Todd Ashton: Acquiring Properties for 3-5 Cents On The Dollar Via Tax Liens
LISTEN TO FULL EPISODE ON:
Todd Ashton is an expert when it comes to acquiring properties via Tax Liens and Deeds. He's been teaching and providing mentorship to thousands across the country including Robert Allen, Russ Whitney, Dolf DeRoos, Robert Kiyosaki, James Smith, Armando Montelongo, Sean Higgins, and Tony Martinez, among others. While many companies seek to sell you training after training and course after course to make them more money, Todd has modeled his business around 1 flat fee for a lifetime of mentorship. He also provides a 100% success guarantee as you follow the 4 step process: Find, Vet, Evaluate, and Verify. Hear Todd share his story and give you a window into the fascinating industry of tax liens!
In this episode, hosted by Mike Swenson, we discussed:
- Todd Ashton is an expert in tax liens. He runs the Tax Lien Alliance and instructs folks on the best practices and best ways to take advantage of that segment of the market
- Different ways that Todd is able to help his clients make money, from acquiring properties to financing properties
- Todd is also able to use his strategies to flip properties to wholesalers for 50-60 cents on the dollar, and still making a large spread on the transaction
- Many others in the industry try to make Tax Liens more complicated than they need to be. One guys that he used had a 14 steps process. Another one had a 32 steps process. Todd simplifies it down to only 4 key steps.
- Todd wants to use this company and the properties he's acquired to build a legacy
- Todd's son is now getting involved in the business, while he's working at BMW Audi. While making a great income, he recently came to his dad looking to learn more about the business.
- Todd says for many clients, the process works like this: “If they taste that success, all the light bulbs go on, and all that 10 weeks of the theory that they would have gotten, you know, all of a sudden, they're like, oh, wow, this makes sense now, and because they did it, it was double”
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro and overview on Todd’s career
16:05 - How people find great deals in tax liens.
21:22 - The four steps process
24:41 - How long it could take the process
28:56 - The benefits and positive way for freedom
33:17 - What Todd’s future looks like
Links In This Episode:
Todd's company: https://www.taxlienalliance.com/
SUBSCRIBE IF YOU'RE LOOKING TO BUILD WEALTH THROUGH OPPORTUNITIES IN THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY
✅ http://relfreedom.tv
GET STARTED INVESTING TODAY AND ACCESS OUR DEAL LIST!
📈 http://investwithelite.com
PARTNER WITH US ON BIG DEALS!
💵 https://eliteadvantagepropertieshq.com
BUILD YOUR REAL ESTATE AGENT CAREER WORKING WITH INVESTORS
👨👩👧👦 http://eliteadvantageagent.com
LEARN ABOUT REL FREEDOM & HEAR MORE REAL LIFE STORIES
🎙️ http://www.relfreedom.com
FREEBIES: DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE FREEDOM FOUNDATION BLUEPRINT
💵 https://www.relfreedom.com/blueprint
LOOKING FOR A REAL ESTATE AGENT ANYWHERE IN THE US? FIND A TOP AGENT IN YOUR COMMUNITY
🏠 http://www.eliteagentreferral.com
JOIN OUR FACEBOOK COMMUNITY
👨👩👧👦 https://www.facebook.com/groups/relfreedom
SUBSCRIBE TO THE REL FREEDOM PODCAST
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rel-freedom-podcast/id1535281574
🎧 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xNDA3NjIyLnJzcw==
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5nXA5hLHbDzRwxypc2wLur
LET'S CONNECT
👉 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mswenson13
👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getrelfreedom/
👉 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@relfreedom
🏠 Minnesota Real Estate: https://www.eliteadvantageteam.com
Full transcript here:
Mike Swenson
All right, welcome everybody to a new episode of the real freedom podcast. And I'm so excited today because we're going to talk about something that we haven't talked about at all on the podcast so far. And that's tax liens. And so I've got Todd Ashton here. And Todd Ashton is an expert in tax liens. He runs the tax lien Alliance, and and instructs folks on the best practices and best ways to take advantage of that segment of the market. He's got a background as a real estate investor, and just a really good story to share. So we're so excited to have you on Todd, why don't you just take a couple minutes and tell us a little bit more about yourself?
