Consistency Mindset: From Delivering Pizzas To A 9-Figure Real Estate Career With Pamela Bardhi

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Real estate is the industry that creates the most millionaires. But in order to break into the industry, you need the right mindset. You need consistency. Real estate markets are changing constantly, so you need to be prepared to pivot and you need to be consistent at that. That is why it’s important to start at your niche, and then you can build from there. Join Tim Herriage as he talks to real estate and life coach, Pamela Bardhi about how she went from delivering pizzas to creating a 9-figure real estate career. She was also featured in Forbes and Time Magazine at 27 years old. Discover how she made it in this industry by having the right mindset. Find out why real estate is really just a numbers game and how you can really know your math. Also, learn why you need to focus on your niche first before you branch out to other markets. So what are you waiting for? Go out there and start hustling.

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Consistency Mindset: From Delivering Pizzas To A 9-Figure Real Estate Career With Pamela Bardhi

A member of my family is here, Pam Bardhi. Thank you for stopping by.

Thank you so much for having me, Tim.  

I have known you for several months now. I have been following you online. I’m glad you were able to swing to Dallas. Why don’t you take a minute and tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

I am the real estate underdog. If you notice on my title, it says, “Real estate underdog.” I went from delivering pizzas to a nine-figure real estate career. People are like, “Pam, how the hell did you do that?” There is a whole backstory to all of that, which I can get into. It’s totally up to you, but that is what happened. I made it through flipping properties in the Boston, Massachusetts market, but it didn’t start that way.

I like to start each episode with what I call the bluff, the bottom line up front. When I was in the Marine Corps, they always told us, “Don’t bury the lead. The general has got to know the most important thing in case he has to get up,” or something like that. What I want you to do is take two minutes, pour into the audience, and talk about the most important things that you see in today’s economy, real estate market, and society in general. Things you think people should be doing or maybe staying away from at this phase in the market.

The most important thing for you to know and understand when it comes to this is to know your numbers. Please never fall in love with the deal and the property. Fall in love with the numbers. One of the most critical things that I have learned throughout my real estate development career has been to know your numbers and analyze them properly. Leave a lot of buffer room and contingency for that construction budget because we all know what can happen.

For example, I had budgeted a 20% contingency in every single one of my deals before COVID hit. Thank God I did because I needed that for my construction material. Otherwise, these are the types of things that people lose their shirts. As the market is shifting, make sure that you know your numbers like the back of your hand, and be conservative. I can’t stress how important that is. Not only that, but also focus on multiple exit strategies. You look at a property. If something comes across my desk, I need to look at it as a short-term rental, a long-term rental or if I can flip it, and all the different avenues that I can take with it before I do the deal.

The second most important piece to that is before you ever put an offer on a property, you need to know roughly what your property margin is going to be in each of those exit strategies. If you know your numbers and you have multiple exit strategies, you cannot lose. The third thing that I would mention to you guys, especially in this market, because we came off of the summer season. Everyone is making money. Everyone is happy and driving. That’s great. Now you got to prepare for winter. What are you going to do about that? What comes next? Make sure that you have these multiple exit strategies, you have everything in place, and you know your numbers and profit margin in advance because it’s going to be very cool.

There is this thing called math. They used to teach it in school, but they haven’t taught it in real estate in the last couple of years because you could say, “We will sell the house for $1 million.” It would sell, and if it didn’t, wait a month and it would. I was at a mastermind and somebody said, “These houses, I’m reducing the price three times in the first two weeks.” I was like, “Are you bad at math?” He was like, “What do you mean?”

I was like, “Aren’t you running the average of the last three sold comps in the last 90 days, pricing it at that, and seeing that it’s going to take 25 days on the market?” He was like, “I hadn’t thought about that.” These people don’t have that experience and skillset. I know you’re a real estate agent as well. Talk about how people can maybe hone those skills that they need to be better at in this stage of the market.

I come from three different angles of the real estate development game. I’m a licensed general contractor. I’m a real estate developer. I also have my real estate license. What’s interesting for me is I become a triple threat on a project because I can look at it from three different angles for all my multiple exit strategies and whatnot. The main thing is a lot of people don’t put pen to paper when they look at a deal. As you said, it comes down to the math.

