Real Estate Community Network Podcast

The Power of Persistence: A Barber's Transition to Real Estate Investing

• Mike Bazadona & Steve Franco • Season 3 • Episode 1

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Have you ever wondered how someone overcomes adversity and transitions from addiction to realizing their dreams? Our latest episode features a heartwarming discussion with Butter, a man who turned his life around, moving from New York to Pennsylvania and transforming from troubled past into a successful barber and real estate investor. Hear his incredible journey and discover how positive affirmations helped reshape his destiny, while his entrepreneurial spirit led him to renovate his barbershop and attract a notable tenant, Verse Styles Kim K.

Switching gears, we delve into the intricacies of real estate investing. Ever thought about leveraging other people's money to fund your projects? We discuss this strategy, along with the advantages and pitfalls of dealing with traditional banks, and the role of collateral. We also explore the potential rewards of launching a convenience store and smoke shop equipped with skill machines, and our unique venture into the laundry mat business. Significantly, Butter's journey has always been about more than personal success. He shares with us his passion for giving back to the community and our shared journey to becoming certified peer specialists to assist those who need it.

The road to success is often paved with well-set goals. Butter offers valuable insights and personal stories on breaking down big aspirations into attainable, specific targets, emphasizing the power of persistence. Real estate, he shares, can be a great contributor to financial stability. As we wrap up, we invite you to join us in the Real Estate Community Network PA, reach out for any real estate queries and check our podcast on various platforms. Remember, success is a journey, and every step counts. So, take that step with us and let's navigate the path together.

Speaker 1:

Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Community Network podcast. I'm Mike Bazzadonna here with Steve Franco and Butter, Butter, big butter, oh hashtag. He's gonna go. We're gonna go through the whole thing with him. Make sure you join our Facebook group, Real Estate Community Network PA. Find us on Facebook, Make sure you share this podcast with other people and hey, Steve, welcome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, welcome. Thanks, thanks Mike. Yeah, so, butter, I've been doing business for I don't know, five, six years, a little before COVID, sometime, maybe right around COVID, whatever, and yeah, so kind of tell us how you got. You know, first of all you're not local, how you got here, sort of where you came from, and then we'll kind of get into the business stuff, because you've really come a long way in the last few years.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is good when I started from, oh he's also famous, so he's got a lot of phone calls coming in.

Speaker 3:

Where I started from. I was in East Strasbourg. I came to Pennsylvania from Queens, new York. I knew the wrong pretenses. You know I seen an avenue, whereas though I thought that I could make some more money for a product that was selling for lesser in a neighborhood that I came from, and you know, with every decision that you make doesn't necessarily mean it's the good decision. So I faced criminal charges and I wound up doing one and a half to three years in Camp Hill, gradaford and, from that mistake, in Smithfield, and then they put me in a half way house in Scranton. So I found Scranton in 2020 because of the judicial system.

Speaker 2:

Oh, okay, that's how you end up here and became your home.

Speaker 3:

It became a working place. It did, I guess it was good to you a little bit. Yeah, through every trial and tribulation one gains character and strength. They say you know, yep.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so when we met we were working on, you already had the barbershop going, so that was going pretty good. You had a dozen chairs over there or something.

Speaker 3:

Ten chairs.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so that was before real estate. You were just barbershop.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, when I came home, you know I still had my little ups and downs that I was facing in 2020. I wound up getting incarcerated again and then, around 2015, my mother was passing away with lung cancer and she told me she never wanted me to live the lifestyle that I was living. Now this is after state prison, federal prison, you know, rikers Island and things of that nature. When I was living in New York, I suffered from an addiction called alcoholism and once I realized that, you know it's pretty much the same thing as any other drug or you know, an addiction to addiction. You could be addicted to selling clothes. You could be addicted to buying clothes. You could be addicted to sex, anything. You know.

Speaker 3:

When you do something that overbears your priorities and what you need to do in your responsibilities and what you need to do in life, it becomes a problem, and alcohol was a problem for me. So I was homeless. I started sleeping in the back of the barber shop that I was working in 604 Cedar Avenue. At the time it was called Southside Cuts and Fades. Shout out to Steph Orange Ripper. I appreciate you helping me.