Todd Ashton
I appreciate the opportunity to be here, Mike. Yeah, I love the intro. I basically, though, just want to make the distinction is that I have never been in the realm of getting a real estate license. I remember people that have a license, I think it's amazing. But I for whatever reason, I was I didn't feel like I wanted the restriction or the oversight, or, you know, just the day to day grind that you guys go through. I think there's a reason we talked a little bit before this, there's a reason there's a 85% plus Fallout, because what you guys do is is hard. It's hard. It sounds it sounds really easy in theory. But there's obviously as you know, there's so much that goes into being a successful real estate agent with with processes and tools and, and just the work like you said, the work ethic you need to have is pretty amazing. Pretty unreal. I'm kind of on the other spectrum. I like to do things. Not necessarily smarter, but but not harder. You know what I mean? I mentioned to you I had a tumor removed from my cervical spine in 2012. It was 11 inch tumor it basically the doctor said that there's a high likelihood you won't make it off the table. And then he said, After that he said, you know, Christopher Reed was because if I Nick him that I ruined. Yeah. And I was like God, well, don't rely on me, you know. So basically, I feel really lucky to be alive and be here and do what I do. But I've been I've been around real estate of 56 I'll be 57 in June, I've been around real estate since the 2000s. I mentioned I was in I worked for a company called computer associates, I was the number one sales rep in the West, I was sitting on a pile of cash and I was watching those late night infomercials, Robert Allen, no money down. And I was like, hey, that's what I want to do. And that's what that's about the time to hit the twin towers and everything, you know went crazy. And and so I made a jump I made a transition and I'm always the kind it's do or die, I burn the ships I you know, if I'm going to do something, it's all in. And that's the way I like people and so it's all in be committed to what you're going to do. I did that. But I almost derailed because about for two years I kind of floundered kind of figure out what the frick I was doing. I got a mentor, I started to figure it out and put it all together and and then just progressed from there. And same kind of thing.
Todd Ashton
I'm sure it's parallel to what you guys experience. You learn the right tools, you get around the right people, you learn the right processes, you get into, like you said, that work ethic, you really have to have a passion for it. When I talk to people and I and they're interviewing me because they want to get into what I do. I also interview them. And I'm saying, look, I look for people that have passion, and desire. That's number one, because that's going to propel you through the lean times of the hard times. You know, you've got to be committed to a work ethic, I use the times involved, you can't just think wish it to happen. You've got to work and make it happen. You've got to be even a 56 I've got to be malleable and teachable. Just like talking to you. I'm open to learning from you, you. You talk to me before the podcast about a few things that will help me in my world. And I'm like, Man, this is amazing. They you need that kind of interaction, that reciprocity. You know what I mean? And you learn through that. And so and then the last thing, obviously, is you got to have the ability, the the fun, so to speak, to engage because you can't just wish Oh, I'm going to go buy a portfolio or I'm going to go out in the end invest in liens as well with what what do you What's the plan? What are you doing? And I've literally taken people that have nothing and help them turn that around very quickly.
Todd Ashton
I've been a coach and a mentor for years and years I've mentored for one of the biggest companies back in the day before the crash national real estate investors. They have over 40 coaches nationwide, and each of them have 30 to 40 people in there a week they coast and half hour to 40 minute sessions and and then all the questions would bubble up to me so I was the buck stop there. And it was funny because I became the VP of best investor development for a company called nouveau riche back in the day. And we would have we didn't have this kind of thing. We didn't have Anything, so there's no video but then have audio. And there would be up to there'd be literally hundreds of people on the call every Friday. And I met the group down in in Scottsdale, we were doing an event in Scottsdale, and they came up to me says, Hey, I just want to let you know, we had a group of guys that were trying to stop the coach, we're trying to stump coach Todd, and we knew that we were you know, that you didn't have all the answers. So we were deliberately throwing out stuff that we figured was gonna stop yet, but you always have an answer for us.
Todd Ashton
And I, the secret is better out. It's so much I kind of you know, I mean, you hear the same things all the time. You know what the answer is, but so it wasn't necessarily magic. But yeah, I've been around the block a bit. But I after the crash with things derail for everybody. I had to find something else. And I knew that real estate was the answer. I knew that real estate had the ability to propel me in the direction I wanted to go financially, well as we've spoken about, but I want it to be something that was reliable, it had to be duplicatable. replicatable, easy to implement, easy to follow. And, or at least simple to follow, not necessarily easy, but simple to follow is process driven, and, and have outcomes that I could foresee, I knew that if I did this, this, this, a plus b plus c equals, you know, at D and I could get to the I could get to the end result. So I worked for a company called us to a US taxing Alliance, they're out of Sacramento, they were the tie on what they're doing. Now. They're the big boys back then they did seminars, all over the you know, the kind of people get all excited and run to the back of the room and throw their credit card down. And they get roped in. And then literally what I found, and the reason I left them I ended up leaving them is because there I realized that that whole seminar thing is designed to get people excited and keep them in a system, and then upsell them and cross sell them and keep them on the verge of always doing something, but they're always feeling like they need something else to you know, get there.
