How 20 Conversations a Day Can Grow Your Real Estate Business | Tanner Shuman

Tanner Shuman (00:00)

We bought a house that was on septic. We did a sewer inspection and everything came back clean; everything was good. In the disclosures, it said something about the leach field potentially needing replacement in the future—nothing like, “Hey, this is going to happen now,” but rather, “Hey, this is an older part, expect replacement in the next year or two.” Fair enough, that’s fine. A week after the buyers moved in, the leach field blew up—poop everywhere. So for the new homeowners, it was terrible.

Issa Hanna (01:56)

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros Show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna, and today we have Tanner Shuman here to share his knowledge. Tanner, welcome to the show.

Tanner Shuman (02:04)

Hey, how are you doing?

Issa Hanna (02:05)

I’m doing great, Tanner. Welcome. You are a realtor and an investor, so you’re going to bring two different perspectives to us. I love it. And you’re in two different markets: one of them is my hometown, Austin, Texas, and the other one, where I have a lot of family, is in the Inland Empire (IE). So with that, Tanner, can you run down what you’re focused on nowadays and what your day-to-day looks like?

Tanner Shuman (02:27)

Yeah, so what I’m focused on right now is growing my real estate business—basically keeping everything growing on the real estate side.

I also do property management as well, so I’m trying to balance a lot of that. We take people who are looking to rent out their house, but then we figure out their situation and why they’re renting it out. Because everybody knows California rental laws are rough—you’ve got squatters, bad evictions, courts, and everything like that. A lot of times, renting doesn’t necessarily align with what people need. So then you show them why it might make more sense for them to sell. You just need to break down the numbers and figure that out.

So that’s the day-to-day right now. What I am working on is training someone right now to work on my business with me, recruiting more agents under myself, and just showing them the ropes of how everything works.

Issa Hanna (03:11)

Awesome, man. You’re strengthening the team and training them in your own image and the business model that works for you. California rental laws are super tough—it’s a whole different beast than even the rest of the country. There are very few markets that are as tough as California when it comes to rentals, so I can definitely relate to that. I want to ask you how you got started. We all have that moment where we stumble into real estate or the light bulb goes off. What’s your origin story? How did you get into our business?

Tanner Shuman (03:41)

I grew up in California. My wife and I were young, broke, just getting married, and trying to buy a house in California during COVID. Offers kept getting rejected and nothing worked out. So we moved to Texas just because it was cheaper out there at the time, a little bit more free, and everything like that.

We bought our first house out there, and I saw how good of a job our realtor did. But I also saw how much she made from what she did, and I was like, “I could do that.” So I got my license and started doing all of that.

As I learned the game and learned more about the business, I started looking for deals and found different opportunities, which got me into the investing side. I purchased another home out there, and then we rented that one out. Eventually, we moved back to California because family members got sick and we wanted to help take care of them. So then we rented out that property too. Now we’re back in California, we just bought a house out here, and we have three homes now.

I am looking for more properties, but I’m probably going to start doing multifamily rather than single-family. Once I sell off one of those properties, I need to put the money somewhere, so probably a fourplex or something similar. I think I’m going to stick to multifamily because it’s almost the same amount of work for more cash flow, so it just makes more sense.

Issa Hanna (05:31)

100%. One thing you’re equipped with as you come into the investor game—which I myself, as a real estate agent, started the exact same way: sold some homes, made some commissions, gained knowledge, built it up, and got into multifamily. That natural progression is right there.

You’re bringing in so much knowledge as an agent. You’ve closed over 20 deals already since COVID, which a lot of agents don’t do. I hear a lot of people tell me they’ve been an agent for 20 years, but they might have only closed 10 deals in those 20 years! You’re moving as an agent and a property manager, understanding it inside and out, and building this portfolio with a realtor’s knowledge. That’s dangerous because we can pinpoint what something is going to rent for based on comps and we know where value goes. So man, I know for a fact you’re going to crush this rental portfolio game.

Speaking of the future and your future plans: five years down the line, if I look you up, where am I going to see you? What are the goals?

Tanner Shuman (06:28)

Five years down the line, I hope you see me covering the Coachella Valley and Riverside County. That’s probably where I’ll be for a while. I will create a team—hopefully build a team lead role or have my own program. I used to be pretty big on YouTube and fell off a little bit, so I’m going to be getting back into that. Hopefully, the majority of my business comes from social media, branding, and influence. That’s the main goal.

I also hope to own a couple more rental properties, probably outside of California in different markets. I really like Texas just because I know Texas, I’m licensed there, and it’s easier. I’d really like to invest out there because I have ties and everything is so much easier out there. But that’s where I hope to be in the next five years.

Issa Hanna (07:07)

Awesome, man. And another thing—it might not even be a five-year thing, it’s coming up in the near future—in the Coachella Valley, you’ve got a great opportunity for short-term rentals (STRs). Can you enlighten us more on that?

Tanner Shuman (07:20)

Yeah! Ever since moving out here, the seasonality thing is 100% real. Summertime, no one’s out here. Wintertime, everybody is here—even from out of the country. There’s a bunch of Canadians who come visit and own homes down here.

I would like to start a short-term or mid-term rental business, whether it’s a management company or buying a short-term rental property. I want to dabble more into that space because right now I do mainly long-term rentals. I would definitely like to get more into the mid-term and short-term space, probably starting on the management side because I think that could be the easiest path: finding tenants, getting them in and out, coordinating cleaners, and handling everything like that.

