We have reached the time when the rise of the Baby Boomers brings with them the necessity of more senior living. As people in the industry, we need to be prepared to accommodate this growing need. Today, we are joined by Philip Vincent, a real estate investor who advises senior citizens in the process of home selling. Philip doesn’t just buy houses; he helps seniors transition from their homes into senior living communities. He has a heart for the elderly and their families, helping them through those tough times. Through his expertise, Philip created Mom’s House Certified Buyers, a nationwide network of buyers of senior’s homes. Tune in to know more about Philip’s story and what led him to this unique enterprise.
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Baby Boomer Rise And Being Prepared With Philip Vincent
Welcome to the show with our very special guest, Phillip Vincent. How are you doing?
How are Julie and Gem doing?
We’re good. How are you?
I always try to be good. It’s getting a little cold here in St. Louis, but we won’t let that bother us. We will be having a warm subject to talk about.
Thank God for the cool weather.
It’s cold here in Texas. We’re freezing.
It’s down below into the teem. That’s not fun. I have to wear my big jacket. I don’t like doing that. I like flip-flops and shorts.
Philip, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and what you’re up to? Let our readers know a little bit more about who you are.
I always tell people I did this business backward. When I was twenty, I got into development and building houses. I built my first house when I was twenty years old and thought that was going to be my future. It took me a few years to realize that I didn’t like the timelines of dealing with ground development and municipalities and being a general contractor. I worked my way back in 2008, 2009, and 2010. A lot of us started getting into that foreclosure world. When everything hit the fan, things changed. People even to this day sometimes think I buy foreclosures, but what I was doing was getting closer to the source of who the home sellers are.
Everyone wants to be in the home-buying business, but you realize quickly that we’re in the marketing business. There are a hundred different ways to get your phone to ring with motivated sellers, but you have to pick your lane. You have to find out which one is right for you. I’ve always been inquisitive. I don’t mind working, but I want to know what I’m working for. I want to know that I’m building something toward the future. I’m excited to share with you about my company. I work in senior living. I’ve found senior living to be where the best real estate leads that I’ve ever found in my 24 years come from. I’m excited to share that with you.
Everyone in real estate wants to be in the home-buying business. But then, you realize quickly that we're in the marketing business.
What I’ve built now or what’s happening in my life is we’ve got a national company. We will have 30,000 families coming through our network that need help with their houses. They need things like placement, which is getting moved into senior living. They need probate attorneys. We have built this truly a family referral network. I’m here to tell the world about it. First of all, we know each other from our real estate space, but I’m happy to be on your program to share with everyone. Everybody is like, “Where are the leads?” That’s what everyone asks. I’ve got more leads than I have people to help me. I’m glad that we’re on this show together.
We’re excited to have you. We’re excited to hear more about these leads because everybody is looking for leads. That is the topic of every conversation.
I want to pull it back a little bit. How did you even get into senior living? Where did you see that this was your route?
This was all born out of laziness. In 2011, we bought 66 houses. At the end of the year party, we started looking at the stereotype of who our seller was. If anyone is an active investor, tell me this. Think about the last five sellers you worked with. Were they 28 years old or 82 years old? Almost always when they hear what I do, they’re like, “I’ve been working with families like this. It just got to a roundabout instead of having a structure around it.” With Legion, there are tried and true methods like direct mail, pay-per-click, billboards, bandits, and all these things.
I’ll take the Pepsi challenge with any other lead source, compare it to this, and then let the readers make a decision and say, “That’s right for me.” I’ll say something too. As I’m on this with two ladies, this is a service. Mom’s House is a service that is better suited for females than it is for men because of the word empathy. If you don’t know if you have empathy or not, go ask your mate. They will tell you right away if you have empathy. It’s because moving into senior living is one of the most traumatic times for any family. Families that get along don’t get along during this process.
Senior Living: Moving into senior living is one of the most traumatic times for any family.
I’ve heard it said that it was harder to put my parents in senior living than it was to bury them. That is not a little statement. We have an investor world. We love the I word. We will say it all day, but in senior living, that’s what they hear because it’s how it sounds. We do it not as an investor. Coming in as a real estate agent might even be worse than that. I’ve been doing this for so long. I finally came up with the simplest analogy about what I do. I’ll share it with you. This is the first show that’s ever heard of this. I’m excited to share it. The senior living industry is like a car dealership that does not buy the trade-in.
When you spend millions of dollars to have families come to tour your new community, and you’re selling housing with a lot of care, they say, “Find a real estate agent. When you figure that out, come back and see us.” When that family gets pushed away, what happens when the real estate agent shows up? They say, “Clean this place out.” We’re not talking about a house they just moved in. It’s a forever home that they have lived in for 20 to 60 years full of stuff. They say, “Clean this place out. I need you to do this list of rehab items.” That’s what the real estate agent is asking them to do to try to get that top dollar.