Speaker 3:

And you know the judicial system had me on colors because I was facing criminal charges for possession with intent to deliver marijuana, and they had me going back and forth from the colors and they understood what was going on with my mother and I came to an acceptance of the fact that I was an alcoholic and I started doing things to to well. I'll never rid myself of alcoholism, However. Take my medicine is a better term, which is going to a means and being aware of my sickness, and they allowed me to go back and forth to Florida to see my mother when she was passing away, and one of her, one of her last words, was she never wanted me to live the lifestyle that I live. And it kind of like woke me up, you know, and from sleeping in the back of the barber shop, I just turned around and just changed my product altogether and focused on cutting hair. I looked at cutting hair as every $20 is like a yeah, it's like a bag of weed being sold. So I, uh, you got it.

Speaker 1:

Now you're addicted to cutting hair.

Speaker 3:

Well, I changed my addiction to positive addiction. So, um, not just cutting hair, I um, I also well, let's slow down Um I uh turned around and purchased. I first got me a room. I moved into a room from sleeping in the back of the barbershop and then, um from the room, I was able to acquire my own barbershop. And um, from that point on, uh, I turned around and purchased the building that I was sleeping in. That was the other barbershop, and um life has been great, you know, since then, since me realizing what my downfalls and failures was, and um figuring out a way um to uh to gain control of my life.

Speaker 2:

you know um yeah, and I mean, since we did that first Cedar Ave barbershop purchase for you and I remember seeing that building and you got it for an awesome price even then, but I could never imagine where it's gone since then, how you renovated the entire place, cutting it all rent. Yeah, I think you even have a tenant in the old uh, cuts and fades side. Don't you have somebody in there now?

Speaker 3:

Yes, uh, verse styles Kim K she um. Check her out on Instagram, check her out on Google, uh, yelp, um Facebook, um that place, she, she. It's like me seeing the secrets happen all over again. Uh, and the secrets pretty much is um manifesting destiny, um knowing what you want in life, and um and talking into uh existence with positive affirmations and um just not trying anything, just doing and um, I seen it happen with me and I seen it happen with her. Like that place was like pretty much bad. If anybody's been to the South side area and went to South side cuts and the fades back in the days, you would remember how the place looked. And if you go there now you'll be like wow, it's just like a total, complete change. It's kind of like my life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was, it was. It was great, and that's cool, that she was able to buy that building.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Because that's kind of where you started changing. Yeah, yeah, that was the. It was like it's it's. It's ironic, keep it. Yeah, yeah, it's ironic, like the um barbershop that I I, I wind up um opening up in 2020,. I lived in the apartment upstairs. I would have never thought that the dance hall that was downstairs would become a butters barbershop in salon on 831 piston Avenue, scranton, pennsylvania. Yeah, push it, man.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this is all you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so now it's.

Speaker 1:

That's cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, and since then you picked up the other house where you and I are looking at that bigger building down the street to do and there's a lot of cool stuff. So I mean, and you've done great. I mean not only in the investment side, but in the learning side, in terms of what you read when you were inside. You know, reaching out to people like me, steve G, blah, blah, blah. You've got a good list of crew around you that when a question comes up, and that's the most important thing, is having that team.

Speaker 1:

Team is always important.

Speaker 3:

It's not what you know, it's who you know. You know I. While I was incarcerated, I did read a couple of books. I read Donald Trump's real estate book and I read Rich Dad Poor Dad the Four Acquires to Success, and Rich Dad Poor Dad, and it allowed me to open up my mind to different ventures and have an understanding of financial freedom. And the only way to do it is, you know, coming up with the idea and not letting nobody tell you that you cannot do it, and meeting the right people that push you forward to the goals that you want to accomplish, and I do. Thank you, steve, for everything that you have done.

Speaker 2:

You've done it, man, you've done it. But I think it's also important lesson, because you know people say, oh, buy with no money down, buy with da, da, da. And is it easy to do? No, but it is possible, definitely possible. It is possible, and if you do it right I do private lending and we'll get you into that at some point too, if you do it right.

Speaker 2:

People are like wait why are you charging 12%? That's a lot of money. Well, you know what? It's not the money you spend, it's what you're going to make of it, that money you spent on the loans with me and Steve Jean. Whatever got you here.

