The Five Small Changes That Lifted Profit Per Deal by $3,000 featuring Joseph Back

The Five Small Changes That Lifted Profit Per Deal by $3,000 featuring Joseph Back

Joseph Back is co-founder of Rapid Fire Investments, a wholesaling operation running five brick and mortar offices across Kentucky, Ohio, Alabama and Georgia. When he and CEO Eric Masiello joined Collective Genius in December 2020 they were doing 65 deals a year out of one Montgomery office, and they have grown every year since, from 205 to 310 to 391 to 459, with a push to break 500 closings in 2025 and a projected first million dollar revenue month. Joseph shares the five small changes his acquisitions team made that lifted average profit per deal from $14,092 to nearly $17,000 in a single year, covering in person appointment recording, templated decisive action plans, weekly RPA accountability meetings, lost deal analysis, and raising your least acceptable profit. If you are running a real estate wholesaling business with one to five acquisitions reps and you want more revenue without adding more transactions, this is the acquisitions playbook to copy. Timeline Summary [1:30] – Host Leon Barnes welcomes longtime CG member Joseph Back for the long form version of his acquisitions playbook [3:25] – Rapid Fire's growth from one wholesale office in Montgomery to five offices across four states [5:30] – Chasing two milestones at once, 500 closings for the year and the first million dollar revenue month [7:14] – The year by year deal count, 65 in 2020, then 205, 310, 391, 459, and a push past 500 [8:34] – Why expanding wider only makes sense in small markets and why metro investors should go deeper [10:44] – Kaizen as a core value and why Joseph calls his mastermind time the rip off and duplicate department [12:04] – How a CJ Moss dispo presentation pushed profit per deal from $14,092 toward the $17,000 goal [20:07] – Small thing one, Siro, the in person recording software that turns every appointment into game film [21:57] – The scoring rubric built on Steve Franks' perfect seller appointment, and why you have to actually listen [27:05] – Small thing two, templated decisive action plans that trigger automatically when a department goes red [29:53] – The exact five actions the home buying team runs during a red week, from triple dials to a door knocking blitz [34:20] – Small thing three, the 15 minute weekly RPA meeting covering results, pipeline and activity [38:38] – Full team structure, seven lead managers, ten home buying specialists, five dispo reps, five transaction coordinators [40:22] – Small thing four, custom software that cross references appointments against sales data to find every lost deal [43:02] – Two coaching lessons from lost deals, never leave the living room and never quit on a seller too early [45:39] – Small thing five, raising your least acceptable profit from $10,000 to $17,000 in the MAO calculator 5 Key Takeaways 1. Record Every In Person Appointment — You invest heavily in sales training, but without recording you have no idea whether any of it survives the drive to the seller's living room. Siro turns appointments into reviewable game film, and Rapid Fire's director of home buying carries a KPI to review and comment on multiple appointments every single week. 2. Never Let Two Red Weeks Stack — When a department finishes below 80% of goal, a pre built decisive action plan kicks in Monday morning with no debate and no research phase. Triple dial cancellations, work the pipeline to zero, ten long term follow up dials a day, survey calls on lost appointments, and a five house door knocking blitz. 3. Build the Plan With Your Team — Rapid Fire did not hand down the red week actions from leadership. They sat with each department and built the plan together, so when it triggers, the team is executing a commitment they made rather than a punishment they received. 4. Study the Deals You Lost — Most unconverted appointments drift into a long term follow up graveyard while the seller quietly sells to someone else. Rapid Fire cross references sales records against every appointment they ran, then walks each loss through a monthly one on one, which surfaced the biggest lesson of all, that they were giving up on sellers who later sold for a number Rapid Fire would have paid. 5. Raise Your Least Acceptable Profit — Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets, and if you bake $10,000 into your max allowable offer calculator, $10,000 is what you will make. Rapid Fire changed one number in the formula to $17,000, watched their appointment to contract conversion rate hold steady, and added more than $1 million in revenue on the same deal count. Links & Resources * Collective Genius — https://explorecg.com [https://explorecg.com] * Rapid Fire Investments — https://rapidfireinvestments.com [https://rapidfireinvestments.com] Enjoyed This Episode? If you have ever watched a rep walk into a living room with a script you paid good money for and had no idea what actually came out of their mouth, this one is for you. Send it to the operator you know who is grinding out more deals every year and somehow making the same profit, because the fix might be one number in their MAO calculator. Follow the Collective Genius Podcast, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Dan Costantino: Operations Makes or Breaks Every Multifamily Deal