Todd Ashton
And so people literally end up mortgaging their houses, you know, to be in their mastermind group. And and be be able to sit with them. Each month the owners and and with a group of muckety mucks going, what are you doing? Oh, I don't know, what are you doing? Well, I don't know, what are you doing? You know, and, and it's just insane. So I ended up leaving that actually, because they I found out they have like an 85% fail rate, you were talking about 85% washout rate, you know, in real estate and realtors, same thing people, you know, literally, if you got 100 people doing in the room, maybe 10 of them would be successful five or 10 will be successful put together, as I like to do with that. So a couple of years after I left, I had people literally approached me and saying, Hey, we need you back we your there's a void, we want your expertise, we need your direction, please help us. And so at that time, I thought you know, I'm gonna jump back end, I'm going to do something that I can reverse engineer and wipe out all the road roadblocks will wipe out all the you know, impediments to success. And then literally, instead of teach people theory, my whole idea was I'm going to give them actionable things they can do to get actual results. Does that make sense? I will take them by the hand. Like if I took you like I'd take you by the hand and walk you through the process. And literally everything we said, well, that's like, that can be a problem. I've already identified it, and whether it's some financial or otherwise, I'm there to help you plug that hole and move forward.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I think Yeah, because there's, there's a lot of coaching and training companies out there and a lot of people selling, you know, programs and this, that and the other and so, you know, people, it's also a business, right? So it's a way that people can make money. And the hard thing is you don't always know the value you're gonna get for the money that you get unless you have people that have done the program before and can speak to the results.
Todd Ashton
Actually how I am so I'm not a seminar guy. What happens is the way I usually get people coming in, is because they know somebody, they see somebody I the gentleman down in Dallas, he works for the airlines, and everyone's suffering right now because of COVID. And he's just talking out of the park he's selling along, you know, he's, he's driving nice cars, he's, he's dressing nice. He's, you know, eating out people or whatever. He's the he's got the financial stability to do that. While everyone's kind of like, Hey, I'm kind of in a grind here. I've kind of been to, you know, brown down to nothing, I can't do anything. I'm in COVID. I'm in isolation, and he's still knocked out of the park and people are saying, What are you doing? And he said, Well, I got a guy. And they're like, Well, can I talk to your guy, you know, and that's usually how I get it is people like that. I'll tell you a quick story. Just to give you an idea what I mean about removing the roadblocks. I had a young lady back with you. stla Kathie Lee, she approached me she had a little boy, that was like four months old, her significant other has left her her boyfriend left her or she lived with their parents. And so she was basically she's a real three in in Orange County, Florida. And she was basically the breadwinner for four people. She has been herself, her parents and her baby, baby boy. And she came to me and she said, hey, I've heard great things about you. I know everyone's wanting to get in your schedule, I really want to do this. But if I commit to doing this, I really want to know that I've got a clear path. I committed right then to there to her, I would do everything in my power, to help to guarantee her success, give her a success guarantee.
Todd Ashton
And that's what I do to this day as I as long as you work with me and do what I say, I will guarantee you will be successful because I've seen it over and over and over if they follow the process. She said okay, she, she she says, Well, if I pay the engagement fee, I'm not gonna have any money to do anything. And I said, That's okay, I've got you covered. I've got people in the back. I know people like I can make a phone call, get jumped up, get your other people's money. Instead of you go out and teach you how to do it. I'll do it for you basically. And so she said, okay, she said I trust y'all come on. She literally she found a property a tax, a tax deed property in Lake County, Florida, right on the it's called OTC over the counter. It was right in plain sight. And she found it. She she needed 18 five to buy it directly from the county 18,500 I got the money. She for 10% simple interest short term loan. She went and bought it. It was in pristine condition. It already had been come out of probate. So it wasn't pristine. It was like a museum. It literally I think is it still had possibly furniture in it. I mean, it was it was nice it and all she did was get a realtor in Lake County, Florida. to list it put it back on the market. She bought it for 18 five using other people's money, she sold it for over $165,000 within four months. From zero to hero she pocketed after she paid off the loan and paid off the realtor who the points for for putting it on the market. She popped it over $135,000 on her first deal using no money of her own out of pocket. And so they literally took the cameras down there us to a two cameras down there and filmed the whole thing because she she knocked it out of the park. Well, that kind of set everyone up after that everybody wanted in my my you know, they want to be in my schedule. I was literally working from 9am to 9pm, Monday through Sunday, trying to, you know, take care of these people. And but that's when I realized what why is this happening. And I put together that like I said, because people up there were floundering. They weren't getting it that give them all the tools, all the knowledge, all the theory, and then they were floundering trying to put it together. And that's what I am. And I share with you my methodology.
