Today we are joined by Adam Colburn, the owner-operator of Oak & Arrow Home Solutions based in Raleigh, NC. As a local company, they have an intimate understanding of the area, ensuring they can provide the best offer to potential home sellers.
Adam’s passion for helping people and creating win-win situations is at the core of his business. He believes that by focusing on serving first, success will always follow. This approach is evident in his company’s goal of providing practical solutions to any real estate situation, and this sense of community helps him better connect with potential private lenders—recently raising $5 million in a day!
Join us in this episode as we learn from Adam’s experience and get valuable insights into his business philosophy.
Key Takeaways:
- Raising private money is as simple as starting conversations.
- Offering the knowledge that raising private money through IRAs is a tax-free way for private lenders.
- How Adam raised $5 million in private money
- Get returns for your investors safely and securely
- Leading with a servant’s heart
- Working with senior living homes to find private lenders
- How to start a conversation about private money with a potential lender
- What is a senior transitions specialist?
- Take the action for your passion.
Check out my book: 7 Reasons Why Private Money Will Skyrocket Your Real Estate Business and Help You Build Incredible Wealth!
Get it here for FREE: www.jayconner.com/moneyguide
Sign up for the Private Money Academy and get 4-weeks free: https://jay-conner.mykajabi.com/offers/AMM4hCPW/checkout
Connect with Adam:
Website: www.oakandarrowhomesolutions.com
Email: oakandarrowhomesolutions@gmail.com
Timestamps:
0:01 – Raising Private Money with Jay Conner
1:06 – Today’s Guest: Adam Colburn
4:10 – Did You Know That There Is A Way To Earn Tax-Free Money?
6:21 – How Adam Raised $5 Million In Private Money
9:00 – How To Get Returns For Your Investors Safely & Securely
10:49 – Lead With A Servant’s Heart
15:43 – Senior Living Facilities Are Great Leads For Raising Private Money
21:07 – What Is A Senior Transitions Specialist?
25:50 – Jay’s Free Money Guide: https://www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide
27:01 – If You Have Something You Are Passionate About, Do It And Take Action – Adam Colburn
How Adam Raised $5 Million In One Day
[00:00:00] Adam Colburn:
What comes to mind for why I do what I do is freedom and impact. Really it’s all for my family. My kids, I have three little kids, a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and a three-month-old. And so really just providing them the life that they could never dream of, providing financial freedom for them. Stability in the home. My wife and I. Being able to go on cool trips and just have a great experience just living.
[00:00:17] Narrator:
If you are a real estate investor and are wondering how to raise and leverage private money to make more profit on every deal then you’re in the right place on raising private money, we’ll speak with new and seasoned investors to dissect their deals and extract the best tips and strategies to help you get the money because the money comes first. Now, here’s your host, Jay Conner.
[00:01:04] Jay Conner:
My guest today on raising private money has recently raised $400,000 in private money for his real estate deals until yesterday. When he raised an additional 5 million in private money, and here on today’s show, he’s gonna share exactly how he’s done it step by step. Before we get started, just a little bit about him.
[00:01:28] Jay Conner:
He loves what he does because he has the opportunity to really. Create what we call win-win situations for everybody involved. He truly believes if you are focusing on serving other people first, you’re always going to succeed. His network of real estate professionals can provide options for any situation when he is negotiating with sellers.
[00:01:53] Jay Conner:
So his company is a family-owned company that strives to provide great customer service to everyone that they come across, even if they don’t buy the house from the seller that they’re talking to. He has the privilege to serve in the Raleigh, North Carolina real estate market, and he is so successful because he’s got a great team that follows his same vision, which is serving first.
[00:02:19] Jay Conner:
You’re going to meet my guest, Adam Colburn, right after this.
[00:02:32] Jay Conner:
Adam, 5 million, $400,000 in private money, and 5 million of it just in one day. That just came in recently. We can’t wait to hear about that. So, Adam, you’re in the Raleigh, North Carolina real estate investing market. You’re raising private money. How long have you been investing?
[00:02:53] Adam Colburn:
So I’ve only been investing for about a year and a half.