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Collective Genius Q2 event marking the debut of CG Legacy, the new commercial mastermind room, host Leon Barnes sits down with Dan Costantino, a Pittsburgh-based multifamily operator and hard money lender who scaled to a roughly 660-unit portfolio and runs his own debt fund. Dan came up through trucking and logistics sales before flipping his first house for a 27,000 dollar profit in 91 days, then built a commercial operation through what he calls brute force and relentless focus on operations. This conversation goes deep on jumping asset classes from single family to large multifamily, why operations can make or break a great deal, and how Dan navigated the brutal 2022 to 2023 multifamily stretch by pausing and later restoring preferred returns and taking big properties full cycle. If you're a commercial operator or a single family investor eyeing the leap into apartments, storage, or lending, this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [0:22] – Leon opens at the CG Q2 event and introduces Dan Costantino from the new CG Legacy commercial room [1:04] – Why CG built a dedicated commercial room and how the Legacy group was integrated into the family [1:57] – The anxiousness of change and the white glove approach to welcoming Legacy members [2:22] – Dan's business today: a large Pittsburgh multifamily portfolio plus nearly a decade of hard money lending [2:59] – From W2 trucking and logistics sales to almost walking away from a first flip over cold feet [3:46] – Making 27,000 dollars in 91 days on that first deal and getting hooked on real estate [4:27] – What made jumping from single family to multifamily easy: diversification and loan sizing [5:12] – Why Pittsburgh's stability made the rental numbers work and why operations is everything [5:34] – Six years in Legacy since day one, and discovering the life-changing power of community [6:42] – The "no finish line" tagline and pushing past your own perceived ceiling [7:03] – Learning to underwrite large multifamily: cap rates, valuation, and where profit really comes from [8:06] – The current challenge: converting promissory-note debt into a proper fund with new hires [9:16] – Taking big deals full cycle in a tough exit market, including a 152-unit sale [9:43] – Pausing preferred returns as one of the hardest things in his career, and paying it all back [10:25] – The power of these rooms: compressing the learning curve and the emotional side of hard decisions [11:37] – Surviving 2022 to 2023 and why battle-tested operators never worry about raising capital again [12:00] – A 305-unit portfolio case study: selling half to reset financially and get current on returns [12:27] – "The market is the star, not you" and the 2020 to 2021 warning to build reserves [13:37] – What Dan is most excited about for the rest of 2026: scaling the debt fund [14:00] – Converting to a 506(c) structure to advertise publicly and raise capital at scale [14:23] – Creating clean, affordable, safe housing and funding other operators to rehab neglected homes [16:14] – Closing on Pittsburgh pride, the value of fresh talent, and how to apply to CG Legacy 5 Key Takeaways 1. Operations Makes or Breaks the Deal — You can buy a great multifamily deal and still ruin it with poor operations. Sizing the loan correctly and executing on leasing and stabilization is what actually builds a portfolio. 2. Diversification De-Risks the Jump — Moving from single family to multifamily meant one vacant unit no longer zeroed out his income. For a buy and hold investor, spreading risk across many units is what made the leap feel manageable. 3. The Room Compresses the Learning Curve — Dan credits the mastermind with teaching him how underwriters actually value deals and how to handle the emotional weight of hard calls like pausing preferred returns. Being around high performers shows you they aren't magical, just further along. 4. The Market Is the Star, Not You — In good years even average operators look brilliant, so the real test is who survives the downturn. Build reserves while times are good, because market cycles always turn and you'll have to give some of it back. 5. Survive the Hard Years and Capital Follows — Operators who made investors whole through 2022 and 2023 proved they're battle tested. Once you've navigated the tough times and returned capital, raising money stops being a worry. Links & Resources * Collective Genius Community — https://explorecg.com Closing Dan's story is a case study in what these rooms are built for: he walked in worried about change and walked out having converted 7 million dollars in promissory notes into a proper fund, taken a 305-unit portfolio full cycle, and reset his entire capital structure with guidance from members who'd done it before. His point about the market being the star and not the operator is the kind of message that keeps people building reserves before they need them. If you're a commercial operator in multifamily, storage, industrial, or retail, the new CG Legacy room was built for exactly this, so head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

