEAKER_04 55:34

No, we like to keep it real on the show. So I it's probably earlier when you started off, but can you tell like a crazy story that happened in one of your places when you weren't, you know, didn't have all your systems down. What is what mistake did you make? What happened that was kind of crazy, and how did you how did you deal with it?

SPEAKER_01 55:49

That's easy. So the first mistake that I made was bringing in the wrong people. So in the beginning, if you don't know what you're doing, you'll get a hundred phone calls a day. And if you think you're gonna house every one of those people, that's where this would go wrong at. So that assessment that you've asked me about probably twice now is probably one of the most important key components

Early mistake: admitting the wrong residents without proper vetting

SPEAKER_01 56:09

of what we do. Because in the beginning, Steve, I brought in some of the wrong residents. These are people that are breaking walls, breaking glass, using drugs, slobbing from the mouth, like all of this stuff. These are not independent people. I didn't know what I was doing though, Steve. No, nobody taught this to me. Right? So going through the bumps and bruises, we got it down to a science now where I just told you three minutes ago, I got a mansion with 12 people in it, and I never go there now. See the difference? So now we got it down to a science where that assessment, and again, just a little credit to me that I have a social work background. But most people we teach this to have no clue what this is the day they meet me. And they're able to do the same assessment and learn from me what to look for, what to listen for, right? And all these key components of things I'm gonna say, hey, listen, if he says this, he's not a good fit. Prime example. Our clients need our clients, residents need to take medication every day. They're mental health clients. And if they don't, or he or she says, you know what, Derek, I take my men sometimes, you know, if I just kind of feel like it or if I feel down, uh-uh. Not at second chance housing, you don't. You take them every day because you're prescribed them. And that's going to keep you mentally sane and stable. Because if you don't, Derek is gonna be running a circus show, a clown show, right? Imagine me putting 12 people, Micah. Seriously now, imagine me putting 12 people in that mansion I told you about, and they're all psychotic. They're all not on meds, they're all not following rules and the structure. That's gonna turn into a clown show real fast. My neighbors are gonna know, the community is gonna know, the police, fire department, ambulance, EMT, they're all gonna be called. That brings bad attention on me versus the other attention that we really get now is man, that guy doing some good work in the community. And he's teaching other people.

SPEAKER_04 58:05

So how do you make sure they're all taking their meds from that assessment, right?

SPEAKER_01 58:10

Most of these clients are so honest about kind of how they are, they're gonna tell you, well, Derek, no, I don't really take them. Thanks for telling me, right? Um, so they weed themselves out, right? And most of them are just so grateful to have somewhere to live. They're gonna just follow your rules anyway, Michael. Right? Nobody wants to be on the street, nobody wants to be sleeping outside. So if all I have to do is take my meds and pay my rent on time and don't kill each other, I can live here forever. Absolutely, you can.

SPEAKER_04 58:40

Can you tell us any of your favorite success stories from any of your tenants?

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Man, uh a huge success story for me would be again. This is on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. His name is Mr. Author. I can say his name because it's on my social media and he loves us and loves this story. This gentleman is going to really resonate with a lot

Mr. Author's story: engineer making $200k to homeless to housed

SPEAKER_01 58:59

of people. This guy made over $200,000 a year most of his life. He was an engineer. But like a lot of us, guess what happens, Micah? Life hits us. He got sick, his wife passed away, income went down, ends up at a hospital, discharged from the hospital, lost his job, now sleeping at Disney World, outside, in and out of jail, right? Because there's nowhere to go. But one day there's a case manager that called me from the hospital I used to work at. That's why this story is so familiar and it means so much. The same hospital I worked at for over nine years. I get a call from one of the case managers. Derek, I got this nice guy, man, 72 years old, Derek. Just needs a second chance. Sleeping outside, used to make over $200,000 a year. So he's kind of bougie. This is not your regular homeless guy, Derek. He hit hard times. Will you help him? Derek, he doesn't have any money. His SSI is not set up. His SSDI is not set up. But Derek, if you will house him, we'll pay for it six months to a year until he gets on his feet. That's that program I told you about. We housed this guy for about eight months. And now you will see on my YouTube channel, he's got his own apartment. Last December, we took him a Christmas tree, gifts. He bought his own furniture, his own bed. He's doing well. He's got a huge income now because he used to work. Remember, SSI people don't get a big income. They get from 500 to 750. SSDI means I used to have a job. I used to contribute to society. His check is like $1,800 a month. That's a lot of money for this population. Most of my guys get that $700, $750, $803. He gets over $1,800 a month and does very well now and has his own apartment, graduated out of program, and has reconnected back with family. Again, taking people from homeless to hopeful, right? But again, his story is so powerful because he used to make a lot of money, right? He used to, he was well-to-do, as they would say. But life could hit all of us. We're all one paycheck away sometimes from being homeless. We're all one accident away sometimes from being homeless. We're all one mistake away, making a bad decision from being homeless. That happened to him, right? But thank God for social workers and case managers that will call people like Micah and Steven and me to house a guy like that. So that's what makes it pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:33

It's beautiful, man. That's awesome, bro. So where can people find you?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