[00:02:56] Jay Conner:
A year and a half. And honest success. That you are already enjoying. What kind of real estate deals are you doing?
[00:03:03] Adam Colburn:
So we do primarily fix and flips and we do some wholesaling as well. This kind of our goal for the next part of the end of this year as we continue to scale is to build up our rental portfolio as well.
[00:03:16] Jay Conner:
So the private money that you are raising, of course, you’re using private money when you’re paying all cash for your real estate deal. Where are you finding your private lenders? Who are these people?
[00:03:28] Adam Colburn:
Yeah, so I find my private lenders primarily just through family and friend relationships. Maybe old colleagues from past work experiences or from school maybe your old aunt or uncle that you only see every few years, just let ’em know what I’m doing now and I could provide an opportunity for them to make a high rate of return on their investment capital or their retirement funds safely and securely.
[00:03:52] Adam Colburn:
And so most people, once they understand the value that can bring to their life they’re definitely open to talking.
[00:04:00] Jay Conner:
So how do you start a conversation with people about what private money is and private lending?
[00:04:07] Adam Colburn:
Typically the way that I start the conversation about private lending is just by asking if they are investing at all, like in the stock market in CDs through the bank.
[00:04:18] Adam Colburn:
Just kind. Just in passing, just like how you would ask like, how’s the weather? How are the kids are you investing in anything right now? Like, how’s the market? And just listen to what they say. And then generally they’re not very happy, especially in the last couple of years with the market being so up and down.
[00:04:34] Adam Colburn:
And so it’s I have an opportunity that I’d love to share with you about a way to have safe and secure. Returns that are much higher than what you’re typically expecting. And then I just shut up and let wait for them to kind make their eyes big. Okay, tell me more.
[00:04:58] Jay Conner:
I love to start conversations. One of my favorite ways, And I know you’ve heard me say it, one of my favorite ways to start a conversation about private money is I love, did you know questions? So one of my favorite did you know questions is I’ll be, talking with somebody and I’ll say, did you know there’s a way people can earn unlimited money per year tax-free?
[00:05:21] Jay Conner:
And then I shut up. And of course, the answer’s no. They’ve never heard of any way that you can earn tax-free money. And so when they say no, my follow-up question to that is, have you ever heard of self-directed IRA accounts and self-directed IRA companies? And of course, they haven’t in most cases. And so that opens up a great door and conversation to what self-directed IRAs are and how what private money is and how all that works.
[00:05:52] Jay Conner:
And so I love those conversation starters. Yeah, that’s great. So 5 million from one private lender. Tell us the story.
[00:06:06] Adam Colburn: Yeah, it’s a pretty out-of-the-blue incredible situation. But my business partner, he’s local as well, he’s a CPA and so one of his clients had just come into a windfall of money from selling a property to the local government and.
[00:06:23] Adam Colburn:
Knew that he had this large amount of capital just sitting in a bank account. And so we just had a, just a brief conversation. It was like do you have any plans for that? Would you wanna make it grow? And he’s just it’s sitting in a bank account making about 5%. And I guess I’m pretty happy with that.
[00:06:38] Adam Colburn:
And I was like what if we could double that for you? Secured by assets and he paused and said, yeah, I think we can, we could do something there. And so he understood what we’re doing now with Flipp houses and investing in real estate and could see the value in that real true mailbox money.
[00:06:56] Adam Colburn:
And just. Protecting as well as growing this large sum of money that he just came into. And so it was a surprise to me. I was actually working on my bathroom over the weekend and I get a call saying, Hey I think we’ve got all the money we need right now, really. And so yeah, it was a happy surprise to be on my hands and knees all weekend fixing a leaking toilet to then come into 5 million to put out into the streets.
[00:07:23] Jay Conner:
Pretty cool. I tell you, I’m so glad you were able to share this story because this right here is what I call a writer. And that is CPAs. Now your business partner happens to be a CPA, but for those of us real estate investors that don’t have business partners, that are CPAs are a fantastic resource for what I call a rotating revolving door of re of referrals.