Speaker 3:

Right, it was a small price to pay for a bigger, a bigger goal to gain. When you look at business and you look at interest rates, you have to always calculate the fact that you know, all right, if this has this much interest, what am I gaining? And is what is what that I'm gaining worth more than what the interest is? And if it is, it's a solid deal. And then once you figure that out, then you get to the point where you could. There's a thing called refinancing, there's a thing called drawing the equity out of a property and there's a thing called just wholesaling it, sell it period. You know there's so many different avenues so you can't get caught up on the high interest at first, as long as it makes sense at the end. The bottom line is what matters the most, you know.

Speaker 2:

And without getting into too much detail, I might be off by a little bit, but everything you've invested in that Cedar Ave building, you just got offered that just for the business of the laundromat.

Speaker 3:

Period.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 3:

To be honest, you know it's all public record I got 600 to 604 Cedar Avenue for $50,000. It's a praise now for roughly $625,000 within the manner of the coronavirus 2002. But is this 2003, going on 2004? You should smile, man listen.

Speaker 1:

Smile come on there you go.

Speaker 2:

He's got the golden eye. I know he's got the golden eye, he's got the guy bling, bling.

Speaker 3:

I wish we had some video in here. We'll take pictures later. God is good, god is great. And the thing is with this type of deal, like Steve said, they're there. It's not impossible, you know, because right after that I got another property of $50,000, two unit and it had three bedrooms on each side. Got that for $50,000. That's a deal, turned around and sold it for $188,000.

Speaker 2:

And we can't forget to thank Bill too, because without Bill, Bill is my guy Gifting you those places, basically.

Speaker 3:

Bill is my guy. The thing is another thing. I have to admit that you know God works in mysterious ways, you know, um, the manifest destiny thing is like when you're doing things in the right direction, a lot of other things is gonna come in that direction to get you to that goal, where you want to be. All you need to be is just a matter of you having faith and believing in yourself and believing what your common goal is, and you'll find others because your awareness level will be up for the opportunities to come. And I met a guy named Bill and I swear to God, to you, he was like you're gonna buy this laundry man, you're gonna buy this building for me, and I'm like where the hell?

Speaker 2:

am I gonna get this damn money? Yeah right.

Speaker 3:

So it's like I open up my business and when I go to the bank they're like you need two years proof of income and before we do this you have to do blah, zay, blah, blah, zay, blah, which? And the? What's the word I wanna say?

Speaker 2:

Looking back, kind of thing yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well, looking back, but in retrospect, this is what you really have to do to get a loan from the bank. They want two years proof of income. They want tax your taxes, they want your profit and loss margins. But when you're dealing with an investor, they look at the bigger picture. Is this worth it for them? Because in my opinion, a lot of guys have a lot of money and they sit their money in the bank and the interest rate that they get from the money in the bank is doodly squat compared to them finding somebody that has a property that they're buying for $50,000 and it's already a price for $125,000. So it's a no brainer for them to be like okay, you know what, I'm gonna let you borrow the money because it doesn't make no sense rotten in the bank.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 3:

And pretty much that's how it goes. Like I try, I do my best to explain to everybody that they can do the same thing that I'm doing too. It's just pretty much common sense. It's just a matter of you believing in yourself and believing that the system works.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, I mean on both sides of it. If you have the deal, the money will always be there.

Speaker 1:

So for that, you got private money for that, or you went to that bank and got the money.

Speaker 3:

No, that bank looked at me and I was like I hate the fucking banks Join the club.

Speaker 1:

So, excuse my language, so all my deals I borrow private money.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, why wouldn't you?

Speaker 1:

Right. The thing is I do it and I take people on tours all the time. I show them what I'm doing and they're always ahead of the game. I said do you wanna leave your money in the bank? It's actually losing money because inflation is so high.

Speaker 3:

And you only get in the bank the only X amount of it is covered. So if somebody comes in, robs the bank, you lose everything.

Speaker 1:

If my house burns at this, if I fail the project, you're winning. You're double tripling your money because I buy right.