The Real Reason Your Cash Offer Model Isn't Generating Leads featuring Jose Morales

Jose Luis Morales is a first-generation entrepreneur and Collective Genius member of five years who scaled from doing 100 real estate deals a year as an agent to running a diversified investment operation spanning wholesaling, flipping, ADUs, and a 25-unit apartment building in Ventura County, California. Raised in his family's Oxnard cowboy store, he built a 350,000-follower TikTok presence and a real estate business that treats every motivated seller lead as a monetizable asset. This episode breaks down how Jose qualifies leads across nine specific data points to route sellers into cash offers, listings, wholesales, or creative finance without confusing them, plus how he raised private money in second position and turned carports into approved ADU units. If you're an investor-agent trying to grow both sides of your business at once instead of picking one, this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [1:07] – Host opens on the 2026 shift from bigger to better, and why leveling up your team beats chasing scale [1:54] – Guest introduced as an agent who became an investor over five years in Collective Genius [3:04] – Jose gives his background: 38, two boys, Ventura County roots, 100 deals a year as an agent [4:44] – His mother arrived through the Bracero Program and his parents built a paid-off 25-unit portfolio [5:18] – Growing up in the family cowboy store in Oxnard and the business lessons learned by age 23 [8:18] – The check-cashing strategy that grew revenue during the 2008 recession while others shrank [9:45] – The raise his dad denied and the lesson that tenure doesn't equal value [11:17] – Six months with zero sales, then a mentor took 50% of commissions and changed everything [12:40] – Why he outgrew his first mentor at 30 deals and found one doing 150 to 200 a year [15:15] – How King Kong taught him a social media formula that 10x'd his following in six months [17:35] – Why the investor and agent businesses feed each other by chasing the same motivated seller [20:25] – The nine qualification points that route a lead to cash, listing, wholesale, or short sale [23:59] – How the cash-buyer model outperforms "list with me" for lead generation [25:33] – Raising private money in second position after asking 30 people before the first yes [27:08] – What's working in 2026, why he killed 11 Airbnbs, and doubling down on strengths [30:00] – Turning carports into six approved ADUs, adding $20,000 a month to the apartment 5 Key Takeaways 1. Value Beats Tenure Every Time — Jose asked his dad for a raise after ten years and got a no, then a yes once he started adding real value. Time served means nothing if you're not moving the needle. 2. Qualify Before You Pitch — Great deal flow comes from asking questions across nine data points like motivation, timing, loan balance, and condition, not from being attached to one outcome. Let the answers tell you whether it's a cash offer, listing, or short sale. 3. One Avatar, Multiple Exits — Investors and agents chase the same motivated seller, so building multiple exit options means you monetize far more leads instead of throwing 90% away. Serve what the seller actually wants and the deal follows. 4. Find Someone Already Doing It — Every jump in Jose's career came from a mentor already operating at the next level, from his first coach to the member who taught him private lending. The fastest path is copying someone who's already there. 5. Scale People, Not Yourself — A great operator, marketer, and sales leader let Jose build across brokerage, investing, and construction without everything falling on him. You can't scale a business without building the team first. Links & Resources * Follow Jose Luis Morales on Instagram — instagram.com/joseluismorales (Luis with a Z) * Jose Luis Morales on TikTok — 350,000 followers * Jose Luis Morales on YouTube — 10,000 subscribers * Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com Enjoyed This Episode? If Jose's nine-point qualification framework got you rethinking how you route seller leads, go back and listen to that stretch again because it's the difference between monetizing every lead and tossing most of them. Share this one with an investor or agent who's trying to grow both sides of their business and doesn't know it's possible. To go deeper with operators like Jose who've completely changed their trajectory, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