Todd Ashton
What happened that what changed is I had a gentleman his name was Yang. And when he would spend, I would spend 90 minutes with them more than an hour with him every for 10 sessions for 10 weeks. And I could just hear him taking copious notes. And I would say, do you understand I would regurgitate everything and I'd say, Yang, you understand? And he would say, uh huh, uh huh. And I thought, Oh, man. I mean, that was the extent of our conversations. This is him saying? Uh huh, uh huh. And I said, so I knew there was a huge language barrier. So when I was leaving, I said, I kind of threw him a lifeline. And I said, you know, one of those Call me if you need any kind of thing. I said, Look, you had got a theory. It's all in your head, you kind of know what's going on. You've got all the tools. If you need me, you call me and I'll tell you what to do. And he said, Okay, okay. I swear, that's the only other English you've ever said. He said, Okay, okay. I thought, I'm never gonna see the guy. He's gonna crash and burn. A week later, I get a call from and he said, Todd, what I do. And I was like, oh, man, this guy's serious. And I said, Okay, Yang, do this, this, this, and don't come back to me. Don't call me back and tell you to do strange things. And he said, Okay, okay. He got off the phone again. I thought, I'm never gonna hear from this guy again. And but, but he called me back and he said, Todd, done what I do. And I was like, okay, Game on.
Todd Ashton
So I walked him through the process. And after about six, eight weeks, he knew what to do put all together to do the deal. And he's never looked back. And that's how I've worked with people. So that to update you. Kathy Lou called me two years later. It's also the day she has 24 month old baby now. And she's 28 month old. She said, she said, Todd, I've got a problem. That's how she started the call. I didn't say this is Kathy. And I said, Kathy, what do you mean, you're the poster child for this? How can you have a problem? She said, Well, my problem is I have a million dollars liquid and I don't know what to do next. I was like, oh, okay, I can handle that problem. That's pretty good problem to have. So she had she had banked a million dollars in two years due to tax liens, and And tax deeds and following the process. And, you know, she she had expanded her wealth. And that's what I'm all about. That's why we're talking you even said before your whole your whole mindset is to help people find ways to grow their wealth through multiple streams of income but the focus on one or two that have that synergy that are going to propel them forward and then protect their wealth do everything counts, protect their wealth, and manage that wealth. So we're we're have one brain we haven't tabled brain when it comes to that I'm, I'm right on, on with you. That's exactly how I operate. So anyway, that's that's kind of where the nutshell that's what I do. And that's what I've been doing. And I enjoy it. I love this my passion and I love to help people figure that out. figure that part of the game out.
Mike Swenson
No. So for those people that that don't really understand tax liens. You know, pretend I'm a 10 year old asking you Okay, talk to me about tax liens. What is it? And and how do these people find these great deals? What how does that even happen? That's a good question.
Todd Ashton
Um, if you follow the everyone else there, they tell you what to do, which I don't do i a typical, I do everything I whatever everyone else, the Guru's are telling you to do out there, I absolutely shut it and do totally the opposite. So we'll start there. So So for people that are getting out of tax liens, what it is, is the counties out there, counties need revenue to operate, they need to, they need to run schools, they need to pave the roads, they need to keep the county that they're in. And if you go back to them feudal times, we had the same process, you had territory's or fiefdoms, and they had to keep them afloat. But they were taxed, right? They were taxed on the technical tax doctors come, and they would protect them and help and whatever, and then keep them maintained that beefed up.