Speaker 3:

X, absolutely, absolutely. I learned the thing in one of those books that I read is called OPM. Oh yeah, other People's Money. It's all I use. Right and keep what you can get out of the other person's money and go on to the next thing. They're happy, we're happy.

Speaker 1:

It's gotta be a win for everybody. It's a win, win for everybody.

Speaker 2:

And on the lender's side of it, we looked at that Cedar Ave House and said, okay, if things go wonderfully, there's 12% return, boom, which I'm not making 12 anywhere else. If things go poorly too bad for this guy. But the house becomes ours and we make probably more than 12%. So it's great on the lender side. Now you don't wanna live with that loan for long. You wanna get out of that and get to a bank loan.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Once you did a couple of turns and got things stabilized, you could go to the bank and say, hey look, here's my two years returns. Here's what this building is doing now let's talk. And then Pat took Harry over there and got everything taken care of.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. That's the thing. When you first start, like I was saying, the bank wants to see two years' proof of income. There's a thing called collateral. So if you have purchased a property, whether you got it through a family member or whether you got it through a hard loan, which is a higher interest rate loan now you have this collateral that you could go to the bank. The bank will come out, they'll appraise the property, they'll see what you own against the property and then there is a no-brainer for them. They're gonna be like oh, you know what? Yeah, we could do this.

Speaker 1:

My problem with the banks. They take too long for me, Especially when you're buying distressed.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they look at it like it's gonna be a problem.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, oh, you can't buy it. There's no furnace in there. Yeah, no shit. There's no walls either, or a roof.

Speaker 3:

Right, they're like what makes you think that you're the guy to come fix this property and you're looking at them like you don't know me.

Speaker 1:

You're not the guy I want to borrow money from, Exactly exactly, and that's pretty much what it's like.

Speaker 2:

And with the next and we're looking and we're doing the you're starting a convenience store.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, a smoke shop. Yeah, it's a smoke shop.

Speaker 1:

I want to do one of those.

Speaker 3:

Slash.

Speaker 1:

Casino.

Speaker 3:

Entertainment.

Speaker 1:

Oh entertainment.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, skill machines.

Speaker 1:

Yes, how many are you allowed to put in? As many as you can fit.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, actually my laundry mat. I have.

Speaker 1:

You have a laundry mat.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, my waiting area for the next one.

Speaker 1:

That is cool.

Speaker 3:

You know my laundry mat is 24 hours. 602 Cedar Avenue, scranton, pennsylvania. It's Butters Bubbles that's a great name. We got the cheapest prices washes and dryers in the area and you got gamble.

Speaker 3:

We have a waiting area. Yes, the waiting area. You can sit back. Smoking is prohibited. It's separate from the laundry mat. It's a door. You go in the door. That's actually where the office is for the attendant. So if you need anything, you can ask the attendant 24 hours. Is somebody available to help you? And with the slot machines you're able to probably win some money. So you don't have to pay for your laundry or win some money to pay your rent.

Speaker 1:

That's right. You might get free laundry, pay half your rent or go buy some need. I pretty much fell off my chair.

Speaker 2:

when I saw the amount you were throwing to people at one point and they were turning in their receipts, I was like, really Do people are making this kind of money off it?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but you want them to win? Yeah, of course you do. The more they win, the more you get back. He's winning. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

The house never loses. Come on man, I know Shh.

Speaker 1:

Don't tell nobody, but everyone's happy again to win. Win situation yeah absolutely. You know, hey, honey, I gotta go do my laundry.

Speaker 3:

I'll be back.

Speaker 1:

I'll be back. How come it cost you 300 do your laundry this week? I don't know.

Speaker 2:

He really jacked the prices on that soap. It was expensive soap.

Speaker 1:

He said, is the?

Speaker 2:

cheapest in the area. Yeah, so, and then I guess the next, and then, yeah, we're kind of moving forward on other adventures possibly and you're getting certified as something right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so at this point in my life I've I'm blessed to say that I've gained a lot.

Speaker 3:

I've made a transition in life that, um, at one point in my and one point in time in my life that I would never thought that I would be, you know, to be able to achieve, and, um, a Lot of people are like in a depressed state where, though, they believe that they're stuck in the situation that they're in.