Kelli Garrett: The $250 Million Capital Raise Story

In this CG Live episode recorded at the Collective Genius Q2 event in Oceanside, California, the host sits down with Kelli Garrett, one of the standout new members entering the community through CG Legacy, the commercial mastermind founded by Tim Bratz that recently came under the CG umbrella. Kelli is a Charleston-based lender and investor with nearly 27 years in the business, and she's about as respected as they come. Multiple members had already gone out of their way during the event to name her as one of their favorite people, and it's easy to hear why within the first few minutes. Kelli's story is a full circle one. She started in lending as a mortgage broker, used that knowledge to build a portfolio of around 400 units, sold nearly all of it in 2018, and split the proceeds into two buckets: one for private lending and one for passive LP investing. Today she's CEO and co-founder of Rehab Wallet, running a debt fund of roughly $130 to $135 million and having raised over $250 million across her career. This conversation moves from her days as the all-time leading scorer at the College of Charleston to hard-won lessons on raising capital, protecting investors, and why she may play a little defense for the first time in her life. If you're an investor trying to raise capital or build the kind of reputation that makes people trust you with their money, this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [0:22] – The host sets the scene at the CG Q2 event and introduces CG Legacy joining the Collective Genius umbrella [1:29] – Why so many members named Kelli one of their favorite people the moment she walked in [2:09] – Kelli explains her business and how she came to join Tim Bratz's Legacy mastermind [2:34] – Her "I'll date you before I invest" philosophy on vetting operators before becoming an LP or GP [3:06] – Nearly 27 years in business, starting in lending and building a 400-unit portfolio [4:12] – Selling almost everything in 2018 and splitting the proceeds into lending and passive investing [4:32] – Inside Rehab Wallet: short-term fix and flip, ground-up construction, and how the debt fund works [5:42] – The keynote she delivered on consistency, time, and staying the course [6:03] – The lesson from her father: pick one thing and get good at it [8:14] – The three avatars who thrive in real estate: former athletes, military, and engineers [9:00] – How being the all-time leading scorer at College of Charleston shaped her view of teamwork [9:37] – Why she paid for all her teammates to attend her Hall of Fame induction [11:34] – Her advice for investors who want to raise capital but don't know where to start [12:19] – The yellow-notebook method: writing to everyone you know and asking for help [14:39] – Walking the walk once you raise capital, and why everything you do is now measured [16:31] – What she's most excited about in 2026 and why culture drives results [17:11] – Weighing whether to grow the fund or play defense in an uncertain market [18:07] – Who Rehab Wallet lends to, why they stay in the Southeast, and how to reach her 5 Key Takeaways 1. Date the operator before you invest — Kelli spent real time getting to know Tim Bratz and watching how he treated people before committing capital, and she coaches investors to do the same rather than rushing into a deal. 2. Raising capital starts with people you already know — Her first move was writing to 300 or 400 names in a yellow notebook, telling them what she was doing and directly asking for help, because a few early wins generate referrals that make every future raise easier. 3. Your job is to protect investor capital — Kelli tells her team they work for their investors, and she treats protecting their capital as the single focal point of the business, especially in an uncertain market where she's willing to play defense for the first time. 4. Once you raise money, everything you do is measured — Using Caitlin Clark as the analogy, Kelli notes that raising over $250 million means people watch how you carry yourself everywhere, so professionalism and walking the walk are non-negotiable. 5. Sports build the exact skills real estate rewards — As the all-time leading scorer at College of Charleston, Kelli credits sports for teaching her time management, dependence on teammates, and the humility to recognize the people picking and rebounding behind the scenes. Links & Resources * Rehab Wallet: https://rehabwallet.com [https://rehabwallet.com] * Kelli Garrett email: kelli@rehabwallet.com [kelli@rehabwallet.com] * Rehab Wallet general inquiries: info@rehabwallet.com * Tim Bratz / CG Legacy commercial mastermind (referenced in episode) * Collective Genius Community: https://explorecg.com [https://explorecg.com] Kelli's line that hard work will eat pressure alive is the kind of thing that sticks with you, and it runs through everything she shared, from her keynote on consistency to the way she still credits the teammates who created space for her decades ago. Whether you're just starting to raise capital or you're scaling a fund and figuring out when to grow and when to protect, her approach is a masterclass in doing the simple things consistently and treating investor trust as the whole job. If you want to be in the room with investors like Kelli, whether you're a single-family investor, wholesaler, flipper, or commercial operator in multifamily, self-storage, or RV parks, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.