[00:07:50] Jay Conner:
CPAs as your business partner. Sees people’s tax returns, they notice what’s going on, know what’s going on with people’s finances. And so why not have your CPA, whoever’s doing your doing your returns and such, and why not have your c p A referring people to you as another option for getting high rates of return safely and securely?
[00:08:16] Jay Conner:
And, Adam, you, we talk about getting returns for our private lender. Safely and securely talk about what that means. In other words, we’re not borrowing unsecured funds. We could if we were raising money for syndication and pooling funds into a syndicated fund. But we’re not borrowing unsecured funds.
[00:08:40] Jay Conner:
Explain exactly what you mean by a secured investment.
[00:08:45] Adam Colburn:
Absolutely. So for. To secure the asset that we are lending against. We use a deed of trust here in North Carolina. It’s called a mortgage in some other states. And a promissory note, basically promising to pay back the amount that they are lending to us.
[00:09:01] Adam Colburn:
And so that protects them from, if we were to, heaven forbid, get hit by a bus or abducted by aliens, they can, they get the asset back to them in a better condition than what. Originally purchased it for, so they could probably make even more money than the interest rate that we’re paying them. And On top of that, I like to protect my lenders by not allowing them to lend more than 75% of the after-repair value of the property.
[00:09:27] Adam Colburn:
So there’s a nice equity cushion for them that if, with kind of the market being a little bit tumultuous right now not really knowing where it’s gonna land as far as values by the time of the end of a project, there’s plenty of cushions there that if we did need to slash prices or take. A pretty significant discount.
[00:09:44] Adam Colburn:
The lenders are always protected.
[00:09:53] Jay Conner:
Yeah. And that’s what I love about the private lending program that we teach other people about it. Speaking of teaching my wife Carol Joy and I, right now we’ve got 47 private lenders that are loaning us money on our deals, about eight and a half million dollars. That we rotate from, different project to project.
[00:10:14] Jay Conner:
And like yourself, Adam. We don’t borrow more than 75% of the repaired value, but we always secure it. We’re not borrowing unsecured funds even though we could legally. I know some people that do, but I don’t do it. I don’t teach it. I don’t recommend it. And, in the intro when I was bringing you on here to the show, you like, We lead with a servant’s heart, and what that means is taking care of all of our people and all of our relationships.
[00:10:45] Jay Conner:
This is a relationship business, but how about giving some examples of how you lead by serving first in your business? And I know it relates to everything you do.
[00:10:56] Adam Colburn:
Sure, absolutely. And The way that I like to serve first I guess an example of a property that we’re working on. Gotta get a little bit creative for the situation.
[00:11:05] Adam Colburn:
A lot of my lead generation has pivoted to working in the senior living space. I’ve seen it’s very much an underserved market here locally. Everywhere you look, there are assisted living or independent living facilities. Nobody really knows the inner workings of getting those families transitioned to care.
[00:11:25] Adam Colburn:
And so there was an individual at, an independent living facility. He’s, the director of Of onboarding and he reached out to me and said, Hey, I’ve got this lady. She’s, she lives in the middle of nowhere. His words a tiny little town in North Carolina. She, her whole house has been boxed up for three months waiting to move, but she can’t move until she sells this house.
[00:11:48] Adam Colburn:
And there were three interested buyers came in. And lost her financing or something happened that they couldn’t get the deal done. And so I reached out to her and just tried to get caught up to speed on what the situation was and she relayed the same information like Adam, I’m literally just sleeping on the floor, on the, on my mattress, waiting to move to the community that I’m want to live in.
[00:12:11] Adam Colburn:
I just have to sell this property. And because it’s not really a situation where I would do business, I’ve never even heard of the name of this town before. We looked at it. She owned the home free and clear. And so I was able to lay out several different options for her using creative finance.
[00:12:27] Adam Colburn:
And so we came in with the offer of full asking price on seller finance, 20% down to cover her moving expenses and living in the facility because those get pretty. From a monthly standpoint, and she was on a fixed income, so I wanted to make sure that there were plenty of cushions for her to live in the community and cover her phone bill, her car bill, and everything we could take care of initially to move her to care quickly and easily.