Speaker 3:

So, um, while I cut here, you know I have a lot of conversations with the young, young people and people that are distressed, and, um, you know, I want to see people elevate themselves. So there's a thing called CRS, which is a certified peer specialist. On their job title or description is pretty much if you have any kind of issues or you need any kind of help in any kind of matter, their job is to Help you with the roller-decks full of information to get you where you need to go in life, and and I'm in the process of getting my certified peer specialist Certificate shortly. So that's going to be one of my little half-time after All this business event you to keep myself occupied and to give back to the community.

Speaker 1:

That's great.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. That's awesome, yeah, and Hopefully you know we're and we're also. We're also talking about doing some transitional housing Projects and you pretty much getting involved in a lot of stuff, which is great. You know you start from there and you grow it. Whatever comes next, you know you don't give up.

Speaker 3:

You don't give up. You know you get one goal. The feeling that you, the feeling that you get from accomplishing a goal, is great. When I was younger, a teacher told me that you know Goals is. Some people think goals is hard to accomplish. The goal in setting goals is you make a big one and then you make a whole bunch of small goals To reach the big gold, and then, when you reach that big goal, you start creating more small ones to reach another bigger one, and that cycle just goes on and you could keep on doing it for the rest of your life and you hear this from all of the big gurus, but I happen to be at a Damon John event a couple weeks ago and you know he's he's.

Speaker 2:

He's a great story, and one of the things I learned from him years ago was he's like you don't say I want to make a million dollars. He's like you say I want to make two million one hundred eighty six thousand and forty five cents. He make it specific then you back it off from there.

Speaker 2:

And that's the thing is to back it off from there. If you just say I want to make a million dollars, that's a dream, that's not a goal. Okay, now how am I getting there? Military friend of mine told me he's like when they went to beat Germany in World War two. They didn't say we want to be Germany. They said, okay, we want to take Berlin. Now, what comes before taking Berlin? We're gonna do this and this and this and this, this. Well, what's the tomorrow part of that? That's.

Speaker 3:

That's the way you get there small goals or reach a big goal.

Speaker 1:

You gotta have a roadmap.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. You can't just say you know what, I want this Bentley, and then you like how the hell I'm gonna get.

Speaker 1:

Let me start off on my Chevy yeah yeah, yeah, I'll get you one. He owns a bike store also, if everyone wants the thing this count prices.

Speaker 2:

It's almost like this from Queens also we met early in life. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah entrepreneur. All right, so I mean, that's pretty much all I can think. Is anything else you want to talk about or bring it up? I'm not sure. What else are you guys?

Speaker 1:

on real estate where you want to go. You want to. Just, you want to get rentals, you want to flip, you want to get more. Oh, bubble places, smoke shops.

Speaker 3:

Just at this point in time of my life, right now, um, I have two major ventures that are big goals that I'm working to accomplish. Um, and Then, after those two major goals, my plan is also to uh, get property in Virginia close to Virginia Beach, and then I want to expand out out of the country, like um, I have a Business idea that I would like to do in Jamaica and that I want to work on, and um, yeah, real estate's the key, that's right.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'll help you get to Jamaica. Oh God is good.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, god is good. That's. That's been the quote all this, for that means power.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm gonna start wrapping it up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so basically this is the RACN podcast Real estate community network PA on Facebook and other places. Let me get a little closer to make this. Mike trying to throw a picture in here, like I did so yeah, we're still talking though. But yeah, so um, and Anytime you need to reach us real estate community network PA, you can also drop by our office, but call first, because we're usually out doing things and making money.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're never really here. This is just uh, I don't even had to explain the office to people.

Speaker 2:

It's. It's like the crash pad you had in college. I'm not there, we're just a shower.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's my parents house. Yeah, hey, thank you, it's been great.

Speaker 3:

It's definitely a blessing.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I'm glad your friends with Steve. Now You're my friend. Yeah, I know you guys are doing business together.

Speaker 3:

Well, I want to do some business with you too, big Mike from the group. Oh yeah, mother.

Speaker 1:

Hey, thanks for listening. Make sure you find this on Facebook real estate community network PA. Listen to our real estate community network podcast. It's on everything from Spotify to Amazon to Apple, whatever we're on there. Thank you, everybody. Have a great day.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, appreciate it. Bye you.