Todd Ashton
Well, today is the same thing, you still need to maintain those areas. And so we pay property taxes, in addition to paying our mortgage to pay property tax. Well, in in Utah, for example, I live, it's a deed state, and they combine the two together. So when you pay it, it's all one lump sum. So if you get behind, you're going to get behind on both, and just crash and burn and you're probably going to foreclosure before anything happens. So I don't do anything in Utah. Also, California doesn't make sense because of numbers. And they're also a deed states. But liens if you want to lien states, like Alabama and some of these other places Florida has means they have they're also a deed emilien state, they're, they're both you go into these land states, well, these people are getting behind on they're paying their taxes or maybe 123 years in arrears and, and what they're doing the county saying, look, we need that revenue, so they go out and sell it to investors like myself, I can pick up a lien, and then they're they're gonna, the county is guaranteed that they're gonna pay me back. Not only what I invested, but also they're gonna pay me back interest on that loan, that I that I'm buying that so they're gonna pay me anywhere from maybe 5%. To in Florida, it's even 18%. And, and so I have the ability to do what I do, I have a platform that I'm associated with, where they can go out and find liens all over the United States, in droves. And you can see that they're they're a, b or c properties. So we only focus on C properties, because A's and B's are gonna regain, you know, multifamily units that are a you know, brick and mortar a plus units, they're gonna redeem, I don't worry about those. But there's the people that you see that are in, in residential homes that are three or four years in arrears. And, and you can see, hey, there's a problem there. And I go and identify in that, and then I help them either it's catch release, either say, Look, I'm here to help you, if you No, and I'll get you out of a situation. Or they're, they get indignant and say no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay it off. And you're like, Okay, but more power to God bless you.
Todd Ashton
And so I'm really in the in the market to create a win win win situation, I want to help the people that are really struggling, I want to help the county get their revenue, but of course, I want to make money doing so. But that lien that lien, what it's all about control. I used to teach a class on Creative real estate. It's all about controlling the property, if you can go in with either, however you do that with the lien or a note or whatever, and you control that property, and they're paying you you know, that revenue is coming to you a sandwich lease, we talked about sandwich leases, if you're somehow injecting yourself in there and controlling that property. Now you have options, and is that ends up property, either redeems and you give it back, or maybe you can take it over and you can rent it out to other people. So you've got a rentable unit, or again, you can take it foreclose on it. And the great thing about mortgages, I mean, tax liens mortgages are go away. They're they're wiped out. So, so you get the property with no mortgage on it. And now it's now you're in first position, you clean off all the others what's called quieting the title, you quiet that title. Now I own that thing outright, I can sell as a warranty deed, I can either I can either rent it out or sell it, you know, flip it, whatever. Anyway, there's so many things I can do with it, but I'm buying it at a price point, I have myself and students are buying property at three to five cents on the dollar. And that gives us options even to flip it to wholesalers for you know, 5060 cents on the dollar and still making kind of spread in there. Does that make sense?
Mike Swenson
So obviously, that's, you know, to the to the person that hasn't been in that world before, it sounds incredibly complex.
Todd Ashton
Yeah. And, and seminars, they want you to think it's incredibly complex. So they keep you always on the hook and upsell you and cross sell you, I don't do that I simplify everything. I just take you by the hand and plug in and do it for you. Instead of trying to teach them what to do. I just take my experience and, and my network and plug in and gets to the goal.
Mike Swenson
Right? And you said to so I know that you kind of have four for a four step process, right? It's fine that evaluate and verify. So there you go talk about that a little bit.
Todd Ashton
It gave me chills, the guys that I UCLA, they had a 14 step process. And I literally had an engineer one time that made it like a 32 step process. And I was like he broke it down into 32 steps. And I was like, oh, okay, that's that's not my brain about exploded. And really, if you think about it, you do the same thing. I guarantee everybody does this in real estate, the biggest problem you have is finding, you got to find the right deal, right? You find it, then then you got to vet it, you got to vet the area, you got to understand if it's if it's an Alabama, Florida, I don't know anything about that. But I have tools, and people on the ground guys and boots on the ground that I can I can vet it. And I can evaluate it, I go through and evaluate it my evaluate or like done over the years, and I'll just share with you a little tool that I've used. And the company I work for all of a sudden, my students are like, Hey, we're going to seminars, and they're using your spreadsheet at the seminar they're using. I'm like, Whoa, I didn't know that. And so so it works. I I had when I sold my house. Before I built this home, I had a relative to a CMA on my home, I use my tool to evaluate my property. They came in and gave me this this phonebook with all these pictures and graphs and everything. And I was like, No, just get the bottom line. And she wanted to show me all the all the justification. I said, No, just get the bottom line. But she flips the back line, and I was a pin $5,000 of her guests. You know, my guestimation was about $5,000 of her CMA. And she's like, how the frick did you do that? And, and I had a, I had a student in Utah, who was an assessor, and he thought I was doing match calm. And he would he would take 20 minutes to assess a property. And then he's like, Okay, give me the information. And I took six minutes to give him back the numbers. And again, it was three to $5,000 of his estimations. And let us do embudo on him. And we did that for two hours, straight off four or five properties. Finally, he says, Do you mind if I use your spreadsheet when I evaluate properties, I'm like, go for it. So we could talk all day about that.