[00:12:53] Adam Colburn:
And in the interim, we could have that flexibility for not having to buy the house outright to go and do a little bit of renovation, and then we could sell the home on rent. Through our Rent to own program to one of those interested buyers that they lost financing for. And so it really worked out to be a win for all parties involved.
[00:13:11] Adam Colburn:
The community got their new resident, the individual got the care that she needed and out of the property that was holding her back. And then I was able to find a family to go with and enjoy that property. Like a workaround because they. Able to get financing through the bank.
[00:13:26] Jay Conner:
That’s a beautiful story, Adam, as to, you’re like the orchestra director, right? You’re like brought together all the parties involved to make that happen. Let me dive a little bit deeper into your story. First of all, so you offered 20% down for her to take back a note and be the seller financing, did you bring your own money for that 20% down, or did you use private money for that 20%?
[00:13:52] Adam Colburn:
In that tuition, we actually used a HELOC, so an in-between. Line of credit, was a low-interest rate, so we could send that out to her, get her into the community, and then we could float the payments for a few months until we put the family into the situation. And so typically I would use private money, but we’ve just worked out that we had that line available at a little lower interest rate.
[00:14:13] Adam Colburn:
And it was a speed-to-deal situation. And so rather than chasing down my lenders with money on the shelf to put it to work for them, I knew that capital was a.
[00:14:23] Jay Conner:
That’s good. That’s good. My other question is about this whole story, this whole deal came about by the onboarding director at a senior living home, who reached out to you to see if you could help.
[00:14:39] Jay Conner:
So how did the senior living person, and onboarding person at that facility know about you and what you do on buying and selling houses?
[00:14:48] Adam Colburn:
Yeah, absolutely. The way that they learned about me is that I do a lot of like outreach to senior living professionals. Just knowing that. The value that we can provide these families going through these situations is to have a quick, easy sale, generally, cash as is.
[00:15:06] Adam Colburn:
They’ll take a discount on their equity for speed and convenience. And so I was actually quite surprised that. I’ve probably talked to 50 different directors and just professionals in this industry. And every single one of them has said, where have you been all my life? They needed somebody to offer a different solution than a traditional MLS sale.
[00:15:28] Adam Colburn:
And so we’re able to fill that gap and provide that value for the families. And so I had made a relationship with the gentleman, and so after talking, meeting each other at networking events and stuff back and forth, he’s Here. I got a weird one for you, but it was kinda like my tester and so we sent it out we’re still working through that one, but it’s just like you said, just trying to provide value to all parties.
[00:15:52] Jay Conner:
Would you say that senior living facilities are now your primary source of lead referrals?
[00:16:00] Adam Colburn:
I think it’s about 50-50 right now with that. And then just off-market marketing, we do a lot of direct mail and cold calling as well. But I love the idea of free leads, especially warm leads coming from referral sources.
[00:16:15] Adam Colburn:
And so building those relationships is super important to me. I also think that those sellers are generally in need of our services, and it’s super fulfilling for me to be able to provide that value for those families.
[00:16:28] Jay Conner:
Let’s dive into that for a little bit, because that’s really interesting.
[00:16:32] Jay Conner:
I’ve got I have a friend, not in this state, but elsewhere, who is his total lead source. This is all he does is establish relationships with senior living facilities and offer what we do. Let’s go down that path for a moment. When you, how does that work? How do you start the conversation?
[00:16:53] Jay Conner:
What is the service that you bring to the table? What does a conversation sound like when you’re first starting to talk with someone at the senior living facility? And let’s start right there. Who should that someone be? What is their title at the senior living?
[00:17:10] Adam Colburn:
Sure. Absolutely. And I’m pretty sure I know the friend you’re talking about, cuz we are friends as well.
[00:17:15] Adam Colburn:
He taught me this strategy. But is his first name Max? No, it’s actually Phillip.
[00:17:19] Jay Conner:
Oh, Phillip, of course. Yeah, I know
[00:17:21] Adam Colburn:
Phillip as well. Yeah. Getting back to your question, the people that you want to talk to in the senior living industry it varies. It could be the owner of the building.