That’s what I was talking about in my minute. It comes down to the numbers. Don’t over-exert yourself in this market. That’s how people have lost their shirts. You see developers that do 1 to 4 units. All of a sudden, they want to get into a new construction project with 10 to 20-plus homes, and that is how they lose their shirt. Stick to what you’re good at. The riches are in the niches. Stick to that, especially during this winter season.

It’s super critical because you want to stick to what you know and what you’re good at. Make sure you are planning out those multiple exit strategies with all the numbers attached to them. You know, “If I can’t sell this, I can refi it, rent it for this amount, and sell for this number later when the market shifts.” There are multiple layers to that math.

That’s the second time you have said, “Winter season.” I’m from Texas. We don’t have winter here. Are you talking about snow on the ground or are you saying the winter season of the last real estate bull market? I need to be clear here.

Tony Robbins talks about the different seasons in the business. We were in summer and fall in the real estate market for a long time. You could put a property on the market. You could be a brand new agent. You just get your license, put up some nice pictures, and get some nice floor plans and descriptions. You are all of a sudden under contract. You’re gone and good to go.

Those who have stayed in the game for a long time know what to do. They know how to pivot. They know multiple options. We were having this conversation where everyone was like, “It is a horrible time to buy.” You and I are looking at this and we were like, “This makes it a great buying market.” If we can’t get a 30-year fixed loan, we’re going to get an adjustable-rate loan. We are solid for the next ten years. We can refinance later. We got the house at a cheaper deal. That’s how you win.

I was speaking at a conference and I found a clip by Warren Buffett in 2017 where he referred to a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage as a one-way bet. It’s Warren Buffett that figures this out. He had borrowed $120,000 on this investment property he bought. The host of the CNBC episode was like, “Why did you borrow that money? You didn’t need to.” He goes, “I was attracted to the interest rate and figured I could do a lot better than they were charging me.” Investors don’t see that. Somewhat you may have to pay 6% or 7% on the interest rate, but for that extra money or cash in your hand, what could you do with it now? I won’t say there is blood in the street, but there are fear-induced opportunities, in my opinion.

When I said, “This is winter season.” Not everyone is prepared for winter.

It’s like a bunch of Texans got dropped off in Chicago in December.

There are all these newcomers that came into the market because the market was hot. Now all of a sudden, everyone is dropping like flies. The season ones come in and they say, “We have this skillset.” The skillset is mainly learning how to pivot, having multiple exit strategies and different ways to do that, and not getting stuck in one way of thinking because that is how you lose.

The most creative people create the best things like Ron LeGrand. He comes in and he is like, “I do the seller financing and this.” I’m like, “This is the most creative thing I have ever heard in my life.” Bob Allen was like, “No money down.” They do deals like that. Their creativity has made them millions. If you can be creative on a deal, this is the opportunity to do that right here right now, but it can’t be what everybody else does. Those skillsets are honed over time. Those will survive the winter season because they got their jackets ready.

I want to jump straight into this because I know you have a very experienced background in rehab, rehab management, and all that. It’s one of those things I personally struggle with as an investor. It’s something I have watched a lot of people struggle with over the last two years. It has been okay in the last two years because your house ended up anywhere 25% more anyway. Let’s start there. Let’s talk about managing rehabs, budgets, scopes, timelines, and all of that, and advice, tips, tricks or whatever.

Everything comes back down to the numbers. Real estate investing is a numbers game. That’s why I always say, “Don’t fall in love with the deal. Fall in love with the numbers.” I have this whole system that I use. Before I even write an offer on a property, I am analyzing the deal. The first thing that I’ll do is I’ll say, “Where do I want to focus on?” It’s West Rock Ridge. It’s a certain section of Boston that I know extremely well, and I purchased 1 to 4 units in this market. I have always done extremely well. If you stick to your niche and location, you streamline everything.

My process is very much streamlined because of that. I picked that one location, and I have all my contractors in one location. If I have a property on one street, I could send them over two streets over, and things are much more streamlined. When you purchase properties, people ask me, “Pam, I have seen some cheap deals in Kansas and all these other places.” I’m like, “Great, where are the contractors that are going to work on that property? How long is it going to take for them to get their travel time? Who is going to watch them when they get there? Where is the closest material house to that?” People are like, “Uh.”