Todd Ashton
And that's kind of a that's a that's a side note. But basically, it's it is if you've got to find the property, you got to vet the area to understand what you're getting into, you got to evaluate the property and make sure the numbers are all there. And then you got to verify everything, make sure that what the what you're seeing, and what they tell you that it didn't get scraped off Mother Earth. In the meantime, you know, you got to verify that all those all those things add up, that's really the four things you need to pull the trigger. And you do the same thing I guarantee whether it's a whole seller, retail, it doesn't matter, fix and flip, you're going through the same four processes over and over whether you know it or not. Now, there are details that could make it a 14 steps process. There are details that could make it a 32%, you know, 32 step process. But that's the devils in the details. But that all presents itself with each deal, you know, as well as I do, each deal presents itself and it's got a whole different complex way, you know, to go, Oh, we've got to crack this nut, then you can decide, well, do I let it go? Or do I really want to double down on it and go through the process.
Mike Swenson
So for for people that don't know, then if I were to start the finding process, all the way until we've got a deal in place? How long does that typically I shouldn't say typically, but how long could that take?
Todd Ashton
It could take as little as four weeks I had a guy put all together in four weeks, it can take four to six months on average. And it could take never you don't mean deals or deals. I mean, it's somewhere between four weeks and four years or never is probably reality, but I try to get it down to within is it's manageable. And you can do a pipeline, I would say, four to six months, because there's processes you have to go through with the county. And now that's kind of been elongated now because, you know, you know, that movie animation where that you have to slog through the DMV, you know, yes, that's, that's literally what you're working with, with the with the counties, you know, I mean, times 10, with COVID, sometimes you don't, I mean, and so you got to find ways to figure out how to work into their processes, because and it has bogged down, slow down. But this is where I come in all those redemption periods, I know how to wipe them out, three to five years, I wipe them out, I know how to circumvent all that timeframe and know how to circumvent Oh, it's, you know, doing cash for keys, once you identify the person and the problem, and some skip tracing is involved in there, I can I can isolate that person, I can give them a call, I can find out what their situation is. And I can, I can present multiple options, or catch or at least let them go and do what they want to do.
Todd Ashton
So I do things all behind the scenes, while everybody's out there rushing to these auctions, they're never going to be successful, but go knock yourself out. for everybody. That's this going and, and getting lists from all like UCLA will give all these lists, those lists are useful, it's it's open to everybody and in the public is public information. Everybody has it. So so I have access to a platform, it's a proprietary platform that people can come in. And they can, there's two ways they can do it, they could you could take $100,000 and go buy liens all over the United States that are lien states. And you could buy fractional ownership in each one of them. And you could do it in a property's a class properties. So you're going to get a blended rate of 14% on your money, backed up by real estate, just by doing that side of the fence.
Todd Ashton
So people have lots of money, they just want their money to work for him, they come in and have a million dollars that platform 14% annual back done by real estate where you're gonna get that it doesn't exist. So so. So that's one piece. But then if they want to do what I do, SEAL Team Six, we go in and we can cherry pick those properties now. And we can go in and do my process I was alluding to where we find out where the problems are. And then we go in and help them and create that that win win win scenario I'm talking about, you're not gonna find that nobody on the planet asked that for me. That's why I enjoy what I do. And and I don't do seminars, I don't do. I don't I haven't I have a 95% sex success rate, the only the only way people will fail if they come with me is that they stop doing it. That's the only way if you if you Bell Bell out and do something else. You know, again, God bless you, but but there's a process, it is process driven. I've done it over and over and over again, I know how to get to the top of the mountain. And that's what I do. I take people like yourself, and I take you by the hand and literally walk you through a deal. And then do it over and over and over again until you go. I don't need to you know, I know what to do. Does that make sense?
Mike Swenson
Yeah. Yeah, no, that that makes a lot of sense. So why if I'm looking at different opportunities in real estate, or maybe I'm not not even real estate, because I assume you don't even have to have any sort of background to be able to get into this.
Todd Ashton
No, actually, I can take someone from ground zero, I can take people that have a lot of interest experience. And I can tell you stories about that or no interest. I mean, no background, no experience. And the results are going to be saying if you just follow my four steps and follow my leader the word. Yeah.