Issa Hanna (07:57)

100%, man. Like I said before, the more knowledge you get in this game, the more ammo you have to branch off that one tree of getting your real estate license, buying your first home to live in, and then renting it out. There are so many branches, and that’s what you’re doing right now. With that five-year plan you’ve put together, man, I can see you doing major things because you’ve been in the game since COVID and you’re already talking like a 20-year pro. I’m loving it.

I do want to touch on one thing that we all face as real estate professionals. I find it super entertaining to talk about because we always make it through to the other side—and that’s a strength you mentioned: you figure it out and solve the problem. Give me one example of a real estate nightmare—something that went wrong, where you had to pivot, got through it, and learned from it.

Tanner Shuman (08:41)

In one of my transactions, we bought a house that was on a septic system. We did a sewer inspection and everything came back clean; everything was good. In the disclosures, it said something about the leach field potentially needing replacement in the future—nothing like, “Hey, this is going to happen right now,” but rather, “Hey, this is an older part, expect replacement in the next year or two.” Fair enough, that’s fine.

A week after the buyers moved in, the leach field blew up—poop everywhere. So for the new homeowners, it was terrible.

I spent probably three weeks after the transaction trying to get everything figured out with the sellers. At first, they didn’t want to do anything and we were going to have to take them to court. But we ended up problem-solving, getting it figured out, and getting the seller to pay for the repair without going through litigation.

It’s just stuff like that. You literally never know what’s going to happen. But when a situation comes up, you just have to figure out: “Okay, this is happening, we can’t escape it, so what are we going to do about it?” It’s all about finding an answer to every problem.

Issa Hanna (09:36)

Definitely. That’s something you mentioned for the future too as you train agents. Something I always tell my agents when I’m training them is that sometimes your back is against the wall and there’s nothing but fire in front of you, and you’ve got to walk through that fire. But once you get through to the other side, man, you learn that exit strategy, you learn how to deal with that problem, and you level up.

We’re real estate pros, man, and that’s why we do the show. We’re super jaded and we don’t freak out because we’ve seen it all over the years. I’ve gone through house fires, and on my first inspection, a guy fell through the ceiling because he wanted to go up into the attic after the inspector! So we’ve seen it all, and it’s a unique perspective to have on real estate. That’s why we all do so well when we get into the investing space.

So man, thanks for sharing that nightmare. I ask everybody, and I don’t even prep them beforehand because I know we all have one! You’re with C2 Realty, correct?

Tanner Shuman (10:30)

Yeah. So C2 is a team under Real Brokerage—Real Broker is the best. We operate under C2 and cover all of California. They’re based up in Monterey, but they do a lot of investment work. We work with a lot of investors. I relate well with investors because I own investment property myself, so that’s how my brain thinks. It’s hard to work with an agent who doesn’t own investment property because they simply don’t know—you don’t really know until you’re in it. So it’s good to have someone with that experience.

Issa Hanna (10:57)

Definitely, man. You have to have an agent who specializes in investment properties. You’ve got to know how to think like an investor and underwrite like an investor. A luxury agent can’t help you the way an investment agent can. So make sure, guys, if you do buy that million-dollar home to live in, don’t go to that same agent for investments unless they have actual investment experience, because investment agents are a whole different animal. We know how to tackle things in a completely different way, and I love that you brought that up.

Now, you’ve shared a lot of knowledge with us today, talking like someone who’s been in the game for 20+ years. If our investors watching here at Investor Fuel or our audience at home want to get ahold of you, how can they reach you?

Tanner Shuman (12:18)

The best way to reach me is on Instagram at @TShumanHomes (T-S-H-U-M-A-N Homes, my first initial and last name), or by phone at (951) 285-9338. You can reach out there and I’d be glad to help you with whatever you need. I also have contacts all throughout the United States, so we have a pretty big nation-wide reach for investor-friendly agents.

Issa Hanna (12:37)

Awesome. Guys, make sure you reach out to Tanner! One thing before we leave, Tanner: I want you to give our younger audience a piece of advice. You touched on having network connections all around the country. Growing your network and establishing business relationships is super duper important in our business. So if you had to tell a new person one piece of advice on where to start, what would you tell them?

Tanner Shuman (12:57)

Whether starting as an agent or an investor, I would say don’t get caught up in the noise. There’s a lot of noise and a lot of different things you could be doing. You really just want to focus on actions that produce results. If you’re not focusing on that main task, don’t worry about everything else—just focus on the one thing that will produce results for you.

In real estate, that’s conversations. How many conversations can you have? How many people can you meet? That’s your number one goal throughout the day. If I can get 20 conversations per day, I had a great day. If I spend two hours making a graphic on Canva, I probably didn’t get much done. So you just want to have those conversations. As an investor, that means looking at deals, qualifying different properties to see what will cash flow for you, meeting with sellers, and finding motivation. You have to find that motivation in order to get a good deal.

Issa Hanna (13:40)

100%. What I pull out of that answer is that we work for ourselves. We don’t have a set schedule where someone tells us, “Hey, you’re clocking in, clocking out, and getting this paycheck.” You have to know how to allocate your time in this business. Like Tanner said, if you’re spending two hours trying to make a Canva graphic, good for you if you have two hours, but it could be far better spent doing productive activities that get results. You come up with a plan in real estate and you execute that plan.

Tanner, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing so much knowledge. I’d love to invite you back on the show at a later date if you’ll have us.

Tanner Shuman (14:14)

Yeah, that’d be great! Thank you guys so much, I really appreciate it.

Issa Hanna (14:17)

I appreciated having you, man, and I would love to have you back. I will definitely be in touch with you about the details for that.

To our viewers at home: if you enjoyed my conversation with Tanner and want to see more content like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day who bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time, the Real Estate Pros are out!