You have to factor in everything from a construction management side before you take on any project that needs work. If it’s something that is light, that is okay. That’s not the end of the world, but you want to try to streamline all your properties and what you purchase into one central location before you go wild and go all over the place. At one point, I had projects, one was North and one was South. They were 40 minutes away from each other. It was completely inefficient because the same guys who would work on my property that was down South would not be the same ones that worked up North. It was all over the place. You always want to be concentrated on a specific location for construction purposes. I know it sounds crazy.

No, it doesn’t because when you say that, I think about Blackstone in 2012. They didn’t buy their first thousand houses in 25 cities. They bought them in Phoenix because they knew they had to stand up a construction operation. They knew they had to stand up a maintenance operation. They knew they had to have a central base of operations. They needed warehouses. I know that is a massive scale, but it’s still business that boils down to the micro level or those of us that are small time, 5 houses at a time instead of 5,000.

There have been a lot of talks over the last couple of years about people chasing yield. They were like, “My market is too competitive. I got to go over here. In this market, I have to pay too much. I can’t make enough. I got to go over here.” What say you to that? I saw what you did. Why don’t you tell me what you have to say?

I think it’s garbage. Competition is a great sign that it is a greater market to invest in. There is plenty of opportunity there. I used to still slam deals in Boston that people were like, “How did you get that deal in this market at this point in time? It’s a slam dunk.” I’m like, “I concentrated on my one location and my asset classes.”

If you’re out there as a commercial developer and you are going into residential, you are going to have some problems, and vice versa. I have seen people try to outstretch themselves, and that is when they run into trouble. Get your process down in a niche state and then crank out from there. Even if you’re doing rehabs and flipping them, or even if you are holding them for long periods of time, that maintenance comes in and all of that. There is always opportunity in the market. It’s a matter of how hungry you are.

I have been in the Dallas market for twenty years. Dallas is the hotbed of all real estate investing activity ever. I never had to leave and I have done okay for myself. We bought a house. It’s worth $500,000. We bought it for $300,000. It needs about $50,000 worth of work, but they are going to lease it from us for a year. Not every deal was like that, but they still happen even after the hardest market, and that’s 70% of ARV deal.

I want to flip the script on you a little bit because your podcast is now the top 1.5% in the world. Congratulations. To do something like that, to manage rehabs, and to have a good reputation as an agent, you have to be super consistent. To teach, train, mentor and consult, consistency is key. I’m creating your own answer here, but it seems like you have mastered consistency. Talk about some of the other skills and attributes that you have found to be the most beneficial in your track to success.

I came to the US when I was five from Albania. I was born in Albania. My parents won the visa lottery to come here when I was five. My dad dropped everything. We didn’t have any family here. They didn’t speak any English. They won the visa lottery to come here to enable them to become US citizens over time. I saw my dad working roofing jobs and putting away photos at Kodak. Now everything is digital and iPhone.

He eventually got into the restaurant world. In the restaurant world, he started to become friends with the owner of the restaurant. The owner became his best friend. He said to him, “The way that you build wealth in America is one of two ways, my friend. One, you own real estate. Two, own your own business.” My father had only been here for a couple of years when this was said. He didn’t have a credit history, down payment or anything like that. He didn’t know what investing meant, but he gave him a down payment to go out and buy a business.

I started working in that restaurant when I was ten that my father bought. By the time I was eighteen, I was running the show for my parents. By the time I was 21, I had two of my own restaurants that I own and operate, plus there is one in the background. I’m running around with three restaurants, plus school and all these things. I got into real estate development because I wanted an extra stream of revenue coming in. My whole life, I was exposed to hustle. That’s what I knew.

My father always taught me, “You got to have a big heart in business. You got to do what you say. Your word has to be your goal. When you say it, you set that intention, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ and you go out there and do it.” That has been a master key to my success. Seeing that hustle at a young age and thinking about what my parents went through without having any family here with nothing. My dad used to tell me that he used to go into the bathroom and cry and not understand how he was going to pay the rent because, in the beginning, it was hard. We live in the greatest country in the world that enables us these opportunities to make things like this happen.