[00:17:30] Adam Colburn:
You obviously aren’t gonna see them very often. I like to talk to the director. For the operations manager because they know a 30,000-foot view of what’s going on in the community. They know their occupancy rates, and they know obviously the pricing. And they’re involved with the financial decisions that the families have to make to move into care.
[00:17:50] Adam Colburn:
Financial directors are also good ones because that’s literally all they do is look at the numbers and they have to have those difficult conversations with families sometimes. And so the way that I reach out to them is by Joining a lot of different networking groups that are specific to senior living.
[00:18:05] Adam Colburn:
So you have to listen to some presentations about all kinds of things that you’re, you would never. Sit through on a normal day, but to build that relationship and be that person that can fill in the gap for them it’s well worth it. And so when I first got started, I was sending just a lot of cold emails to just their websites where you could fill in an information sheet to say Hey, I’m interested in living here.
[00:18:28] Adam Colburn:
But I would just frame it as Hey, I actually don’t wanna live here, but I want to talk to somebody with your team. Ever since Covid, it’s not really kosher to just walk in, especially to a senior living facility just with the health problems that could arise from that. And so just blanket sending out emails just like I would direct mail to sellers.
[00:18:46] Adam Colburn:
And so people started responding and. And we would jump into the conversation that way. And so in those emails, I would basically say, Hey I’m a senior transition specialist. I work with families that are transitioning from their homes to care. And I think I could pr provide a great service for the community and your potential clients.
[00:19:07] Adam Colburn:
I’d love to sit down and chat and see what that looks like and just keep it open-ended and curious enough that they would wanna reach out and see what we’re talking about.
[00:19:16] Jay Conner:
And what did you call yourself? How did you frame your service? You’re a senior what?
[00:19:20] Adam Colburn:
Senior transition specialist.
[00:19:23] Jay Conner:
A senior transition specialist. My best guess is if you start the conversation with, you’re a real estate investor, you just got the door shut in your face.
[00:19:31] Adam Colburn:
A hundred percent, absolutely.
[00:19:35] Jay Conner:
So when you meet somebody, how do you describe what is your service as a senior transition special?
[00:19:43] Adam Colburn:
Absolutely. So the way that I describe it it’s typically I immediately ask them a question.
[00:19:47] Adam Colburn:
And so I would say Jay let me first by start asking you a question. Do you ever have a situation where a family loves your community, they wanna move in, but they have to sell a piece of property first and just shut up? And generally, they’re gonna, and they’re probably gonna say yes.
[00:20:03] Adam Colburn:
Yeah. They’re like, I got a whole drawer of people over here. And that’s like we, we can step in and fill that gap and speed up that process for those families. And then we go into the whole. The full-on pitch of the benefits of taking cash as-is offers from our company rather than a traditional MLS listing.
[00:20:21] Adam Colburn:
Just from a speed standpoint, we can close in as little as 10 days, even less if it’s a serious emergency. Compared to listing on a market to actually close is generally six to nine months in our market. And so a lot of these families that need our service, the house is not in great condition.
[00:20:41] Adam Colburn:
There’s some deferred maintenance over the years, and so for them to get that full offer, the maximum amount of money on the MLS, they’re gonna have to put a considerable amount of money into the property money that they probably don’t have, and they don’t want to incur more debt to go and move into a community that costs, on average, about $6,000 a month.
[00:21:02] Adam Colburn:
We can come in off offer less, but as is cash. We’re not agents, so there are no commissions, and there are no closing costs. We cover all that. And we can close so quickly that a lot of the families will reevaluate their expectations and can see the value that a quick cash sale can make for transitioning their loved one to care.
[00:21:23] Jay Conner:
And I would also imagine, you correct me if I’m wrong, I would also imagine part of your service. They don’t have to clean out the house, they can leave in the house, whatever they want, you take care of, all of that. And just make it seamless and simple and easy to do.
[00:21:40] Adam Colburn:
Absolutely. Yeah. We actually call it our concierge home-buying surface.