In my 24 years, I want to be explicitly clear about how great the timing is for you. I live through 2008, 2009, and 2010. I’m sure you did too. The houses that were set back then were the dated houses. The ones that we’re still selling were the ones that were decked to the nines. It’s Rehab Nice. If you’re looking at your inbox if you have a license, all these price reductions that are happening are happening to the houses that are dated that they thought they could get away with it, but the ones that are still selling are the ones that have been rehabbed.
The houses I’m speaking of are always even if they’re grandma clean, and that’s why we’re so important to the senior living industry, is that home liquidity problem of the adult children moving mom into senior living. Our value prop has gone through the roof. It was $100,000 over asking. There were no inspections. That died. Now, we’re back to reality. We’re even this weird thing where you better be priced right. You better be nice. These houses that need to be rehabbed are going to be the ones that keep sitting days on market. The leads we’re procuring are these houses that we can add value to.
You’re providing an overall solution for the family. It’s not like, “Empty the house, and then we’re going to work with you.” You have a whole network set up from the beginning to transitioning.
It’s way more than the house. The stuff is huge. When I say stuff, every family has treasures to trash, but there might be 3 or 4 different humans in between there to help them with their stuff. You’ve got things like placement agents. If you are my sisters and I’m your brother, and we find out mom has to move into senior living, what level of care does our mother need? We have no idea. Where is she going to live? Is she going to live with you, Gem? Is she going to live with me? Is she going to live with Julie because she’s the most affluent and she’s going to make the payment between mom’s pension?
We’re going to put her with Gem.
We’re putting her with Gem. We’re trying to make these decisions. We’re going to go out and get care. It’s called a placement agency. We have a national contract with all the placement agencies in this nation. We work with probate attorneys because, at the moment that they’re figuring all this out, it’s usually like, “Dad passed away. Mom can’t live in the two-story house by herself.” There’s all this stuff with probate, pre-probate, moving into senior living, the house, the stuff, placement, VA, and benefits. There’s something called VA aid and attendance. Most people probably don’t know what that is.
You would only get that if you served in wartime. This country, fortunately or unfortunately, has been at war for the past 100 years. Anyone that’s in the military almost always is eligible for this, but what people don’t know is, I’m going to be stereotypical here, if the husband served in wartime, the benefit passes to the wife only if they know about it. A lot of these families don’t. When they find us, we surround them with these solutions. It might give them $22,000 a year for the analogy, “We’re brothers and sisters. Do you think an extra $22,000 a year would help us find mom a better place to live? Do you think the government would start writing our mom a check for that?” Heck no. You have to even know to ask.
We surround these families with solutions. Mom’s House is on the nose as we’re a house-buying company. I’m a house guy. I’ve been a house guy for 24 years. We’re looking for people with empathy and love. I always say we’re in the hugs and kisses business in a world where it’s not. We have a lot of transactional people. Hear me out. If you’re transactional and you can make $1 million in this business, do that, but don’t be part of Mom’s House. I need people with empathy. We will only allow people with empathy that want to learn this the right way. Be different, not as an investor or a real estate agent, but as a senior transition specialist. We’re looking for people to help us with these families.
You’re genuinely helping people and changing their lives. Not many businesses do that. I have to ask you. Prior to Mom’s House, what did you do before this? How did you even fall into real estate? I don’t want to go that far back, but I’m curious.
Back in the year 2000 when I started, my cousin is a few years older than me. He has been a home builder and a framer. He has been doing it for 30-plus years. He told me about a builder he knew that made $800,000 on one deal. He said, “Wouldn’t you hate that?” I said, “Hate what?” He says, “Paying taxes on making $800,000.” I was twenty years old, “I want that problem. That is the problem I want.” It’s funny how perspective works in this world.
I built my first house when I was twenty for myself to live in. That makes me unique in that right there, but then I started home building. I was driving for dollars before that was even a thing. I have a sickness called real estate. I love real estate. What I’ve noticed is being belly-to-belly with the seller and helping them unlock their problem. I went from development back to wholesaling. It seems like I did it backward.
My happy or fulfilling day is meeting with the family, helping them with all their solutions, and then moving on to the next one. I don’t like huge timelines. With new construction, it was 18 months, 24 months, or 3 years sometimes. I’m 44. If you’re younger than me, maturity happens to all of us at different times, but we start getting honest with ourselves about how we want to spend our days. Senior living guys for the past few years have taught me the golden years won’t be so golden. Enjoy yourself.
I’ve learned two things about this industry. Don’t get old. If you do, be rich. I mean that jokingly, but I mean it. Don’t get old. If you get old, that’s trouble because we lose our mobility and things. It’s not good, but you have to live in the moment that you’re in. What I mean by that is just because you spent a lot of time making a mistake doesn’t mean you should continue whatever you’re doing. A good litmus test for anybody’s life is if it’s Sunday night and you’re mad that it’s Sunday night because you have to go to work tomorrow, you probably have the wrong life.