When my mind shifts back and my mindset starts to get a little shaky like, “I don’t know if I can do this,” I have that in the back of my mind. I’m like, “My parents made it from nada, and here we are doing this. I got to stay consistent. They stayed consistent throughout their whole process and everything that they did to get me here. Now, it is my job to stay consistent and help elevate others the way that I was elevated in my world to make things like this happen.” For me, it has been a whole mindset and a state of mind from a young age. It’s everything to me. I will never forget it. By 27, I made it to Forbes and Time Magazine. I hit a nine-figure real estate career. I’m sitting there and I feel like I hit the pinnacle.

How young are you now?

I’m 30, so that was about three years ago when I hit my first net seven-figure year. As a 27-year-old who came from nothing, the podcast sparked from that. I had a little tap on my shoulder that said, “Pam, you are doing great things for yourself. What are you doing for the world?” I was focused on development. I was so money-motivated.

My mission was starting to shift at that point in time. I was starting to think about what real estate did for me and how it elevated my life and everybody around me because it is a ripple effect. This is the industry that creates the most millionaires. Real estate development has the most millionaires. That is why relationships with lenders and resources like yourself, Tim, can change somebody’s life because you believe in that person. Once they start scaling up, the things they can do are limitless.

What year was your family came to the States?

1996.

That was right before the Kosovo War. The Czech Republic was in turmoil, and Albania was not a fun place to live. I only bring that up because the Marine Corps gave me such a perspective on how a bad day here would be the best day of the year for people in many places in the world. I’m always telling my boys, “The only one that cares about your feelings in this world is your mama. You need to lace up your boots and get going.” That’s impressive.

It is time for the Money Minute. Pam, there is someone out there that needs to hear your best stuff. I always tell someone this all the time. Imagine that the next 60 seconds is the only advice the audience is going to get in the next 30 days. This is all they going to hear. They are going to tune in. Sixty seconds, pour it into the audience. Are you ready?

Ready.

Go.

The most important thing that I want you to take away from this is to remember your mindset. The most successful people in business that I know are aligned with mind, body and spirit. You need to check in with yourself on all three elements. Where are you? Honestly, it wasn’t until I went knee-deep in every single personal part of me that I became successful. I was chasing money for such a long time. That can only get you so far.

Even with hitting seven figures and being in Forbes and Time Magazine, that fulfillment wasn’t enough for me here. I realized there was a lot that I had to do within. I’m challenging you to go and focus on yourself. What are your needs? Are you aligned in mind, body and spirit? See where it goes from there. Your life will change once you have that self-awareness. Figure out where you are and you will be able to map out where you want to go. That would be my best piece of advice for you guys.

You touched on something. The headline on my personal webpage says, “Remember, the business is the vehicle, not the dream.” Many of us were like, “I’m going to get into real estate to be financially free. I’m going to get into real estate to spend more time with my family. I’m going to get into real estate, so I don’t have to work so much.”

You fast forward 2 or 3 years. You are the most miserable sucker anybody has ever met. You are always on your phone. You don’t do anything with your family. Of all the advice you could have given, that’s what people need to hear more of because we all talk about the why and present our why, but we completely ignore our why while we are doing our what.

At the end of the day, what matters? Does legacy matter to you? That alignment of mind, body and spirit is untouchable. You can have so much money in the bank, but what happens if your health fails? What happens if your family fails? What happens if you are miserable every single day of the week? You have seven figures in the bank. So what? What does that mean at the end of the day? We are all going to the same dirt.

We are going to get on the rapid fire. Pam, you have talked about a lot of things. I want to dive into the message. If you had to pick one of your businesses that you are either doing now or that you did in the past, pizza joints included, and you could only ever have done one of them, which would it be?

Restaurants.

Why?

I started at ten years old being in the restaurant business. I was able to connect with customers and engage with them. I was able to tell just from their facial response to me and their body language what made them buy something or not. Anytime that I was at the register, I would engage with people and communicate with them. For me, I got to understand human behavior. That was huge. Aside from that, you get to learn how to wear multiple hats and work well under pressure like no other. That’s why I mentioned it earlier. That restaurant experience is the prerequisite to me being able to flip houses and do all the things that I do and wear all these hats.

If you had to do it all over again, as long as you did that one, you feel like you could do it all over again because it gave you the skills. As a young immigrant woman, there had to be times that were difficult. There is a young lady out there tuning in. What quick piece of advice can you share with a young lady?