Yeah. Oh man, thank you so much. All over Instagram at Force the Consultants. So that's F-O-R-S-T-O-N Consultants. Also on Facebook, Force the Consultants, YouTube, Force to Consultants. Um, those are the main places, and also Clubhouse every Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern time. This is all we talk about is how to take people from homeless to hopeful. And again, remember, years ago, it was only homeless people with mental health problems. Now, because of the housing crisis, we house everyday people that have jobs. They just can't afford to live other places or get their own apartments or the shared living environment. We're seeing that that's going to be a big thing moving to the even the future. It don't have to be homeless and dirty and disheveled, how you think of homeless people. It's going to be the guy you work with every day, nine to five. But when you go home, he goes to his car. He couch surfaced from couch to couch with friends. But that's how people can find us. YouTube at Force the Consultants, all social media at Force the Consultants. And our room is called or our club is called Don't Wait to Be Great. And that's on Clubhouse every Monday, 6 p.m. Eastern time.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:46

Eric Forreston, thank you so much for hopping on, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:48

You got any more questions for my man? Nah, man. That was a yeah, that was a gem dropping episode. I loved it, man. I love how you, you know, you found a niche and you you attacked it, man. And you you said, I'm gonna give up the furniture of my house to do this, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:03

Man, whatever it takes, bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:06

Yeah, you know, and people need that that mentality, man. I hope the people who listened caught that caught on to that. Like, hey, absolutely, you had a ball back against the wall, I'm doing it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

And my wife was like, Derek, are you crazy? And once I proved to her that, honey, listen, we're gonna be fine. Like, I'm gonna replace that TV in like two weeks. I need one or two guys to get admitted. You get a new TV. Once she saw that, and then a need for what we do, she was completely on board again. Once I got the ILF number four, we pulled her from corporate America, so she does the same thing I do now from a nonprofit standpoint. So, again, thank you guys so much for having me. I appreciate it. If it's anything that I can ever do for you guys in your clubhouse room on here, let me know, man. And I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:48

Hey, you got a discount code for our fans out there?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:50

Absolutely. You let me know how to do it. Um, I'll honor kind of what you guys say. Um, I don't know if you guys use a certain word. Um let thrive would be good. We can use that. So um, and I guess we'll talk about the details of that. I don't know how you guys want to do it, but absolutely anybody from your audience that wants to get in in terms of our platinum package, because that's what we're most known for. That's $7,500, where we walk you through every step of the way of how to do this, and the access to us is wide open. That's the biggest part about our package, is that most coaches that teach you something and just kind of leave you until you're good look, right? We're we're different, they can call me every day, Monday through Friday, right? And that's how open we are with our consultation packages. So thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it. And then they quit their jobs in three months. Hey, if you're making under 50 grand, I want you to quit your job in under 90 days. That's it. Nice, man.

unknown 1:04:43

That's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:43

Man, good stuff. Yeah, we'll definitely talk about that. And uh, yeah, man, thank you for coming on. And uh, man, this has been an awesome pleasure, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

Thank you so much, man. You guys have a great one, and we'll talk soon. Anytime you guys need me, okay? See y'all clubhouse. See you absolutely. All right, thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:58

Man, that was uh that was a good episode, man. I was very interested in how he he turned to you know housing the homeless. You know, I mean, definitely sounds risky, but yeah, if you if you it's like anything, right? If you learn the uh processes of it, you can you know take it to somewhere great. Oh, that was awesome how he did that.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:17

I've accidentally housed homeless at my Airbnb's happens. We're still getting the window replaced because of it. Um, other but but Airbnb don't screen for shit, right? Not at all. You don't even need a driver's license, just sign up and you can start written people's places. Um and um yeah, man, I've heard him on Clubhouse, and it's just um it's like eye-opening. It's it's great. One key thing that he did say was if you're in it and you start, you know, you give him a like do the conference with him, conference call with him, and you just start money, money, money, you know. He doesn't want that kind of um that kind of client, right? He wants you to you want to help people first. Money will come, but your heart has to be in in helping people, and and and I I thought that was pretty cool, man. So um, if you just want to maximize the profits, oh, we could charge him 900 a month to maximize, yeah, you know, so uh yeah, I agree, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:13

Because I remember I was talking to him one time and Alvin Hope Johnson was there, and he said, Hey man, he said the same thing. He said, Look, man, number four, he goes, I understand this, there's a great business model, but he goes to all the people listening, he goes, Please have a heart for this. Because he was like, This is this, you gotta have a heart for that. You have to for doing what he's doing, you know, charging people, he's only charging them 600 bucks, you know. I'm saying, plus, but he's housing a bunch of people at one time, but yeah, you have to have a heart for that, man. But that's that's dope that he has a heart for it. You can tell he does, he's passionate about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:43

Oh, yeah, man. Heart and a lot of patience. Because I'm sure it wasn't all smooth roads just starting out, you know. He had to learn to learn the hard way, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:52

People buffing up walls and everything else.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:56

Yeah, man. Well, there's another great episode, episode 210. And we hope you look up our buddy. He's gonna have a uh good deal for you guys using the we'll we'll talk to him about discount code Live Let Thrive. Uh Derek Forston, Forston Consultants, go check him out. This has been episode 210 of your favorite Airbnb, VRBO, short-term mental, all that stuff podcast in the world.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:19

Yes, and remember to follow us on IG. Uh oh, it almost said TikTok. IG, follow us on Clubhouse. We're live every Wednesday, 6 30 p.m. Central Time. And uh where else are we at? Uh yeah, subscribe if you're on watching YouTube, hit that subscribe button and uh leave us a review on iTunes. And uh yeah, thank y'all for continuing to be listening to us. And we are out. Peace later.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Live Let Thrive. Be sure to tune in next week for all the latest in the world of Airbnb and all that entails. Bye bye.