Senior Living: There are two things about this industry. Don’t get old. If you do, be rich.
Many Americans are living their life. We have a lot of audience. You’ve done this for a long time. If there was one mistake that you’ve made in your real estate career that it’s like, “Let me make sure that nobody else makes this mistake,” what would that mistake be? What would you tell our readers?
I’m going to flip that question on its head. You should make more mistakes faster and quicker. People should fail more often. We get tied up in analysis paralysis and we never take action. Good luck seems to happen to action-takers. It’s what I’ve noticed. Nothing happens to people that sit on the sidelines and complain. History is not written by the people that did nothing. It’s written about the people that changed something or took action. Fail quicker and faster. Be at your local REIAs. Work for free for somebody. Go on your off time and accompany them to a buying appointment. Be a value to someone else, but listen and learn.
History is not written by people who did nothing. It's written by the people that changed something and took action.
I always say, “I didn’t have the abundance mentality until I had an abundance.” I wish I could project my abundance mentality onto everyone, especially in senior living. When you lead with love and giving first, the house deal is right there behind it. Everything follows, but everybody is so worried about that one deal that desperation stinks. It smells. They can smell it. If you come with love, start with love, and know full damn well you might not buy that house, but you’re going to leave them better than you found them, you will have deal after deal.
Here’s a cool thing for anyone reading. Phillip has been doing it for 12 years in senior living and 24 in real estate, but the Boomers are happening. I was ten years ahead of my time. The hockey stick has taken off. We have a fifteen-year run from now going forward. Mom’s House is being positioned. We were on a call with our entire team with a guy in senior living. He was telling us how we are known in the industry as part of the senior living sales process. I didn’t dream that big when I started this. I didn’t even breathe the thought that it would even be a thing. Now, we’re in their CRMs at the level.
Once again, the three of us are brothers and sisters. We take mom to ABC Senior Living or Garden View Senior Living, and they say, “How are you going to pay for this?” We’re like, “We’re going to make Julie pay,” but she’s like, “Not for very long.” We say as brother and sisters, “We’re going to need to sell mom’s house.” That’s why it’s called that. Even if dad is the one that’s still alive, we’re going to say, “What are we going to do with mom’s house?” The numbers are staggering. Women outnumber men from 7 to 1. That’s why it’s called Mom’s house. True story. It’s huge.
I’m so moved by what you do as a whole because that is every family’s worst nightmare, “What do we do?” As Julie said and what you’re communicating to our audience, you have the solution for that whole process. I love that. That’s amazing.
I wish Americans would spend more time planning for our parents’ passing. We look at it as morbid. We don’t do it here in this country. Other countries are not that way. They celebrate elders. They celebrate life and the passing of one life to whatever is next, but we don’t do it as Americans. We will spend twenty hours planning a vacation with our family, but we won’t take a two-hour conversation to talk about end-of-life care.
Why it’s a crisis mode is that as much as we know our mom needs to move into senior living probably, it’s almost always a fall. That fall says, “She’s going to have to have hip surgery. In three weeks, she’s going to get out of rehab.” The doctor says, “She legally can’t move home.” The three of us look at each other going, “Now what? A hard decision has to be made now with a proverbial gun to our heads.” They’re in crisis mode. Once again, it’s back to the empathy side.
You have to hug them first. How are they doing? What else is going on? It’s so much more than the house. We didn’t make mom fall down. We didn’t have to give mom surgery. We didn’t say, “Mom can’t move back home.” We didn’t build the community that’s $8,000 a month. We’re not the real estate agent that said, “Clean this place out and rehab it.” We’re this one shiny and bright thing. When everything else is going wrong, we get to be like, “Pick your closing date. Leave any stuff behind you want. This is the house I can add value to. Here’s how I got to my number.”
Empower them. Whether they pick me or not, I’m empowering them to say, “Here’s an option that you probably haven’t thought about. Here’s a solution if you want it. Even if I don’t buy your house, here’s a list of people. I’ve got a guy. He buys cars, LP records, hummel collections, salt, and pepper. I’ve got somebody for a little bit of everything.” I don’t make money from the stuff. Don’t get in the stuff business, please, but help them with their stuff. It will make you a better homebuyer.
For anybody that’s interested in anything that Phillip has gone over so far, you can get more information at FullerWalletMedia.com/mom. I have to ask you. Can you think of anybody that was the most impactful or influential on the entrepreneurial road that you’ve been on and where you’re at now?
One winner, or over time?
Over time.