Turn a 3X ROAS Into a 6X Without More Marketing featuring Brad Bone

Brad Bone is a longtime Collective Genius member who, alongside his twin brother Justin, has been investing in real estate since 2015 and built a wholesaling operation in Jacksonville, Florida while running it remotely from California. He's also the founder of River X, an AI platform that helps real estate investors automate follow up and appointment setting through their CRM. This episode covers how Brad scaled a flipping and wholesaling business three time zones away, why he eventually paired his team down to run leaner, and how he turned an in-house AI follow up solution into a second company. If you're a real estate investor who wants to tighten your ROAS, fix your follow up, and understand when a side opportunity is worth building into a real business, this one is required listening. Timeline Summary [1:30] – Host Leon Barnes introduces longtime CG member Brad Bone and his two businesses in real estate and AI [3:00] – Brad shares how he and his twin brother started investing in 2015 after buying at the courthouse steps [4:30] – Growing up on a Kansas pistachio and cotton farm and where his work ethic came from [8:34] – Watching the 2006 real estate run up plant the seed while selling advertising to mortgage brokers [11:38] – Why direct mail replaced the courthouse steps and what it took to be a player in 2015 [15:18] – How attending IMN conferences pushed the brothers to leave Bakersfield for the Southeast [16:01] – Picking Jacksonville almost at random and sending a cousin to run acquisitions on the ground [18:42] – The real secret to operating remotely: building culture and core values over Zoom [19:36] – Why pairing the team down to 10 to 12 people beat chasing growth for growth's sake [22:04] – The 2026 theme of more marketing and headcount lifting gross revenue but not net [23:42] – Lessons from 2021 rate hikes and why he stopped buying off inspection reports alone [24:14] – Knowing your exact return on every marketing dollar and every employee [26:46] – Where the AI idea started and hearing about ChatGPT from his barber [31:42] – Launching the Rainmaker platform with real AI texting, emailing, and voice calls [34:51] – His philosophy of letting AI set appointments and humans build rapport and trust [36:58] – Treating AI follow up as a ROAS enhancer that takes you from 3X toward 6X or 10X [39:32] – Narrowing the buying business to pure wholesaling for a simpler, cleaner operation [42:35] – What his farmer parents think of two sons running real estate and tech companies 5 Key Takeaways 1. Pair Down to Scale Net — Bigger teams and more marketing can lift gross revenue without moving the net. Brad found his sweet spot at 10 to 12 people and treats leaning up as its own form of success. 2. Culture Has to Be Built On Purpose Remotely — When your team is three time zones away, culture and core values don't happen by accident. You have to make a deliberate effort to create them over Zoom. 3. Know Your Return On Everything — Track your return on every marketing dollar and every employee. In a tighter market, you can't blindly throw money at channels and hope they work. 4. Let AI Do Follow Up, Let Humans Close — AI is best at reengaging dead leads and setting appointments. Keep humans focused on rapport, trust, and solving problems, and you've got a winning split. 5. When You Solve Your Own Problem, You Build a Business — River X started as an internal fix for follow up. The opportunities worth chasing fit naturally into what you already do; the rest are just shiny objects. Links & Resources * River X — riverhub.ai * Prime Buyers (Jacksonville home buying business) — primebuyers.com * River X on Instagram — search River X AI * Brad Bone on Facebook — connect directly * Collective Genius Community — explorecg.com Enjoyed This Episode? If you've ever felt your follow up slipping or watched good leads go cold in your CRM, Brad's take on treating AI as a ROAS enhancer is worth a second listen. Share this one with an investor friend who's still trying to figure out whether their next big idea is an opportunity or a distraction. To hear more conversations with members who've grown through real trial and error, head to ExploreCG.com to learn more and apply.