Mike Swenson
Yeah. So what what's what's the benefit on the other side? Right, so in this podcast, we talk about real freedom, right? So so you gave the example of your gal that that had that first flip that went so well. And now she's got a million and in liquid cash that she doesn't know what to do with what are some of the other the other benefits or the things that you've seen on the positive front where people come out of this and have just really benefited in a in a positive way for freedom.
Todd Ashton
So over and over that she really hit a park but over and over my, my my spreadsheets, Gary will tell you, if you can get if you can squeeze out 20k from a deal. That's what I call it basehead and just in just get it get off your plate. That's, you know, 20 30,000 and you can just keep racking and stacking and that's that's really where where I work, that's what I do. And there's so much opportunity and with COVID it's become unreal. Like I said, if you just focused on Alabama, and Florida, you can you can spend the rest of your life doing stuff there. And never I mean, you that it's it's there's a lot of business. I had a gentleman in Switzerland, and he created he had a fight here's a font of people to follow him. And he was and they set him up to do you know, he tax things. He'd learned the whole business. I've been his coach back years 10 years ago. And I went to him after I had established my methodologies and was Berman what I was doing, and I went to him and I said You need to come do this with me. He said, Why would I do that with you? I'm, you're my coach. I know how to do this. I, I'm a fund manager. Now I do this. I said, Well, how many? How many properties have you bought in the last two years? He said probably about 2526. I said, so your average is about one a month, you're doing pretty good. And he says, Yeah, he's enjoying them. And I said, Okay, of those 2526 properties you bought, how many? Have you been profitable? And he was dead silent. And he's like, oh, what are some of the money? You know, I mean, so so because I can take someone like him, like I said, you and his perspective, and help him scale. So. So yeah, that's why I love helping people that have no experience.
Todd Ashton
And I can tell you over and over and over stories are where people just came in. And I always I always say, okay, when you're successful, I want to break bread with you, I want to meet you face to face, and you owe me a steak dinner. And I can't tell you how many steak dinners I've, I've gotten over the years, because I've helped change people's lives and got them to where they got out of the rat race. They achieved what their their goals financially. And they were full time investors doing what they love doing. And they are credited to me and said, I'm here because of you. I had a gentleman I was doing us that that class I was to create a real estate down in Scottsdale, Arizona. And there was a gentleman that became he became one of the premier Arielle specialists, bank on property specialists in Utah, he would go to banks to negotiate deals and came and this is back when they didn't know that their head from the whole ground. They didn't have the processes in place they do now to make it they you know, they were getting they were getting raked over the coals.
Todd Ashton
They were getting taken advantage of banks were and they knew it. But But he was one of the premier guys. And I asked him a few years after that, that Scott's on the site said, Man, what did you learn to do all this? And he looked at me with a blank stare. And he just his jaw dropped. He said, from Utah, and I said, what you would never stood in the line. He said, Dude, I was on the front row, that three day class taking copious notes. I wrote down everything you said. And then after the class, remember, I called you many times the months I call you and say, What about this? What about this? What do I do? What do I do, and I just basically helped him do exactly what I'm telling you about, I have to do and walk through the process, and gave him all the tools and whatever to get success. And once he did a few deals, he became the premier guy. And he credited to me and I was like, Wow, that's pretty cool. I didn't even know that. So I love having that kind of influence on people's lives, where I can give them ideas and tools and processes that they never even knew existed that are right there in front of them. It's over 200 years of case law, you know, with with tax liens. So I know if I get a good lawyer, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a realtor. But if I get good people in place like yourself, or a good lawyer, or a good assessor people on the ground, I'm going to be able to do those four steps over and over and over again, and and gets the goal.
Mike Swenson
So what is the future then hold for you. So thinking about, you know, your personal freedom in what you're building and how you're helping people? Where Where do you see your your career taking you in this?
Todd Ashton
Yeah, so sorry, I'm podcasting cocky, I kind of fell into it. I've done I've done a few podcast, our people like, hey, this guy's real. He's approachable. You know, he's sincere. I'm not trying to bamboozle anybody I want to really I have a sincere passion to help people. And and I want to engage people, but I don't want to do the seminar thing. So I don't see myself going in that direction. But I was talking to you about doing more podcasts and getting the word out through the podcast, you know how I get into that realm. But for me, even if nobody ever approached me, again, I mean, I said, I know what to do. I I can tell you a story. I went and found a and this is documented. You can you can go out and Google it. It's I went out and found a hospital. They're still in trouble to this day. They're up in Lake County, Illinois. I got them at an auction there for $16,000. It was a $3.6 million dollar hospital that had lost their licensure due to the state. They hadn't kept up the licensing, but they had 10 other plus facilities all up and down the eastern seaboard. But they had lost control or sight of this one. I went and got a for $16,000 it was worth 3.6 million the functional hospital.