Find that woman in your market that is doing what you want to do. Pick up the phone or show up at her office and do it because I did that. I did that with Cindy Stumpo. I will never forget it. She was an HDTV star. Her show was called Tough as Nails. She builds three million-plus houses in my market. I showed up at her office. I said to her, “Cindy, I know you don’t know me. I’m starting my journey, but I want to let you know you inspire me and thank you for being a woman.” Seeing her, I was able to model her behavior. I will never forget it. She walked in, looked at me, and gave me a huge hug. She was like, “Honey, anything you ever need, call me.” That is the power of networking. That moment changed me forever because I felt supported. Find that person, and they got you.

You got mentors still. The reason you’re in Dallas is to sit down with a mentor to help you map out one of your businesses. Let’s take the first mentor out, but let’s talk about some of the other mentors. We don’t have time to go on each one, but what are some things that having a mentor, a coach or an advisor has helped you with? Give some advice you could give people around that subject matter.

A coach or consultant is somebody who is going to help you wherever you are looking to go. Here in Dallas, I have a friend who is amazing at YouTube. Their lead generation systems are blowing things out of the water. Their conversion rates are insane. I was like, “Travis, let’s meet together and talk about this. Let’s discuss this because you are the master at this. You have done it. I’m going to save my time in going through it. You can tell me best practices.”

It’s almost a form of hacking. Why do people buy franchises? There are systems in place. Do you want to spend the time to learn something and also potentially be making mistakes at the same time? Why do that when you can learn from someone who has already been there and done that, and can help you get there further faster together?

You can try to do it alone. I was in that boat for a long time in the beginning. I tried to do it all myself, and it was a disaster. I learned the hard way. The minute I start bringing in coaches, mentors, and all that, everything becomes streamlined. That is why the greatest in the world or the greatest business people have many mentors in different arenas for that exact reason, to be more efficient.

If someone finds themself in danger of maybe being upside down on the house financially, or maybe they bought the house six months ago, and they are in one of these markets that have turned around a little bit, what are the three things you think they should do now?

I would look at what are your exit strategies at this point in time because there are many different ones. You got to get as creative as humanly possible. Either way, remember the money in the end. Can you rent this property on a short-term rental? Look at Airbnb, study that data, and see if it is something you can rent as a short-term rental. Can you rent it long-term to a tenant? Can you provide a lease-to-own option to that tenant, and that tenant becomes a bank? There are many opportunities. Can you refinance, cash out and hold for a little while? There are so many different scenarios you can get into. It’s just a matter of how creative you are willing to get. At the end of the day, you got to cover your investment.

Look at the numbers and get creative.

Get creative and map it all out.

What is the most you have ever made on single-family real estate property? We won’t talk about your commercial.

In a single family, $250,000.

What are the most you lost on single-family deals?

$35,000.

How do people get in touch with you? Do they text you, tweet you or follow you? Where do they go?

I’m on LinkedIn and Instagram. My website is www.PamelaBardhi.com. There is a whole bunch of resources and stuff on there. Connect with me, DM me on LinkedIn or Instagram. I’m always happy to help anyone.

The podcast.

The podcast is the Underdog Podcast. We had amazing guests on there like Kevin Harrington from Shark Tank, Joe Foster, the founder of Reebok, and these incredible individuals.

Go check out TheUnderdogShow.com. Watch the episode with Kevin Harrington, the story of the way Pam had the confidence in herself to reach out and go for the gold out of the gate. That embodies her success and the reasons behind her success, and the reasons that she will be successful in any market. Thank you for stopping by. Remember, your network is your net worth. Today, you have been growing both. We will see you next time.

Important Links

• Pamela Bardhi
• Podcast – The Underdog Show
• LinkedIn – Pamela Bardhi
• Instagram – Pamela Bardhi
• Kevin Harrington – The Underdog Show Episode

The following podcast program is furnished by RCN Capital LLC.  The information provided is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute any legal, tax, financial, investment or other professional advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed of any speaker are the speaker’s own opinion and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of RCN Capital LLC.   No information contained in this episode should be construed as financial, investment or legal advice from RCN or any individual, author, host or guest. You should always consult a financial advisor before investing.

• Consistency Mindset
• Exit Strategy
• Find A Mentor
• Focus On You
• Know Your Numbers
• Learn To Pivot