[00:21:43] Adam Colburn:
So it’s a total white glove. All they have to do is sign the documents and we take care of the rest.
[00:21:48] Jay Conner:
There you go. I love it. I love it. Adam, why do you do what you do?
[00:21:52] Adam Colburn:
So the two words that come to mind for why I do what I do is freedom and impact. Really it’s all for my family. My kids, I have three little kids, a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and a three-month-old.
[00:22:06] Adam Colburn:
And so really just providing them the life that, that they could never dream of, providing financial freedom for them. Stability in the home. My wife and I. Being able to go on cool trips and just have a great experience, just living right. Never have to worry about being paycheck to paycheck or can we afford to do this or that.
[00:22:26] Adam Colburn:
That’s more of the freedom side. And then the impact is definitely. Providing value and service to our community, becoming a pillar in our small little town here that we can provide services to those in need. I’m, one of the things I’m really passionate about down the line is starting a business development course or an afterschool program for high school and college kids to make an incubator of ideas for people that are, have the entrepreneurial spirit or even don’t have that spirit, but want to hear about more than just the traditional. Go to college, get a job, be there with your whole life, and then retire. Because I didn’t really have that, I caught the entire entrepreneur bug late in life.
[00:23:14] Adam Colburn:
Or at least followed that path more openly as I got older and started having kids. Interesting how that worked. But yeah freedom and impact is really what it comes down to for me.
[00:23:26] Jay Conner:
Since you mentioned the word impact, clearly that is one of my big whys. My passion is one of my passions, and I have many, one of my passions is sharing with other real estate entrepreneurs or new ones.
[00:23:40] Jay Conner:
Want to learn what this private money thing is and you know how that works? And so I have recently written a new private money guide that will get you if you’re a new real estate investor, or maybe you’re a seasoned real estate investor and you just wanna raise private money or raise much more private money when my new private money guide is called Seven Reasons.
[00:24:02] Jay Conner:
Why private money will skyrocket your real estate business and help you build incredible wealth? This guide will get you on the fast track, getting private money, just like Adam has shared here on the show. You can download it for free at www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide. Again, you can download it at www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide.
[00:24:36] Jay Conner:
Adam, I tell you what an amazing story you have been able to share here with us. I appreciate you coming on here so much, and I’ll give it to you for the final piece of advice. Any lessons learned that you want to share or a lesson learned that you would do differently today than how you started out, or any advice you’d like to share before we close?
[00:24:58] Adam Colburn:
Sure. Absolutely. One advice piece of advice I’d like to leave is just to take the action. If there’s something that you’re passionate about or even just mildly interested in, you’ll never know if it’s something that you actually want to pursue unless you take the action. And for many years I was a professional photographer shooting real estate, like for MLS, photos for just realtors, and was always fascinated by the idea of flipping houses, but never really thought it was attainable.
[00:25:24] Adam Colburn:
And just left it at that until about two years ago when I made the leap into real estate investing and now it’s skyrocketed our success. And you’ll never know if it’s gonna work out or if you even like it unless you take the action.
[00:25:37] Jay Conner: I love it. Adam, thank you so much. There you have it. Another episode of Raising Private Money. I’m Jay Conner, The Private Money Authority, and I really appreciate the shares. Think of someone that you believe would really get a lot of value outta this episode and share it. Also, be sure to subscribe. If you’re watching on your YouTube, be sure and click that bell so you don’t miss out on the other.
[00:26:03] Jay Conner:
For any other upcoming amazing episodes, if you’re listening on iTunes, be sure and follow. And the same on Spotify. So here’s taking your business to the next level. I’m looking forward to seeing you right here on the next episode of Raising Private Money.
[00:26:22] Narrator:
Are you feeling inspired by the knowledge you gained in this episode? Then head over to www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide. That’s www.JayConner.com/MoneyGuide and download your free guide that shares seven reasons why private money will skyrocket your real estate investing business right now. Again, that’s jay connor.com/money guide to get your free guide. We’ll see you next time on Raising Private Money With Jay Conner.