We have to go with your father first. At least for me, he retired as a teamster. He was a truck driver, not necessarily an entrepreneur, but I don’t remember him complaining about going to work once in my life. He loved to go to work and provide for his family. I love to provide for my family. I have two sons. Who’s in front of you? They started a vending machine business. They were entrepreneurial. They built their houses. This was my life. They were around me. I had my cousin who was telling me about the $800,000 deal. At family reunions, we’re talking about real estate and these things.
There are people in my life that believed in me when others didn’t and saw something in me when others didn’t. Even the senior living thing, alone was the guy I worked with for over a decade. We were buying a couple of hundred houses a year. The stereotyped story is this, “Dad died years ago. Mom has been doing the best she can. She fell down again. This time, she has to move into senior living.” I said, “Who’s going right to the senior living communities?” He said, “You should do that.”
I was empowered to do it. In 2011, I did it wrong. I showed up as an investor and a real estate agent because I am an investor and a real estate agent. I’m stubborn enough to keep going. I knew the industry was like peanut, butter and chocolate if I could figure out how to put it together. That’s what I have now. This is the right way. I’ll tell you all the pitfalls of how I did it before. There are a lot of people that have been influential to me, but there are a few out there that were like, “You should do that.” Believe in somebody enough to say, “Do that with your time.”
I love it.
Thank you.
It’s always different. I love hearing different perspectives from people. It’s interesting for sure. If I was a new investor coming in and I’m interested in Mom’s House, what are some key factors that you would share and tips to somebody new that might be interested in something like this?
When everybody starts, do they get into text message blasting, banded signs, and cold calling? Why do we start with those three when we’re new? It’s because it’s the cheapest way to get going. We’re not valuing our time at all, “I’ve got some time. I’ll put some time in it,” but we don’t have a lot of money to spend. I’m not talking about spending any money. I’m talking about building relationships with the right people and the right stakeholders in senior living. That also takes your time, but instead of building a one-off postcard that’s going to get you one deal if you send 10,000 of them, I’m talking about building a relationship with an oil well that will feed you for the next 10 to 15 years.
I don’t know the lifetime value of my relationships yet because I’m still doing deals with people I met in 2011. What would you pay for one relationship that’s gotten you 100 deals over the next ten years? That’s what I’m talking about. People say, “I can’t network.” I said, “Have you ever bought a house from a real estate agent?” They’re like, “All the time.” I go, “How did you meet the real estate agent?” “I network.” I’m like, “Have you ever bought a house from a wholesaler? How did you meet them?” “I was at a REIA group.” “You do network. You just don’t know how to network in senior living yet.”
I teach a very different thing. My advice is if you’re only transactional, and you know you are, don’t even start. A leopard can’t change the spots for long. The industry will spit you out anyway. Don’t waste your time to waste my time. Many of my students that come in say, “This hits differently than all the other things I had been looking at.” I’m like, “It should because this is different.” If you lead with love, put people first, and help them with all these other things, real estate is the byproduct of caring about people. That’s not for everyone. That’s not for most.
What you’re doing is amazing. Readers, check Phillip out. Check out Mom’s House at FullerWalletMedia.com/mom. You’re awesome, Phillip. I want to say thank you.
Thank you, ladies, for having me.
Thank you so much. Do you have any final words in closing that you would like our audiences to hear?
The market is changing. Do you think your fortunes are found or made when the market is high or when the market is low? Which one, ladies? When do you want to buy houses, when the market is high or when it’s low?
Low.
We’re going from a silly high market to something else low. A lot of people who are getting this are like, “Oh no.” I’m like, “It’s all perspective again. I’ve been waiting for this.” In the past few years getting into senior living, it was always hard for me because they’re like, “Let’s get this dumb piece of crap on the market. It will sell for $50,000 over asking.”
That was real. I had to battle with that. That stopped. That needle came off the record. It’s getting worse. Our value prop is getting bigger. Your timing couldn’t be better than to get involved with something like this based on where the market is now. Do things change? Sure, but it’s trending even more powerfully. The value prop was already there even in the past few years, but the timing is right now.
Folks, don’t miss your shot. Take action. Look up Phillip and FullerWalletMedia.com/mom. Thank you so much. Phillip, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, ladies. I appreciate you very much.
About Phillip Vincent
As a St. Louis native, Phillip’s passion is Cardinals baseball and Blues hockey. When he’s not watching sports or spending time with his family, he’s helping other families solve big problems. While he started his career as a home builder and developer, he quickly transitioned to buying houses from seniors, or their adult children, as they transitioned to senior living communities.
Over the last 22 years, Phillip has bought hundreds of houses and has a passion for working with senior families; his sellers love him! There isn’t much he hasn’t seen, so creativity and care are his go-to when it comes to buying houses and helping families solve one of their biggest problems. His entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to making the home-selling process easier for seniors led him to create this nationwide network of Mom’s House Certified Buyers.