Todd Ashton
Well, I'm not going to ever run a hospital. But guess who but Guess who I sold the back to? I sold it back to the people that lost they didn't even know they lost it. And so you know, there's a lot of markup between 16,003 point 6 million you know what I mean? So so i i have fun. I love doing that kind of stuff. But I want to be the legacy only I want to help people by my son. He works for VW Audi is a tech does very well. He's like 35 years old, makes 120 5000 a year, but even he came to me I have six kids he came to me says that I had learned what you do. I was like you think, you know, you know, I mean people, they don't know that this is right there in front, they don't know that, that it really is a thing. And it gets big. Every every 10 years, it gets big and then goes away and comes back just like every other cycle. But the reason it's so big right now, and it's everyone's talking about it is because it's real. It's doable. It's understandable. It's again, it's not easy, but it's simple. And is process driven. And I and I don't I wipe out all the barriers to success. I just say, Okay, here's the goal. Here's what we got to do. Let's go get it. And once they taste that success, all the light bulbs go on, and all that 10 weeks of theory that they would have gotten, you know, all of a sudden, they're like, oh, wow, this makes sense now, and because they did it, it was doable. It was it was that replicatable process that I talked about?
Mike Swenson
Yeah, no, that's, that's phenomenal. And I know a lot of people watching this or listening to this. Have a ton of follow up questions. So So for people that have heard that and have those follow up questions, how do they get ahold of you? Or what would you like to share with them?
Todd Ashton
Yeah, please, guys, I'm very approachable to these: [email protected]. But you can call me at 801-358-1496 or text me. You can engage me directly. I had people after the salt podcasts like this, blow up my phone on a Sunday and say, Oh, I don't even know if this is you. But I got this number, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, yeah, and they're like, am I actually talking to you, the owner? And I'm like, yeah, I'm not talking to some minion or whatever, Robo Robo Todd. Exactly. No, I'm here. I'm here. I'm approachable. You know, let's do it. I'm on Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn. I mean, there's so many ways that you can engage either texting lions fall texting lions, or myself taught Ashton directly. But just engage me again, I'm not going to I love like my approach with like lawyers, I love lawyers that just give you a set rate. And they don't talk about doing any type of, you know, what I call that where they put you on a retainer, you know, the need and then they they just keep telling you the prices this this this this this every time engaging.
Todd Ashton
Every time you pick up the phone, there's no nickel and dime you that's what this that's what the seminar business does to you, they nickel and dime you to death I don't do that. It's a it's a one time engagement fee, where I'm different. It's a one time engagement fee. And it's lifetime. I have people who've been following me for years and and that's how I get I get people through referrals. But they're successful and are doing it. But it's it's they engaged me, they have me for life. Either Macaluso number after a year, if they call me with after they're like Kathy Lou, they call me back in a year and say, What do I do? I'm there for him to help them to the next level. Does that makes sense? And and then I have that 100% success guarantee that nobody else will give. If they engage me, they're going to be successful? Because I will, I will sincerely knock out every roadblock to success and help them get where they need to go, if that makes sense.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, no, that's wonderful. And, and yeah, we certainly can have follow up episodes down the road. But But thank you so much for your time, thanks for sharing. And if people are interested, we'll make sure that you've got the information to reach out.
Todd Ashton
I appreciate it. Let me just leave with this one thing, guys. The 2000 to 3,000% actually freaks people out, they can throw out their mind, or I can show an example after example, example. Or it's social proof. We've got it, you know, we've done it. But if you just approach me and say I want 14% of my money, backed up my real estate, how do I get into that fun, it's free is accessible. If there's no monthly cost, put your money, instead of putting the bank, put it on the platform where you're getting 14% back annually. And then if you want to engage me on other things that you can do, I'm like you I'm gonna help I'm gonna do whatever I can to help them. What was that word? You said? You said it best. He said when they engage me if they leave and 10 years down the road, I want to make sure they left with more pot money in their pocket when they right when they left than when they engaged me. Right. Yeah. And that's exactly that. That would be my tagline. That's exactly what I do. That's why I resonates so strongly with you.
Mike Swenson
Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Todd, for coming on. We appreciate you sharing and I look forward to your future success.
